Booking Through Thursday 5/6/08

Trends

Have your book-tastes changed over the years? More fiction? Less? Books that are darker and more serious? Lighter and more frivolous? Challenging? Easy? How-to books over novels? Mysteries over Romance?

As a child I read all the time! Everything and anything...Enid Blyton, Nancy Drew and other adventure books, young science fiction novels, non-fiction history books etc. etc. I was always eager to read and learn. I also started reading classic novels such as Jane Eyre, Robinson Crusoe etc.

I still am a classic novel addict. English Literature has been my first love since a child, through GCE's, A levels, university for my BA and my PGCE teacher's training. My Postgraduate Diploma in Women's Studies had an English Literature emphasis too.
I still tend to re-read classic women novelists the most, such as Jane Austen, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, and Ann Radcliffe.
I also love 18th and 19th century classics, especially Gothic novels.

I don't read as much poetry or drama now as I used to, although through this blog I'm starting to pick up a poetry book once a week and look through it for a poem I particularly like. I do like plays and am slowly working my way through all of Shakespeare's again, then hope to move onto the sets of Medieval Mystery Plays which I have on my bookshelves.

As far as modern novels are concerned, my tastes have certainly changed.
I used to read nothing horror novels in my late teens and early twenties. Stephen King, James Herbert etc. Then I went onto vampire novels, Ann Rice especially. Now I never look at a horror novel.
I tend to read crime novels or thrillers now...I like Val McDermid, Ian Rankin, Lee Child, Karen Slaughter etc.I love a good thriller.
On the other hand, I especially don't like 'chick-lit' books or romance books (I hate that term, but you know what I mean).

These days I am expanding my reading through the various Challenges available on the web. The 80 books around the World Challenge, the Short Story Challenge, the Russian Reading Challenge etc. I'm actively looking for books I wouldn't normally think to read.I'm enjoying stretching my horizons. It's too easy to stick to reading the same things time after time.

I've always read non-fiction, picking up books on whatever subject catches my eye at the time. At the moment I've some Buddhist books lined up to read and, of course, various craft books to browse through. Some of the books I've picked for the various challenges are non-fiction books too. I love travel books, history books, etc. I also read a lot of complementary / holistic therapy books.

Booking through thursday 15/05/08

Manual Labour Redeux

'Following up last week’s question about reading writing/grammar guides, this week, we’re expanding the question….
Scenario: You’ve just bought some complicated gadget home . . . do you read the accompanying documentation? Or not?
Do you ever read manuals?
How-to books?
Self-help guides?
Anything at all?'

Usually I only glance at the manuals for a new gadget, unless I can't get it to work and then I read the parts I need to.
I have read 'how to' books on computer topics, e.g. web-design, computer programmes, but again I only read the bits I want to.

I have read a few self-help manuals on assertiveness, etc. but skipped bits as usual!

Booking Through Thursday 8/5/08

Manual Labour

'Writing guides, grammar books, punctuation how-tos . . . do you read them? Not read them? How many writing books, grammar books, dictionaries–if any–do you have in your library?'

I did read some writing guides when I was on my MA course...ones on how to write a dissertation etc.
I do have some grammar books which I used when I was teaching English (High School years 7 -13 and Adult Education classes).
I also have a copy of 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves' by Lynne Truss, which is quite amusing!
I occasionally like to look through a dictionary to learn new words or look something up.

Booking Through Thursday 1/05/08

MayDay


Quick! It’s an emergency! You just got an urgent call about a family emergency and had to rush to the airport with barely time to grab your wallet and your passport. But now, you’re stuck at the airport with nothing to read. What do you do??
And, no, you did NOT have time to grab your bookbag, or the book next to your bed. You were . . . grocery shopping when you got the call and have nothing with you but your wallet and your passport (which you fortuitously brought with you in case they asked for ID in the ethnic food aisle). This is hypothetical, remember….

But I always have a book in my handbag!!! I do honestly...at the moment it's The Lives Of The Artists by Giorgio Vasari. I read a page or two when waiting at the doctors, on buses etc.

OK ... supposing for some reason I didn't have my handbag with me, just my purse, then I'd have to buy a magazine or book in the airport. If they didn't have any good paperbacks I wanted to read, and often airports are just full of trasy novels, then I'd buy a magazine...ideally something like the National Geographic, or a knitting magazine! I can't just sit there with nothing to do.

I confess though that yesterday I did go out without my handbag to the doctors, and sat there reading leaflets and year old magazines while waiting for my appointment, cursing myself that I hadn't brought my bag out with me. I won't be making that mistake again.

See...always keep a book in your handbag...always take your handbag out with you!
Sorry menfolk ..unless you're really liberated and don't mind manbags ...you'll have to keep one in your pocket!

( I wish my hubby would get a manbag, he carries so much around in his coat pockets, more than I do in my handbag, he needs one!)

Booking Through Thursday 25/04/08

Springing

Do your reading habits change in the Spring? Do you read gardening books? Even if you don’t have a garden? More light fiction than during the Winter? Less? Travel books? Light paperbacks you can stick in a knapsack?
Or do you pretty much read the same kinds of things in the Spring as you do the rest of the year?

I tend to read the same things throughout the year...what I want, when I want. However, around Halloween I read more classic horror short stories / novels, and at Xmas I always read A Child's Christmas in Wales. I also read A Midsummer Night's Dream on midsummer night (yes, I'm odd)! I don't really read anything different in Spring though.

Booking Through Thursday - 10/04/08

Writing Challenge

Pick up the nearest book. (I’m sure you must have one nearby.)
Turn to page 123.
What is the first sentence on the page?
The last sentence on the page?
Now . . . connect them together….(And no, you may not transcribe the entire page of the book–that’s cheating!)

Book - Child of Tibet by Soname Yangchen

'I suspect that the family wanted to check me out in case I was trying to ensnare Raunaq as a husband, but they need not have worried' I told them 'We prefer to be free, not bound by the clock - which means we are often late'.

(short and sweet!)

Booking Through Thursday 3/4/08

Lit-Ra-Chur


When somebody mentions “literature,” what’s the first thing you think of? (Dickens? Tolstoy? Shakespeare?)
Do you read “literature” (however you define it) for pleasure? Or is it something that you read only when you must?

I do think of classic authors when the word 'literature' is mentioned...Shakespeare, Austen, Bronte, Radcliffe, Chechov etc.
As an English Literature graduate and former English teacher, it's a natural response I think.
As for reading literature I love classic literature, especially 18th & 19th century, but also Shakespeare, Chaucer, Medieval Mystery plays, Chechov, Ibsen, etc. etc. etc....

Pure pleasure - never a chore!

Booking Through Thursday 27/03/08

This week’s question comes from Julie, who asks:

While acknowledging that we can’t judge books by their covers, how much does the design of a book affect your reading enjoyment? Hardcover vs. softcover? Trade paperback vs. mass market paperback? Font? Illustrations? Etc.?

I don't mind whether it is a hardcover or soft cover.

Fonts don't bother me either, although I don't like reading large print books.

When just browsing books in the library, e.g. for a thriller or crime novel, some covers do initially put me off until I read the blurb on the back/inside.

Booking Through Thursday 20/03/08

Booking Through Thursday 20thMarch
The End.

'You’ve just reached the end of a book . . . what do you do now? Savor and muse over the book? Dive right into the next one? Go take the dog for a walk, the kids to the park, before even thinking about the next book you’re going to read? What?

(Obviously, there can be more than one answer, here–a book with a cliff-hanger is going to engender different reactions than a serene, stand-alone, but you get the idea!)'

For me it really depends on the book.
If it's a new author and I've really enjoyed the book, I'll go online and order more books by the author from my local library.
If it's a non-fiction book on a subject I'm really interested in, I'll try to find more books on that subject and once again order more on the same / similar theme.
I always have a pile of books here which I'm going to read next - either bought ones or ones borrowed from the library, so once one book is finished I'm already onto the next.
Quite often too, I'm reading several books at the same time. I have one constantly in my handbag for those waiting in line moments (currently 'Lives of the Artists'), some in the living room and some on my bedside table. I pick up which ever book I'm in the mood for at the time.

Booking Through Thursday

Booking Through Thursday meme

13th March

How about a chance to play editor-in-chief? Fill in the blanks:

The Lord of the Rings trilogy would have been a much better if it was condensed into just one book!