A Bookish Meme

I found this meme over at bookeywookey, although apparently it started at Kimbooktu. I couldn’t quite resist; you know me and books:

1. Hardcover or paperback, and why?

Paperback. I like my books to be easy to carry around with me, so I can read them anywhere. I prefer my cookbooks hardcover, however, because some varieties of hardcover lie open more easily than paperback.

2. If I were to own a book shop I would call it…

Errant Dreams, probably, because I so inextricably associate books with daydreaming.

3. My favorite quote from a book (mention the title) is…

Favorite? I wouldn’t dare try to put forth a favorite. As I’ve mentioned before, my memory is like Swiss cheese without the cheese, so if I said something was my favorite I’d be back here 10 times to correct myself. Instead, here’s the most recent quote that I really enjoyed from a book, which I included in a review I posted recently:

All the same, we’re sticking with the unlucky vulture. Whether he was a visionary or just a frozen ball of feathers tossed in the path of destiny, he still got there. Effort is admirable, but elevation is… well, it’s elevating.

‘Frozen ball of feathers tossed in the path of destiny.’ How could I resist? Thinking about it a little further though, I have to guess that if I were capable of remembering a favorite, it would almost certainly be something Neil Gaiman had written.

4. The author (alive or diseased) I would love to have lunch with would be ….

Diseased?! I really hope they meant deceased!

Anyway, I think I’d have to go with Anne Bishop. Assuming I could guarantee that I’d be in a sociable frame of mind, and not so nervous that I’d spend the entire time tongue-tied.

5. If I was going to a deserted island and could only bring one book, except from the SAS survival guide, it would be…

Not to mention it twice in two weeks, but… How it was with Dooms. I could read that over and over again. And over.

6. I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that….

…could easily hold a book open while making it easy to turn a page with one hand, so I could prop a book just about anywhere (in one hand, on my lap, on an exercise bike or treadmill) and read without effort and without my book snapping closed on me.

7. The smell of an old book reminds me of….

The annual library book sale in Ithaca that I used to go to with my grandmother while she was alive. It took up multiple floors of a building, and the books were incredibly cheap. It was magical.

8. If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title), it would be….

Well, as much as I love the Black Jewels trilogy, I wouldn’t want to be Jaenelle—I’m not up to living her life. Instead, I’d want to be Lirael from Garth Nix’s Abhorsen trilogy.

9. The most overestimated book of all times is….

I could never really answer this… books are too individual for such a sweeping statement. Something I hate is bound to really touch someone else.

10. I hate it when a book….

Assumes the readers are stupid. I VERY much prefer books that assume some intelligence on the part of the reader. They don’t over-explain, walk you through every tiny thing as though you couldn’t figure anything out for yourself, etc. My other major pet peeve is to come across a character that says, essentially, “yes, I do know that, but explain it to me again,” for no better reason than to impart information to the reader. That’s just plain sloppy.

Book Nerd