Nerd Alert! Books and Reading Habits

lisathatcher.com

This week’s questions over here are titled “Nerd Alert”, and they pertain to books and reading. How can I not participate in a meme about books and reading? Plus, I am definitely this kind of nerd!

1. Favorite childhood book? I have two, A Wrinkle in Time and The Phantom Tollbooth. I had the pleasure of revisiting them twice more when both of my children read them as kids. I also love Charlotte’s Web, but probably more so as an adult.
2. What are you reading right now? I am hopping around a bit, and having a little difficulty settling on one book. I am currently reading The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez, Excitability: Selected Stories 1986- 1996 by Diane Williams, and Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut. All are good in very different ways.
3. What books do you have on request at the library? None! I need to get a Chicago Public Library card. First, though, I need to buy a bus pass in order to get to the library. I can take the #29 bus. Not that I am afraid of walking. It is simply a very healthy walk there and back, and with winter coming and stuff…
4. Bad book habit? I obsessively order used, and sometimes new, books online from independent booksellers/stores. I frequent independent bookstores much too frequently! I need to get a bus pass!
5. What do you currently have checked out at the library? I need a bus pass…
6. Do you have an e-reader? Yes, I have several, and everyone in my family uses them except for me. I do not care for reading on an e-reader.
7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once? I prefer to read one with the hope of becoming so completely engrossed that I lose my mind. That doesn’t happen as often as I would like, but it did recently when I could not put down The Language of Flowers. Therefore, I usually have two or three going at a time with one definitely a collection of short stories.
8. Have your reading habits changed since starting to blog? Not really except that I probably read a few less books. I have always been a “big” reader since childhood.
9. Least favorite book you read this year (so far)? I have read soooo many good books this year so if I had to give least favorites even though I did enjoy them, they would be The Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick, or Night Film by Marisha Pessl.
10. Favorite book you’ve read this year? So many! Stoner by John Edward Williams, An Untamed State by Roxanne Gay, The Road by Cormac McCarthy to name a few!
11. How often do you read out of your comfort zone? Not often enough. Unfortunately, I like what I like.
12. What is your reading comfort zone? I like well written fiction that has some element of thought provocation. I also like short story collections, though these can be non-fiction too.
13. Can you read on the bus? I can, and do, read everywhere.
14. Favorite place to read? Is “anywhere” a place? In actuality, it is right where I am currently sitting. There may or may not be an indentation in the exact spot on the couch where I am inclined to read (it is pretty much “my” spot). I just got up and can confirm said indentation!
15. What is your book lending policy? I lend out all my books, all the time. I even lend out books I have yet to read. I trust the people to whom I lend. If they don’t return it/them, then they don’t. It’s on them. They should feel a little crummy about it since I was so generous. I’m kidding! I really don’t care that much if they are returned or not. They are just “things”. “Things” don’t matter much to me. In fact, I give away most of my books in order to fit more on my shelves.
16. Do you ever dog-ear books? Never on purpose!
17. Do you ever write in the margins of your books? I have on occasion, but only ever in pencil.
18. Not even in text books? Back in the day, I was a master highlighter. So the answer here is “yes”!
19. A book you didn’t expect to like but did? This is the hardest question. Geek Love by Katherine Dunne was recommended by someone who knows my book tastes fairly well, so I knew I would like this crazy tale. What I didn’t realize was just how much I would like it, I guess.
20. What makes you love a book? When I relate so much with a character that it’s like, “I have felt this too!”, or when it’s all I can think, or when I refuse to leave the house without it, or after turning the last page it’s all I want to think about, or can think about, or makes me think and feel something. It needs to transport me, either somewhere familiar or different, just somewhere else. Does this make sense?

What are you currently reading? What is your comfort zone or, maybe more importantly, discomfort zone?