Book meme

Angela Messenger posted this meme recently and I thought I would join in.

1. Hardback or trade paperback or mass market paperback? Whatever I can get my hands on -- although if I start a series with one type, I try to stick with that and not mix them.

2. Amazon or brick and mortar? Brick and mortar -- I like the look, feel, and smell of a book as I browse.

3. Barnes & Noble or Borders? Wherever I can go, including used book stores.

4. Bookmark or dogear? Bookmark or remember where I am. Dogearing drives me CRAZY!

5. Alphabetize by author or alphabetize by title or random? With my first bookcase, I sorted alphabetically. Now that I have six bookcases -- and four children who like getting to my books -- I sort them by theme.

6. Keep, throw away, or sell? I try not to throw away books. When I was younger we lived out in the middle of nowhere and my books were my friends. I still have books from when I was in third grade. When we first moved back to Virginia, we had to store all my boxes of books in a small shed in the backyard. Unfortunately the shed roof was bad and rainwater destroyed three big boxes of books. I had to get rid of them and still miss the ones I lost. I have even sold some books when times were desperate -- of course, I didn't get as much as I had spent on them and it will cost an arm and a leg to replace them since they were original Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and Dana Girls.

7. Keep dust jacket or toss it? Keep.

8. Read with dust jacket or remove it? Start with it and use the inside piece as a bookmark, but then remove it if necessary.

9. Short story or novel? Novels, but every now and then an anthology sneaks in.

10. Collection (short stories by same author) or anthology (short stories by different authors)? Anthology.

11. Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket? Harry Potter.

12. Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks? When I get tired I try to make it to the end of the chapter.

13. “It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”? Once upon a time.


14. Buy or Borrow? Buy. I worry about what my youngest child will cause to happen to a borrowed book.

15. New or used? Used is just as good as new. Sometimes it's better. There is character in a used book.

16.Buying choice: book reviews, recommendation or browse? All.

17. Tidy ending or cliffhanger? Tidy is good. Cliffhanger will work if I know it won't be long to get the next book in the series. I can hardly wait for the end of July to see what is happening with Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

18. Morning reading, afternoon reading or nighttime reading? Any time is a good time to read!

19. Stand-alone or series? Either way.

20. Favorite series? Harry Potter. Trixie Belden. The Chronicles of Narnia. The original Hardy Boys (not the edited and watered down versions you can find now). The Dana Girls. The Anne books. I could go on, but I have other things to do today.

21. Favorite children’s book? Book Trails for Baby Feet.

22. Favorite book of which nobody else has heard? I'm sure most people have heard of my favorites -- Trixie Belden, the Dana Girls, Kay Tracey, Judy Bolton.

23. Favorite books read last year? Harry Potter -- I finally started reading them after a friend recommended them.

24. Favorite books of all time? Diary of Anne Frank, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit, Misty of Chincoteague and the rest of the books by Marguerite Henry. And, again, I had better stop or I will be here all day.

25. Least favorite book you finished last year? I don't think there were any. If I start to read something and don't like it, I don't finish it.

26. What are you reading right now? The Mommy Manual. And I am rereading Bringing up Boys. Allan and I have started reading Misty of Chincoteague together and may go on to some of the other Marguerite Henry books.

27. What are you reading next? The Little House books and like I said in 26, we may go on to some of the other Marguerite Henry books.