How you hook-up with books...or what your book habits say about you

Got this meme off The Geekwif's site. Looked fun. So here goes, and thanks, Geekwif.

1. Hardback or trade paperback or mass market paperback?
I like trade paperbacks a great deal. That's usually what I buy. Moreso than hardbacks. Even the library carries trade paperbacks more and more.

2. Amazon or brick and mortar?
Brick and mortar.

3. Barnes & Noble or Borders?
I like Barnes & Noble better because they allow one of my writers' groups to meet there for free. And it's closer, too.

4. Bookmark or dogear?
Bookmark. But my bookmarks can definitely get creative. If you don't believe me, click here.

5. Alphabetize by author or alphabetize by title or random?
Random, random, random. If they make it onto the shelves, that's golden.

6. Keep, throw away, or sell?
I keep every book I can. Tried a book swap. I hate to get rid of any book. I just keep acquiring more.

7. Keep dustjacket or toss it?
Keep it. My daughter always takes her off and leaves them lying around and it drives me not.

8. Read with dustjacket or remove it?
I keep the dustjackets on.

9. Short story or novel?
I read both. For enjoyment, a novel. For craft, I'm more likely to read a short story. I have many, many (too many) literary magazines lying around filled with shorts and creative non-fiction and...

10. Collection (short stories by same author) or anthology (short stories by different authors)?
I like a collection by one author best. Sue Miller's collection with "Inventing the Abbotts" is my all-time favorite.

11. Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket?
Haven't finished one of either. But I liked the partial Lemony Snicket I read.

12. Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks?
I have to stop when I'm tired.

13. “It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”?
Definitely dark and stormy night. Mystery, thrillers, espionage, courtroom dramas. That's what I read for fun.

14. Buy or borrow?
Lately I've been buying used books. So I have them to review for this site. Racked up too many overdue fines trying to hold onto books to review them here.

15. New or used?
Some of each. Used are fine with me, very often.

16. Buying choice: book reviews, recommendation or browse?
I like personal recommendations. I read book lists...what should I have read.

17. Tidy ending or cliffhanger?
I don't need tidy endings. I prefer cliffhangers to end chapters and like when conflict is resolved at the end, but I prefer endings that make me think.

18. Morning reading, afternoon reading or nighttime reading?
I used to read at night. I get too tired. Now I have my sea bands to prevent car sickness, so I read on long trips.

19. Stand-alone or series?
I love the McNally series by Lawrence Sanders. I become attached to people, so I become attached to characters, too. I like Stephanie Plum, Kinsey Milhone. But my favorite reads are stand-alones.

20. Favorite series?
Probably the Archie McNally series by the late Lawrence Sanders.

21. Favorite children’s book?
I thought the American Girl series was great!

22. Favorite book of which nobody else has heard?
Lots of people don't know Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi. Great, great read. Thanks to my old boss, Mary Beth, for recommending that one.

23. Favorite books read last year?
The Wonder Spot by Melissa Bank and Claire Marvel by John Burnham Schwartz.

24. Favorite books of all time?
Tess of the D'urbervilles, Disclosure, A Thousand Acres, Tuesdays with Morrie, The Weight of Water.

25. Least favorite book you finished last year?
I reread The Handmaid's Tale and didn't like it nearly as much. Maybe it was really fresh when it first came out, and the themes are now overdone since spec fiction has exploded.

26. What are you reading right now?
Secret Life of Bees, The Red Tent, Postcards

27. What are you reading next?
White Oleander and something--anything--by Jodi Picoult.

A Cool Book Meme

Look at the list of books below:

* Bold the ones you’ve read*
* Italicize the ones you want to read *
Leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in.
* If you are reading this, tag, you’re it!*
*If there are any books on this list that I didn't italicize and you think I should read, let me know in comments! Also, what other books do you think belong on this list and why? Thanks to Terra Shield for this idea.

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky) - currently reading
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo) abridged version
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Books that belong on this list:

1.Tess of the d'Urbervilles--gutwrenching classic that teaches plot better than any book I know

2. Cold Mountain--cried my eyes out; popular but literary fiction that exemplifies the power of a hopeless tale lifted by a life-affirming ending

3. The Shipping News--unique story, beautifully written

4. A Thousand Acres--King Lear in a cornfield, with all the pathos and drama

5. Shindler's List--changed my life

6. The Bridges of Madison County--every middle aged woman's escape

7. The Princess Bride--a fulfilling entertaining read, a swashbuckling fantasy that belongs on the list as much as if not more than the Harry Potter series

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

Romance. Gallantry. Humor. Vengeance. Dastardly Deeds. Giants. Swashbuckling heroes. A tender tale of true love.

I laughed. I cried. I swooned. I howled. I cheered.

Out of all the books I've read in the past ten years, The Princess Bride was unequivocally a good read, satisfying whatever and wherever it 'itches.' If you want tenderness, it's there. Lunacy, it's there. Need a happy ending following a life and death struggle? Goldman's ingenious and somewhat fractured adult fairy tale, The Princess Bride, has it all.

Though the movie version directed by Rob Reiner is inspired, it no way replaces the book or diminishes the enjoyment of reading it. For one thing, so many details can't possibly be included in a feature length film, no matter how well written or directed.

If you've seen the movie but never read the book, you've missed out on dozens of inspired scenes: the six-fingered man and his retinue visiting Buttercup's family farm, the pathetic relationship between her parents, the tragic tale of the Princess Noreena who loses her hat, Wesley's life as a pirate-wannabe with the Dread Pirate Roberts, Fezzig's childhood as a professional wrestler, the rich relationship between Inigo's father and Yeste. These finally crafted chapters and splashes of backstory make the book a must read.

If you have favorite scenes in the movie as I do, you'll be happy to know that the most winning of them are taken directly from this inspired tale.

You can read this book in a weekend. And you can read this book ten times over (I have) and still find it engaging and wholly entertaining.

Now that's a good read.

BookSense.com: Online Resource for Good Reads

Yesterday, on the way to Philadelphia, I talked books with my friend Gail, which I hadn't done for a long time. I told her about "What Should I Read Next?", the online book referral site I reviewed on gem-vita only days ago.

"Do you know about Book Sense?" she asked. Gail then described an online source that lists the favorite reads of independent booksellers, collectively and then individually. They are a nationwide "family" of independent-bookseller websites and the e-commerce arm of the American Booksellers Association's Book Sense program.

Unline salespeople in the chain stores, independent booksellers are passionate about their merchandise. Their livelihood depends on it. I visited the BookSense.com virtual bookstore, and felt they shared my love of books and my need to know what others are reading and why. As a reader certainly, but also as a writer.

BookSense.com also provides information and news about local authors, store events, and staff recommendations, store by store, some better than others. Their recommendations reflect the collective wisdom of booksellers from all 50 states and Puerto Rico.

In the sense that Book Sense is a national marketing campaign on behalf of the independent bookstores of America, I certainly support it. The only independent bookseller within 60 miles went under five years ago, and it was a loss to our community. BookSense claims that it is, "Both a local and national effort to shine a light on the knowledge and diversity of independent bookstores, via the Book Sense Bestseller List -- now running in more than a dozen newspapers as well as monthly in U.S. News and World Report and on CSPAN -- and Book Sense Picks -- a monthly selection of eclectic new books chosen by independent booksellers."

According to the site, the number one pick at present is Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin.

Book Sense also offers a gift card welcome at hundreds of participating independent bookstores nationwide. We're planning on visiting our daughter Paige in Vermont over the Easter break, So, I checked their listings, and just as I expected, there is a participating Book Sense independent bookstore in Brattleboro, Everyone's Books, that honors a Book Sense gift card. Sounds like a nice Easter present for Paige.

If like me, you are always looking for reader recommendations or would like a one-stop shop to order the hottest titles in the world of the independent booksellers, visit Book Sense. Even if you're not buying, it's a great place to browse for good reads.

Technorati tags: independent+booksellers, Book+Sense, gem-vita, Mistress+of+the+Art+of+Death

"What Should I Read Next?"

I like the services that libraries and bookstores sometimes offer. I call them the, "If you liked that book, you'll like ______________ (fill in the name of similar book)."

Now there's an online site that offers the same service, as well as links to purchase the book.

It's called "What Should I Read Next?" and I found it using that nifty little site search tool called Stumble.

All you do is enter the title of the book and the author and "What Should I Read Next?" spits out the titles of books you might also like.

One of my favorite reads (which I reviewed on this site) is The Weight of Water by Anita Shreve. So I plugged that information in the space provided, and "What Should I Read Next?" provided this list of titles, plus links to their listings on Amazon so you can find out more about them.

"Our Recommendations"

These are our suggestions based on readers' recommendations.

Searching for Caleb - Anne Tyler See Amazon UK | US

Evening Class - Maeve Binchy See Amazon UK | US

The DIVE FROM CLAUSENS PIER PROOF - ANN PACKER See Amazon UK | US

Gracious Plenty - Sheri Reynolds See Amazon UK | US

Crazy Ladies - Michael Lee West See Amazon UK | US

The Law of Similars - Chris Bohjalian See Amazon UK | US

Sure of You - Armistead Maupin See Amazon UK | US

Tiberius - Allan Massie See Amazon UK | US

Back Roads - Tawni O'Dell See Amazon UK | US

The Persian Pickle Club - Sandra Dallas See Amazon UK | US

More results

To get more accurate suggestions, add more books you've loved to your list - to do this you'll need to register. You'll also be building our database and improving everyone's suggestions.

So, why not try using "What Should I Read Next?" The more people that participate, the stronger the tool becomes.

A reading group for the "The Reading Group"? (sticky post)

"The Reading Group by Elizabeth Noble follows the trials and tribulations of a group of women who meet regularly to read and discuss books. Over the course of a year, each of these women becomes intertwined, both in the books they read and within one another's lives and undergo startling revelations and transformations despite their differences in background, age, and respective situations."

So, readers, I invite you to join in The Reading Group discussion in an online reading group on gem-vita. Read the book by February 12. Discussion opens that evening (GMC-5). If you'd like to participate, please mention it in the comments below. Hope you'll be a gem-vita groupie, and happy reading!

Technorati tags: The+Reading+Group, Elizabeth+Noble, online+reading+group, popular+fiction

Two different books with one theme

I couldn't begin to number the books with the theme of life as a pilgrimage. So I'll share but two with you--slim books under 200 pages, well-written, quick reads that take very different paths to a common theme: If you want to mine the most from your earthly journey, listen with your heart and to your heart and live in the present.

I thought of reviewing Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom on this site after seeing it in a list of terra shield's favorite books on Terra's Secret Backup Blog and thought, Surely everyone's read that book, right? No need to give it more attention here.

Then I finished The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, an epic fable-- if there is such a thing--that has the unique quality of being a fictional self-help book. The Alchemist imparts valuable lessons about how to live in the same way the Morrie does. They just approach the same task differently.

The Alchemist is full of wisdom and optimism. It's strikingly optimistic. From the beginning of the novel, adults with influence keep telling a humble but worthy Spanish shepherd boy that "when a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream."

What a fanciful notion, some of us might think, especially if the vagaries of modern life have all but beaten our dreams out of us! But the boy believes it, not because he is gullible but because he is special. He clings to it in the face of life-and-death situations, and his dreams come to fruition for him. The stuff of fiction, yes. But such cockeyed optimism undergirds Albom's nonfiction work as well.

"People are only mean when they are threatened," Morrie tells Mitch, who suffers from Lou Gehrig's disease, and imparts this to Mitch as ALS is ravaging his body.

During their fifth Tuesday together, Morrie reminds Mitch of the poet Auden's quote: "Love each other or perish." He then tells Mitch, "Without love, we are birds with broken wings."

The Alchemist is chock full of inspirational thoughts as well. In Cueolo's book these inspired musings often they are imparted by coincidental strangers the boy meets on his pilgrimage to the Great Pyramids.

Having reached an oasis in the desert, the alchemist asks whether, "God created the desert so that man could appreciate the date trees," all the while knowing the answer. Later he tells the boy, "It's not what enters men's mouths that is evil," referring to the Islamic prohibition of alcohol. "It's what comes out of their mouths that is."

When the boy tells the alchemist his heart is agitated, that "it has its dreams and it gets emotional," the alchemist says, "That's good. Your heart is alive. Keep listening to what it has to say."

Which sounds an awful lot like my therapist encouraging me when my heart was agitated not too long ago in saying, "At least you put your feelings out there. Being a person of feeling and sharing your feelings are brave things and not everyone can do them. You're a better person for having made yourself vulnerable."

A philosophy which resonates with Morrie's explaining to Mitch about the value of throwing yourself into your emotions: "By allowing yourself to dive in, all the way, over your head, you experience them fully and completely, you learn what pain is. You learn what love is."

Both books take on the subject of death, and the terror is strikes in people's hearts at that moment they realize they are mortal and that they may die. In The Alchemist, the boy faces a life or death challenge, the alchemist tells him, "You may die in the midst of realizing your [personal dream.] That's better than dying like millions who never knew what their personal dreams were." He then tells the boy he's in a better place in his life pilgrimage for having faced death saying, "Usually the threat of death makes people a lot more aware of their lives."

That's a message you'll hear in Tuesdays with Morrie, too, like when Morrie tells Mitch, "When you learn how to die, you learn how to live."

Some people may prefer learning life's most important lessons through the medium of Albom's memoir, told in easy and journal-esey prose. I loved Tuesdays with Morrie. It was nothing short of a spiritual experience for me. I never felt such love and kindness towards others after reading any other work, not even after reading Scripture, if I'm being totally honest.

But I loved Cuelho's literary prose, too. His gift for storytelling and creating another world many of us may never see--Southern Spain across the Mediterranean and into Egypt.

Either book is easily read in two hours' time. Both can impact your life, too, if your heart is willing to listen.

Technorati tags: Tuesdays+with+Morrie, Mitch+Albom, Paulo+Coelho, The+Alchemist