Category: Book Blogger Hop Page 4 of 7

This prompt was submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer:

Do you have a favorite reading nook?

I can—and do—read anywhere: in a house, with a mouse, in a (or on a) box, with a fox, in a car, in a (or under a) tree, on a train (theoretically, never been), in the dark, in the rain (assuming I have some sort of cover—can’t let the pages get wet), with a goat, but definitely not in a boat (I get seasick quicker than Toby Daye gets new clothes blood-stained.

But lately, I tend to do most of my reading in my recliner—where you have to sit juuuust right, so the broken spring doesn’t dig into your back. If you do that, it’s about the most comfortable chair around. That can be dangerous when I’m a bit drowsy, but that spring can serve a useful purpose.

This question, made me think of a post from a few years ago, and since I’m too sick to come up with more than 2.5 paragraphs today, I figured I’d copy and paste it here. It seems sort of appropriate.

Where the Magic Happens…or something

Three years ago when I switched to a day job, my reading habits had to change—among other things. It took almost no time at all to realize that reading in the break room just wasn’t going to work—it was too loud, there were too many things going on, you couldn’t sit by yourself, really. And then there were all these nice people wanting to talk.

Actually, people, in general, being around was something to get used to, but that’s another story.

Then I realized that there were perfectly good stairs a lot closer to my workspace than the break room was. So I started hanging out there and reading—sometimes, sitting on the stairs, other times leaning against the railing—it’s at a decent height for that. Nowadays, that’s where 40-60% of my weekday reading happens while on break.

It’s not perfectly quiet, but it’s close enough. Except when the flautist practices every couple of months. There are people who pass through—and some of them talk to me, but the conversations are short—because they’re on their way to somewhere else. Sometimes it’s just a “hi,” and occasionally I workshop ideas for posts here when someone asks about what I’m reading. I’ve even been given a couple of good recommendations.

Now, the keen-eyed among you might have noticed a couple of post-its on the wall (circled below).

So, for a couple of years, people would joke about putting up a sign where I read with my name on it or something (more than one person has suggested getting me a chair). But last December, I moved to a different floor, and within a month, someone had put up the larger post-it reading “[H. C.]’s Reading Spot.” This would be in the larger circle.

A couple of weeks later, that person asked if I liked my sign. I had to confess that I had no clue what she was talking about and apologized profusely. Who pays attention to the walls along the stairs? Especially when you’re not climbing the stairs, but are focused on the book/eReader in your hand. So when I went out for my next break, I went looking for it—and she’d added another post-it (the smaller one), “<– This is the sign.”

Very helpful.

So, yeah, that’s where I read and recharge from all the interaction with people so I have enough energy to get back to work and interact with more people.

Sure, it’s not as snazzy as some of the reading nooks you see on Instagram, Bookstr, etc. It could be more comfortable, that’s for sure. But I’ve gotta say, when the book is halfway decent, I don’t notice. That’s where the magic happens.

What about you—do you have a particular space that’s best to read in?

This prompt was submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer:

Do you go back and reread the previous book before starting the sequel?

In my pre-book blogger days, yes. Almost 100% of the time—or if it was part of a multi-book ARC, I’d read everything leading up to it. Sure, that led to some imbalance—I’d know the beginning of a trilogy really well, the middle part so-so, and then the third would just get one reading (unless I got the hankering to read the whole thing in one bite).

It really helped to get some minor details refreshed, remember the character names (especially in bigger fantasy tomes), and just “prime” my mind in general for what was coming. Also, I clearly enjoyed the previous book—that’s why I was coming back for the next, and it worked as an excuse to revisit the series/author.

But that really went away once I really got into blogging, and I’d have a hard time letting myself enjoy the luxury of a re-read. That’s a whole ‘nother story, though, and not something anyone but my therapist should pretend to care about.

Over the last couple of years, however—this is largely thanks to my local library really beefing up their collections—I’ve taken to listening to a book a week or two before the sequel/next in the series releases. I get all the benefits, and since I don’t make a point of writing about every audiobook I listen to, there’s no guilt or internal pressure. I probably do this for 50% or so of the books in a series that I read, time (and availability) permitting right now.

What about you? Do you go into a sequel cold or do you need a refresher?

This prompt was submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer:

Which do you prefer to be known as: a voracious reader or a book nerd?

If I’m going to limit myself to those choices, I guess I’d probably go with “voracious reader”. I like the term book nerd, though, and would answer to it unthinkingly. But voracious seems to fit me better (although it also feels like an understatement…from my first reading to today, I saw myself in Scout Finch’s “Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”).

However, if I’m not limiting myself to those options, I have a few other ideas:
The ubiquitous Book Wyrm/Book Dragon label
A Book Shark (à la “I always read. You know how sharks have to keep swimming or they die? I’m like that. If I stop reading, I die.” as Patrick Rothfuss has said)
An Irresponsible Reader (see this comic, and, well…the banner above)
A Bookish Weirdo (thanks, Fahrenheit Press merch!)
But I think my favorite description is something I stumbled onto via a Kevin Hearne tweet: “ink drinker” (buveur d’encre) (see this post from bluesyemre for other nifty international terms).

How do you self-identify as readers?

This prompt was submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer:

Do you watch film adaptations of books before reading them?

Almost always I read the book first. I want my imagination to be the dominant vision in my head. For example, I don’t want to put up with Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb in my head when I read a Herron novel, as fantastic as he was (or as Dracula, or as Sirius Black). Having my mental image and the character’s voice firmly established, I can watch Slow Horses and enjoy Oldman’s take on the character.

This has backfired on me a few times, mostly when the adaptations are so divorced from the source material that it hurts the experience. take The Water Horse. I read that to/with my kids before the movie came out because we all wanted that experience. And boy howdy, could that movie have been more different from the book? I think it was perfectly nice and we’d have probably enjoyed it more had we not known the book.

Sometimes, I don’t care enough about the book based on what I’ve heard/adaptation trailer I’ve seen to care, and will watch the show/movie first. Occasionally, actually seeing the adaptation will make me reconsider and grab the book (I can’t come up with an example at the moment to use here, which is a shame).

Rarely, I think an adaptation looks so good that I don’t want to know what the novel is like. For example, Game of Thrones. You knew that the writers/producers were going to have to make changes from the novels for that, and I didn’t want to be one of those guys sitting there watching saying things like, “Well, actually Khal Drogo should have bells in his hair and…” After having seen season one, I could read the books and keep the two worlds separate in my mind. Sure, that seems to be the opposite of what I said in that first paragraph. It’s rare that an adaptation looks that good to me.

There’s always the stuff that I end up watching for one reason or another and don’t know it’s an adaptation until I’m watching/have watched. That usually inspires me to read it afterward, just to see.

So basically, the book first, but it’s not a hard and fast rule. I didn’t realize I had so many exceptions to the rule, though. Guess you learn something every day.

What about you, readers?

This prompt was submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer:

Are any of your bookshelves bowing because of too many books?

Um…are any of my bookshelves bowing because of too many books?

My shelves? Bowing because of too many books? Er, well…

Do bears bear?

Do bees be?

Do flies fly?

Do ducks duck?

Do math majors multiply?

Do eggs get laid?

Does Spock beam up?

Er, yeah. All of them are—except for those I bought in the last 4 months, anyway (and maybe a couple of those have started).

Today's post is brought to you by a grant from David Addison and The Blue Moon Detective Agency.

Are your shelves nice and flat?

This prompt was submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer:

Do you suggest new authors to your readers?

I sure hope I do! I don’t know that I’ve read (and therefore blogged/suggested) a lot of debut authors in 2022, but there have been a decent number of new-to-me authors that I’ve recommended.

But every author is a new author to someone—there are people out there who’ve never read James Patterson, Beverly Cleary, or Harper Lee in the same way that some people haven’t read a debut author or one with just a couple of titles under their belt. So in a way, I try to suggest a new author in every post here.

And that’s one of the joys of this little hobby, when someone tells me that they started reading Author X because of my encouragement.

So yeah, new authors, new-to-me-authors, older authors, newbies, experienced pros, mid-list authors, perennial best-sellers, relative unknowns, people who should be well-known, people who maybe shouldn’t be…I try to cover them all.

This prompt was submitted by Elizabeth @ Silver’s Reviews:

Are you lost if you don’t have a book to read?

Lost doesn’t begin to describe it, really. Up until a few years ago, it’d happen occasionally. I’d read things faster than I could get to the library, I wouldn’t have money for a trip to the bookstore, I couldn’t find anything at a bookstore/library that struck my mood, and so on (okay, that last one didn’t happen too often…but it happened a couple of times, I swear). I’d usually resort to re-reading something, but that didn’t always work.

When that happened, I would be moody and irritable. Which isn’t exactly lost, I know. But being lost does that to me, I guess.

Mercifully, I haven’t been in that state for a couple of years. I’m at the point now where I should read 4 more books by the end of the week to get back on schedule (and could say the same almost every Wednesday). Sure, I have the occasional moment of indecision about what to read next, but it doesn’t last long.

Like I talked about back when the prompt was about using the Kindle app on your phone, nowadays I have a book with me everywhere I go. They’re a handy way to deal with the stress, boredom, ennui, annoyance, etc. that comes from being stuck someplace (including social situations you’re not that interested in).

I have a nagging sensation that I left off something I meant to say here, but this is close enough. I’m gonna go read.

Do You Need to Have a Book at All Times?

This prompt was submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer:

Have you ever skipped ahead to read the ending?

To quote one of my favorite Flight Of The Conchords songs:

Why? Why? Why?
What?
Why exactly?
What? Why?

Okay, in some non-fiction works, I can see reading the conclusion after the introduction so you get an idea of where the argument is going—I had a professor tell us that was the way to read a book (I think he was drawing on Mortimer Adler’s lousy book). I will do that occasionally (well, I’ll skim the last chapter) to help me focus on the bigger things the book focuses on.

But that’s not what the question is talking about, is it? Nah, this is about novels—glancing to the end to see if the butler really did to it, and so on. I know it’s done, but I don’t get it. Sure we all want to find out what happens at the end of the book–but what’s the point if you know that Wade Watts wins James Halliday’s contest if you don’t know how he won it?* It’s great to know that Mark Watney gets rescued, but the point is to know how he survives. We know that whatever guy that Stephanie Plum is hunting down will be captured/killed/cleared—the pleasure isn’t getting there, it’s the mishaps along the way. I feel like I should be going, but I think the point is made—and I’m having a hard time finding well-known examples to give without spoilers.

* Also, we’re told really early on that he wins, so maybe that’s not the best example. Or maybe it is.

Yes, the endings are important. If only to motivate you through some dull/problematic parts so you can find out the ending. But if all you want is the ending to the book—check out wikipedia or some other website. Even if you know and enjoy learning the ending, you can’t fully appreciate all of it unless you’ve got the context of the rest of the book. Novels aren’t just beginnings and endings—they’re about the work as a whole. It’s the stuff between the first and last chapters that makes them worth the time and effort—why cheat yourself?

It just seems rather pointless to me.

Unless, of course, you’re Harry Burns, who has one of the weirder boasts in cinematic history:

When I buy a new book, I read the last page first. That way, in case I die before I finish, I know how it ends. That, my friend, is a dark side.

I dunno, maybe I can be convinced—not convinced to try, but convinced that people who do this aren’t missing something.

Am I out to lunch here? Let me hear what you think!

This prompt was submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer:

Have you ever reread a book? If so, why did you decide to reread it?

Have I ever? There’ve been times in my life when re-reading was the majority of my reading. Thankfully, a better library, a larger budget, and the occasional book in exchange for a review have prevented that from being the case lately.

Sometimes, I re-read because I have nothing else on hand to read (it’s been ages since this has been an issue). Sometimes it’s because I need to refresh my memory before a new installment of a series comes out and I want to get the last book or two in my mind as a refresher. Sometimes it’s because I didn’t understand something the first time—or I need to review the material in general (I’m thinking primarily of non-fiction books here). But the primary reason I re-read is that I liked the book and want to experience it again.

A lot of it is the comfort of returning to a world and characters that I liked—when I get sick, for example, a quick visit to the Brownstone on West 35th Street* does as much good as chicken noodle soup. Or it’s the writing—the wordplay of Ellen Raskin or Gregory Mcdonald always makes me smile. Or just to relive the story—I could give too many examples here.

* That’d be Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin books.

Sadly, I really don’t have that much time anymore to re-read and I miss it. I feel a little guilty that I’m not reading something I can blog about when I do that (sure, sometimes I do talk about re-reads, but it’s not often)—and even without the guilt, I just don’t have the time. Largely, that’s what I use audiobooks for now.

Are you a one-and-done type of reader, or do you keep circling back?

This prompt was submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer:

Is it hard to find new books in local stores?

There are a few ways to go with this question. But I should note that as of 9/1, I owned over 100 books that I haven’t read. Overall, not finding books in bookstores is not a besetting problem for me.

If I go into a bookstore, I’m almost guaranteed to spend money. So I’m pretty careful about venturing into one (there have been times I haven’t been that careful—and there will be times like that in the future, I’m sure). If I go into browse, I will almost definitely find something that piques my interest enough to reach for my wallet. If that’s what the question is asking, then my answer is a definitive “no.”

On the other hand, if I go in looking for specific titles/authors, I may find it difficult. Whoever does the buying for local stores has different tastes in Mystery/Crime/Thriller material than I do—yes, I may make some pleasant discoveries (see the previous paragraph), but I usually can’t get what I’m looking for. Same for Urban Fantasy (ironically, almost every UF series/author I read, I discovered in one of those stores—something’s changed). But SF/F? I’m almost guaranteed to find what I want. The same goes for YA or “non-genre” books. So the answer to the question phrased that way is a vague, “It depends” with an expressive shrug.

Unless I cheat and special order something, so I go in having already paid for a book.

How do you fare in your local bookstores?