When the Club Music Ends discussion

Hi guys,

I posted this book questionnaire on another group's discussion forum a while back and more than a few members responded to it. So, I'm reposting it here, hoping that you guys will post your responses as well. This way we'll get to learn more about each other as readers and eventually, as Angelenos who love to read.

Instructions: Replace my answers with yours and repost the whole questionnaire as your response.


Book Questionnaire


1. Do you remember how you developed a love for reading?

I honestly don't. All I know is that I've been reading since, like, um, forever. (I still even vividly remember reading picture books as a toddler.)


2. What are some books you read as a child?

Outside of textbooks, I remember reading a lot of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries. I also read some of Judy Blume's and Roald Dahl's. (And I secretly started reading Harold Robbins and Jackie Collins in the fifth grade. Heehee.)


3. What is your favorite genre?


Literary fiction


4. Do you have a favourite novel?

Oi! It changes. My most recent favorite is The Perfect Waiter by Alain Claude Sulzer.

5. Where do you usually read?


My work desk at home, by the window. However, my favorite place to read is at this cafe near my house.


6. When do you usually read?


In the afternoon.


7. Do you usually have more than one book you are reading at a time?

I usually have more than one book lined up but seriously, I don't know how some people can read more than one at a time. When I don't like a book after the first couple of chapters, I usually just end up abandoning it entirely.


8. Do you read nonfiction in a different way or place than you read fiction?

I'm probably more attentive when it comes to the background of the work in terms of nonfiction books.


9. Do you buy most of the books you read, or borrow them, or check them out of the library?

It depends. If it's a new author, then I would usually check it out of the library first. If I'm impressed by the second chapter, then I'd go and buy it.


10. Do you keep most of the books you buy?

I usually just donate the relatively inexpensive ones to the public library when I'm done with them.


11. What are you reading now?

Life: A User's Manual by Georges Perec (It's a bit thick but so far, I'm quite impressed by it.)


13. Do you keep a TBR (to be read) list?

Yuppers. (See my profile.)


14. What's next?

Um, dinner. Oh, to read? Um, Now Is The Hour.


15. What books would you like to reread?

All the Shakespeare plays that I read in college. Someday, when I'm old and gray. ;-)


16. Who are your favourite authors?

Novelists: E.M. Forster, Jane Austen, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Edmund White, Paul Monette, Toni Morrison, Amy Tan, GUstav Flaubert, Milan Kundera (and omg, so many others!)

"Writers" (encompassing short stories, non-fiction, and essays): Dennis Cooper, Ann Rule, Andrew Sullivan, Gloria Steinem, Kate Chopin (and omg, so many others!)

Poets: e.e. cummings, Emily Dickinson, Edward Arlington Robinson, Edgar Allan Poe (and omg, so many others!)

Playwrights: Tennessee Williams, Oscar Wilde, William Shakespeare, Tony Kushner, Neil Simon (and omg, so many others!)

Thanks for filling this out Manny. Welcome to the group! :-)

And thanks for sharing BookCrossing. It's a pretty cool site!

1. Do you remember how you developed a love for reading?

It started with the Cat in the Hat series, and with Where the Wild Things Are in my elementary school library. From there, I started reading the Hardy Boys novels. In middle school, I was reading Lord of the Rings and a lot of science fiction/fantasy. Now that I'm in my 40s, I've branched out and read a lot of different kinds of books, both fiction and non-fiction.

2. What are some books you read as a child?

My middle school library had a few books from the "Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators" series that were a lot of fun at that age. But even by then I was reading a lot of different kinds of stuff -- hard to pick out just one or two.

3. What is your favorite genre?

I'm all over the map on this. Science fiction and fantasy have been my favorites, but after having read as much as I have, it is hard to read something now and not have the feeling I've read it before.

4. Do you have a favourite novel?

Yes, I have several!

The Stand is pretty great -- I've read the unabridged version a few times.

The Hobbit
Dune
Ringworld and The Ringworld Engineers
The Shadow of the Torturer
American Gods
Boy Culture

5. Where do you usually read?

The bathroom, of course. And I'm usually carrying a book around with me wherever I go, so on the bus/subway and restaurants when I'm by myself.

6. When do you usually read?

See #5 above.

7. Do you usually have more than one book you are reading at a time?

I didn't used to, but now I find that if I'm reading something new I'm also re-reading something else.

8. Do you read nonfiction in a different way or place than you read fiction?

I'm a lot less critical of fiction than non-fiction. I read fiction for escapist pleasure. I read non-fiction to learn something or to challenge my assumptions.

9. Do you buy most of the books you read, or borrow them, or check them out of the library?

Buy.

10. Do you keep most of the books you buy?

I did for a long time, then this year I moved across the country and had to make some sacrifices.

11. What are you reading now?

Almost finished with re-reading for the second or third time:
American Gods

Just started:
The Case for God

About to start re-reading for the second or third time:
The World of Normal Boys


12. (what happened to question 12?)

13. Do you keep a TBR (to be read) list?

Yes, I have a to-read list here on Good Reads, and a Wish List on Amazon.com. At some point I'll harmonize them so they're in sync.

14. What's next?

One day at at time, my friend.

15. What books would you like to re-read?

Mother of Storms but I don't think I can put my hands on my copy -- I gotta see if I have any boxes of books I haven't unpacked.

16. Who are your favourite authors?

Again, I have several. I started listing them, then realized I could spend all day at it...

Good catch on question #12, Wayne. I posted this questionnaire and now I am wondering myself---What did happen to Q12?! Lol.

I guess the next responder to this survey is gonna have to customize Question #12 himself. How's that?

Anyway, thanks for becoming a member and welcome to the group! :-)

1. Do you remember how you developed a love for reading?

I started reading very early on! I am an only child and reading was a great source of companionship and fantasy for me. I don't remember what books I started with, but I know that I moved on to some pretty lofty material early, like CUJO at like 10 years old.


2. What are some books you read as a child?

The Diary of Anne Frank, Cujo, The Other Side of the Mountain, and fondly Interview with the Vampire.

3. What is your favorite genre?


Horror


4. Do you have a favourite novel?

I have favorites of the time, but if there had to be one it would be Interview With The Vampire

5. Where do you usually read?


Anywhere/Anytime


6. When do you usually read?


Whenever I have a moment! Sadly, if something has really got my attention, I will read passages at stop lights.


7. Do you usually have more than one book you are reading at a time?

I have books ready to go immediately as I finish. I tried reading two at one time and it was horrible. I ended up having to read both again to stop the cross polination of story.

8. Do you read nonfiction in a different way or place than you read fiction?

I read non-fiction few and far between. I don't change my reading habits or alter when or where I read just because it is non fiction.


9. Do you buy most of the books you read, or borrow them, or check them out of the library?

I buy all books I read! I secretly want to have one of those libraries in my house like you see in the old English mansions, where you have to climb a ladder to get to them. I do, however, check out books on tape from the library. Especially when I want to catch up.


10. Do you keep most of the books you buy?

I keep them all! (see above)

11. What are you reading now?

The Vampire Tapestry by Suzy McKee Charnas

13. Do you keep a TBR (to be read) list?

Absolutely! Always, whether it is here or on Amazon, or circled in Stephen King's column in Entertainment Weekly.


14. What's next?

Strings Attached by Nick Nolan


15. What books would you like to reread?

hmmm, don't know how to answer this! I usually track down and read what I would like to read.


16. Who are your favourite authors?

Anne Rice, W.A. Hoffman, Ronald Donaghe, James Barr, Stephen King, Simon Clark, Alex Kava, Thomas Harris, the list goes on and on. I love Poe and Tennessee Williams, Eugene O'Neill, Edward Albee, Lilian Hellman, Ariel Dorfman. It continues but there simply isn't enough time or space. These are the major players for me.

12. my customized questing #12 - What book have I ever stopped reading in the middle?

Imajica by Clive Barker. After having to stop and re-read 10 times because I lost track of who we were talking about, what the situation was, where we were, and any other major questions. This was also the time that I decided I was not a huge Science Fiction fan. I need more tangible ideas. I have a fantastic imagination, but so much of Sci-Fi depends on going for the ride of the author and I suppose I am do visual on my own and just end up lost in print.