Book meme, gacked from mrstater on LJ

[tree_and_leaf]

1) The worst reading experience that you have ever had?
Well, I truly loathed Left Behind, but I was sustained by Slacktivist's sporkings - and the horror, aesthetically and theologically, did have a sort of trainwrecky fascination. I probably would have quite liked Die Verwandlung, were it not for the fact that Kafka scholarship does my head in... The only book I have started and failed to finish that I can recall was The Da Vinci Code, because the characters were so tediously stupid (and it made my inner mediaevalist exceeding grumpy).

Actually, no. There was a historical novel I got second hand as a child, called, I think, The Bronze Bow, and I discovered too late that the last half chapter had been lost. It was out of print, and I never did find out how the protagonist got out of an extremely disagreeable mess involving the Roman authorities.

2) The best reading experience you have ever had?
A reading party in a punt, under willows, where each member of the party brought a selection of poems to read aloud (must do that again this summer!)

3) Which book has affected or influenced you the most so far?
Um. Tough. Either The Lord of the Rings, or Gaudy Night, I think.

4) Have you ever read a book that you got really scared of?
Yes. Most recently, I had an appalling nightmare after reading Susan Howatch's Mystic Paths just before bed, from which I actually woke up so frightened that I ended up cowering under the bedclothes, clutching my rosary and muttering the Jesus prayer until I was able to de-cower and go back to sleep. And as a child, the Black Riders gave me nightmares too (and I still find the Mines of Moria extremely spooky, even though I know large chunks of LotR by heart).

5) What do you use as a bookmark?
Some special books have appropriate postcards, or tickets for readings by their authors, but mostly it's bus or train tickets. Or old James Thins (of blessed memory!) bookmarks, of which I still have a number kicking about.

6) When do you usually read? At home, work, while cooking, in the morning, noon, afternoon, before you go to bed...?
All the time. And I certainly never go on public transport without a book. There are various photos of me stirring pots with a book in my spare hand, too...

7) Do you remember the first book that you read?
The first proper book I read myself all the way through was Swallows and Amazons, because my father would do Mrs Walker with an Australian accent (badly, not that I knew that then), and it annoyed me no end (though Dad claims he just wasn't going fast enough for me). I'd have been five or so.

8) Which do you prefer - paperback or hardcover?
Hardback, but only if they're bound properly, in gathers, and sewn. Most modern books are abominably bound; I am trying to buy classic fiction only in the little hardback World's Classics or Everyman editions, because they're much better made, and you can slip them in a coat pocket, too.

9) What are you currently reading? What page are you on?
I have multiple books on the go: Pascal Mercier, Nachtzug nach Lissabon, p 528, Charles Elliott, Praying the Kingdom, p 22, Hermann Kant, Die Aula, p 162 (this is another one I have read so often I can just dip into it and know exactly where I am, so I tend to take longer over it.

10) Do you ever leave "a mark" (deliberate and/or not deliberate) in your books? For example, write in them, underline quotes, coffeemarks or food crumbs and etc.
Yes; I underline a lot, or leave comments. Destructive influence of academic training.

11) Does the title, amount of pages and the cover affect you when you are considering a specific book?
Title - well, it's what catches my attention, often. Amount of pages - no. Cover - ish. I have been put off some books by their cover, and then subsequently read them and wished I'd done so years ago (Terry Pratchett, Lois McMaster Bujold, and Susan Howatch, I'm looking at you, or rather your publishers. Bad cover art and rotten blurbs can be very off-putting).

12) Do you ever browse through to the last pages in order find out the ending?
No.

13) Has knowing the ending of a book (example, through spoilers or a movie) ever made you decide whether you will read the book or not?
No, not that I can think of.

14) Is there a book that you have read more than five times?
Too many to count.

15) Have you ever been in an accident where the book was the cause? (for example, almost getting hit by a car when reading while walking, or having stacks of books falling on you from a bookshelf...)
No. Which is actually pretty inexplicable.

16) Do you sell/give away your books or do you keep them, even though you don't like one of them?
Very rarely, though I have sent some books that I rather disliked to Oxfam (in a fit of desperation when moving).

17) Do you have some kind of book system, where you write down what you are reading, have bought, will read, will buy and etc?
I am keeping a tally of what I'm reading this year on my journal.