I just saw this on a friend's blog and so here you go...
1. Do you remember how you developed a love for reading?
I think I've always loved to read. It probably came from my dad reading to me when I was little. It's interesting because I think everyone in my family has a stack of books by their bed or favorite chair that they are reading, a stack, not one or two. My sister may be the exception but I almost doubt it. So, it is probably genetic.
2. What are some books you read as a child?
I remember my dad reading to me the Chronicles of Narnia and the Hobbit. I remember Freckle Juice, Judy Blume books, a host of golden books, the Babysitter's Club, Wuthering Heights, and many others.
3. What is your favorite genre?
This is why I tend to have a pile of books. I like learning about other cultures, preferably in narrative form, I like some fiction, books that help me to live out my faith, and then some novels.
4. Do you have a favorite novel?
Not really. I don't really have a favorite novel. My favorite books are nonfiction books on spiritual things and actually even there I have a hard time picking just one. I think I am somewhat the same with books as with movies in that I would tend to rather something new than something I'd already read or seen. The exception is the Bible (which may sound super-spiritual, but is actually just the truth), which I am continually seeing and learning new things from. I don't really ever get tired of it. If I had to pick a favorite novel, though, or present favorite novel I'd pick either the Hobbit, one of the Lord of the Rings books, the Kite Runner, or A Thousand Splendid Suns.
5. Where do you usually read?
On the Metro or bus or train, in transit, or in my bed or on the couch. I wish I had a hammock because I most love to read sitting or lying in a hammock on a porch (like I did when I lived in Lawrence, KS).
6. When do you usually read?
While in transit (bus, metro, train), at night before I go to bed, on the weekend, on vacation...
7. Do you usually have more than one book you are reading at a time?
Yes, almost always, although I am trying to actually finish more books than I start. It doesn't help that I try to always be reading a Spanish book, so that adds at least one more book if I'm reading something in English.
8. Do you read nonfiction in a different way or place than you read fiction?
Some nonfiction is for research, so I just read the pertinent parts although it usually makes me want to read more. Nonfiction that I just read I often read more slowly so I can take it all in and ponder as I go. I tend to read fiction or something related to prayer or God before I go to bed, more recently the latter two.
As for where, it just depends. If it's something that I really have to think on or that I don't want to be interrupted in, then I keep that to reading at home when I have a bit of time. If not, if it's either very readable or a light read, then it's easier to take on public transportation and to read as I go in short chunks.
9. Do you buy most of the books you read, or borrow them, or check them out of the library?
I tend to borrow or buy books (or receive them as gifts). I love buying used if possible and wish I checked more out of the library, but hate having a due date and fearing that I may forget when it has to be back by. If I went on a regular basis that wouldn't be a problem, but I presently don't (my excuse is lack of time).
10. Do you keep most of the books you buy? If not, what do you do with them?
Yes, unless there is someone good to pass them onto or I didn't like it or I no longer have room for them (and thus have to weed out). In the latter two cases I try to sell (or give them) to a used bookstore closeby.
11. If you have children, what are some of the favorite books you have shared with them? Nope, not yet, no kids.
12. What are you reading now?
Non-fiction: Praying Backwards, Don't Waste Your Life (in Spanish), Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, Calvin's Institutes, and Simply Christian.
Bible: Psalms, Proverbs, Sermon on the Mount, 1 Peter, Isaiah.
13. Do you keep a TBR (to be read) list?
Kind of... I always seem to have way too many on the list. Some depends too on the books people have to lend me, which sometimes trump others due to wanting to get it back to them sooner than later. Also, some depends on my mood or what I need at the time.
14. What’s next?
First I need to finish the one's I've begun.
15. What books would you like to reread?
Richard Foster's Celebration of the Disciplines, the Lord of the Rings books, some of the classics, Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov.
16. Who are your favorite authors?
Hmm... I'm not sure right now. The ones I would have said before still are authors I like, but it's been awhile since I've read anything of theirs. Right now I'm really liking D. Martin Lloyd-Jones and John Calvin.
Summer has arrived. It was 38ºC, or 100ºF today. I would say that makes it now fully summer. So here is a list of what makes me think of summer, or that summer is just around the corner... Oh and I'll check those that have happened already...
