Book meme

1. Which book has been on your shelves the longest?
The Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams

2. What is your current read, your last read and the book you’ll read next?
I'm currently reading Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

3. What book did everyone like and you hated?
The Harry Potter books! Please don't kill me.

4. Which book do you keep telling yourself you’ll read, but you probably won’t?
I'm kind of afraid to dive into Slaughterhouse by Gail Eisnitz. I know it'll upset me, and I simply haven't had the emotional energy to get into it.

5. Which book are you saving for “retirement?”
Haha any romance novel, I suppose.

6. Last page: read it first or wait till the end?
I've never been one of those people, and I can't quite understand it. For me the pleasure of reading a book has nothing to do with the end, and everything to do with the process of reading the book. So, unless the end is blatantly bad, I'll be happy with it.

7. Acknowledgements: waste of ink and paper or interesting aside?
I find them interesting. I think it's a nice place for the author to thank people - and I know those people enjoy seeing their names in print! Why begrudge them that small pleasure?

8. Which book character would you switch places with?
Buddha, in Buddha by Deepak Chopra!

9. Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time)?
The Velveteen Rabbit will always remind me of my father. He used to read it to me every night, and even now when I read it myself I head his voice in my head with his particular emphasis and intonation.

10. Name a book you acquired in some interesting way.
I took books as payment for mowing lawns for awhile...

11. Have you ever given away a book for a special reason to a special person?
I'd only give a book of my own collection to a very special person for a very special reason. Otherwise, I'll lend but I always expect them back. And yes, I have.

12. Which book has been with you to the most places?
Allen Ginsberg's Howl or Aleister Crowley's The Book of Lies

13. Any “required reading” you hated in high school that wasn’t so bad ten years later?
Most of it. I resisted instruction in English, because I didn't want to be told what to read. Most of the selections, though, were truly worth reading.

14. What is the strangest item you’ve ever found in a book?
No strange "item", but lots of strange writing. I had a book once that seemed to have been written in from cover to cover, in every margin, with what seemed to be gibberish.

15. Used or brand new?
Both...they have their own wonderful smells :)

16. Stephen King: Literary genius or opiate of the masses?
A bit of both...doesn't it take a genius of sorts to write books that appeal to so many people? Just because it's pop culture doesn't mean it lacks merit. I must admit that I couldn't stand the man until I read his book On Writing, which really opened my eyes.

17. Have you ever seen a movie you liked better than the book?
Nope. Not once. Seriously.

18. Conversely, which book should NEVER have been introduced to celluloid?
Er, most of them! But in particular...Farenheit 451. Does no one get the significance of reading a BOOK about that particular scenario???

19. Have you ever read a book that's made you hungry, cookbooks being excluded from this question?
Oh my, yes. A lot of historical novels describe these lavish feasts, and when they start talking about compotes and pastries I salivate.

20. Who is the person whose book advice you’ll always take?
No one's! I don't have much faith in a book until I've read it.