Just as the story was getting interesting, I heard a noise in the garden…

I actually had some ideas for blog posts this week, but I see that Strawberry Singh’s Monday Meme is about books. I love my books, and it’s absolutely impossible to resist chattering about them! It would be the same if she asked us to talk about our favorite music, I’d just bounce around happily then ramble for pages and pages. 😀

Onward to the Book Meme!

1. Are you a bookworm? – Yes, absolutely. I love books, I’m happy just being around them. When I was a kid I carried them around all the time. One of the things that can always lift my mood is visiting a bookstore and just wandering around among the books. Over the years I have developed a bad habit of buying books but not getting around to reading them, then occasionally finding I’ve bought the same book twice. Oops.
2. Which do you prefer: hardcover, paperback or electronic? – These days I have to go with electronic, but only because my space is limited and I just don’t have the room to keep buying physical copies of books. Otherwise most of my collection is softcover, mostly because I tend to wait for the less expensive edition. My dream is to someday have a room that I can turn into an actual library. That would be wonderful..
3. Which book is your favorite? – Ohmygawd no!  It’s actually impossible to point to a favorite book, because it can depend on what I’m in the mood for, and picking a single book out of favorite series is tough.  I love the Lord of the Rings series, part of that love is the extensive world building behind the story itself.  The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has always been a favorite. Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Mists of Avalon. Stephen R. Donaldson’s Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Much of the Thieves World series.  I like Game of Thrones but I’ve fallen behind on the series. Likewise I was really into Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series but I fell behind on that as well. There are a lot of books I need to finish! And I’ll think of more favorites.
4. Which children’s book is your favorite? – I think as a kid my favorite books were the World Book Encyclopedias I had… I’d sit and read them for hours.  But for actual kids books, oh gosh I’m not sure. I liked Dr. Seuss books. I don’t have kids, or know anyone with kids, so I’m not up on children’s books these days.
5. What’s the last book you’ve read? – Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road by Neil Peart.
6. Name your top five favorite writers: – Noooo, just as hard as picking a single book. I have to think of lots of people!   JRR Tolkien, Stephen R. Donaldson, CS Friedman, Douglas Adams, David Brin, Robert Silverberg, George RR Martin, Clive Barker… that’s more than five right? Oh well.
7. Name a book that had a strong impact on you: – I think the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe had a pretty big impact on my reading habits. It set me off on a lifelong love of the fantasy genre.
8. Favorite & least favorite book genres? – My favorite is fantasy, as well as science fiction. I sometimes go for historical romance novels too. If you look at my bookshelves you’d think that my favorite genre is How To books… I have dozens of them.  Sometimes I think I have more fun reading how to do something than actually rolling up my sleeves and starting a project.
   Least favorite… I don’t know. I’m not much interested in crime or detective stories, and I don’t really read much mainstream general fiction.
9. Favorite & least favorite book-to-movie adaptations? – Hm. I was content with how the Lord of the Rings was adapted. Least… not really sure. I usually subscribe to the idea that the book is always better.
10. Have you ever bought a book based on the cover alone? – I frequently pick up a book based on the cover, but I’ll still read the exerpts and scan it a bit to see if I want to buy it.
11. Where do you usually buy your books? – Lately mostly on Amazon for kindle. Physical copies… if I’m buying a paperback I’ll usually get it at one of the local big stores, BooksAMillion or Barnes & Noble. If it’s a hardcover and I don’t want it in electronic form I usually order off Amazon because it’s often cheaper.
12. Do you go to the library? – I used to go all the time, now I can’t recall the last time I went. 95% of the time whenever I’d check something out I’d forget about it and end up paying a couple dollars in overdue fees.
13. How many books do you own? – I hate to think. I still have all the paperback novels I’ve bought since I was in high school, so hundreds, I imagine. Most of them are in boxes.
14. If you were to write a book about Second Life, which topic would you focus on? –  Hahaha. I don’t even know. A photobook of my pictures, maybe. xD

I just had to pull one of my older pics out for this meme because it’s always been among the favorite shots I’ve taken. It was taken in 2009  in one of the sims adjoining Rustica where the houses for sale were displayed (I’m sorry, I can’t recall the name now), when the hub and I were running around in tiny dino avs. For some reason it just always made me quite happy. 😀