I found this awesome survey at
Just Your Typical Book Blog and thought it would be a fun thing to do on my blog. So, here it is.
1. Which book has been on your shelves the longest?
S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders. I've had it since I was nine and I'm almost 26 now. My copy is well-loved; the front and back covers have both come off, but I refuse to give it up. Fortunately, I have a second copy of the book that is still completely intact. Since I think it's kind of a fun story how I got the second copy, please humor me while I tell you about it. For a long time, I had wanted to buy a second copy of The Outsiders, but I wanted it to have the same cover as my original copy. I never bothered checking Amazon for it, though I'm sure I could've found it, because I was lazy, and because I didn't want to pay for shipping. A few years ago, worked at a bookstore where people could sell their books back, under certain conditions. One type of book we would not buy back were mass market paperbacks. One day, a woman came in with a box of books she wanted to sell back. The store manager asked me to come to the counter to look through the books and set aside the ones we would consider buying back. And what did I come across when I was going through her books? A copy of The Outsiders. . . with the cover I wanted. It was a mass market paperback, so I told her we couldn't take it back. Then I started talking about how it's my favorite book and blah, blah, blah, so she told me I could keep it. After asking the store manager if that would be okay, he said yes, and I very happily and gratefully took the book home with me.
So, that's my story about The Outsiders, my all-time favorite book, and the book that has been on my shelf the longest.
2. What is your current read, your last read, and the book you'll read next?
Current read: Rosebush by Michele Jaffe. Last read: 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson. Next read: I have no idea. Probably Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly. Or I might re-read The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen, since I'm already going through my usual Sarah Dessen withdrawals.
3. What book did everyone like and you hated?
There are lot, and most of them are not YA. Catcher in the Rye is at the top of my list. It's one of the worst novels I've every read. I also hated: To Kill a Mockinbird. In terms of YA, I am really not a Twilight fan. Read all four books, liked them okay enough when I read them, and now I pretty much hate them.
4. Which book do you keep telling yourself you'll read, but you probably won't?
Honestly, it'll probably be Jenny Han's summer series--The Summer I Turned Pretty, It's Not Summer Without You, and whatever the other one is. See? I don't even know the names of all the books in that series. I've heard a lot of good things about the series, and I think it does sound kind of good, but I am having a really hard time getting past the fact that the narrator's name is Belly. It really annoys me that that's her name, even though I think it's a nickname. Plus, my library doesn't have the book, and I can't afford to buy it, so I won't be reading it any time soon, if at all.
5. What book are you saving "for retirement?"
I'm really not. If I want to read a book badly enough, I will read it as soon as possible, no matter what the length is, who it's buy, what it's about, etc.
6. Last page: read it first or wait till the end?
Definitely wait until the end. I hate knowing how a book is going to end before I've read it.
7. Acknowledgements: waste of ink and paper or interesting aside?
I think it depends, actually. I almost always read the acknowledgements, and I think a lot of them are interesting. But for every interesting one, there's one that I think is boring.
8. Which book character would you switch places with?
I'd kind of like to switch places with Mclean from What Happened to Goodbye, mainly because I'm huge basketball fan, and if I had a stepdad who was the head coach of an NCAA team, I'd be at every game, even though I prefer NBA to NCAA. I'd do things way different than she did in the book.
9. Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time)?
The Baby Sitters Club books definitely bring me back to elementary school--they were my favorite. I can tell you what books I had to read for school and during what school year, and I definitely have specific memories tied to some of those books. I can also tell you that the first time I read a Grant County series book (which is one of my favorite series) was when I went to Arizona and California the summer after my junior year in high school. There was a book I had in high school called Crazy (by Benjamin Lebert--wish I still had it) that will always make me think of my high school best friend.
In other words, yes.
10. Name a book you acquired in some interesting way.
My second copy of The Outsiders. See the first question for the story of how I acquired it.
11. Have you ever given away a book for a special reason to a special person?
Of course--I do it all the time!
12. Which book has been with you to the most places?
Probably The Outsiders.
13. Any "required reading" you hated in high school that wasn't so bad ten years later?
Nope. Everything that I had to read in high school that I hated then I still hate now.
14. What is the strangest item you've ever found in a book?
Working in a library, you tend to find lots of things in books. I've found bookmarks (not strange), book checkout receipts (also not strange), receipts of other kinds, and one time, I found some paperwork that was definitely very important. I can't remember exactly what it was for, except that it was not book related in any way. We ended up sticking it in our lost and found drawer, but I don't think anyone ever came back for it. It had a lot of personal info on it, too. I thought it was kind of strange that someone would stick paperwork in a library book.
15. Used or brand new?
I'll buy both, but I really prefer to buy books new.
16. Stephen King: literary genius or opiate of the masses?
I am a huge, huge, huge Stephen King fan, so: literary genius. Obviously.
17. Have you ever seen a movie you liked better than the book?
Yes. Jaws and Forrest Gump.
18. Conversely, which book should NEVER have been introduced to celluloid?
Considering it was an awful book, and considering all the controversy surrounding the novel and James Frey, I have to go with I Am Number Four.
19. Have you ever read a book that's made you hungry, cookbooks being excluded from this question?
It's a good thing I love running and playing tennis, because I also really enjoy eating. Often, I will start craving whatever food the characters are eating, especially if it's Italian food, so I wind up eating whatever I have that sounds similar or is appealing in some way. Even if I'm not hungry. So I guess my answer is yes and no. It doesn't always make me hungry, but that doesn't mean I won't eat.
20. Who is the person whose book advice you'll always take?
I have to be honest: there isn't. I don't always trust other people's recommendations, especially if they don't know me very well. I guess I trust my mom pretty well, but she also reads a couple of authors I can't stand, so I can't really say I'll always take her book advice.
