Seven Things About You as a Reader

Lola D. R. Winston
1. I went to the library the 1st time at age 5. Then I went every weeks for most of elemetary school. I only took out pictures books until I was 10 or 11 because I couldn't read. I loved books.
2. I will always remenber a boy in my 5th grade class named Louie. It was the early '60 and special ed really was limited. He was in a remedial reading class, until he got sick & died from leukemia. I was next on the waiting list for the class & I took his place. I learned to read & my life changed. Louie's death was a sad unfortunate event for all who knew him, but my life would be much different now but for that tragic event.
3. As a child we had fire drills at home. I always had a plan for saving my book collection. I loved my books. I loved to read. Books took me to a happy place from an unhappy childhood. My favorite thing to do the day after christmas was to cozy up with my new book, rather than toys.
4. I used to read a book every week. In college and after I read professional & scholarly journals. Then I had severe brain injury I couldn't read. I had to learn all over again.
5. After 8 years, I'm finally able to read lite fiction, chapter books. I thank God for this.
6. Books have helped me re-invent my life. Once again my life has been opened up by reading!
7. I enjoy everything I read, but after I close the book, I don't remember anything about it but the joy I experienced while absorbed in it. That's OK. It doesn't dismiss the pure joy of the book.

1. When I first learned how to read, I loved reading. When I was in 5th grade I stopped reading because I wasn't enjoying it at all. In school between 5th grade and 7th grade I was never assigned anything that I thought was worth reading. I viewed reading as a chore. I began reading again for pleasure in 10th grade when I picked up The Cat Who Played Post Office. I went on the read almost the whole series.

2. Unfortunately I am in the middle of 13 books. I finally finished the other day. I have books everywhere and I just pick up the book that is where I happen to be.

3. I love the library but I don't usually get library books anymore because I usually take more than the allotted 3 weeks to finish them.

4. I have a large tote bag that I take to work everyday. It usually has between 3 and 6 books in it. I always feel like I need a selection.

5. I love short stories, romance novels, mysteries, biographies, non-fiction, pretty much anything.

6. When I'm in a bookstore or the library, I like to walk up and down the aisles waiting for a book to say "Pick me up and take me home." I've found some great books that way, such as "Mr. Mike." That book has a wonderful story that I have read many times.

7. I read everything around me, just like a previous poster. I like to read signs, labels, newspapers, magazines.

1. I didn't get into reading until the 5th grade when I discovered Judy Blume's "Otherwise Known As Sheila the Great." It was the first book I'd ever seen with my name in the title. Back then, the book cost $1.25, and I scrubbed Mom's kitchen floor to earn the quarters for it. Sheila didn't turn out to be a very great person, but the story made me a book lover.
2. I'm a book packrat. I've got books in almost every room at home, stored some at Mom's house (she likes to read them, too), and even a couple at a cousin's house.
3. After a couple of cancellations, my parents knew I was really coming to see them when "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" came out. I picked up the audio book at midnight and started driving from Texas to Michigan at 12:20am. There was one tape left when I pulled into their driveway the following evening. Awesome story.
4. When my favorite authors have new releases at the same time, I'll have up to three books going at once.
5. I've been sited by coworkers when standing in line reading a book. They say I have a 'problem'. I say I have good time management skills.
6. I pick and choose handbags not by the lable, but whether I can fit a book in it without it weighing me down.
7. I like the Kindle concept, but don't see myself giving up the page turning anywhere in the near future.

1.  I read because I like to write
2.  I hate being asked "have you read ... ?"  The odds are against me having read the same books as the person asking me
3.  Almost every book I buy at an airport stays on the plane.  Certainly the one which begins  "an evening mist, salted by the western sea ... "  the most laborious slog through interminable boredome on which I've ever had the misforturne of spending money.  A kind flight attendant scurried toward me as I was disembarking the flight saying "'sir, you forgot your book"  "no, I didn't" I replied.
4.  I hope the Cohen brothers don't make a movie based on "The Road"
5.  I really have no idea who or what inspired me to start reading.  My father only read box scores and my mom could read and decipher bridge hands faster than they could be played.
6.  I failed 9th grade humanities as I interpreted the Iliad and Aeneid as being about the innate goodness of humans
7. My master's thesis was on the philosophical perfection of Theodore Roethke's poetry (NOT FAILED!)

1. The only things I like as much as reading are being in the woods and being with my wife (a non-reader). Strangely, being in the woods with a book, or reading with my wife is not nearly as fun as being in the woods with my wife.
2. When people ask me what I read, I always answer "Anything that's good." Of course, I've got to read it to find out if it's good or not...this leads to a very large book pile.
3. I've been collecting and reading books all my life. It's just that the hobby gets more expensive the older I am. But I still lug around my shredded copies of all the Tintin books, along with a complete run of the Hardy Boys in hardcover because I can't bear to give them away. My soon to be completed new house will have a library, so I now have even less reason to let go of them.
4. I don't think I'll ever buy a Kindle, but I'm sure glad my daughter will be spared the drudgery of packing 20 lbs of textbooks from room to room when she heads off to school.
5. I find that one of the most satisfying things in a used bookstore is "rescuing" a nice book from the dusty shelves. We're not talking trashed cheap paperbacks here. The best ones usually have an owner's signature in them written in the kind of beautiful flowing script that simply doesn't exist anymore - with the possible exception of author John Crowley. Just holding the book lets me know that the previous owner took care of it because they believed the text inside to be worthy of respect.
6. For someone who reads as much as I do, I'm remarkably deficient in the classics. I do try to read at least one or two a year though. The two best books I ever stumbled on this way were Middlemarch and Don Quixote
7. In my head I keep a list of "secret great books". These are the ones that may have been well-known years ago but have since faded from the public eye (such as Thomas Savage's The Power of the Dog), or books too strange for most people to like (Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun), too difficult for the modern reader, pressed for uninterrupted reading time (The Master and Margarita), or books that were written way ahead of their time (John McPhee's Curve of Binding Energy or Stegner's Beyond the 100th Meridian). Finding one of these on my own, which doesn't happen often in any event, is one of the true joys of reading.

1. I can't remember a time when I was not able to read. Most of my earliest memories involve going to the library and picking out books to bring home. My mother never rushed us at the library and I used to spend vast amounts of time meandering through the shelves.

2. There are bookcases in every room of my house and I still have books stacked along the floor.

3. I read little bits of just about everything - fiction, non-fiction, literary works, genre writing. There are books in almost every area that call to me.

4. Even as I find myself mentally correcting the law and procedure in the books, legal thrillers are a guilty pleasure of mine. The lawyers in the books have many more adventures and do so much less citation-checking and drudgework than real lawyers!

5. I plan visits home around the weeklong library Book Sale in my hometown. I grew up in a college town, and the Friends of the Library put together a fabulous book sale. They add new books every three hours and still have trouble getting them all out on the tables by the last day of the sale.

6. When I was in college, I spent all four years working in the research office for the library system. Professors would send in copying or research requests and I had to travel to the various libraries (we had 14 at the time) tracking everything down. The pay was awful and I spent many days walking around in 90-degree heat with stacks of books as I carried them from branch libraries back to my office, but I loved that job and got all kinds of good reading ideas from it.

7. At the gym, I speedwalk instead of running on the treadmill so that I can read while working out.

1. Fell in love with books as a child with visits to the local library. As an adolescent, our library was a grand old structure full of columns, marble, oak and beveled glass. I can still remember the temperature and smell of that building.

2. The first thing I do when moving to a new place is join the library. I familiarize myself with the layout, look at the decor, find out what services are offered and talk to the staff.

3. Friends of the Library is a worthwhile organization and I have helped during sales. I commit an entire day to shopping at the annual sale and leave with a car full of rescued books. I don’t think I am a hoarder yet. I don't think..

4. Non-fiction is my first preference. Surprising though my very favorite book is the pulp-ish Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor. Love the historic love story. Since I read it first at 17 years old when love stories were a high priority, I guess it’s not really that surprising.

5. I collect books about collecting books.

6. My dream would be to live in a library. Oh, I guess my house might qualify...

7. Love the hunt. Will never read all of the books on the TBR pile. I rotate my reading material, reading multiple books at a time and treasure my solitude to satisfy that passion.

I never realized how hard it is to come up with 7 things.....
1. My mother would read Oscar Wilde to us as children, and I would always cry at the end of The Happy Prince. It still makes me cry.
2. I read The Diary of Anne Frank in 3rd grade and was amazed. I started a journal right away and have kept one ever since.
3. I secretly and selfishly believe that my daydreams, nightmares, and passing thoughts would make phenomenal reading. My journals---not so much.
4. I don't want to see a film adaptation of a book unless I've read it.
5. I will stand in a book store and pick up copy after copy of the same book, just to see which one feels the best in my hands--and that's the one I'll buy. Weird, I know....
6. I've attempted an English degree several times--always encouraged by family and friends, but don't believe there is a secret meaning behind every sentence in every book, so have trouble with discussions and theorizing in class and get extremely frustrated that people can't just read to enjoy.
7. I cannot get off my latest kick of classic literature--Austen, Dickens, Wilde, etc. I want to read new books, but can't get away from the class systems, manners, and morals.

E.

Okay, I'll play:

1. My book club just celebrated our 10 year anniversary. About every other month we take a picture of ourselves with intentions of sending in a submission to the magazine but we somehow never get it done!
2. When I was a kid, my mother would take us to the library. She had this canvas bookbag but it was just for HER books! The rule was, I had to be able to carry my own stack. I would gather a stack that reached my chin every time.
3.My daughter is in kindergarten and starting to read up a storm. Every night, my husband and I read to her and then she reads to us. Right now we are reading the new edition of Pippi Longstocking with illustrations by Lauren Child, of Charlie and Lola fame. It is a big coffee table size book with a fresh new translation.
4. I started keeping a reading journal about 8 or 10 years ago. I write a page or two of thoughts about the adult books I read, and I keep my "consideration list" in there and a year-in-review roundup. I am always surprised about how much I read, when I always feel like I have no time to read. I have no idea how many kids' books I read each year. Triple digits.
5.My guilty reading pleasure is fashion magazines. I use them as sort of a mental palate cleanser between books. No, I am not a fashion queen, but a girl can dream.
6. We just moved and I weeded out several boxes of musty, moldy, ratty, yellow or unloved books. Then we bought new bookcases and we still had to stop halfway through and return to Ikea for another one.
7. I have the coolest job. I am an elementary school librarian. Yes, a storytime lady, a keeper of knowledge. I do not have a bun, glasses on a chain or a long shapeless dress. I do say "shhh" once in awhile, however.

1. I love to read, and read everything put in front of me - including cereal boxes. Reading is just so automatic! I always have a couple of books in-process at home, one in the car, and one at work usually.
2. If I get bored while reading a book, I close the book and find something else to read. Life is too short to read a book simply because it was picked up. I do give every book at least 100 pages of chance to catch my interest.
3. I have a large pile of TBR books next to my continuous pile of library books.
4. I belong to two book clubs, one for seven years and a new one at the local bookstore. The first bookclub is one that started when two acquaintances found out they both liked books, and decided to start a club. They each invited two people they knew liked books and they were interested in getting to know better. There are 4 members left from that original core of 6, but we keep a membership now of just 8 which we find perfect. We meet once a month to discuss books, and once every month or two to see a movie-from-a-book and go to dinner.
5. My secret reading pleasure is cozy-mystery -- it's an easy read, and I enjoy following the characters of series.
6. I'm involved with our local Friends of the Library (a great group to join to find other readers!).
7. I started reading early. Walking home from the elementary I would always stop by the library to get 3-4 books every night... homework? What's that? I am, and have always been, a very fast reader, but not what you would call a speed-reader. The only time I really slowed down on reading was during college. Too much course-work reading, I guess.

1. We went to the library every other week or so when I was a kid. There were 4 of us and we'd each check out 12-15 books. The T.V. at home didn't work very well and my parents didn't let us watch much. I think I started reading a lot when I was little because we didn't have a lot of easy entertainment around-not a lot of money, toys, but there was an abundance of free time. In high school and college, I read classic literature, but not much that was contemporary. After graduate school, it was ALL work and functional reading-newspapers and business magazines. When I finally quit working after my 2nd son was born, I found time for real reading again.
2. I'm in two book clubs. Because I'm not sure I'll like the book selections, I'll borrow it from the library instead. If it turns out that I really like a book, I'll buy it later.
3. I read primarily fiction, but will occasionally pick up a non-fiction book for book club. I don't think non-fiction books are good book club selections. You're either interested in or not. When I'm not interested, it's like torture.
4. In general, I don't like the Crime(too macho or violent) and Western (must be my suburban upbringing) genres. I don't read many mysteries, although I just read The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins.
5. I like to re-read books. My most "re-read" authors are Jane Austen, Dorothy Dunnett and JRR Tolkien.
6. I like reading international fiction because I like to appreciate the cultural differences and be reminded of the similarities. Anyone have suggestions, let me know. I've just started My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk.
7. I often read more than one book at a time. I don't always give up on books when I'm not immediately engaged. It took me 3 tries to read The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett, and then became so addicted that I read everything she wrote. I tried Atonement by Ian MacEwan twice before finishing with the 3rd try.

1. I love the smell of books, the fresh crispness of the paper, I love to walk into a bookstore and take a deep breath.
2. If I get bored while reading a book... I skim the pages.. some people erroneously assume I am a speed reader.. when in fact I'm most likely bored with the book!
3. I end up buying more books than I can read.. I have a HUGE pile of TBR books then still end up checking books out of the library.
4. I wish I belonged to a book club, I do an online one, but wish I could go to a monthly meeting and meet up with other readers in real life, I'm the only reader in my family/friend circle so I have no one to talk books with.
5. I feel guilty if all I read is fiction books, which I love to read. I buy several interesting non fiction biography type books from the used bookstore with very noble intentions. Alas, they get pushed aside for a fiction book. I like non fiction, don't get me wrong, I just need to find one awesome non fiction book that will knock my socks off... if any recommendations please let me know! I'm Jessica P on Shelfari, stop by and leave a note :)
6. My dream job would be to be a librarian or an English teacher, not a nurse! I am envious of the librarians at my library.
7. A perfect day for me involves sitting in an overstuffed chair with my book of choice, listening to nice relaxing music, and sipping on lemon ice tea.

I enjoyed reading the previous posts. Let's see if I can come up with seven:

1. Books are my vice. I collect books faster than I can possibly read them, and find their presence soothing. I love holding them, the smell of them, noticing the font, admiring the rare book with decorated endpapers. I aften sink into two or three at a time. I tell my husband there are a lot more expensive vices, and he should consider himself fortunate.

2. I am reading my 7 and 9 year old children my childhood favorites. I've had to search for some on ebay, but I now have a nice little library from my youth. I am trying to help my reluctant little readers learn to love books by sharing the ones I loved, such as Flaxen Brains, Mrs. Coverlet's Magicians, Black Beauty, Sea View Secret, Heidi, Swiss Family Robinson, Follow My Leader...

3. I agree with the previous post, I often long to leave a party so I can relax at home with a book before bed. If I squander my entire evening at a soiree I feel that I lost out. And God forbid I drink too much to enjoy a chapter or two before bed! That thought keeps me sober.

4. I had a wonderful book group in NYC of many years duration, and I treasure the memory. But I haven't had a successful book group of friends since. Mothers of young children seem to use book groups as a chance to get away from the children and have a good gossip. And God bless them, they need it! But it's frustrating when you find the book discussion ends before ten minutes elapse! Now I attend a local book group at our public library, where a good group of primarily women (who aren't friends outside the group) get together and read books we might never have tried. I need to start reading Saramago's Blindness for our next meeting.

5. My family always gives books as gifts. We thrill to see what books we've been given. We pass them around, discuss them, take a family vacation each year where shared reading is a primary means of bonding! Harry Potter's finale came out as our vacation began this year, and five readers, ages ranging from 13 to adult, were racing along, each keeping mum on plot points to avoid spoiling it for the others. But I married into a family of brainy folk where a book is never picked up. Even on a Caribbean family vacation, not a book in sight, except for my big stack, brought along to offer choices depending on my mood. It's like meeting people who don't like chocolate. I knew they existed, but I never expected to meet any.

6. Now that I've left the city for the suburbs, I can't figure out where the readers are. It's hard to find a mother of kids who's read a book lately. And I've been to many houses, huge houses, filled with beautiful furnishings . Houses of friends, splendid house tour mansions, real estate open houses: where are the books? The children usually have bookshelves in their bedrooms, but where are the adult books? It's bewildering.

7. Let's compare my reading to that of our current president. According to many news sources, for example: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060817/17bushbooks.htm , in August of 2003 President Bush and Karl Rove were in a reading contest. And Bush won! His total books UP TO THAT POINT IN AUGUST was 60, while Rove had read 50.

Here's my completed book reading tally for the year (as of today, Dec. 21): exactly 50 books completed, about five still being read. Can you imagine how this rankles? Doesn't this stick in your craw? A man runs for president, has the good fortune to land the job, presides over terrible catastrophes with remarkable remoteness, gets us into one pickle after another, and THEN decides to become a reader! Well, what do you think?

1.) A very very long time ago (53 yrs) every two weeks in the summer I would ride my bike 2 miles to the Public Library and check out as many books that my bike basket would hold. I have never stopped reading,and the only one of four siblings that I would consider a reader. 2.) I'm always looking for different authors to read . 3.)My two favorite places to look for books, Friends of the Library Book Sales, Half Price Book Stores. I don't need first editions I love the smell of used bookstores. 3.) My significant other and my self live in a 925 square foot house, we are running out of room for book shelves. The only room that there are no books is the bathroom. 4.) This year I have read childrens books and young adult books far a change of pace. 5) For Christmas 2 years ago my mom and dad sent me, my dad's highschool text books from the 1930's. They make for very interesting reading. 6.) One of my goals, go to used bookstores in Chicago. They are only 2 hours away. 7.) If I keep buyng books, I will never have the chance to read them all. They are sure nice to look at. Merry Christmas Everyone!

It's the Friday before a 4-day weekend, so I'll do this *before* I do my, ahem, work...

1) I've never been able to settle my mind on one career for very long (I'm 29 and have had approximately 27 jobs), but all my fantasies are wrapped up in reading and books: book editor, used bookstore owner, YA librarian in a public library, high school English teacher, book publicist, writing the great novel of my life...

2) I think I'm a slow reader. I average about 50 pages an hour, slightly faster if I'm really into the plot, much, much slower for plodding exposition in non-fiction.

3) I'm on my third book and genre this week: Golden Compass (fantasy), then Blood Is the New Black (vampire chick-lit), now The Constant Princess (historical fiction). This is what happens when the semester ends (studying for my MLIS), and I'm no longer reading 25-35 books of my choice per semester because I have to, but can read 10 books in one month because it's what I enjoy.

4) I'm addicted to Shelfari. I would be much further into The Constant Princess if I hadn't spent last night adding most of my reading from the last two semesters to my shelf, including reviews and tags (www.shelfari.com/wurdnurd).

5) I'm actually peeved that Myspace doesn't have a Books topic on it's blog subject list. Peeved enough that I bought a domain (www.wurdnurd.com), started a webpage (almost nothing is up, but there is a link to Bookmarks!), and will start my own blog once I figure out how, since the Google Apps website builder doesn't have blogging capabilities (yes, this is how I spend my free time, I'm that much of a dork).

6) Bookstores are my places of reflection, peace and sanctuary. I have two meccas: The Strand in NYC (aka, Mecca-East), and Powell's City of Books in Portland, OR (aka, Mecca-West). When I'm away too long, my heart hurts for it.

7) Judge not the reading habits of others; yours probably seem just as strange. Them's words to live by.

1. As I get closer to the end of the year, I start reading shorter books so I can reach my goal of 100 (95 as of 12/16!).
2. When I started reading for pleasure, I had problems with comprehension and metaphors passed me right by, but I got better with practice. Then I started reading postmodern literature and I had to start all over again.
3. I love Neal Stephenson, but his last trilogy put me off reading for 4 months.
4. I have only read about half of the books I own, and my loving wife lets me continue to purchase new ones anyway.
5. I refuse to read most bestsellers, but have a soft spot for Stephen King - the man who made me into a reader.
6. I don't have a tv in my living room any more because I needed the spot for another bookshelf.
7. I love to tag my books at LibraryThing and look for ways that completely unrelated books are surprisingly similar. Sometimes I can waste hours of time Not Reading and instead adding to the meta-data ABOUT by books.

________________
My Library: http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=princemuchao

With it being the Christmas season, I am tempted to do the 12 days of my reading life, but I will stick to the parameters of 7 and control my 'verboseness'

1. Sometimes I would much rather be with a book than with a group of boring people. Curling up in bed with a hot water bottle and a good read is almost as satisfying as….
2. I often read 3 or more books at a time – there are too many out there to just do one at a time!
3. I dream of working at a publishing house so that I can get hundreds of free books that I will likely never read, but can still add them to my collection
4. I read children’s books with as much pleasure as adult books
5. I secretly believe that having a large collection is somewhat of a status symbol, and a need to prove ones intelligence, but don’t care enough about that to stop me from continuing my giant collection
6. I adore audio books, and am appalled when people tell me it is not really reading
7. I love to start up book club wherever I move to, and once had my group featured on Oprah. I sometimes think about how nice it would be to just arrive and be a relaxed member of a book club instead of a facilitator, but then just cant give up the control of the role

I love bookmarks for giving this interesting challenge to share some of our thoughts about our reading lives.
Natalie
Trailblazer - France