Like Lorette, even though I don’t do memes very often, I couldn’t actually resist this one.

1. Favorite childhood book?
I’m terrible at picking just one, but “A Little Princess” by Frances Hodgson Burnett is right near the top. Her Sara taught me how to control my temper, and I’ve always been grateful. I couldn’t resist “Anne of Green Gables,” by L.M. Montgomery, either, or Madeline L’Engle’s “A Wrinkle in Time.” I loved Louisa May Alcott, too, but my favorites were always “Eight Cousins” and “Jack and Jill” rather than “Little Women.” Then there was “Understanding Betsy,” “Caddie Woodlawn,” the “Little House on the Prairie” books, and the “Black Stallion” books. Let’s not forget Trixie Belden…

2. What are you reading right now?
Oh my. Um. Dorothy Dunnett’s “Disorderly Knights” (third in her series, the Lymond Chronicles). “Eiffel’s Tower” about the 1889 world’s fair in Paris that introduced it. “Singled Out” about the two million “surplus” women in Great Britain at the end of WWI (heart-breaking). “A Savage Peace” about America in 1919, just after the war had ended, but it wasn’t exactly peaceful. Oh, and a book about rhetoric and arguments whose title escapes me at the moment but which I’m too comfortable to get up and go look at for you. I think that’s everything. Unless you count the pile of WWI-ish books that I keep referring to while writing lately?

3. What books do you have on request at the library?
None. I can’t remember the last time I checked a book out of the library.

4. Bad book habit?
None, really. I take very, very good care of my books.

5. What do you currently have checked out at the library?
None (see #3).

6. Do you have an e-reader?
I do, I have a Kindle 2.

7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once?
Obviously the answer is several. About the bare minimum is one fiction and one non-fiction, but there’s usually an assortment. Almost always just one novel at a time, though, and the non-fiction is usually a mix.

8. Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog?
Not that I can think of. I still read at every possible moment I’m not doing something else.

9. Least favorite book you read this year (so far?)
Under Enemy Colors by S. Thomas Russell. Not so much because it was so terrible but because, under a different name, he’s one of my favorite fantasy authors, but I thought there was no comparison between the quality and subtlety of those books and this.

10. Favorite book you’ve read this year?
Just one? Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford

11. How often do you read out of your comfort zone?
Hard to answer because I so often read straight out of my own library, but I’ll read just about anything, though I draw the line at horror (because I need to sleep at night) or books that are too R-rated because I just don’t see the point of excessive sex/violence/language in a BOOK.

12. What is your reading comfort zone?
Almost any good story, interestingly told.

13. Can you read on the bus?
If I ever actually rode a bus, yes. I can read anywhere except in the shower, and that’s because the water makes it too hard to turn the pages.

14. Favorite place to read?
I will literally read just about anywhere as long as my hands are dry and I’m not risking my life, but my two favorite places are my yellow chair in the living room, preferably with Chappy curled up next to me, or in bed. I curl up on my left side, prop the book against a heaped-up corner of the quilt and just read and read and read.

15. What is your policy on book lending?
Only to VERY trust-worthy people, and that very seldom because even so, I haven’t gotten all the books I’ve lent back. My sister’s the only one who is truly reliable.

16. Do you ever dog-ear books?
I’d say an emphatic no, but I DO sometimes put the tiniest one on pages with quotes I want to be able to find again.

17. Do you ever write in the margins of your books?
No.

18.  Not even with text books?
Really, no. I tried it, briefly, my freshman year of college, but couldn’t bring myself to continue. If I truly need to leave a note, I use a post-it.

19. What is your favorite language to read in?
Um, English. It’s the only one I speak.

20. What makes you love a book?
Captivating story, great characters, wonderful writing … what more do you need? And if it’s informative, too boot? Perfection.

21. What will inspire you to recommend a book?
See #20.

22. Favorite genre?
All sorts, but my comfort reading is usually fantasy/sci-fi. I find that they most take me out of myself when I need to relax.

23. Genre you rarely read (but wish you did?)
I can’t really think of any that I don’t read that I wish I read.

Favorite biography?
Um. David McCullough’s “John Adams” and his “Truman,” I guess. I love really good historical biographies. Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals” is magnificent, too.

25. Have you ever read a self-help book?
Probably, I guess, but I can’t really think of what it might be. One on dating, maybe, back when I was in my 20s? Do business books count?

26. Favorite cookbook?
Oh, harder than you’d think! The Home Cooking books by Laurie Colwin. The King Arthur anniversary cookbook I’ve had for about 20 years. Susan Branch’s books, if only for the sake of looking at them.

27. Most inspirational book you’ve read this year (fiction or non-fiction)?
Um…

28. Favorite reading snack?
I don’t usually eat while I read, though I sometimes drink a cup of tea. I sometimes sit with a piece of cake and a book, but … mostly, just the book.

29. Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience.
I suppose there are books that people raved about that I didn’t like… Most recent? The Art of Racing in the Rain.

30. How often do you agree with critics about a book?
I don’t really have an answer for this because I don’t read book reviews all that often. Maybe the ones on Amazon.

31. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews?
I’m in the “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all” school, which is why my book reviews are almost always positive in some way.

32. If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you chose?
I really have no opinion on this.

33. Most intimidating book you’ve ever read?
I’m trying to remember feeling intimidated by a book … Moby Dick, maybe? Because it was so darn huge and boring at the same time? Deadly combination.

34. Most intimidating book you’re too nervous to begin?
None that I can think of.

35. Favorite Poet?
Billy Collins.

36. How many books do you usually have checked out of the library at any given time?
Zero.

37. How often have you returned book to the library unread?
When I actually used to use the library? Pretty much zero percent. I always read them.

38. Favorite fictional character?
I truly don’t have just one, but I love the young Ramses Emerson in Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody books. He’s just such a loquacious, determined, amazing character, speaking like a college professor, almost, when he’s just a few years old, and able to get in and out of trouble with a remarkable felicity. He’s extraordinary. (Mind you, he’s just fine as an adult character, but it’s his childhood antics of rescuing lions and stealing from master criminals that I adore.)

39. Favorite fictional villain?
As in, the most villainous? Gabriel in Dorothy Dunnett’s Lymond Chronicles.

40. Books I’m most likely to bring on vacation?
I can’t choose just one, that’s for sure. I pack more books for vacation than I do clothes, almost!

41. The longest I’ve gone without reading.
You can count this in hours, and I can actually pinpoint the day–moving day last year, when I didn’t get to read for practically an entire day. Otherwise, usually no more than four hours.

42. Name a book that you could/would not finish.
There really aren’t that many, but that Book of Dr. Strange and Mr. something-or-other that was all the rage a few years ago. I absolutely hated it and thought that if I heard the phrase “the thistle-haired man” one more time I would literally throw it across the room. I found myself scrubbing my bathroom rather than pick it up to read. I got 300 pages into it and then just gave up to save what was left of my sanity.

43. What distracts you easily when you’re reading?
Not much. My focus isn’t quite as good when I was younger and would read in the middle of the playground at school, but I can block out most distractions.

44. Favorite film adaptation of a novel?
There are some good ones. Lord of the Rings. Sense and Sensibility (the Emma Thompson one). The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Possession (though I know a lot of people hated the movie). The Secret Garden (the one from the 1990s with the gorgeous photography).

45. Most disappointing film adaptation?
Howl’s Moving Castle. Most children’s books. I have yet to see a “Little Princess” that doesn’t turn Sara into a terrible brat–and don’t get me started at them making her father still be alive.

46. The most money I’ve ever spent in the bookstore at one time?
Over $100 but less than $500. Not counting college textbooks.

47. How often do you skim a book before reading it?
I suppose I might do a quick flip-through at the bookstore, but otherwise, when I’m ready to read it, I read it.

48. What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through?
Awful writing, awful story, extreme boredom, excessive R-rating type behavior.

49. Do you like to keep your books organized?
Absolutely!

50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them?
Keep, keep, keep! It pains me to give them away.

51. Are there any books you’ve been avoiding?
Not that I can think of, though I long for the day when fantasy writers manage to think of something other than vampires and misunderstood teenagers.

52. Name a book that made you angry.
Nothing’s coming to mind.

53. A book you didn’t expect to like but did?
Dust of 100 Dogs.

54. A book that you expected to like but didn’t?
That stupid Mr. Strange book whose title I don’t even bother to try to remember. I thought I would love it and it was godawful.

55. Favorite guilt-free, pleasure reading?
Fantasy and Sci-fi. Sharon Shinn. Anne McCaffrey. Sharon Lee and Steve Miller…

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