Booking Through Thursday

Which is better (or preferred) … stories with multiple character points of view? Or stories that stick to just one or two at most? And, why?

It would have to depend on the kind of story. Most of the time, I prefer single points of views, since I like getting into one particular character's head. Other times, there is just no way of telling the story correctly without allowing for many POVs. Take most, if not all, of Stephen King's novels. The reader would miss out on so much if he had just stuck to one or two POV. So it really depends on the kind of story the author is trying to tell.

Booking Through Thursday

Do you ever try to pair music with the book you’re reading? Play the movie soundtrack while reading the original book? Find mood music that fits with your story?

No, I don't like reading with music on. I find it really distracts me, much more than people talking or even the TV. I like to read in as much silence as I can, which is very rarely the case.

Booking Through Thursday

What books do you like to read when it’s snowy and white? What books do you read to evoke a real feeling of winter (good or bad)?



Well, since I live in Miami, Florida, there's no such thing as snowy and white winters here. If we're lucky, we'll get a few days of temperatures around the 50s. This year, I think we got only two or three days of actual cold, which is really horrible for someone like me, who thrives in the cold. When it is cold outside, though, I do like to read scary books, Stephen King in particular. I just love my house's coziness and a good fright.

Booking Through Thursday

Do you like to give books as gifts?


Sometimes. It depends to whom. I know I can pick out books for my mom and dad, they have pretty "stable" preferences. My sister is another story. We don't have the same tastes when it comes to books, so I can't usually recommend a book I loved because she'll find it boring. I love intricately woven plots, the kind of books you only see the connections at the very end, and she prefers fast-paced books. I keep trying, but it is difficult to find the right book for her.

Booking Through Thursday

Any reading resolutions for the new year? Reading more? (Reading less?) Reading better books? Bigger books? More series? More relaxing books?
And hey, feel free to talk about any other resolutions you might have, too … or why you choose NOT to have any.


I don't really have any reading resolutions. I usually read everything and anything I want throughout the year.
But I did make another kind of resolution this year. As some of you might know from previous posts, I suffer from severe depression, which, as you can imagine makes living, just breathing and doing the basic things, close to impossible. So when the countdown started last Monday to welcome in a new year, one that could hold days and days of depression, I made a pact with myself. I'd deal with the bad days, knowing them for what they are: just bad days. And hold hope close to my chest that the good days are on their way.

Hope I didn't bum any of you, but I felt the need to share, and if any of you can send kind thoughts my way, I'd very much appreciate it. Every little bit helps!

Booking Through Thursday

A deceptively easy question for this week (easy to ask but possibly hard to answer): What are/were your favorite book(s) of the year? (Bonus points if you know how many books you read.)

Well, I've read 170 books this year, and although I've read many good ones, I think I have to say that Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn was my favorite this year. It was an incredible read, so well done, and I really can't recommend it enough.

As an honorary mention, I also loved The Cranes Dance by Meg Howrey

Booking Through Thursday

So … you’ve just finished reading a book. For the sake of the discussion, we’ll say it was everything a book should be—engaging, entertaining, interesting, thought-provoking. The kind you want to gush over. The question is—do you immediately move on to your next book? Or do you take time to contemplate this writerly masterpiece and all its associated thoughts/emotions/ideas for a while first?

I kind of do both. If it's a book that's really moved me, I know I have to immediately start reading something else or I'll fall into one of those "book blues" where nothing seems very interesting because of that fabulous book I just finished reading. I let the last book marinate a bit in my head while I move on to other stories. Then I write the review, where I can gush all I want. It's a system that requires conscious effort, especially after finishing long series or tough books that leave you almost scarred, but it really works for me.

Booking Through Thursday

Do you keep a list of the books you’ve read? How? In a journal? Through one of the online services? If so, WHY? To keep good records for future reference? To make sure you don’t accidentally reread? If not, why not? Too eager to move on to the next book? Too lazy? Never thought to bother?


I keep track of what I've read both through this blog, since I do a review on every book I read, and through Goodreads. I particularly like Goodreads because I can scan my book lists for the books I've most liked or hated or whatever. I like having that information easily available to me instead of trying to remember "what was that really good book I read last year...?"

Booking Through Thursday

Can you imagine NOT being a Reader? How does it shape your life? Your perception of it?
How does being a Reader affect your relationship with all those folks who are looking at it from the other side and simply can’t understand how you can sit and READ all the time?


I cannot imagine not being a reader. Sometimes it feels like I've always read, from the second I was born. I've met people who go their entire lives without immersing themselves in books and for me it's like looking at an alien species. How do they make it through their days? How can they not long to feel the kind of connection, of wonder, a book brings? I mentioned last week that I suffer from severe depression and the only thing that sometimes brings me any comfort at all are books. The beauty and wonder of words.

Booking Through Thursday

It’s Thanksgiving here in the U.S., so … what are you thankful for this year, reading-wise? New, favorite books? New gadget for reading? New comfy chair? Bonus time to read? Just the mere fact of BEING a reader? Having the internet to share ideas/recommendations/conversations about books?

I'm going to be completely honest today. I suffer from bouts of pretty severe depression. I take medication but sometimes even that does nothing for the torture in my head. During these times, like I am going through right now, I cling to books with everything I've got. So I am grateful, so grateful for having them in my life. For writers like Stephen King who can cast me out of my own head when I feel like I can't spend another moment inside it; for writers like Barbara Kingsolver or Margaret Atwood who can weave magic with their words and express the exact things I'm feeling.
Each day, like today, when I am struggling from minute to minute, I know that these wonders are here, at my fingertips, and it makes life just a tiny bit easier to handle.
For that, I am very, very, thankful.

Booking Through Thursday

What’s your favorite place to read? Do you have more than one? Can you read anywhere, or do you need things to be “just right?”

 
I can read anywhere. On the train, on the bus, on my bed, at the kitchen table, anywhere and everywhere. I'm really not choose when it comes to diving into a book.

Booking Through Thursday

1. How do storms affect your reading? Do you go for comfort reading?
2. How do you deal with power outages? Do you read by candlelight? Flashlights? Use a self-lit e-reader or tablet? Skip reading altogether for the duration and instead play games with the family?

Since I live in Miami and we get lots and lots of storms during the hurricane months, we always have candles and all of those things ready to go. The times we've lost power, I've chosen a book that captures my whole attention (preferably something scary), I've lit a few candles and gotten to it. It can be a unique experience.

Booking Through Thursday

Are there any good books that you read IN SPITE OF the cover and ended up wondering what on earth the artist and publisher were thinking to pair up a cover that so badly represented a perfectly good book?
And … if you didn’t like the cover, what made you pick up the book? The author? Assigned reading from school? A recommendation from a friend?

I have to say, the first Harry Potter book cover was a horror. Actually, the majority of them weren't too good, but by the time you've finished the first book, you are so hooked into the story that you really don't care about the covers at all.
I don't understand why they'd choose such a bad illustration. Of course, I picked it up because everyone was talking about it.

Booking Through Thursday

They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but there’s no question that it can make a difference!
What book(s) have your favorite covers? Something that’s perfect for the story, the tone, the colors, the mood…
And did you pick up the book BECAUSE of the cover? Or were you going to read it anyway, and the cover was just serendipitous?

The book I'm reading right now, Florence and Giles by John Harding, has a great cover. It is, actually, what drew me to the book, since I love crows. The book is very good, too, so the cover did help me discover a book I might otherwise have missed.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn also has a fantastic cover. Huh, I guess I have a thing for dark colors on my covers. The books was brilliant. One of my favorite reads this year.

Booking Through Thursday

If your house was burning down and you could save just one book from your collection … what would it be?
(And, for the purposes of this discussion, we’ll allow series to count as “one” long, multi-volume book.)


  Probably my Crime and Punishment copy. It's not an expensive book or anything, but it does have sentimental value for me. Plus, it has my notes from the first time I read it on the margins.

Booking Through Thursday

Do you bring the book(s) you’re reading with you when you go out? How?
Physically, or in an e-reader of some kind? Have your habits in this
regard changed?


Oh yes. Always. I never leave the house without having a book with me. Since I don't have an ereader, they're all physical books that I carry in my bag or in my hand. I'm the kind of person who'll try to fit a book into the smallest of evening bags.
No, my habits haven't changed. I've always done this, since elementary school.

Booking Through Thursday

Quick–what are you reading right now? (Other than this question on
this website, of course.) Would you recommend it? What’s it about?


I am reading Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. It is, of course, the third book in the Hunger Games trilogy, and yes, of course, I'd recommend it. The whole series is fabulous and easy for any one to fall in love with.

Booking Through Thursday

How do you organize/store your books? Do you go through them often? Or
do you pretty much just shelve them and then leave them alone until
you need them?

I had to laugh when I saw this question, because my room is so stuffed with books I really expect the floor to give way one day when I add one book too many. I pile them up as I get them, there's no order, no such thing as organization. I go through them all the time, looking at their covers, rubbing my hands in anticipation of reading them.

Booking Through Thursday

We all had to read things in school that we didn’t like … but what
about something you read for a class that you ended up liking (or
loving)? An author you discovered that you might not have found? A
genre you hadn’t thought about?



Well, I have to thank my AP English teacher my senior year, Mr. Remis, for introducing me to my favorite book in the world: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
I'd read other books by Dostoevsky before reading that one, but none of them had struck me as much as Crime and Punishment did. I reread it every couple of years and find new things to love every time.

Booking Through Thursday

Do you find yourself thinking that the books you read would be good on film? Do you wish the things you watched on TV or in the movies were available as book?

I hardly ever think any book should be made into a movie. The only time I can remember thinking that I couldn't wait to see a particular scene on film was when I was reading the final battle between Voldemort and Harry in Deathly Hallows. I was dying to see Ralph Fiennes in that last scene, and then they went and changed it in the movie trying to make it much more "epic" when it was much better the way it was written in the book. So I didn't really get to see the scene the way I imagined it.

No, I don't think I've ever wanted anything I've seen on tv to be made into books.