I was looking through some old posts I’d saved and came across this meme that Nan did way back in May:

Do you snack while reading?
Yes.

What is your favourite drink while reading?
Tea, of course.

Do you tend to mark your books while you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?
My college books are all marked up, but I don’t tend to write in books these days. That may be a side effect of not having a pen in hand while reading. And I love to read other people’s notes in used/borrowed books.

How do you keep your place? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book open flat?
Yes to all of those, although I do try to keep dog-earing to a minimum. Bookmarks are rarely proper bookmarks and are usually receipts from wherever I’ve been recently. (This means I always leaf through books before returning to the library.) Usually I just remember the page number, though.

Fiction, non-fiction or both?
Both, although fiction is definitely a higher percentage than non.

Do you tend to read to the end of a chapter or can you stop anywhere?
Although I like to get to the end of a chapter (in the same way I like to get to the end of a needle when putting down my knitting), I can stop pretty much anywhere.

Are you the type of person to throw a book across the room or on the floor if the author irritates you?
Yes, if they piss me off enough, although usually I stop long before I reach that point.

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop and look it up right away?
Not usually, because I’m not usually reading next to a dictionary. I do try to recall it for the next time I am, however.

What are you currently reading?
Patrick Taylor’s An Irish Country Christmas, which was a recommendation from Nan.
And I just finished O Christmas Three: O. Henry, Tolstoy, and Dickens and A Child’s Christmas in Wales in the last 30 hours.

What is the last book you bought?
While I bought nearly everyone I know books for Christmas, I assume this question means for myself. That would be the copy of The Odyssey I picked up for myself back in the fall.

Do you have a favourite time/place to read?
All the time? I read at home, at cafes, on my commute, and while walking (which can really freak people out, by the way). My least favorite time to read is when I’m asleep.

Do you prefer series books or stand-alones?
Both are perfectly great in my opinion.

Is there a specific book or author you find yourself recommending over and over?
No. I usually try to cater my suggestions to the person.

How do you organise your books?
By leaving them strewn about everywhere? Okay, that’s not entirely true. There are certain special books that have places of prominence on the top two shelves of the bookshelf by the couch: my collections of Louisa May Alcott, the Anne series, the Narnia books, Harry Potter, the Little House books; Horton Hears a Who; The Secret Garden; a (terrible, melodramatic) book that belonged to my dad’s mother; the Bible; the dictionary… Essentially those are my the house is on fire and you can only save a box of books books.

Lower on that bookshelf are my writing books.

A few other favorites (including The Bean Trees, A Wrinkle in Time, Ballet Shoes, and To Kill a Mockingbird) sit atop the bookshelf in my reading corner. That’s also the bookshelf where my knitting books live. And my anthologies from college. And many of my college books.

Language books live on the bookshelf by the door. There are also a number of other nonfiction books there.

Cookbooks are on the shelf of the butcher block, except for the ones that live on the bureau. And the two that are on the one by the door.

Rudi has a bookshelf next to his chair.

And otherwise books are piled everywhere, although if you give me a minute, I often have a pretty good idea which title can be found where.

Background noise or silence?
Background noise. If it’s a good enough story, I won’t hear it anyway.

And, yes, I did just resort to a meme on the fourth day of the year.