We interrupt Veronica’s pontificating for a brief meme about books
1. Do you remember how you developed a love of reading?
When I was very little, my father read to us every night after dinner. I sat in his lap as he read The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, using different voices for each character, and I rested my head on his chest and tried to match my breathing to his. I loved hearing him read. I have loved reading ever since.
2. What are some books you loved as a child?
The Ghost of Opalina
Anastasia Krupnik
Evergreen Castles
Westmark
3. What is your favorite genre?
Like Beck, I read a lot of mystery fiction.
4. Do you have a favorite novel?
No.
5. Where do you usually read?
Wherever the children will stop jumping on me.
6. When do you usually read?
I snatch time between the interruptions of children. When the last Harry Potter book came out, I had many crises of impatience with my sweet bairns. Sometimes Az the Husband takes over with the kids and I get to lock myself in my room with a book. It may be his sexiest quality.
7. Do you usually have more than one book you are reading at a time?
Yes, unless I am stuck in a really long one and just desperately want to get it finished. Then I dump all the others and focus my dogged determination on just one. This is the only way I could have finished Brothers Karamazov.
8. Do you read nonfiction in a different way or place than you read fiction?
I find non-fiction harder to follow, so if my mind starts to wander, I read it quietly aloud to myself. It works. I do the same with poetry.
9. Do you buy most of the books you read, or borrow them, or check them out of the library?
About half bought and half checked out from the library. I almost never borrow books; I find it stressful.
10. Do you keep most of the books you buy?
No. Our home is almost full to bursting with scholarly books, so my pleasure books tend to get passed along to friends or used bookstores once our shelves get really full. I only keep them if they are particularly hard to replace.
11. If you have children, what are some of the favorite books you have shared with them?
I love picture books, and had a collection of them before I had children. Jack Prelutsky’s The Dragons Are Singing Tonight, Helen Ward’s King of the Birds and Judy Sierra’s Antarctic Antics all made the transition from mommy’s books to kids’ books.
12. What are you reading now?
Dorothy Sayers’ Gaudy Night, John Quincy Adams and Edwin Abbott’s Flatland.
13. Do you keep a To Be Read list?
Only mentally. And I have a strict no-guilt policy about it.
14. What’s next?
Tentatively: Fifth Business, Banvard’s Folly and Finding Nouf.
15. What books would you like to reread?
Too many to name. Just today I thought about how I would like to reread Paul Collins’ Sixpence House, Paulette Jiles’ North Spirit, various Icelandic sagas (in English), Morte D’Arthur and Chretien de Troyes’ Arthurian Romances.
16. Who are your favorite authors?
Charles Williams, JRR Tolkien, Robin McKinley, John Donne, Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers.
I tag Julie the Bookworm, Chantelle, Pieces and Elle.
Jennifer Sandberg
I absolutely love Dorothy Sayers. How fun to know that one of my favorite bloggers does too! Gaudy Night is one of my favorites and I’ve worn out two copies of it because coming back to it is so much fun.
Sherri E.
1)Before we got married, a large number of our dates consisted of our reading aloud to one another after dinner: George MacDonald, Dorothy Sayers, and Barry Hughart’s delightful Bridge of Birds. I have stashed “Harriet” away in my folder of potential girl names.
2)My sister and I both loved the Anastasia Krupnik books. I mean, how cool would it be if your dad was a professor of English at Harvard? Not as cool as if he were a professor of English at Yale, but still.
Julie
Oooooh, good one! Thanks for the tag, Veronica. And I’m so excited that you’re reading Gaudy Night! I love that book on many different levels, one of which is my longstanding crush on Lord Peter, that literary heartthrob. I hope you’ll write about Flatland, too. It’s a weird little book, innit?
Melanie
Good for you on being able to give away books. We cleared out a bedroom full of them when we needed to make space for a kid. They went to the attic with the intention of coming back out as soon as we built bookshelves downstairs. Almost two years ago that was and still the books live in the attic. I’m sending a box of them today to my friend Marit in Holland. She is a voracious reader who recently moved to a little town with a sorely limited number of English books. (www.marit–marit.blogspot.com) I can’t imagine living in a place where I couldn’t find books in my primary language. It kind of freaked me out a little.
andrea_jennine
Oh, I adore book posts! You’ve given me some excellent ideas to add to my own “To Be Read” list.
Julie
Thanks again for the tag. Your timing was impeccable; I’ve posted mine already!
Beck
I think you’ll love Fifth Business.
I read poetry out loud, too! Which gets me weird looks when I’m reading in public, but whatever, NONPOETRY FANS.
Veronica Mitchell
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Veronica Mitchell
The above comment is what happens when I leave the room for a minute while my daughters are next to the computer.
Bethany
Oh! Another fan of McKinley. I don’t see many fans of hers! I read Beauty as a kid and fell in love with it!
I loved hearing about your dad reading to you with you in his lap…how sweet! My mother was the one who passed a love of reading down to me.
NOBLE PIG
As a child my favorite book was The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. It’s still my favorite book!
Alison
I do the same thing when I am stuck in a long book. All the others are set aside until I get through that one.
Fifth Business is a good one. I’ll have to check out the others you listed.
JulieC
I think it’s hilarious that the girls not only typed something out, but then managed to post it to the blog.
The gig is obviously… « A Complete Thought
[...] stalker and now I have been officially tagged. Veronica of Toddled Dredge fame was tagged for a meme on books, and she is passing the [...]
Barbara H.
I started this meme a week ago, and I am amazed at how fast it has gotten around! I enjoyed reading your answers. I have trouble following non-fiction, too. I’ll have to try reading out loud — when I can do so when no one is around.
I keep seeing Agatha Christie listed as a favorite, and somehow I have never read her. I need to remedy that!
M Light
I love Robin McKinley’s books. I just started Dragonhaven which is highly recommended by my older son.
Pieces
Hey! I just saw this. Somehow your blog dropped off my Bloglines but your old one is still there with (amazingly) no new posts. I just thought you weren’t writing much because you are all pregnant and probably hot and uncomfortable. I have posts to catch up on!
alphadogma
Oh, Anastasia Krupnik is a favourite of mine STILL. I stole all the copies from my elementary school library.