BTT: Giving Up

This weeks Booking Through Thursday asks: If you’re not enjoying a book, will you stop mid-way? Or do you push through to the end? What makes you decide to stop?

I rarely give up on books. This years DNF file contains exactly one book: The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. In that case it was the main character that I found to annoying to continue. And this seems to be my most common reason for abandoning books. It was the reason why I gave up on Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and Cather in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (both pre-blogging). I don’t need to be able to relate to the characters in the book but I also need to be able to not feel like I want to hit them over the head. That said I did stick with Emma by Jane Austen even though I wanted to yell at the title character.

The only other time I can see myself not finishing a book is if I see no inherent value in the book. It isn’t teaching me anything, not entertaining me or I find it offensive. Even the not teaching me thing isn’t a done deal, because to be quite honest with you, when I first read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (some 10 years ago) I found little inherent value in it. Then we discussed it in class, and the rest is as they say, history. I now count it as one of my favourite books.

I choose my books carefully. Books is one of the things I rarely by on impulse (strangely enough). I have a tonne of books sitting in my wishlists (Amazon, BookDepository and Adlibris) and I haven’t bought them not because I don’t have the money, but rather because I want to consider them a bit longer. Because I consider books carefully, read reviews, ask people I trust on how they found the books etc. I rarely, even when trying new genres or authors, pick books I don’t like. Thus I rarely abandon books. Plus, I stubborn and often feel that I have to finish something when I have started it.

Copyright ©2010 Zee from Notes from the North. This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Booking Through Thursday: Meme of Reading Questions

This weeks Booking Through Thursday is a meme. I got this from Lorette‘s blog and couldn’t resist adopting it for all of you.

1. Favorite childhood book?
Sagan om den lilla lilla gumman (The Story of the Little Old Lady) by Elsa Beskow and Kajsa Kavat by Astrid Lindgren

2. What are you reading right now?
Have His Carcase by Dorothy Sayers (almost done) and listening to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling, narrated by Stephen Fry (last chapter).

3. What books do you have on request at the library?
Some books for school

4. Bad book habit?
I put my book down open

5. What do you currently have checked out at the library?
Nothing actually

6. Do you have an e-reader?
Nope, but I do have Kindle for PC

7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once?
Several at once

8. Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog?
Yes, I read more new to me books

9. Least favorite book you read this year (so far?)
Emma by Jane Austen

10. Favorite book you’ve read this year?
The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee

11. How often do you read out of your comfort zone?
Not as often as I should

12. What is your reading comfort zone?
classics and crime fiction

13. Can you read on the bus?
Yep. Did it today

14. Favorite place to read?
Hammock

15. What is your policy on book lending?
I always want to share my books

16. Do you ever dog-ear books?
Yep

17. Do you ever write in the margins of your books?
Yep

18.  Not even with text books?
See above

19. What is your favorite language to read in?
English

20. What makes you love a book?
The characters or the setting

21. What will inspire you to recommend a book?
Loving it

22. Favorite genre?
Crime

23. Genre you rarely read (but wish you did?)
Science non-fiction

Favorite biography?
Dalai Lama’s Freedom in Exile

25. Have you ever read a self-help book?
Yes

26. Favorite cookbook?
Anything by Jamie Oliver

27. Most inspirational book you’ve read this year (fiction or non-fiction)?
hmmm…not sure

28. Favorite reading snack?

Nuts and a cup of tea

29. Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience.
Can’t think of one, but I did have issues with books assigned in school

30. How often do you agree with critics about a book?
I actually rarely read critics…shhhhh

31. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews?
It’s helpful too

32. If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you chose?
I’d like to be able to read in Latin and French

33. Most intimidating book you’ve ever read?
War and Peace by Tolstoy, oh wait I haven’t read that yet ;)

34. Most intimidating book you’re too nervous to begin?
See above

35. Favorite Poet?
Christina Rosetti and Karin Boye

36. How many books do you usually have checked out of the library at any given time?
I rarely use the library for anything other than school. Although if I move to Stockholm that would change (post to come, I have a BAD case of library envy)

37. How often have you returned book to the library unread?
See above

38. Favorite fictional character?
Eve Dallas

39. Favorite fictional villain?
Snape…although he isn’t really one is he

40. Books I’m most likely to bring on vacation?
Brain candy books

41. The longest I’ve gone without reading.
ummm…I’m always reading

42. Name a book that you could/would not finish.
For Whom The Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway but don’t tell my high school English teacher that :D

43. What distracts you easily when you’re reading?
It depends on the book

44. Favorite film adaptation of a novel?
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie with Dame Maggie Smith

45. Most disappointing film adaptation?
The Harry Potter films

46. The most money I’ve ever spent in the bookstore at one time?
Taking the fifth here

47. How often do you skim a book before reading it?
Often, but I am trying to break the habit for fiction and do it more for non-fiction

48. What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through?
Bad writing and characters doing things out of character

49. Do you like to keep your books organized?
Yes

50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them?
I’m a book hoarder

51. Are there any books you’ve been avoiding?
War and Peace by Tolstoy

52. Name a book that made you angry.
I haven’t read them but the books by the Pearls make me angry just thinking they exist

53. A book you didn’t expect to like but did?
I was a bit sceptical when my mum suggested the In Death books

54. A book that you expected to like but didn’t?
Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky sadly, but I want to try and different translation

55. Favorite guilt-free, pleasure reading?
In Death series

To those of you wondering if there will ever again be a review of a book on this blog, the answer is yes. Tomorrow there will be a review. And on Monday :D I’ve just gotten a bit behind on my reading but now I’m back in full swing again.

Copyright ©2010 Zee from Notes from the North. This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Booking Through Thursday: Break

Booking Through Thursday is a weekly meme of all things bookish. This weeks question is: Do you take breaks while reading a book? Or read it straight through? (And, by breaks, I don’t mean sleeping, eating and going to work; I mean putting it aside for a time while you read something else.)

I am a moody reader and often don’t feel like reading the book I am currently reading. Because of this I often have more than one book on the go at the same time. I try to have a fiction book and a non-fiction book going on at the same time. I also often have an audio book going. While I was working I also had a book for my handbag, one I could pick up and read while waiting for the bus or in the lunchroom/while the kids slept (my second to last job I worked the back shift and I was often the only person on a break, my last job was at a nursery school and while the kids had their nap and after I had cleaned up what I could I was welcome to read, just one of the things I loved about that job).

Image credit

My family tree is filled with bookworms. The habit of several books on the go is one that I have come by honestly. Everyone has more than one book on the go at the same time. It is just the way we do things.

Copyright ©2010 Zee from Notes from the North.This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Booking Through Thursday: Sensual

Each week Booking Through Thursday asks a bookish question. This week the question is: Which do you prefer? Lurid, fruity prose, awash in imagery and sensuous textures and colours? Or straight-forward, clean, simple prose?

Well after my review of Anne of Avonlea it should come as no surprise that I am a fan of the “lurid, fruity prose”. I love a text filled with metaphors and similes, with imagery and colours. I am not only a bookworm but also a wordworm. Words make me happy. The more words the better.

That said, choose your words well. I do not want ten words when one could have done. I don’t want a five syllable word when a one syllable word would have done. One of the things I find annoying in academic writing is the use of more complicated words than entirely necessary, all in an attempt to sound clever and intelligent.

But for my fiction, give me flowers. Give me words. Give me imagery. Words Words Words and more words. Those are the things that make me happy.

The first two images are from wiki commons. The final image is of the Library at Trinity College Dublin, it seems to be in the public domain but if it is not let me know.

Copyright ©2010 Zee from Notes from the North.This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Booking Through Thursday: Illustrious

Every week Booking Through Thursday asks a question reading and books. This weeks question is: How do you feel about illustrations in your books? Graphs? Photos? Sketches?

I like illustrations, graphs, photos etc. if they are used appropriately. Illustration can really enhance a reading experience. Sometimes you need a good illustration in order to understand what the author is trying to do. I recently had a writing assignment for gradschool where we had to write instructions for someone on how to do something and we weren’t allowed to use illustrations, all this to teach us the limitations of the written word.

Two books that I recently read and reviewed that brought home the importance of illustrations both as aids and enhancers. The first one was the map in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I read the book in Swedish where a map of Hedeby Island. I didn’t realise that the maps weren’t included in some of the English translations. This map made it a lot easier to follow along in the story. The other book that showed how illustrations can be used effectively was The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett and illustrated by Paul Kidby. The illustrations in this book really enhanced what was already an amazing story. The illustrations in these two books are very different but they both really enhance the stories.

Booking Through Thursday: Grammar

Every week Booking Through Thursday asks a question. This week the question is: In honour of National Grammar Day … it IS “March Fourth” after all … do you have any grammar books? Punctuation? Writing guidelines? Style books?

More importantly, have you read them?

How do you feel about grammar in general? Important? Vital? Unnecessary? Fussy?

Well I am a future English teacher, so yes, I have grammar books at home. Several of them actually. I have three books that are for ESL (my favourite is Engelsk Universitets Grammatik by Jan Svartvik, also known as the Silver Bible :D). I also have a copy of The Elements of Style by Strunk and White and Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss. I have read all of them. Not cover to cover (except Eats, Shoots and Leaves) but large portions. I should also buy myself a copy of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers 7th Edition for gradschool but I haven’t gotten around to it yet.

I do think grammar is important. Grammar is an agreed set of rules that makes things easier to understand. I get tetchy when people use incorrect grammar. Especially when they make simple mistakes. Swedes in general have an issue with subject-verb agreement that drives me absolutely nuts. I had to sit on my hands yesterday when one of my masters level classmates used “do” instead of “does”. Sometimes I make grammatical errors, especially when speaking, often they are on purpose for effect. In order to do that you have to know the rule in the first place.

At home I am known as the grammar nazi because I will correct the family in both Swedish and English as well as people on tv. What can I say? Bad grammar annoys me :D

Copyright ©2010 Zee from Notes from the North.This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Booking Through Thursday: Olympic Reading

This weeks Booking Through Thursday asks: You may have noticed–the Winter Olympics are going on. Is that affecting your reading time? Have you read any Olympics-themed books? What do you think about the Olympics in general? Here’s your chance to discuss!

I LOVE the Olympics! There is something wonderful about seeing all these sports that normally never get the time of day on our televising screens.

The Olympics are actually giving me more reading time. I’m staying up later than I should to watch the games (we are 9 hours ahead of Vancouver most of the events take place when I am fast asleep). I am reading more because often there is little going on between events, especially now when the weather isn’t cooperating. Often you know when you need to watch the tv because the sport reporters get VERY excited. One of our commentators voice breaks when he gets excited. It is hilarious.

I really should have planned to read some Olympic books. I don’t read that many books that have Olympic connections. I think one of my goals for next year will be to read more sport memoirs because I love sports and there seems to be so many good ones around. I think the last Olympic connection book I read was My Sergei: A Love Story by Ekaterina Gordeeva and I read that many many years ago. I am glad that she has found someone to love again. It is a truly lovely love story although one can tell that English is not her first language. I definitely recommend it.

Does anyone have any sports memoirs they think I should read?

Booking Through Thursday: Mark the Spot

Booking Through Thursday is a weekly meme that discusses all things bookish.

Suggested by Tammy:

What items have you ever used as a bookmark? What is the most unusual item you’ve ever used or seen used?

I use all sorts of things as bookmarks. Right now I have an actual bookmark that I got from BookDepository with one of my purchases. It has ducks, fish and frogs on it.

 

In the past I have used store receipts, ticket stubs, letters and envelopes. It is always fun to open a book and find an old bookmark. If it is a ticket stub it makes me think of the concert or trip the stub is related to. If it is a letter or an envelope it makes me think of the person who wrote it. It reminds me of one of my favourite short stories “Ett Halvt Ark Papper” (“A Half Sheet of Paper”) by August Strindberg.  It is a very sad story but it shows how much information can be found in a small piece of paper. When you find a piece of paper in a book you are transported back in time to both re-reading the book and to where you were and who you were then. And if I find a piece of paper in a book that was not previously mine I wonder about the person who read the book before me. Who are they? Did they like the book? Why did they choose the book? Something as simple as a forgotten bookmark makes the experience with the book become something bigger than the book itself.

 

I can’t think of ever using anything strange as a bookmark. I occasionally use a pen as a bookmark if I am going to get right back to reading, if, for example I have just gotten up to answer the phone or make another cup of tea.

I don’t think I have ever seen anything strange used as bookmarks either, I have seen some really clever bookmarks in bookstores, some that I wish I had bought. I do have a bookmark that I got from a friend for my 8th birthday. It is the one pictured above. I’ve only used it once because it cut into the pages of the book. Because of this I prefer paper or fabric for my bookmarks.

 

Thank you for such a great topic. It really made me think

Booking Through Thursday: Thankful for Books

Booking Through Thursday is a weekly meme. Join in the fun

It’s Thanksgiving in the U.S.A. today, so I know at least some of you are going to be as busy with turkey and family as I will be, so this week’s question is a simple one:

What books and authors are you particularly thankful for this year?

 

I am thankful for new books by old authors and for some of my old favourite books.

 

New books by old favourite authors is The Giver by Lois Lowry. I read Number the Stars when I was in middle school and it was a favourite (I think I had it out of the library more than it was in). I had however never read The Giver before. I listened to it as an audio book and it was such a great read I just wanted to listen to it again.

 

Old favourite authors whom I continue being thankful for are Anne McCaffrey, David Eddings and J.D. Robb. David Eddings passed away during the summer and I will forever be thankful for his Belgariad and Mallorean series as my first introduction to “grown-up” books. Anne McCaffrey’s Pern series continues to be one of my go to comfort books. J. D. Robb continues to write books that never fail to entertain me. They are also books I can share with my family.

Booking Through Thursday: Books for Posterity

Today’s question was suggested by Barbara:

Do you think any current author is of the same caliber as Dickens, Austen, Bronte, or any of the classic authors? If so, who, and why do you think so? If not, why not? What books from this era might be read 100 years from now?

This is an interesting topic as I have just been discussing this with my seniors. We have been doing a unit on poetry and have talked a great deal about themes that are universal.

Often in the ‘classics’ the themes are universal and that is what makes them last (although I am personally not sure how Bleak House has lasted so long). What authors now need to do is find themes that are universal but also to set them in such a way that they feel as if they are relevant. I find that often today authors use to many pop culture references and this means that the books loose their appeal.

However I do think that there are some books that will last. Not all of them are books I love but I think they will stay because they talk of themes that are universal. Some of these books are Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audry Niffenegger.

As I compile this list I realise that all of these books are set in a time gone by (yes I know that at least part of some of these books are set in more recent times but the majority of the story takes place in the past). Interesting. I wonder if this is because we have a hard time seeing our own time with any objectivity. Maybe we need to set things into a time that we feel is stable. Where we know the outcome of events. That this makes it secure.

Booking Through Thursday: Bad Books

Booking Through Thursday is a weekly meme discussing all things bookish.


Suggested by JM:
“Life is too short to read bad books.” I’d always heard that, but I still read books through until the end no matter how bad they were because I had this sense of obligation.
That is, until this week when I tried (really tried) to read a book that is utterly boring and unrealistic. I had to stop reading.
Do you read everything all the way through or do you feel life really is too short to read bad books?


I totally agree with the "life is to short to read bad books" saying. I have rarely read a book to the end if I didn't like it. As a future teacher I probably shouldn't admit to this but...I never finished Carrie by Stephen King and I never finished For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway because I hated both of them. I read enough that I could intelligently answer the questions. Actually by the time Carrie came around I had access to the interwebby and I had friends who pointed me in the right direction for good summaries. I just could not finish them. For me it has to do with the fact that I have so many things I want to do in my life that I don't give time to anything that isn't giving me anything. That goes for so many things in my life not just books.

I might find something difficult but worthwhile and that still gets my attention. I might know that it will give me something in the end although the hoops to get to the end are annoying but they need to be done (school right now comes to mind here). If a book is supposed to be funny but isn't making me laugh it goes (Don Quixote is an example of this). If it is supposed to make me think but leaves does not, it goes. You get the picture.

Life is indeed to short to read bad books

It's All About Me

Booking Through Thursday is a weekly meme on all things books. Come and join in the fun!

Which do you prefer? Biographies written about someone? Or Autobiographies written by the actual person (and/or ghost-writer)?

I don't really have a firm policy. I like both. Biographies are good because they give you a bit of an outsiders perspective. Autobiographies are good because you get it from the horses mouth so to speak. To be quite honest I haven't read that many of either and they are genres I want to read more off the next year. I have always loved history but somehow I have neglected reading about the people who shaped history. This must be remedied!

I have got David McCullough biography of John Adams in my TBR pile and I really want to read it. I also have Hilary Clinton's autobiography that I want to read, and plan to read for the Women Unbound Challenge. These two will be read soon.

Booking Through Thursday: The Back of the Book

Booking Through Thursday is a weekly meme. 

Suggested by Jennysbooks:
Something I’ve been thinking about lately: “What words/phrases in a blurb make a book irresistible? What words/phrases will make you put the book back down immediately?”

My short answer is, I don't know. Sometimes a book grips me. Sometimes it doesn't. Some books I read on recommendation of others that I wouldn't have picked up based on the the blurb. Some I have picked up based on the blurb and have hated. I don't actually know what grips me. I will say this though, any book that glamourises violence for the sake of violence and states it on the back will get a pass from me. Add to that the fact that I, right now, tend to stay away from books that are sad anything on the back that indicates sad without happy ending will get a pass from me. They can be fantastic books but really sad without the prospect of happy isn't for me right now.

All in all a book has to sound interesting for me to pick it up but what interests me can vary from day to day. I have a pretty varied taste.

Booking Through Thursday: Question for Your Favourite Author

 Booking Through Thursday is a weekly question. This weeks question is:

If you could ask your favorite author (alive or dead) one question … who would you ask, and what would the question be?

One question? To one author? But But But...I have very very many favourite authors. And* they vary buy day or hour or even millisecond. I couldn't possibly choose. Just. One. Arrrrrghhhhhh

*Deep Breath*

Okay. I would ask David Eddings, the author of my current read Castle of Wizardry, if he had all twelve books in the Belgariad and the Malloreans planned out before he started writing or was it a more organic process? And* did he always intend for Silk to get married?

Okay so I cheated and asked two questions. Sue me. 

*Should my students ever read this: No, despite the fact that I use and in the beginning of a sentence, you may not do so.

Booking Through Thursday: Weeding out books

Booking Through Thursday is hosted by Deb.

This weeks question is:


We’re moving in a couple weeks (the first time since I was 9 years old), and I’ve been going through my library of 3000+ books, choosing the books that I could bear to part with and NOT have to pack to move. Which made me wonder…
When’s the last time you weeded out your library? Do you regularly keep it pared down to your reading essentials? Or does it blossom into something out of control the minute you turn your back, like a garden after a Spring rain?
Or do you simply not get rid of books? At all? (This would have described me for most of my life, by the way.)
And–when you DO weed out books from your collection (assuming that you do) …what do you do with them? Throw them away (gasp)? Donate them to a charity or used bookstore?  SELL them to a used bookstore? Trade them on Paperback Book Swap or some other exchange program?


It has been a while since I had to weed out my library. The last two times I moved I was in no fit state to make decisions on books (strangely enough I could make decisions about clothes) so they all got packed. Granted some of them are still living in my cousins garage (I really have to make it back across the north sea to get them) but I do still own them. The last time I did any weeding in the library I donated the books to a charity shop. I tried selling them to a used book store but he simply wasn't interested so instead I donated them. Our library is rather out of control right now. We are renovating it so the books are living in paperbags on the landing. It will be awesome once it is done though. Of course our books have long since outgrown our library and they live in several other rooms as well. But what can you do? We are a family of bookworms :D

I will post pictures of the library when it is finished.

Booking Through Thursday: If You Could Ask One Question

Suggested by Barbara H:

I was wanting to try a certain author and wished I knew someone who had read her works so I could get a recommendation when it occurred to me that having a “YOU ask the question” Booking Through Thursday might be fun. Each participant could ask a question they’ve wanted to discuss with other readers. Perhaps, like me, you’d like a recommendation of a certain author’s best work, or perhaps you LOVE a certain genre or series but no one else you know does and you’d just like to discuss it with someone. Or perhaps you want to try a new genre and would like recommendations from seasoned readers.
It would help if everyone put some idea of the question or topic in their response comment here rather than just saying, “My post is up” so that those who can’t get around to everyone can see what the topics are and get to those which most interest them.

Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!

My question is: Is there a book that, as a teenager, made you think differently from how you had thought before?

The reason I am asking is that I just re-read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley which, despite, or maybe because of, its dystopian themes made me think differently, or maybe I should say more, about the relations between men and women, how we look at sexual relationships and how our consumer society is shaping us. It was one of those books that left me forever changed.

Booking Through Thursday: Lying About Books

Suggested by Monibo:

Saw this article (from March) and thought it would make a good BTT confessional question:

Two-thirds of Brits have lied about reading books they haven’t. Have you? Why? What book?

Not intentionally no. I might have stretched the truth a bit occasionally but if I had been asked right out I would have told the truth. I never actually read every single page of For Whom The Bell Tolls by Earnest Hemingway but as far as my high school English teacher is concerned I did. Also I have read enough of Don Quixote to have an intelligent conversation about how it influenced and how it affected the intertextuality in Paul Austers City of Glass. I have read these books, just not finished because I didn't like them. Life is to short for bad books but if I can talk intelligently about them then I will.

Booking Through Thursday: Books that make me sad

What’s the saddest book you’ve read recently?

(Is any body getting bored with this series of “recent” questions? Because I’m having fun!)

Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!

On principal I try and stay away from sad books. I read to make myself feel good an I cry enough IRL that I try and avoid sad books. I did just finish The Giver by Lois Lowry and it made me feel sad, but not sad (and boy do I need to learn precision of language). It made me feel something that I cannot yet define (I will try and define it when I write my review of it over the weekend). I also recently read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling and I wasn't sad this time because I knew what was happening but I certainly felt sad the first time I read it. Maybe that will have to qualify for this time around.

Booking Through Thursday

What’s the most enjoyable, most fun, most just-darn-entertaining book you’ve read recently?

(Mind you, this doesn’t necessarily mean funny, since we covered that already. Just … GOOD.)

My choice is A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson.

It was funny but it was also thought provoking and made me not want to stop reading. Which to me is an Entertaining book!