1. We've all heard the phrase, "Don't judge a book by its cover." Have you ever picked up a book based solely on the title or the picture on the cover?
The Brothers K, by David James Duncan. My favorite book ever! A bird on a post, a baseball, a sort of vague dirt field but with green grass. Not what I'd have described as a book necessary to my life, but it is, absolutely.
2. Along the same lines, do you ever look at whichever book someone else is reading in public or whatnot, and based on that make a snap judgment about their character or literary taste?
I love to do this! Big fan of people-watching generally, but most of all in places like airports, where people seem to read more unreservedly than anywhere else. I often pull the journal from my purse and note the ubiquitous titles of each place; what's popular in Chicago may not be the same as what's widely-read in Miami, for instance. It's surprisingly useful for coll dev at the lib. (gag), and it spurred me to read the book that had been languishing on my shelf, 1/4 read, that I ended up loving--Three Junes by Julia Glass. But yeah, anyway, I think that as one can tell something about a book by its cover (sometimes), one can certainly tell oodles about a person by what they choose to let people see them reading. That's the key--they're choosing to let people see them reading it. That's intimate, and it means a great deal (particularly in this culture of people who spurn book-reading in favor of more transitory pleasures).
3. Do you buy books online? If so, where is your favorite place to find them?
Yup--Amazon.
4. From someone who's had more than her fair share of lib. fines... what is the largest late fee you've ever incurred at a lib. for returning a book past the due date? Have you ever borrowed a book from a lib. and never returned it?
I've never paid a late fee. I've taken advantage of my position to avoid them plenty of times. I've never technically borrowed a book from a lib. and never returned it. I have stolen books from libs. But for a couple of exceptions I have replaced them and made cash donations at the same time, in penance. In my defense, it hasn't been for convenience or greed's sake, but for love of the item itself. Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman, for instance. I still feel wretched about it. At the same time as I can honestly say that there's little of poetry that I could ever love more than that work. And at the very heart of it, having that book probably changed my life at a time when I really needed it.
5. What is the first book that you can remember reading by yourself as a child?
By myself? I'm not sure--it seems like I've always been reading, and my brother and sister have tormented me with stories of how I never had my face out of a book until I turned 13 or so. I know it's not this, 'cause I was much younger than this book, but I'll give this answer anyway: Runaway Ralph, or The Mouse and the Motorcycle, by Beverly Cleary.
[via Catalogue Blog. Thanks, Annie.]
No comments:
Post a Comment