• Science Fiction, Fantasy or Horror? Fantasy, though I'm not a heavy or wide reader of even that genre.
• Hardback or Trade paperback or Mass market paperback? Trade, though the vast majority of the books that I own are hardcover.
• Amazon or Brick and Mortar? Amazon. There's not a good bookstore within an hour's drive of here.
• Barnes & Noble or Borders? I fell in love with the original, flagship Borders, so it's been difficult to look at B&N as anything but a sad also-ran...until Borders bit the dust.
• Bookmark or Dog-ear? Oh God - Bookmark!
• Asimov’s Science Fiction or Fantasy & Science Fiction? I'm not exactly certain of the question here. I've read no Asimov (always have been intimidated by his oeuvre) and, overall, have read very little speculative fiction. Can I go with Epic Speculative?
• Alphabetize by author, Alphabetize by title, or Random? Coming as a surprise to exactly no one who knows me for real: my library is grouped by subject, then by topic within subject, and then alphabetically by author's last name (and title within author).
• Keep, Throw away or Sell? If I buy, I generally keep (because otherwise I'd just borrow, in the usual way, rather than buying to begin with). If I'm gifted, it's 50/50. If I'm not keeping, I'm happy to give to whomever wants - though the garage sale successes of last weekend have me reconsidering.
• Keep dust-jacket or Toss it? Oh God KEEP
• Read with dust jacket or Remove it? Depends. If it's not in the way, it's fine where it is. If it's distracting from the reading, remove (temporarily!)
• Short story or Novel? Novel. I do like short stories - some of my favorite stories are short - but my preferred vehicle is the novel.
• Stop reading when tired or at Chapter breaks? Hahahajaha, right. I have to stop at chapter (or section, at least) breaks. It maintains the flow of the book, and anyway my self-control is terrible and I'm always wanting to read one more paragraph, or page....
• “It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time?” Why can't it be both? A little suspense with your romance keeps things tighter.
• Buy or Borrow? More borrowing than buying, lately. I do buy my favorite authors (James W. Ziskin's Ellie Stone series, Christopher Finch's Alex Novalis series, and Paul Doiron's Mike Bowditch series all come to mind) and if a book really blows me away, I'll add it to the collection. I like buying books for other people, too, but more often now it's from a list or a specific request. My taste is rather particular and not for every reader.
• Buying choice: Book Reviews, Recommendation or Browse? Browse. I judged my favorite book ever by its cover. Another big hit was chosen just from the title. I don't seek out reviews and since it's not a part of my daily life, they don't influence me at all anymore. I do take recommendations, though the specificity of my preferences makes it difficult.
• Collection (short stories by the same author) or Anthology (short stories by different authors)? Each has its place. I probably read more anthologies, but some great collections stand out in my mind--Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird, for instance. And pretty much every poetry collection in existence has something I'll love.
• Tidy ending or Cliffhanger? Something in between, where it's not perfectly tidy and neat, but also not blown all to Hell and without resolution at all.
• Morning reading, Afternoon reading or Nighttime reading? Yes, please! (I currently read mostly in the evening, but under perfect circumstances it would spread throughout the day.)
• Standalone or Series? Series. I get attached.
• Favorite book of which nobody else has heard? The Gravedigger, by Rob Magnuson Smith
• Favorite genre series? Besides the above-named, it's a rough tie between Patrick Rothfuss' The Kingkiller Chronicle and George R.R. Martin's The Song of Ice and Fire.
• Currently Reading? Ziskin's Stone Cold Dead, Doiron's Bad Little Falls, and still slogging through China Miéville's Perdido Street Station.
[swiped from here; the title quotation is by William Shakespeare, from The Tempest {Act I, scene ii }]
Swiped.
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