Booking Through Thursday: Manual Labour

Writing guides, grammar books, punctuation how-tos . . . do you read them? Not read them? How many writing books, grammar books, dictionaries–if any–do you have in your library?

One dictionary; one English-French dictionary for those annoying untranslated bits in older novels; one thesaurus that I found at the BookFest and thought was too good a bargain to pass up. I don’t look at them much - only when I need to, and then only when I remember. The dictionary got more of a work-out in years past, though - it was once my preferred choice of bedtime reading! (And, yes, I believe my mother does have photographic evidence somewhere!)

I have read writing guides, but I don’t actually own any, and I haven’t borrowed one in a while. My work-in-porgress has moved on to the plotting-and-researching stage, and I’m becoming more hopeful about the possibility of taking part in NaNoWriMo this year (Yay!!). As for grammar and punctuation guides - I don’t even read those and persist in thinking I know enough already.

Booking Through Thursday: Vocabulary

Suggested by Nithin:

I’ve always wondered what other people do when they come across a word/phrase that they’ve never heard before. I mean, do they jot it down on paper so they can look it up later, or do they stop reading to look it up on the dictionary/google it or do they just continue reading and forget about the word?

I was in the habit of writing down unfamiliar words, usually on the back of library checkout slips; but the end result was a backlog of words that I’d never gotten round to looking up. So now I keep reading and either forget all about it, or look it up later. The dictionary is my reference of choice, but I like Google for words in historical novels that sound like they have more information to be discovered than a dictionary entry would contain.

But most of the time, I’m pretty lazy when it comes to new words: I try to infer meaning from context and read on.

Now reading: Antony and Cleopatra - William Shakespeare (RRC, EC)
                                The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas (EC)

Booking Through Thursday: Writing Challenge

Pick up the nearest book. (I’m sure you must have one nearby.)
Turn to page 123.
What is the first sentence on the page?
The last sentence on the page?
Now . . . connect them together . . .
(And no, you may not transcribe the entire page of the book–that’s cheating!)

Madame Bonacieux and the Duke entered the Louvre without difficulty; Madame Bonacieux was known to belong to the Queen, the Duke wore the uniform of the musketeers of M. de Tréville, who were, as we have said, that evening on guard. It was fortunate that the man at the gate did not inquire too closely into the identity of his supposed colleague, and was thus unable to raise the alarm, the Duke being that most unwelcome of creatures - an Englishman. He followed his guide through the corridors, which, though but dimly lit, were far less eerie than they would become centuries hence, when the royal family had been replaced with artefacts and their accompaniment of shadows. That is not to say that it was without the ability to affect the nerves of visitors, particularly those who came on the business of intrigue; for Monsieur le Cardinal was well-equipped with spies. Who knew but that one might get wind of the Duke’s presence, even secreted as he was by Madame Bonacieux in a locked chamber? Nevertheless, isolated as he was, we must say that the Duke of Buckingham did not experience an instant of fear: one of the salient sides of his character was the seeking of adventures and a love of the romantic.

This would have been a lot easier had the nearest book been less verbose! The first and last lines are from The Three Musketeers (I’ve got a few reviews in the works), and the middle portion is, for 11.30 pm, not a bad impersonation of the nineteenth-century style!

Now reading: Antony and Cleopatra - William Shakespeare (RRC, EC)
                                The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas (EC, HFC)

Booking Through Thursday: Cover-Up

While acknowledging that we can’t judge books by their covers, how much does the design of a book affect your reading enjoyment? Hardcover vs. softcover? Trade paperback vs. mass market paperback? Font? Illustrations? Etc.?

Since I get almost all my books from the library or the Bookfest, I can’t afford to be picky about covers. I have a few that are awful (like a Georgette Heyer featuring the clothing and hairstyles of the 1970s); but when it’s a choice between taking a bad cover or not having the book, I’ll choose the bad cover. I’m sure I have been attracted to a book by its cover (although I can’t think of any examples right now), and I’m equally sure I’ve rejected perfectly good books because of atrocious design. And while I do love curling up with a beautiful book, I’m far more interested in what’s on the inside!

I almost always read softcovers for convenience, because they’re lighter and more portable; but I do like small hardbacks from about fifty years ago, with fancy gold embossing on the covers. They’re only a little bigger than a mass-market paperback, which is what I prefer for ease of holding and carrying. As for font - it only has to be readable! Fortunately my close-up vision is good so even small print is manageable.

Now reading: Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes (CC)
                                The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne (TBRC)
                                Imperium - Robert Harris (888C)

Booking Through Thursday Friday: Hero

You should have seen this one coming … Who is your favorite Male lead character? And why?

You can blame the time difference for this: By the time WordPress belatedly got around to posting the question, it was well past midnight here and I was asleep! Not that having an extra day to ponder made the answering any easier. For some reason, it’s female characters that stick in my memory more than the men. There are plenty that I like, but favourites? After much deliberation (and reading of other people’s suggestions!) I came up with these:

To start with the glaringly obvious: Jamie Fraser from the Outlander series. Intelligent, sexy, able to make me laugh, devoted to Claire, lethal with a broadsword. (And a fellow lefty.) Even occasional bouts of pigheadedness can’t detract from his appeal.

Another Fraser is Charles from Daughter of the Game by Tracy Grant. Equally adept in grand houses and grimy alleyways, he knows how to handle a crisis, and to cope with a nasty series of surprises regarding his nearest and dearest.

Third on the list isn’t really a lead character . . . but I feel like cheating a little: Severus Snape from the Harry Potter books. Far from the most pleasant of magical beings, but compelling and, in the end, heartbreaking.

And no post on heroes would be complete without mention of Jane Austen, which presents the biggest dilemma: Which to choose? Mr. Darcy overcomes his pride, and goes to the rescue of Lydia. Mr. Knightley would leave his home rather than have Emma leave her father. Captain Wentworth writes what must be the most romantic letter in all of literature. Or even Colonel Brandon, who sits for hours in the garden reading to Marianne while she recovers from the ill-effects of her drenching.

Maybe I’ll just cheat again and nominate them all . . .

Now reading: Don Quixote - Miguel Cervantes (CC)
                                The Sunne in Splendour - Sharon Penman (CC)

Booking Through Thursday: Heroine

Who is your favorite female lead character? And why? (And yes, of course, you can name more than one . . . I always have trouble narrowing down these things to one name, why should I force you to?)

Where to start? In random order:

Thursday Next gets to dive right into all sorts of good books (hard not to be jealous of that!) and is capable of dealing with even the stickiest (or most outlandish) of situations. She’s definitely someone you’d want to have around in a book-related crisis.

Claire Randall from the Outlander series. She’s one of the most memorable characters I’ve ever encountered, and lives as vividly in memory as she does on the page. Anyone who can adapt to the harshness of eighteenth-century life and warfare would win my admiration; Claire’s courage, humour, quick thinking and love for Jamie have fixed her as one of my al-time favourites.

I’ve seen her mentioned a few times so far and have to agree: Jane Eyre. I love seeing the quiet, downtrodden child grow up and triumph, I love her adherence to her principles, and I love that Mr. Rochester loves her for her mind. I’m weird that way. I’d far rather be considered smart than pretty; and I’d rather not be thought pretty at all, than to have someone notice my looks without giving a thought to the brain behind them. To me, what Jane finds at the end of the book really is true love.

And finally and most predictably . . . Elizabeth Bennet. How can you not love a girl who’ll tell even the formidable Lady Catherine de Bourgh exactly what she thinks of her? That scene is one of my favourites . . . and that book is one I must re-read at the first opportunity!

They’re the ones that spring to mind at midnight-ish, and I’m sure that by tomorrow morning I’ll have thought of at least four more!

Or, by the time two minutes are up! How could I (almost) forget Hermione Granger? She shares my approach to problem-solving: When in doubt, find a book.

Now reading: Don Quixote - Miguel Cervantes (CC)
                                The Sunne in Splendour - Sharon Penman (CC)

Booking Through Thursday: But, Enough About Books

Okay, even I can’t read ALL the time, so I’m guessing that you folks might voluntarily shut the covers from time to time as well… What else do you do with your leisure to pass the time? Walk the dog? Knit? Run marathons? Construct grandfather clocks? Collect eggshells?

I have to admit . . . not a great deal. I’d like to be able to say learning to make my own clothes, but the sewing machine died on Tuesday. I’ve been known to dabble in all sorts of creative endeavours - painting, drawing, embroidery, knitting, crochet, jewellery-making, etc, but not much lately. (Although I must remember to hunt up some shawl patterns before it starts turning cool.) I do (or try to do) the puzzles in the Courier-Mail every day. I do watch television, but I usually read while doing so; and starting tonight (technically now last night) I make the occasional valiant attempt to make sense of Lost. And I’m starting my preparations for this year’s NaNoWriMo.

Now reading: The Tomb of Agamemnon - Cathy Gere
                                Don Quixote - Miguel Cervantes (CC)

Booking Through Thursday: Huh?

What’s your favorite book that nobody else has heard of? You know, not Little Women or Huckleberry Finn, not the latest best-seller . . . whether they’ve read them or not, everybody “knows” those books. I’m talking about the best book that, when you tell people that you love it, they go, “Huh? Never heard of it?”

Here it where it would help to have completed my LibraryThing catalogue - and to have all my favourites in my possession! After poring over my records for the last few years, I’ve concluded that I have a tendency to be quite un-obscure in my reading. It took quite a hunt to find something that might qualify as both ‘favourite’ and ‘unheard-of’, but I finally hit on an answer - a series of them, in fact, of which I haven’t been able to lay hands on for some time: the Jonathan Argyll series by Iain Pears. And Italian setting, art history, and fun mysteries with an unlikely sleuth who has a knack for getting himself into pickles. (Mental note to self: when at the library, start looking under ‘P’ more often.)

Now reading: The House of the Spirits - Isabel Allende (TBRC)
                                A Season for the Dead - David Hewson
                                The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield (888C)

Booking Through Thursday: Let's Review

This week’s question is suggested by Puss Reboots:
How much do reviews (good and bad) affect your choice of reading? If you see a bad review of a book you wanted to read, do you still read it? If you see a good review of a book you’re sure you won’t like, do you change your mind and give the book a try?

Reviews, particularly online ones by other bloggers, have done a lot to expand my Wanted list, but more by alerting me to the existence of interesting-sounding books than by making up my mind as to whether to read a certain book. The vast majority of these I’ve yet to stumble across and read; and when I do, I don’t remember specific reviews, I just have an idea that I read somewhere that that’s quite a good book. Offhand and after midnight, I can think of three books I grabbed on sight because I’d read good things about them: The Alienist and Doomsday Book (bloggers’ reviews) and The Book of Lost Things (newspaper). And in every case, the reviewers were right.

Beyond that, reviews don’t influence me a great deal as my primary criterion is that a book sounds interesting. A bad review of a book I’ve already decided I want to read won’t change my mind, partly because I know from reading so many reviews that people’s tastes vary, and partly because I’m just stubborn. And if I’m convinced I won’t like it, no-one’s opinion is likely to change my mind. But if I’m undecided about a book, a review might make me more likely to read it or pass on it.

Now reading: To Say Nothing of the Dog - Connie Willis (888C)
                                The House of the Spirits - Isabel Allende (TBRC)

Booking Through Thursday: May I Introduce . . .

1. How did you come across your favorite author(s)? Recommended by a friend? Stumbled across at a bookstore? A book given to you as a gift?

2. Was it love at first sight? Or did the love affair evolve over a long acquaintance?

This is a challenging question to answer, since when it comes to events I have a mind like a sieve. I do remember that my mother gave me my first Nancy Drew for my eighth? ninth? birthday (see what I mean?), which event I blame for my ongoing mystery novel/tv crime show addiction. I think she introduced me to Agatha Christie and Jane Austen, too. I got hooked on Janet Evanovich after a recommendation from a classmate in high school and finally discovered Tolkien after seeing the first film adaptation. (I think Ben Elton was a recommendation too.) Beyond that I think most of my favourites have been stumbled across at the library, the Bookfest, or other people’s blogs. And for the most part, the affection was quick to develop.

Now reading: The Man Who Knew Too Much - G. K. Chesterton
                                Cranford - Elizabeth Gaskell (TBRC)

Booking Through Thursday: Anticipation

Last week we talked about the books you liked best from 2007. So this week, what with it being a new year, and all, we’re looking forward….

What new books are you looking forward to most in 2008? Something new being published this year? Something you got as a gift for the holidays? Anything in particular that you’re planning to read in 2008 that you’re looking forward to? A classic, or maybe a best-seller from 2007 that you’re waiting to appear in paperback?

I don’t keep track of what books are due for release, but I hear there’s another Stephanie Plum on the way, so I’ll be looking forward to that. And after the cliffhanger ending of the last one, I hope there’s another Thursday Next en route, too.

The TBR Challenge list in the sidebar is about as far as my reading plans go, since the books I got for Christmas have already been polished off (reviews forthcoming). And the handful of other books I have lying around too; but I believe my TBR pile is now below two dozen. But not for long - week after next is the BOOKFEST!!! My annual buy-as-many-books-as-I-can-carry expedition, with the good excuse of its all being for charity. The 888 Challenge selection is just the start of my wish list of books to stumble across in 2008.

And I plan on re-reading Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, and maybe one or two others.

Now reading: The Man Who Knew Too Much - G. K. Chesterton
                                Marley & Me - John Grogan
                                Rescuing Rose - Isabel Wolff

Booking Through Thursday: Highlights

It’s an old question, but a good one . . . What were your favorite books this year?

List as many as you like … fiction, non-fiction, mystery, romance, science-fiction, business, travel, cookbooks … whatever the category. But, really, we’re all dying to know. What books were the highlight of your reading year in 2007?

The highlight would have to be finishing the Harry Potter series at last. I exceeded expectations by getting to the end only a few months after the release of #7, and the books made a perfect post-exams treat. Also on the list:

Cross Stitch and Dragonfly in Amber - Diana Gabaldon
The Alienist - Caleb Carr
Daughter of the Game - Tracy Grant
The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammett
The French Lieutenant’s Woman - John Fowles
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke
Doomsday Book - Connie Willis
Persuasion - Jane Austen
North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell
Dracula - Bram Stoker
I Knit Water - Craig Bolland
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
Notes from a Small Island - Bill Bryson
Buried Treasure: Travels Through the Jewel Box - Victoria Finlay

And that’s just the really good ones of the ones I’ve read so far. See . . . I knew my list-keeping would prove useful someday!

Now reading: Doomsday Book - Connie Willis
                                The Constant Princess - Philippa Gregory

Booking Through Thursday: Catalogue

Do you use any of the online book-cataloguing sites, like Library Thing or Shelfari? Why or why not? (Or . . . do you have absolutely no idea what I’m talking to?? (grin))

If not an online catalog, do you use any other method to catalog your book collection? Excel spreadsheets, index cards, a notebook, anything?

I’m only vaguely aware that book-cataloguing sites exist! So that’s a no. Although I’ve been listing the books I read for several years, I’ve never really considered keeping a list of all the ones I own. My collection is fairly small (only a little over 300) so I have no trouble remembering what I’ve got and am in no danger of doubling up inadvertantly. Ergo, I can’t be bothered. But now that the idea has been put to me I think I will have to investigate the options for keeping some kind of computerised record, if only for insurance purposes in case of freak accident or natural disaster (or bookloving burglar).

Now reading: A Doll’s House and other plays - Henrik Ibsen
                                The Woodlanders - Thomas Hardy

Booking Through Thursday: Rolling

Do you get on a roll when you read, so that one book leads to the next, which leads to the next, and so on and so on?

I don’t so much mean something like reading a series from beginning to end, but, say, a string of books that all take place in Paris. Or that have anthropologists as the main character. Or were written in the same year. Something like that… Something that strings them together in your head, and yet, otherwise could be different genres, different authors…

Uh . . . no. Often something in the book I’m reading will remind me of something in a book read days or weeks or months ago - I even posted about the phenomenon - but I can’t recall it happening with consecutive books. I read a lot of different things and try to jumble them up - most recently, following a spy novel with Rumpole - so that might be why. The occasional exceptions are challenges that involve reading round a theme, but I’m not sure that counts since it’s done consciously. (Although earlier in the book-to-movie challenge I found myself reading a lot of non-challenge books that had been adapted: The Remains of the Day, Harry Potter #1, The Maltese Falcon, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest . . .)

But in the sense of the first part of the question, I have been of a roll of late with a case of Pottermania, spending ten days ploughing through books 3 to 7. (I went to the library before my last exam in search of #3 and found all the rest on the shelves as well. Luckily I’d brought a library bag so I could take full advantage of the situation.) Which explains the recent dearth of posts. (Well . . . they were really good. And I really wanted to know what happened.) And now that I know, I can finally go and read what everyone else thought of Deathly Hallows. :-)

Now reading: The Trials of Rumpole - John Rumpole

Booking Through Thursday: Preservatives

Today’s question comes from Conspiracy-Girl: I’m still relatively new to this meme so I’m not sure if this has been asked yet, but I’m curious how many of us write notes in our books. Are you a Footprint Leaver or a Preservationist?

Write . . . in . . . books? I’m turning pale at the very thought! I’ve never even used a pencil on a textbook, I’m that fanatical. If I come across pencil notes in a library or pre-loved book, I’ll erase them; and I’ll never buy a secondhand book that’s marked beyond repair. Dogears or spines that are cracked or in need of glue, fine, but notes in ink, never. Pencil I will tolerate, but ink is a sacrilege. To me, books are valued friends to be loved and cared for.

(Just realised - this is post #200! Blogging time flies when you’re having fun.)

Now reading: Decision at Delphi - Helen MacInnes

Booking Through Thursday: Volume

Yes, it’s Friday, and late on Friday at that. But the question was posted late (belated Happy Birthday to Deb!) so you can blame the time zones and my Plant Biotech exam.

Would you say that you read about the same amount now as when you were younger? More? Less?
Why?

A little difficult to answer, since there’s not a great deal of younger to cover and remembering isn’t one of my talents. My records show a reasonably steady devouring of around 2 - 3.5 books per week from 2004 onward. My capacity for reading has an almost magical elasticity; no matter how much I have to do at uni, or how many reviews I have to write, or how many hugely time-consuming books I read, I still manage to read a LOT. And the two years before were probably much the same. I can definitively date my current addiction to 2002, thanks to an accommodating quirk of my timetable which gave me a free period after lunch on Fridays - time enough to take a bus to the Belconnen library and stock up. Every single week. And you can stop thinking whatever you’re thinking; in Canberra when you hit Years 11 and 12 the rules are dramatically relaxed and students are allowed, among other things, to wander off school grounds as they please. (Though preferably not when they’re meant to be in class.)

Before that I always read, just not (quite) so much. Precisely how much I don’t recall, but the bookcase in my room seemed to be always more or less full. And soon (well, hopefully soon) we’ll all get to see what happens to my reading after uni. I can say that after my last exam I shall be reading and reviewing like mad in order to make up for future lost time, because I suspect that once my career is underway I won’t get through anywhere near as many books as I do now. Either that, or I’ll learn to be really efficient at reading and reviewing :-)

Now reading: Lots and lots of lecture notes.

Booking Through Thursday: Oh, Horror!

What with yesterday being Halloween, and all . . . do you read horror? Stories of things that go bump in the night and keep you from sleeping?

I thought about asking you about whether you were participating in NaNoWriMo, but I asked that last year. Although . . . if you want to answer that one, too, please feel free to go ahead and do both, or either, your choice!

I do read scary stories to an extent. I love a good spook, and did once read a volume of M. R. James by torchlight during a storm-induced blackout (leaving my mother with a rather dubious opinion of my sanity). But with the exception of Dracula and possibly Anne Rice, I’m not sure how much of what I read would be shelved under Horror at the bookshop - I like spooky, not terrifying, and not too heavy on the bloodshed.

And I’m not even thinking about NaNoWriMo. It’s soethin I’ve always wanted to try, but November is exam month so by the time they were done it would be more like the National Novel Writing Fortnight! Besides which, the novel which is under construction in my head will be far longer than 50 000 words.

Now reading: The Code Book - Simon Singh
                                The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton

Booking Through Thursday: Read With Abandon?

Today’s suggestion is from Cereal Box Reader.

I would enjoy reading a meme about people’s abandoned books. The books that you start but don’t finish say as much about you as the ones you actually read, sometimes because of the books themselves or because of the circumstances that prevent you from finishing. So . . . what books have you abandoned and why?

I don’t often abandon books; I tend to feel guilty if I give up on one so I make the effort to keep going unless it gets really bad. Or, unless I get distracted. Sometimes a not-too-bad book will be deserted indefinitely when I get hooked on more interesting volumes and forget about it. An example is Rebecca - I started it last year, stopped, and finished it for the TBR Challenge this year. With these books, the intention is there to return to them . . . eventually. But some I just couldn’t make it through; Anna Karenina, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, As I Lay Dying, Sons and Lovers, Mrs Dalloway . . . and probably some modern ones as well. (One day I would like to get to the end of a Dickens novel, if only to say that I’ve done it, but I’m not sure which one to attempt. Perhaps Bleak House; I’ve seen the adaptation so if I can’t finish it, at least I’ll know how it ends.) The culprit here is usually boredom. If I really can’t get into a book, then I’ll consider quitting. And even then I might settle for skimming through the rest rather than stopping entirely.

Now reading: The Secret History - Donna Tartt (TBRC, RIP2C)
                                Mansfield Park - Jane Austen (BTMC)

Booking Through Thursday: Typography

You may or may not have seen my post at Punctuality Rules Tuesday, about a book I recently bought that had the actual TITLE misspelled on the spine of the book. A glaring typographical error that really (really!) should have been caught. So, using that as a springboard, today’s question: What’s the worst typographical error you’ve ever found in (or on) a book?

I can’t, off the top of my head late at night, think of anything too horrible (certainly not a misspelt title!). I think most of the errors I’ve seen have been the mixing-up of homophones: ‘yolk’ and ‘yoke’, ‘allude’ and ‘elude’, ‘peak’ and ‘pique’, etc. They always annoy me, though, especially when there’s a lot of them in one book, because I always see them and wonder how anything so obvious got overlooked. Outside books, but still in the realm of published writing, a column in the Courier-Mail recently referred to a group of comedians ‘poking fun of’ the Opposition leader.

And then there’s the one I once saw in a Human Cell Biology lecture. A slide came up featuring a schematic of the digestive tract and something about the regulation of apatite. I spent several very confused moments trying to fathom why some poor person would have a white crystalline mineral in their stomach before I realised he meant the regulation of appetite. (Well, it was an 8 a.m. class!)

Now reading: The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
                                The Secret History - Donna Tartt (TBRC, RIP2C)
                                Mansfield Park - Jane Austen (BTMC)

Booking Through Thursday: Decorum

Do you have “issues” with too much profanity or overly explicit (ahem) “romantic” scenes in books? Or do you take them in stride? Have issues like these ever caused you to close a book? Or do you go looking for more exactly like them? (grin)

I’m going to give this one a qualified no. It has to fit with that plot and those characters, and not be over the top. In fact, I think there are times when squeaky cleanness might seem unnatural. But I do have my limits; I don’t read erotica and I’m not sure how I’d go reading a book that was excessively heavy on the profanity. The second caveat is that, while sex and swearing don’t trouble me if I’m quietly reading to myself, I would never read such content aloud to someone else. Okay, so that’s not something I ever have cause to do - anymore. However, I once had a nasty clash with an English teacher on this topic. She expected us to form groups and act out scenes from David Williamson’s consistently foul-mouthed play The Removalists. And having been strictly brought up never to swear, I refused point-blank. I was obliged to call in the support of my mother, who did manage to get the teacher to back down. Apparently in capitulation she professed her admiration of me for sticking to my principles; but she never said anything like that to me, and didn’t make any effort not to make me feel like . . . well, crap.

(Yes, household standards have slipped a little since then. But not that much.)

Now reading: Three Comedies - Ben Jonson
                                Down Under - Bill Bryson
                                One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest - Ken Kesey
                                The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammett