Thursday Three Books!

A very wise man once said--
“Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.”
You know, that is just so true.
In any event, speaking of books (as we just
were), and being that it’s Thursday, and being that something needs to be done to break us out of our respective springtime reveries, one Jim Smith (not an alias, by the way) sends in a suggestion for the our weekly bit of snoopiness, which he dubs: The Spring Reading Edition of the Axis of Weevil Thursday Three!

1. Do you like to read one book at a time until you’re finished, or multiple things at once?

2. Do you do your browsing at the library, or do you prefer going to retailers such as Barnes and Noble and glomming up free samples of the publishing arts, pretending you’re actually going to buy something?

3. Which do you prefer--hard cover, paperback, or online?

And a special bonus question (or else Jim has lost the ability to count):
4. What do you read most often?

1) I like to read one book at a time. However,
I will also be reading some magazines at the same time. In grade school and college I was a voracious reader. I remember methodically chewing my way through my middle school and high school libraries. My high school’s library was particularly nice. There was a small room off of the main library called the reading lab. There were floor pillows, quiet games and all of the paperbacks. You could even eat in there! Our high school did not have set lunch periods and a teeny tiny cafeteria. Basically we were expected to get our lunch when ever we had a free period and find a place to eat. I mostly lunched in the reading lab and occasionally in the art room. At one point in high school I decided I was going to read a book a day. I lasted for about two months. Then I went back to one or two books a week.

2) I do very quick library runs (as I just wrote yesterday) and when I go to a bookstore I’m on a mission. My entourage is not conducive to leisurely browsing. For general browsing I poke around on the web. I like Amazon, Abebooks, Powell’s and ebay.

3) I prefer hardcover, but paperbacks are more portable. It is easier to just bring a paperback along when you think you might be able to steal a few minutes reading.

Bonus question! I tend to read science fiction (Asimov and all the other classic writers), fantasy (Ursula Le Guinn, Ann McCaffrey and so on), and mysteries (Dean Koontz, Dick Francis and Robin Cook). Occasionally I read nonfiction when the subject intrigues me (Salt and The Cruelest Miles). I never got into Stephen King. Basically I’ll read almost anything except maybe poetry.

I have my father to thank for my love of science fiction. He was an avid fan. I remember going to see 2001 in the movie theater with him. I was very young and I was hooked. My collection of books from childhood is downright schizophrenic. I have classic science fiction, most of the Back Stallion books, Little Women, A Secret Garden, some of Jack London’s stuff, a few Nancy Drews, TinTin and some Calvin and Hobbes. And now they are being passed down to my kids.

My magazines now are Newsweek, AKC Gazette and The Dachshund Club of America’s Newsletter (a gorgeous quarterly publication).