Book Lover’s Questionnaire

1. What are at least 2 of your favorite genres? I seem to read a lot of fantasy, but that does not mean I like all fantasy, because I don’t. I only like specific types of fantasy. I also still really like historical books and historical fiction.

2. What is your least favorite genre? I’m not really big on mystery books because I can never figure them out before the end.

3. What is your all-time favorite book? No idea. I like a lot of books. Some books I like for some reasons. Other books I like for other reasons. I like a LOT of books.

4. What is the first book you remember reading? I know I was always reading, but the first books I remember reading were Babar books or historical fiction books about the revolutionary and civil war and the Black Stallion books among others.

5. Do you prefer books or audio books? I definitely prefer paper books I can hold and look at. I’m too old fashioned for audio or electronic.

6. Who are your favorite authors? This is an interesting question because there are some authors that I like a lot of their books, but I doubt there is an author that I like all of their books. However, I am more likely to pick up a book if it is written by certain authors. Lloyd Alexander, J. K. Rowling, Andrew Clements, Avi, Alonzo L. Gaskill, Carl Sagan, William A. Wilson, James Michener.

7. How many books do you read in a year? Since I started keeping track I’ve had three years around 30, one year over 50, and three years around 10. If I read non-fiction it’s less. If I read fiction it’s more.

8. Do you buy books or borrow them from the library? I love owning books. But for ones I’m not sure of yet I do love checking them out from the library. I’ve made very good use of the inter-library loan I have available these last two years.

9. How many books do you own? The last time I counted, I personally had 23 boxes of books. But that was two years ago.

10. What is your most prized book? I have some books from my grandparents that I love. I’m also very proud of my Harry Potter book shelf, which is getting bigger than a single shelf.

11. What are the worst books you have ever read (or tried to read)? The absolute worst was Wicked. Awful, awful icky book that I never want to touch again. Also not a huge fan of a lot of the books I read in high school – The Good Earth, The Old Man and the Sea, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Gone With the Wind …. And then I’ve also read Tuck Everlasting, Coraline, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, and The Fred Factor and I didn’t really enjoy those that much either.

12. Have you read any modern day sequels you liked? Modern day sequels of older books? Nope, haven’t read any of those, don’t know of too many actually. But books in a series are always popular and I have a few I really like – Harry Potter, Chronicles of Prydain, Artemis Fowl, and the Shadow Children are some of my favorites.

13. What is your favorite quote from a book? It changes almost as often as I read a book. And I rarely remember to write them down as I read them. I absolutely love the way some people have with words. But one of the latest ones I wrote down somewhere that I can find quickly:

Intellectual capacity is no guarantee against being dead wrong.
– Sagan

14. Who is your all-time favorite male character? Just like with a book, I don’t know that I could pick one character. Depending on what I’m currently reading or what I’m currently doing with my life, I’ll have a different one that stands out to me.

15. Who is your all-time favorite female character? Hands down, Eilonwy. I identify far too much with her.

16. What highly recommended book have you not liked? Wicked. But then I’m also very careful whose recommendations I take and so I don’t read a lot of books people recommend.

17. Name a character you love to hate? The best bad person? The best antagonist? The character who I love to see get it at the end of the book? Thinking back on the books I’ve read, life has been the most popular antagonist.

18. Do you belong to a book club? Nope.

19. What was the last book you purchased? I’ve been using the library so much lately that I think the last book I paid money for was a text book. Unless you want to count the blank book I bought to write my own book in, that was a very good book.

20. What are you reading now? The Old Testament. The Book of Jasher. Two books about the human body. A book about NDEs. How to Win Friends and Influence People. It seems like there’s at least one other somewhere that I’m in the middle of too.

21. What book made you cry the hardest? I remember walking around BYU campus reading The High King because I couldn’t put it down and just crying. I also cried reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

22. What book made you laugh the most? That would have to be my mom’s reading of Diary of a Worm.

23. What is your favorite children’s book (one you would choose to read to your kids)? What if I choose to read them to myself? The majority of the books I read would be classified as children’s literature.

24. If you were to choose a book to give as a gift, what would it be? It would really depend on the person. But I do really like trying to figure out what the perfect book is to give a person. Books are wonderful gifts.

25. List 5 books you have read more than once? The scriptures. The Chronicles of Prydain. Harry Potter. The Dark is Rising. Dr. Seuss books.

26. What is your favorite book made into a movie? See #27.

27. Did you like the book or movie better? The movies I’ve actually seen that have been made from books have been pretty good. But I’m super picky about going to a movie based on a book and there are a lot of movies that I haven’t seen because I knew they butchered the book.

28. What book would you like to see made into a movie? I think the Artemis Fowl books could be excellent movies, if they got a smart person to do them.

29. Do you prefer hardcover or soft copy? Soft. I don’t feel so bad when the cover gets beat up on a soft cover book. And they’re generally cheaper. But hardcover is so classy.

30. Do you leave the dustcover on while you are reading a book? No. I like to keep them nice.

31. Where do you usually read? The couch. The bed. The bus. School. The kitchen table.

32. When do you usually read? Usually when I’m awake. 🙂 I get a lot of reading done on the bus. Which means I have the weird habit of getting more reading done when I’m in class then when I’m on vacation.

33. Do you keep a TBR (to-be-read) list? I have a list and a stack. Unfortunately there isn’t a lot of overlap between the two.

34. Do you usually have more than one book that you are reading at a time? Always.

35. Do you remember how you developed a love for reading? I don’t remember ever not loving reading. And I fully blame my parents for that. And I hope it’s something my kids will blame me for.