What are you reading right now? (And, is it good? Would you recommend it? How did you choose it?) – BTT

Usually, I am only reading one book or between books (I tend to read books in a couple of big bursts), but right now, I’ve got two on the go:

Hark A Vagrant by Kate Beaton – A collection of comics from eponymous web comic. I love this and have followed the blog for a few years. I’ll gush about it in the review, but basically, Beaton and I have very similar interests. I’d recommend it.

Walden by Henry David Thoreau – I’ve only read a few pages of this on the Kindle. It was the book chosen by the Classics Spin. It seems to be essential classical reading.

What are you reading this week?

How often do you visit a library? Do you go to borrow books? Do research? Check out the multi-media center? Hang out with the friendly and knowledgeable staff? Are you there out of love or out of need? – BTT

Out of love! I go to the library once a week. It is definitely part of my weekly routine and has been for about the last decade. The only time I didn’t really go often or regularly was in graduate school, and even then I went to the school library every couple of weeks during non-exam time. I lived in a place with no or far from a library and even there, I found a library. I mostly go to borrow books. With internet catalogues, I can reserve most of the books I want in advance and there is less shelf browsing.

I love the library! I use to spend my summers there as a kid and hang out for hours in the children’s section, looking for books. No one really bothered me. I could just escape into the world of books. I still do. I have been extremely lucky in the sense that my hometown has a wonderful library system which makes it one of the best reasons to live here.

What do you love most about reading? – BTT

I love words, language and communication. I love to learn about new and old things. I love to escape into a novel of a faraway land or someplace in a backyard. I love to fall in love with fictional characters. I love to relax and be riveted at the same time by a book. I love that a book can always be there. I love how it exercises my mind. I love the sense of accomplishment and satisfaction I get when I finish a particularly good and long book. I love that no matter how much I try to read more and faster, there seems to be an endless supply of good books in the world. I love that books were my first love and one of my first true friends.

Lots to things to love about reading and books. I could go on. How about you?

Do other people influence what you choose to read? When a family member recommends something, or a friend says they hated a book you were planning to read … does it affect your reading choices? – BTT

Yes, and it does not always happen very often because I read more than most of the people I know. I do take recommendations easily. As for the other end of the spectrum, I consider it, but I always wonder about the books (or movies) we do like and disagree on. I am more open minded about certain items than friends and perhaps they are about others that I am not keen on either. If I plan on reading a book, I usually stick to it unless a lot of people say it is bad.

How about you?

Do you ever try to pair music with the book you’re reading? Play the movie soundtrack while reading the original book? Find mood music that fits with your story? – BTT

Not really. I don’t listen to music that much, but sometimes when it’s very quiet, I will play something mellow since I don’t want distractions to the words and the story. Lately, I’ve have used Songza’s Reading playlists though, but it’s not a regular thing.

How about you?

It’s the depth of winter here where I live right now … what books do you like to read when it’s snowy and white? What books do you read to evoke a real feeling of winter (good or bad)? BTT

I don’t really read for the season. I do think I read much more in summer and spring. This partly due to a habit I grew up with when I went to school. Winter was exams and midterms and summer was free time. Even now, winter is more fraught with responsibilities, work and less for free time. I’m disappointed that I haven’t really had much time to read this month, and I doubt I can make more time.

As for books that evoke winter, all my favourite young adult series use winter very well: Harry Potter (just reread last week), His Dark Materials (ditto), and Narnia (particularly TLWW).

It’s my Dad’s birthday today, which makes me wonder … do you like to give books as gifts?

I’m usually torn. I love giving and sharing books, but it can be hard. The giftee can be difficult to please, or you don’t know what they’ve read (or what they thought of books they have read). Even people who love to read and love to get books can be hard to gift books to … so, does that make you pause and reach for the neckties or DVDs or sweaters … anything BUT a book at gift-giving time? How do you feel about getting books yourself? Are you picky or easy? (For the record, I’m told I’m VERY hard to buy for, even though I’ll read just about anything … go figure. – BTT

Gift giving is always tricky. I tend to not give books as gifts because most people I know don’t really appreciate books like I do. Secondly, while I love books, I am picky about the books I receive too. I have received books in the past and I appreciate the thought, but unless the person knows me very well (and few do), I don’t necessarily get the books I want. I really like to choose my own books, and I will pretty much read anything too. But there is something about choosing the books you read. I do love recommendations though, but I like to seek the book out in my own time.

I think a good way of giving a book lover a gift is to give them a gift certificate to their bookstore of choice, Amazon, Chapters, Book Depository, etc.

Otherwise, I like other gifts too. 🙂

Also, I posted this at 2AM not because of insomnia, but because I am just rereading Harry Potter stuffs.

Any reading resolutions for the new year? Reading more? (Reading less?) Reading better books? Bigger books? More series? More relaxing books?

And hey, feel free to talk about any other resolutions you might have, too … or why you choose NOT to have any. – BTT

I am not really a resolutions kind of girl. I can outline what I want my reading goals to be: more nonfiction, more poetry, more classics, and while I’d like to read more, I always aim to read about the same as I did the year before. All of these are my usual goals and don’t change very much over the years.

How about you?

A deceptively easy question for this week (easy to ask but possibly hard to answer): What are/were your favorite book(s) of the year? (Bonus points if you know how many books you read.) – BTT

As of today, I’ve read 64 books this year. I am in the process of finishing one more. I am going to do a much longer post about the favourites of 2012, but as follows are a couple of highlights from the year: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, and Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. There are more, but I’ll make a proper post next week or so about it.

What were your reading favourites of 2012?

Any books you’re particularly hoping to be gifted this year? Any that you’re giving as presents this holiday season? – BTT

Since Christmas isn’t really celebrated by my family, it’s low on gifts. I do like the holiday season. I am getting myself a couple of cookbooks. This seems to be a tradition as I got myself three cookbooks last year. I really should stop as I now have a wee too many cookbooks. As for other books, I have enough unread ones to last for awhile. I like the cookbooks since they are festive in themselves a lot of the time and they celebrate my love of food and glossy books.

What books are in your life this holiday season?

So … you’ve just finished reading a book. For the sake of the discussion, we’ll say it was everything a book should be—engaging, entertaining, interesting, thought-provoking. The kind you want to gush over. The question is—do you immediately move on to your next book? Or do you take time to contemplate this writerly masterpiece and all its associated thoughts/emotions/ideas for a while first? – BTT

Usually, I’ll write up my thoughts on the book for review. It really depends on my schedule. There aren’t a lot of times where I finish a book and just go straight to the next one, I move onto another activity. But this year, I did read an amazing book and often times, I feel inspired to read more because of it. So I would say I do a bit of both.

On BTT this week:

Do you keep a list of the books you’ve read? How? In a journal? Through one of the online services? If so, WHY? To keep good records for future reference? To make sure you don’t accidentally reread? If not, why not? Too eager to move on to the next book? Too lazy? Never thought to bother?

Yes! I keep it online on a blogspot journal. It use to be on this website and I am still considering bringing the whole list over. It is very long and includes the movies I consume. I also updated my GoodReads account to reflect more or less all the books I’ve ever read, but I’ve only ever added the dates for this year.

I like keeping records and lists of things. I started to really track books and movies when I started doing websites back in 2001 so I have kept it up. It really does help with accidental reread or rewatch. It helps me plan for what to read next, challenges, and set goals.

How about you?