Books Books and more Books

What book has been on your shelves the longest?
Winnie-the-Pooh

What is your current read, your last read and the book you'll read next?
Current: Firefly Lane
Last Read: Lost in Translation by Nicole Mones (not the movie)
Next on the List: 3 for book clubs--The Birth House, Night, Run

What book did everyone like and you hated?
Don't know the response of others, but I didn't much like A Complicated Kindness

Which book do you keep telling yourself you'll read, but you probably won't?
Satanic Verses

Which book are you saving for "retirement?"
Ulysses by James Joyce

Last page: read it first or wait til the end?
I almost NEVER read ahead to the end!!!

Acknowledgments: waste of ink and paper or interesting aside?
I like creative acknowledgments that tell something about the author

Which book character would you switch places with?
Anne of Green Gables

Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time)?
Doris Lessing reminds me of the time when I was in Library school and I first started reading and collecting her books. She is now on a list to re-read, which I started doing last year with Memoirs of a Survivor.


Name a book you acquired in some interesting way.
I still have some poetry books that I bought at City Lights in SF in 1964, when there were still remnants of the beat world there and the edge of the hippie years was beginning.

Have you ever given away a book for a special reason to a special person?
I like to give books and try to pick special ones when I do. One gift that made me happy was last year at Christmas when we gave our little nephew a deluxe copy of Hatchet. He was genuinely thrilled, had already been introduced to the book but was so happy to have the illustrated version.

Which book has been with you to the most places?
Some of my old college textbooks have traveled with me for 46 years.

Any "required reading" you hated in high school that wasn't so bad ten years later?
I hated most of American Lit in high school but loved Melville and Hawthorne 5 years later.

What is the strangest item you've ever found in a book?
I haven't found any strange items.

Used or brand new?
They are both good, but right now, a new variant---Kindle version

Stephen King: Literary genius or opiate of the masses?
He's somewhere in between, fun to read and a true caring person

Have you ever seen a movie you liked better than the book?
Many movies from books stand on their own very well, even if I like both. The Lord of the Rings trilogy should be read AND seen for example.

Conversely, which book should NEVER have been introduced to celluloid?
Kite Runner


Who is the person whose book advice you'll always take?
Most of my book club buddies are amazing in their recommendations!