Booking Through Thursday #2

Booking Through Thursday asks:

I got this from Lorette‘s blog and couldn’t resist adopting it for all of you.

1. Favorite childhood book?
Should I only name one? Ok, just from the top of my head - Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie, Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren, Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and Karlsson on the Roof by Astrid Lindgren. Also a lot of Russian books that I don’t think ever were translated to English.

2. What are you reading right now?
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson and Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.

3. What books do you have on request at the library?
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. I was thinking for years to read this book. It always looked interesting to me, but somehow I never got to it.

4. Bad book habit?
I don’t think I have any left. I eliminated them all, or rather my grand-father eliminated them in me. I used to eat when I was reading and then leave greasy stains on books. I used to dog-ear books. I used to use any kind of objects that I had around as a bookmark, some of them, such as pencils, would damage book’s spine. I used to leave books open page down. And many, many other terrible things.

5. What do you currently have checked out at the library?
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith.

6. Do you have an e-reader?
Yes. Nook.

7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once?
I wasn't able to read more than one book at a time for quite a while, but I figured out the trick lately – books that you are simultaneously reading should be completely different – should be set in different time, should have different genre, et cetera. So now I usually read two books at a time – one at home and one at work.

8. Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog?
I really don’t think so. I started the blog just to record what I read and what my opinion on a book was at the time I finished it.

9. Least favorite book you read this year (so far?)
Fallen by Lauren Kate, as I wrote in my review, it wasn’t a novel, rather some piece of terrible writing.

10. Favorite book you’ve read this year?
It is a hard question; I can’t just answer with one title, so I will do that by genre.
Contemporary - Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers.
Sci-fi – Incarceron by Catherine Fisher
Adult - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Paranormal - White Cat by Holly Black
Children - The Thirteen Treasures by Michelle Harrison
Classics - The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

11. How often do you read out of your comfort zone?
Sometimes I do, when a book catches my eye or someone I trust recommend it to me.

12. What is your reading comfort zone?
This is probably the hardest question, because I read pretty much any fiction. I can tell you what is NOT my reading comfort zone – most of non-fiction, in particular – biographies.

13. Can you read on the bus?
Not for a long time, I’m getting motion sickness very easily.

14. Favorite place to read?
At my house, on the lanai around the pool and in my library room at my house on the windowsill.

15. What is your policy on book lending?
Don’t eat and read, don’t dog-ear, not tear and yes, the most important, – I’m landing you a book, not giving as a gift, so please return it to me.

16. Do you ever dog-ear books?
Lately – never, though as I already said in question 4 that I used to do this quite often.

17. Do you ever write in the margins of your books?
Never.

18. Not even with text books?
Not even if they are trying to make me.

19. What is your favorite language to read in?
English and Russian.

20. What makes you love a book?
Good writing; solid, imaginative plot; alive, fascinating characters.

21. What will inspire you to recommend a book?
If I think that particular person might enjoy this particular book.

22. Favorite genre?
My whole life I’m trying to answer this question. Still can’t. I read pretty much everything.

23. Genre you rarely read (but wish you did?)
I rarely read non-fiction. Do I wish I would read more of that? Not sure.

Favorite biography?
None, I didn’t read that many biographies and this is probably my least favorite genre.

25. Have you ever read a self-help book?
No, never. I don’t believe in them.

26. Favorite cookbook?
My grand-mother’s notebook, I wish I would have it.

27. Most inspirational book you’ve read this year (fiction or non-fiction)?
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

28. Favorite reading snack?
None, I don’t like snacks to begin with.

29. Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience.
I can’t think of any.

30. How often do you agree with critics about a book?
Hmm, I don’t read that many professional reviews or critical essays. I would say fifty-fifty – sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t.

31. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews?
I feel indifferent. Negative review for me same as any other review. In my reviews I’m reflecting my own personal opinion. I’m not claiming to be a professional critic. I’m not trying to influence people with my reviews. My blog is my personal notes, not a promotion tool.

32. If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you chose?
French. I should try reading more in French, because I really want to pick up this language I used to know, but forgot when I started learning English. Also I would really love to read French classics on its original language.

33. Most intimidating book you’ve ever read?
I don’t remember any book that intimidated me.

34. Most intimidating book you’re too nervous to begin?
None, because of the answer on the above question.

35. Favorite Poet?
Alexander Blok, Lord Byron, Anna Akhmatova, Sergei Yesenin – just to name a few.

36. How many books do you usually have checked out of the library at any given time?
Not more than three or four. I like coming back to the library and choosing new books. If I would have too big of a pile, by the time I would get to the bottom of it, I might lose my interest to the last book.

37. How often have you returned book to the library unread?
When I was a child, I did it quite often.

38. Favorite fictional character?
Should I name only one?
Lisbeth Salander from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. She is smart and dangerous;
Scarlett O’Hara from Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell;
Holden Caulfield from The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger
Alice from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote

39. Favorite fictional villain?
Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris;
Count Dracula from Dracula by Bram Stoker;
Mr Hyde from Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson;
The White Witch from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis

40. Books I’m most likely to bring on vacation?
The next ones on my TBR list.

41. The longest I’ve gone without reading.
From my birth until fifth grade I haven’t read anything. I’ve been read to at least until first grade and may be even longer. Even though I knew how to read myself for a long time, I hated reading. I loved when I was read to. By the time of the fifth grade, I realized that if I will not start reading myself, no one going to read to me anymore and I will be left without my favorite stories, so I started reading and as it seems, never stopped after that.

42. Name a book that you could/would not finish.
Oh, there are too many to list them all. Lately, I started to reread books that I gave up on when I was at school and since I’m quite stubborn I’m finishing them all so far.

43. What distracts you easily when you’re reading?
Conversations around me.

44. Favorite film adaptation of a novel?
War and Peace (1965) directed by Sergei Bondarchuk.

45. Most disappointing film adaptation?
Twilight (2008) and both of the sequels – New Moon and Eclipse.

46. The most money I’ve ever spent in the bookstore at one time?
The most I could remember was somewhere around $250.

47. How often do you skim a book before reading it?
Never.

48. What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through?
If I could not bring myself to pick it up again and nothing and no one could talk me into continue it.

49. Do you like to keep your books organized?
Not really, I don’t actually care about that.

50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them?
I keep all books that I bought. One day I would need a separate, devoted only to books, house.

51. Are there any books you’ve been avoiding?
The latest is Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. This is just not my cup of tea.

52. Name a book that made you angry.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

53. A book you didn’t expect to like but did?
Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

54. A book that you expected to like but didn’t?
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

55. Favorite guilt-free, pleasure reading?
The reading itself is my favorite guilt-free pleasure.