Eh, what the hell. Let’s give this a shot, shall we?
1) Before I began my book blog, I was a big re-reader. I’ve read the Harry Potter books at least four times each. Ditto for The Millenium Trilogy, and James Ellroy’s “American Tabloid” and “The Cold 6000.”
2) Since I began blogging, I find myself reading a lot more non-fiction–biographies, history, political screeds, spirituality, etc.
3) I rarely like main characters. Until “Deathly Hallows,” I thought Harry Potter was a whining sack of crap, quite honestly. Somebody always had his back.
4) Accordingly, I am generally attracted to quirky characters. For example, my favorite Potter character is Luna Lovegood. I can totes see my 15 year-old self making-out with her in the Ravenclaw common-room, nargles be damned.
5) Sadly…I am a grammar Nazi. Nothing inflames my wrath more than stupid errors in a published work. (Seriously, send it to me first. I’ll proofread it for you!)
6) I get geeked when an author reads my review and responds. I’ve had some authors get really enthusiastic, and want to link to my blog from their website. That’s pretty cool.
7) Since I started book-blogging, I have read a wider variety of fiction. Before, I was reading a lot of YA books I could punch through in a night. It’s nice to read grown-up fiction again.
8) Most of what I read are advance copies–books that won’t be released for weeks or months. Every now and then, I like to take a break, and read a “classic.” I’ve reviewed books that won’t come out for five months, then I read “Lysistrata,” a truly funny play from 2000-plus years ago.
9) My friend Kelly is my book-blogging idol. She bangs out a book a day, and she always shows enthusiasm for what she reads. She roots for books to be good, and she often wants to be best-friends with some of the characters. KELLY is a reader, and my YA Maven. On Goodreads, I have a shelf called “Books Kelly Told Me to Read.” She has an excellent record. So thanks, Kel. 🙂
10) My favorite books to read are trade paperbacks. I like the way they fit in my hand, and the quality is such that I don’t end up with an inky thumb when I’m done.
11) That said, I’ve read 103 books so far this year, and only two were actual, palpable, paper books. The rest were just electrons in my Kindle or Adobe Digital Editions reader.
12) My only regret about reading so many e-books is that I miss the ritualistic act of handing a book to a friend and saying, “Read this!”
13) I’m sort of a language whore. Most books have similar narrative styles, which is fine. But somebody like F. Scott Fitzgerald or non-Catcher J.D. Salinger gets extra points for writing beautifully.
14) Even though I like YA, I swear that I don’t care how big the narratrix’s boobs are compared to her cool, cheerleader BFF. Seriously. Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia did not compare boobies whilst driving King Lear mad.
15) Like Kelly, I’m always rooting for a book to be good. I feel bad when I have to two-star somebody’s work.
That’s it for Day One. More inane blathering from me tomorrow. Happy Tuesday, y’all.
Books and Movies and Stuff 
Thanks! When you discuss it, I sound so much better. 😉
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When you become famous, I can be your press secretary. 😉
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I got an ARC of a YA SF (woo acronyms) titled “Red Rising” by Pierce Brown. It’s very Manly, lots of violence and status-jockeying, but intriguing world-building and excellent word-slinging from a 25 year old. At least with being Manly, there’s no annoying love triangle. Set up, sadly, is better than main plot but it’s (of course) a trilogy so it might get back to the more interesting people.
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Good point about it being a trilogy. Sometimes you see that, where book one is all about the set-up. I hate trilogies where it takes two books to set-up book three, which is then awesome. The authors should be punished.
Just for giggles, I want to write a book with a love dodecahedron, just to see if I could do it. I’ll wait till I’m independently wealthy before I get started plotting that. (No farm animals will be involved. I promise. (okay, maybe just a couple 😉 ))
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You can always make the animals have human brain power, or have people who’ve turned themselves into animals. Then it’s okay.
This book of which I speak (comes out in Feb) just spends too much time on the richest of the richest/powerful and their status machinations against each other via hand-to-hand combat and medieval warfare (in the distant future), after the first part of the book set up this really interesting world of poor folks with trickle-down high tech and a short stay with futuristic middle-class folk with cool stuff. The two parts of the book didn’t fit together.
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I’m glad I’m not the only grammar nazi. You are right about the ARCs though. I always have a new ARC every day in school (when I was in school). It got to the point where people started asking me where all these were coming from. Haha!
Followed! (I’d also really appreciate a bloglovin’ follow and a comment on my post in return!)
My Day 1
– Nova @ Musings of a Blogder
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Nice! I like this meme. There’s a part of me that wants to do it, but I’ve committed to a short story one in August, in which I have to get my butt in gear.
I love my book-blogging friends — my ratio of good-books to crappy-books has skyrocketed because of great recommendations.
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I feel bad that my “real” blog is just sitting there, gathering electron dust. Last summer, during the crayzee, I couldn’t read. This summer, I can’t stop reading books. OH! I meant to tell you, you might like “The Land of Dreams,” which I think I reviewed a day or two ago. You’d blogged before about wanting a good mystery. I liked this one, though it’s going to piss me off to wait a year for book two in the Minnesota Trilogy, then ANOTHER year for the final book. Grr
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