The Book Meme

Answer on your own blogs, please, and spread the love. The questions!

Name three books on your book shelf. One from each end and one from the middle.
I have several book shelves, but here's a smattering:
On The Road by Jack Kerouac
A Man With a Load of Mischief by Martha Grimes
The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton


What reading material is in your bathroom?
Whatever gaming books Matt has picked up lately and America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction

Favorite authors and why.
Martha Grimes - For her Superintendent Jury mystery series
Edith Wharton - For her detailed scrutiny of the late 1800s New York society
J.K. Rowling - For writing fantastic books, in general, and getting kids excited about reading
Dan Brown - For writing well-researched suspense books that lead to you believe it could be true
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. - For being there when I needed volumes of books to read in college
Douglas Adams - For writing a type of sci-fi that I could enjoy and that made me laugh out loud
Deborah Crombie - For writing a mystery series where you feel like you know the
characters, but there's not so much romance that it's chick lit
Sophie Kinsella - For writing decent chick lit
Gordon Korman - For writing hilarious young adult books that I can still read over and over again even after junior high (see Don't Care High and A Semester In the Life
of a Gargage Bag)

Least favorite authors and why.
Stephen King - I don't like horror
Romance Novels.. the Harlequin variety - Why don't we just call it soft core and get over it?
Most Bestsellers - Shoddy product with too much violence or contrived romances

What author is over rated?
That guy on the bestseller's list who writes those thriller/crime books.

Would you (have you) picked up a woman (or man) in a bookstore?
Hah! I can do better than that! I picked up a guy in a bookstore during winter break of my freshman year in college. It was the old Village Green bookstore on Monroe Ave. in Rochester, NY. I forget his name, but we started talking and then went to Gitsi's for some coffee since it was close by. He called me once after that to see if I wanted to go to the movies, but I blew him off and said I was going back to school and was too busy to go out. So cruel, I was then.

Do you eat while you read? If so what’s your food of choice?
Yes. A huge mug of tea. If it's the middle of the afternoon, sometimes I'll throw in apple slices, cucumber sandwich, and a cookie as a quick afternoon tea.

Name one book you’d recommend for someone searching for meaning or insight or inspiration.
Literature is so personal. I'm reluctant really, but here's one:
The Ghost of Hannah Mendes by Naomi Ragen

Name one book you’d recommend for a day on the beach or a rainy day in the house.

Beach: A Year In Provence by Peter Mayle. I read all the books our library had by him last summer. It made me want to go to France to have some truffles despite my adversion to all foods in the fungi group. A great escape set of books.

Rainy Day: Even though it's a YA book, I like to drag out Through A Brief Darkness by Richard Peck. It has a rainy feel to the story.


Do you judge a book by its cover?
Sometimes.

In the bookstore, what section do you head to first?
The new fiction section

I pass this onto:
Matt B.
Heidi
Mike S.