The Friday Five
Sep. 28th, 2024 03:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scrubjayspeaks1. Most everyone will recommend a book or two to read, but are there any you would tell people to avoid?
Not really? I've read books that I personally couldn't stand, but plenty of other people think they're great. I don't know that there's anything I would consider so deleterious to my wellbeing that I would warn others off. Or perhaps I've just jettisoned the memory of them because they felt like such a waste.
2. If you take a book on vacation, are you more likely to take something you haven't read yet or an old favorite?
Since I would read digitally when traveling, a bit of both. I like to have something new to try out, but I always have a large collection of old friends to fall back on. But then, I travel so seldom, it's not much of a pattern. I do love listening to new audiobooks when driving, though.
3. Do you read any genres by the season? Like horror around Halloween? Cozy Mysteries in the Winter? Romance in the Summer?
I do like a bit of spookiness for autumn. Mostly, it's that there are certain times of year I associate with books I've already read. That might be because of the content of the story, or it might be strong associations from the first time I read it. So I end up wanting to reread those stories at that time of year.
4. If you read a lot of Fiction do you prefer an author that has a series with the same character(s), or do you prefer stand-alone stories?
I used to (attempt to) read more series when I was younger. The problem is that I end up not wanting to read the last book, because then it will all be over. I get very hung up on endings. (It took me something on the order of twenty years to finally watch The Return of the King, though I saw Fellowship and Two Towers in theaters.) With a standalone, the momentum of the plot is enough to keep me from stalling out right before the ending. I do particularly love loose or jump-in-anywhere series, like Discworld or Wayward Children.
5. Is there a book that you wish you could read again, but experience it like it was the first time?
Actually, I quite want the opposite. I often find it hard to work up the emotional fortitude to try a new story. I wish I could artificially inject knowledge of the book into my brain in advance so that every reading was a re-reading. Just reading a synopsis or spoilers isn't quite the same--I need to know the emotional impact, not just the facts of the plot. It's why I tend to latch onto authors and read everything they've done once they win me over once. On some level, I know what to expect and it's safer to invest.
Well, okay, there's one exception: Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass. I was obsessed with that as a kid, and I wish I could again experience it in all my clueless wonder. As an adult, I know too much about the references Carroll was making to then-current politics and whatnot, so it no longer feels like a bizarre fantasy.
Not really? I've read books that I personally couldn't stand, but plenty of other people think they're great. I don't know that there's anything I would consider so deleterious to my wellbeing that I would warn others off. Or perhaps I've just jettisoned the memory of them because they felt like such a waste.
2. If you take a book on vacation, are you more likely to take something you haven't read yet or an old favorite?
Since I would read digitally when traveling, a bit of both. I like to have something new to try out, but I always have a large collection of old friends to fall back on. But then, I travel so seldom, it's not much of a pattern. I do love listening to new audiobooks when driving, though.
3. Do you read any genres by the season? Like horror around Halloween? Cozy Mysteries in the Winter? Romance in the Summer?
I do like a bit of spookiness for autumn. Mostly, it's that there are certain times of year I associate with books I've already read. That might be because of the content of the story, or it might be strong associations from the first time I read it. So I end up wanting to reread those stories at that time of year.
4. If you read a lot of Fiction do you prefer an author that has a series with the same character(s), or do you prefer stand-alone stories?
I used to (attempt to) read more series when I was younger. The problem is that I end up not wanting to read the last book, because then it will all be over. I get very hung up on endings. (It took me something on the order of twenty years to finally watch The Return of the King, though I saw Fellowship and Two Towers in theaters.) With a standalone, the momentum of the plot is enough to keep me from stalling out right before the ending. I do particularly love loose or jump-in-anywhere series, like Discworld or Wayward Children.
5. Is there a book that you wish you could read again, but experience it like it was the first time?
Actually, I quite want the opposite. I often find it hard to work up the emotional fortitude to try a new story. I wish I could artificially inject knowledge of the book into my brain in advance so that every reading was a re-reading. Just reading a synopsis or spoilers isn't quite the same--I need to know the emotional impact, not just the facts of the plot. It's why I tend to latch onto authors and read everything they've done once they win me over once. On some level, I know what to expect and it's safer to invest.
Well, okay, there's one exception: Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass. I was obsessed with that as a kid, and I wish I could again experience it in all my clueless wonder. As an adult, I know too much about the references Carroll was making to then-current politics and whatnot, so it no longer feels like a bizarre fantasy.
