Gacked from
cestovatela1. Hardback or trade paperback or mass-market paperback? It's a mix. Hardback for non-fiction I might want to use for "reference" in the future, or favorite books, mass-market paperback for "novels to read on the train", trade paperpack for the stuff in between.
2. Amazon or brick and mortar? I try to buy from both (well, somtimes substitute "Amazon" for "the Swedish equivalent with the lowest prize), partly because there are a couple of brick and mortar-stores that I really like and want to keep in busieness. Also, I hate having to wait for books once I've decided to buy them.
3. Barnes & Noble or Borders? Neither exists around here.
4. Bookmark or dog-ear?Bookmark.
5. Alphabetize by author or alphabetize by title or random? Um, I have sorted my books in about ten different categories...but within those, they are alphabetized by author.
6. Keep, throw away, or sell? Keep mostly, but I have soon have to come up with a way to get rid of books...I don't throw away books unless they have fallen apart or are very VERY bad. (Or both. I'm looking at you,
Scarlett.
7. Keep dustjacket or toss it? Keep it.
8. Read with dustjacket or remove it? Read with it on.
9. Short story or novel? Novels, mostly.
10. Collection (short stories by same author) or anthology (short stories by different authors)? Collection.
11. Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket? Like both of them for somewhat different reasons, have only actually bought Potter.
12. Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks? Ususally when chapter breaks. Unless I get very tired in the middle of a
very long chapter.
13. "It was a dark and stormy night" or "Once upon a time"? Both.
14. Buy or Borrow? 50/50. I tend to try and borrow stuff I'm less sure I'm actually going to like.
15. New or used? Mostly new.
16. Buying choice: book reviews, recommendation or browse? A mix, but probably a little more recommendation than the other two.
17. Tidy ending or cliffhanger? I rather have a tidy ending than a cliffhanger, but it doesn't have to be
too tidy.
18. Morning reading, afternoon reading or nighttime reading? Anytime, but afternoon is the best.
19. Standalone or series? I love to read a good series and follow characters for a long time, but I'm more reluctant to pick up a part of a series than a standalone.
20. Favorite book of which nobody else has heard? Porträtt av shinglad flicka [Portrait of girl with shingled hair]; episodic coming-of-age story set in 1920's southern Sweden. Not that terribly well-written, but emotionally it rings true.
21. Favorite book(s) read last year: A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel; huge, strange historical novel about the French Revolution.
Arthur & George by Julian Barnes was the best new(ish) novel, and Elizabeth Kostova's
The Historian was the most enjoyable train-novel. Finishing Neil Gaiman's
Sandman-books was quite an experience.