Outside of a dog

1. How many hours a day do you spend reading?
Oh, goodness, it varies so much. Right now I get about 1-3 hours, but that doesn't include online. And it's gone up a bit since I can trust Jane to crawl around and play quietly with toys in the background; previously reading was limited to her nap time, which needed to be dedicated to other chores.

2. How fast do you read?
Very quickly. My all-time benchmark is finishing all 1200+ pages of Les Miz in two days (but that was back before I had a job and could stay up half the night).

3. What is your favorite book?
The Bible, of course.

4. Who is your favorite author?
Mmm, that's a tricky one, but I'll go with Jane Austen.

5. What is your favorite action/adventure novel?
And we have a five-way tie between The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Prisoner of Zenda, Scaramouche, Beau Geste, and A Tale of Two Cities.

6. What is your favorite mystery novel?
The Eleventh Hour.

7. What is your favorite romance novel?
Pride and Prejudice, far and away.

8. What is your favorite character novel?
But all of the people in my favourite books are characters!

I would say either Little Women, the Little House books, Caddie Woodlawn, or the Grandma's Attic books, because they're all excellent moral character books without sounding a bit preachy.

9. What is your favorite fantasy/sci-fi novel?
Sci-fi would be Asimov's Foundation trilogy. Fantasy would be, of course, Lord of the Rings.

10. What is your favorite history book?
No contest - The Story of Liberty.

11. What is your favorite biography?
If a biography of a pretend person counts, then Ben-Hur. Otherwise, Carry On, Mr. Bowditch.

12. What is your favorite other non-fiction book?
Probably Stepping Heavenward, in sheer terms of how many times I've read it.

13. What is your favorite play?
The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde. Other plays by Oscar Wilde rank very high up there, as do a few plays by Shakespeare and Moliere. Gilbert and Sullivan go without saying. Of course, I love a lot of the plays that were turned into movie musicals.

14. What is your favorite of the genres mentioned in questions 5-12?
As if I could answer that!

15. What is your favorite type of character?
The one I married: clever, intelligent, handsome, dashing, witty, charming, gallant, thoughtful, and surprising.

16. If you could host a party with 7 literary characters, who would they be and why?
Eliza Bennet, because I want to meet her.
The Princess from The Lady or the Tiger, because I want to ask her which door it was.
Anne Shirley, to make me feel better about forgetting the sweet potatoes and setting out the wrong napkins.
Atreyu from The Neverending Story, because every good dinner party needs an adventurer.
Dad Gilbreth from Cheaper by the Dozen, because he would be the life of the party.
Henry Tilney from Northanger Abbey, to talk nonsense and make us all laugh.
Tommy Hambledon from Drink To Yesterday, because I need another Brit and and another gent.

17. Do you like film adaptations of books? If so, which is your favorite? Which is your least?
Yes, if they're done right. Not if they're mangled. Perhaps my favourite is Mary Poppins, which I actually like better than the book, one of only five such cases known to man. As for worst, it's hard to differentiate between so-bad-because-it's-such-a-badly-done-movie, like those dismal 50s-60s attempts at Prisoner of Zenda, Pride & Prejudice, and Little Women, and it-would-be-a-great-movie-if-it-didn't-steal-the-title-of-the-book-to-which-it-bears-no-resemblance, such as Lord of the Rings, Count of Monte Cristo, etc.

18. Who is your literary role model?
Eliza Bennet, because she is intelligent, pretty, modest, and confident, but is open to reproof and improvement.

19. Which literary house would you like most to live in?
Probably the Last Homely House. I'd have the best neighbors. Of course, Cair Paravel wouldn't be too shabby, either.

20. Which literary couple would you like most for parents?
Probably Percy and Marguerite Blakeney, or Tommy and Tuppence. I like books that have a romance between married couples.

21. Pick 3 literary characters you would like to have as siblings.
Michael Geste, Caddie Woodlawn, and Christopher Robin.

22. Who is your favorite literary villain?
After Rupert of Hentzau? Probably Messala.

23. Name a character that most people dislike, but that you do not. Why do you like them?
Ooh, I much prefer the reverse, of explaining why I don't like all the characters that most people like! But definitely Boromir. He's far under-rated, especially in the movie. I love the bit in the appendices that says something along the lines of, 'Faramir believed that his older brother was the most valiant in arms in all of Gondor, and Boromir thought so too.' He's brave, patriotic, loyal, cynical, and dislikes Aragorn, which is enough of a recommendation in its own right.

24. Which minor character deserves a book all to themselves, in your opinion?
Puddleglum, certainly. Also Tom Bombadil. Also Rosencrantz & Guildenstern - oh, wait, they already got that.

25. Which character do you identify most with in literature?
Emma Woodhouse.

26. If you could go into a novel, which one would it be and why?
Ooh, tricky, tricky! If I went into a novel, I'd have to be sure to go in as the right character, with the right location and social standing and amount of wealth. But it would probably be an English 18th-century novel.

27. Do you prefer hardback or paperback?
Hardback.

28. Do you like dustcovers?
Yes, they make fabulous bookmarks.

29. Do you like introductions, forwards, afterwards, and appendices?
Depends on how interesting they are. Usually they are boring, in which case I skip them.

30. Do you like reading literary criticism?
Sometimes it gives me insights and good ideas, but most of the time it just frustrates me.

31. Do you like new or used books? What about ex-library?
Yes.

32. Are you likely to buy new books without having read them, or would you buy a used copy (or check it out from the library) to see if it is good or not?
I would never buy a new book never having read it. That's as dangerous as ordering something brand-new from a catalogue you've never tried the clothes of before.

33. Name 3 - 7 books that you rarely see on people's favorite book lists, that are high on your own.
Skipping through all the ones that appear on other people's lists we arrive at:

Lost Horizon
Winnie-the-Pooh & House at Pooh Corner
King Solomon's Mines
The Last Days of Pompeii
Our Mutual Friend
Queen Margot
The Accidental Detectives

34. Which is your least favorite book of those that are considered "classics"?
The Iliad and the Odessy. Still can't get through them.

35. Do you like books read aloud, or do you prefer silent reading?
Both very much.

36. When you read, do you see things in your mind like a movie, or just in vague pictures?
Both, although seeing a credible movie version of it tends to mess with this phenomenon.

37. Do you like to read in silence, or with backround noise/music?
Doesn't really matter.

38. Can you read in the car without getting carsick?
I never get carsick.

39. Do you go to booksales?
No, but I'd like to. *sigh* I really should not buy any more books until I have bookshelves for all the ones I've got.

40. Name one literary quirk of yours.
I obsessively count commas. Usually it's pretty subliminal, but if a sentence has seven or eight commas then I have to go back and make sure all the clauses come out right.