Hardback or trade paperback or mass market paperback?
I will read anything. Even shampoo bottles in the bathroom.
Amazon or brick-and-mortar Barnes & Noble or Borders?
Amazon for reviews, Borders or MPH to browse and buy. I can never walk out of either without buying something or at least finding something I promise myself I’d buy later.
Bookmark or dogear?
Bookmark - if you consider anything from Starbucks receipts to random business cards to flyers as one.
Alphabetized by author or alphabetized by title or random?
Mosty random - books sit on my shelf according to sizes mostly, unless they are a series.
Keep, throw away, or sell?
Keep. Which explains the massively over-burdened bookshelves in my house.
Keep dustjacket or toss it?
Keep.
Read with dustjacket or remove it?
Without. Having one on irritates me and I can’t focus on the book.
Short story or novel?
Novels.. with some exceptions. Like Roald Dahl and Kaz Cooke.
A Collection (short stories by same author) or anthology short stories by different authors)?
Collection. I find consecutive vastly varying styles a little displacing in one sitting.
Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks?
When tired. I some times fall asleep on my books.
“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”?
Once upon a time
Buy or Borrow?
Buy.
New or used?
Both. Some of the best gems I’ve uncovered are from long afternoons in used book stores - and for a bargain too.
Buying choice: book reviews, recommendation or browse?
Mostly browse, and sampling paras. But I’ve picked up a lot of books I like through recommendations and reviews.. only from reliable sources though ;)
Tidy ending or cliffhanger?
Both. Happy ever afters are a little too idealistic for cynical ol’ me.
Morning reading, afternoon reading or nighttime reading?
Morning if I’m on a beach, otherwise I prefer to read at night when there is some peace and quiet.
Standalone or series?
Both.
Favorite series?
Some of them would be Terry Pratchett’s Bromeliad trilogy.. Joe Dever’s Legends of Lone Wolf (the novels).. David Edding’s The Malloreon (never read Belgariad)
Favorite book of which nobody else has heard?
Probably Iain Bank - The Wasp Factory.. but it’s not that obscure.
Favorite books read last year?
Gabriel Garcia Marquez - One Hundred Years of Solitude
Favorite books of all time?
In no particular order, here are some recent ones: Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged, Gabriel Garcia Marquez - One Hundred Years of Solitude, JRR Tolkien - The Silmarillion, Nien Cheng - Life and Death in Shanghai, Camilla Morton - How to Walk in High Heels, Plato - Republic, Jhumpa Lahiri - Interpreter of Maladies, Loius de Bernieres - Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Anthony Bourdain - Kitchen Confidential, Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.” ~Groucho Marx