Booking Through Thursday – Interview, Part 2

Hosted by Booking Through Thursday

1. What’s your favorite time of day to read?
Any time of the day that I can snatch a few minutes to settle with a book is my favourite time of day to read!

2. Do you read during breakfast? (Assuming you eat breakfast.)
I don’t get a chance to, as I have breakfast with my 3-year-old son.

3. What’s your favorite breakfast food? (Noting that breakfast foods can be eaten any time of day.)
I don’t have either of these very often, but a bacon butty (with the bacon done crispy) or scrambled eggs on wholewheat toast would probably be my favourites.

4. How many hours a day would you say you read?
It depends on what’s going on in my day. If I take Xander to a play centre and we don’t have friends with us, then I grab an hour or so of reading then. If I’m working in the evening, I go to the cafe across the road from work and read while I have a cuppa. Mostly though, I read in bed. I’d say I average around 2 hours of reading most days, sometimes a little more, sometimes less.

5. Do you read more or less now than you did, say, 10 years ago?
Definitely less. As little as for or five years ago  I was averaging 125 – 150 books each year. Last year I hit a grand total of 90, but the years before that were 52 and 58. Since Xander was born, I just don’t have the time for other stuff that I used to, and I wouldn’t change that for the world.

6. Do you consider yourself a speed reader?
It depends on how much I’m enjoying a book or get engrossed in it. If it’s a light read, I can zip through it, but some great books take more time and consideration. I do, however, find I read faster on my Kindle than I do physical books.

7. If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
I have a superpower – it’s called being a busy Mum and still finding a little time to do things for myself once in a while. I am Multi-Task Woman! 🙂

8. Do you carry a book with you everywhere you go?
Yes. Always. Even on my wedding day I had one of those little gift books (you know the ones with the inspirational sayings for special occasions?) in my bag, just so I wouldn’t be without a book, even if I didn’t read anything that day. It’s even easier now I have my Kindle, as I can carry an entire library with me wherever I go!

9. What KIND of book?
ANY kind of  book, really! Pre-Kindle, I used to carry a paperback in my bag, now I take my Kindle and it’s loaded up with all manner of things from classics to brand new stuff of every genre.

10. How old were you when you got your first library card?
I think I most probably had one pretty much from birth. My Mam’s a big reader and I remember going to the library from a very young age (and I can remember some events as far back as being two-years old!). Xan got his library card pretty much as soon as I took him out of the house the first time and we’ve been regulars at the library since he was tiny. He loves visiting the library – he’s as big a book fan as I am and he’s only three!

11. What’s the oldest book you have in your collection? (Oldest physical copy? Longest in the collection? Oldest copyright?)
I still have a copy of The Tale of Two Bad Mice by Beatrix Potter which my Dad got me when I was about a year old. It’s tatty and falling apart, but I wouldn’t part with it for the world. Several of my childhood books have survived in very good condition (The Nursery Alice, The Wind in the Willows, Winnie the Pooh, etc) and are now on Xander’s bookshelf.

I also have an old second-hand, linen-bound copy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare which was published in 1909. That’s probably the oldest in terms of physical age AND copyright.

12. Do you read in bed?
Every night. I can’t sleep unless I’ve read at least a paragraph or two, even if I’m exhausted.

13. Do you write in your books?
NO! Never! Not even in those I used for studies at school or college! Writing in printed books is something I find abhorrent. I cannot do it and hate to see it. I once picked up a second-hand copy of a book I really wanted but couldn’t buy it because it was highlighted, underlined and annotated by a previous owner. I was nearly sick with the horror of it!

14. If you had one piece of advice to a new reader, what would it be?
Don’t waste time on a book you’re not enjoying. There are so many great books out there waiting for you to read them, and you only have a finite amount of time. It’s alright to ditch a book you find dull. I used to feel guilty if I didn’t finish a book I’d started, but now, if it hasn’t grabbed me by page 50, I get shot of it and read something else instead without a single shred of guilt.

My linen-bound copy of Macbeth, published in 1909