#43 days self-harm free but i could really use the distraction and the pain right now

[scarletcomet]

I am so fucking miserable

[lukaina]

The BookWorm Questionnaire!

[Disclaimer: I have not created this questionnaire. I had the post in drafts and completed it today. However, the person that I saved the draft from has already deactivated the account. Their source was: http://bookaddict24-7.com/]

1. What book are you reading right now?

I am in the middle of “The illustrated Gormenghast Trilogy” (the second book: Gormenghast) by Mervyn Peake. I have a novella by Laird Barron left in the “Ominosus” anthology that contained to lovecraftiana novelettes by Elizabeth Bear and Caitlín R. Kiernan. Finally, on Friday I started reading “Too Like the Lighting” by Ada Palmer, the first book in the Terra Ignota quartet and a really challenging text so far.

2. What will you read next? I plan to keep on reading horror anthologies, maybe throw a Tanith Lee novel to spice things up and read the second TP of the comic “Monstress” by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda. I am also interested in checking the much hyped “The Girls” by Emma Cline and reading “Sunshine” by Robin McKinley.

3. What was your favorite childhood book? It would be tied between “Glubbslyme” by Jacqueline Wilson (in Spanish: “Babatracio”) and “La auténtica Susi” (in German: “Echt Susi”) by Christine Nöstlinger.

4. What were your reading habits like as a kid?  I read often, went to the library at least once a week and was scolded for reading “too much” by my grandmother, who thought it was damaging my sight. In retrospect, it probably didn’t help that I needed glasses as soon as I started reading.

5. How many books do you have checked out from the library? Right now, none, but when I do I take at least two.

6. What books do you have on hold at the library? None at the moment.

7. Do you have a bad book habit? I have a horrible posture reading and my neck and back suffer. Also, I tend to read while eating now that I work at home and sauces/soups/teas end up staining the pages more often that I would like to admit.

8. Do you read one book at a time, or several? I used to be a strict one-book-at-a-time person (unless one was an essay) by now I juggle at least couple of books. I read the very heavy tomes and the paperbacks with thin binding at home to avoid damaging the books and I usually take the e-reader or a lighter book to read outside (for paperbacks, I use a small cloth bag I bought in Germany for book carrying or a totebag if I have lent the bag to Marc).

9. What is your favorite book you’ve read this year? “The Dispossessed” by Ursula K. Le Guin is absurdly good (and now I want to live on an anarchist moon). Second would be “Radiance” by Catherynne M. Valente, a decopunk novel about b/w cinema in a world where the Solar System has been populated by humans.

10. What is your least favorite book you’ve read this year? I read professionally for a publishing house and some of the manuscripts were subpar. A couple contained very harmful tropes and some had the laziest writing you can imagine.

11. What is your reading comfort zone? Dark fantasy, science-fiction, non-gorey horror, magical realism.

12. How often do you read outside of your comfort zone? Not often. I rarely read mysteries, romance, erotica or historical novels. Lately, I have received a score of YA manuscripts because of my and I have ended up reading many romantic stories and thrillers.

13. What is your favorite place to read? Trains and buses. I don’t usually get motion sickness and the landscape is an interesting view when I need to rest my eyes.

14. Do you lend out books? Not often. My friends live far or have too many books of their own pending.

15. Do you dog-ear books? NEVER. I remember or use one of my billion bookmarks (or random pieces of paper).

16. Do you write in the margins of books? No. I have a notebook for my manuscript reading and I try to take notes on my phone when I really like a quote.

17. What makes you love a book? Non-reliable narrators, a heavy use of mythology and folklore, beautiful descriptions, given names that have meaning, a plot that follows several generations of a family, sorority.

18. What will inspire you to recommend a book? When I realize a book is a perfect fit for a person and they are going to appreciate the style or the theme.

19. What is the one book you will always recommend to everyone? My Tanith Lee proselytism forces me to recommend “Biting the Sun” to everybody. I have also been an enthusiast defender of “The Drowning Girl” by Caitlín R. Kiernan, the comics “The Wicked + The Divine” (by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie), the novel “Embassytown” by China Miéville (translator sci-fi!) and Jacqueline Carey’s “Kushiel’s Dart”.

20. Is there a book you love that nobody else seems to? In high school we had to read “Últimas tardes con Teresa” by Juan Marsé and everybody I know dislikes it violently, while I can still quote fragments.

21. Do you read while you are: Eating? Taking a bath? Watching TV? Listening to music? On the computer? On the bus?  Eating: yes. Taking a bath: never (I would be too afraid and also I have a very small bath). Watching TV: no and I also find distracting if somebody else is watching. Listening to music: not often but I can if it helps drown a worse sound. On the bus: yes, and gladly.

22. What is your favorite genre to read? Dark fantasy followed by anthropological science-fiction (in the vein of Le Guin or Karen Lord’s “The Best of all Possible Worlds”).

23. What genre do you rarely read, but wish you read more of? Historical. I like history but I am not sure of where the good books are between a pile of mediocre and lengthy novels.

24. What is your favorite biography? I have not read many biographies but I like essays with biographical content like Caitlin Moran’s books or Kameron Hurleys’ “The Geek Feminist Revolution”.

25. What is your favorite non-fiction? I remember enjoying “Evil by Design”: The Creation and Marketing of the Femme fatale” about the idea of the fallen woman, the dichotomy Virgin Mary/prostitute, the mythological representation of evil women and the female characterization of absinthe.

26. Have you ever read a self-help book? My friends gifted me a teenage book on self-esteem but other than that I tend to dislike the genre and avoid it.

27. What is your favorite reading snack? Ideally, something that is not messy and does not leave crumbs or stains but I love drinking coffee/tea and eating chocolate while reading.

28. What is the most inspirational book you’ve read this year? “The Dispossessed” has prompted HOURS of speculation with Marc about the feasibility of the political and economic system in the novel. Creatively speaking, the Gormenghast series is so beautifully and evocatively written that some fragments are even painful to read.

29. Are there any books that have been ruined for you by all the hype? I hyped myself too much with Jeffrey Eugenides’ “The Marriage Plot” because I had loved “The Virgin Suicides” and “Middlesex”. I was a bit disappointed and I didn’t engage with the characters.

30. How often do you agree with critics about a book? I don’t tend to follow the critics but I check the recommendations of people with a taste similar to mine.

31. How do you feel about giving negative reviews? I used to write reviews for a website and it was really hard for me, as I imaged the impact it could have in the author. I only rate books I really enjoy in Goodreads to get similar recommendations. I feel that the system of stars or points never really reflects my experience with a book and that we tend to focus on objectivity too much while most of my reading experience is REALLY subjective.

32. What book are you most intimidated to begin? It used to be “Ada or Ardor” by Nabokov and it was really challenging. Now I am respectfully waiting for the right moment to start “Perdido Street Station” by China Miéville.

33. What book are you most likely to take on vacation with you? I like tying books to travels (“Game of Thrones” was my Erasmus read, I read “Sabella” by Tanith Lee and “Aniara” by Harry Martinson in Venice, etc.). I tend to plan the books I pack for travels with care. In December I have a wedding and I am already pondering which Tanith Lee novel I will take with me. Probably I will continue the Flat Earth series.

34. What is the longest you have gone without reading? A couple of days.

35. What is a book that you just couldn’t finish? The feminist essay book “Vamps & Tramps” by Camille Paglia. I don’t recall exactly why, only that I feel a remnant of anger when I see the cover.

36. What is the most money you have spent on books at one time? Around 80-100 euros on a couple of very specific occasions.

37. How often do you skim through a book before reading it? Very often. I had to cure me of the impulsion to check the last line of a book because I was spoiling myself often.

38. Do you keep books or give them away once you’ve read them? I tend to keep them and they will make the next time we change flats a living hell :)

39. Are there any books that you’ve been avoiding, or refuse to read? I actively avoid giving money to Orson Scott Card.

40. What is a book you didn’t expect to like, but did? The first stories of Lankhmar by Fritz Leiber. Sword and sorcery seems a bit stale for me as a subgenre but I found the stories funny and I loved to spot future Discworld references.

41. What is your favorite guilt-free pleasure reading? In ASOIAF I swooned with the Sansa Stark/Sandor Clegane relationship. I acknowledge he is a troubled character and his whole attraction to youth/beauty/purity is very cliché but I have a soft spot for certain clichés.

42. What reading materials are in your bathroom right now? None. My bathroom is a small wet place and I want my books dry. However, I sometimes bring reading materials to the bathroom.

43. What book do you most remember reading for school? “La plaça del Diamant” by Catalan author Mercè Rodoreda, the story of a poor and very sensitive woman living in a Barcelona cursed by the civil war. It’s a sad book with a glimmer of hope. If you are trying to get into Catalan lit, this one is a top recommendation!

44. What was the last book that you couldn’t put down until you finished it? “Wylding Hall” by Elizabeth Hand.

45. What book is (physically) closest to you right now? I’m in the office/library at home so most of my books are equally close to me now.

46. What is your favorite book series? The first Kushiel trilogy by Jacqueline Carey. It is not that I don’t recommend the other books in the same universe, only that I have not read them yet and I can’t say if they hold up to the original trilogy.

47. What is the longest book you’ve ever read? Shortest? Longest: According to Goodreads, “A Dance with Dragons”, followed by Michel Faber’s “The Crimson Petal and the White”. Shortest: don’t remember. Maybe a couple of small anthologies with Russian short stories by Pushkin and Teffi.

48. Who is your favorite book character?  As a kid, I adored Anne (of Green Gables). Now I admire Granny Weatherwax from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, for example.

49. Who is your favorite author? Tanith Lee.

50. What is your favorite book?  I am not really sure but I started saying “Biting the Sun” by Tanith Lee and it has stuck.