Ah, nameless book memes, how I love you so. This one I stole from Betty:
Hardback or Paperback? Depends on the book, depends on my mood, and depends on the price. Typically, I go with paperback, since they’re usually cheaper and easier to carry around. Lately, I do most of my reading on the commute to and from work, and an 800-page hardback (like, oh, the one I just finished) sometimes isn’t the best thing to read while standing on a tightly packed train.
Highlight or Underline? Neither, except when they were textbooks. I write down passages (or more often page numbers and a few words) in my notebook while I read. I don’t like to damage books if I can help it.
Lewis or Tolkien? You know, I’ve never actually read any C.S. Lewis, and yet I still think I prefer him to Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings books are fun, but all too often in an exceptionally dull and tedious way. (At least, that’s how it seemed to me, as I struggled through them.) As far as Lewis goes, I think I’ve been waiting for something like this to become available, but I know I also have a copy of Out of the Silent Planet lying around here someplace…
E.B. White or A.A. Milne? You know, strictly speaking, I’ve never read any Milne either. And the only books by White I’ve read are his children’s books, like Charlotte’s Web, Stuart Little, and The Trumpet of the Swan. I remember liking them, but I suspect my memories of Charlotte’s are more of the cartoon than the book.
T.S. Eliot or e.e. cummings? A little bit of both, but I tend to prefer Eliot. One of these days, I really need to read The Waste Land.
Stephen King or Dean Koontz? Stephen King. I used to like Koontz, but that ended after Dragon Tears. I read the book sometime in high school, and it pretty much ruined Koontz for me — less for its specific faults as for the way it threw into sharp relief the flaws in all of Koontz’s earlier books. Not that Koontz is always dreadful or the King is above reproach, but if I had to choose I’d pick the man from Maine.
Barnes & Noble or Borders? Waldenbooks or B. Dalton? Well, you know, I used to work for Barnes & Noble, so I may be a little biased. But it’s almost six of one and half a dozen of the other, now isn’t it? Where I used to live in Pennsylvania, Barnes and Noble was pretty much the only game in town. (Unless you wanted used books or texts.) I like them both, but a lot of that depends of the individual store. I don’t know that I’ve ever been in a Waldenbooks, but B. Dalton actually is Barnes and Noble nowadays. (B&N bought them, kept the name, and use them exclusively as their shopping mall presence. You’ll only ever see a B. Dalton in a mall anymore.)
Fantasy or Science Fiction? Usually you see those combined as one genre. I’ve read some good fantasy — Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, for instance, is wonderful, and I keep meaning to jump back into George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series — but, ultimately, I think I tend towards science fiction more often than not.
Horror or Suspense? Again, there’s a difference? Probably horror, if only because I can’t remember the last book I opened that strictly qualifies as “suspense”. (Oh, wait, yes I can…)
Bookmark or Dogear? Bookmark. There’s a special place in hell reserved for those who dogear books.
Hemingway or Faulkner? Faulkner. I keep meaning to read more Hemingway, but I keep wanting to read more Faulkner.
Fitzgerald or Steinbeck? Both, although I think I’ve grown slighlty less enamored with them as I’ve grown older. (In college, I wrote more than a few papers about Fitzgerald, or Hemingway, or Steinbeck.)
John Irving or John Updike? I’ve read one Updike book (In the Beauty of the Lillies) and three books by Irving (The World According to Garp, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and A Widow for One Year), so I guess Irving wins by default. (Meany is one those books I wished would never actually end.)
Homer or Plato? Well, I found Plato’s spot on The Simpsons wholly over-rated, but… Okay, okay, I’ve never actually read either. (Except, that is, for a little bit of The Trial and Death of Socrates I read in freshman year at college.)
Geoffrey Chaucer or Edmund Spenser? I’ve never read Spenser, although maybe I should. I keep telling myself I’m going to get back and read the entirety of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. You usually need patience and really good footnotes to see it, but they’re really extremely funny.
Pen or Pencil? For what? More often than not, I write in pen, but pencils have their uses, too.
Looseleaf or Notebook? As I said, notebook.
Alphabetize: By Author or By Title? Alphabetize? Ha! Well, okay, before all my books were packed away inside boxes now inside my closet? By author.
Dustjacket: On or Off? Whoa, dude — they come off?! I tend to use them in lieu of bookmarks. But then, I also tend to buy paperbacks, which don’t come with dust jackets.
Novella or Epic? Form follows function. A story should be however long it needs to be.
John Grisham or Scott Turow? I guess Grisham wins by default — I’ve read no Turow — but he’s also one of only two authors I’ve abandoned mid-book. (The other I mention here.) I’m no longer sure what it was about The Pelican Brief I didn’t like — since The Firm and The Client I remember as being pretty good — but I haven’t been tempted to pick up a Grisham book in years, so there must have been something.
J.K. Rowling or Lemony Snicket? I really should read something by Snicket one of these days, if only to see what the fuss is all about. (Same goes for Philip Pullman.) Rowling isn’t perfect heaven knows), but I do seem to have become hooked on the Harry Potter series. (Even if it’s taken me longer than most.)
Fiction or Non-fiction? Fiction, nine-point-nine times out of ten. I know I should read more nonfiction — I own more nonfiction — but I never get around to it somehow.
Historical Biography or Historical Romance? Neither really, although biography falls into the I-need-to-read-more-of-that-one-of-these-days-don’t-I? category. Romance novels don’t interest me much, but maybe I’m wrong to just write them off out of hand. Bodice-rippers are a very popular genre.
A Few Pages per Sitting or Finish at Least a Chapter? Well that depends on the length of the sitting, now doesn’t it? Again, most of my reading I do on the train, and that’s about an hour each way. (More if, like it did twice this week, the train breaks down and refuses to move.) I’d always like to read more in any one sitting, if only so I could read more overall, but I read as much as I can as fast as I can.
Short Story or Creative Non-fiction Essay? Why would I want to choose?
“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”? Depends on the story. Although, that being said, a writer who ignores the cliche of either of those beginnings does so at his peril.
Buy or Borrow? Buy. Given the number of books I own and haven’t read, however, I’d probably do better with borrowing. I’ve been thinking about getting a library card.
Book Reviews or Word of Mouth? Both. When they come together — when I hear people talking about a book and then see a positive review — I know it’s probably worth checking out.