reading.jpgKate at MotherWords just memed me! Her original post is here.

1. Hardcover or paperback, and why?

Hm. Both. I think hardcovers are beautiful and feel more “grownup,” but I don’t like toting them around. So I’d say hardcovers for the nightstand, and paperbacks for toting around.

2. If I were to own a book shop I would call it…

That’s a tough one. I’m not very good at names or titles. I’d want it to be something really enticing, and cozy, and something that evokes warmth. I’d like it to be a place with colorful rugs, a fireplace, lots of couches, plates of cookies, and maybe round doors like they have in Hobbiton.

3. My favorite quote from a book (mention the title) is…

Oh, it’s too hard to pick a single favorite, but this segment from the opening of Gilead does not fail to bring a lump to my throat.

I TOLD YOU LAST NIGHT THAT I MIGHT BE GONE sometime, and you said, Where, and I said, To be with the Good Lord, and you said, Why, and I said, Because I’m old, and you said, I don’t think you’re old. And you put your hand in my hand and you said, You aren’t very old, as if that settled it. I told you you might have a very different life from mine, and from the life you’ve had with me and that would be a wonderful thing, there are many ways to live a good life. And you said, Mama already told me that. And then you said, Don’t laugh! because you thought I was laughing at you. You reached up and put your fingers on my lips and gave me that look I never in my life saw on any other face besides your mother’s. It’s a kind of furious pride, very passionate and stern. I’m always a little surprised to find my eyebrows unsigned after I’ve suffered one of those looks. I will miss them.

4. The author (alive or deceased) I would love to have lunch with would be …

Michael Cunningham. Because I’ve already had lunch with him, and it was one of the most fun, entertaining, inspiring and relaxed times I’ve ever had with an author.

5. If I was going to a deserted island and could only bring one book, except from the SAS survival guide, it would be…

that is really really hard. I might have to say Little, Big. Because it’s one of the few books I’ve read more than five times. More than ten.

6. I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that…

(I am totally stealing this from Kate! Brilliant!) Would hold my book at an angle so I could read in bed lying on my side. With a nice bright light attached.

7. The smell of an old book reminds me of…

mildew. Achoo!

8. If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title), it would be…

Harriet the Spy.

9. The most overestimated book of all time is…

Well, maybe not “of ALL TIME.” But.. The Time Traveler’s Wife. Everyone I know loved that book, and I hated it. Passionately.

10. I hate it when a book…

is really badly written, and published anyway.

Now I’m going to tag Gayle, Violeta, Leah (first meme for her new blog!), Daddy In a Strange Land, Suzanne, and Marmee.

[Photo Credit: Davor Peich Gavran]