Sunday Stealing

(Link in meme-roll)
Bookish Questions

1. How long did it take you to finish your last book?

The last book I finished was Private Down Under on audio. Now I can say I have read Patterson. It took me 6 days of commuting to work and back to finish this. I'm not impressed.

2. How many times do you stare at your bookshelves each day?

Huh. At home, I rarely look at my books on shelves. What I'm reading isn't on a shelf. At work, I stare at books all day, hoping they'll all get cataloged, magically, without my intervention. Hasn't happened yet.

3. How many GoodReads friends/books do you have?

Friends: I have 78 friends, and I follow 44 people. There are a few that are on both lists.
Books: I've got 3,511 listed. Almost 3,100 of those are books I've read. There are four more I'm currently reading, 351 I'm waiting to read, 46 on the "next" list (absurd to have that many "next" I know), and 13 title I will never (willingly) read. The last category is so GoodReads will stop recommending them to me because I "should" be reading them, I guess. I'm sure I could go through YA and children's sections and easily double the "books read" amount given several hours of free time and nothing better to do.

4. Do you ever quote books in public?

It has been known to happen. Unfortunately, I don't always remember specific quotes well enough to say them at the appropriate time.

5. Do you ever re-read books?

Not too often. A few. And sometimes I find myself partway through a book and realizing that the reason it's so familiar is because I've read it.

6. Do you judge a book by its cover?

I do. Kind of. There is a bit of publisher-coding that goes on with covers. Anything covered in flowers gets passed up by default. Almost anything with horses, ditto. Half-naked people? Nope. Having said that, I can think of at least one title in each of those categories that I've read and loved. It's not foolproof.

7. Do you take pictures of your books before you read them?

Nope. It wouldn't have occurred to me to do this when I start a book. I do, sometimes, take pictures of my To Be Read Pile.

8. What are your biggest distractions from reading?

Facebook, and the internet in general. Sleep. Puzzles and games.

9. Where is your favorite place to buy books?

I rarely buy books, but when I do I prefer to shoot most of my money to my local independent bookstore. I do use Amazon and Barnes & Noble as well.

10. Do you always have a book with you?

I've begun carrying a book with me in the car now that I'm chauffeuring Beast around and having to wait for him on occasion. And I subscribe to BookShout! on my phone so I always have something to read there if things really tank.

11. Do you read during breakfast?

I read whenever, wherever, all the time. During meals, in the car (audiobooks), before sleep, in the middle of the night (hello, insomnia). About the only time I can't read is while the TV is on because I can't concentrate. Oh, and riding in a car is out as well because I get carsick.

12. How many hours a day would you say you read?

If we're straight-up talking about printed material (books, audio, emedia, magazines, journals) probably at least 3-5 hours a day. But really, i spend the whole day reading, and then I come home and read some more. It's just that a lot of that is online stuff: social media, catalog records, web pages for reference questions, etc., etc. If I include that, I'm probably reading, conservatively, 12 hours a day.

13. Do you read more or less now than you did, say, 10 years ago?

Feels like slightly less. I've just realized that I never did a year-end summation on my book blog last year as I've done every other year. So, the stats for the previous 15 years are as follows:
number of books read in 2014: 105
number of books read in 2013: 90
number of books read in 2012: 88
number of books read in 2011: 69
number of books read in 2010: 67
number of books read in 2009: 85
number of books read in 2008: 93
number of books read in 2007: 75
number of books read in 2006: 77
number of books read in 2005: 127
number of books read in 2004: 102
number of books read in 2003: 100
number of books read in 2002: 118
number of books read in 2001: 83
number of books read in 2000: 128
I guess I'm reading a little more than I was 10 years ago. I did 110 last year according to GoodReads. I had some slow years there while Sparky was in middle school and high school.

14. Do you consider yourself a speed reader?

I read fast, but I'm not a speed reader. I just spend a lot of time reading.

15. Do you read in bed?

Yes.

16. How old were you when you got your first library card?

I got it, I expect, pretty much as soon as I was allowed. I was 6. I later worked at that library, and they still had my registration card on file then! That was weird.