Book Q and A - via Book to the Future

Book Q&A Rules

1. Post these rules
2. Post a photo of your favourite book cover
3. Answer the questions below
4. Tag a few people to answer them too
5. Go to their blog/twitter and tell them you’ve tagged them
6. Make sure you tell the person who tagged you that you’ve taken part!

I got a new copy of The Great Gatsby this year, because the one I had was one of those $6.95 blue classics, and it just didn't look ritzy enough.  Strangely, I loved the book more once it was beautiful and green, as above, although that may have more to do with my being older and wiser perhaps...

What are you reading right now?

J. Courtney Sullivan's The Engagements

The Joy of X by Steven Strogatz, which is a book about understanding maths which I got for my birthday from my partner, who is, among other things, a mathematician.

The Plot Thickens by Noah Lukeman

Do you have any idea what you'll read when you're done with that?

I have an ARC of the new Tim Winton novel that comes out in October, so definitely that.

What five books have you always wanted to read but haven't got round to?

The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Vanity Fair  by WM Thackeray

Although, you may need to define always because I doubt I knew these books existed as a small child.

What magazines do you have in your bathroom/ lounge right now?

Current Cleo, last month's Cosmo, Last month's Frankie, some Vogues from early last year and a copy of The Canary Press that they sent to my work to see if we would like to stock it.

What's the worst book you've ever read?

I don't want to name names, but I do definitely have a book in mind.

What book seemed really popular but you didn't like?

It's far too obvious for me to say Twilight, so I will have to go with Eat Pray Love.   Also, between you and me, I enjoyed reading Twilight when I was in the moment, it was only after that my inner feminist kicked me in the head and asked what I had been thinking.

What's the one book you always recommend to just about everyone?

Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey

What are your three favourite poems?

"The obscure moon lighting an obscure world

Of things that would never quite be expressed

Where you yourself were not yourself

And did not have to be" - Wallace Stevens

Sylvia Plath - Lady Lazarus

Emily Dickinson- 341

Where do you usually get your books?

I work in a bookshop, and I am my own biggest customer.  

When you were little, did you have any particular reading habits?

Not really, I just read a lot.  Like, a lot a lot.

What's the last thing you stayed up half the night reading because it was too good to put down?

Last week I stayed up til midnight reading Lexicon by Max Barry.  I would have stayed up all night, but I finished it.

Have you ever "faked" reading a book?

...Maybe.

Have you ever bought a book just because you liked the cover?

Absolutely.  See above about Gatsby.

What was your favourite book when you were a child?

Thomas the Tank Engine and The Foot Book.

What book changed your life?

Jasper Jones.   I spent a year of my life studying that book, and it taught me that above all else, I love to write and read.  And that I love WA.

What is your favourite passage from a book?

"Because," he said, "I sometimes have a queer feeling with regard to you--especially when you are near me, as now: it is as if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame. And if that boisterous Channel, and two hundred miles or so of land come broad between us, I am afraid that cord of communion will be snapt; and then I've a nervous notion I should take to bleeding inwardly. As for you,--you'd forget me."  From Jane Eyre

Who are your top five favourite authors?

Philippa Gregory

Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Margaret Atwood

Craig Silvey

Marian Keyes

What book has no one heard about but should read?

That's really tough!  Speechless by Hannah Harrington is probably a good example of an excellent YA novel that documents an authentic experience in a meaningful way, so that.

Ooh ooh, and The Little Book by Selden Edwards.

What books are you an 'evangelist' for?

Oh, gosh.  Local stuff, mostly.  I usually steer my customers towards local writing, like Jasper Jones, Whisky Charlie Foxtrot,  What is Left over After, Deborah Burrows, Tim Winton etc etc.

What are your favourite books by a first time author?

Letters to the End of Love by Yvette Walker.

The Light Between Oceans by ML Stedman

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

What is your favourite classic book?

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Five other notable mentions?

I am growing to love Toni Jordan more and more but I have yet to read Nine Days.

Charlotte Wood is my latest favourite find.  I read Animal People an adopted a copy of The Children at the second hand book store.  

I love Ian McEwan but I dread reading Solar.

Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close had me so frightened and upset that I had to go and hug my father, just to make sure he was still there.

Everything I Know About Writing by John Marsden is a must have for writers.

In return, I am tagging:

Annabel Smith

According to Amber

Jade Goes with Everything