Reading Habit and Habitat...

I got tagged by Joyce with a meme on reading habits... which, she patiently explained, just means that I need to do as she did, which was to post/blog answers to a bunch of questions about my reading habits. But if you notice, the very FIRST question assumes that one is an avid book lover. Oh what the heck, its true I do love to read, its just that the presumptuousness of that first question is making my hand itchy to change it... doo-o-oon't...

Do you remember how you developed a love for reading?
My home was stocked with a good collection of books, accessible from the age that I could reach out for them. They were a great mix of fiction and non-fiction -- The Brittanica Encyclopaedia, Stories by Hans Christian Andersen, Atlas of the World, Countries and Their People, Stories of Childhood, Everyday Science. Opening a book was like swimming in magic; pop your imagination with an amazing historical fact, draw mom's wrath by using her kitchen for scientific experiments (I once split all her celery trying to get some coloured water to seep up from them..), and get swallowed by stories from all over the world; they had drawings so life-like that I probably believed in their existence. I still do sometimes.. you never know if your neighbour is actually the March Hare... or Tweedledee (or Tweedledum)...

What are some books you read as a child?
Alice In Wonderland (will you, won't you, will you, won't you... will you come and join the dance??), Aesop's Fables, Dickens' Classics like David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, etc., Enid Blyton, Nancy Drew (till she bored me with her lack of action with Ned Nickerson), Modesty Blaise (my favorite kicka$$ action heroine!), sections of mushy romance novels (almost never a whole book; on can-bring-storybooks-to-school Fridays, my classroom partner would bring Loveswept and Mills&Boon and show me the 'relevant' portions... thanks Clare!),

What is your favourite genre?
If I have to say what I usually like, it would be suspense/thrillers with a logically convoluted storyline and preferably a troubled, reluctant hero - you know.. Jason Bourne (and I wish I could name a female character).. ! However after about 3 or 4 of those, I tend to crave some deep, long literary fiction that slowly peels apart an entity (person, family, community, etc.) throughout the book... I will read the sentences again and again, absorbing everything like a sponge... I think I'm scaring some of you...

Do you have a favourite novel?
I do but it changes, usually in favour of the latest one that has charmed and warmed its way into the cockles of my heart :-D I'm not sure if that is natural. Right now it is "Evening Is The Whole Day" by Preeta Samarasan. It used to be The God Of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, which strangely enough, reminded me of Preeta. And before that, it used to be Illusions by Richard Bach, which was gifted to me by Preeta...! Yea yea.... all oso Preeta Preeta Preeta onni lah, I hear you say...

Where do you usually read?
On my living room couch.

When do you usually read?
At night, when the house is quiet.

Do you usually have more than one book you are reading at a time?
Yes I do!

Do you read nonfiction in a different way or place than you read fiction?
Other than cookbooks, I read all books end to end, anytime and anywhere.

Do you buy most of the books you read, or borrow them, or check them out of the library?
I buy them.

Do you keep most of the books you buy? If not, what do you do with them?
Yes I do keep them, unless they are borrowed or flicked by friends or family.

If you have children, what are some of the favorite books you have shared with them? Were they some of the same ones you read as a child?
My four-year old firebrand goblin princess and year-old wookiesque charming boy have already devoured Mother Goose, and will listen raptly to "Wallace and Gromit - Curse of the Were-rabbit". When they can read whole sentences, I will probably introduce them to Hans Christian Andersen, Dr Seuss and Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland. I grew up loving that last one. All kids should be given the chance to dive into Jabberwocky ...

What are you reading now?
Evening Is The Whole Day by Preeta Samarasan (whose return I await, both book and author; book was loaned to an aunt who wanted something to read on the bus ride to St Anne's Feast and author is due to be in KL in..nnn... October?).
7 Habits of Highly Effective Families by Stephen Covey
Increase Your Financial IQ by Richard Kiyosaki

Do you keep a TBR (to be read) list?
If mental lists count, then yes.

What’s next?
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie.

What books would you like to reread?
JD Salinger's Catcher In The Rye, Alice Walker's The Color Purple, and Tom Clancy's Bourne trilogy.

Who are your favourite authors?
Salman Rushdie, Charles Dickens, Preeta, Robert Ludlum, Tom Clancy, the list is long..

Thanks Bookwormoyce, that was kind of fun! Made me use some calories, brains and time.. ahaaa using up time is good, it gets me nearer to 12th August, the day my heart returns home...

Oh and... I guess I should pass the buck right, but I didn't know who next to tag, till I noticed at your blog Joyce, that someone called Adino would like to work on this, so he can be my first tagg-eee la yea; izzat how it goes? :-D