Aug

23

All About the Book Lady

2008 at 9am     Posted by Rebecca Joines Schinsky

Shelf Awareness uses a great questionnaire for its Book Brahmins author interviews, and Cathy had the great idea that we book bloggers should borrow and get to know each other a bit better. And who doesn’t like a good conversation about books, anyway?

1. On your nightstand now: This is tricky for me because my nightstand has a cubby hole built into the front of it, and that spot is one of my favorite places to store TBRs. If you want to get technical, the only book on my nightstand is the one I’m currently reading. Right now, it’s Stalking Irish Madness. Next in line are American Wife and The Gone-Away World. For more of my TBRs, see “Waiting in the Stacks” on my sidebar.

2. Books you’ve “faked” reading: Hmmm….there aren’t very many in this category. I know I faked my way through Snow Falling on Cedars during my freshman year of high school, and I’m pretty sure I only half-read Into the Wild my sophomore year. But I read it for real later on and really enjoyed it.

3. Books you’ve bought for the cover: I admit it. I’m a sucker for a good cover. I can’t think of any books I’ve bought solely because of the cover, but I do think the cover plays a very important role, since it is often the first part of a book that we encounter. Some recent favorite covers (click for my review):

4. Favorite book when you were a child: Well, the first book I remember reading out loud by myself is Dr. Seuss’s Hop on Pop, which became a de facto favorite because I read it over and over and over….but my two true favorites were The Hobbit (which my dad read to me as a bedtime story, one chapter at a time) and Lois Lowry’s The Giver. It was the first book to make a real impact on me, and I appreciate it more with each read.

5. Book that changed your life: You know, I’ve read a lot of books, but I’ve never felt like one changed my life. The only two that come close are A Prayer for Owen Meany because it was just so wonderful–I don’t really have words for how that book makes me feel–and Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow because it really made me think about faith and the nature of belief and ask a lot of big questions.

6. Favorite line from a book: This is something that changes on a daily basis, but one that has stuck with me for several years now, and which I incorporated into my wedding is from Gilead by Marilynne Robinson:
Love is holy because it is like grace—-the worthiness of its object is never really what matters.
7. Top five favorite authors: This list changes, but not nearly as frequently as some others. Currently: John Irving, Toni Morrison, Margaret Atwood, Bill Bryson, and Jhumpa Lahiri. Also in contention: Richard Russo and Andrew Davidson (I’m still processing The Gargoyle and waiting to see what else he writes).

8. Books you recommend as regeneration when people say, “I’m bored by almost all contemporary American writers.”: I rarely meet someone who says this, and I’d be inclined to think that anyone with this problem is either not paying attention or just hasn’t found the right book yet. When customers tell me that they don’t read much contemporary work and want to start discovering it, I point them to my favorites, so I guess I’ll echo the previous question here and go with A Prayer for Owen Meany, The World According to Garp, or The Cider House Rules by John Irving; anything by Jhumpa Lahiri; Beloved, Paradise, or Sula by Toni Morrison (who is quite possibly the best contemporary American writer there is); or Empire Falls by Richard Russo.
9. Books you can’t believe that everyone has not read and loved: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. ‘Nuff said.
10. Books you are an “evangelist” for: In my job, I’m an evangelist for whatever it takes to get people to read, even if that means I don’t agree with their selections. Recently, I’ve been recommending The Gargoyle, The Lace Reader, and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society quite a bit. I also try to evangelize The Sparrow to people for whom it will be a good fit.
11. Books you most want to read again for the first time: You know, I don’t think I have an answer for this. For me, the books that were magical the first time around get even better with each re-reading; they never lose that feeling, and I get more out of them each time. So, I guess I’ll have to say none.

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No Responses to “All About the Book Lady”

  1. Cathy on August 23rd, 2008 3:00 pm

    I love the way Fitzgerald wrote!

  2. Inside the Readers’ Studio « The Book Lady’s Blog on August 25th, 2008 1:19 pm

    [...] 25, 2008 by Rebecca In the spirit of continuing my “getting to know you” theme from last week, I thought I’d borrow this questionnaire from my good buddy James Lipton [...]

  3. Rose City Reader on August 25th, 2008 6:11 pm

    I only wish I had faked reading Snow Falling on Cedars!

    here are my answers. Fun game!

  4. kristen on August 27th, 2008 12:19 am

    i posted this on my blog. :)

  5. Inside The Reader’s Studio Meme | Letters On Pages on August 28th, 2008 8:17 am

    [...] the spirit of continuing my “getting to know you” theme from last week, I thought I’d borrow this questionnaire from my good buddy James Lipton [...]

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