Bookish Thinking . . .

As part of a mini-readathon last weekend, Teri @ Henningsen Happenings posed five bookish questions:

1.  What is the best book you've ever read?
2.  What is your favorite spot to read?
3.  What person(s) inspired you to be a reader?
4.  What book do you wish you had never read?
5.  What book(s) are you most excited to read next?

My answers:

1.  Best book:   I can't possibly pick just one.  I have favorites from different genres, different times in my life, different moods . . . but here are ten that pop to mind.

Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
And Ladies of the Club by Helen Hooven Santmeyer
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
11/22/63 by Stephen King
Mrs. Aaris Goes To Paris by Paul Gallico
The Wednesday Witch by Ruth Chew
The entire Cat Who.... series by Lilian Jackson Braun
The Second Coming of Lucy Hatch by Marsha Moyer
The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel
The Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Pickard

No matter how many I list, I always think, "I should have added . . ."

Wait, I should have added The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown . . .  and The Night Circus . . . and . . .

2.  My Favorite Spot to Read:  Slouch on the couch!  With a bowl of popcorn, apple slices and Diet Coke.  However, as the years tick by, I'm finding that slouching makes my back hurt, and if I get too comfy I fall asleep, so I'm doing more of my reading from an armchair that requires better posture and has better lighting.  I still want the popcorn and apples.

3.  Who Inspired Me:  The overall answer is "I have no idea".  I have been an avid reader since I learned to read.  I give big props to my mother, who is definitely not a reader, for buying me books from every Scholastic book order at school, and driving me to the library.  

I can identify four other people (or groups of people) who have influenced my reading at various points in my life -- my high school English teacher, Dave's Aunt Ginger, the library where I used to work, and the book blogging community.  Each has lead me to books I wouldn't have read otherwise.

4.  A Book I Wish I Hadn't Read:  There are always books that get great reviews, or even win prizes (The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes) that I think are just awful and I regret having wasted me reading time. 

The current trend of self-publishing has produced a flood of low-quality gibberish posing as novels.  The ones I agreed to read for review left me with more regrets of wasted hours, and led to my vow to never read another.

And The Amityville Horror!  I was a horror story nut in my younger days, so I checked it out (totally clueless) from the public library.  To this day I will not sleep on my stomach if my husband is also sleeping on his stomach.  If you've read the book, you'll understand why.  If not, you don't want to know.  That book seriously messed me up for life.

5.  What I Can't Wait to Read:  That's another endless list, but here's a sampling of what I want to get to soon --

The Solitary House by Lynn Shepherd
The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey
Bellman and Black by Diane Setterfield
Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
The Bookstore by Deborah Meyler

Care to share your answers?  Feel free to leave them in the comments or if, like me, your answers are lengthy, add them to your own blog and leave a link.