Book Meme from Kimbooktu

I saw this meme that Kim created over at Kimbooktu, and I wanted to join in.

1. Hardcover or paperback, and why?

Paperback. Always. At least if it’s a YA book. They’re more portable, easier to stuff in my bag on the go, and they don’t hurt my hands after holding them for hours, which hardcover books can.

2. If I were to own a book shop I would call it…

The Magic of Books. Or maybe Books Are a Present You Can Open Again and Again. Or maybe BookLove.

3. My favorite quote from a book (mention the title) is…

“If you have never spent whole afternoons with burning ears and rumpled hair, forgetting the world around you over a book, forgetting cold and hunger–
If you have never read secretly under the bedclothes with a flashlight, because your father or mother or some other well-meaning person has switched off the lamp on the plausible ground that it was time to sleep because you had to get up so early–
If you have never wept bitter tears because a wonderful story has come to an end and you must take your leave of the characters with whom you have shared so many adventures, whom you have loved and admired, for whom you have hoped and feared, and without whose company life seems empty and meaningless–
If such things have not been part of your own experience, you probably won’t understand what Bastian did next.”
–Michael Ende, The Neverending Story

and

“If you take a book with you on a journey . . . an odd thing happens: The book begins collecting your memories. And forever after you have only to open that book to be back where you first read it. It will all come into your mind with the very first words: the sights you saw in that place, what it smelled like, the ice cream you ate while you were reading it . . . yes, books are like flypaper–memories cling to the printed page better than anything else.”
–Cornelia Funke, Inkheart

Okay, I cheated. I put two. But I love both the quotes so much (and the books).

4. The author (alive or diseased) I would love to have lunch with would be ….

Cornelia Funke (Inkheart)
Edna Ferber
L M Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables)
Andrew Clements (Frindle)
and so many more.

5. If I was going to a deserted island and could only bring one book, except from the SAS survival guide, it would be…

This one’s hard. I’d want so many books! But I think I’d go back to some of my childhood favorites, ones that still speak to me, and make me feel good. Books that I know I could read over and over again.
From Anna by Jean Little.
The Magic Grandfather by Jay Williams.
The Forgotten Door by Alexander Key.
Pigs Might Fly by Emily Rodda.
Toothpaste Genie by Frances Duncan.

6. I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that….

would allow me to easily, quickly, and perfectly copy whole paragraphs from a book as I read, and convert that into text on my computer, so I could pore over the quotes that move me, speak to me, and that are good writing. I know pen scanners exist, but they’re persnickety and make a lot of mistakes. I want something that works perfectly.

7. The smell of an old book reminds me of….

libraries. Reading. A safe place.

8. If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title), it would be….

Rae from Fingerprints #1: Gifted Touch (YA paranormal series).

9. The most overestimated book of all times is….

I don’t know. I think every book has a reader, and even if I don’t enjoy it, someone else will….

10. I hate it when a book….

is chopped off at the end, and you know that you have to buy the sequel to know what happens to the characters, and the book does not feel complete or whole unto itself, but more a marketing ploy to get you to buy the next book, or one half of a larger book.

 Now tag 5 people. . . .

And I tag Jen Robinson from Jen Robinson’s Book Page, Kimberly from Young Adult and Kids Book Central, Andrea from Just One More Book, Lara Zeises from Girl Uninterrupted and author of Contents Under Pressure & more, and Alex Flinn from I Plan to Be a Diva Someday and author of Beastly & more.

September 28th, 2007