Ten Reasons I Love Reading

I'm linking up with The Broke and the Bookish for another Top Ten Tuesday.

This week's topic is "ten reasons I love X" and one of their suggestions was "reading." I remember a while back when some students at the college where I work had to write an essay about why we should read books, and they were struggling to come up with ideas. I thought, there are so many good reasons to read books! Here are ten of the reasons I love to read.

1. Being entertained.
I think this is why most people read! Whether it's in books, movies, TV, or just listening to someone, we humans love a good story.

2. Understanding and empathizing with other people better.
There have been plenty of studies showing that fiction readers can get inside other people's heads more easily and understand what they're going through. I definitely find I'm more open to relating to someone who's different from me more easily if I've read books about someone like them.

3. Learning new things.
Everyone at our work has to take the "StrengthsFinder" quiz when they're hired, and my top strength is "Learner." I'm a huge fan of nonfiction and love the chance to better understand some aspect of the world or history.

4. Connecting with others who have read the same books.
This is why I love book clubs — it's fun to discuss books with other people. You can learn a lot about someone by their reactions to a particular book. (I also love this article about a father and daughter reading the same books.)

5. Having relatable examples to draw on when making a point.
When trying to explain something to someone else, it can help to reach for an analogy they'll understand. The more books I read, the more likely I am to find a story that mirrors what I'm trying to say.

6. Understanding references in popular culture.
My husband is way more into comedy than I am (movies, TV shows, stand-up), but I love when I get to be the one to explain a joke to him because it references a book he's never read!

7. Challenging my pre-existing beliefs.
As much as we seem to exist within echo chambers of our own beliefs nowadays (unless your Facebook feed isn't as locked down as mine is), there are definitely books, like The Hidden Brain and The Righteous Mind, that have challenged what I thought I knew about other people's thought processes (and my own!).

8. Finding inspiration or tips to apply to real life.
Most of the things I learn from books are just interesting tidbits about the world, but occasionally I'll run across an idea that is absolutely transferable to my daily life. I followed the processes laid out in The Happiness Project and The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up to great success, became a vegetarian because of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and have applied principles from Switch to my work.

9. Being able to recommend books to other people.
As I shared in a previous post, I love when people ask me for book recommendations! One of the great things about reading a wide variety of books is that I can tailor recommendations to the person or the specific type of book they're looking for.

10. Always having something to occupy the time, no matter where I am.
One reason I've moved more toward digital books is that I always have a book with me, usually at least two — one on my Kindle app and one on audiobook. Getting stuck in a long line or waiting room is just an excuse to read a few more pages, and I don't mind doing chores when I can have a good narrator in my ears at the same time.

Why do you love reading?

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Top Ten Book-Related Problems I Have

I'm linking up with The Broke and the Bookish for another Top Ten Tuesday.

I feel like this topic has been covered pretty effectively by Buzzfeed, what with the 26 worst things that can happen to a book lover and 17 problems only book lovers will understand, plus the Reader Problems questions I answered not too long ago.

Rather than trying to come up with my own list entirely from scratch, I'm going to first pull the parts of these lists that most resonated with me and then fill in with my own.

1. Getting interrupted while reading
This was something Mike had to learn early on in our relationship, and he still tries to talk to me sometimes while I'm reading. It's one thing if you're like, "Hey, Jess, can I interrupt you for a second?" but if you just start talking to me as if I'm not doing anything particularly important at the moment (SEE: A BOOK) you are going to get evil eyes from me.

2. Not remembering who I lent books to
I try to use Delicious Library to track this, but I have to do it immediately or I will forgot who I lent a book to or possibly that I lent out a book at all. And Mike sometimes lends our books out without remembering either. We had this conversation this past weekend:

Me: What book did we lend to someone yesterday?

Mike: I don't know. I don't think we lent out any books.

Me: Yes. We totally did. Maybe to... [Person A]?

Mike: Nope. We didn't lend her any books. I don't know what you're talking about. I don't think we lent any books out.

Me: No, we definitely did. ::pulls open Delicious Library and starts slowly looking through the entire list of books we own:: Oh, yeah, Dave Barry's Complete Guide to Guys! Remember?

Mike: Oh, that wasn't to [Person A]. That was [Person B].

Me: See?? I knew it!

3. Accidentally getting spoiled
About a third of the way through The Madness Underneath (book 2 in the Shades of London series) I went to the library website to put a hold on the newly released The Shadow Cabinet (book 3). In the course of waiting for the hold to take I read the blurb, which spoiled two major plot points from book 2. Ah! So annoying! This is why I try not to read book descriptions, even for the book I'm currently reading — they can give too much away.

4. Reading too fast and missing stuff
When I get really impatient to find out what's going to happen next (especially if I suspect there is Impending Doom), I will inadvertently start skimming or glance ahead to the next page, and inevitably I miss something and get confused and have to go back and carefully read the page again.

5. Being disappointed when someone doesn't like a book I recommended
I think this is self-explanatory. I try not to be all, "WASN'T IT AMAZING? DIDN'T YOU LOVE IT?" because I recognize everyone has different opinions on things, but c'mon... didn't you love it??

6. Finishing an amazing book and having no one to discuss it with
This is one reason I recommend books to other people, and also why I'm in so many book clubs. Some books are just begging to be discussed. If necessary I'll go read other people's Goodreads reviews of it just to share in the mutual excitement and love, but then I get angry when I see negative reviews of the book (see No. 5).

7. Not being able to join in discussions of the-book-of-the-moment
This is the flip side of No. 6. Because I get most of my books from the library, and I have a giant to-read list, and I'm in a lot of book clubs, my reading is rarely dictated by whatever the "hot" book of the moment is. This means that there's usually some book that everyone wants to talk about to which I can only say, "Yeah, that's on my to-read list! I'll get to it eventually..."

8. Trying to decide whether to bring up how many books I read
I was at book club one time last year and people were talking about their reading goals. Someone brought up how she reads about 60 books a year and everyone started acting like she was the most amazing person ever and asking how she does it and all this stuff. I felt like it was relevant to the conversation to bring up that I was on track to read twice that many books, but there wasn't any way to do it that didn't sound like, "Neener, neener, I read more than you!"

9. Finding a great series that takes a nosedive in quality
It's great when you read a fantastic book and then find out it's part of a series — more to read! More time with your favorite characters! It sucks when the rest of the books in the series are not nearly as good as the first one, or the series ends in a really stupid way (I'm looking at you, The Younger Gods). I hate this so much that I will usually seek out reviews of other books in a series before deciding whether to continue with it... unless there are such major cliffhangers that I'll keep reading just to find out what happens, even if it turns out to be stupid.

10. Having a ridiculously long to-read list
I go back and forth on whether this is actually a problem. At one point I tried to cap it at 200 books (approximately the amount I could read in two years), but I still wanted a way to remember which books to add once I had spaces open up again... so eventually it made sense to just add as many books as I wanted to the list. I've been pretty good about not adding any books this year unless I really, really want to read them, so I can feel like I'm at least starting to make a dent in the list. But I don't think I would ever want to clear out the list completely and have nothing I was particularly excited about reading next, right?

What are your biggest book-related problems?

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Reader Problems: Q&A

I loved this question set shared by Cait at Paper Fury. I'm going to share my own answers here!

1. You have 20,000 books on your TBR. How in the world do you decide what to read next?
OK, it's not quite 20,000, but I do have 371 books on my to-read list right now. I consider this a reasonable amount given that I read 100 books a year. (Then again, a good chunk of those are book club reads not off my to-read list, so it will likely take me more than four years to get through everything on my list.) Books that fit with one of my goals for the year go to the top of the list. I use the Wish List feature on OverDrive to mark all the books I want to read, so when I need one to read next I'll just go to the "Available Now" tab of the Wish List and pick one. I'll also put a hold on whichever is most popular (has the most holds), so I'll read that when it becomes available.

2. You're halfway through a book and you're just not loving it. Do you quit or commit?
I used to never quit reading books, but as time has gone on I've determined that my to-read list is too long and my time is too valuable to waste it on books I really don't care to finish reading. In most cases I'll still finish a book — if it's a book club read, or a classic, or a bestseller everyone's talking about — but if it's a book I picked up randomly and I feel like I'm forcing myself through it, I may just let it go. Last year, I abandoned The Monuments Men and Mo' Meta Blues each halfway through, and The Coldest Winter Ever maybe a quarter of the way through.

3. The end of the year is coming and you're so close, but so far away on your Goodreads reading challenge. Do you try to catch up and how?
This has yet to happen. Last year my goal was 52 books, but I had already reached 60 about halfway through the year, so I upped the goal to 100 and ended up reading 120. However, I kept it at 100 for this year and I'm just barely keeping up so far, so we'll see how it ends up going.

4. The covers of a series you love do. not. match. How do you cope?
This is how my Inkheart series is, with two in hardcover and one in paperback. It's annoying, but I buy so few books as it is that I'm not going to buy another copy of a book just to make everything match.

5. Everyone and their mother love a book you really don't like. Who do you bond with over shared feelings?
One of the great things about book club is that there's usually at least one other person who shares your feelings, or will at least agree that the parts you didn't like weren't that great. If it's not a book club read, then I'll often skim the Goodreads reviews to find some people who had the same reaction I did (and maybe put it into words better than I could).

6. You're reading a book and you are about to start crying in public. How do you deal?
It's been a long time since this happened; books rarely make me cry, and I read at home most of the time. If it's a book where I have to know what happens next, and I'm among strangers (like on public transportation), I'll probably just keep reading/listening and let a few tears out. But if I can wait until I'm home, or I'm around people who are going to have a strong reaction to me crying, I'll put the book down right away.

7. A sequel of a book you loved just came out, but you've forgotten a lot from the prior novel. Will you re-read the book? Skip the sequel? Try to find a synopsis on Goodreads? Cry in frustration?!
It depends a lot on the book. When the third Thomas Cromwell book comes out, I don't feel I'll need to reread the last book because the events of the first and second books were fairly independent from one another, so I imagine the third will be the same (and it's based on history, so I can always Wikipedia the real story to get caught up again). But with The Madness Underneath, I'll probably reread The Name of the Star first because I'm guessing there will be a lot of carryover from the first book and I'll have to remember who everyone is to know what's going on.

8. You do not want anyone. ANYONE. Borrowing your books. How do you politely tell people nope when they ask?
Eh, I'm OK with people borrowing my books, even though I've had a number of books got lost or ruined. It's more important to me to share the stories with people than to keep my books in pristine condition. On my Delicious Library software I can mark who's borrowed a particular book so I know where it is if I'm ever looking for it.

9. Reading ADD. You've picked up and put down 5 books in the last month. How do you get over your reading slump?
Umm... I don't do this. I'm generally reading three books at once (hard copy, ebook, and audiobook), but I won't pick up another one until I'm done with one of them. If I'm terribly bored with all of them (but determined to finish them for one reason or another), I'll try to power through whichever one I'm closest to finishing so I can start on something new that I really want to read.

10. There are so many new books coming out that you're dying to read! How many do you actually buy?
Probably none. I rarely buy books unless I get a gift card to a bookstore. I'll just put them on my to-read list, put holds on one or two at the library, and then read them whenever they manage to come up in my queue.

11. After you've bought the new books you can't wait to get to, how long they sit on your shelf before you get to them?
A long time, since I'm usually trying to finish book club reads and books due back to the library at any given time. I bought Hyperbole and a Half last year and haven't gotten to it yet (in part because of my 2014 reading goal), but I hope to read it soon once I'm done with this month's book club books.

How do you cope with these #BookwormProblems? What other problems do you run into as a reader?

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2014 Bookish Wrap-Up

Emily at Love Woke Me Up This Morning posted 12 questions summarizing her year in reading and invited others to answer the same questions. Here are my responses!

1. How many books have you read this year?
I exceeded my goal of reading 100 books. I'm at 120 as of today, and I'm guessing I'll finish at least one more on the plane ride home tomorrow. That's by far the most books I've read in a year since I started recording my books in 2006. (I've written a little about why I think that is.)

2. Which book surprised you the most?
Probably War and Peace. I expected the whole thing to be a slog, and a lot of it was (especially the War parts), but I actually liked it quite a bit. If you're just looking for the story and don't care about the accomplishment of reading the entire 1,400+ page book, it would probably be worth a read of the abridged version.

3. What book were you the most disappointed in?
That would be Love Does. It had been recommended to me many times, by multiple people, and I absolutely hated it. I thought it was self-indulgent and the author was hugely blind to how his wealth and privilege allowed him to do most of the things he talks about in the book.

4. Did you start any new series?
Series for which I actually intend to read all the books? Only the Thomas Cromwell series by Hilary Mantel. I read both Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies this year, and I'm looking forward to the final book. I also read Cordelia's Honor, which is technically a combination of the first two books of a series, but I don't plan to read the rest of the books in the series, which focus on a different character.

5. Did you finish any series?
Nope. Not a big series reader.

6. What was your favorite book cover this year?

Looking back over the books I read this year, most of them have pretty boring covers, but I like the cover of Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint. It's a good representation of the book itself: We see Nadia Bolz-Weber exactly as she is, with all her tattoos and not smiling for the camera, but the design of the text is an intentional callback to the long legacy of religion that continues to inform her faith.

7. What was the best non-fiction book you read?
As I said previously, it's a tie between two: Parent Effectiveness Training by Thomas Gordon or "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?" by Beverly Daniel Tatum. Both were excellent for different reasons.

8. What are you currently reading?
I'm listening to Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals and reading God's Bits of Wood by Ousmane Sembène in paperback. I also downloaded the Kindle version of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer to have something to read on my phone, but I don't expect to really get into it until the new year.

9. Any reading goals for 2015?
Stay tuned for a list of 10 goals for Top Ten Tuesday!

10. What books are you looking forward to in 2015?
The only yet-to-be-published book I have on my to-read list is All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven because I've seen so many people gushing about it already. I also look forward to reading the final Thomas Cromwell book and the next Cormoran Strike book, whenever they're published.

Edited to add: I just saw that Rachel Held Evans' next book is coming out in April 2015. I definitely want to read it!

11. What books deserve a shoutout?
These are books I haven't mentioned much but which are also great. I'm pretty sure I've shared all my 5-star books of the year at one point or another, but many of the 4-star books are worth a mention as well:

Fiction:
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
One Hundred Names by Cecelia Ahern

Nonfiction:
An Ordinary Man by Paul Rusesabagina
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor
David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell
Spiritual Misfit by Michelle DeRusha
Walking the Bridgeless Canyon by Kathy Baldock

12. Your top 5 books of 2014.
Haha, no. It was hard enough to narrow it down to my top 10 favorite fiction and my top 10 favorite nonfiction of the year. You can check out those lists.

How was your year in reading?

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Digitizing My Reading

If you look at the formats in which I've read books over time, you'll notice some drastic changes...

(Click to enlarge)

("Null" indicates books I read before I started recording my reading in 2006.)

There are actual three major shifts in my reading formats, which could be labeled "Jessica starts getting her books from the library" (more hardcover), "Jessica discovers OverDrive at her local library" (more audiobooks), and "Jessica buys a Kindle" (more ebooks). (There's a little blip of couple of ebooks I read in 2010 on my iPod Touch using the iBooks app, but that was not an ideal format.)

This graph shows what percentage of books I read each year were in each of these formats. From this, you might be tempted to conclude that, in recent years, I've largely replaced hard copy books with digital books. But in reality, I've only converted some of my hard copy reading to digital. It's more accurate to say that having access to digital formats has caused my total reading to skyrocket:

(Click to enlarge)

I seek out books first on OverDrive now because it's quick and easy to download to my Kindle, and less quick but still easy to download audiobooks to iTunes (and WAY faster than when I used to import audio CDs in order to load them on my iPod). Books get automatically returned when they expire. I still make trips to the library when books aren't available digitally or I don't want to read them in that format, though I try to consolidate my trips so that when I drop off a book that's due or pick up one on hold, I pick up another one that's only available in hard copy.

I bought a Kindle right before we moved cross-country, and I was a reluctant ebook user at first, particularly when I discovered that I couldn't lend out the vast majority of books on Kindle. Once I realized that our new library had OverDrive, though, and it offered books in Kindle format, I started borrowing like a fiend and never looked back.

I'll be the first to admit that not all books are ideally read in a digital format. My e-reader is a black-and-white Kindle Touch, so anything that has pictures goes on my hard-copy-only list. I preview narrators before downloading an audiobook, and I'll sometimes stop and return it if I end up not liking the narration.

But I've found that many, many books are just as easily enjoyed digitally as in hard copy, and some even more so. I tend to appreciate classic literature much more when it's read aloud to me (Frankenstein was a recent example of this). And I love the Kindle feature that lets me touch and hold a word to get a definition; I'm way too lazy most of the time to look up a word I don't know in a hard copy book. (Sometimes I catch myself wanting to press down on the word on the paper!) It was also way easier to tackle War and Peace and Roots as audiobooks than it was to tackle A Suitable Boy in paperback.

I don't think that digital reading will ever fully replace my hard-copy reading, but I'm definitely not in the "but that book smell! but I like to hold it in my hand!" camp anymore.

How do you feel about digital books, whether ebooks and audiobooks? Have you changed the format you read most often over time?

55 Questions About Books (Part 2)

Happy Friday! Here are the rest of the book-related questions I started answering here last week.

28. Favorite reading snack: I don't usually eat while reading (unless I'm reading while eating a meal), but I like having a cup of tea or hot chocolate to drink.

29. Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience: Paper Towns by John Green. I'd heard him talk so much about it while writing it that the book's symbolism ended up hitting me over the head.

30. How often do you agree with the critics about a book? If by "critics" you mean "popular opinion," probably about 75% of the time. There are always those books that I love regardless of what anyone else says, and those I do not understand the appeal of, but most of the time the "wisdom of crowds" is fairly accurate.

31. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews? I have zero qualms. I rely on other people to provide honest reviews, so I want to do the same. I always provide an explanation; I wouldn't just write "This book sucks" anymore than I'd write "This book is awesome." My reviews tend to be particularly lengthy if I disliked a book other people are passionate about.

32. If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you choose? I'd love to be able to read in French more fluently.

33. Most intimidating book I've read: I read War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy this year (~1,400 pages), as well as A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth (~1,500 pages). War and Peace was on audiobook and took me several months to get through, but A Suitable Boy was in paperback and my friends could not get over how big it was.

34. Most intimidating book I'm too nervous to begin: Some day I'd like to tackle something super-dense like Finnegans Wake by James Joyce or Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon.

35. Favorite poet: Robert Frost

36. How many books do you usually have checked out from the library at any given time? Ebooks, usually around 8, because I typically just let them sit in my account until they expire. Audiobooks, 1, because I don't know how long it will take me to get through so I won't download another until I'm done. Hardcover/paperback, anywhere from 1 to 4 depending on how many holds came through simultaneously / how many book club books I couldn't get on OverDrive.

37. How often do you return books to the library unread? Rarely.

38. Favorite fictional character: Matilda from Matilda by Roald Dahl. She's brilliant and she loves to read.

39. Favorite fictional villain: Mrs. Danvers from Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. Evil and creepy without actually being supernatural.

40. Books I'm most likely to bring on vacation: I'll bring anything on vacation with me, but I sometimes specifically choose books I'm having a hard time getting through to take on the plane. Time to focus!

41. The longest I've gone without reading: There were probably some weeks in high school or college I went without reading when I didn't have anything specific to read for class but no time to read anything else. But generally I'm always reading something.

42. Name a book you could/would not finish: 90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper. Unlike some people who have had NDEs, there's no evidence he ever actually died, and his vision of heaven was really stereotypical. This part lasts only a few pages anyway, and then the rest of the book is a detailed medical description of his recovery from his accident. No thank you.

43. What distracts you easily when you're reading? If someone is having a conversation near me, my brain can't focus on the words in front of me.

44. Favorite film adaptation of a novel: Probably Matilda. Again. I liked the movie as much as the book, and it's one of my favorite books, so that's a feat.

45. Most disappointing film adaptation: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling. They took my favorite book in the whole series and changed the plot so it didn't make sense anymore.

46. Most money I've ever spent in a bookstore at one time: It's been a long time since I bought books without a bookstore gift card. Back in the day, there was probably at least one time I dropped $60-$70 on a stack of books, though.

47. How often do you skim a book before reading it? Never for fiction; nonfiction, only if it catches my eye and I'm trying to decide whether to add it to my to-read list.

48. What would cause you to stop reading a book halfway through? If the writing is bad (which could mean all kinds of things) AND it's not a book I'm reading for any particular reason — e.g., a book club pick, a classic, or a book someone recommended it to me. I might also stop if a book is too violent/disturbing, but my threshold is much higher with print than with visuals.

49. Do you like to keep your books organized? Yeah, we have one bookshelf of nonfiction (arranged by color because I rarely remember who wrote a nonfiction book), one small bookshelf of our favorite series, and one large bookshelf with two shelves for fiction (alphabetized by author), one shelf for Bibles and reference guides, and two shelves for books posted on Half.com and PaperBackSwap.com.

50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once they've been read? See #15. If I don't plan to reread a book or lend it out, I'll post it on Half or PaperBackSwap.

51. Are there any books that you've been avoiding? Dracula by Bram Stoker. I don't like supernatural stuff and I don't like scary stuff, but it's a classic... I'm sure I'll read it eventually.

52. Name a book that made you angry: The Younger Gods by David Eddings. I am a big Eddings fan, and this was the last book of his last series before he died. The first three books of the series were great, and then this one had the worst ending ever. It wasn't quite an "it was all a dream" ending but it was close. It was ridiculous.

53. A book I didn't expect to like but did: American Gods by Neil Gaiman. As I said, I'm not much of a fantasy fan, and I was kind of meh on the other books by Gaiman I've read, but this book was absolutely fantastic.

54. A book I expected to like but didn't: This Star Won't Go Out by Esther Earl. I'm a devoted Nerdfighter and John Green wrote the introduction plus kept talking about how great the book was, but I think much of that was probably because he knew her personally. I found it very difficult to read.

55. Favorite guilt-free guilty pleasure reading: Hmm... probably mysteries, most recently Robert Gailbraith / J.K. Rowling's Cormoran Strike novels. Most of what I read is more "literature," with symbolism and stuff, but I love a straight-up action-packed mystery.

Whew! That's more than you probably wanted to know about my reading habits. If you've answered these questions, leave your link in comments!

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55 Questions about Books (Part 1)

Melbourne on My Mind introduced me to a list of book-related questions that originated here. Like her, I am splitting this into two parts to make it more readable. I tried to avoid elaborating too much on any response because it's still quite long — share reactions, questions, thoughts in comments!

1. Favorite childhood book: The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster or Matilda by Roald Dahl

2. What are you reading right now? Audiobook: Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. Kindle: Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay.

3. What books do you have on request at the library? Hard copy: The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King. Audiobook: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Kindle: What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty; Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty; Spiritual Misfit by Michelle DeRusha; Pastrix by Nadia Bolz-Weber.

4. Bad book habit: Putting holds on too many books (see #3), ending up getting them all at the same time, and getting stressed out about finishing them before I have to return them.

5. What do you currently have checked out at the library? Nothing hard copy. Digitally, the books I'm currently reading (see #2), plus all the ones I finished recently: Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde; Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan; Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor; The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson; I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai.

6. Do you have an e-reader? Yes, I have a Kindle. Most of my reading is ebooks I check out through OverDrive and then read on my Kindle plus the Kindle apps on my phone and on my desktop.

7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once? I almost always have three books going at once: one on audiobook, which I listen to when I run in the morning; one on Kindle, which I read before bed and wherever I happen to find a spare moment; and one hardcover or paperback that I'll pick up when I have free time in the evening or on the weekend.

8. Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog? I just started this blog, so... no.

9.Least favorite book you've read this year: Love Does by Bob Goff. Supposed to be about service and Christian living, but really should be subtitled "A Story of Wealth and White Male Privilege."

10. Favorite book you've read this year: Probably Parent Effectiveness Training by Thomas Gordon or "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?" by Beverly Daniel Tatum. I'm a sucker for a well-written non-fiction book.

11. What is your reading comfort zone? I didn't think I had one until my friend asked for recommendations of a fun, escapist book and I realized most of what I read deals with serious topics — I read a lot of non-fiction, classics, and what would probably be considered contemporary literature (as opposed to commercial fiction). I'm open to most genres, but I generally don't read sci-fi/fantasy, romance/chick lit, or poetry.

12. How often do you read out of your comfort zone? This is one of the reasons I love my book clubs, because they get me to pick up books I wouldn't necessarily read otherwise. Even so, they tend to stick within the same realm of literature/classics. I've been trying to do a better job of not turning down recommendations just because they fall in one of my less-favorite genres.

13. Can you read in the car? Not for more than a couple of minutes. That's another bad book-related habit: reading in the car for more than a few minutes and making myself sick. When we go on long trips I sometimes volunteer to drive just so I can listen to an audiobook.

14. Favorite place to read: On a porch swing or hammock when it's nice out, although this often ends up with me taking a nap.

15. What's your policy on book lending? I'm a fan; I primarily keep books because 1) I want to reread/reference them or 2) I want to have them to lend out. I am not great about keeping track of who has my books, though, which is how I lost my copy of Will Grayson, Will Grayson (thankfully the only John Green book I have that was not signed).

16. Do you dog-ear your books? Never. I recently got a book from the library that had a bunch of dog-eared pages and I dutifully unfolded them as I went.

17. Do you write notes in the margins of your books? No, because I mostly read books from the library, and those I get in hard copy I either turn around and post on PaperBackSwap — which requires clean pages — or want to lend out to people (without their reading my notes!). I got in the habit of margin-writing in high school, when it was required, and quickly got out of it when I got to college and wanted to sell my books at the end of the semester.

18. Do you break/crack the spine of your books? I try not to — I have a lot of bookmarks so I don't have to lay a book flat open.

19. What is your favorite language to read? I'm only fluent in English, but I'm proud of myself for the few books I've made it through in French.

20. What makes you love a book? Hard to pin down. Obviously, well-rounded, real characters, a lack of plot holes, and an interest in what happens next are all important for fiction, and I appreciate beautiful writing if it's not too dense. If it makes me laugh or cry on more than one occasion, it's probably pretty good. For nonfiction, it needs to teach me something new about something interesting in a way that's clear and easy to follow without logical leaps or a lack of sources.

21. What will inspire you to recommend a book? Often people will ask for recommendations of a specific kind, so I'll just pick books I enjoyed that fit the request. I'll recommend a book I just finished on Goodreads if I think a friend would particularly like the topic or writing style.

22. Favorite genre: I enjoy nonfiction probably more than most people. I love mysteries but don't read them often enough. Other than that, I'm pretty open as long as it's good.

23. Genre you rarely read (but wish you did): I should read more poetry. I like it, but it can require a lot of brainpower and so I tend to skip over poetry recommendations more than I should.

24. Favorite biography: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

25. Have you ever read a self-help book? (And was it actually helpful?) Yeah, some, with varying degrees of helpfulness. It's not clear what exactly qualifies as "self-help," but books like Daring Greatly by Brené Brown and Switch by Chip and Dan Heath would be some of my favorites.

26. Favorite cookbook: The Hungry Girl cookbook, only because I used to read her site and I e-mailed her to say, "You should create a cookbook!" and then a few years later she created one and I felt like I had some small part in that :)

27. Most inspirational book you've read this year (fiction or non-fiction): The Art of Happiness by Dalai Lama XIV inspired me to pay more attention to which things in my life create or detract from happiness.

Stay tuned for the rest of the questions and answers next week!

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