55 Reading Questions!

Since, yesterday, I noticed some of my friends posted the identical posts, which title caught my attentions. 55 reading questions? That sounds fun! I finally decided to borrow my mom's laptop (with a debate, negotiation, bargaining, coffee brewing and noodle cooking going on first) and deliberately trying to answer these questions!

 (Courtesy of Kak Oky, Kak Stef, Kak Ana and Holmes--sweet--Holmes)

1. Favorite childhood book?

Ugh, can't name one because there are so many. But I loved everything written by Hans Christian Andersen, Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, and Judy Blume.

2. What are you reading right now? 

 The Human Stain - Phillip Roth

3. What books do you have on request at the library?

None, because I very rarely borrow books from my school library. I once went to The National Library my city has, but the books collection was so awful; they weren't taken care of by the right hands as well.
 

4. Bad book habit? 

 My bad habit is probably how I get so sensitive and protective when it comes to the books I like. There are books that touch my heart personally, and I feel like they cheat on me when other people read them. :p

5. What do you currently have checked out at the library? 

Like I said, I rarely go to library.

6. Do you have an e-reader? 

Nope, I'm against free e-books; and I can't get my head around buying something I can't touch with my own hands, so I can't buy e-books. :p And besides, I'm a conventional reader, it feels weird when I can't sniff my books or put them under my pillow so I can literally sleep with them :)

7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once?

I find it odd not to finish one book right away. I skim books I just buy/get at once, just to see which one is more interesting, but I don't usually read them all at once. If I do that, there is probably something wrong with the book I was reading first (maybe it was boring, etc)

8. Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog? 

Well, now every time I finish reading a book, I try to make a review of it, rather than writing a love (or hate) letter to the characters or the author on my diary. Just in case you're wondering why I seem to have so many books on my read shelf but I write reviews of only some of them, it's a tendency of mine to talk highly of things I like, but no one can ever push me to talk about things I don't. So when I like a book but there's nothing I want to talk about in it (for example, the prose is ordinary, the characters are goody-goody, et cetera), I can't write a review. But this is a habit I'm willing to change.

9. Least favourite book you read this year (so far)? 

 Swamplandia by Karen Russell, Seandainya by Windhy Puspitadewi, The Language of Flower by Vanessa Dffenbaugh, Palo Alto by James Franco

10. Favorite book you’ve read this year? 

 The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer, Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde, The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour

11. How often do you read out of your comfort zone? 

 Hmm, there is no precise way of knowing how often I do, but I do once in a while.

12. What is your reading comfort zone? 

 Contemporary fiction, contemporary classic, realistic young-adult. Sometimes I read philosophy, poetry, psychology books.

13. Can you read on the bus?

I rarely ride buses but yes, I can read on the car. I can even read on the motorcycle.

14. Favorite place to read? 

In my room, on my bed. On the balcony in my house.

15. What is your policy on book lending? 

Read the book you lend from me. I hate it when people borrow my books without reading it. And be willing to discuss the books with me! :D

Oh, and don't borrow my books for such a long time. And please return them in the exact condition as when you borrow them from me.

16. Do you ever dog-ear books?

Yes, when I was very little and I didn't know better. Now I don't anymore. I highlight lines on books I really like.

17. Do you ever write in the margins of your books? 

Nope. Although I really want to, most of the time, to write my name or the time I bought/get it or just scribbles of random quotes, BUT my hand-writing is so awful, I don't want my books to be "hurt" from it. 

18. Not even with text books? 

 I often scribble on my school text books.

19. What is your favourite language to read in? 

I actually don't want to sounds snobbish, but I like reading in English better. I don't know why, probably because lately I've been reading in English more, because now I don't buy Indonesian books a lot. I rarely buy English books, too. Most of the books I have right now are used books that I got from book-swapping, and all of them are in English. (Maybe this is why now my Indonesian feels a little bit rusty..) And I very rarely find very, very good books written in Indonesia by local authors that suit my preference. The last time I went to Gramedia, all I found were teenlit or romance books. I only found Winter Dreams by Maggie Tiojakin and Gadis Kretek by Ratih Kumala, and they blew my mind.

I don't know, maybe you can recommend me some books, written by local authors, that I might like? :)

 

20. What makes you love a book? 

Rather than telling you what makes me love a book (because you can see what in my reviews), I want to tell you what MADE me love books.

THE HISTORY OF LOVE (FOR BOOKS)

BY SEKAR WULANDARI

(krik)

It all starts when my mother took me to the bookstore to buy stationery and other goods. She then bought me a book from Famous Five the series, that I read right away. Then she started to buy me some more, and I finished them. Every time we went to the mall and I spotted a bookstore, I will beg them to buy me books. I even read books that my mom bought for herself and my dad: The Lord of The Rings, Agatha Christie's books, books about autism, anything written by Torey Hayden or other autism specialists/psychologists (my brothers were just diagnosed of autism around the time I started liking to read)

So I found that books allowed me to go outside to see the world and have pets and go picnic when my parents told me not to, to help me understand things I couldn't get from school, and they made me feel awesome and look cool.

21. What will inspire you to recommend a book? 

If that particular book pretty much blows my mind and rocks my world.

22. Favorite genre? 

Go see number 12.

23. Genre you rarely read (but wish you did)?

Science-fiction and comic books! Now I've developed a strange obsession towards robots and androids in classic science-fiction books. (Not the modern ones.)

24. Favourite biography? 

 Can I say anything by Torey Hayden? She is my hero. And a biography of The Kennedys, which I already forgot what the title was (since I already gave it away in a bookswap), Into The WIld by Jon Krakauer

25. Have you ever read a self-help book? 

Yes, when I began my teenage-hood. Now I don't anymore, since I found that myself can help myself, not a self-help book. 

26. Favourite cookbook?

I can't remember the title, but it had a recipe of squid siomays and spicy tuna fusiilli with nori, which were awesome.

27. Most inspirational book you’ve read this year (fiction or non-fiction)?

 Winter Dreams by Maggie Tiojakin.

28. Favorite reading snack?

Anything in which I can use a fork and/or a spoon to eat it with so I won't make my hands dirty. And for the drink I usually have not so sweet iced-tea/vanilla milkshake/green tea latte/milk tea.

29. Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience. 

 Around the time I was reading Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, the rumor of it being adapted to film was hanging in the air so everybody was reading it everywhere. I hoped it was going to be the best book I read that year, but it didn't.. Maybe I should read it once more.

30. How often do you agree with critics about a book? 

Only with a few critics from trusted media. I find some critics to be too serious and they don't hesitate to give everything away. They are too teorical, they somehow forget to enjoy reading the book to the fullest.

31. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews? 

 I always position myself in the heels of the author. I would feel sad if a reader didn't like my book and write about how bad it was, but I should read it for the sake of my writing. So will I give bad reviews? Yes, but I try to be honest without hurting anyone's feelings.

32. If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you chose?

Chinese and Deutsch, because I learn those languages in school. But I really want to read Death and Punishment (one of the best books I've read) in Russian, its first language. 

33. Most intimidating book you’ve ever read? 

 Pride and Prejudice, because it was the very first English book I've read. It was unabridged, full-on romance with heartbreaks and arranged marriages everywhere, written in classic, Victorian English language...

34. Most intimidating book you’re too nervous to begin? 

 War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.

35. Favorite Poet? 

Chairil Anwar, Walt Whitman, e.e. cummings, Yeats, Keats. I quite like Emily Dickinson.

 

36. How many books do you usually have checked out of the library at any given time?

See Q #3.

37. How often have you returned books to the library unread?

See above.

38. Favorite fictional character?

 Charlie, from The Perks of Being A Wallflower. (He is my alter ego.) A lot of characters from Game of Thrones (Tyrion, Daenerys, Ned, Jon Snow), Aragorn, Margo.

 39. Favourite fictional villain? 

 Joker, from Batman. And Loki, from Thor.

40. Books I’m most likely to bring on vacation?

I rarely go on a vacation.. But I'm thinking of bringing The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner during my stay in Jakarta, as a book for Baca Bareng BBI this month.

41. The longest I’ve gone without reading. 

 A month. I was preparing for final exam.

42. Name a book that you could/would not finish.

 The Host by Stephanie Meyer

43. What distracts you easily when you’re reading?

The urge to watch films.

44. Favorite film adaptation of a novel?

Fight Club (I can't bear not mentioning David Fincher here, he is one of my favorite film-makers), Schindler's List (the penultimate scene and the final scene was stunning, and come on RALPH FIENNES!!). The Virgin Suicides (favorite book, Sofia Coppola, rad soundtrack.. Im a happy nerd!), Into The Wild (favorite book, Sean Penn turned out to be a great director, rad soundtrack, Emile Hirsch was awesome)

 

45. Most disappointing film adaptation? 

My Sister's Keeper. I was so mad about the film I almost torn the DVD in halves.

46. The most money I’ve ever spent in the bookstore at one time? 

 400-ish, I think.

47. How often do you skim a book before reading it? 

Very often. That way I could find out which ones I'm going to read first.

48. What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through?

The prose is bad. I am a sucker for good writing (good proses, great vocabulary, excessive amount of memorable quotes) so if the writing is bad, I can't help but stop reading it, even if the plot is great or the characters are interesting.

49. Do you like to keep your books organized? 

Yes, that way my books are easier to find.

50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them? 

I am a book collector, so I keep the ones I like. I don't see a purpose of keeping books I don't like, so I usually give them to my friends or swap them.

51. Are there any books you’ve been avoiding?

Erotica. ~_~

52. Name a book that made you angry. 

Melodia by Keshia Deisra, I think.

53. A book you didn’t expect to like but did?

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. I thought it was, well, a romance novel. It turned out to be one of the best books I've read!

54. A book that you expected to like but didn’t?

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell.The cover was inviting, so was the premise.. But the story-telling was plain.

55. Favorite guilt-free, pleasure reading?

Anything by John Green and Jonathan Safran Foer.