1. When/how did you become an avid reader?
I was so young I don’t remember it now. If there was ever a time I wasn’t enthralled by books or didn’t know how to read, it’s lost in the mists of time.
2. What is your favourite genre for adult/young adult books?
Anything with a good story. For children’s books, that generally means fantasy. I’ll read just about anything, although I’ll admit that I don’t enjoy romances or thrillers much. Or British police procedurals—I’ve rarely read a genre that depresses me so much.
3. What was the most recent book purchased/given to you?
I bought The Steerswoman’s Road by Rosemary Kirstein, along with four of the five books in The Dark Is Rising sequence by Susan Cooper, just last night.
People tend not to give me books, mostly under the mistaken impression that because I buy so many for myself, they wouldn’t make an exciting gift, when in fact nothing could be further from the truth. I have striven to rectify this erroneous conclusion for many years, but alas, no success as yet…
4. Which book would you like to have that you don’t own?
Right at this moment, Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper, because they didn’t have it at the bookstore last night, and it’s the first in the series.
More generally, my current obsession is with the old, now out-of-print hardcover editions of John Bellairs’s children’s horror novels, which had the most gorgeous covers by Edward Gorey. The new editions, sadly, are hideous.
5. What book did you think you would never read, but found yourself reading it after all?
I don’t think that’s ever happened to me. I rarely make up my mind never to read a book, and there are so many intriguing books out there that when I do decide against a book, I just don’t pick it up.
There are a few books I should have decided never to read, namely The Scarlet Letter and Pamela, but unfortunately I was only wise after the fact.
6. Which do you prefer, libraries or bookstores?
Bookstores, at the moment. I owe my local library an obscene amount of money, and I enjoy books a lot more when I’m not reading under a deadline (hence the fines.) I love spending time in libraries, though, even when I’m not in a position to check out books.
7. What’s the longest you’ve never picked up a book (to read for pleasure, excluding all school material - unless that’s really what you enjoy reading)?
There are times when I’ve gone months without reading for pleasure. In fact, when I finished The Kite Runner and Memoirs of a Geisha in December 2006, they were the first novels I’d read in a long time. Neither of them is the best book ever written, but they have a place in my heart because they made me remember how much I love reading.
