Many thanks to Nat at The Owl on the Bookshelf for nominating me for the Rapid Fire Book Tag! Here are my answers…

eBooks or physical books?

• I really don’t mind as it’s the content that matters and not the format by which I access it. That said I do love my physical books but I couldn’t afford or accommodate everything I want to read in a physical format.

Paperback or hardback?

• Hardbacks are lovely to display but paperbacks much easier for reading in bed.

Online or in-store shopping?

• I don’t live near a book shop so it’s online for me.

Trilogies or series?

• I am partial to a series, but I invariably cock-up the sequence anyway which defeats the object.

Heroes or villains?

• The odd romantic hero is always welcome(though preferably not too odd!)

A book you want everyone to read.

• Based purely on my recent best read – The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon

Recommend an underrated book.

• This is a bit of a cheat as I don’t know if it’s underrated but it’s certainly not ‘popular’. It’s my all time favourite and the only book I have ever read twice namely Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor. It even merited its own blog post last year – see here.

The last book you finished.

• The Devil You Know by Terry Tyler (review pending)

Weirdest thing you used as a book mark.

• Nothing very weird, probably a rail ticket.

Used books, yes or no?

• As I buy a fair amount of my books from the charity shop then the answer would have to be yes, providing they’re clean and look like new or as near as.

Top three favourite genres?

• Mature chick lit (hate that term)
• Police procedural/thrillers
• Not sure if it’s a genre but the best I can come up to describe it is quirky .

Borrow or buy?

• I used to borrow from the library all the time (as an ex librarian). However as my local branch is only a small village library I have to reserve most of my books. It reached the stage where I was paying £1 to reserve books I could buy for Kindle at 99p. So my library usage has somewhat dwindled.

Characters or plot?

• Both, but if I had to pick one then characters I think.

Short or long book?

• Definitely not short, but I don’t want an 800 pager either.

Long or short chapters?

• I prefer short to long, mainly as I read in bed before I go to sleep and I can’t leave a chapter unfinished, so shorter ones are easier.

Name the first three books you think of.

• Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton (Don’t ask me why I’ve never read it, it literally was the first thing I thought of)
• The White Camellia by Juliet Greenwood – it’s staring at me as I haven’t got round to putting it back on the bookshelf after it was reviewed.
• The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan – currently reading

Books that make you laugh or cry?

• Laugh

Our world or fictional worlds?

• Our world I’m not a fan of science fiction/fantasy or dystopian novels.

Do you ever judge a book by its cover?

• All the time. I’m always attracted by the cover and then swayed by the blurb and possibly a read of the sample.

Book to movie or book to TV adaptation?

• Not usually, they invariably fall far short of the book. The last film adaptation I saw that I thought did justice to the book was The Book Thief.

Series or standalone?

• Given my previously admitted propensity for messing up books in a series, I’m safer with standalone.

 

Thanks Nat for this, it was fun and suprisingly quick to do, so while I know my fellow bloggers are always busy I’m happy to let anyone who wants to ‘tag along’. I will also nominate 3 of my blogging buddies that I don’t think have already been tagged and that I’d like to know a little more about.

Emma at One Reader’s Thoughts

Mairead at Swirl and Thread

Jo at Jo’s Book Blog