Reading Habits

Laurie Powers memed me into this. Here goes...    

Do you snack while you read? If so, favorite reading snack?

Normally just coffee laced with hot chocolate. It’s when I sit down to write that the Cheetos and BBQ chips come out.

Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?

I try to leave a book in the same condition I found it. This habit is so ingrained I have trouble abusing a library book. 


How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears?
Bookmark, or, if I’m feeling bold, by memory.

Laying the book flat open?
Horrors! I crack a book no more than necessary. With pulps, I’m pinching the spine so it doesn’t accidentally fall open.

Fiction, Non-fiction, or both?
Fiction for fun, and to point my writing brain in the right directions: Mystery, historical adventure, an occasional western or fantasy, graphic novels. Non fiction mostly for research.

Hard copy or audiobooks?
Hard in the house, audio in the car. Some of each every day.

Are you a person who tends to read to the end of chapters, or are you able to put a book down at any point?
I read to the end of a scene whenever possible.

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop to look it up right away?
Only when reading Clark Ashton Smith, which I have not done for a lentitudinously long time.

What are you currently reading? 
Guns of the Past by Lance Howard, The Punisher (MAX series book 2: Kitchen Irish), Sword Song by Bernard Cornwell, Sudden Mischief (for the eleventeenth time) by Robert B. Parker, Warriors of the Steppes: The Complete Cossack Adventures, (v. 2) by Harold Lamb.

What is the last book you bought?
Danger Is My Business by Lee Server. Ed Gorman said I had to.

Are you the type of person that only reads one book at a time or can you read more than one at a time?
One novel for pleasure, two to prime the pump (Parker and Cornwell), one book of short stories, one graphic novel. One audio book when I’m driving alone, another when my wife is with me.

Do you have a favorite time of day and/or place to read?
No.

Do you prefer series books or stand alone books?
Series, hands down.


Is there a specific book or author that you find yourself recommending over and over?
I used to carry an extra copy of Breakfast of Champions around in my trunk in case I met someone I could infect with it, but now I’m too cheap. These days I just tell anyone who will listen to read Robert B. Parker and Bernard Cornwell. And no library should be without A Gent from Bear Creek by Robert E. Howard.

How do you organize your books? (By genre, title, author’s last name, etc.?) When I had room, I shelved by genre, then by author. Now that most of my books are in boxes, they’re organized mainly by size (the worst of all possible methods).

Sooooooooooooooooooo...


I'm memeing this mother on to Richard Prosch, Kassandra Kelly, and Cap'n Bob Napier.