I told you I got last week’s WG in just under the wire. And here’s the next one already. WG 2009-44 is more like a questionnaire than a single topic, so I’m going to fill it in that way.
How do you choose what to read? Is it random or planned? Based on your mood, challenges, titles, covers, topic?
There are two parts to this question. The first part is how I choose what to add to my to-be-read pile. These generally fall into three categories: (1) a classic (or currently popular) book I pick up just to see what all the fuss is about, (2) a book by an author I’ve previously enjoyed, and (3) books literally shoved into my hands by fellow BookCrossers. This last one is the most common. We can get a little aggressively generous with our literature. :) But I’ve discovered a lot of really awesome books this way, much of it stuff I never would have tried on my own.
The second part is how I choose what I read next. If I have a book with a time limit (bookring to pass along, ARC to review, book borrowed from a friend, etc.) then of course that comes first. Otherwise I usually just go to the shelf and grab whatever strikes my fancy at that particular moment. The exception to this is audiobooks, which I borrow from the library. Their catalog has only a passing acquaintance with reality, so I keep a list of audiobooks I’d like to listen to and when I start one, I put the next one on hold. That way it’s waiting for me in an easy-to-find location when I’m ready to read it.
What process do you use for reading? Do you take notes while reading? Annotate your books? Just read?
I just read. The only time I take notes is when reading a textbook or something I plan to summarize, or occasionally when I think of something I want to include in my review.
What happens when you are done reading? Do you wait to review or write immediately? Do you revisit and revise before posting?
Sometimes I jot down quick notes while reading, but in general I try to get the review written within a couple days of finishing the book. If I wait too long I start forgetting what I wanted to say.
What other tasks do you go through after reading a book? Is your blog the only place you post a review? Do you keep lists of readings? Catalog genre, page numbers, gender of authors, etc.?
Oy. The reviews are posted here on my blog, as well as GoodReads and LibraryThing. Each week I post links on Semicolon: Saturday Reviews. In addition, I keep lists of books read in a given year on my BookCrossing bookshelf, Lists of Bests, and of course here on the blog. I’ve thought about copy-pasting my reviews on Amazon as well but haven’t made the time to do it.
What happens to the book when you are done with it? Does it end up in your home library? Go back to a public library? BookMooch?
The audiobooks go back to the library. 99.9% of the rest of them end up being released through BookCrossing. It’s very rare that I reread a book, so if I don’t think I will, I don’t keep it. Shelf space is at a premium in my house.
Overall, if you had to give someone a “How To” list for your dealings with any particular book, what would it look like?
1. Get book via friends, BookCrossing, the Book Thing, a used bookstore, whatever.
2. Read book. Hopefully enjoy.
3. List book as finished in various places.
4. Review book. Post review in various places.
5. Bring book to BC in DC meet. If no one takes it, release it into the wild.
6. Repeat.
by Katherine Neville: The long-awaited sequel to Neville’s excellent debut novel, 
by Karen Cushman: A diary of a 13-year-old British girl in 1290. Absolutely delightful. Birdy’s commentary is loads of fun: earthy, funny, and brutally honest. Things just get better when she obtains a book of saints and marks whose feast day it is, often with hilarious commentary. I wonder how many of them are real. (Probably most, given the level of Christian superstition during those days.) Definitely recommended for anyone – children and adults alike – looking for an interesting and entertaining sample of medieval life (pay particular attention to the food – eww!). I don’t know why I didn’t read this years ago.
by Stephenie Meyer (unabridged audiobook read by Ilyana Kadushin and Matt Walters): This final book of the Twilight series opens with Bella and Edward’s wedding and subsequent honeymoon, and covers the first six months or so of their life together. There’s a bit of drama here and there, but by and large it’s not nearly as suspenseful as the earlier books – and those were pretty tame. As I’d expected, imprinting was used as a convenient solution to the love triangle. The idea is that when a werewolf meets his soulmate, he “imprints” on them and suddenly has eyes for no one else. Bella can’t be with Edward without breaking Jacob’s heart? Simple: Jacob imprints on somebody else and ceases being interested in Bella all together. Problem solved. Pretty cheap, if you ask me, but hardly unexpected. It’s not like I ever thought Jacob ever had a chance with Bella, even when Edward was out of the picture in New Moon.
by David Sedaris (unabridged audiobook read by the author): One thing I really appreciate about Sedaris is not only does he share the often unflattering foibles of everyone around him, he never spares himself. Indeed, he often paints himself as the one with the worst intentions and habits. I laughed particularly hard at “In the Waiting Room” and “What I Learned”. The final and longest essay, “The Smoking Section,” goes through his first few months after quitting smoking. It’s made more interesting by the stay in Japan during this time. These essays are sometimes poignant, often funny, and always unexpected. All in all, this is one of Sedaris’s better collections. It doesn’t beat out Me Talk Pretty One Day as my favorite, but it’s probably in second place.
by Michael Paterniti: When Dr. Thomas Stoltz Harvey autopsied Albert Einstein in 1955, he removed the great scientist’s brain, though whether he had the family’s permission to do so remains in doubt. Either way, he kept the brain in his house, in a couple of cookie jars. When Paterniti learned of this, he sought out the elusive pathologist. When Harvey mentions his intentions of giving part of the brain to Einstein’s niece Evelyn in California, Paterniti offers to drive him. Not quite as much of a romp as I’d hoped. I found myself a little nauseated every time he described the brain itself, which was in pieces, floating in formaldehyde. It doesn’t help that Paterniti seems to want to present the brain as a sort of religious relic, but often falls short. The main draw for me was the opportunity for a vicarious cross-country road trip. Unfortunately, Paterniti and Harvey don’t make for very interesting company.
by Marv Gold: The poetry of Shel Silverstein is a big part of my childhood, so it was with trepidation that I began reading this memoir by a lifelong friend. Sometimes I just don’t want to know about people’s dark sides. (And, admittedly, sometimes I do.) But this wasn’t an expose. Rather, it was a pleasant collection of memories of a guy who was undeniably memorable. Like many people, I was most familiar with Silverstein’s children’s books, but this tale focuses more on his beginnings, from childhood through college and the start of his 40-year career with Playboy. I enjoyed the little illustrations (Gold was a fellow artist, after all) and anecdotes. Though I wish Silverstein’s cartoons, poetry, and lyrics could have been reprinted here when they were referenced, all in all I found this to be a sweet tribute to a talented and unusual man.
by Elinor Lipman: 16-year-old Frederica Hatch lives in a tiny on-campus apartment with her professor parents who double as dorm-parents at a small women’s college near Boston. As the daughter of a sociologist and a psychologist, both die-hard unionists, not to mention being raised around hundreds of college girls, Frederica is a little different from most girls her age. Things start to get interesting when melodramatic Rockette-wannabe Laura Lee French shows up as dorm mother for another building. She is not only eccentric but also the first wife of Frederica’s father, a woman Frederica didn’t even know existed mere weeks before. I was reminded a bit of 