Musing Mondays Meme Response

Today the question on the Musing Mondays meme is:
Do you prefer to read stand-alone books, or books in series? Do you stick with a series the whole way through or stop after the first instalment? Are there any particular series you enjoy?

I don't have a preference for or against series (or stand-alone books). I think, if pressured (like with a gun to my head) I'd say I do have a fondness for series because I enjoy spending lots of time with characters that I like. That being said, series can get me in trouble with my reading because I'm a sucker (with a tiny touch of tendency toward O.C.D.) who feels compelled to finish a series, even if the writing becomes worse as time goes on (which it often seems to do as the author [and editors] get a little lazy because readers are hooked). Some times I'll get lucky and the books get better as the author gets more experienced (which I recently saw with the Pretty TOUGH series), but that seems to be the exception to the rule.

My big things about series are:
1. I have to read the books in order; and
2. I hate when authors include backstory from previous books in the series. I think authors should write the books and trust that people will read them in the order intended. Please, please, please stop recapping book #1 in book #2. As much as it pains me to use her as an example, Stephanie Meyer did a pretty good job of this in the Twilight series--it's been over a year since I've cracked any of the books open, but I don't remember her doing any recapping/summarizing in books 2-4 of the series. (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.)

Musing Monday Response... Again

This week's Musing Mondays question is:

Do you have a favourite publishing house -- one that puts out books that you constantly find yourself wanting to read? If so, who? And, what books have they published that you've loved? (question courtesy of MizB)

I could only, off-hand, think of favorites I have in the YA genres.

I think that Simon Pulse does really great books--both in the light, fun, teen contemporary melodrama sub-category and the heavy, drug-using, seedier-side-of-life teen contemporary drama sub-category. I kind of have a wannabe-author crush on them... I think my Work-in-Progress novel series could fit in their list well and yearn for them.

I also read quite a few that are printed by Speak (a YA imprint of Penguin Publishing)... but a lot of that is due to their rock-bottom prices ($7-$9) for trade paperback quality books. They've also got a good stable of reliable authors that they work with, so I tip my hat to them.

All that being said, I don't specifically seek out books by either of these publishers, it's more that Simon Pulse will advertise other books you might like in the backs of their books (which is kind of a nice feature) and the Speak books I notice by their branding when I flip them over and check out the great pricing on the backs of their books.

What about you? Do you play favorites?

Musing Monday: Reading Cover to Cover

This week's Musing Monday question is:

"We all know the old adage about not judging a book by it’s cover, but just how much sway does a book cover have when it comes to your choice of book – whether buying or borrowing? Are there any books you’ve bought based on the cover alone?"

To answer the question: Book covers play into approximately 60% of the books that I decide to read. Here's how it breaks down:

If I'm in the book store, aimlessly browsing around, I'll admit that book covers are what catch my eye and get me to pick the book up. A snappy or intriguing title gets me to flip it over and check out the summary of the book, and some good copy on the back will sometimes be enough to get me to buy it (or to read the first couple of pages and get a feel to see if it's something I'll like). My last Friday Finds post boasted that four of seven (more than half) of the YA reads I picked up at the store last week were because the cover art got my attention.

I also posted of a review of a book, Younger, that wasn't that great (C Rating) that I originally picked up at the store because the cover had a cake on it and I was hungry at the time.

If I'm reading blogs that only have a picture of the book with a title and author listed, without a summary, then the cover does it for me. I'm way too lazy to go clicking through on every single book that's posted. (Note: Please, please, please, if you're reading this, just put at least one sentence about what the book's about... don't make me click through to Amazon or whereever to get my summary. You already know the summary because you're aware of the book. Can we do this book bloggers?) That parenthetical plead being made, if it's a totally eye-catching cover (which can vary from moment to moment for me), then I'll click through and read the summary and reviews and what-not.

Examples of these types of blog posts are: the Teaser Tuesday meme on MizB's blog, Waiting on Wednesday at Alea's Pop Culture blog, Books to Pine for at The Story Sire, the Friday Finds meme on MizB's blog, and This Week in Books at Alea's Pop culture blog.

If I'm reading blogs that give a summary of the plot and a review, then cover art doesn't make a bit of difference to me.

To see a blog dedicated to book covers, check out the Book Covers blog. (There are tons of this kind of blog out there--comparing hard cover v. paperback, finding look-alike covers, etc.)

Musing Monday: Mid-Year Check-Up

Today's Musing Monday meme question is kind of interesting and/or a good way for me to do a check-up of my 2009 progress to date: Now that we’ve come to the middle of the year, what do you think of your 2009 reading so far? Read anything interesting that you’d like to share? Any outstanding favourites?

First off, if I had to judge how well my reading has been this year by the book I'm currently reading, The Iron Lance by Stephen R. Lawhead, I'd say it's dynamite. I cried last night reading a death scene. It's knocking my socks off in a whole new way--the world of Celtic mythology/fantasy genre is new to me, but I'm glad I discovered it. (And I'm wondering where it's been all my life.)

But, seeing as how I should judge 2009 to date a bit more widely, here's the count-down so far: I've read and reviewed 50 books this year and, because I'm a nerd, I thought I'd present the break-down to you in graphic form. (These graphs are not necessarily to scale. For a full listing, please use the links in the right-hand sidebar of the blog.)

Books by Genre: This graph shows that I'm a little deficient in the Science Fiction/Paranormal/Fantasy sub-genres, but that should soon be changing if Stephen Lawhead has anything to do with it. I'm also pretty slim in the Nonfiction category (all of which are memoirs), but I've got about five more memoirs on my shelf that I could probably finish before the year is out. I clearly favor commercial/genre fiction (which was surprising to me because I thought it would be literary fiction), but (as the graph below shows) it's all been pretty good reading this year.

Books by Grade (Literary Rating): What this graph says to me is that the bulk of my reading, in my opinion, is pretty good. A+, A, or A-, which are my equivalent of 5 Stars, made up 42% of my reading... nearly half. B+, B, or B- (aka, 4 Stars) made up another 40%, 10% were in the average rating (C+ or C), and only a paltry 8% were below average or failures. That seems like a good make-up of reading. Further analysis showed that the grades were evenly distributed across the genres, which leads me to believe I've had a pretty balanced year of reading so far.It's hard to pick one stand-out for this year; instead, I'll tell you that I have discovered five authors in 2009 that I've fallen in love with (and plan to read their entire bodies of work). They are, in alphabetical order: Michael Chabon (Literary Fiction transitioning into Genre Fiction), Chris Crutcher (Young Adult Literary Fiction), Stephen R. Lawhead (Historical Fiction/Fantasy), Barry Lyga (Young Adult Literary Fiction), and Richard Russo (Literary Fiction). Even if I only read items by these five guys and my other tried and true authors (John Green, Jane Smiley, and Anne Tyler), then I could be a happy woman.

(But, luckily, I don't have to... there are so many good authors to read.)

Musing Mondays... Again

It's been awhile since I've done a Musing Mondays post (I think the last one was in October 2008), but today's was an interesting question and I've decided to jump back in.

"Do you remember how you developed a love for reading? Was it from a particular person, or person(s)? Do you remember any books that you read, or were read to you, as a young child?"

I, honestly, can't remember reading a lot as a child, which is kind of weird. I know I read nearly the entire Baby Sitter's Club series from around age seven through sixth grade, but those are the only books I remember reading on my own. I don't remember reading anything for pleasure from then up until after I graduated from college, which is sad, right? (And so fascinating to me that so many young people read voraciously. Yeah for them!)

I think, possibly, my love of reading, which was always there--yet dormant until I had the time aside from all the school-related reading--came as a result of the influence of my mother, who was a voracious reader. Granted, I'd hardly ever read the stuff she read (she was such a genre fiction junkie who was nearly obsessed with Grisham, Clancey, Ludlum, etc.), but I have very distinct memories of her doing book swaps with my aunts and uncles at Thanksgiving and Christmas. My mom died a little over five years ago, and I think that's when my sister and I rekindled our love of reading--maybe we are carrying out her legacy. Who knows? Now it's just a compulsion.

My sister, who has a 14-year-old son, is much more intentional about his reading. He can pick whatever he wants to read, but he is required to read a chapter a day and it's kind of fun to watch when he picks something that gets him really good, and he doesn't have to be forced. Right now he's reading the final book, The Last Olympian, in Rick Riordan's "Percy's Adventures" series and really enjoying it. (Here's to hoping that he doesn't lose his cultivated love of reading next year when he starts high school and the level of required reading increases. Fingers crossed.)

Musing Mondays

The blogette over at Should be Reading is keeping the world blogging with her weekly Musing Mondays question. This week's question is (drum roll, please):

"Could you narrow down your reading to a favorite genre and author? Why or why not?"

My answer to this is a relatively definitive, "Yes." My favorite genre is hands-down literary fiction. The only foray outside of literary fiction that gets much play from me is Young Adult fiction of the literary variety (think, John Green and Robert Cormier).

Rarely do I stray from that prescription, but if I do it's generally because I've been semi-forced and/or coerced to by a book club or cultural phenomena. I've got a rationale for every book I've read that isn't classified as Literary Fiction (Adult or YA), none of which is because it just "caught my eye." Recent Examples:

• I read the Twilight series novels this past summer because I wanted to see what all the hype was about (YA Fiction, Science Fiction)
• Right now I'm reading The Sparrow for my library's book club (Science Fiction)
• I read and enjoyed the Mortal Instruments series last month on a recommendation (YA Fiction, Science Fiction)
• I'm reading The Glass Castle for a class (Non-Fiction, Memoir)
• I've read 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel and am reading Aspects of the Novel (both Non-Fiction, Literary Critique) to improve my writing
• This past weekend I read book one in the Blue Bloods series as some research for a novel I'm working on (YA Fiction, Science Fiction)

How about you? Are you a categorical or non-categorical reader?

Musing Mondays

Today's Musing Mondays Question at Should be Reading is, "How has your reading changed over the years?"

My reading has changed over the years... when I first graduated college (eight years ago) I was reading nearly all non-fiction books, many were of the spiritual formation variety, but some were biographies and cultural critiques. Then I went through a phase where I was reading strictly genre fiction, consuming copious amounts of chick lit, reading nearly the entire John Grisham bibliography, and dabbling in Tom Clancey's work.

Now, my tastes center around two themes: literary fiction (re-reading the classics and partaking in contemporary award winners) and award-winning young adult literature. I'm trying to steer clear of literature (both YA and adult) that, although entertaining, doesn't utilize symbolism or unique language to propel the plot, character, setting and theme forward in an interesting and evocative way. I'm really on a bender that if a book is simply a story (without an intriguing lesson to be learned by seriously considering the underlying meaning of the book), I would do better to save my time by watching entertaining television and movies.

The books I've read recently that fall into these categories are: The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare (her stories aren't just about vampires/demons/warewolves/faeries), The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst (not just a story about gay sex and drugs), and Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier (which was about so much more than just two kids in London). The books on my "to be read" shelf that fit this mold are: Looking for Alaska by John Green, Atonement by Ian McEwan, and Perfect by Natasha Friend.

That's me (in my current state) in a nutshell. What about you?