Category: Booking Through Thursday

Which do you prefer? Lurid, fruity prose, awash in imagery and sensuous textures and colors? Or straight-forward, clean, simple prose?

(You thought I was going to ask something else, didn’t you? Admit it!)

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Okay, honestly – I want the writing in my books to be just straight-forward. I don’t need a lot of big, sweeping descriptions with fancy words that I have to look up in a dictionary. I’m a “Just the facts, ma’am,” kind of gal. I don’t need all the pretty prose – I just want the words. I really just want to be entertained for a little while. I tend to stay away from the classics (you know, the books that everyone says they really love to read – but in reality probably don’t love them as much as they want people to think they love them, hehe) because I don’t like to get bogged down with the descriptions. I like to read murder mysteries because I like trying to figure out the puzzle – but I don’t need anything fancy with it – just plain words that everyday people can read with no problem is fine by me 🙂

What’s the lightest, most “fluff” kind of book you’ve read recently?

Hmmm …. as a general rule “fluff” books don’t interest me, but I’ve noticed that here lately they’ve been a welcome change in between the more serious books that I tend to read. They are really more filler than anything for me. So let’s see, I guess the most recent “fluff” book that I have read would have been An Ice Cold Grave by Charlaine Harris. This is the third in the Harper Connelly series. For some reason I have really enjoyed this series, I’m slightly bummed to know that the fourth book due out in October of this year will be the final in this series (although this isn’t a series that could have been long running anyway). It was a really easy light read for me and I enjoyed it!!

What’s the worst book you’ve read recently?
(I figure it’s easier than asking your all-time worst, because, well, it’s recent!)

Okay, well nothing really bad sticks out in my mind here recently. I can say that In a Dark Time by Larry Watson was not really good, I read that one back in June and that was really the last bad book that I remember reading  … but probably the absolute worst book I’ve read all year was Over Your Dead Body by David L.

I have said it a few times on here already, this year hasn’t been too bad for me as far as quality goes. I’ve read some pretty good books this year. Hey, maybe next week the question will be Recent Best and that one will be really easy for me to answer!

What’s the most serious book you’ve read recently?
(I figure it’s easier than asking your most serious boook ever, because, well, it’s recent!)

Okay, so after last week I was pleased to see this question. I guess because as I think I said last week, I tend to read more serious books. But then I get stuck … how does one really define serious in regards to a book? Is serious considered something among the classics (which I tend to want to run away from) or is serious something non-fiction, or is serious a mystery/thriller that is NOT cozy?! I really think it all has to do with how you really define serious. So this issue brings to me to the point where I must define serious in my own terms. I would like to consider serious a non-fiction read. But seeing as how I’ve only read one non-fiction book this entire year (I know, bad Tara … I try and do better than that usually), I’m really going to classify serious as a fiction book that really touches on a serious subject.

Now, as everyone who follows my blog knows that I recently read and reviewed Dancing with Ana by Nicole Barker. Now, I realize that this is technically a YA read, and it wasn’t very long. However, I’m going to call this my recent serious read and here’s why: Beth is a sixteen-year-old high school student. She recently begins a diet. This diet gets out of control before she realizes what has happened. Besides all this going on, she also is feeling the effects of being abandoned by her father after he left the family for a younger woman, not to mention the fact that one of her best friends has a pretty rough home life and she deals with it by cutting herself. Now taking all of what is going on in this book, you really had to admit that it is a serious read simply because of what all Beth experiences. (Plus the fact that I can’t seem to quit raving about this book – seriously give it a chance if you can!) So there’s my answer 🙂

What’s the funniest book you’ve read recently?

Okay so I’m late on this question, but I ended up not going home last night and instead stayed at my grandma’s house because Nathan was gone for a couple of nights and I didn’t want to go all the way home just to be by myself (and Buster of course!) Anyways, on to the question.

I hate to admit it, but I haven’t read anything laugh out loud funny here lately. However, what I read is very similar to what I prefer to watch on TV and/or movies ….. and that usually doesn’t have any comedy involved. I don’t know why. It’s not like I don’t have a sense of humor, or that I don’t find things funny. But I just don’t really care anything about humor in a book for some reason. Sure, I enjoy a good chuckle every once in a while, and I will say that I’ve only read the first three Stephanie Plum books, but I just LOVED Grandma’s character! She’s a hoot. But really, humor isn’t something I need in a book to keep me going …. I prefer blood and guts, lol. Talk about morbid, huh?!

Which do you prefer? (Quick answers–we’ll do more detail at some later date)

• Reading something frivolous? Or something serious? – As a general rule, I prefer serious … however, sometimes frivolous reads are a break for me.
• Paperbacks? Or hardcovers? – It’s almost always a paperback unless it’s from the library.
• Fiction? Or Nonfiction? – For the most part I read fiction, but I would like to change that.
• Poetry? Or Prose? – Prose
• Biographies? Or Autobiographies? – Biographies
• History? Or Historical Fiction? – I enjoy both, but sometimes historical fiction is easier to read
• Series? Or Stand-alones? – I tend to be a series girl 🙂
• Classics? Or best-sellers? – Without a doubt, best-sellers
• Lurid, fruity prose? Or straight-forward, basic prose? – Basic for me
• Plots? Or Stream-of-Consciousness? – Plots, gotta have plots.
• Long books? Or Short? – Neither bother me, but call me weird, sometimes I enjoy really long books (as long as they’re good and keep my attention)
• Illustrated? Or Non-illustrated? – Non-illustrated
• Borrowed? Or Owned? – Either, I’m not picky, I just like to read
• New? Or Used? – Sometimes I prefer used because it’s already been broken in

(Yes, I know, some of these we’ve touched on before, and some of these we might address in-depth in the future, but for today–just quick answers!)

Question:

Follow-up to last week’s question:

Do you keep all your unread books together, like books in a waiting room? Or are they scattered throughout your shelves, mingling like party-goers waiting for the host to come along?

Okay … so it’s been forever since I last did a BTT, and I’m looking forward to getting back into doing memes 🙂 So my unread books. Well, they’re all over the house haha! I have two main book cases upstairs. One in the empty spare bedroom that houses the books in my personal collection as well as books that are on my TBR but are not high up on it. Then I have the other one in our bedroom. It holds my TBR books that I want to get to as quickly as possible (which is not so quickly here lately). Then there’s always books in little piles in random places throughout the house. Right now I have about 20 new acquisitions that I’ve gotten in the mail sitting in a corner downstairs (they have yet to make the long trek up the staircase, lol … even though I go up every night for bed! LAZY TARA!!) I wish I was a little more organized than I am. But I just don’t seem to have the time to devote to organizing anymore. I’m usually kind of anal about my books and the way they are placed on my shelves and whatnot. But here lately with work, a long commute, our dog Buster, well the books have been getting neglected here recently. Eventually I’ll get my act in gear and get everything re-sorted to my liking.