A book meme
Jun. 13th, 2026 01:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
regshoeBook meme borrowed from phantomtomato.
This week I'm reading: Just finished The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst, about which I have mixed feelings. I'm not sure what to start next; options are a femslashy boarding school book, a(nother) non-fiction book on women sailors and Michelle Paver's Wakenhyrst.
My favourite book of all time is: Oh, you know... :)
My current favourite book (read or re-read in the last 3 months): Best book of the last three months was The Celestial Omnibus by E. M. Forster, and I am pleased to remember I have The Eternal Moment still to read at some point.
The last book I bought was: The Persian Boy by Mary Renault. I don't know why I keep doing this to myself.
The first book I bought with my own money: I do not remember; thinking of my taste around the time I started buying things independently, it may well have been one of the twentieth-century domestic middlebrow-type authors.
The first book I received as a gift: Definitely too long ago for me to remember!
The last book I received as a gift was:edwardianspinsteraunt surprised me with A Schoolgirl Adventurer: A Story of the '45 by Dorothea Moore, which is a very funny concept. Interested to see if this is the het version of White Cockades which it kind of looks like.
The last book I borrowed from the library: The above-mentioned Wakenhyrst. I live near a county boundary and am therefore fortunate to have access to two local library systems; one of them said it was on the shelves at the branch nearest me, but I couldn't find it there, so I reserved it in the other one.
The book physically closest to me right now: On the floor on either side of my chair are Concise Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland by Martin Townsend, Paul Waring and Richard Lewington and From Cabin 'Boys' to Captains: 250 Years of Women at Sea by Jo Stanley.
Do you read bookfic, and if so what is your favourite bookshop fic? I don't think so. Books set in bookshops always seem a bit suspiciously cutesy-sounding to me, but perhaps I'm being unfair.
Physical book or e-book: Physical book for the reading experience. Ebooks are a good way of getting to read obscure out-of-copyright books for free.
Used or new: I know 'second-hand' isn't always strictly accurate (I own some books bearing evidence of having been sold more than once before I bought them, as well as a few old enough to be virtually certain to have had more than one previous owner), but I don't like the term 'used' applied to books. Books aren't tools. Anyway, second-hand.
Fiction or non-fiction: Fiction.
Read at a coffee shop or at the park: Coffee shop. I will get distracted by natural history at the park.
Paperback or hardcover: My ideal book format is a hardback, but it's a very rare and now virtually extinct type of hardback (I have three perfect examples on my shelves, none much less than a hundred years old, and maybe a dozen 'almost's). I prefer the average paperback to the average hardback.
Romance or Crime: *E. W. Hornung voice* Why not both? ;) (Serious answer, I'm not particularly into either genre, though I occasionally enjoy both gay historical romance and murder mysteries.)
Stream of consciousness? No.
Poetry? Yes to the old-fashioned kind with some structure and metre (one stereotypically says 'the kind that rhymes'; rhyme is good, but I don't need it—I like Tolkien's Anglo-Saxon-style alliterative poetry and Shakespeare's non-rhyming iambic pentameter—I do need metre). No to more modern free verse, which can be very beautiful in its language but which my literal-mindedness struggles to keep up with.
Memoirs? Not really.
Philosophy? I like a bit of philosophy in fiction, and sometimes read sort of philosophical-theological religious books, but not philosophy books as such, no.
Thrillers? Usually no.
Chronicles? Like, the kind of fantasy books that have 'The Chronicles of...' in the series title? Yeah, OK. I have not read the actual Anglo-Saxon Chronicle or anything like that.
Dialogue heavy? All right, but I prefer more narration.
phantomtomato.General Questions
This week I'm reading: Just finished The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst, about which I have mixed feelings. I'm not sure what to start next; options are a femslashy boarding school book, a(nother) non-fiction book on women sailors and Michelle Paver's Wakenhyrst.
My favourite book of all time is: Oh, you know... :)
My current favourite book (read or re-read in the last 3 months): Best book of the last three months was The Celestial Omnibus by E. M. Forster, and I am pleased to remember I have The Eternal Moment still to read at some point.
The last book I bought was: The Persian Boy by Mary Renault. I don't know why I keep doing this to myself.
The first book I bought with my own money: I do not remember; thinking of my taste around the time I started buying things independently, it may well have been one of the twentieth-century domestic middlebrow-type authors.
The first book I received as a gift: Definitely too long ago for me to remember!
The last book I received as a gift was:
edwardianspinsteraunt surprised me with A Schoolgirl Adventurer: A Story of the '45 by Dorothea Moore, which is a very funny concept. Interested to see if this is the het version of White Cockades which it kind of looks like.The last book I borrowed from the library: The above-mentioned Wakenhyrst. I live near a county boundary and am therefore fortunate to have access to two local library systems; one of them said it was on the shelves at the branch nearest me, but I couldn't find it there, so I reserved it in the other one.
The book physically closest to me right now: On the floor on either side of my chair are Concise Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland by Martin Townsend, Paul Waring and Richard Lewington and From Cabin 'Boys' to Captains: 250 Years of Women at Sea by Jo Stanley.
Do you read bookfic, and if so what is your favourite bookshop fic? I don't think so. Books set in bookshops always seem a bit suspiciously cutesy-sounding to me, but perhaps I'm being unfair.
This or that
Physical book or e-book: Physical book for the reading experience. Ebooks are a good way of getting to read obscure out-of-copyright books for free.
Used or new: I know 'second-hand' isn't always strictly accurate (I own some books bearing evidence of having been sold more than once before I bought them, as well as a few old enough to be virtually certain to have had more than one previous owner), but I don't like the term 'used' applied to books. Books aren't tools. Anyway, second-hand.
Fiction or non-fiction: Fiction.
Read at a coffee shop or at the park: Coffee shop. I will get distracted by natural history at the park.
Paperback or hardcover: My ideal book format is a hardback, but it's a very rare and now virtually extinct type of hardback (I have three perfect examples on my shelves, none much less than a hundred years old, and maybe a dozen 'almost's). I prefer the average paperback to the average hardback.
Romance or Crime: *E. W. Hornung voice* Why not both? ;) (Serious answer, I'm not particularly into either genre, though I occasionally enjoy both gay historical romance and murder mysteries.)
Yes or no
Stream of consciousness? No.
Poetry? Yes to the old-fashioned kind with some structure and metre (one stereotypically says 'the kind that rhymes'; rhyme is good, but I don't need it—I like Tolkien's Anglo-Saxon-style alliterative poetry and Shakespeare's non-rhyming iambic pentameter—I do need metre). No to more modern free verse, which can be very beautiful in its language but which my literal-mindedness struggles to keep up with.
Memoirs? Not really.
Philosophy? I like a bit of philosophy in fiction, and sometimes read sort of philosophical-theological religious books, but not philosophy books as such, no.
Thrillers? Usually no.
Chronicles? Like, the kind of fantasy books that have 'The Chronicles of...' in the series title? Yeah, OK. I have not read the actual Anglo-Saxon Chronicle or anything like that.
Dialogue heavy? All right, but I prefer more narration.
no subject
Date: Jun. 13th, 2026 04:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Jun. 13th, 2026 05:04 pm (UTC)If that one's any good, I definitely want to hear about it.
no subject
Date: Jun. 13th, 2026 05:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Jun. 13th, 2026 05:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Jun. 13th, 2026 06:48 pm (UTC)I look forward! Also I'm swiping this meme.
no subject
Date: Jun. 13th, 2026 07:12 pm (UTC)I wonder how much the used vs. secondhand choice correlates to US vs. UK. That’s definitely the standard language around me, “used book store.” With that said, now I wonder what book I have that’s had the most prior owners!
no subject
Date: Jun. 14th, 2026 11:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Jun. 14th, 2026 11:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Jun. 14th, 2026 04:01 pm (UTC)