Monday's Question of the Day (24)

Monday's Question of the Day is hosted by Eleni at /-LA FEMME READERS-/

Question: Inspired by Steph's post from Reviewer X: Bloggers, or anyone who posts their reviews on other networks, have you ever felt the need to tone down a negative review?

My Answer: Let's face it: this blog is not exactly drowning in positive reviews.  I'll always say what I think about a book, even if it's negative.  I don't think writing only positive reviews helps readers (or writers, for that matter).  I've been sucked into reading books that only had positive reviews... which I then had to tear apart in my own review because nobody had bothered to point out the book's shortcomings, many of which probably would have dissuaded me from picking up the book in the first place.  I'm now extremely wary of books that only have positive reviews.  It's like there's a whiff of dishonesty and sycophancy surrounding them... and I've learned that I want no part of that.

As for whether I've ever felt the need to tone down a negative review...  Well, not really.  By the time I actually post a review, I've already done lots of toning down.  Some books are so awful that they make me really angry.  In those cases, you should see the first drafts of the reviews!  But I do try to self-edit once I've gotten all that out of my system.  You'll never see me say (for example), "This author is too stupid to write!" even if that's how I really feel.  Getting personal like that doesn't help anybody, and I should be able to get my points across by talking about the book.  Sometimes it's cathartic to include that stuff in a review's first draft, though (especially if I feel like I've just wasted hours reading something that never should have been published in the first place).

Some of my best reviews (I think) have been the ones where I just let loose on a certain book's attributes -- or lack thereof.  So aside from not letting things get too personal, I'm not going to tone down my negative reviews.  I think they're important, and I wish more people would write them... instead of listing only the good things about a book or not saying anything at all.  We'd have a terrible mess if we stayed silent or only talked about the good things in other areas of life; I don't see why book reviews should be any different.

Monday's Question of the Day (23)

Monday's Question of the Day is hosted by Eleni at /-LA FEMME READERS-/

Question: Did you ever call out of work or miss a day of school because you were so invested in a book?

My Answer: No, I don't think I ever have.  I used to read on the bus on the way to work.  Sometimes I wished the ride was a bit longer... but I never missed my stop on purpose.

I would feel too guilty to skip school or work just to read a book.

Monday's Question of the Day (22)

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Question: Inspired by Ally Condie's Matched, if you were in a controlled society that decided your every move in life, would you follow rules or rebel against them?

My Answer: I'm kind of a stickler for rules and afraid of confrontation (especially with authority), so I'd probably follow them.  But that doesn't mean I'd be happy about it.  I'd probably seethe in private and wish for someone braver than myself to start a revolution.

Monday's Question of the Day (21)

Monday's Question of the Day is hosted by Eleni at /-LA FEMME READERS-/

Question: Despite numerous complaints, why do authors continually create YA heroines who fall for the jerk hero?  (Credit goes to: Tori from Book Faery)

My Answer: That's a really good question.  Personally, I can't stand heroines who fall for the jerk.  I feel like slapping some of them (*cough*BellaSwan*cough*).  Maybe YA heroines are written that way because so many teenagers have fallen for jerks.  I really don't know; that wasn't my experience.  Jerkiness was a big turn-off for me.

Perhaps there's a touch of Schadenfreude in there, too.  Sometimes it's sort of fun to watch the heroine crash and burn because of her taste in men.  But why this is so popular that it pervades most of YA fiction... I really couldn't say for sure.

Monday's Question of the Day (20)

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Question: When do you call it quits for a book?

My Answer: I used to call it quits a lot sooner.  Back when I used the library more frequently, I used to abandon books with impunity.  But now that I buy all my own books and review them when I'm done, I can't justify quitting after just a few pages.  Since I've had this blog, I've only abandoned one novel (Spellbinder by Helen Stringer), and that was because I felt like I was going to lose it if I had to read one more page.  I really should have done the same thing with some other books, but I wanted to review them properly.

So I guess my answer is that I'll call it quits when I just can't take it anymore!

Monday's Question of the Day (19)

Monday's Question of the Day is hosted by Eleni at /-LA FEMME READERS-/

Question: How do you feel about edgy Young Adult books? Do you mind when there is cursing or sexual moments? If you do mind, why do you feel it's inappropriate?

My Answer: To be honest, I don't really mind if there's cursing or sexual moments. I'm over 30, after all; I think I can handle it.

When I come across overt sexuality or gratuitous cursing in young adult books, though, it does give me pause. I find myself wondering how I would have felt if I'd read that book when I was a teenager. I don't remember a lot of sex, violence, or bad language in the books I read back then. I'm not sure if those things were in YA fiction at all or if I just wasn't reading those particular books.

Monday's Question of the Day (17)

Monday's Question of the Day is hosted by Eleni at /-LA FEMME READERS-/

Question: When a book is made into a movie or TV show, do you read the book before watching it? Or it doesn't matter either way?

My Answer: I'm not a particularly fast reader, so I don't usually get to the book before watching the movie or TV show. If I've previously read the book, though, I will get excited about seeing it on the screen.

So... I guess it really doesn't matter. Screen adaptations are rarely 100% faithful to the books, anyway, so it's not like you can't read the book after seeing the movie/TV show and still enjoy it.

Monday's Question of the Day (16)

Monday's Question of the Day is hosted by Eleni at /-LA FEMME READERS-/

Question: What catches your eye about book covers?

My Answer: Well, I like pretty covers. Simplicity is sometimes best. I don't know... I think it's easier for me to think in terms of covers that would discourage me from picking up a book. If it looks like a Twilight copy, I probably won't touch it. If it's got something gory or gross on the cover, I probably won't pick it up. If the cover looks like a Photoshop project done for an elementary school art class, I might assume the story is just as amateurish.

I've learned not to judge books too much by their covers, though. There are some covers that I think are absolutely gorgeous (Wicked Lovely, Blue Moon, Twilight)... but I hated the stories between the covers. I feel sort of misled when that happens. It's like an awesome cover promises an awesome story... and when that doesn't happen, it's disappointing.

Monday's Question of the Day (15)

Monday's Question of the Day is hosted by Eleni at /-LA FEMME READERS-/

Question: Which do you prefer, Hardback or Paperback?

My Answer: It really depends on the book itself. I like smaller hardcover books; 500-page hardcovers are just too heavy (I do most of my reading in bed, so this is an issue). Some paperbacks are nice. The one format I really don't like is the mass market paperback. They're often printed on cheap paper that smells funny. I don't enjoy reading a book when I'm smelling it the whole time.

Monday's Question of the Day (14)

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Question: What book could you read over and over again?

My Answer: Life's too short to re-read books.

Monday's Question of the Day (13)

Monday's Question of the Day is hosted by Eleni at /-LA FEMME READERS-/

Question: What's a great book you love, but don't like the cover of?

My Answer: Usually, there will be an edition of a book that I love that has a decent cover. An example:

Fire and Hemlock

Pretty UK cover that makes sense!

versus

Fugly US cover that makes no sense!
Who the heck is that old dude?

For some truly heinous covers, I suggest checking out Judge a Book by its Cover. They've found some doozies!

Monday's Question of the Day (12)

Monday's Question of the Day is hosted by Eleni at /-LA FEMME READERS-/

Question: What book cover stands out in your mind as the prettiest?

My Answer: I don't think I could choose the prettiest of them all; there are a lot of pretty covers out there. The covers for Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse are very pretty. So are the covers for Blue Moon and Shadowland by Alyson Noël. (If you truly could judge a book by its cover, I might've had a better opinion of what was between those pretty covers!)

Two covers that I think are very pretty are those for Wondrous Strange and Darklight:

Monday's Question of the Day (11)

Monday's Question of the Day is hosted by Eleni at /-LA FEMME READERS-/

Question: Did you ever miss a character after you finished reading a book?

My Answer: Probably, but I can't recall a specific instance where this happened. These days, I think I'm more likely to miss a story rather than a specific character. (I guess I'd probably be more likely to miss a character if I had a crush on him... but that hasn't happened in years.)

Monday's Question of the Day (10)

Monday's Question of the Day is hosted by Eleni at /-LA FEMME READERS-/

Question: Out of all the authors you've read, whose writing do you enjoy the most?

My Answer: If I'm going by just the writing itself, I'd have to say Laura Whitcomb (even though I've only read two of her books). I was struck by the beauty and quality of her writing when I read A Certain Slant of Light. (Her second book, The Fetch, was also written well... but I wasn't that crazy about the story.)

If we're talking about writing as in storytelling ability... well, then maybe I'd go with someone like Diana Wynne Jones. Some of my favourite stories come from her body of work.

Monday's Question of the Day (9)

Monday's Question of the Day is hosted by Eleni at /-LA FEMME READERS-/

Question: What fairytale or Disney movie would you love to see re-created in a book?

My Answer: This seems like a bit of an odd question, since most fairytale and Disney movies are based on books to begin with!

But I do enjoy fairytale retellings, so I guess that's essentially what the question is asking about. I'm not sure what hasn't already been done. Recently, I've seen retellings of Beauty and the Beast (Crazy Beautiful, Beastly), Cinderella (Ash), and East of the Sun and West of the Moon (Ice).

I've always liked story of The Snow Queen. A novelization based on that would be cool -- although I think I might've seen one of those around recently, too. (As for movie adaptations, it's not Disney, but the 2005 version of The Snow Queen is beautiful. It's like a painting come to life.)

Monday's Question of the Day (8)

Monday's Question of the Day is hosted by Eleni at /-LA FEMME READERS-/

Question: In school, most of the time we read classics, which one did you enjoy the most and which one did you hate?

My Answer: I didn't really like most of the stuff we had to read in school... especially in high school. I remember hating The Sun Also Rises and Great Expectations. There were a couple of books I read in elementary school that I really liked: Cue for Treason and Word to Caesar by Geoffrey Trease.

But as for the book I enjoyed the most and the book I hated the most, both were introduced in my first-year university English literature course. We had to read Jane Eyre (which I loved) and Joseph Andrews (which I loathed -- and still loathe -- with a passion). Overall, I hated that course... but I'm glad that it introduced me to Jane Eyre. Otherwise, I might never have read one of my all-time favourite classics.

Monday's Question of the Day (7)

Monday's Question of the Day is hosted by Eleni at /-LA FEMME READERS-/

Question: Which book did you have high expectations for, but when you read it, it sucked?

My Answer: Uhh... Breaking Dawn? But perhaps that was my fault; my expectations shouldn't have been so high.

Other than that, I was quite disappointed with two books I've read in the last year or so. My expectations were high because I'd read and liked other books by these authors. The books in question were Dingo by Charles de Lint and The Game by Diana Wynne Jones. I'd recommend most of the other books written by these two authors... but these particular books were just bad, and therefore disappointing. I expected better.

Monday's Question of the Day (6)

Monday's Question of the Day is hosted by Eleni at /-LA FEMME READERS-/

Question: If you could spend a day with any supernatural figure, who would you pick and why?

My Answer: A day with a vampire would be too stressful; I'd be wondering if I was just a fang's-prick away from death (or undeath). A day with a werewolf would probably be okay, as they would be human during the day... so that's not very interesting. A day with a Meyer-esque "shapeshifter" would just be nasty. Honestly... rainy location + hairy beast = wet dog smell. Ew.

I think I would have to say that I'd most like to spend a day with a guardian angel. Not necessarily my own (they should be spending every day with me anyway... right?). I think it would be an interesting experience. I'd probably spend it asking lots of questions, picking their brain about stuff like free will, the afterlife, and the nature of the universe. We could do it over herbal tea at the local Starbucks.

I'm not sure that distracting someone else's guardian angel is the best idea, though. I might get answers to my questions... but their charge could get hit by a bus while they're sipping their peppermint tea!

Monday's Question of the Day (5)

Monday's Question of the Day is hosted by Eleni at /-LA FEMME READERS-/

Question: If you had to save one book from a fire, which one would it be?

My Answer: You know, I've thought about this for a while, and I can't come up with just one book. In fact, I don't think I'd save any books. It's not that I don't value them. It's just that all the books that I buy are just one of many. They're not one-of-a-kind, they're not old, and the books themselves are certainly not valuable. They can all be replaced.

That said, some books are important to certain people. This question reminded me of an incident that happened over the summer. An arsonist set a Sikh school on fire, and there was a holy book inside. Firefighters had told the worried onlookers not to be too hopeful because, after all, this was a big fire and the book was made of paper. A few minutes later, a firefighter came walking out with the holy book. It was unscathed... even though the building around it had burned. I felt so happy for those people; this book was obviously so important to them.

I think I can guess how they would have answered this question!

Monday's Question of the Day (4)

Monday's Question of the Day is hosted by Eleni at /-LA FEMME READERS-/

Question: What book has made you look at life in a different light?

My Answer: I can't really think of a fictional book that has made me look at life in a different light. I do read non-fiction, though, and some of those books have definitely altered my perspective on things. I can think of one in particular that really blew my mind when I read it and made me think of things in ways I might not have considered otherwise.

That book is The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot:

Today nearly everyone is familiar with holograms, three-dimensional images projected into space with the aid of a laser. Now, two of the world's most eminent thinkers -- University of London physicists David Bohm, a former protege of Einstein's and one of the world's most respected quantum physicists, and Stanford neurophysiologist Karl Pribram, one of the architects of our modern understanding of the brain -- believe that the universe itself may be a giant hologram, quite literally a kind of image or construct created, at least in part, by the human mind. This remarkable new way of looking at the universe explains not only many of the unsolved puzzles of physics, but also such mysterious occurrences as telepathy, out-of-body and near death experiences, "lucid" dreams, and even religious and mystical experiences such as feelings of cosmic unity and miraculous healings. (Product description from Amazon.com.)

Cool, right? This book has so many amazing, interesting anecdotes and stories (along with some truly mind-bending ideas about holographic theory and the nature of the universe).