You Wanted to Know, Part One

Here are my answers to the first set of your questions for me from my survey. I think it'll run to 2-3 posts, depending on how many more people decide to ask me questions. (And by the way, the survey is still open if you think of something else you want to know!)

What does Noel like to read? 

Noel reads pretty much exclusively literary fiction and graphic novels; which seems quite funny to me (the genre-loving girl). His favorite authors are probably Cormac McCarthy, Grant Morrison, and Alan Moore.

Growing up, did you have an restrictions on what you were allowed/ not allowed to read? 

My bedroom, circa 1990.*

Yup. I grew up in a very conservative Christian family, so there were quite a few. Mostly it corresponded with stuff my parents thought was inappropriate for my age, and then a blanket ban on magical low fantasy (aka no The Dark Is Rising or Harry Potter, etc). I've since rectified a lot of the book gaps, although I'm still behind on tv and movies. Noel is always saying things like, "What? You've never seen THE GOONIES??"

But actually that's why I put that "Should I recommend this to my grandma?" bit on the bottom of most of my reviews. Because while I'm pretty sure my grandma has no earthly idea how to find or read a blog, I know that my mom and sisters often read Quirky Bookworm, and I want them to know which books they won't enjoy. Which I guess makes me sound like a heathen, ha!, but let's just say I'm a much more liberal Christian than the rest of my family.

How do you discover new authors to read? 

When I worked at Bookmans it was 90% based on the covers of the books I was shelving (hence my Judging Books By Their Covers series... I absolutely do). Nowadays it's recommendations from other book bloggers I trust, and the books I get sent in the mail for review - which are often new-to-me authors.

Halloween at Bookmans: Portia and Ellen!

What do you miss most about working in a bookstore?

Frankly, the camaraderie. I worked at a very fun bookstore, and while I mostly love being a mom/ blogger, sometimes I really miss having a place to go to every day, and my crazy coworkers. But I also miss the random, awesome discoveries: finding an old favorite lurking in the bottom of a pile of gross old books, or discovering a great new author. Nothing beats that excitement!

What is your favorite book to movie adaptation in the whole entire world?

Yikes, no pressure here! Ummm... I don't know if it quite counts since it was a tv production originally, but I'm going to go with the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice. I have seen it way too many times (I mean, we're talking dozens of times), and I still love Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth.

How do YOU discover new authors to read?

*1. Crazy how many of those books are still on my shelves. 
2. Apparently I'm genetically predisposed to taking pictures of bookshelves!
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