Found this fun meme over at Dorothy‘s. I was hoping to save it for when I was desperate for inspiration, but instead I am going to use it when I’m too lazy to think of something else to write about. So here goes.

1. Do you remember learning to read? How old were you? I don’t remember learning to read. I know I knew how to read before I got to kindergarten and so did my younger sister. We loved reading and to be read to and would ask anyone and everyone who came to the house to read us a story. Once I learned to read, I was employed in reading to my sister to both increase my skills and so our parents could finally read something a little more adult now and then. I knew how to write the alphabet before I got to school too and could write my name if someone would spell it for me. My name is so long for a little kid my teachers let me write “Stefie” on everything.
2. What do you find most challenging to read? Something I am not interested in reading. If I want to read it, no matter how difficult I may find it, I will work it out. If I don’t want to read it–like the typo filled journal article I had to read for school recently on the results of a research survey on internet access conducted in 2002–I have difficulty focusing, I get lost and have to reread whole pages making the situation even worse and me even unhappier.
3. What are your library habits? I volunteer at the library every other week but I rarely take books home with me. I check out a book probably about once every month. Most of the books I check out are ones by authors I haven’t read before and want to take for a test drive before I commit to buying a book, other books that I want to read but have no interest in owning, or books that are out of print.
4. Have your library habits changed since you were younger? I used to go to the library without an agenda and just wander the shelves, looking for something interesting. I never do that anymore.
5. How has blogging changed your reading life? I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned it before, but it has made me a better, more focused reader. I pay attention and look for things that might be interesting to write a post about. I don’t read more than I used to, but I read more broadly.
6. How often do you read a book and not review it on your blog? What are your reasons for not blogging about a book? I pretty much blog about every book I read. There have been a couple of books I’ve started reading that have been so bad I couldn’t bring myself to mention that I had started and abandoned them. Other than that, everything eventually gets at least a mention in a blog post.
7. What percentage of your books do you get from new book stores, second hand books stores, the library, online exchange sites, online retailers, other? This is hard to sort out. Since my husband is a bookseller and frequently gets advanced reading copies and I sometimes do too, I’d say those account for about 40% of total acquisitions. Probably about 50% are bought with about two-thirds of the purchased books gotten through secondhand bookstores. The remaining 10% of books are had through the library, Bookmooch, or as gifts.
8. What are your pet peeves about the way people treat books? As long as they aren’t my books or library books, I don’t care how people treat books. Except if they burn them. Even if there is no statement intended, I find burning a book disturbing.
9. Do you ever read for pleasure are work? I try to every day. At the moment I am reading The Aspern Papers at work via Dailylit emails. And I try to read on my lunch break though now that the weather has gotten cold, the lunchroom is not hospitable to much reading because everyone else is eating there too.
10. When you give people books as gifts, how do you decide what to give them? I love giving books as gifts. If I give a book it’s to someone who I know likes to read and who I have a pretty good idea about what the person reads. I try to find a book I know the person will like whether it be about gardening or cars or a raunchy romance novel. I always try to keep the other person’s interests in mind and work hard not to foist a book on them that I loved and want them to like but that really isn’t their cup of tea. That only makes everyone feel bad–them for not reading or liking the book and me that the person didn’t love the book like I did.

Anyone else want to play?