The Ultimate Book Q&A, via The Book Salon

Book Q&A Rules

1. Post these rules
2. Post a photo of your favourite book cover
3. Answer the questions below
4. Tag a few people to answer them too
5. Go to their blog/twitter and tell them you’ve tagged them
6. Make sure you tell the person who tagged you that you’ve taken part!

Favourite book cover…

What are you reading right now?
I’m currently reading Night Games by Anna Krien and The Year Nick McGowan Came to Stay by Rebecca Sparrow. Both books, despite being absolute polar opposites, are seriously enjoyable.

Do you have any idea what you’ll read when you’re done with that?
Oh gosh, my TBR (To Be Read) pile is ridiculous. At the moment, you’d find The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes, NOS4A2 by Joe Hill, The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus, and Roll With It by Nick Place sitting closest to the top. Because of a harder-than-expected first semester at uni, I’m so far behind in what I had hoped to have finished by now.

What 5 books have you always wanted to read but haven’t got round to?
The Passage by Justin Cronin (so maybe not ‘always’, but ever since it was published)
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Let The Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

What magazines do you have in your bathroom/lounge right now?
I don’t actually have any print magazines at the moment beyond the latest Griffith Review at the moment–outrage! I subscribe to Women’s Health on my iPad because I find the additional digital content to be pretty awesome. Fortunately my work has subscriptions to publications like The Monthly and Good Reading so I get access to tonnes of great content.

What’s the worst book you’ve ever read?
Breaking Dawn. On a scale of 1 to 10, how embarrassed am I about that?…

Moving on.

What book seemed really popular but you didn’t like?
The Hunger Games. I loved the movie but couldn’t even finish the first book.

What’s the one book you always recommend to just about everyone?
Depending on who I am speaking to, it has consistently either been Under the Dome by Stephen King or The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I’ve recently added The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides to this list, though.

What are your three favourite poems?
A Psalm of Life by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Road not Taken by Robert Frost
No Leaders, Please by Charles Bukowski

Where do you usually get your books?
I think the better question is where don’t I get my books from? Print books either come from The Book Depository #sorrynotsorry, Avid Reader in West End, or Folio Books in Brisbane’s CBD. More often than not, I get ebooks from the iBookstore and, to a lesser extent, Kobo.

Where do you usually read your books?
Primarily in bed or in the yard. I do like sitting outside with my books. My favourite place to read is at the beach, though I don’t get there half as often as I’d like.

When you were little, did you have any particular reading habits?
I spent most of my childhood with my head in a book. I became an expert at reading under the covers after ‘bedtime’ and never really went anywhere without a couple of books. Perhaps that’s one habit that I have carried through to adulthood–I always travel with at least two print books (especially when flying): one for reading when electronic equipment can’t be turned on, and another in case I get bored with/finish the first one.

What’s the last thing you stayed up half the night reading because it was so good you couldn’t put it down?
Lexicon by Max Barry.

Have you ever “faked” reading a book?
Of course! But if I told you which one/s, I’d have to kill you…

Any excuse for a James Franco gif, hey?
Obviously.

Have you ever bought a book just because you liked the cover?
Of course. Most recently, The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus.

What was your favourite book when you were a child?
A Golden Book called The Cat Who Climbed the Christmas Tree. It was incredibly special to me as I only got to read it around Christmas. I have been known to act it out with a (not real) cat and the Christmas tree, too.

What book changed your life?
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. It was the first set text for a school subject that I actually enjoyed.

What is your favourite passage from a book?
Tough question. At the moment, it’s from The Marriage Plot: “The great epics sang of war, the novel of marriage. Sexual equality, good for women, had been bad for the novel. And divorce had undone it completely. What would it matter whom Emma married if she could file for separation later? How would Isabel Archer’s marriage to Gilbert Osmond have been affeced by the existence of a prenup? As far as Saunders was concerned, marriage didn’t mean much anymore, and neither did the novel. Where could you find the marriage plot nowadays? You couldn’t. You had to read historical fiction. You had to read non-Western novels involving traditional societies. Afghani novels, Indian novels. You had to go, literally speaking, back in time.”

Who are your top five favourite authors?
Jane Austen, Linda Castillo, Neil Gaiman, John Green, and Karen Rose. This list changes frequently.

What book has no one heard about but should read?
This is Shyness by Leanne Hall. Not anywhere near enough people know about this book.

What 3 books are you an “evangelist” for?
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Under the Dome by Stephen King
Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

What are your favourite books by a first-time author?
Before I go to Sleep by S.J. Watson was absolutely mind-blowing. Very hard to believe it was his first book. Also The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

What is your favourite classic book?
Emma by Jane Austen.