55 Book Questions

I know I've been pretty negligent of my blogging plans lately, but today I'm back with a fun post, answering 55 book questions. Thanks to the Penslayer for the questions!

1.  Your favourite book as a child?  It's so hard to pick just one. I loved James and the Giant Peach, the Betsy-Tacy books, the All of a Kind Family books, and many more.

2.  What are you reading right now?  A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin, Malgudi Days by R. K. Narayan, Lips Touch Three Times by Laini Taylor, and The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak (I haven't really started this one yet).
3.  What books do you have on request at the library?  It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini, and The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan.

4.  Bad book habit.  I very often eat and read at the same time. I don't get food on the books, but it's still a bad idea.

5.  What do you currently have checked out from your library? The 5th Wave by Richard Yancy, The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak, Sever by Lauren DeStefano, United We Spy by Ally Carter, Teen Angst? Naaah, by Ned Vizzini, and Now I'll Tell You Everything by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.

6.  Do you have an e-reader?   Yes, but I don't read on it that often.I prefer real books.

7.  Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or do you tend to read several at once?  Well, if you can't tell from all of the above, I tend to read a ridiculously large number of books at a time. It would probably be more efficient to read one at a time, but I never do.

8.  Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog?  They haven't too much. I do tend to write reviews in my head now as I read, so if anything, it's changed my thinking habits. :)

9.  What was your least favourite book this year?  That's hard. Maybe Eve and Adam by Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant?

10.  What was your FAVOURITE book this year?  Oh gosh, that even harder. I really liked Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, and I really liked The Eight by Katherine Neville. I also really enjoyed Homeland by Cory Doctorow. Can I make it a top three?

11.  How often do you read out of your comfort zone? Well, I don't really have a comfort zone, so either all the time, or never.

12.  What is your reading comfort zone? Strictly speaking, it would probably be young adult lit, but I read a lot of stuff that isn't that too.

13.  Can you read in the car? Yes, and I do constantly. Not as much as I used to, but I rarely leave the house without a book.

14.  Where is your favourite place to read? On my bed.

15.  What is your policy on book-lending. I don't lend books a lot, but when I do, it's usually to my friends who all care about books as much as I do. I know that they'll give the book back to me, and that they'll take care of it.

16.  Do you ever dog-ear in books? No.

17.  Do you ever write in the margins of your books?  Sometimes. Not too much.

18.  What about text books? I do write in those.

19.  What is your favourite language to read in?  English, without a doubt. The only other language I could try reading in is Latin, and though I do try that every now and then, it is a painful process.

20.  What makes you love a book?  Good writing and relate-ability.

21.  What would inspire you to recommend a book?  What I know about the person I'm recommending the book to.

22.  What is your favourite genre?  I don't really have a favorite genre. I often enjoy distopian books, but honestly I'm getting a little tired of the formulaic approach they have all been taking lately. Most of my very favorite books are some combo of scifi fantasy, humor, and realistic fiction. Was that confusing enough?

23.  What is a genre you rarely read but wish that you did?  Fantasy. I don't read it all that often, but when I do, I usually enjoy it.

24.  Favourite biography? I read biogrophies rarely enough (read: only for school) that I don't really feel qualified to answer this question.

25.  Have you ever read a self-help book?  Yes, but never for help.

 26.  Favourite cookbook?  Again, not qualified.

27.  What is the most inspirational book you have read this year?  That's really hard for me to answer. Reading The Great Gatsby inspired me to write, and Fangirl provided much more personal inspiration.

28.  Favourite reading snack? Chocolate.

29.  Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience. The Percy Jackson books. I enjoyed them, but I think I would have liked them more if I didn't expect quite so much from them.

30.  How often do you agree with critics about a book?  Reletivly often. Writing style affects my opinion much more than more critics, so if I am less positive about a book, that's usually why,

31.  How do you feel about giving negative reviews? I don't like, read, or write negative reviews. Critical reviews, if well written and constructive, are fine. Negative reviews are not.

32.  If you could read a foreign language, which would you choose? Latin. I don't know if that counts, since it's the only one I can kind of read, but it's the one I would like to read fluently.

33.  What was the most intimidating book you've ever read? The Illiad by Homer. I got through it though, and now I think I could read anything I put my mind to.

34.  What is the most intimidating book you're too nervous to begin? Don Quiote.

35.  Who is your favourite poet?  I don't read much poetry, but there are several poems by Rudyard Kipling I really like.

36.  On average, how many books do you have checked out of the library at any given time? Seven or eight at least.

37.  How often do you return books to the library unread?  Too often. Probably one or two out of every seven or eight go back unread.

38.  Who are your favourite fictional characters? Lee, from East of Eden, Alanna from Tamora Peirce's Alanna books, Charlie from Flowers for Algernon, Johnny from The Outsiders, Meg from A Wrinkle in Time, Alice from Phyllis Reynold Naylor's Alice books, and Hermione from Harry Potter.

39.  Who is your favourite fictional villain? If by favorite you mean most interesting: Cathy from East of Eden. If by favorite you mean most liked, The  from The Name of This Book Is Secret (and the series following).
40.  What are the books you are most likely to take on vacation?  What ever I'm currently reading.

41.  What is the longest you have gone without reading?A few day, maybe a week.

42.  Name a book that you could not or would not finish. Lord of the Flies. I feel guilty every time I say it, but I never finished it. I will someday. Also The Walking Drum by Louis L'Amour. Someday, I WILL read these books.

43.  What distracts you easily when you're reading?  Thoughts of other things I should be doing, like school work, editing, chores, ect. I have a hard time relaxing sometimes.

 44.  What is your favourite film adaptation of a novel?  That's tough. Maybe the Princess Bride? As far as film adaptations go, it kept the same mood, though some of my favorite parts of the book had to be changed or left out. Also maybe the new Great Gatsby with Leonardo DiCaprio. I thought that was fantastic.

45.  What is the most disappointing film adaptation?  Well, I tend to avoid them if I've heard anything bad about them, but I was pretty disappointed with most of the Harry Potters. That's mainly because I get too stuck on details, and the movies couldn't be quite the same. The later ones were better, but three and five in particular disappointed me.
46.  What is the most money you have spent in a bookstore at one go?  Hmmm, I'm not sure. Maybe $50?

47.  How often do you skim a book before reading it?  Rarely. Unless it's a school book.

48.  What would cause you to stop reading a book halfway through?  A distict lack of plot and terrible writing. Monument 14 if the most recent book I stopped part way through.

49.  Do you like to keep your books organized?  I like to, but I don't.

50.  Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you're done with them?  Keep them. I have way too many, and I buy more all the time. I don't really have space for them all, leading to piles everywhere, and the lack of organization discussed above.

51.  Are there any books you've been avoiding?  Nothing in particular.

52.  Name a book that made you angry. The only thing that comes to mind is a textbook I have called The Least You Should Know About English. The title and teaching style both suggest that nobody wants to learn English, and the book's purpose is to teach you the very smallest amount possible to allow you to get through high school. 

53.  A book you didn't expect to like, but did?  Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. I loved that book when I read it in American Lit last year, but I certainly didn't expect to.

54.  How about a book you expected to like, but didn't? The Red Badge of Courage. I generally like a lot of classic fiction, and I'd heard good things about it. I didn't exactly dislike it, and there were parts I liked, but for the most part it was hard to read and a bit boring.

55.  Favourite guilt-free pleasure reading? The two books I always go back to are Alanna: The First Adventure, and In the Hands of the Goddess, the first two books in Tamora Pierce's Alanna series. I can't tell you how many times I've read those two books. I rarely actually read them any more, but if I'm feeling sad or nostalgic, I'll pull one down and open it and read a few chapters.

My Favorite Things: Blogs

This post is kicking off a series I'm calling "My Favorite Things." Since I already talk a lot about books and stuff on here, this is going to be a chance for me to talk more about some of my favorite things I don't usually discuss. Today, it's blogs, and over the next few weeks I have plans for posts on computer games, YouTube channels, and basically all the other fun stuff I do that takes up too much of my time. :)

Today, I'm going to highlight a few blogs I like to read. Honestly, I have way too many blogs that I check on regularly, and many more then that in my RSS feeder. Because of that, I was pretty worried when Google Reader was retired, but I've since been using Feedly, which works okay, though I don't love it.

I'm going to separate these blogs into categories, since I tend to read blogs for a few reasons: homeschooling blogs, blogs of people I know, and reading or writing blogs. Some of the blogs of homeschool families I follow have very different values and beliefs then my family, which is one reason I find them so interesting to follow. Also, many of the blogs of people I know are actually homeschooling families.

Blogs of People I Know

A Baker's Dozen and Apollo XIV

A Time for Every Purpose

Boots Before Corset

The Smog Blog

Book and Writing Blogs/Websites

The Office of Letters and Light

History of the (Whole) World

Read More! (this one almost fit in the people I know category, but I decided to leave it here.)

Pretentious Title

Forever Young Adult

Go Teen Writers!
 
Homeschool Blogs

Life In a Shoe

Large Families on Purpose


As I said before, I read MANY blogs, but these are some of the highlights. What blogs do you read?

Homeschool Friday: English {School Subject Indepth Series}

Sorry this post is so late! I intended to write it this morning, but, well, I got busy. Anyway, this week is going to kick off a series of Homeschool Friday posts that will go indepth on a particular school subject. I'll talk about all the curriculum we've used through the years for that subject (at least everything I remember), and I'll talk a little about how I feel about the subject.

This week we're going to kick it off with English! I'm going to try to fit all Language Arts type stuff in here, so that might take more then one post. We'll see. To make it a little easier to navigate, I'm going to divide it into individual topics (spelling, grammar, reading, and writing), and cover one at a time. Hopefully I can fit it all into one post, but if not, I'll cover the rest next week.

Spelling

When we first starting homeschooling, we used Spelling Workout, which is what Susan Wise Bower recommended.The link will take you to the first book in the series, which I believe is the first half of first grade. While it worked fine, I don't feel like I learned a whole lot with it. It focused a lot on wrote memorization, which has never worked well for me. Both my sister (who is going into 6th grade) and I used it through part way through 4th grade.

At that point, we both switched to Megawords, which is absolutely amazing. Each day, there is a page to do in the workbook. It is always a game, or dictation, or some kind of copy work, but all based on phoenetics. The thing that I think is really great about it is that there were never weekly spelling lists to memorize. Each chapter took as long as it took (often several weeks, and at the end was a spelling test. Each chapter focused on one phonetic rule (i before e, or suffixes for example, and had a list of 30-60 words. After I finished the whole chapter, my mom would pick out 20 words to test me on. With this method, the test is about how well you know the rule, NOT how good you are at memorization.

Grammar

I started out in 2nd grade by doing First Language Lessons .  I think it really helped build my foundation in grammar.

From 3rd grade through 8th grade, I did Growing With Grammar. Honestly, I can not say enough good things about this program. It is done completely independently. The student textbook provides a brief, compact description of the lesson topic, with several examples. The student would read this, and then do the designated two pages in the student workbook. The first page is always new material from that lesson, and the second page is review from previous lessons. Another great thing is that this book teaches outlining every year. This program was perfect for me, and I absolutely loved it. I highly recommend it.

Reading

I have never really done much of a formal reading curriculum. My mom regularly assigned me books to read and do book reviews on when I was in elementary school, but for the most part, all the school reading I have done has been part of history, particularly the last few years. 

That's it for today. Writing is going to be a somewhat long section, so I'm going to save it for next week, along with some of my thoughts on English as a subject.

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