top ten bookish confessions

Tuesday, August 28, 2012 |
Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, and although I’ve never participated before, I love reading the entries of my blogging friends who share each week.  Today seemed like the day to make a change, and I’m here with my Top Ten.  If you’d like to play along, check out this post.


Top Ten Bookish Confessions

1.  I once racked up $142 in library fines… and didn’t pay them for a year.  I took out an inter-library loan and didn’t return it for 3 months.  Fines of $1/day, plus late fees… yeah.  Thankfully, the Arlington Library System took me back once I paid!  Sweet relief.

2.  If a book’s plot is lagging and I’m losing interest, I will skip forward 50-100 pages and read half of a chapter to see if I want to continue.  I don’t go to the end of the book, but it’s still ‘cheating.’

3.  I read equal amounts of romance and YA fantasy/sci-fi, but you’d never know it from my blog or Goodreads.  Closet Betty Neels and Georgette Heyer fanatic, for sure.

4.  There are 14 boxes of MY books living under my parents’ staircase in Seattle, WA.  I keep saying I’ll bring them to DC…

5.  I love writing about books on my blog, but the most popular posts are the food recipes.

6.  Middle grade may soon supplant YA as my ‘favorite’ genre.

7.  I have a difficult time reading and reviewing sequels for my blog.  I don’t want to ruin a first book for anyone, and it’s tricky to avoid giving away plot points.

8.  If I know a book will be sad, it sometimes takes me months to read it.  It doesn’t matter how stellar the reviews or how massive the publicity – I’ll drag my feet (see: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein and Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys).

9.  I hate breaking the spines of books I buy new.  I want them to remain pristine.  This is also one of the reasons I have to force myself to lend out favorite books – because I’m not always sure I can trust my friends to keep them in pristine condition!

10.  I judge you when you misspell words.  This goes for everyone ever, but bloggers and authors get extra scrutiny.  If I catch myself judging I give myself a talking to, but it’s a work in progress.

Are any of these your confessions too?  What are your bookish secrets?

19 comments:

Unknown said...

I really love middle grade as well! But as much as I love brand new book I don't mind when they get worn out and well loved! Awesome confessions :) My TTT:

Crystal @ Elegantly Bound Books

April (BooksandWine) said...

$142, now that IS impressive.

I hate breaking spines too.

Middle grade is fantastic, it just feels so fresh these days.

Liviania said...

Man, my biggest library fine was $25. (But I racked it up in two days. I had that many books checked out.)

I must admit I like the recipes.

Reviewing sequels is tough. But generally I go with an opening bit warning for spoilers if there's no way to discuss the book safely. (For instance, any review of the King of Attolia would be basically impossible to write spoiler free.)

I try not to misspell things, but generally don't have time to edit my blog posts. I do fix mistakes when I see them, but it's not like I often read my own blog.

Tales of Whimsy said...

I've been known to skip. Of course it always affects my rating.

Interesting about recipes.
I find that personal posts always get more hits on my site too.

SOOOOOO with you on Middle Grade. I'm getting there too.

If a book is sad (or a movie even) I put it off for like ever.

I don't judge spelling. Probably because I'm quite guilty of it.

Erica said...

I'm so bad about judging for misspelling of words.

And $142?! I would cry at those fines I think, ha.

Nicole said...

"I judge you when you misspell words." YES.

fakesteph said...

OMG number 1. Luckily, our library system will wipe out your fees if you pay 10 dollars. Thank god.

Amanda said...

I judge on spelling too! I always try to see if it's a typo, which earns them a TINY bit of credit...but not much.

I saw someone type "pravalege" just yesterday and it took everything in me not to sob.

Jen said...

I hate making spelling errors and get so upset when I find a typo in my own post. It happens :(

I'm a skipper-ahead too. Totally.

Sequels ... grrr. I also feel like people are less interested in those reviews. More standalones, please!

Thanks for stopping by my blog!

Ryan said...

I try not to make too many spelling mistakes, though my biggest issue is typos more than actual problems.

I just need to slow down and proofread more past using spell check.

Anonymous said...

$142 is very impressive! My highest was $35, from 2004...and I still haven't paid it, since I moved out of the province =P My bad. I also have books living under my parents staircase - 8 totes full! I swear I'll find a home for them someday, haha.

Alyce said...

I'm very careful with my books in order to keep them in pristine condition, and about had a heart attack the first time my husband folded over a page corner. Now he humors me (at least when reading my books) and uses a scrap of paper to mark his place.

Charlotte said...

I became president of my library's friends group so that I would never have to pay fines again. (only partly kidding!)

And I am sad viz spelling. Here's the comment I got on my first college paper (written on a typewriter, before the happy days of spell check: "There are so many typographical errors that it is difficult to assess the degree of your spelling disorder." Sigh!

carol said...

Wow, my biggest library fine was like $50, but that wasn't my fault. I had books in the car when we got hit by someone. The car went up in flames and between the fire and water damage a couple they got ruined. I still think the library should have given me a pass.

Kristen M. said...

I totally put off reading sad books too. I want to read the books, especially if they're getting rave reviews, but then it's hard to get in the mood to pick them up. I'm usually glad when I finally do though!

And I judge misspellers too. It's not nice but I can't help it. My dad used to come to me to ask how to spell things when I was in elementary school so it's really hard for me to understand people who aren't natural spellers.

And I love your food posts but I also love your book reviews. Keep up the good work with both of them! :)

Li @ rulethewaves.net said...

Yikes about #1!

I agree re: #2, that's usually when I start skimming (which happened to me the other day, actually. It kills me that I did it to a Russian author but it was really dragging and I did not care to read about the various debates surrounding capital punishment in nineteenth century Russia at the moment lol).

Interesting about #10. I think it's a pet peeve of mine in general (maybe moreso on Twitter and internet forums for whatever reason) but yeah, spelling's important.

Thanks for dropping by my blog yesterday! =)

Li @ rulethewaves.net said...

Yikes about #1!

I agree re: #2, that's usually when I start skimming (which happened to me the other day, actually. It kills me that I did it to a Russian author but it was really dragging and I did not care to read about the various debates surrounding capital punishment in nineteenth century Russia at the moment lol).

Interesting about #10. I think it's a pet peeve of mine in general (maybe moreso on Twitter and internet forums for whatever reason) but yeah, spelling's important.

Thanks for dropping by my blog yesterday! =)

Anonymous said...

Spelling is a BIG pet peeve of mine. Bad grammar also irks me, which is weird because when I type, I have weird grammar too. But if I see that a blogger has multiple misspells and questionable grammar, I'll browse around for 2 secs, max and leave! Gr.
I'm a legit Grammar Nazi. Anyway, that was a fun list! $142? Damn, girl! You beat mine of $94...
XOXO Kim

Ginny Larsen said...

i seriously thought i had already commented on this... but i guess i didn't. either way, i love this list. it's hilarious. and i may have turned Joey to the dark side :D

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