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Book survey


Athena

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The Past
When did you start to love reading?

I can't remember ever not loving to read :)


What books did you love as a child (either read to or to read yourself)?

One book that has stuck in my mind is Harriets Hare by Dick King Smith
 

Childhood memories of reading (if you have them)?

I remember really enjoying the end of the day at primary school when the teacher would read a book to the whole class. Jacqueline Hyde by Robert Swindells always sticks in my mind as one of these books.
 

Did you read books for school?

Of course. I can't say I particularly enjoyed any of hese, but Of Mice and Men wasn't too bad. :)

Favourites
Favourite book: I have no idea.
Favourite author: I'm not sure. Possibly Torey Hayden.
Favourite genre(s): I enjoy fantasy/sci-fi etc. I'm not so keen on books that just depict everyday life things.

Your Collection
Do you own an ereader?

I own a Kindle Keyboard, and I love it :D


Ebooks or physical books (or both)?

Ebooks because they're just convenient.
 

Hardcover or paperback (or both)?

Paperback. Hardbacks are just too expensive and inconvenient, and I always manage to damage the dust covers :(
 

New books or used books (or both)?

I don't mind. Whatever is the cheapest :P
 

Big books or small books (or both)?

Small books.
 

What language are most of your books written in?

English, because it's the only language I speak ;)
 

Favourite book shop(s):

The works is great, and I buy ebooks from Amazon


Do you buy a lot of books?

I don't buy too many, because I already have way too many.
 

Do you spend a lot of money on books?

Not really. I let my dad do that.


Amount of owned books:

Probably 25,000+ but these are ebooks that my dad got.
 

Amount of books read:

I have no idea.


Amount of books TBR:

A lot :P

Reading
How often do you read?

I usually read something everyday, even if only a little.
 

Where do you read?

Either in bed or laying on the sofa. Or at the bus stop.


When do you read?

Any time that I get bored.
 

How fast do you read?

Well it depends how much I enjoy the book really. :P

The Forum
When did you join this forum?

Either November of December 2012.


How did you find this forum?

GOOGLE :D

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The Past
When did you start to love reading?

I was an only child and had very much older parents and also lived in a place in which retired professionals seemed to settle so I had no other children my age to play with, I was always described during my early years as being in a corner reading. 

 

What books did you love as a child (either read to or to read yourself)?

 

I read a lot of Enid Blyton, however my first real memories of reading was Peter the Rabbit by Beatrix Potter and the Chornicles of Narnia by C S Lewis


Childhood memories of reading (if you have them)?

 

Always getting told off for not putting my bedside light out and going to sleep instead of reading. 

Brightly coloured hardback copies of Enid Blyton books

My grandfather's large library that I wanted to live in.

 


Did you read books for school?

 

I did read a lot of books for primary and high school, and also was always taking books out of the library.  My first memories were The Little Prince, some series on Dragons living in England and the Point Horror books between Primary School and High School.  My best friend's mother was the librarian at our school, so we would hang out there a lot over lunch and free periods and she would order books I was particularly interested in, including reference books on authors I liked.

 

 

Favourites
Favourite book:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - it lead me to love the process of reading.  I have read many since that I have loved in regards to writing and storyline but this is like my first love/crush in terms of writing so always will be special to me.  My other favourites include Tess of the D'Ubervilles by Thomas Hardy, The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, anything by Daphne Du Maurier, IQ84 by Haruki Marukami. 


Favourite author:

The Bronte Sisters, Elizabeth Gaskell, James Joyce, Daphne Du Maurier, Kate Atkinson and Thomas Hardy


Favourite genre(s): 

Historical fiction, modernism, horror/thriller and classics

 

Your Collection
Do you own an ereader? No
Ebooks or physical books (or both)? Physical
Hardcover or paperback (or both)? Paperback - I love the cracked spine and signs of having read the book that is on the spine
New books or used books (or both)?  New, love the smell of new books
Big books or small books (or both)? Both
What language are most of your books written in? English
Favourite book shop(s): Amazon.co.uk, Waterstones, Easons, WH Smith
Do you buy a lot of books? Yes, around 10 per month
Do you spend a lot of money on books? Yes, I would spend majority of disposible income on books for pleasure and also then books for study or research also on top of that.
Amount of owned books: Just over 1000 at last count
Amount of books read: approx 600
Amount of books TBR:  Endless


Reading
How often do you read? Everyday
Where do you read?  Sofa, waiting rooms, bed
When do you read? Last thing at night or during the evening
How fast do you read? Page per minute approx


The Forum
When did you join this forum?  3 days ago
How did you find this forum? Searched on Google for book forum that was in UK

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Hmmm lets see..... When did you start to love reading?

When I was 8 and discovered that I could choose my own books.  School books were boring and not challenging enough for me.  This was the time we joined a local library.

What books did you love as a child (either read to or to read yourself)?

I think the first book I loved reading was called "Joanna".  My mother had enjoyed reading Enid Blyton books as a child so she got us a lot of them.  I enjoyed The Famous Five, Malory Towers and The Magic Faraway Tree.  Later I'd find CS Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia when I was 11 and by then our mother had gotten us The Hardy Boys series and Nancy Drew series.  We were also gifted with classics like Wuthering Heights, What Katy Did, Great Expectations, A Christmas Carol etc for christmases. We were also given an entire encylopaedia set which we loved.


Childhood memories of reading (if you have them)?

 

Our mother had read to us since we were babies and with lots of gifts of books we began to read early.  I recall some lunchtimes at school when I rushed to the library as soon as the bell  went and spent the entire lunch time reading.  It was only at home time I'd realise that I still had a lunch kit full of packed lunch that I'd forgotten about.  I also picked up the habit of reading when commuting when I was a teen.  It'd take up to 2 hours to get to school most times.

 


Did you read books for school?

Yes.  I only enjoyed the reading list for secondary school.  It was a joy to discover new books I hadn't even knew existed or would not of have considered before.  My siblings are all aged one year apart so we all swapped and read each other's school books since we each attended different schools.

Favourites
Favourite book:  That's a hard question to answer.
Favourite author: Octavia E Butler
Favourite genre(s):  Science fiction and Fantasy
Your Collection


Do you own an ereader?  No
Ebooks or physical books (or both)?     Physical books, I occasion get an e-book to read via my pc.
Hardcover or paperback (or both)?     Both
New books or used books (or both)?     Both
Big books or small books (or both)?     Both
What language are most of your books written in?     English
Favourite book shop(s):    Don't have one at present since local ones closed down.
Do you buy a lot of books?   No, I take full advantage of my local libraries
Do you spend a lot of money on books?   No
Amount of owned books:    About 100

Amount of books read:    Well since I've averaged 3 books a week since I was 12, in excess of 15 000 by now

Amount tbr:  maybe 8, don't really keep a list and I do try to read as I get them.

 

Reading
How often do you read?  

Most days.  I can get through up to 3 books a week for leisure without counting study books/non fiction books.


Where do you read?    At home, commuting or in waiting rooms
When do you read?    At night or sometimes in the day time


How fast do you read?  

I can get through about 250 pages an hour if uninterupted and I'm really into the book

The Forum
When did you join this forum? 

About 3 years ago.  I had a years hiatius and came back.


How did you find this forum?

  Someone mentioned it when I was at an author's forum checking out their books.

 

 

 

 

 










 

Edited by Kreader
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The Past

When did you start to love reading?

From the start.  My mother told me I learned to read when I was three, and spent much of my time reading to my younger brother.

 

What books did you love as a child (either read to or to read yourself)?

The stand-outs include Enid Blyton, particularly The Secret Seven, The Magic Faraway Tree and her Nature Book; Winnie the Pooh and the attached poetry books;  Paddington Bear (first come across in a Blue Peter annual, as Michael Bond was a cameraman on the programme - I still find him funny); The Rev W Awdrey's Railway series; Alison Uttley's Little Grey Rabbit series; Rudyard Kipling's Puck of Pook's Hill and Rewards and Fairies; Ian Fleming's Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang;  the Swallows and Amazons series (the first books I collected: 2/6d for a second hand hardback).  Other books/authors I can remember enjoying: Malcolm Saville, Biggles, John Wingate's Submariner Sinclair; Anthony Buckeridge's Jennings series

 

Childhood memories of reading (if you have them)?

Sitting on the stairs, two steps up, my favourite place to read.  Reading Lord of the Rings under my desk at school, I just couldn't put it down.  Being forced to read Lord of the Flies, which I hated (and did until rereading very recently and realising it was not a book for children but about children - very different).

 

Did you read books for school?

Yes, especially as I took both O and A-level English Literature.  Books I remember reading include at O-Level: Barchester Towers, Pickwick Papers;  at A-Level: Emma (the start of my love affair with Jane Austen); Middlemarch, The Canterbury Tales - all still favourites;  also The Great Gatsby - which I still dislike.

 

Favourites

Favourite book:  J.L. Carr - A Month in the Country, closely followed by Sense and Sensiblity and Bleak House

Favourite author: Virginia Woolf, a shade in front of the three above.

Favourite genre(s): Nineteenth century classics, but also love a whole range of genres, including Eurocrime and, in non-fiction, History and historical biography; travel and exploration; science; landscape history.

 

Your Collection

Do you own an ereader?  Yes - Kindle keyboard, also use my phone (equipped with Kindle for Android).

 

Ebooks or physical books (or both)?  Both - different uses at different times, but do prefer physical as long as the typeface is a readable size.

 

Hardcover or paperback (or both)?  Generally prefer hardcovers, but can often only afford paperbacks.

 

New books or used books (or both)?  New books, but have loads of used ones.

 

Big books or small books (or both)?  Not bothered, but too big means difficult to read.

 

What language are most of your books written in?  English, with occasional French or German.

 

Favourite book shop(s): Our local independent, The Grove Bookshop, in Ilkley - brilliant, especially given the size.

 

Do you buy a lot of books?  Far, far too many - can't keep up.

 

Do you spend a lot of money on books?  Far, far too much.

 

Amount of owned books: around 3000.

 

Amount of books read: about 50 or so a year.

 

Amount of books TBR:  Don't keep track.  Prefer to read as the mood takes me, rather than having anything of that sort hanging over my head.

 

Reading

How often do you read?  daily.

 

Where do you read?  Anywhere I can get away with it.  I do read a lot on the train commuting, and have been known to choose that option even though it's one of the slowest means of getting home, simply to have half an hour or so to myself reading.

 

When do you read?  Any time, especially now have acess through Kindle and phone.

 

How fast do you read?  Fairly fast, once got stuck in.

 

The Forum

When did you join this forum? September 2009

 

How did you find this forum?  Searching through internet for an online book forum.

 

 

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The Past

When did you start to love reading? Ever since I can remember. I have always loved the places reading takes me. Nothing like an adventure in your hands!

What books did you love as a child (either read to or to read yourself)? I loved reading animal stories mostly. My first book re-read was Lassie Come Home...I would check that out in elementary school and read it constantly, it was a favorite of mine. This lead to other classic animal reads like Lad, Big Red, Kavik, The Black Stallion series (which I now finally own all of. :D) I could go on....the Secret Garden is a book that, for whatever reason, I read annually. It's like my go-to nostalgia read, I love it. Narnia as well, although I would say I probably read that series every 5 years or something, but I love those as well. I would also read Goosebumps, Encyclopedia Brown, Hank the Cowdog, etc...the usual ones. :) It wasn't until middle school that I discovered fantasy novels (if you don't count Narnia), some of my first being the Tamora Pierce books and Redwall.

Childhood memories of reading (if you have them)? I do actually remember reading certain books from the list above in certain places, but nothing exciting to relate. I suppose I do remember on many, many occasions having stacks of books piled around my room because the checkout limit at my library is 99 and I would go there every day after school in High School and almost always ended up browsing and finding interesting looking titles. This is before I was working mind you and had time for such things. Ahhh, good times.

Did you read books for school? Oh absolutely. In fact, I kept all my summer reading lists/book suggestion lists for reports so that I could go back later to read them and see what I had missed. It always seemed a shame to not get to read them all. xD

 

Favourites

Favourite book: How on Earth do you pick a favorite book? It's like flavors of candy, you get bored if you can only pick one. I guess if favorite equals longevity then the books from my nostalgia list will do. However, I will say that the most impacting book I have ever read is a book called Irresistible Revolution. The Alchemist is also an amazing read and definitely one of my top faves, highly recommended.

Favourite author: Hmm....I am quite fond of Robin McKinley. Her first book, a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, is lovely. I also will read anything by Shane Claibourne and Brandon Sanderson, albeit for very different reasons.

Favourite genre(s): Fantasy primarily. I am mostly an escapist reader, to be sure. :) However I dabble in basically everything but horror/thriller, though I suppose to be fair I have never actually tried to read one. Just doesn't interest me I guess. Unless you count House of Leaves....I really liked that one, admittedly mostly for the intriguing book layout. :)

 

Your Collection

Do you own an ereader? Yep, a Kindle, but not the fancy new ones, mine has buttons and a screen, not touch-sensitive.

Ebooks or physical books (or both)? Never thought I'd say this, but both actually. My Kindle was a gift from a friend a year ago and I actually love being able to slip it into virtually anything to take with me. I've even taken it backpacking in the Rockies! The only downside is I am cheap and usually borrow my books, it is expensive to purchase them. :/ So all the books on my Kindle are the free classics, but that's okay since I've always wanted to read those anyway. :) I mostly read actual books though.

Hardcover or paperback (or both)? Appearances don't matter, I care what's on the inside!

New books or used books (or both)? I'm more of a reader than a collector, so this also doesn't matter to me. Though when I buy I usually buy used because, again, I am cheap.

Big books or small books (or both)? Both! Most large books I own are art books though, not really reading books, though I suppose you could read them.

What language are most of your books written in? English because I am lame and that is all I can speak.

Favourite book shop(s): Half Priced books and/or any book re-sale shop!

Do you buy a lot of books? Not really. More than the average person I suppose, but I'm sure most of you here will have me beat.

Do you spend a lot of money on books? Nah, the library is my best friend.

Amount of owned books: Oh geez, I don't know.....*does a quick glance around room* I have caches of books on top of almost everything and two bookshelves, there's no telling and I am far too lazy to get up and count them all right now. So I'd guess around 250?

Amount of books read: Um, also no telling. I've almost always got a handful checked out from the library and have had for at least a decade....seriously, do you guys actually keep a running tally? It never even occurred to me to do so. 0_o

Amount of books TBR: All of them. However many I can squeeze in from here to the grave.

 

Reading

How often do you read? As often as I can. Lately every couple of days.

Where do you read? Usually at home or outside. And if I'm traveling, naturally. I don't get motion sickness which makes road trips that much better.

When do you read? Usually after dark when I'm done going about my day.

How fast do you read? Don't know. Depends on how much time I have available to me I suppose. I just read, I don't time myself. x)

 

The Forum

When did you join this forum? Six years ago, but I didn't really get active until 2010.

How did you find this forum? Googled "book forum" one day because I was tired of having no one to discuss the books I was reading with. Most of my friends are casual readers at best.

Edited by Kasei
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The Past
When did you start to love reading? 

I have been reading for as long as I can remember, and when I didnt know how to read my mum always read to me.
What books did you love as a child (either read to or to read yourself)?

As a really young kid the book I loved the most was "The Little Mermaid" (Disney version) 

As I grew a little bit older I read a lot of Nancy Drew, Fab five and eventually drifted into a period of only fantasy books.
Childhood memories of reading (if you have them)?

I'm not sure what I was reading, but it was a book series (maybe three books?) and they were so good I could not stop reading. It was past my bedtime however, so I had to read by the light of a flashlight under my duvet, and I still got caught :(
Did you read books for school?

Yes, we read a lot for school, and I enjoyed most of the books.

Favourites
Favourite book:

I cannot pick one book, there are too many!
Favourite author:

Terry Brooks, Philippa Gregory, Dan Brown and many many more
Favourite genre(s):

Fantasy, historical fiction, romance

Your Collection
Do you own an ereader?

Yes, but I dont use it too much
Ebooks or physical books (or both)?

I really like the feel of a real book in my hands, but I read on my phone/ebook reader too
Hardcover or paperback (or both)?

Paperback as I read a lot in bed and hardback gets too heavy
New books or used books (or both)?

Both. I dont mind used books, but there is something special about a brand new book!
Big books or small books (or both)?

The thicker the better!

What language are most of your books written in?

English and swedish
Favourite book shop(s):

Amazon and charity shops
Do you buy a lot of books?

Not too over the top, but yeah I can go a bit crazy at times!
Do you spend a lot of money on books?

If its something I really want, yes, but I dont think I go too crazy
Amount of owned books:

Counting the ones on my shelves and in storage and spread out among friends and family... 200-300 maybe?
Amount of books read:

I have no idea... More than I own, so at least 350

Amount of books TBR:

1000's :(

Reading
How often do you read?

At least an hour every day, usually get two hours in
Where do you read?

Bed or sofa mostly
When do you read?

Morning and night
How fast do you read?

Above average

The Forum
When did you join this forum?

Only days ago
How did you find this forum?

Good old Google!

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Fun survey!  I love reading everyone's answers

 

 

The Past
When did you start to love reading? I think I was about 10 or 11 when I got into chapter books and novels
What books did you love as a child (either read to or to read yourself)? The Little House books, Goosebumps by R.L Stine, The Babysitters Club books
Childhood memories of reading (if you have them)? I can remember lying in my bed with the lamp on and reading for hours.
Did you read books for school? yes, but not until high school

Favourites
Favourite book: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Favourite author: Jane Austen, Ray Bradbury, J K Rowling, Lauren Oliver
Favourite genre(s): fantasy, paranormal romance, YA dystopian, classics (any century)

 

Your Collection
Do you own an ereader? yes, a kindle
Ebooks or physical books (or both)? both
Hardcover or paperback (or both)? both
New books or used books (or both)? both
Big books or small books (or both)?  both, but large books scare me a bit

What language are most of your books written in? english
Favourite book shop(s): amazon and barnes & noble
Do you buy a lot of books? not a whole lot.  I tend to use the libary if I can
Do you spend a lot of money on books? no. If a book costs more than my limit I will buy used or get it from the library.
Amount of owned books: i estimate between 250-300
Amount of books read: no clue
Amount of books TBR: about 40

Reading
How often do you read? everyday
Where do you read?  in bed, in the bathroom, on the couch, on my lunch break, at the kitchen table, in the drive thru...everywhere
When do you read? whenever I can and when I'm in the mood
How fast do you read? fairly quick, but I've never really timed myself

The Forum
When did you join this forum? June 2008
How did you find this forum? a google search, I think

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