Reader Interview: Reader-Teacher Carolyn

Reader interviews are where readers share how and what they read...

Bio: I am a retired American, living in eastern Romania. I moved here in 2009 to be with my spiritually adopted family and I volunteer teach Conversational American English to children and adults. I haed a grown son and 2 grandchildren in America. My educational background is math, science, and anthropology, and I have a Bachelor of Science degree and I did quite a bit of graduate work. I am passionate about the English language and do some scifi and fantasy writing. I have written professionally for website content, and I edit books for publication. My hobbies are Science Fiction anything of course, Mensa, computers, B-Movies (the stinkier the better), 1930s movies, cooking, hard rock music, and I was a trained cellist. I never stop reading and studying, and my current challenge is learning Romanian.

How often do you read? 

I have been reading science fiction steadily for at least 62 years, and I never stop reading – I have been accused of being a compulsive reader. I started with comics when I could only look at the pictures. I recall lying on my bed at age 5, wilting on a hot Houston summer afternoon, devouring Uncle Scrooge, Superman, Plastic Man, Katie Keen, The Flash. I remember vividly my first adult level scifi, checked out of the library when I was 11 years old – “The Wheels of If” by L. Sprague de Camp. I didn't understand a bit of it, but it cracked my mind open to a whole new world, and I was hooked. 

How fast do you read? 

I am a speed reader. I usually have several books going at the same time. I can complete a fairly good-sized novel in a day.

Favorite authors? 

Number one forever is Ray Bradbury, whom I was blessed to meet, and I took that opportunity to tell him how he formed and changed my life. He was genuinely humble and gracious and we had a delightful conversation, which is a very precious memory. All the authors from the Golden Age of scifi are special loves: Asimov, Larry Niven, Michael Moorcock, Robert Sliverberg, Phillip Jose Farmer, Frederick Pohl, Arthur C. Clarke, Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Clifford Simak, Harlan Ellison...I could go on extensively. Robert Forward and Greg Bear are favorite newer authors, for their pure hard scifi. 

What are your preferred genres to read for fun? 

I read about 90% science fiction and of that I prefer true hard scifi. I do read some fantasy around vampires. I love huge stories with the Universe as the setting.

What genres will you NOT read, or dislike reading? 

I just don't read non scifi: murder mysteries, political intrigue, politics, court drama, thieves, romance, “literature,” or anything depicting torture and real-life violence.  I was cured of what is termed “literature” in public school by being force fed Dickens, Dostoevsky, Faulkner. Hemingway, you know them...they may be the greats, but they are to me, dull and ponderous. I tried recently to take up Dickens again...all “grown up” as I am now, and I was not able to get past the first chapter of “A Tale of Two Cities.“

What influences your choice of book to read for fun?

Author and the hard scifi genre are where I go first. I will always read a favorite author, and I enjoy re-reading the classics, but I eagerly search for new authors. With Amazon's “Look Inside,” you can get a taste of new writers. I love paperbacks the best, but here in Romania, English language scifi has to be ordered and costs a premium. So I love my Kindle! But I always treasure a big, fat paperback because I know I will have a long time of reading adventure ahead, can scribble in it, and dogear the pages.  I listen to classic scifi audio at Loyal Books on my PC when I am working. 

What's the best book you've ever read?

That's a tough one, because several come to mind. But if I were forced to choose one,  I would say “The Wheels Of If,” not because it's “best,” which is really impossible to judge given the wealth of great novels, but because of the impact it had on the path I chose. 

What's the worst book you've ever read?

“Pet Cemetery” Apologies to Stephen King fans! I admire and bow to his talent and prolific production. But for me, he too often abused his characters, too disturbing after I had come to love them. Children and dogs are sacred and I couldn't abide what happened to those characters

What elements make a good story? 

Big settings populated with credible, rich characters, who have realistic, believable interactions and responses to each other and to events, all set against the huge backdrop of science fiction. 

What makes you roll your eyes or groan in a story? 

Unrealistic characterization, gore, and gratuitous sex.

Ever watch movies based on books, or read a book because it's already been made into a movie? 

Yes, I will always give a movie a chance, based on a book I enjoyed, and vice versa. A great example is the novel “Alien,” written after the movie came out, by Allen Dean Foster.

Where do you like to read the most? 

Curled up on the sofa, or late at night, snug in bed. 

If you'd like to share your reading preferences, email them to Troglodad AT gmail DOT com.

Self-Publishing 101: Fame, Fortune or Art?

Disclaimer: I am not a self-publishing expert, but I have been self-publishing since 2012, with over a dozen novels and short stories available in print, digital and audio formats. Self-publishing 101 is my effort to pass along what I've learned for anyone just starting out or considering self-publishing. Questions are welcome, in the comments below or at Trolodad AT Gmail dot com.

Before you embark on the epic journey of putting your work out there on the market, you really need to think about one thing: why?

Why do you want to self-publish? I don't mean why as in "because no publisher would touch it". I mean, what's your ultimate goal? To see your work in print? To have others see it? To become famous? To become rich?

If you just want to see your work in print, try vanity publishing. There are a variety of printers available online that will make you a copy of your work. Vanity publishers will offer you all sorts of services and charge you an arm and a leg. Printers like Snapfish or even Walmart offer simple print runs, without ridiculous add on fees.

If you want people to just see what you've written, save the trees and blog. The internet is the world's #1 source of information sharing. Nothing compares. It's what the damned thing was made for. Wordpress, Blogger and countless others offer anyone with access to computer and an internet connection. 

If you want to be rich... well, it can be done, but I'll talk more about that next time (It takes Money to Publish for Money). If you want to make a little money...

Here's the thing about self-publising: it's a business. Hard work might make you some money, the same as any entrepeneurial adbenture. Or it might fail miserably. 

Imagine you wanted to open a restaurant. Many factors determine whether you'll suceed. Doubtless you've seen many restaurants come and go in your hometown. They don't all make it. Self-publishing is the same, but that doesn't mean you sholdn't try it.

Yes, there's a lot of hard work involved, but you have no idea if you're going to be good or bad at it. If you want to, you should at least try. Thousands of other authors are. Amazon.com has nearly four million works for sale now. Statistics from last year say something like 34% of them are by independant, self-publishers. Some of them are best sellers, some are unheard of, but they all tried, and doing your best is the most important thing in any endeavor.

Next up... It takes Money to Publish for money?

Reader Interview: Rocking Reader/Podcaster Simon

Reader Profiles are where regular folks share their reading habits...


Today's guest reader is Simon Whistler, of the Rocking Self Publishing podcast. Simon also narrates audio books, putting his smooth British voice to work to entertain, inform and earn some cash.

How often do you read? How fast do you read?

Everyday, both fiction and non-fiction. I read fiction right before going to bed, usually falling asleep while reading! Despite reading every day it takes me a while to get through a book as I usually only make it through a few pages each evening. If I am travelling then that consumption goes up as I will read fiction to pass the time on long journeys.

As for non-fiction, I listen to audiobooks when they are available. As I listen to these whenever I get a moment (during lunch, while running etc), I find that I get through them much quicker. Usually at least two non-fiction books a month, and that doesn't include shorter books that I will pick up to learn about a specific subject.


Favorite authors?

Currently working my way through all of Mark Dawson's series (he's prolific, so that's quite a lot of reading) and enjoying them immensely.

For non-fiction, I enjoy Malcolm Gladwell particularly.


What are your preferred genres to read for fun? What genres will you NOT read, or dislike reading?

Science fiction is my go to, although I need to take regular breaks from the genre. I've come across books I haven't got along with, but I haven't yet written off an entire genre :).


What influences your choice of book to read for fun?

I'd prefer a series over an epic tome (although I loved King's 11/22/63 - that book, even at 600 some pages, was not long enough). In terms of format, I'm a Kindle person, I read in bed, so no longer do I have to hold up the heavy side of the book every other page ;).


What's the best book you've ever read?

The first thing that comes to mind is 11/22/63, probably because it just came up, but when I think about it, certainly one of my favourite books in recent times. I also stumbled across a book called The Unincorporated Man a couple of years back (don't remember how), which has stuck in my mind for years (usually the sign of something good).


What's the worst book you've ever read?

I don't remember the worst one, I'm sure it was fast forgotten. I didn't enjoy some of the literature that I was forced to go through and pick apart in secondary (high) school. Ethan Frome was not written for a 14 year old boy to enjoy.


What elements make a good story?

I like a well constructed world. Whether that is an entirely made up one, or good research into a real locale.


What makes you roll your eyes or groan in a story?

"Why would they do that? That's not in character!"


Ever watch movies based on books, or read a book because it's already been made into a movie?

Sure, I'm a big movie fan, so I've read a bunch of books based on movies. The usual suspects I'm sure.


Where do you like to read the most?

"Reading" audiobooks while running.



If you'd like to share your reading preferences, respond below or send an email to Troglodad AT gmail DOT com.  As the volunteers are running thin, our next reader will be monday, February 16th...

Self Publishing 101

Disclaimer: I am not a self-publishing expert, but I have been self-publishing since 2012, with over a dozen novels and short stories available in print, digital and audio formats. Self-publishing 101 is my effort to pass along what I've learned for anyone just starting out or considering self-publishing. Questions are welcome, in the comments below or at Trolodad AT Gmail dot com.

Any discussion of self-publishing should start with a definition of what it is. The problem though, is that many people have different ideas and definitions. So the easiest thing to do is to say what self-publishing isn't. And to do that, you have to first look at traditional publishing—that is, the more common, familiar form of publishing.

For the past hundred years, printing books, publishing, has been done by companies and corporations. They didn't do this to spread knowledge like in the arly days of the printing press, but to make money.

That's right, publishing is all about the buck. Or pound, euro, etc.

Books are a product, to be bought by a consumer. Getting a book into a store is an expensive endeavor, employing many people. It costs money, so money is expected back in return.

In the old days, the days before self-publishing, if you wanted to see your work in print you had to go through the gauntlet of traditional publishing... or pay hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars to a vanity publisher who would make a run of books for you to do with as you chose—beit selling them at fleamarkets or stacking them up in your garage or basement.

With your finished manuscript in hand, the first step (if you chose not to vanity) was often to send a copy to an agent, hoping they would take it to a publisher they knew. Some publishers might allow you to bypass an agent and submit direct. In either case, your manuscript often ended up in a slushpile, resting atop, under or aside dozens, maybe hundreds of others. It was a literary lottery, where winning meant getting it read by someone who thought it could be sold.

Once you got on the track to being published (printed at someone else's expense), there came contracts, editors, proofers, cover designers, agents and much more. Traditional publishing is a village, raising your young novel from obscurity to a spot on a store shelf. Few made the cut. 

There's no slush pile with self-publishing. There's no company or agent. Just you, the author, putti  your work out there. Instead of a slim picking of agent- and editor-approved books, readers now have a choice of millions of works to choose from, often sold on virtual bookshelves online.

That's not to say self-publishing doesn't employ people other than authors. There are editors in self-publishing, if you choose to use them. There are also book doctors, editors who considerably rewrite your manuscript, making it something worthwhile if you couldn't. There are cover designers, proofreaders, publicists... a whole cottage industry supporting authors as they publish on their own.

In a nutshell, self-publishing is where one person takes on the role of a publishing conpany, hiring whoever they need to get their work out. This lets anyone be a self-publisher, but it also means the well-honed machine of publishing is bypassed. I like to think of this as the same difference between craftsman and mass production. 

Writing is just the tip of the iceberg in self-publishing. If you think it's hard, you might not want to take on all the other jobs involved in getting your work out there. Of course, finding a traditional publisher, be it a huge corporation or a mom and pop indie publisher, might be daunting. 

If you want to give it a try though, there's still a lot of work ahead of you.

Next time: Why Self-publish? Fame, fortune or art?

Reader Interview: Reader-Dean Deckard

Reader Profiles is where I'll speak to people about their reading habits. Face it, most authors seem only interested in speaking about writing. That's leaving out a huge portion of the publishing industry...

 

Bio: "Married to the love of my life. Two cats and a dog. Nearing retirement. Currently an associate dean and department chair in a large academic medical center in the southeast. I enjoy reading and doing things with my wife. About 14 years ago my wife bought me a homebrew kit for my birthday and since then I have become an avid homebrewer. I really enjoy brewing my own beer and I am a member of the local homebrew club here in town."

   

How often do you read? How fast do you read?

I try to read at least an hour every day. Sometimes I don’t get that much time to read but most days I find the time.

I’m not a very fast reader---by choice. I could read faster and, depending on what I am reading, I can read faster than my “normal” reading pace. I find that when I read fast, I don’t enjoy it as much and reading becomes almost a chore.

   

Favorite authors?

Dickens, Mark Twain, Jack London, Steinbeck. Recent authors are C.J. Sansom, Paul Theroux and Ron Rash. Philip K. Dick took me a while to get into. Once I did, I quite enjoyed his bizarre writings and imagination.

   

What are your preferred genres to read for fun? What genres will you NOT read, or dislike reading?

Mysteries and thrillers mainly. Lately I have been reading lots of nonfiction, especially biographies.

   

What influences your choice of book to read for fun?

Primarily, eBooks but the occasional print when the eBook isn’t available.

Many times the choice depends on the mood I am in at the time I start a book. Currently, I am planning a trip to Belgium so I am reading All Quiet on the Western Front and a short book on the history of WW1 to help prepare for the trip.

Recommendations from friends and other readers I trust.

   

What's the best book you've ever read?

Call of the Wild. No, wait—A Tale of Two Cities. Maybe The Sand Pebbles. Definitely was East of Eden.

Just one!

   

What's the worst book you've ever read?

The Da Vinci Code. ‘Nuff said!

   

What elements make a good story?

For fiction, good, believable characters and plot development. If you can’t believe it, tough to get into. Of course, for some things, like fantasy, belief might have to be suspended.

   

What makes you roll your eyes or groan in a story?

Characters doing something totally out of character or unbelievable.

   

Ever watch movies based on books, or read a book because it's already been made into a movie?

I do watch movies based on books and, honestly, most of the time I am disappointed. I tend to enjoy the book more often than the movies.

I have a few times read the book after seeing a movie. The Godfather was one. And Jaws. Both these were when I was in high school and since then I have always read the book first.

   

Where do you like to read the most?

I have a small bedroom in my house that has been converted into my reading room. I have a radio/CD player, chair, gooseneck lamp, and two walls with built in bookshelves. It’s a place I can get away while my wife watches television.

 

 

If you'd like to share your reading preferences, email Troglodad AT Gmail DOT COM for a set of questions or make your own based on what you see above. 

Reader Interview: House husband/Average Guy Mike

Reader interviews are where everyday readers share their likes and dislies and reading preferences...



Mike's Bio: "I am a 50-year-old house-husband/father who enjoys reading and occasionally dabbles ineffectually at writing. I have a BA and an MA in English literature and an MS in English Language Arts. I read fantasy fiction mostly, and when I get tired of that I go back to the English canon or read contemporary literature. I listen to audiobooks of non-fiction occasionally, and I also read books about writing. I live in Vermont currently. I have worked in business management (I also have an MBA, like most people do), web design program coordination, specialty beer retail (fun!), and music retail in a corporate capacity. I read every day, write occasionally, and love the New England Patriots. I am also a beer nerd/snob/enthusiast."



How often do you read? How fast do you read?

I read at least every night for an hour or so before bed. I also try to get some reading done during the day, and I frequently listen to audiobooks in the car.

I read fiction at about average speed, approximately 300 words per minute. I read non-fiction slightly faster if it is not technical. I took Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics as a teenager, so I am capable of reading faster, but I like to subvocalize fiction to enjoy the narrative voice and the dialogue. It’s all about the enjoyment, entertainment, and wow factor for me.


Favorite authors?

My all-time favorite by a mile is Gene Wolfe. His Solar Cycle just blows my frigging mind. I have read it several times, twelve books from beginning to end. Specifically, the first subseries, The Book of the New Sun is my favorite book/series. Wolfe’s writing is nonpareil and his imagination is astounding. But it is his feel for complex human emotions and deep introspection that really pulled me in, that and his writing and use of language, which makes it so personal and yet so profoundly universal. Anyhow, I think he’s the greatest, as you can tell.

I have some other fantasy favorites these days, including Mark Lawrence, Joe Abercrombie, and Jeff Vandermeer (his Shriek: An Afterword is an incredible literary work). Some other books I loved recently whose authors I hope will become favorites are Vicious by V.E. Schwab, A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar, The Drowning Girl by Caitlin R. Kiernan (I also loved her The Red Tree), Low Town by Daniel Polansky, and How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu. Some other older faves include Jack Vance, Barry Hughart, Douglas Adams, David Gemmell, Jeffrey Ford (The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque is absolute frigging genius as is Physiognomy and most of The Fantasy Writers Assistant), and Brian Francis Slattery.

I also have some favorite classic literature writers like Hemingway, Shakespeare, Chaucer, Saul Bellow, Cormac McCarthy, and some favorite books, including White Noise by Don DeLillo, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, Molloy by Samuel Beckett, Slaughterhouse-Five by Vonnegut, Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie, To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino, The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe, We, the Drowned by Carsten Jensen, and, well, I could go on and on. Like most people on goodreads, I really really like a good story well told.


What are your preferred genres to read for fun? What genres will you NOT read, or dislike reading?

I like fantasy the best. I am an escapist at heart. But I don’t usually pick the post-Tolkien-elves-and-dwarves stuff or the seventeen volume never-ending doorstoppers with two hundred point of view characters. And it has to be well written, which to me means purposeful language without purple prose. Secondarily, I like what is loosely called literature or literary fiction. And I also read some sci-fi. I will read anything that has literary quality like Cormac McCarthy westerns, James P. Blaylock steampunk, and Thomas Ligotti horror. I haven’t read much mystery or suspense thriller, mostly because I am afraid they will not provide the escapism that I am usually subconsciously looking for, but I am not against them.


What influences your choice of book to read for fun?

For fun I read novels almost exclusively, though I have read some short story collections. For a long time I read almost exclusively first-person because I like that intimacy. Then I moved on a little to intimate single voice third-person. (Did I mention I really like Henry James?) Now, reading Joe Abercrombie’s First Law trilogy, I see that good writing can bring intimacy and variety to multiple third-person POVs. So I hope to reopen myself to everything. I am also a fan of parallel narrations and metafiction.

I read a lot of reviews on amazon and goodreads, and I am especially interested in editorial reviews from publications I trust like Kirkus, Publisher’s Weekly, Washington Post (actually covers genre fiction occasionally), Library Journal, etc.


What's the best book you've ever read?

Like I said before, Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun. Some people have the Bible. I have The Book of the New Sun. It is that important to me.
“Perhaps I have contrived for someone The Book of Gold.” – Severian the Torturer, from Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun, Volume 4: The Citadel of the Autarch


What's the worst book you've ever read?

Hmm…ever is a long time. And I absolutely won’t finish a book if I don’t like it. I will put it aside even if I am two-thirds of the way through it. One that I recently gave up on was The Name of the Wind. (Go ahead, hate me!) It probably wasn’t the worst book ever, but I am strongly averse to that fantasy novel structure that throws the main character into the most intense conflict of his life in the first chapter and then proceeds to backtrack and use the next forty-two chapters to tell us everything that happened to the character since the day his mother died and he became an orphan and every frigging thing he has had for breakfast for the next twenty years. Get on with the story! Keep the backstory in the backstory! Abercrombie does this perfectly. Some of his characters are archetypal fantasy characters – the bastard king, the grizzled old warrior, etc – but their backstories are neatly folded into the actual main plot/story/conflict. Don’t give me one chapter of story and forty-two of backstory before finally getting back to the main plot three-fourths of the way through the book! Backstory is boring! And the backstory in The Name of the Wind is especially bad because it is in first-person, so it is like the main character is boasting through dozens of chapters: I outwitted this bad guy here when I was six; I beat up this bad guy here when I was nine; I was smarter than my teachers when I was eleven, etc, etc, etc! Okay, end of rant.


What elements make a good story?

High stakes conflict that cannot be avoided, complex characters, emotional intensity, vivid (and strange) setting, good pacing, purposeful language that suits the narrator and the story. I never make it through stories that seem like they have been extensively plotted beforehand. If I feel the characters are just pieces being moved on a plot diagram, I’m outta here.


What makes you roll your eyes or groan in a story?

Well, see my rant about fantasy structure and backstory for number one. Also, purple prose, sentences that I have to reread because they are so awkwardly written, too many points of view, stories in which everyone is beautiful, extremely intricate “magic systems” that seem to have been contrived to write a story around, zombies (most of the time), a child’s point of view, children in general except when they are like Crummock I-Phail’s kids in the First Law, invincible heroes, “Mother Teresa” heroes (like Vaelin Al Sorna in Blood Song, which I am trying to slog through – see also, fantasy structure and backstory -- having already paid my $7.95 to audible.com), and probably some other stuff.


Ever watch movies based on books, or read a book because it's already been made into a movie?

Not particularly, except for the Lord of the Rings movies of course, which I thought were pretty much excellent. I don’t see movies much, but if they made more movies from great books (Elric, First Law, Bridge of Birds), I would definitely see them. I hope they don’t make a movie of The Book of the New Sun. Some things are too sacred. (Sorry, Mr. Wolfe.) I saw The Hitchhiker’s Guide movie, which is based on one of my favorite books, and we all know how bad Disney fucked that up.


Where do you like to read the most?

Mostly I read in bed with my dog snoring next to me. I have particularly uncomfortable furniture in my house, not exactly sure why. Probably because I move a lot and don't like lugging stuff, so I never actually buy any furniture.


If you'd like to share your reading preferences, email Troglodad AT Gmail DOT COM for a set of questions or make your own based on what you see above.

Reader Interview: Manga fan AB McFarland

Reader Interviews are where we get to hear from everyday readers, sharing their likes and dislikes and general reading preferences...



A BMcFarland is a Goodreads reader and Manga/Anime fan who also happens to hold a Master's degree in Technical Communication! She also maintaibs her own blog, Coiled to Spring.


How often do you read? How fast do you read?

I read every day, probably 10-50 pages per day. The speed of my reading depends on the difficulty of the text. If I’m reading manga, I can usually read about 200 pages a day and that takes about an hour. If I’m reading philosophical texts, sutra commentaries, or quantum physics material, that’s much slower going.



Favorite authors?

For manga, I’d say Jun Mochizuki (Pandora Hearts) and Ryukishi07 (Higurashi When They Cry). For fiction: Hermann Hesse, Jorge Luis Borges, Günter Grass. I’ve also been enjoying the poetry of Mary Oliver lately.



What are your preferred genres to read for fun? What genres will you NOT read, or dislike reading?

I prefer manga for fun reading, especially those stories which feature gender-bending characters or lots of mindf*ckery. For general fiction, I tend to lean toward magical realism. There’s something compelling to me about taking our mundane, every day world and twisting it in some way that wouldn’t normally seem possible.

I also end up reading a lot of books to my nine year-old daughter, and some of them are wonderful. I especially like Maile Meloy’s books for young people: “The Apothecary” and “The Apprentices.” The pacing in these books is just perfect.

I avoid reading almost anything with raised metallic lettering on the front.


What influences your choice of book to read for fun?

I tend to weigh the time commitment with how much I feel I “need” to read the book(s) in question. As a result, I end up reading whatever feels “important” at that time in my life. So at the moment, I’m reading a lot of Buddhist texts because I recently took refuge as a Buddhist last year, so it feels important to learn as much as I can. I prefer print because it is easier on my eyes and like to see how much farther I have to go in the text.



What's the best book you've ever read?

The Tin Drum by Günter Grass. I enjoyed this because it was full of wacky ideas and characters, and written in various styles, but still managed to convey a deeper message of what it was like to live in Hitler’s Germany.

My favorite manga so far is Pandora Hearts.


What's the worst book you've ever read?

Moby Dick by Herman Melville. This almost isn’t fair of me to say, because I know it’s considered a classic, and I read it when I was twelve so the deeper meanings eluded me. It was a slow, boring slog, even with skipping the 100+ pages on the details of whaling.


What elements make a good story?

There needs to be a certain element of tension, or at least, you need to have a lot of “story questions” in your mind as you are reading it. That’s what makes you want to keep going, to find out what happens. It’s one of the reasons I think the Harry Potter series did so well. J.K. Rowling is a master of planting story questions. Another book that I thought was a really good, simple story is “Pie” by Sarah Weeks. It’s meant for middle readers but it was so compelling that after I tucked my daughter into bed after reading part of it to her, I stayed up that night to finish it, because I couldn’t wait to find out what happened.


What makes you roll your eyes or groan in a story?

I’m more of a cringer than a groaner or eye-roller, but poorly written sex scenes get me every time.


Ever watch movies based on books, or read a book because it's already been made into a movie?

I did that with Lord of the Rings: watched the movies first and then read the books. I thought the movies changed the books in a good way, in order to make them better movies, even though the changes were not true to the books.

There are several books I really hope get made into movies:
“The Familiars” by Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson
“The Apothecary” by Maile Meloy
“A Confederacy of Dunces” by John Kennedy Toole


Where do you like to read the most?
In “The Chair”…a recliner chair in my living room, covered with a blanket and a warm feline. I also read a little in bed, and I read magazines in the bathtub.



If you'd like to share your reading preferences, email Troglodad AT Gmail DOT COM for a set of questions or make your own based on what you see above.