I think I’ve done this one before…but maybe not.

Either way, let’s do it now.

1. Do you prefer hardcover, paperback, or Kindle…and why?
I love my Kindle. I never thought I’d be the e-reader type, but OH MY GOD it makes it so much easier to a) access books and b) read them while on the treadmill. What more could I want?

2. If I were to own a book shop I would call it …
Probably something boring. I’d probably just stock classics, ‘cause that’s my jam and I’d like other people who are like me to have a place to just browse the types of books they like. So something involving classics?

3. My favorite quote from a book (mention the title) is …
From Potok’s The Chosen:

“Human beings do not live forever, Reuven. We live less than the time it takes to blink an eye, if we measure our lives against eternity. So it may be asked what value is there to a human life. There is so much pain in the world. What does it mean to have to suffer so much if our lives are nothing more than the blink of an eye? … I learned a long time ago, Reuven, that a blink of an eye in itself is nothing. But the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of life is nothing. But the man who lives that span, he is something. He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so its quality is immeasurable though its quantity may be insignificant.”

4. The author (alive or dead) I would love to have lunch with would be …
I’d love to meet Nabokov. He seems like such a brilliant human being.

5. If I was going to a deserted island and could only bring one book, except for the SAS survival guide, it would be …
The Caine Mutiny. I could re-read that every day and still love it.

6. I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that …
Would instantly translate any non-English phrases. Obviously one could do that by Googling or otherwise, but some books (I’m looking at you, Lolita) have non-English phrases all over the place; having something that would very quickly and easily translate them (and do so appropriately and accurately) would be great for us unilingual losers.

7. The smell of an old book reminds me of …
The fact that I CANNOT SMELL

8. If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title), it would be …
Phileas Fogg, yo (Around the World in Eighty Days)

9. The most over-rated book of all time is…
To Kill a Mockingbird. I cannot stand that book!

10. I hate it when a book…
Has a bad ending. By that I mean an ending that just lets you down. I want to feel like the book has been building towards something important. Something that will stick with me. If I don’t get that, it makes the whole experience of reading the book a hollow one.