Reading Habits Meme and a couple photos

I'm recuperating from a full week and weekend, which has included Kiddo's high school graduation, gardening, housework, helping husband put down flooring and spending time with Eldest. Boy, have we been busy. I'll post photos of some of the pretties blooming at our house, in the coming days.

When I saw this meme at Gentle Reader's Shelf Life, I thought it would be the perfect filler while I recover from a long week. Normality should resume by Tuesday. Huzzybuns and Kiddo are off work, tomorrow, so I have a feeling blogging won't be on the agenda. Join in on this meme if you feel the urge!

Reading Habits Meme

Do you snack while reading? No, but I always read while snacking!

What is your favourite drink while reading? Water and coffee. I always, always have a drink nearby when I'm reading.

Do you tend to mark your books while you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you? I don't even dog-ear unless I think book is so awful it's not worth wasting the time to fetch Post-its, my marking method of choice. If I feel there's a note I must make, I write on my Post-it.

How do you keep your place? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book open flat?Bookmark. If I can't find a bookmark, I'll grab a receipt or other piece of paper that's flat. There are always receipts nearby. My husband sheds them. I think it's an illness; he can't throw a receipt away.

Fiction, non-fiction or both? Both. I have a mix of both fiction and non-fiction reads balanced almost continuously.

Do you tend to read to the end of a chapter or can you stop anywhere? I can stop anywhere. I don't usually have any trouble remembering what was going on, although if I fall asleep reading I'll sometimes backtrack by a page or two to re-entrench myself in the story, so to speak.

Are you the type of person to throw a book across the room or on the floor if the author irritates you? I mentally throw books, but I've only once physically tossed a book because it made me angry. The author was Nicholas Sparks, if that tells you anything.

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop and look it up right away? Sometimes, but I don't do so if I can understand the meaning of the word in its context. Instead, I'll go ahead and mark an unfamiliar word and look it up later. I used to keep vocabulary notebooks in which I wrote the word, the book in which I found it, the sentence from the book (to show context) and a definition. Maybe becoming an empty nester will open up time to return to that old habit.

What are you currently reading? I'm reading A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo (a Vietnam soldier's memoir) and A Place for Delta by Melissa Walker (children's). This weekend I put both of those books aside to focus on finishing The Making of a Duchess by Shana Galen (an action-packed historical romance).

What is the last book you bought? Oh, hmm. Actually, I have no idea! I haven't purchased a book in several weeks, although the last book that arrived at my house was Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann. I got it from Paperback Swap.

Do you have a favourite time/place to read? I must read before bed to "wind down" or I can't sleep. Otherwise, I'll read any time I can get away with it, but most of my reading is done at bedtime.

Do you prefer series books or stand-alones? I prefer stand-alone novels. I do occasionally read series books, but I'm not what you could call either faithful or easily addicted to a series.

Is there a specific book or author you find yourself recommending over and over? Haha! You'll know it before I say it, right? Simon Van Booy!! I recommend him so often I'm like a broken record. I also frequently recommend The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, Rebecca, Stand Before Your God (a memoir by Paul Watkins), The Book Thief and Lottery by Pat Wood. Some recent favorites are A Hundred Feet Over Hell by Jim Hooper, The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, and Postcards from a Dead Girl by Kirk Farber. You should read them, if you haven't.

How do you organise your books? I am not the most organized person on the planet, but favorites and classics go on the "good shelves" and I have a specific shelf for advanced readers (but I don't have many ARCs left and they keep falling over). Whatever I hope to read next -- and I say "hope" because I'm fickle -- goes in a pile beside the bed. Recently, those bedside books have been moving farther away because I keep spilling drinks. Sigh. I need to work on that.

Barbara's additional question: background noise or silence? Silence is preferable and probably one of the reasons I end up reading mostly at bedtime.

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Since New Orleans Chris is enjoying his garden and photos of other folks' gardens so much, this photo is mostly for him -- a shot of some of the Roma tomatoes in one of our topsy turvy planters (they're hanging down into the rosemary, as you can see):

Okay. That's it, for now. See you in a day or two! If I can squeeze in the time, I'll write a review on Monday. If not, Tuesday it is. Happy Memorial Day to the Americans!