Phoning it In: Books Edition

My week: (very, very, very welcome) houseguests, daycare kiddo, a 4th birthday celebration for my little dude, a wicked head cold, lotsa therapy appointments and a seizuring (seizing?) kid who got an epilepsy diagnosis necessitating further medical research and a bunch of product comparison shopping.

You know what that means, right?

Cheat blog!

Being completely brain dead at this point in the week, I googled "fun questions", and discovered a list of "10 fun questions to ask your friends about books". While I dispute the premise that these questions are necessarily "fun", I like books...and I have a captive audience...so now you get to read my rambling unedited thoughts about literature. You're welcome.

Oh, and I'm only answering the first 5 so as to save the last 5 for another brain dead week. Hopefully that week will come sometime faaaaaaar into the future, because if I have another week like this one, I'm pretty sure my brain is going to shut down for good in protest.

1. Has reading a book ever changed your life? Which one and why, if yes?

Man, way to bring out the big guns right off the bat, Internet! Let's see... Allende's The House of the Spirits may not have changed my life, but it definitely changed my view of what was possible in literature and it shaped my writing immensely. I read it when I was 15, and before that time, I would have told you that you can either write fantasy or you can write reality. Allende was my introduction to the style of "magical realism", a place I have been happily living in both in and off the page since then. I'm not crazy. I promise. Life is just a bit more fun when you paint it with brighter colors.

2. Do you prefer to read fiction or nonfiction? Explain your choice.

I'm definitely a fiction gal...which is odd because I prefer to write nonfiction overall. In the past couple of years though, I've really gotten into humorous essays (i.e. David Sedaris), and Mary Roach. I was going to attempt to describe what Mary Roach writes, but it's mildly impossible. Humorously gross but informative science for a lay audience? Anyway, she rocks.

As to why I generally prefer fiction? Let's face it. Nonfiction can be boring and depressing, because it's real life! Who wants to stick to the facts anyway? Bo-ring.

3. If you could be a character in any novel you’ve ever read, who would you be and why?

Dude, I would so be Nancy Drew. Why? She has a seemingly endless supply of smart sweater sets, her daddy is loaded and buys her a brand spankin' new convertible every time she's driven off into a ditch by a sinister-looking black van, she's totally invincible as she has never once gotten a concussion despite being repeatedly hit over the head and locked in closets and basements and she enjoys the reputation of being a problem-solving supergenius while dealing with the stupidest and most obvious criminals ever to grace a page.

4. Has reading a book ever made you cry? Which one and why?

I've read a lot of tearjerkers in my time, but the first book to make me cry was Where the Red Fern Grows. RIP Old Dan and Little Ann.

5. How many books do you read each year?

This number used to be in the hundreds, but it's dwindled some since I had kids. I probably average a book or two a month now unless I'm really hooked on a series, and then I'll read faster.

Oky doky! Thanks for putting up with the cheat blogs, folks! My life should (fingers crossed) be slowing down a bit next week and I'll have more time to devote to crafting blogs worthy of my amazing audience!