Motivation August 31, 2006

1. What is your favorite kind of reading? Novels? Biographies? Mathematical textbooks?
2. What do you like best about your favorite kind of reading? What keeps you coming back to that kind of book? Following a gripping story? Watching characters develop? Being educated about things and places you didn’t know about? Letting your mind relax into someplace completely different?

Reading Geography August 24, 2006

So, last week, we asked if you ever feel compelled to cook or eat the kinds of food described in the books you read.

This week, the question is about the locations of the books.

1. Have you ever wanted to travel to a place described in a book?
2. Have you ever ACTUALLY travelled to a place because of the way it was described in a book?
3. And if so, did it live up to the expectations, feelings, emotions you expected from the book? Did you feel like Anne was going to come romping around the corner of Green Gables? Was it as if Jo was upstairs at Orchard House, scribbling on a story? Or was it just a museum, or just a city street? Like Abbey Road without the Beatles?

Eating your way through fiction August 17, 2006

This week’s questions were inspired by Caroline. She can’t read The Joy Luck Club without thinking of potstickers and wontons… And no, we’re not talking about cookbooks here. Please leave those out of this discussion.

1. Do you enjoy books that have cooking or eating scenes in them?
2. Have you made or eaten anything that was inspired by a recipe or scene in a book?

Planning Ahead August 10, 2006

1. Do you plan ahead for your reading? Work off of a to-be-read pile? A reading list? Or do you wing it, choose whatever you’re in the mood for?
2. If you do plan ahead, how far ahead? Do you have two or three books waiting in queue? Or are you backed up by dozens of volumes waiting their turn?
3. If you do not plan ahead . . . well, never? What about if you’re reading a series? Or someone gives you a book for a present?

Summer Reading August 3, 2006

1. Do your reading habits change for the summer months?
2. If so, how?