Thursday, July 23, 2009

Quick Picks: Today's BTT

Been slacking on the BTT's lately, but today I have a deep need to continue to avoid pricing items for the garage sale. So, here goes:

Preferences July 23, 2009
Filed under: Wordpress — --Deb @ 1:41 am



Which do you prefer? (Quick answers–we’ll do more detail at some later date)

Reading something frivolous? Or something serious?
Paperbacks? Or hardcovers?
Fiction? Or Nonfiction?
Poetry? Or Prose?
Biographies? Or Autobiographies?
History? Or Historical Fiction?
Series? Or Stand-alones?
Classics? Or best-sellers?
Lurid, fruity prose? Or straight-forward, basic prose?
Plots? Or Stream-of-Consciousness?
Long books? Or Short?
Illustrated? Or Non-illustrated?
Borrowed? Or Owned?
New? Or Used?



Reading something frivolous? Or something serious? Frivolous, but not too silly and shallow.

Paperbacks? Or hardcovers? As long as it's a nice edition, no real preference.

Fiction? Or Nonfiction? Fiction, generally.

Poetry? Or Prose? Prose. Can't remember the last time I read poetry outside of Artvoice and The New Yorker.

Biographies? Or Autobiographies? Autobiographies. I like hearing the story in the person's own words.

History? Or Historical Fiction? A bad one of either is a nightmare. A well-done one of either is a dream come true. Why is history so easy to fuck up? It's interesting, for crying out loud. And yet, many still manage to make murder, revolution, war, illness and mysticism absolutely boring (I was thinking of the story of Tsar Nicolas here).

Series? Or Stand-alones? Generally, stand-alones. It's hard to sustain interest throughout a series and know when to stop. Harry Potter is one of several notable exceptions.

Classics? Or best-sellers? Both!

Lurid, fruity prose? Or straight-forward, basic prose? A happy medium is good here, too.

Plots? Or Stream-of-Consciousness? Plots. I can't follow ramblings.

Long books? Or Short? A good book will always go by too fast. I've finished fascinating 700-page books in a matter of days, and I've given up the struggle with 120-page books after a couple of weeks.

Illustrated? Or Non-illustrated? More fiction writers should have their work illustrated. By virtue of what I read, I don't get many books with pictures in them. I felt the chapter art added a great deal to the Harry Potter books, and it left me wondering, why doesn't everyone do that?

Borrowed? Or Owned? Borrowed, generally.

New? Or Used? It matters not.

Damn, too fast. Oh well, that stuff isn't going to price itself...