A little about my reading habits....

1. Hardback or trade paperback or mass market paperback? I prefer the trade (quality paperback) type, as it is easier to hold than hardcover and less expensive.

2. Amazon or brick and mortar? I've only had a few experiences with Amazon, but they were all good.

3. Barnes & Noble or Borders? Hehe, well seeing as I work for Borders I'm going to have to say Barnes and Noble's LOL!! To be honest, I have always preferred Borders to B&N for a variety of reasons, mainly the people who work for B&N are snotty, that is if you are actually able to find an employee to help you in the first place.

4. Bookmark or dogear? I only dogear mass markets, other wise I tend to leave them laying open and upside down (which is hard on the spine I know) or just remember the page number.

5. Alphabetize by author or alphabetize by title or random? At work, by author, at home I only go so far as to separate them by genre.

6. Keep, throw away, or sell? I keep most, I loan books out though frequently.

7. Keep dust jacket or toss it? I keep it, they are usually so pretty!

8. Read with dust jacket or remove it? I remove it most of the time.

9. Short story or novel? Of those two options, a novel would be more my taste.

10. Collection (short stories by same author) or anthology (short stories by different authors)? Honestly, I avoid reading either.

11. Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket? Harry Potter

12. Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks? I try to stop at the end of a chapter, but there are times when it's impossible with three children. I've been known to read through entire books by taking in only a a half a page or less at a time.

13. “It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”? "It was a dark and stormy night"

14. Buy or Borrow? Either. I’m not picky.

15. New or used? I love the new book smell!

16.Buying choice: book reviews, recommendation or browse? Typically, I just browse, but I almost always will try out a book some one I know recommends.

17. Tidy ending or cliffhanger? Tidy!

18. Morning reading, afternoon reading or nighttime reading? I have the most time to read uninterrupted at night.

19. Stand-alone or series? Stand alone's for the most part, I do enjoy reading lots of titles by the same author though.

20. Favorite series? Harry Potter

21. Favorite children’s book? "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein

22. Favorite book of which nobody else has heard? I don't often look for the obscure, so people have not only heard of the titles I read but they are typically rather popular as well.

23. Favorite books read last year? "Mansfield Park" by Jane Austen

24. Favorite books of all time?
"The Red Heart" by James Alexander Thom
"Bezzus and Ramona" by Beverley Clearly
"The Scarlett Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne
"How to stop worrying and start living" by Dale Carneige
"Mother Earth Father Sky" by Sue Harrison
"The Brethren" by John Grisham

25. Least favorite book you finished last year? Jeffrey Deaver's "12th Card", it was a let down after reading his other books which I enjoyed thoroughly

26. What are you reading right now? "The Lost Boy" by Dave Peltzer and I just brought home the new book by Lee Child.

27. What are you reading next? Oh I have a stack of promising books and I'm undecided of which to choose first. I think it will be the one by Lee Child, at home, and at work I've been eying some C.S. Lewis.

Dave Pelzer's childhood memoir of abuse and neglect is heart wrenching, but also the story of survival. He takes you through his daily struggles to find food and win the "games" his mother plays with him, and yet how at the end of the day he still prays, still believes and hopes for a miracle.

While difficult to digest at times, this book is a favorite of mine, Dave himself is inspiring, he truly has the most beautiful soul.

I picked up this book and once I started it, I couldn't put it down. It is gripping, as soon as you turn the first page you are already drawn into the plot line and attracted to Picoult's unique ability to make you feel like the characters are your own friends, relatives, neighbors, and at times you may even see a little of your self.

This is the sad, terrifying story of a school shooting, similar to that of Columbine. Picoult tells you the what, when, who and as much of the why as possible. She has a very appealing style of writing that makes it seem fathomable that she could actually be writing a memoir rather than a work of fiction, she is just that in touch with her characters.

I highly recommend "Nineteen Minutes" to every reader, but especially to parents and teens. A school shooting is everyone's worst nightmare, and though there have been a lot of articles written on what can help to prevent such a thing from occurring in th first place, this book opened my eyes to even more possibilities. Not only did I enjoy a good book, one that met all the requirements of a great read, but I also learned so much, and have found myself having conversations with so many others about the subject matter. Conversations that I feel need to be going on everywhere being that no one school is truly immune to such a disaster.

For anyone who enjoys a good work of fiction, Barbara Delinsky's, "Family Tree" is a treat. This is a story of a situation that tests the love of a husband and wife, and stretches their hearts as they become first time parents. When their child is born of a different race than expected, Hugh struggles to avoid suspecting his wife, Dana, of giving birth to another man's child, while on the other hand, he is trying to discover how the skin color of his infant came about. Delinsky's careful unfolding of the answer leaves the reader alternating between theories as she endears the characters to you.

I especially enjoyed the way the story is carefully woven and I am impressed by the authors description of all the complex thoughts and feelings the Clarke's experience throughout the discovery process. As a woman, and a mother, I can particularly relate to Dana's thoughts and sometimes erratic emotional shifts between varying highs and lows. This book pulled at my heart strings and gave me the sense of being a part of the Brown family. Within the first few chapters I had an almost personal interest invested in the outcome.

I recently finished reading Luanne Rice's novel, "The Edge of Winter" which I found it to be the perfect "before bed" book, if you like the simple and predictable . It was slow moving, in a relaxing sort of way. The plot revolves around a teenage romance between a girl from a broken home (Mickey), and a boy who lost his father at a terribly young age. The couple are both fighting to save not only a rare, injured snowy owl, but also a local piece of history, in the form of a sunken U-boat from WWII. Mickey's mother, Neve, also finds herself drawn to a quiet lonely man as the story unfolds.

This story was sadly not the most captivating and I found the ending to be exactly as I expected without even the hope of a twist or surprise turn of events. It was a feel good book, none too inspiring, yet comforting in it ability to give the reader the usual happy ending. I was mostly disappointed in that Rice handed out the warm fuzzy feeling on a platter rather than tapping into more intricate or, at the least, less obvious emotions first.

Also, and this has nothing to do with my book fetish, but I think the environmental aspects were too overwhelming, unless of course, you are a tree hugger who is too obsessed with green stuff to know what real literature is.