[How would you define a meme other than as “a questionnaire used to spin away time”?]
01: do you snack while reading?
It depends but not usually. I like nibbling on something once in a while, and I do read while I’m eating lunch every day.
02: what is your favourite drink while reading?
The usual suspects: coffee, water, brown rice green tea.
03: do you tend to mark your books while you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?
For fiction, the latter — and vehemently at that. I do very lightly pencil mark passages to copy down later, then go back and erase them after copying them into a notebook, and, if I have a book I love and want to mark up, I’ll get a second copy. I’m shamelessly OCD about my books and won’t lend them out anymore because of it.
Nonfiction, however, is prone to clean highlighting.
04: how do you keep your place? bookmark? dog-ears? laying the book open flat?
Dog-ears and laying the book open flat are huge NO-NOs in my world. I use anything as pseudo-bookmarks — receipts, note cards, clean napkins, price tags from clothing — and I like big Post-its.
05: fiction, non-fiction, or both?
Both. I generally say no to autobiographies and memoirs, though.
06: do you tend to read to the end of a chapter, or can you stop anywhere?
Can stop anywhere.
07: are you the type of person to throw a book across the room or on the floor if the author irritates you?
I got through The Fountainhead without any sort of violence on my part, so this answer is safely, “no.”
08: if you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop and look it up right away?
No. This is where a Post-it bookmark comes in handy.
09: what are you currently reading?
Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale; Koushun Takami, Battle Royale; Orlando Figes, Natasha’s Dance; Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams; C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man.
10: what is the last book you bought?
Dave Eggers, The Wild Things (it was on sale for $3), and the Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers (on sale for $10), both courtesy of the McSweeney’s Store.
11: do you have a favourite time/place to read?
In my car, during lunch hour, with the windows rolled down, and in bed before sleeping.
12: do you prefer series books or stand-alones?
Stand-alones.
13: is there a specific book or author you find yourself recommending over and over?
Here are seven: The Fall, Anna Karenin, Jane Eyre, Atonement, Never Let Me Go, Dracula, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.e
14: how do you organise your books (by genre, title, author’s last name, etc.)?
Fiction: by publisher then author’s last name.
Nonfiction: by topic then book dimensions.
15: background noise or silence?
Music — always music.
(Unfortunately, I don’t keep track of where I find these memes. Every once in a while, I stumble upon a meme I’d like to fill out at one point and copy-paste it onto TextEdit and, of course, forget to note the source …)