A-Z book survey

I used to love surveys - remember the days of early Facebook and 'notes', or even previously, when you'd get loads of forewards in you hotmail inbox, which you fill out and send on to your friends?  Those were the days.

So I was excited when I saw this book survey that Ellie did at Wellies, Crochet and Cows, and I thought I'd spend a few minutes not doing work and doing this instead :)

Author you’ve read the most books from.

Oh gosh... I'm not really a serial-author reader.  I read 5 books in the series by Jean M Auel, Earth's Children.  That probably wins!


Best sequel ever.That would be the second in the aforementioned series, The Valley of Horses.


Currently reading.
In fiction, The Curse of the Pharoahs by Elizabeth Peters.  The second in the Amelia Peabody series - seriously funny stuff!  In non-fiction, I'm reading Philosophy in the Flesh by George Lakoff - it's a bit heavy for before bed reading but I'm ploughing through, because it's great!

Drink of choice while reading.A nice hot cup of tea.  Usually Twining's English Breakfast, or some loose leaf Assam if I'm lucky enough to have the parents in law make some for me.

E-reader or physical book? Physical book!  I prefer the tactileness, and the way it doesn't make you dizzy...


Fictional character you probably would have actually dated in high school. I'm not sure actually, I can't think of any long-time literary crushes... though Emerson in the Amelia Peabody series is EXACTLY like my husband, so I'm smitten with him at the moment.

Glad you gave this book a chance. All of them!  To be honest, I'm usually right about if I'll enjoy a book or hate it.  I judge books by their cover I guess, oh no!!

Hidden gem book.Right now, it's Book of the British Countryside, an encyclopaedia from the 70s that I got from Oxfam yesterday.  I haven't put it down.  The colour plates!  The lists of things!  £3.50, and I'll be pouring over this for weeks! 

Important moment in your reading life. Discovering my love of languages in 4 tiny leather bound language books, age 9 or so.  Remembering how to say silly things like "I found my sea legs" in Spanish.  

Just finished.If a Lion Could Talk, by Stephen Budiansky.  A great cautionary tale about attributing too much cognition to animals based on behaviour.  A lesson in anthropomorphism!


Kinds of books you won’t read. Books about silly young adults in the city, flirting and socializing.  I can't think of anything more boring. I read one once, thinking I could find a guilty pleasure.  It was torture.

Longest book you’ve ever read. Oooh... something non-fiction I suspect, like The Neanderthal Legacy by Paul Mellars.  Fiction-wise? I'm not really sure, as hard back look gigantic, but then you see the paperback and it's all small.  The fourth and fifth books in the Earth's Children series seemed to take years, torturous torturous years.

Major book hangover because of…A book hangover?  Like, it stuck with you?  Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood still scares me and I think about it all the time!

Number of bookcases you own. Two of them I bought myself and are chockablock.  There are also two half size ones that are stuffed, and given to my husband and I from his parents.  There are also just piles on the floor, so we need more.  We are both PhD students and are addicted to buying books from charities on topics we like though, so we have a bit of a collection...!

One book you have read multiple times.Bambi, by Felix Salten, was my favourite book as a child and I read it again and again.  It's very different from the Disney film!

Preferred place to read.On the couch! Maybe in a pretzel cuddle with my husband.Quote from a book you’ve read that inspires you.
"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved." Oooooh, shivers.  Charles Darwin, Origin of Species.


Reading regret. Neglecting fiction.

Series you started and need to finish. Not Earth's Children, sadly.  I didn't like book 3, 4, 5... 6 can just go unread. The Amelia Peabody series has like 12 books... I want to read each and every one!

Three of your all-time favourite books. Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman, Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M Auel, and I'm reserving a space for one of the Harry Potter Books.  Yes that's right, I haven't read them!!

Unapologetic fangirl for… Clan of the Cave Bear!

Very excited for this release more than all the others.I don't usually read new books, or know when new ones are coming out.

Worst bookish habit.Dog ear tags..... sorry!!!

X marks the spot: the 27th book on my shelf. The Ape That Spoke by John McCrone.  I didn't know I had that book, it's on  my reading list!!

Your latest book purchase. Other than that amazing countryside book, I got one called "Auxiliaries: Cognitive Forces and Grammaticalization" by Bernd Heine.  I'm such a nerd...

Zzz-snatcher book (latest book that kept you up way late). Totes the Amelia Peabody books.  There was a mummy in the first one!!!!

Well that was fun! Now off to do some work...