This week’s Book Blogger Hop question: Do you give books as gifts?

I do tend to default towards books and movies as gifts…those are typically the only things I want, and that’s what I think of giving too!  I give my parents books for Christmas frequently, and my book club does a book white elephant swap every year.  Another group of my friends also does a white elephant most years, and last year I brought a copy of Pratchett’s Hogfather to both exchanges.  Well-received at both, because my friends are awesome.

Despite all that, my instinctive response is that books can actually be a very hard thing to give.  Tastes are so particular!  Predicting what book someone would like is more challenging than I think people often believe.  (“Oh, you like fantasy, you will like any fantasy book!”  And…no.  Not really.)

I also think a downside to ebooks is that it removes the option of giving or loaning books to a friend.  I mean, yes, there are ways to still do that with ebooks, but you can’t unwrap a digital book.  And it’s more meaningful when a friend entrusts another with their own physical copy of a book.

Do you give books as gifts?  Do you struggle with finding the right one for the right person?

This week’s Book Blogger Hop question: Name an author or authors that you have read most of his or her books and would recommend to others.

There are loads of authors I would recommend, so I thought I’d focus in on which authors I’ve read the most by…

I think we all know I’ve read everything by L.M. Montgomery, and I would recommend her–provided you like beautiful pastoral stories with real emotion but not much action.

I’ve read 52 novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and would recommend him if you like old style science fiction with plenty of action, albeit not much in the way of character depth.  Also, all but two of those novels had a plot centered around a kidnapping or a castaway (or both), so you have to be on board for that too…

I’ve read most of Diana Wynne Jones (28 books), nearly all of Robin McKinley (14 books) and Gail Carson Levine (15 books), and all of Tamora Pierce (28 books).  I recommend all of them to lovers of fantasy, especially if you like strong heroines.

I’ve read 32 of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books, and five others by him.  None of the others were as good as Discworld, but Discworld is brilliant.  When I describe Maskerade as the funniest Discworld book, there is no higher compliment to pay for a funny book.

As you can see, when I find an author I like, I read them!  My top choice for future “read most of their canon” authors is Anne Ursu, who I only encountered recently but I have swiftly gone on to read two more books–and expect to continue!

What authors have you read many books by?  I’d love to hear the recommendations!

This week’s Book Blogger Hop question: Who is your favorite fictional couple?

The first one who comes to mind is one I’ve already discussed in a review, but it’s been a while…  Arabella and Turnip (real name Reginald) from The Mischief of the Mistletoe.  They’re my favorite in part because they’re so disregarded by the people around them, but are so perfect for each other.  Everyone thinks Turnip is rather dumb and laughable, but Arabella sees how kind, earnest and just fun he is.  No one ever remembers Arabella’s name or thinks of her as more than a wallflower, but Turnip notices her lively spirit, intelligence, and also that she’s actually quite pretty.

I especially like a moment near the end when they’re dancing at a party (Regency England, you know, people do that), and Turnip sees how Arabella glows with enthusiasm when she dances.  He’s baffled that no one (including himself, on earlier occasions) seems to notice this!

I also especially like Cress and Thorne from the Lunar Chronicles.  Cress is brilliant but naive, and I love the way her belief in Thorne’s heroism totally freaks him out–but does eventually lead to him trying to be that person she thinks he is.

Your turn!  Who’s your favorite romantic couple in fiction? 🙂

This week’s Book Blogger Hop question: How much of your day is devoted to your blog, and how much is devoted to reading?

Reading is much easier to calculate…I generally fit in 20 minutes of reading in the early morning, 45 during the workday (breaks, lunch), and 30 minutes before I go to bed.  Weekends could be more or less, depending on what else is going on.  So call it about an hour and a half each day with a print book.  Plus I usually do about an hour of driving (thanks to my 30 minute commute!), so an hour of audiobooks.  Though I suspect I read print books faster than most audiobook readers do, for whatever that means…

My blogging is much less consistent (that Schedule feature on WordPress?  Invaluable).  Roughly each post takes 30-60 minutes, though it varies wildly depending on the post.  But at 2-3 posts per week, I guess that’s one to three hours on blogging.

I’m especially curious about other bloggers–how much time do you spend blogging?  I haven’t the slightest idea what’s normal–if there is such a thing!

This week’s Book Blogger Hop question: Do you believe audio books are the future and why do you believe that?

I don’t think audio books are the future any more than paperbacks or ebooks are.  There was a lot of talk when ebooks first appeared that print books would disappear, but I hear the percentage of ebooks to total books sold has leveled off.  I haven’t heard anything about audiobooks being particularly on the rise (though maybe I’ve missed a development?)  I think print books, audio books and ebooks are all co-existing because they each have different appeals to different people, and I think that will probably persist for at least a good while.  Print books may eventually disappear, but I don’t think it’s in the near future, and I don’t think audio books have a universal enough appeal to replace the other two.

I’m still sworn off ebooks, but I like my print and audio both, in different situations!