Book Meme--I've been tagged!

My friend, author Bonnie Vanak tagged me for a book meme. I'm so excited! I'm supposed to give you fifteen facts about me and books. By the way, I don't know if I ever mentioned this before, but if you love historical romances, you will LOVE Bonnie's books. I'm very particular about the historical romances I choose to read (mostly because I'm a sci-fi/paranormal gal these days, though that wasn't always the case), and I thoroughly enjoyed The Cobra & the Concubine. If you want to see for yourself, check out the love scene excerpt on her web site. Wow. *grin*

Okay, so fifteen facts about me and books:

1) I get nervous and/or edgy when I don't have a "next book" lined up to read. It can't be just any book lying around my house and believe me, there are plenty. It has to be the right "next book." Don't ask me--I just know when I find one that feels right. Sometimes, in order to encourage myself to write more of my own stuff, I deny myself a "next book." At least until it starts to get to me and then I cave. : ) Seriously, there are times when I'm jonesing for a book so badly I will actually buy one at the Jewel!

2) My very first favorite book that I can recall was Go, Dog, Go. I loved the dog party in the tree.

3) Most of the time, I buy books because of the author, not the story. Occasionally, a new author will sneak in there because I've heard good things (Megan Crane is a recent example), the back cover blurb sounded interesting or the cover caught my eye. But most of the time, I'm looking for someone I already know I can trust to take me away and bring me back safely...if that makes sense. That doesn't mean bestsellers always or even usually. Nor does it mean that it's the same five people. I've got about a hundred "favorite" authors. *grin*

4) In my pre-teen/early teen years, I used to sneak into the basement where my mom kept her pile of romance novels and seek out the Silhouette Intimate Moments and Harlequin Temptations (I think those were the specific lines) just to read the "good" parts. : )

5) As a kid, I so wanted to be Trixie Belden. She had moxie. I liked Nancy Drew, too. She was the first character I remember reading about who had red hair. At least, once I figured out that's what "titian" meant.

6) Thanks to reading so many books and my subsequent lack of social interaction (ha!), my vocabulary often outpaces my pronunciation skills. My family still likes to tease me about my childhood pronunciation of lingerie, facade and soldered (ling-eree, fa-kade, and sol-dered).

7) I read very quickly, especially when I'm enjoying the book. I can, and have, finished two books (200 or 300 pages each) in a day. I don't do this very often as it gets very expensive!

8) I cannot read more than one book at a time. You can imagine how well this worked when I was an English major in college. If my interest is caught by another book while I'm still in the middle of reading the first, then I never finish the one I was reading to begin with. I have more than a few that have just stopped at a certain point.

9) Jane Austen kicks ass. 'nough said.

10) When I was younger, my favorite romance novelists were Kathleen Woodiwiss, Judith McNaught, Jude Deveraux, and Barbara Delinsky.

11) 99.9% of the time, I have a book with me. Even if you can't see it, I have it. It's in my bag or in my coat pocket or in my car. My husband loves to tease me about the time in college when we drove to the grocery store for something and he busted me with a novel sticking out of my coat pocket, like I thought there'd be time to read in the check-out line!

12) For me, the feeling of a good book just waiting to be read feels like anticipation of an amazing meal. It's like a sensation of fullness and satisfaction before I've even opened the cover. Unfortunately, when it's finished, that's when you're hungry for more!

13) Confession time...I did not read very much traditional sci-fi as a kid, or even now. Not much Asimov or Heinlein or any of those guys. To me, they never had the people aspect I was looking for. I like character stories. And romance. Real romance where it's a part of the story, though not necessarily the whole thing. As a kid, I loved Star Trek novels, however, and totally committed myself to geekdom by reading them openly in high school. My favorites were by Peter David, who is hysterical. Well, if you like and understand Star Trek, he's hysterical. I'm not sure it translates to so-called "normal" people. *grin* Linnea Sinclair does an awesome job of creating character-driven sci-fi romance, so that's who I read these days!

14) I do not crack the spine or bend the pages of a book. Any book. Even ones I don't like. Apparently, this makes people very nervous to borrow books from me. : )

15) Books that do a heavy and detailed lead up to a sex scene and then consummate the relationship in a very generic sentence or two drive me crazy!!! In some books, a detailed sex scene isn't appropriate. It just strikes the wrong tone. But there are others, ones where they've built up such momentum in moving toward this moment that it seems like the author chickened out when it ends so anti-climactically (ha!) Writing a sex scene can be difficult, I know that, but I hate it when a book takes the easy way out.

Okay, so now I'm going to tag other authors, which is, I think, how this is supposed to work. I'm picking people, some of whom I know and others I only know through their journals, but they're all people I'm interested in reading what they have to say. We'll see if they respond. : )

Pat Kirby, Crissa Chappell, Megan Crane and Marianne Mancusi--come on down!!!