1. Which book has been on your shelves the longest?
Rien Poortvliet - Dogs, dog art I’ve had since I was a kid.
2. What is your current read, your last read and the book you’ll read next?
Still in the middle of Anna minun rakastaa enemmän, but have read several books during it, the latest was Luulotieteen kandidaatti. Next I guess I might go for Hey Nostradamus. Or possibly Paper Moon.
3. What book did everyone like and you hated?
I tried reading a Harry Potter book once. Couldn’t even get halfway.
4. Which book do you keep telling yourself you’ll read, but you probably won’t?
Plum Sykes - Bergdorf Blondes was a gift from a friend and I think it’s a pity to own books I haven’t read. But this…
5. Which book are you saving for “retirement?”
I’ve had The Idiot by Dostoevsky since I was a teenager and that I fully intend to read, someday.
6. Last page: read it first or wait till the end?
No peeking.
7. Acknowledgements: waste of ink and paper or interesting aside?
They’re not a waste. But I never read them.
8. Which book character would you switch places with?
Elizabeth Bennet. *wink, nudge*
9. Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time)?
Many books do.
10. Name a book you acquired in some interesting way.
I’ve found several of my favourites weeded from libraries.
11. Have you ever given away a book for a special reason to a special person?
Can’t remember anything particularly special. Well, I just gave a book I really, really liked to my ex-fiance, but it was his to begin with and I had just accidentally (yeah, right) packed it in my things when I moved, so that doesn’t count?
12. Which book has been with you to the most places?
Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder was required reading for a high school philosophy class, so I dragged it around with me everywhere for a few months (it’s a big fucking book).
13. Any “required reading” you hated in high school that wasn’t so bad ten years later?
Kalevala, the Finnish national epic, isn’t half bad once you get into it.
14. What is the strangest item you’ve ever found in a book?
Can’t think of any, but a fellow librarian once found a Swiss roll slice.
15. Used or brand new?
I like mine new. But don’t mind used either.
16. Stephen King: Literary genius or opiate of the masses?
Sorry, not into Mr. King at all. Not that he’s a bad writer, just not my thing.
17. Have you ever seen a movie you liked better than the book?
Jackie Brown. A completely mediocre book turned into one kick-ass movie.
18. Conversely, which book should NEVER have been introduced to celluloid?
I could probably make a very long list, but just to name a few: Charlie & The Chocolate Factory (the new one), Pride and Prejudice (the new one) Romeo & Juliet (all of them) and Running With Scissors (not that the book was a masterpiece either).
19. Have you ever read a book that’s made you hungry, cookbooks being excluded from this question?
The Anger of Aubergines by Sharma Bulbul. Lovely short stories about food coupled with wonderful Indian recipes.
20. Who is the person whose book advice you’ll always take?
So far my friend Miss Notebook has only recommended brilliant books.
