David Hockney's iPhone Passion →
Hockney is producing miniatures using iPhone app Brushes.
The Mixtape Club →
The Mixtape Club is an organization dedicated to the art of the mixtape. Ten people, ten tracks, ten album covers.
Reading habits
A meme. See also: Bunny Reads, Joeyanne Libraryanne, Notes About Libraries, Stupid Girl No. 1’s Blog, Informationoverlord, Organising Chaos, Digitalist
Do you snack while you read? If so, favourite reading snack?
More often than not I have a nice cup of tea. I’m not a snacker, but I like to read while I’m eating meals. Growing up, my parents would admonish me for reading at the table. If I ever have children, I will encourage them to read at every opportunity, including during mealtimes.
Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?
Writing in books horrifies me. I had an English lit. teacher at comprehensive school who encouraged pupils to annotate passages in pencil. I defaced pristine pages in copies of Animal Farm, Romeo and Juliet and Under Milk Wood. It still haunts me twenty years later.
How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book flat open?
I use bookmarks, usually whatever’s to hand, anything from old receipts to sheets of kitchen paper, but I’m also pretty good at remembering page numbers. Presently, I’m using a proper bookmark I got free with a purchase from @booksellercrow.
If I caught someone dog-earing or laying flat open one of my books, there would be hell to pay. I’m not by nature a violent person, but there are times when violence is the only option.1
Fiction, non-fiction, or both?
It’s a pretty even split nowadays. In my youth I preferred biographies. My favourite fiction is autobiographical or partly autobiographical.
Hard copy or audiobooks?
Hard copy.
Audiobooks? Pah! They just don’t smell the same.
And I will never buy a Kindle. “Is this a fucking joke?” is what I would say if I received one as a gift.2
Are you a person who tends to read to the end of chapters, or are you able to put a book down at any point?
At any point. I blame the Internet for this behavi… ooh, I have a new email message and tweets in Tweetie and a friend’s just come online in iChat and there’s a new comment on my blog and there’re unread feeds in Google Reader and there’s some breaking news and… where was I?
If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop to look it up right away?
Right away since getting an iPhone. I have Dictionary and Ninjawords installed. Both came in handy during a recent attempt to read David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest.3
What are you currently reading?
The Adderall Diaries by Stephen Elliott, and Anglo-English Attitudes by Geoff Dyer (a collection of Dyer’s journalism that’s easy to dip into).
What is the last book you bought?
Obelisk: A History of Jack Kahane and the Obelisk Press by Neil Pearson.
Are you the type of person that only reads one book at a time or can you read more than one at a time?
It’s not unusual for me to have two on the go. Different genres, though, rarely two novels or two biographies.
Do you have a favourite time of day and/or place to read?
Favourite place to read is in the bath. I open the bathroom windows to keep the humidity levels down - humidity is not a friend of books. I have nodded off while reading in the bath, with predictable results.
I like to read in bed, but I don’t manage more than a few pages before I slip into slumber.
Do you prefer series books or stand alone books?
Stand alone. I have never read a book series. Harry who?
Is there a specific book or author that you find yourself recommending over and over?
I keep duplicate copies of On the Road and The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and The Great Shark Hunt by Hunter S. Thompson, Dangerous Parking by Stuart Browne, and High Fidelity by Nick Hornby so that I can give them out to friends and acquaintances who haven’t read them. Oxfam bookshops are great for keeping my shelves stocked with second-hand copies.
How do you organize your books? (By genre, title, author’s last name, etc.?)
Recently, I colour-coordinated one set of bookshelves. They’re looking a bit messy now; I need to get rid of a lot more clutter before I do the same to the rest of my books.
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1 This situation will never arise because I refuse to lend my books to anyone, friends and family included.
2 Unless I received one from my grandmother, in which case I would say “Just what I always wanted!” and then auction it on eBay.
3 I gave up after 110 pages this time. (Do you see what I did? Footnotes.)
The Tao Dude Ching →
A Dudeist Holy Book inspired by The Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu and The Big Lebowski of Joel and Ethan Coen.
OK Genius →
Apple’s iTunes software claims to be a Genius at making mixes. The Morning News’s Giles Turnbull begs to differ, knowing how mixes should be made, and proposes a duel of “Fingertips.”
Volkswagen's 'Dudeism' cinema ad →
“If we all lived a little bit more like The Dude, if we all brought more Dude into our lives, the world would be a better place.”
The thrill of it all →
Nick Hornby used to find record shops scarily intimidating (remember High Fidelity?), but the advent of MP3 blogs has liberated music fans everywhere…
