It’s a Snow Day! When it snows in Western Washington, schools close down. We didn’t get a lot of snow, but it was cold enough to make the roads icy and treacherous around the area, so…No School! It will add another day to the end of the school year, but how delightful to have an unexpected day to stay home and read and knit…and blog!

My friend, Nymeth, tagged me for Eva’s Reading Meme that’s been circulating around the blogging world. It’s a fun one, so I put my answers together while watching the sun try to come out and melt some of the snow. It’s a feeble effort (by the sun, that is!).

Eva’s Reading Meme:

Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews?

For years I’ve cringed away from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, because I thought it would be too heavy and too grim to read. However, it’s a book my husband has great respect for, so I’m actually reading it right now, am 1/3 of the way through it, and am enjoying the beauty of Conrad’s writing. It still may turn out to be too heavy and too grim for me, but my cringe is finally gone.

If you could bring three characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be?

I am so NOT a social event person…but for afternoon tea, I would need Elinor and Marianne Dashwood because their conversation would be rich and in no way boring! And for a world cruise, I would love to take two of my favorite authors — Anne Morrow Lindbergh and Isak Dinesen because they would help me see the world with an artist’s eye.

(Borrowing shamelessly from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde): you are told you can’t die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for awhile, eventually you realize it’s past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave?

I’ve never actually picked it up and tried to read passages from it, but my impression of Robinson Crusoe is that it could bore you to death.

Come on, we’ve all been there. Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you’ve read, when in fact you’ve been nowhere near it?

This sounds like something I might have done in my lifetime, especially in high school, but I honestly can’t remember a specific book or incident. Really!

As an addition to the last question, has there been a book that you really thought you had read, only to realize when you read a review about it/go to ‘reread’ it that you haven’t? Which book?

I’ve done just the opposite!…too many times I’ll pick up a book at the bookstore that looks like something I’d really love to read, bring it home, start reading it, and discover that I’ve already read it.

You’re interviewing for the post of Official Book Advisor to some VIP (who’s not a big reader.) What’s the first book you’d recommend and why? (if you feel like you’d have to know the person, go ahead and personalize the VIP).

I’d have to advise this VIP to read Redwall, by Brian Jacques, a book that, in my experience, has turned many young people into avid readers.

A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with?

This is cheating, I’m sure, but I’d love to be able to read any book in it’s original language, with a clear understanding of the cultural nuances. But right now, I particularly wish to be fluent in Spanish, again.

A mischievous fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will reread once a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick?

That mischievous fairy has already visited me, tapped me on the head with her magic wand, and said “you must reread all of Jane Austen’s books at different stages of your life because you will understand her in news ways each time you reread her!”

I know that the book blogging community, and its various challenges, have pushed my reading borders. What’s one bookish thing you ‘discovered’ from book blogging (maybe a new genre, or author, or new appreciation for cover art — anything)?

I have loved discovering that there are so many other people out there that share my passion for reading. And I have loved the personal discovery that I enjoy writing about the books I read.

The book fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she’s granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leatherbound? Is it full of first edition hardcovers? Pristine trade paperbacks? Perhaps a few favorite authors have inscribed their works? Go ahead — let your imagination run free.

My dream library is a room full of books, shelves from floor to ceiling, with a lovely window looking out on something green, a comfy reading chair, a fireplace for evening reading sessions, and all the books I’ve collected or coveted over the years. There will have to be a companion chair in that room, so that B and I can continue our very pleasant discussions about the books we read.