This meme has been going around lately, and I may be a little late to the party, but here is my answers to the Reading Habits meme.

Do you snack while you read? If so, favorite reading snack?

I don’t think I have ever snacked whilst reading – my fingers would get dirty and then I wouldn’t be able to touch my book! I do on occasion have a drink whilst reading though.

Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?

The idea of writing on my books horrifies me! But on the other hand, I love finding old books with notes in margins and underlines everywhere. If I need to remember something, I’ll put a post-it note in the book.

How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book flat open?

Bookmarks. I own a rather large collection of bookmarks. I could never lay a book flat open – I love my spines to be pristine. I’ve even gone so far as reading a book keeping it open as little as possible so as to not crease the spine.

Fiction, Non-fiction, or both?

Fiction mostly. I’d love to read more non-fiction, but I always get so distracted reading them, even when it’s something I’m genuinely interested in.

Hard copy or audiobooks?

Hard copy – I tend to tune out noise really easily, and I find that my mind wanders and I’ve missed half a chapter when I’m listening to audiobooks.

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?

I can stop anywhere.

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop to look it up right away?

No – usually the meaning is made clear by the context, or it is explained a little further along.

What are you currently reading?

Currently I have 4 books on the go which is unusual. I’m reading Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco but it is currently on hold while I read The Children’s Book by A. S. Byatt. I’m also reading a short story anthology called Extraordinary Engines and I’m reading Watch Your Mouth by Daniel Handler as it’s handbag sized!

What is the last book you bought?

The Children’s Book by A. S. Byatt and The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters – they’re both Booker Prize nominees.

Are you the type of person that only reads one book at a time or can you read more than one at a time?

I can have multiple books going at once. Normally I only like to have one or two, but as you can see from above currently I have four! I use the DailyLit service a lot so often I will have one hardcopy book and one DailyLit book going at once.

Do you have a favorite time of day and/or place to read?

These days I tend to read most when I’m travelling to and from work. I can’t read in bed at all, but when I was younger I used to have a beanbag that I spent most of my reading time in.

Do you prefer series books or stand alone books?

I like series as you get to spend more time with characters you like. But I will quite happily read stand alone books.

Is there a specific book or author that you find yourself recommending over and over?

Neil Gaiman. Although as time goes on there are fewer and fewer people who haven’t heard of him, so I shall have to find a new author soon!

How do you organize your books? (By genre, title, author’s last name, etc.?)

Mostly by author alphabetically by last name. Though cookbooks are separate and not really organised at all. And there’s a big section that is organised by size. These books tend to be non-fiction hardbacks or graphic novels. Or simply too big to fit in with the rest of the paperbacks.

This is, apparently, a graphical representation of our blog:

There is a key, on the site, that explains what all the little dots mean (things to do with embedded links and whatnot), but I kind of don’t really mind – I just rather thought that it was interesting and pretty and I wanted to share it :)

(found via swissmiss)

This seems to be the hip meme of the minute (and I’m always one to succumb to a meme). I’ve seen it in a whole bunch of places, so I’m just going to consider myself tagged.

Five non-library blogs I read. (well, maybe six…)

This is a hard question. Like, really, really hard. I have 311 feeds in my bloglines account, and I read most of them at least semi-regularly. At least half I probably read daily. Choosing five out of that is not an easy challenge. But I’ll give it a go.

Lifehacker: I couldn’t really function without this site. Programs and tips and tricks and news for making spending most of my time online more bearable. Time saving, streamlining, tools for productivity and generally making your life in front of your computer as awesome as possible.

BoingBoing: All the news that you won’t see anywhere else – alternative politics and just generally interesting stuff. Between boingboing and Neatorama (see how I snuck that one in!) i find out about all the news that I need to know about. (what? I do need to know about ecologically sound coffins and Ribena not really having that much vitamin C in it after all – don’t you?)

I Can Haz Cheezburger?: It’s cat macros. What more do I need to say? Not quite as cute as cute overload (see, doing it again), but cat macros make me laugh till I cry. Although I may at times to prone now to randomly saying things like ‘invisible bike!’ and wondering why everyone doesn’t laugh with me…

Advertising for Peanuts: Good advertising is good. Bad advertising is bad. This blog helps me keep up with good advertising (sadly, most of which never seems to see light of day in the UK)

Wooster Collective: Cool, grungy, urban streetart. Often political, and often beautiful. Innovation and beauty in resistance and adversity. Lots of things to like here.

Tigers and Strawberries: I read more food blogs than I possibly could know what to do with. Sadly, I’m a bad blog reader and a lot of them merge together for me. Tigers and Strawberries stands out, as it covers a lot of Asian cooking (which I cook a lot) in an informed and anecdotal way. And everything she makes looks fantastic :)

There are lots more that I read regularly, and a great many that I at least give a passing scan to. I seem to be adding more every week. Information overload, I know, but how can I help being interested in things, when there’s so many interesting things to know?