Book Meme

I was tagged by Bonnie Vanak to come up with 15 facts about me and my books. Since I'm hustling to get a book wrapped up and in the mail, I've been working on this in little spurts and it took me a few days to get this together. Hopefully, it's coherent since I was pretty tired at times while I was working on it.

1. I own more than 5,000 fiction books and I've read more than 4,000 of them. Yes, that means I have a huge TBR pile. It's why I no longer pick up free books at conferences unless it's a book I'd buy anyway.
   


2. I used to read a book a day everyday, and sometimes on the weekends I'd read more than one book. I haven't been able to do this since I decided to focus on my writing. During this time, my vacations were to a cabin in Wisconsin where I would spend the entire week in an orgy of reading.
   


3. If I really love a book, I'll read as fast as I can to get to the end, then immediately read it all over again. The last time I did this was in January 2002 while I was on vacation in Hawaii. (I came home from my trip and sold Ravyn's Flight, my first book.) The book I read and reread on vacation? Head Over Heels by Susan Andersen.
   


4. I can't recall the first romance I read. I used to go to the library and check out anything and everything across all genres. All the book needed was an intriguing blurb.
   


5. I took a Shakespeare class in college, and after that, read his plays for fun. My favorite is Much Ado About Nothing and I must have read it about half a dozen times.
   


6. If I read a book that has a great plot, and mediocre characters, the book isn't a keeper for me. I'll forgive an author a lot if she or he has fabulous, three-dimensional characters. (But I still don't like plot holes). I also like my characters to be likeable. I don't like shallow or TSTL heroes and heroines.
   


7. I have a lot of books that friends of mine have written that I haven't had time to read yet. Some for 4 years or more. I feel guilty every time I see the titles, especially if they're people I know have read one or more of my books, but I have so little time to read now.
   


8. I don't read historical romance with a few rare exceptions. I used to read historicals all the time when I first started reading romance, but after a while, I found myself buying, but not picking up those books even though I'd finished all my contemporary and paranormal romances. I love paranormal romance, but if it's historically set, I don't buy it because I know I won't read it. See the size of my TBR pile in item #1.
   


9. If I read a book without a strong romance in it, I'll create one in my head as I go along. I've done this as long as I can remember. Probably how I ended up a romance writer. But I prefer to read romances, so I don't have to do this much any more.
   


10. The last time I read a book was on the plane trip home from Reno and the RWA conference in July 2005. We landed before I finished it, and it's still sitting on my shelf, 2/3rds done.
    


11. With only a few exceptions, I don't like books written in first person. I've even driven back to the bookstore to return a book because, when I got home, I discovered it wasn't in third person. I have more tolerance for first person in mysteries, and less for first person in romance. I like multiple third person point of view. I definitely want to see what both the h/h are thinking.
    


12. My favorite author is Linda Howard. I have almost all her books on my keeper shelf, but the titles of hers that I continually reread were all originally paperback releases. The only hardcover original release I've reread is Open Season.
    


13. Like Bonnie, I've been tracking down books I've read as a kid. For me, I'm interested in the titles from junior high school. I picked up Why Not Join the Giraffes by Hope Campbell and Time at the Top by Edward Ormondroyd. There's one book left that I really, really, really want to find, but I can't remember the title of it or the author. I posted what I remembered on a couple of books boards, but no one knew the name or author.
    


14. After I read a beat up copy All the President's Men by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein when I was in junior high, I dreamed of becoming an investigative reporter and ferreting out illegal activities by those in power. I even went to journalism school, but changed my major to advertising copywriting since it was more fun for me.
    


15. The most money I ever paid for a book was $40 for a used paperback copy of Anne Stuart's Seen and Not Heard. It was the last book I needed to have her entire backlist and I hadn't been able to find it in about five years worth of searching. I've never read it, but the collection is complete. My friends call the need to have complete collections--either from an author or a series--Patti-itis.

There! Done! This was hard. I started running out of steam at number nine and had to start working to come up with stuff. I know I'm supposed to tag people to pick up the game, but I'll post who later. I need to finish my coffee and get to work.