Pilfered from Badger (as per her instructions)

15 things (only!) about books:

1. I learned to read when I was 3 or 4, also via a Little Golden Book about a bunny getting lost because he disobeyed his parents. Coincidentally, to this day I still have to look at my hands to determine right from left.
2. I used to hide under the bed, with a flashlight, to read. My sister (we shared a room at the time) used to snitch on me.
3. I love/loved encyclopædiæ. I remember reading The Golden Book encyclopædia when I was not quite 5. Often I'd start looking for something, but I'd get distracted. This is why I know all about Hittites, Hellenism but I have no clue what the Haymarket Riots were all about.
4. The books I have been reading the longest are the Sherlock Holmes novels/stories.
5. The first/last book that made me cry was the the post script to Harvey Penick's The Game For A Lifetime.
6. I love being able to read books in the original English, Spanish or Italian (you're taking your chances if you hand me something in Latin, though). It's fun to compare the different national preferences for genres/style. It is SO true that books lose so much in translation.
7. The first set of books that changed me for the better were the Bertie/Jeeves books by PG Wodehouse.
8. Two books that changed my worldview at around age 12 were The Road To Serfdom and Wealth of Nations.
9. I like collecting those Easton Press leatherbound books.
10. I also collect cookbooks. I have 9' x 4' of shelving CRAMMED with cookbooks. A cookbook which gives you one home-run recipe is a joy forever. (Badger, get thee the Cooking with F r i e n d s Cookbook)
11. Sometimes listening to an audiobook ruins the print version forever. If you have a nasal, whiny (or "whAH-nee") voice with a profound Georgia accent, you should let some actor/actress read it for you. (Did you catch all that Frances Mayes?)
12. Badger sez: "I can't bear to get rid of books. I keep everything. Ninety-five percent of the crap I have in storage is books." Amen, sister. In my case it's 85%, 10% being magazines, the rest being cassettes and LPs.
13. Used bookstores are a supreme pleasure for me.
14. When I was a kid, during summer vacations I'd pedal off to the library and spend all day there, arriving prior to, and departing immediately after the summer downpours. (Invariably in SoFla's summer, it rains ALL DAY.)
15. When I go walking (2-4 miles a day) I invariably take a paperback w. me. Yes, I can read AND walk.

-J.