Books have been my best friend for as long as I can remember. My mom, who did love to read, could never understand why I’d spend summers reading rather than being outside with the other kids.
One of my earliest memories is my father reading Kim by Rudyard Kipling to me before I had even started Kindergarten. We were living in Sweden for his job at the time and every night he would read it to me.
So, I love books. Choosing favorites is really hard because I rarely actually will re-read a book. There are definitely some that I remember more clearly than others, but choosing favorites is hard.
The Discovery of Witches trilogy by Deborah Harkness was one that I loved. Another was The Rook and sequel by Daniel O’Malley
I tend to follow a genre more than an author. I love mystery/thriller books and I’ll definitely read certain types of fantasy. I tend to read more books with a strong female lead than not.
So what don’t I read? You won’t catch me reading romance novels, westerns, or war stories. Also, the book with the biggest buzz of the day. If everyone tells me that I have to read X, I probably won’t. I’m the same with television shows.
Audio books are another pass for me. I can’t follow the plot at all. I start listening and my brain wanders off and then I am wondering who “Alice” is and where she came from in the story. They just don’t work for me. Snake, on the other hand, loves audio books. He’ll listen to the same ones that I’m reading which is really funny when I walk in to the room and hear the narrator reading a scene that I had read a few days before.
***That only works if I’m ahead. If I walk in and hear that he’s ahead of me, he has to listen somewhere where I can’t hear it or wait until I finish.***
So favorites? I have absolutely no idea. I guess my favorites are just books.
I’m with you on the “book of the moment” aversion. If EVERYONE is reading it, then I’m not.
I will re-read books occasionally. Sometimes because I love them, sometimes because I know they are so loaded with intricacies that I will catch more the second time around, some because they are marketed under a new/different title and I don’t realize I’ve read it before until I’m,partway through. 🙂
So I’ll re-read.
I will not, however, E-read.
When we started doing road trips and I needed a suitcase for books, I decided to try. I do like it because I can carry hundreds with me 🤣. I still love a paper one though.
I have re-read a few but more for classes than leisure.
Like you, I have been reading books for as long as I can remember, and frequently, despite the good weather outside, stayed inside lying on my bed to read. I have advanced to audio books, but also recognize what you say: that your mind wanders. When it happens, it’s mostly because the book is not interesting enough and then I move on to the next.
~ Marie xox
My brain just can’t focus on the audio
I, like you, cannot listen to audiobooks. Reading the book, I can focus on the text and plot. I can stop at any time and continue from the same place. And the voices of the characters sound in my head at all the way the announcer reads.