Your Questions Have Been Answered! Part One

Thanks to everyone who submitted questions for my “get to know me better” feature for my blogiversary celebration.I received a wide range of questions to answer and I had a great time trying to answer them all! To break things up a bit, following are my answers to the first half of the questions!

Saray asks: What´s the best dystopian novel you have ever read and what makes it so special?

It’s only been the past year that I’ve really been reading dystopian novels.  And after quite a bit of thinking, I can’t narrow it down to one book, but an entire series.  That series is the Tomorrow series by John Marsden.  It’s my favorite because Marsden does an outstanding job with his characters. They are accurately portrayed as teens going through a catastrophic point in time. I listened to the entire series on audio and I can’t recommend them enough.

Heidi from TBC-Theblackcell.net asks: What is your favorite author and why?

That’s a very hard question!  I have several favorite authors, probably too many to name, but I’d say my all time favorite author is Stephen King.  His work introduced me to the world of horror fiction.  I followed his life through his novels.  As he progressed and changed, so did his novels.  My favorite King novel would have to be The Stand. As a matter of fact, I’m catching up on the TV movie now!

Michelle from mybooks.mylife asks: As a working mother, where do you find the time to read?

This has got to be the question I answer the most!  I fit in time to read at every moment I can: at night while the boys are sleeping, early in the morning while everyone else is still asleep, during my lunch break at lunch, and when the boys are playing independently in their rooms. If we leave the house to run errands, I have my Sony reader with me along with a regular book.  If I find that I have a few minutes to read, I pull out my book and fit in as much reading as I can!

Kathy from Bermudaonion’s Weblog asks: Do you have any hobbies besides reading?

In addition to reading, I enjoy making jewelery (although since my youngest was born I don’t exactly get a lot of time to devote to this!). I mainly work with glass beads.  I’ve made several pairs of earrings, bookmarks, necklaces.  I’m going to try to spend more time on this hobby now that my youngest is getting a little older.  It’s very relaxing and allows me to be creative.

Kristin asks: What are your top 10 favorite books of all time? What are your top 10 favorite books of the past year?

Wow…this is another tough question!  I started reading at a very young age, so it’s virtually impossible to limit it to ten books.  So, the list below are ten of my favorite books of all time.

The Stand by Stephen King
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

And to answer the second part of the question, following are ten of my favorite books that I’ve read since March of 2009:

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Everyone is Beautiful by Katherine Center
Angels of Destruction by Keith Donohue
Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Hate List by Jennifer Brown
Dragon House by John Shors
The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist
The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

Dianne asks: Where do you get most of the books you’ve read….library, new books, book sales, review copies etc?

I’d say about 50% of the books I read are review copies, 40% are self-purchased, and 20% are library books.

hcmurdoch asks: How do you find time to do Twitter? Do you use Tweet Deck or something similar?

Just like reading, I tweet when I have the free time.  I do use TweetDeck, it makes tweeting so much easier.  I can’t access Tweetdeck at work, so I use Seesmic web while working.

Jill from Rhapsody in Books asks: Do you still read aloud to your boys? Do you try to influence their reading choices?

Yes, I still read aloud to both of my boys.  John has been reading independently for the past few years but I still set aside time to read aloud to him.  Justin will start kindergarten next year and prefers to look at the illustrations in books and come up with his own story.  He will occasionally let me read to him aloud.

While I recommend books that I think they’ll enjoy, I let each boy pick out what books they want to read. It try to do whatever I can to make reading fun!

Swapna from S.Krishna’s Books asks: What does John think of the amount of time you spend reading/blogging/tweeting?

HA!  I sent this question to my hubby, and following is his response:

My feelings about Jennifer’s reading/blogging/tweeting change from day to day (sometimes moment to moment) and I’m sure that she’s anxious about what I might say here.  Any answer I give would only be a snapshot in time and reflect how I feel about it at that particular moment.  That reflection could seem to show an overly praising or overly critical view of her endeavors.  So… drawing on my Political Science background, I’ll answer the question this way.  I’m extremely proud of her accomplishments and the respect that she’s earned in the blogging community.  Anything that truly bothers me, I express to her and we work together to find a compromise.

He’s right!  We have worked out a compromise regarding my blogging/tweeting time.  After 8 pm on week nights, I “unplug” from blogging/tweeting/etc.  That time is family time 🙂

Candace from Beth Fish Reads asks: If you could travel to any fictional place, where would you go? Which book describes that place? Why would you pick it?

I’ve always enjoyed historical fiction, and I’m a huge fan of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series.  The series takes place in 18th Century Scotland, a time period I’ve always been interested in.  It wasn’t the safest time/place to live in, but the country was going through a number of changes during this period.  It would have been interested to witness it!

Ok, that wraps up the first half of the questions!  Check back later on in the week when I answer the remaining questions!