Even more questions about reading

Which book cover made you read the book only to find out you actually hate it?
It’s a tie between The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry and The Binding by Bridget Collins. Both had gorgeous covers but, while I didn’t hate them, they promised much and didn’t deliver.

What is your favorite or least favorite genre?
My favourite genre is literary fiction, and my least favourite are horror and romance.

I’ve a far too vivid imagination to cope with horror stories, so I’ve chosen not to read horror. In my old book group, a couple were selected it being the preferred genre of one of the members. As the whole point of book group was to read outside of your comfort zone, I read them – but never again, as both caused me to lose sleep.

I read a lot of romance when I was in school, but now find they tend to the dull, repetitive and tropey. I have no problem with romance when it forms part of the story, but when it’s the whole enchilada – it’s not for me.

What’s the longest you went without reading?
During periods of professional study, I’ve read no fiction, while still reading copiously. But, for two months during the first lockdown in 2020, I found myself unable to read anything at all. I unexpectedly felt grateful for working throughout, because it kept me busy and provided some form of distraction me from what I was missing.

Do you read out loud?
Only if I’m reading to someone else. I do enjoy doing so and, having been on the receiving end of many a compliment about my voice, have wondered whether a career as a voice-artist may’ve been a possibility.

Do you ever annotate books?
Not since I was in school. I love real books and feel it would be a sacrilegious thing to do. But I have been known to highlight passages in my Kindle.

What’s the first book you read in your life?
My earliest reading memory is the cartoon strip of Rupert the Bear which appeared in my grandmother’s daily newspaper (she was a crossword fiend). I don’t think I understood them as I found them a tad sinister🙄Other than that, the earliest books I remember reading are the Enid Blyton series of the Famous Five, the Secret Seven, and The …. of Adventure.

That said, I realised recently how familiar I am with Cecily M Barker’s Flower Fairies and, as my daughter wasn’t a fan, I wonder if they could be part of a forgotten childhood back catalogue.

Is there a book you just couldn’t finish?
For the longest time, if I started a book, I finished it because I’m a quick reader. Then a book killed my desire to read. But because it was so much my type of book, I kept going back to it, and the pattern kept repeating until I finally accepted I needed to stop. That was my first DNF. There’s been a few I’ve given up on since then, but they still don’t number many – I wouldn’t need more than the fingers of both hands to count them. I now choose what I’m going to read with increased care in order to avoid them – more about the time wasted rather than being bothered about DNFs themselves.

What are your earliest reading memories? Do you pick what to read based upon the cover illustration, the blurb, or something else? Are you a vandal annotator of books?

© Debs Carey, 2025