Bookworm Wednesday - v15

Bookworm Wednesday is a weekly book nerdy post featuring the reading habits of wonderful ladies from all over the blogosphere. Interested in participating? Shoot me an email [grimmricksen AT hotmail.com].

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Personal Details
Hi! I’m Sarah. I’m a lover of stories (in print and on the screen), dresses, home décor, and laughing. I’m currently studying political science and women’s issues at a university in Texas, and plan to teach in the future. I’m married to a very tall Dutchman, and we live with one persnickety, old beagle and zero children. Also, I love being 30.  

Blog/Website
SarahBSaysHello.com (“30 & not particularly dirty of flirty”)  

Have you always been a bookworm?
Yes. After Little Golden Books and fairytales, I read every single Baby-Sitters Club book ever (including the Super Specials!), and all the creepy Christopher Pike and R.L. Stine novels.

As an adult, nothing’s changed. I love YA, romance, historical, a bunch of non-fiction, and any other book that catches my attention. I read 120 books in 2012 and plan to meet or exceed that rate in 2013. (I posted a list of the books I read last year, with cover pics and links, on my blog right here.)  

What are you reading right now?
I just finished my first book of 2013, On the Island by Tracey Garvis-Graves. I put off reading it for months, in fear of being creeped out by the romantic relationship (teacher/student) in the book. I finally read it after a friend promised I wouldn’t be, and she was right!  

What will you read next?
Probably Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls #1) by Maggie Steifvater. I read her blog and follow her on Twitter, but somehow I’ve never actually read one of her books!  

List 3 books that you always wanted to read but haven’t gotten around to: 
1. Jane Eyre (which I’m determined to read before the semester starts!)
2. Paper Towns (the only John Green book I’ve somehow missed reading)
3. The Audacity of Hope (as a student of politics, it’s weird that I haven’t!)

Do you collect any particular author?
Jane Austen – I have different versions of all of her books, and a bunch about her, too.  

Have you ever disliked a book so much that you couldn't finish it?
The Russian Debutante’s Handbook – I’m not big on quitting books, but this one was IMPOSSIBLE. I hated the main character for over 200 pages and eventually stopped reading.  

Where do you usually get your books?
Any bookstore I come across, super nice friends, the library down the street, and Barnes & Noble or Google for ebooks. (I’ve even found a few YAs that had been out less than a year in a thrift store and were only .50!)  

Where do you do most of your reading?
In the morning when I wake up and at night, I often read ebooks while lounging in bed. In the afternoon, I read while wedged in the corner of my couch with a perfectly placed floor lamp nearby.

Do you read books more than once? Which ones and why?
Absolutely. I’ve read E. Lockhart’s The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks many times, as it’s one of my absolute favorite YAs, and I read Persuasion (or other Austen novels) as the mood strikes) about once a year. (My coffee table went from wood to covered in Persuasion pages, if that tells you how much I love it. I’m blogging photos of it soon, so check back later in the month if you’re curious.)  

Do you have any "guilty pleasure" books -- Something you're almost embarrassed to admit enjoying?
Romance… although I don’t feel guilty about it. Show me a romance series featuring a large family or group of friends (in a small town!) who will each find their match in a separate (related) book and I’ll devour it. (See: Shannon Stacey’s Kowalski Family, Bella Andre’s The Sullivans, and Jill Shalvis’s Lucky Harbor series.)  

What was your favorite book when you were a child?
Every book I read as a kid was my new favorite.  

What is your favorite passage from a book?
There’s a part in Persuasion that I really love, but it’s very spoilery (if a book that old can be spoiled), so I won’t share it. Everyone deserves to swoon the first time they read it.

I love this line from John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars: “I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, then all at once.” I have a free downloadable print of this quote up on my blog right here.)  

What do you do with books when you finish with them?
I keep them if I love them and/or I will re-read them. I look over my bookcases every several months and grab some out to get rid of – I offer them to friends or find somewhere to donate them. (Classroom libraries like your gently used books!) I also sometimes give them away on my book blog.  

Do you loan out your books to friends/family/coworkers?
I do, but not very easily. If it’s a fellow book-obsessed friend, I loan them without worry. If it’s anyone else, I hesitate… For a few books that I really love (most of which are signed), I have second copies that I loan out instead.  

Top 5 Favorite books
This is the most impossible question! I’m going to list five books I’ve read and loved relatively recently and leave trying to establish a lifelong top 5 for another day.

- The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart (quite possibly my favorite YA)
- The Education of Hailey Kendrick by Eileen Cook (boarding school setting again!)
- The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe (an epidemic on an island -- it’s unsettling and well-written)
- The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (beautiful and made me cry so many tears)
- Delirium by Lauren Oliver (girl can WRITE! and this kicks off a trilogy!)  

What ONE book should we all read?
Persuasion! If you’re not an Austen fan, I recommend an open mind and an annotated version (so you catch all of the old timey details). Austen is the original writer of the rom-com, so if you’re reading it right, it’s hilarious and will also make you swoon.

For something more modern, I’d say Lauren Oliver’s Delirium. It’s beautiful and gripping, and probably different from what you usually read.


Thanks so much for having me, Jenn. I look forward to checking back for the other bookworms popping up in future posts!