The Book Snob Tag

I’ve been tagged (OK, everyone who watched the YouTube video was ‘tagged’) by Book Olive to find out if I’m a Book Snob. So here goes….

1) Do you always read the book before the movie?

No. I’m reading fiction only around 20-25% of the time presently so there’s no way really to ensure I’m reading the book before the film. Actually I’m much more likely to read the book after the movie as seeing it on screen makes me want to know more etc.. That was definitely the case with The Martian and even things like Divergent and even The Hunger Games.

2) If you could only choose one format for the rest of your life would it be print, electronic or audio?

That’s EASY. Print, every time. To be honest I don’t really regard electronic books as *books* and I certainly wouldn’t say that listening to an audio book is *reading* it. It could be argued that it’s like having someone read the book to you – OK – but that’s still not reading the book yourself. It’s a whole different experience. I can certainly see advantages of audio books – you can listen in the car on a long drive (I know people who do that) or on headphones during working or just walking around and still do stuff. Likewise the great advantage of electronic books is simple portability. You can carry hundreds of books around with you and have them all at your fingertips. But neither really feels like a real book to me.

3) Would you date or marry a non-reader?

Marry? No. But then again I wouldn’t marry someone who OWNED a bookstore – even my favourite bookstore. Marriage is really not my thing! I have briefly dated non-readers or low-volume readers in the past. Talking about books was never really part of the relationship and, to be honest, only one really lasted long enough for it to have possibly become an issue. I would certainly miss the opportunity to talk about books, share books and share book experiences. How much of a drag it would be on any relationship is unknown. It’d definitely be a problem if she had a problem with my reading which it might if I couldn’t shut up about the novel or whatever I was reading at the time. It would probably become a point of friction if things lasted that long. All things considered it’d be safer to date a reader, non-smoker, vegetarian who doesn’t mind being a gaming widow 2 hours a night most nights…. [lol]

4) If you had to ditch one genre and never read it again what would it be?

I had to think about this for a while and I’d have to say Fantasy or more particularly Urban Fantasy. I’ve read some good book in both genres but generally they’ve been a very poor second to SF and other genres like Crime or historical fiction. I could cheat and say something like Romance (which I almost never read) or religious non-fiction (practically ditto) but that wouldn’t be fair to the spirit of the question.

5) If you could only read one genre for the rest of your life what would it be?

Ask me that question 20+ years ago and it would be a resounding SCIENCE FICTION. Not so today. Although I would probably miss reading SF a great deal I’d miss one genre much more – History. I was only thinking a few days ago that you could spend an entire life (and not just the years I have left) just reading about World War Two. History naturally covers the globe and the entirety of human existence. No matter how fast you read you’d never run out of new things to discover. Really there’s no other sensible choice – although SF comes close I admit!

6) What genre do you think receives the most snobbery from the bookish community?

As I’m not really part of the bookish community (per se) I wasn’t going to comment much – if anything – on this subject. But then I thought about all the flack I’ve heard about Young Adult lit. Now as a genre-type I can see its utility. After all there’s children’s lit and adult lit so why not Young Adult lit, right? But what I do see if denigration of adults who read YA lit extensively or even exclusively. To be honest I can understand that. Generally speaking I’d find it strange if someone wasn’t reading age appropriate books most of the time. Naturally I’ve read some children’s classics in my adult years (mostly because I’d failed to read them as a child) and have also read – and enjoyed – some books classified as YA but I wouldn’t read them exclusively. I’m an adult and need adult stimulation through adult subjects and adult situations. Candyfloss is OK from time to time but you wouldn’t want to live on it.

7) Have you ever been snubbed for reading something or for reading in general?

As I’ve said before, people think it strange that I read so much (as if 60 books a year was a lot), that I read such a varied range of topics or that I read at all. It makes me suspect but I’m not generally snubbed because of it. I’ve got some very funny looks from people when they catch what I’m reading. My favourite strange looks were some years ago when I was reading a book called ‘Shoot the Women First’ on public transport. Lately the two that raised eyebrows were ‘How to Stage a Military Coup’ and most recently ‘The Female Eunuch’.

So, Am I a Book Snob? Pretty much – yes! [lol]