How long have you worked at Lemuria?

Since January 2005.

What do you look for in a good book?

If it can make me laugh, cry, or angry. If it can move me in some way, give me some emotion, like The Ice Bear and The Snow Leopard by Jackie Morris. She’s my favorite author and illustrater of children’s books. Her and Katie DiCamillo

How long have you been seriously reading?

Probably since I was 23; after I got out of school. Before that I would occasionally read good stuff, but mostly it was trash. I wasn’t a frequent buyer at Lemuria before I worked here. I went to stores where books were cheap. But I always loved Lemuria. I would just come to look at the books.

 How do you organize your books? (Do you?)

They aren’t in alphabetical order or anything. They are organized by category. The heavy ones are on the bottem shelf so they don’t bring the whole shelf down. I don’t keep a lot of books, just things you can actually use, like Gardening books. Everything else I give to the library. I usually give away all the books I get from here. The ones I keep are odd, like books about toilets.

The books you keep, why do you keep them?

Most of them are factual or books that are about things I’m really interested in that I would enjoy reading at a later date for no reason. I might just happen to be standing by the bookshelf and just pull one of the shelf and read it.

Is there a system to how you choose what to read next/the order you read books in?

Whatever Advanced Reader Copies Emily hands me. I have them in chronological order; I try to read the ones that are coming out soonest.

 What book have you liked most that came out this year?

These are my 3 favorites children’s picture books at present:

Too Tall Houses, Gianno Marino

Clever Jack Takes the Cake, Candace Fleming, G. Brian Karas

Big Mean Mike, Michelle Knudson

Well, you know my actual favorite book I read this year, was 50 Shades of Grey. I thought it was amusing and quite enjoyable.

What are you reading right now?

I just finished reading Wonder by R.J. Palacio.

When do you read?

Between 8 and 10 o’clock in the evenings.

Are you a one-at-a-time reader, or are you reading many books at once?

I read books one at a time. With these crazy little themes going on, it’s hard enough to keep them separated. It’s kind of ridiculous. I read one, finish it, and move on.

Top 5 favorite books in your library right now:

1. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, Kate DiCamillo
2. The Ice Bear, Jackie Morris
3. The Snow Leopard, Jackie Morris
4. Food for Thought, It has some good recipes in. I actually read recipe books more than I actually cook out of them.
5. Clever Jack Takes the Cake, Candace Fleming
6. Bear-Foot Book of Collected Poems

How long have you worked at Lemuria?

4 years.

Is there a book you wish that you had bought, but didn’t?

Generally if I want to buy a book, I do. It’s a kind of sickness.

What do you look for in a good book?

I really like a book that seems like all of its parts work together, not just the plot or the characterization or the style, but all of it going towards the same goal. I definitely gravitate towards writers that use a lot of words but use them well. Hemingway’s super terse books are very precise, but I think you can do that and use a lot of words, like John Irving. It is effortless to read that kind of book; all the parts are working together.

How long have you been seriously reading?

It probably isn’t true, but I want to say since I was first reading chapter books. My dad used to take me to the library once a week and I remember when he graduated me from the books with lots of pictures to a middle grade mystery. I was probably in first grade. There is a long period of time during which I don’t really remember if I read.

 How do you organize your books?

I’ve done different things depending on where I’ve lived. I’ve lived a lot of places since I’ve been a book collector. At one point I had read 75% of the books I owned, which is not the case anymore, but I had the poetry in one place, and my fiction alphabetized by author.

Right now, this is how they are organized: I have a bookcase of books currently in circulation, like ARCs I need to read, it’s also the catchall for books I don’t have a place for yet.  That one is the active bookcase. I have a paperback bookcase that is doubled up. I have a bookcase for my short hardbacks and a regular sized hardback bookcase too. I have another bookcase of hodgepodge. They are organized only in odd organization.

 What book have you liked most that came out this year?

One Last Good Time by Michael Kardos. I was just really impressed with his stories and writing. I’m really excited for Mr. Michael. I love stories. I’ve read a lot of short story collections this year. Battleborn was really good too.

 What do you want in a short story?

Harold Bloom once said that short stories are either Chekhovian or Borgesian and by that he meant the Chekhov stories are rooted in reality but a bit fantastical and the Borges are fantastical, but told in a mundane way. I like them both, but if it’s done well, I  like the Borgesian side better. Like Karen Russell. I really like that dichotomy and tension.

 What are you reading right now?

I’m reading the Name of the Wind by Rothfuss. I have 200 pages left. It’s a big book. I’m hoping it will be the book to break me out of the reading funk I’ve been in since I quit smoking.

 When do you read?

Any time. All the time. Especially in the morning. I prefer the morning. I like coffee and reading. Beer and reading is good too though.

 Are you a one-at-a-time reader, or are you reading many books at once?

Both. If I start to read too many books at once, something, or more than one something will drop off. They will fight each other, and there will be one reigning champion who gets finished. I sometimes can read a variety of things at once; a novel and short stories, essays. But it’s hard for me to read more than one thing, so I try not to. Though the temptation is always there when I’m surrounded by so many books.

 What do you look for in a good bookstore?

I really like for a bookstore to have a good backlist. Not just the newest book by the author, but also their 3^rd book. A good depth of material. I really like used bookstores for that reason.

Top 5 favorite books in your library right now (in no particular order):

1. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

2. The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand

3. The Phantom Tollbooth, Juster Norton

4. Cider House Rules, John Irving

5. Basic 8, Daniel Handler. (He’s Lemony Snicket)

How long have you worked at Lemuria?

Since October of 2008, so for 4 years. I started as a senior in college. I was basically living here.

When did you start really collecting books? Is it a collection, or more of a hoard?

I used to have a hoard. For a long time, I really just wanted books. I recently organized my books, so now I only have one copy of things.

 Is there a book you wish that you had bought, but didn’t?

I didn’t buy The Help. I have a signed Advanced Reader Copy, but I never bought a hardcover. Isn’t that bad? I work here. There is no excuse.

 What do you look for in a good book?

I live in two different worlds. I live in the kid world and I live in the adult world. In adult books, I look for good writing. In kid books, I look for a good plot. Good writing isn’t enough. I’ve read plenty of kids books with good writing, but there isn’t a plot.

It’s harder to write a good kids book. There is a reason when you ask people what their favorite book is, they often tell you a book they read when they were a kid.

 How long have you been reading?

I was seriously reading in 2^nd and 3^rd grade. I remember going through the whole Animorphs series and the Baby Sitters Club. I was in the club. When I moved here in 5^th grade, I didn’t have any friends so I just read on the playground. I was that kid. Shiloh, Where the Red Fern Grows; all those sad books.

 How do you organize your books?

I have a bookcase in my room for my current favorites. I have a bookcase for ARCs I want to read. I have bookcases for young adult, for nonfiction, two for fiction, one for southern fiction that flows into another case and finishes with children’s picture books. Then I use books in everything I decorate. I still have too many books, so I just stack them places.

 Is there a system to how you choose what to read next?

There’s always something I want to read next. I usually read whatever I’m thinking of  when I finish a book. If the book I’m reading isn’t really catching me, I’ll pick something else up. For 3 years I only read young adult books, but I’m trying hard to get back into the real world.

 What book have you liked most that came out this year?

Song of Achilles, Madeleine Miller

What are you reading right now?

Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler, Maira Coleman

Roald Dahl’s Book of Ghost Stories

 When do you read?

That’s a tricky question.  I fall asleep reading, so I have to read during the day. I fall asleep when it gets dark.

 Are you a one-at-a-time reader, or are you reading many books at once?

I read more than one. I was reading 10 books recently, but I’m trying to whittle it back down to 3. I can’t read more than 1 young adult book at a time; they all have to be different kinds of books.

 What do you look for in a good bookstore?

To be honest, I have a hard time finding a bookstore that meets what Lemuria is. Lemuria is the best a bookstore could be. When I travel and go to different bookstores, I am always disappointed. A bookstore shouldn’t just be new releases; if I only cared about new books, I wouldn’t go in a bookstore—those are the easy ones to find. A bookstore should be a collection of all of the people who work there. It’s a piece of art in how it’s culled. That kind of bookstore is going away. A good bookstore doesn’t feel like a retail store.

 

How long have you worked at Lemuria?

6 years.

 What Was The Best Lemuria Event?

Chuck Palahniuk, duh.

 When did you start really collecting books?

I didn’t really start reading until my junior or senior year in high school. For fun, that is; I could read before that.  I don’t know if I had a favorite book in high school—Geek Love, maybe. I took it with me to Germany between my sophomore and junior year. That, and a book about Jean Benet Ramsey. Everyone thought I was weird as shit for taking those two books with me, but that pretty much describes my reading taste to this day. Geek Love was the first book that made me love books.

 What do you look for in a good book?

Goodness. Does that count?

 Who is your favorite book character?

Ignatius from Confederacy of Dunces.

 You named your dog after him, right?

No actually, after I read that book, I named everything Ignatius. I had a goldfish named Ignatius. My grandmother heard me talking about my goldfish, and she asked me about that name. I told her it was from a book I really liked, and she said, “That was my father’s name”.  Isn’t that weird?

 So your dog is named after your great-grandfather?

Yes, and the Ignatius in Confederacy. If I ever have a child, I’m sure he will be named Ignatius. He’ll probably have a complex, because he’ll actually be named after my dog.

What book do you think is the best-kept secret?

Geek Love. Oh god, this is just going to be about Geek Love. Valley of the Dolls, Confederacy of Dunces—there are never enough people who have read that book.

 If you could meet any author, dead or alive, who would it be?

I’ve already met him, and I’ve hugged him (Chuck Palahnuik). I’m not a writer, so I don’t really have that desire to meet and pick brains.

 If any book could be real?

(Geek Love) no! Don’t write that. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

 What meal would you want to fall from the sky?

Probably pancakes.

With syrup?

and butter

 What book could you not get enough of as a kid?

Goosebumps, and Archie comics. I have hundreds of Archie Comics still. If I could find my Goosebumps, I probably would have a hundred of them. I really loved the create your own story books, too.

 Have you read R.L. Stein’s new book, or are you going to?

Probably not, I don’t want to ruin it.

 Is there a system to how you choose what to read next?

I don’t really have a consistent pattern. But sometimes I’ve had enough fiction, and I want to read true crime. Or enough true crime, I want to read fiction. It kind of depends on the mood I’m in after I finish a book; I don’t really have it planned out.

 When do you read?

Before bed. Sadly that’s the only time

 Are you a one-at-a-time book reader, or are you reading many books at once?

Just one. I have much too much A.D.D. for that. If I try to read more than one book at a time, I’ll get the two books confused, plus whatever TV show I’m

watching, plus any conversations I’ve had. I’ve tried fiction and non-fiction, but no. Can’t make it work.

 How do you organize your books?

Most of all of my coffee table/ picture books are in one spot. I have 4 sets of bookcases with 3 shelves each that have a lot of books I’ve read. And one of those shelves, I have chronologically all the books I’ve read this year. I have a long wall of books in my bedroom that I intend to read in the near future, even though it is like a hundred books. In my study/living room I have all of my crafting books and books that have the most value to me, whether that’s monetary or sentimental.

 What are you reading right now?

Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon in honor of our dear Simon.

 What do you look for in a good bookstore? What are your bookstore pet peeves?

I don’t go to bookstores. I work too much, I don’t go anywhere. If I go to a bookstore on a vacation, I just look around, and think: I’ve got all of this already.

I like to see what they do different. Not necessarily bad or good, just how their store is laid out or how they do customer service.

Top 5 favorite books in your library right now (in no particular order):

1. A Father’s Story, Lionel Dahmer

2. Geek Love, Katherine Dunn

3. Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole

4. Jitterbug Perfume, Tom Robbins

5. Choke, Chuck Palahniuk