This week’s Booking Through Thursday is a quick answers challenge:

Which do you prefer? (Quick answers–we’ll do more detail at some later date)
• Reading something frivolous? Or something serious?
• Paperbacks? Or hardcovers?
• Fiction? Or Nonfiction?
• Poetry? Or Prose?
• Biographies? Or Autobiographies?
• History? Or Historical Fiction?
• Series? Or Stand-alones?
• Classics? Or best-sellers?
• Lurid, fruity prose? Or straight-forward, basic prose?
• Plots? Or Stream-of-Consciousness?
• Long books? Or Short?
• Illustrated? Or Non-illustrated?
• Borrowed? Or Owned?
• New? Or Used?
(Yes, I know, some of these we’ve touched on before, and some of these we might address in-depth in the future, but for today–just quick answers!)

OK. Quick answers, right? That means I can’t elaborate or explain myself? This could be more challenging than it looks…

Frivolous or serious? – Depends on my mood. Serious probably wins out more often than not.

Paperbacks or hardcovers? – Definitely paperbacks. They’re cheaper and easier to hold when reading in bed.

Fiction or non-fiction? – Both.

Poetry or prose? – Prose.

Biographies or autobiographies? – Autobiographies.

History or historical fiction? – Both, but if it’s historical fiction it needs to be reasonably accurate.

Series or stand-alones? – Both, but if it’s a series I need to read them in order.

Classics or best sellers? – Both, but I probably lean more towards classic literature.

Lurid or straight-forward prose? – Straight-forward. Overworked metaphors and elaborate descriptions are a definite turn-off.

Plots or stream of consciousness? – Too tired and easily distracted for stream of consciousness at the moment. Love a well developed plot.

Long books or short? – Both, but can’t stand long books (or series) that are 50% filler. I love a long story if it is full of a great plot and well developed characters NOT a decent short story stretched out to give the appearance of being more significant than it is.

Illustrated or non-illustrated? – I like illustrations in children’s books, cookbooks and non-fiction.

Borrowed or owned? – I am a bit compulsive about owning books. I just love to have my shelves crowded with old literary friends and waiting-to-be-discovered treasures. It breaks my heart to have to return a great book to the library or a friend if I have borrowed it.

New or used? – I love to visit second hand bookshops. As long as used books are in good condition, they will win with me every time.

Well there you go. And I even managed to give one word answers to a couple of the questions. Not so challenging after all.

What about you? Do you get rid of books as soon as you’ve read them? Never read fiction? Can’t stand either biographies or autobiographies? Feel free to elaborate on any of your choices in the comments or link to your BTT post.

There are certain types of books that I more or less assume all readers read. (Novels, for example.)
But then there are books that only YOU read. Instructional manuals for fly-fishing. How-to books for spinning yarn. How to cook the perfect souffle. Rebuilding car engines in three easy steps. Dog training for dummies. Rewiring your house without electrocuting yourself. Tips on how to build a NASCAR course in your backyard. Stuff like that.
What niche books do YOU read?

I am currently wading through quite a number of sewing books as I refresh my sewing skills and attempt to sew (rather than buy) clothing for my children. I’m planning to stick to items like skirts for my daughter and pyjama pants for the boys. I have strong memories of home-sewn clothing as a child and would never want to inflict that kind of psychological damage on my own children (thanks for the chocolate brown and gold pin-striped pants and vest Mum).

I also love to browse through cookbooks. My kids regularly look through three birthday cake decorating books that I have, picking out which cakes they want. At last count they have enough chosen to cover the next 20 years. As for me, reading Monica Pradhan’s The Hindi Bindi Club last year sent me on a mission to find some beginner Indian cookbooks like Ramola Parbhoo’s Traditional Indian Cooking.

I’m always happy to flick through family meal cookbooks and in the past six months have managed to add the following to my collection:

• The Credit Crunch Cookbook
• Allergy Safe Family Food – Suzanna Paxton
• Fast, Fresh and Fabulous – Janelle Bloom (this one has become a family favourite)
• The Basics: A Really Useful Cookbook – Anthony Telford
• Annabel Karmel’s Complete Family Meal Planner
• destitute gourmet cookbooks – Sophie Gray

I’ve also been on a bit of an Australian history kick in the past 18 months and seem to have gravitated towards both fiction and non-fiction accounts of early settlers/explorers and Australian military history. I have Peter Fitzsimons’ Charles Kingsford Smith and Those Magnificent Men near the top of my TBR pile. Other titles include:

Fiction

• Captain Cook’s Apprentice – Anthony Hill
• The Donkey who Carried the Wounded – Jackie French (Gallipoli)
• The Camel who Crossed Australia – Jackie French (Burke & Wills exploration)
• A Rose for the ANZAC Boys – Jackie French (World War I)
• War’s End – Victoria Bowen
• Heroes of Tobruk – David Mulligan
• Angels of Kokoda – David Mulligan
• Breaking the Bank – Carol Baxter

Non-Fiction

• 1788 – David Hill (Arrival and early years of the First Fleet)
• The Forgotten Children – David Hill (Fairbridge Farm children)
• War Behind the Wire – Michael Caulfield (ed) (Australian prisoners of war)
• Cruel Conflict – Kathryn Spurling (HMAS Perth)
• Sacred Places - K S Inglis (Australian war memorials and tributes)

Thanks to my younger son’s obsession with steam engines, I also read a ridiculous number of books about steam engines and railway history (he’s only five and stubbornly refuses to learn to read well enough to read them to himself). My favourites are Robert and Bruce Wheatley’s Railway Portraits, Jim Powe’s Trains and Railways of Australia and Jim Turner’s Early Australian Steam Locomotives (1855-1895) and Australian Steam Locomotives (1896-1958). I also share an interest in art books with my daughter.

I have been known to flick through a mathematics text book for pleasure as well. Is that niche or just weird?

Do you have any favourite niche reading pleasures? Quirky genres or favourite non-fiction topics? Share your favourite niche topics/books in the comments below or add a link to your own Booking Through Thursday post.

I saw this over at Shelley’s, and thought it sounded like a great question for all of you:

“This can be a quick one. Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.”

Here are the first 15 books that came to mind when I considered this challenge (in alphabetical order):

Animalia – Graeme Base
The first of many amazing Graeme Base picture books I have read. His beautiful and detailed illustrations always fascinate me. I can remember spending many hours as a teen making lists of items on each alphabetical page of Animalia and could probably quite easily entertain myself now in the same way.

The Colour of Magic (and the Discworld series) – Terry Pratchett
The first book of the Discworld series may not be the best, but it marks the beginning of one of the great series concepts of our generation.

The Comedy of Errors – Shakespeare
My first Shakespearean play, read at the age of 10. You never forget your first.

Daniel Deronda – George Eliot
Such a magnificent book, both entertaining and enriching. I often marvel at how incredibly diverse Eliot’s general knowledge was and reflect on the irony that the book discusses themes of intolerance and prejudice and the need to acknowledge your true self, but it was written by a woman under a male pseudonym.

The Eyre Affair – Jasper Fforde
Intelligent, witty, and entertaining writing with an element of suspense, mystery and social commentary – what’s not to love? After finding this book, I devoured the rest of the Thursday Next series. This is the kind of book I could simply read over and over.

Hooray for Diffendoofer Day – Dr Seuss, Jack Prelutsky, Lane Smith
Really, just about any book by Dr Seuss lingers in the mind. Fox in Socks, The Lorax, Hop on Pop, I can read with my Eyes Shut, Oh, the Thinks you can Think – they are all amazing and memorable. I discovered Diffendoofer Day, based on a manuscript that was left half completed with Seuss died, a few years ago. The completed version is a celebration of being an individual and developing a love of learning.

Little Hut of Leaping Fishes – Chiew Siah Tei
This book was just so beautifully written that I just kind of relaxed into the story as I read it. There was a sense of poetry about the writing that made reading this book enjoyable in a literary sense as well as being an enjoyable story about a fascinating period of Chinese history. (Suite101 review)

Mao’s Last Dancer – Li Cunxin
An ordinary boy becomes an internationally renowned dancer – this amazing life story is so inspiring but also feels incredibly real. (Suite101 review)

Nation – Terry Pratchett
Proof that Pratchett can write more than pseudo-fantasy/satire. A wonderful book exploring the nature of leadership and cultural legacy as well as being an interesting and enjoyable read. (Suite101 review)

The Other Hand – Chris Cleave
A book that is so well written and entertaining that it takes a moment for you to realise just how deep and significant the message is. Definitely a book that leaves you evaluating your response to the issues raised. Release as Little Bee in the US. (Suite101 review)

Pawn of Prophecy (and the Belgariad) – David Eddings
I was just a little bit in love with (Bel)Garion when I read this book as a teen. My copy is almost falling apart from being read so often.

Pride & Prejudice – Jane Austen
I read this for the first time as a high school text and have read it regularly and lovingly since. I now picture Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle as the central couple, but otherwise my enjoyment and fascination with the beautiful symmetry of the novel remain unchanged. A timeless and enduring classic.

Seven Little Australians – Ethel Turner
I guess this is the Australian equivalent of Bridge to Terabithia. This was one of the first novels I read as a child that showed me that a wonderful story doesn’t always end happily. It also captured the atmosphere of Australia at the time in which it was set.

To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
I can still remember how this book made me feel when I read it in early high school (aged around 13), particularly one of the final scenes where Scout stands on Boo Radley’s porch and contemplates the events Boo has observed from his window. I loved the idea of needing to walk in another man’s shoes before you can really understand him.

A Walk in the Woods – Bill Bryson
My first Bryson travelogue and most certainly not my last. I love his clever insightful writing and eye for detail and his wonderful sense of the ridiculous.

What books linger in your memory? Mention them in the comments or link to your own Booking Through Thursday post, if you have one.

This week’s Booking Through Thursday question:

Is there a book that you wish you could “unread”? One that you disliked so thoroughly you wish you could just forget that you ever read it?

In my wild and crazy youth, I would finish every book I started no matter how badly written or how hackneyed or annoying the storyline. Now that I am more mature (and have far less spare time on my hands), I find myself being far more discriminating in my book selections. As a result, I really haven’t read much in recent years that I would like to erase, simply because I never let it get that far.

If I had to choose one book, it would probably be Patrick White’s The Twyborn Affair. I read this for a university subject when I was pregnant with my second child. I was already on an emotional rollercoaster (got to love those pregnancy hormones) and the raw emotions and sexual identity and gender confusion/conflict of so many characters in the novel just pushed me over the emotional cliff.

I found myself only able to read a few pages before having to put the book aside to focus on something less heartbreakingly intense. I realise that this probably indicates that the book was well written, but at the time I was traumatised rather than impressed.

I probably wouldn’t still harbour lingering scars if the book had ended differently, but having tenaciously continued through the various traumatic emotional experiences of the central character, I was left feeling less than impressed by the abrupt ending that didn’t even give me the opportunity for even a small degree of emotional closure.

If it were possible to “unread” a book, The Twyborn Affair would be at the top of my list.

Do you have a book you wish you could erase from your memory? Something that still makes you mentally shudder in pain and/or loathing? List your unreading book selections in the comments below and include a link to your Booking Through Thursday post if you have one.

What book would you love to be able to read again for the first time?
(Interestingly, I thought that I had thought this one up myself, but when I started scrolling through the Suggestions, found that Rebecca had suggested almost exactly this question a couple months ago. So, we both get credit!)
A few books come to mind for this challenge. For me, they are books I would love to be able to read again for the first time uninterrupted. I tend to have several books on the go at once and with three children, being able to read a book in one sitting is a faint and wistful memory. These are books that I wish I could savour again for the first time without interruption or distraction.

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. Such a funny, clever book. I’d actually love to revisit the whole Thursday Next series in one hit. I know I’ve mentioned elsewhere that Meredith gave me a signed copy of this for Christmas once. There’s nothing like having a friend who knows how to find you the perfect gift.

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen. I read this for the first time at high school when I studied it for my Higher School Certificate. I loved it at the time, but it would be great to read it now for the first time without the distraction of essays and assignments.

The Other Hand by Chris Cleave. Such an amazing book presenting really significant issues and themes in a very approachable way. It is such an incredibly well written book. I found myself underlining sentences (and sometimes entire paragraphs) that I found particularly meaningful or beautifully phrased. I would love to be able to read it again without knowing what was coming to experience the full impact of the issues he raises.

Hooray for Diffendoofer Day by Dr Seuss with Jack Prelutsky and Lane Smith. I thought I’d read them all. The Lorax, Fox in Socks, Marvin K. Mooney will you Please Go Now, I can Read with my Eyes Shut. The list goes on. Then I found a Seuss book that I hadn’t seen before and all the joy of reading Seuss in my childhood returned. Seuss books are always great whether its the first, tenth or 100th time you’ve read them, but finding a previously undiscovered Seuss treasure is priceless.

Do you have a book that you wish you could read again for the first time?