Whee! A book meme!

I was tagged for this by the lovely Isabelle and since it's about books I could hardly wait!

Hardcover or paperback and why? I kind of answered this in Isabelle's comments. Paperback definitely. I do other things while I read such as eat and stir dinner and you just can't hold a hardback in one hand. And I'm cheap. Oh! And I have been getting lots of books recently via a wonderful website called Readitswapit.co.uk which I thoroughly recommend if you read a lot, and the books I get from there just tend to be paperbacks.

If I were to own a bookshop I would call it... this is my regular fantasy - my own bookshop. I have even decided what kind of bookshop it would be - it would specialise in Scottish literature so that the hordes of tourists who come here would have something better than a fake kilt and a stuffed Loch Ness Monster to take home. Books by everyone from Neil Gunn and George Mackay Brown to Iain Banks and Christopher Brookmyre. And a coffee shop selling my cookies, naturally. Don't know what I would call it though........I'll think about that one. I'd be tempted to call it Guddle, as with my organisational skills, I suspect that's what it would become

My favourite quote from a book (mention the title) Difficult one. I have always liked "It was the day my grandmother exploded." which is the opening line of The Crow Road by Iain Banks. Although it is a very obvious attention grabber, it still sort of sums up the attitude of the book and of Iain Banks' fiction generally. And there are loads of good one-liners in the stories of Saki, but if I start listing those, I'll be here all day.

The author (alive or deceased) I would love to have lunch with would be.. someone like Jane Austen. It would be fantastic to be able to tell them that their books are still read and loved hundreds of years later.

If I was going to a deserted island and could only bring one book, except for the SAS survival guide it would be... gah! Impossible question! Erm...I think I may go for the complete works of Saki just because it is light and frivolous and clever and would transport you away from your predicament. And you can dip in and out of it. (I love Saki as you can tell. I used to really covet a t-shirt I saw once which said "H. H. Munro is a wry swine". For I am a nerd)

I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that....marked your page for you at the point where your attention started to stray because you are reading in bed and dozing off, so you don't have to go back looking for the last place where you actually took in any information, rather than where you actually stuck the bookmark. Or a gadget that allowed you to fall asleep reading and gently took your book out of your hands, marked your page, put it on your bedside table and switched off the light. Too much to ask for?

The smell of an old book reminds me of... law library, unfortunately.

The most overestimated book of all time is..... a close run thing between anything by James Joyce (I just don't get it) or "The Catcher in the Rye" which I LOATHED. Never wanted to slap a main character so much in my life.

I hate it when a book.. tries too hard to be deep. I like good, multi-layered, thought-provoking literature but I also like a good yarn with no pretensions. I hate it when the latter tries to dress itself up as the former. It's like those american sitcoms that try to incorporate deep moral lessons. Urgh.

If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title) it would be... isn't that weird, the first couple of characters who popped into my head aren't the lead character, but sort of supporting cast. What does that say about me, I wonder? I really like "The Crow Road" by Iain Banks and a large part of this is because I like the character of Ashley. She is a well-drawn female character and I just wish I was like her in real life! But if I am thinking the other way, ie what character would I like to be in a book I would have to say Thursday Next in Jasper Fforde's books - jumping in and out of any book you want? Brilliant! And who wouldn't want a pet dodo?

I'm too scared to tag anyone else again so anyone reading this who likes books? Consider yourself tagged. And thanks, Isabelle - I enjoyed that.