Tell a Braver Story

5) Where do you buy books?

I have a bevy of favourite used book stores in my city. One is narrow and goes on and on, deeper and deeper, and has lots of old dark wood, and high, high shelves - it has a strong array of general fiction. Another is run by a kindly old Catholic gentleman who is near retirement - especially good for poetry, world religion (and an especially good Catholic section) and general browsing. My two recently discovered ones were a shop with a basement bursting with history, which has an actual section for the Heroic Age of Polar Exploration, and one with a coffee bar, and an especially excellent children’s section! I also do go to Indigo (Canada’s main bookstore chain,) and check out the book section in thrift stores. On occasion when I need a specific book, I will order online, but that is rare.

7) Is there a book or series that got you into reading?

Shortly after I learned to read, I remember being glued to two books - a long Bible story book, where I was very invested in Moses’s adventures, and a book from perhaps the forties or fifties, with a tiny story for every day of the year. I would sit on the floor by my bed and devour them repeatedly. The first really big series I read was Little House, I think. I also really loved Wishbone literary adaptations.

Also my mom read aloud books by the million, and my dad read us The Hobbit.

11) Non-fiction books I like

I enjoy reading nonfiction about whatever takes my interest. I have a rather large collection of books in directing/acting/theatre, and on Gilbert and Sullivan (old teenage obsession.) Of course you know my present preoccupation is rather polarizing ;-) But you know I love to stroll through the library and grab nonfiction books on anything that catches my eye.

12) Did I enjoy any compulsory high school readings?

3) Favourite genre - I don’t think I have one. I gravitate more often to fiction over nonfiction, and almost never to works set in the contemporary world. I do have a soft spot for fantasy that feels like historical fiction (is there a name for that subgenre? I used to write a fair amount of it, but had no shorthand to describe it.)

4) Bookstore zone browsing - Children’s, YA, fantasy, general fiction, mystery, history/biography, religious, arts, hobbies, classics/vintage, and whatever has taken my interest lately.

17) Top 5 Children’s Books - I don’t think I can do I this one if I think about it hard or definitively, so here’s a barely thought on, non-committed answer: The Hobbit, Danny the Champion of the World, Five Children and It, The Story Girl, Chronicles of Narnia