Would You Rather: Book Edition

Thanks to Peat @ Peat Long’s Blog for tagging me in this via Twitter at the end of May. These questions have a SFF bent. Overall, the tag addresses a lot of common bookish topics I don’t think I’ve talked about here before, so you might learn something new about my reading habits!

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The Tag

📙 Would you rather read from a hardback, paperback or e-book?

Paperback (trade, not mass market). I like books where the pages fall open and feel soft in my hand. Paperback books are generally easier for me to hold as well. But I actually read hardcover most often. For my own shelves, I purchase hardcover whenever possible for the aesthetic and longevity. I’ll read e-books if I have to. As an ‘international’ blogger, I’m offered digital ARCs. This year, my e-reading has increased, as borrowing an e-book has been the only way to acquire new releases from the library.

📙 Would you rather crack the spine of a paperback book or ruin a hardback’s dust jacket?

Yikes, I’ll crack the spine, I guess. I keep my books in pristine condition as best I can. In this scenario, I value a dust jacket more than an unbroken spine.

📙 Would you prefer info dump on a world/magic system to a drip-feed technique?

Over the years, I’ve learnt I prefer drip-feed. I enjoy figuring out how a world or magic functions. I particularly love when the characters in a story know something about the world that you, the reader, don’t, and when that something is casually revealed, it hits you in a certain way and evolves your understanding of the narrative. (Deeplight and Never Let Me Go are great examples of SFF books I recently read that do this.)

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📙 Would you rather have a soft magic system or a hard magic system?

I think this question relates to the one above about info dump vs. drip feed. I prefer soft magic. I have often found when a book goes for a hard magic system, I get nitpicky and notice its gaps or flaws, which takes me out of the fantasy. Soft magic highlights what I love most about fantasy – feelings of awe and delight and wonder.

📙 Would you rather jump on board with a book series and wait to see if it gets traction or wait for a successful book series to be brought to your attention?

Hmm, I don’t pay particular attention to series either way. I prefer standalones. …Actually, I realize that means I wait for a successful book series to be brought to my attention. If enough people whose opinions I trust sing praises about a particular series, then I might check out the first book.

📙 Would you rather have dinner with your favourite character or author?

Easy – I’d have dinner with Tolkien. I have never thought about a favourite character I would like to dine with, and I’m sure I could come up with some good ones if I did, but there is so! much! I would love to discuss with Tolkien, I can’t pass up even a hypothetical opportunity.

📙 Would you rather read duologies, trilogies or standalone books?

I gave the answer away in a previous question: I prefer standalones. I do enjoy duologies, though. They have the advantages of both standalones and trilogies without the disadvantages. Room for a story and its characters to develop and grow, without suffering from middle book syndrome. If there were more of them, that’s probably what I would answer. (Please remember that The Lord of the Rings is one book published in three parts, not a trilogy 😜).

📙 Would you rather read self-published or traditionally published authors for 2 years straight?

Traditionally published, no contest. The reasoning why probably deserves its own post.

📙 Would you rather be stuck in your favourite SFF world or your favourite SFF book?

Interesting distinction. I probably wouldn’t want to be stuck in The Lord of the Rings, but I would be happy to be stuck in Middle-Earth maybe one or two hundred years prior…

📙 Would you rather read fantasy or science-fiction?

Fantasy. No surprise there.

📙 Would you rather have your favourite book adapted into a film or into a television series?

I have been treating The Lord of the Rings as my favourite book for the purpose of this post, which has had the film treatment. A few other childhood favourite fantasy books with film adaptations spring to mind, like Inkheart, Eragon, and Artemis Fowl. Notably, those were all terrible adaptations. Perhaps that is the price I pay for enjoying The LotR adaptation so much – I won’t enjoy another adaptation again, haha…

But I haven’t answered the question. Let’s continue with The LotR as my favourite book. I don’t want to see another adaptation of that in my lifetime. I do sometimes daydream about a Peter Jackson style (I think particularly of casting, soundtrack, setting, and cinematography) six film adaptation that more closely follows the structure of the six books.

📙 Would you rather have to reread your least favourite book every month, or never read your favourite book again?

I agree with Peat, who wrote, “That’s a monstrous question”. I will take the least favourite book, though. I know exactly which one it would be. At least it isn’t too long. I can’t give up The Lord of the Rings.

📙 Would you rather secretly love a book everyone else hates, or secretly hate a book everyone else loves?

I have done both, though I don’t generally make a secret of either. If I truly hate a book people loved, I want to discuss why with other readers. Maybe a book is problematic, maybe I didn’t understand something, etc. But this is uncommon. And if I loved a book others hated – same thing. I want to boost that book (or maybe I need to learn that’s it’s actually quite problematic). More often, I feel ‘meh’ when other readers felt ‘WOW’ and in that case I don’t make too big a fuss.

📙 Would you rather dog-ear your book, or never be able to mark your place?

Never mark my place. I have bookmarks and and bookdarts but I don’t use them consistently. I don’t like to dog-ear my books, so I would get by fine without marking my place.

📙 Would you rather listen to your favourite book as an audiobook narrated by the worst narrator ever, or never read it again?

I don’t listen to audiobooks. This is a slightly trickier question than the one above that had ‘never read your favourite book’ as an option. The LotR on audio must be days long. (Ooh, I just checked – it’s 66 hours.) How much would it hurt to hear it read by a bad narrator? But still, I think I would suffer that rather than never read it again. (I’m also assuming I can still read the hardcopy…)

📙 Would you rather have a disappointing end/unfulfilled cliffhanger, or lose your favourite character?

Lose my favourite character. If it’s done well, it hurts but serves a purpose. A disappointing ending can spoil my enjoyment of the entire story.

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I tag any SFF readers who haven’t answered these questions before on their blog and would like to. Or drop a comment letting me know if we have the same or different answers to any of these q’s.