Ah, books. I love books. I don’t read enough books. I gacked this from indefatigable42.

1. I’m currently reading: Grandmothers of the Light by Paula Gunn Allen in the reading room and Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott in my purse.
2. Next I’ll read: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez in the reading room and The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman in my purse.
3. The best book I read in the past year was: Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett.
4. The book I’m most looking forward to reading is: Whatever the next Terry Pratchett novel is. 🙂
5. My favourite author is: Roald Dahl forever! But I’m also fond of Pratchett.
6. My favourite book from childhood is: Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl.
7. My favourite book from when I was a teenager is: Ditto.
8. The first western I read was: I don’t think I’ve yet to read a western.
9. The first romance I read was: I’ve tried reading romances, but I never finish them. However, I (and judiang, my backer) paid good money for an autographed copy of Elusive Paradise by Eleanor Frost (the penname of our dear friend elsaf.)
10. The first mystery I read was: The Ten Little Indians by Agatha Christie (though I did read old Encylopedia Brown books before then).
11. The first coming-of-age story I read was: Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume.
12. The first “ethnic” writer I read was: Maya Angelou (if that counts for “ethnic” – I mean, she’s not my ethnicity… I know that surprises you, Judi!) – her book Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas.
13. The first science-fiction/fantasy book I read was: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.
14. I wish I spent more time reading: Yes indeedy doo. I envy Granny who gets a truckload of books from the library every two weeks and gets them all read and then goes back for more.
15. The book I think was the greatest waste of my time to read was: Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler. I didn’t get more than one chapter read and more than half of that was footnotes. Dreadful man, that Hitler.
16. The person who most encouraged me to read was: My parents – they used to read to me while I took my bath. I still picture one of them (either mom or dad) sitting on the toilet seat and reading something by Dahl or someone else.
17. The book I’m embarrassed to admit I liked is: Storm Harvest by Perry & Tucker (a 7th Doc BBC book).
18. I think people could be encouraged to read through: finding books with characters that resonate with them. Heck, I read the book Nobody Likes Trina by Phyllis A Whitney several times because there was actually a character in it called Trina! Do you know how special that was for me?
19. My current favourite genre is: mystery and quirky fantasy (Pratchett, Fforde and the like).
20. The one book that I’d recommend to almost anyone is: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon.

And YAY – for now, my new animated icon is working. Woohoo! (I may have to tinker with it a bit – the words may be going too quickly.)

[Edit 9:35pm – With input from elsaf I decided that it was, indeed, too fast. So I went back to Animation Shop and I think it works much better now. Animated icons are EASY – once you know how. ;-)]