As created by Eva, who will enter you in a drawing if you leave a comment on her post. Thanks for the, Sheila! I’m tagging Alissa, Terri, Megan, Rhinoa, and Ian–or Ian’s dad

Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews?

Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union. I was in the midst of a horrific breakup while reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and I put it down halfway through and have not Chabonned since.

In addition, he just can’t shake the stink of pretension in my eyes. He’s in the same company as Jonathan Lethem.

If you could bring three characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be?

Now that I’m a mom, I’m flooded with insecurity and questions about child-rearing. So I’d like to spend a day at the park with Marmee from Little Women, Meg Murry’s mom from A Wrinkle in Time, and Kristin Lavransdatter from The Cross. I’d just sit and listen to them tell me everything they’ve learned from raising such fantastic children.

(Borrowing shamelessly from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde): you are told you can’t die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for awhile, eventually you realise it’s past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave?

Christian Metz’s The Imaginary Signifier. I hope I don’t have my master’s revoked for admitting that I could never get past page one.

Come on, we’ve all been there. Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you’ve read, when in fact you’ve been nowhere near it?

Um… see previous?

As an addition to the last question, has there been a book that you really thought you had read, only to realise when you read a review about it/go to ‘reread’ it that you haven’t? Which book?

That has never happened to me. I can’t imagine what that would be like.

You’re interviewing for the post of Official Book Advisor to some VIP (who’s not a big reader). What’s the first book you’d recommend and why? (if you feel like you’d have to know the person, go ahead of personalise the VIP)

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, because it was an intoxicatingly pleasurable reading experience.

A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with?

Like Sheila, I’m going to go with Russian. My second choice would have to be French (and dammit, at one point I was so close).

A mischievious fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will reread one a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick?

War and Peace… having finally read it, I feel like it’s an imperative to read this book as regularly as possible.

I know that the book blogging community, and its various challenges, have pushed my reading borders. What’s one bookish thing you ‘discovered’ from book blogging (maybe a new genre, or author, or new appreciation for cover art-anything)?

Booking Through Thursday has been fun. Author-wise, I don’t think I would have read Henry Green or Robertson Davies if it hadn’t been for blogging.

That good fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she’s granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leatherbound? Is it full of first edition hardcovers? Pristine trade paperbacks? Perhaps a few favourite authors have inscribed their works? Go ahead-let your imagination run free.

Well, Sheila basically described what would be my dream space, I’m going to also add a touch of magic. Bookshelves that never run out of room. Books that never go missing. Books that are always available to lend out–even if they never come back, there’s always a copy available. And a magic clock, so I can stop the hands of time and steal an hour to read.

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