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A Reading Census

Monday, March 28th, 2011

The other night I dutifully sat down and read through our census forms. Frankly I thought there would be more questions, and more in-depth questions at that. So to fill this woeful lack of insight (or should that be nosiness?) by the Census people, I’ve decided to compile an A&B Reading Census and had a a more enoyable time answering my questions…

Feel free to copy and paste the Q&A below and send us your answers – or alternatively suggest some other questions – you never know, we might end up with a proper state of the nation style report (or maybe a just few funny/insightful comments, which would be nice too!).

THE ALLISON & BUSBY READING CENSUS

Q. What book are you currently reading?
A. Jane’s Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World by Claire Harman

Q. How many ebooks have you read (on any device) in the past 12 months?
A. Ballpark figure of 10

Q. Where do you purchase the majority of your books?
A. Ummm, it would have to be Amazon, though I’ve been reading more library / office borrowings of late

Q. Have there been any books whose success has mystified you in the past year?
A. I remember being mystified that The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, by Stieg Larsson hadn’t been trimmed down considerably.

Q. How frequently have you used a public library in the past four weeks?
A. Between books and DVDs I think I’ve been in mine three weekends out of four – God bless librarians!

Q. Do you follow book review coverage, if so where?
A. Nope, not a jot.

Q. What was the last book you gave as a gift, to whom?
A. House of Angels, by Freda LIghtfoot (large print edition) for my Gran. Before that The Flavour Thesaurus for my Mum

Q. What is your proudest reading achievement?
A. Reading Clarissa by Samuel Richardson without injuring a wrist hefting that tome or slipping a disk schlepping it to and from uni. I’m sure Georgina will feel a similar sense of achievement when she scales the top of War and Peace.

Q. What is your favourite A&B book?
A. The Basic Eight by Daniel Handler

Q. Your reading guilty pleasure is…?
A. Georgette Heyer

Q. Author you love to hate is…?
A. Perhaps I shouldn’t answer this one…

Q. Main motivation for purchasing a book
A. I’m a sucker for pretty covers

Q. Title you ‘should’ have read by now (see #abouttimeiread recent twitter feed)
A. Catch 22 and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – I’ve reserved a library copy though!

Q. Adaptations are not everyone’s cup of tea, but what book do you think is crying out for the Andrew Davies / Hollywood treatment?
A. Maybe some of Marian Keyes books, she can be hilarious.

Q. Your number one comfort read is…?
A. It’s not often I can be bothered to reread books, perhaps Jane Austen’s Emma or Persuasion.

Q. What book should have had a sequel?
A. Ooh, good question (thanks Lara!) although I can’t think of a book that left me wanting more in a good way.

Lesley-Anne Crooks, Sales & Digital Manager

Post your answers  or other questions below or email chiara@allisonandbusby.com

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