All about books - another TAG!

Another great "meme" (W.T.Heck does that word mean?) from Uncle Alabaster's blog via Lulu I believe!

Hardback or trade paperback or mass-market paperback? Hardback at home, paperbacks on vacation.
Amazon or brick and mortar? Amazon is very convenient, I must say. I have no problem ordering $200 of books from Amazon, I am not similarly inclined in person in a real bookstore. That being said, I do like the idea of quaint, non-chain bookstores, the reality is though, they don’t have what I am looking for. Sadly.
Barnes & Noble or Borders? BARNES & NOBLE! There is something not quite right about Borders, lurking under the surface I feel like they are secretly a “Christian” book store. I have no basis for this, just a hair on the back of my neck feeling I get when I walk in the store.
Bookmark or dog-ear? Bookmark! Have you met my father?!
Alphabetize by author or alphabetize by title or random? Are you serious? Categorize – maybe…which is to say, no non-cookbooks in the kitchen and that is about the only rule.
Keep, throw away, or sell? Yes.
Keep dustjacket or toss it? Keep it! Why would you throw it out? (Lulu answered it well, why change it?)


Read with dustjacket or remove it? Leave it on…part of the tactile experience of reading the book is holding the book in such a way that you don’t bend or dent the dust cover…some people play video games, I read really long books and “win” if no pages are damaged during the reading…extra points for not cracking the binding.
Short story or novel? I find short stories very unappealing, they are over before they really get going. My definition of a short story is any book thinner than an inch.
Collection (short stories by same author) or anthology (short stories by different authors)? Ugh, I guess anthology. 


Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket? His Dark Materials! But HP and LS are good too.
Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks? ASLEEP…not tired, actually asleep.
"It was a dark and stormy night" or "Once upon a time"? It was a dark and stormy night, the windshield wipers on the patrol car squeaked rhythmically as Dectective Roberts reached for his coffee. No one told him before he joined the academy that stake-outs would be this tedious or that the coffee would taste like it had been strained through socks…
Buy or Borrow? Buy or…there is always the library…
New or used? New or used…Costco for hardbacks.
Buying choice: book reviews, recommendation or browse? Browse…maybe recommendation but not that many people I know share my taste in books.
Tidy ending or cliffhanger? Depends on my mood. I love detective fiction because everything is resolved and the bad guy gets caught, but I recognize that life is rarely like that, so I can appreciate messy endings as well.

(Keeping Lulu’s answer, it is perfect – as usual)
Morning reading, afternoon reading or nighttime reading? Yes. A new “time” has materialized for me – breastfeeding time – more reading done then than anyother time.
Stand alone or series? Both – I do like certain detective series otherwise I don’t mind stand alones.
Favorite book of which nobody else has heard? Any of the Penny Vincenzi books, she is the European Danielle Steele.
Favorite book(s) read last year: Beach Road by James Patterson.
Favorite books of all time? Geez…like favorite movies of all time. I am not much for re-reading anything so this is tough…I guess the His Dark Material series and Patricia Cornwall and Tom Clancy and whats his name who wrote all those really FAT books (not Phat, FAT, thick, long) like Hawaii and The Source.
Tag? Cynical Chef and someone who knows me but that I don’t know reads much (that is to say, surprise me!)