So, What's Your Favorite Book?

There are some recent changes going on at work. Specifically, my boss' boss (or my Grandboss, as I like to call him) will be moving to another team within the legal department. He's been with my team (Kindle Content) since he started six years ago, so we're going to miss him quite a bit.

Kindle Content basically means that he heads up the group that supports teams working with publishers of all stripes (including indie publishers) to get books, magazines, and comic books into the Kindle store and printed on demand. It seemed fitting that we get him a going-away gift that is related to books. My boss came up with the idea that we give him a copy of everyone's favorite book.

It's a good thing that the going-away toast isn't until Friday, because everyone had to take some time to come up with their favorite book. It's not an easy question, especially if you read a lot. I have my default favorite, based on how many different editions I own (A Wrinkle in Time), but somehow I didn't feel like that was quite appropriate for the audience. I decided to go with Small Gods by Terry Pratchett instead.

Everyone else, however, went with the classics. It almost makes me wonder if these are truly people's favorite books, or if it's the book they're most willing to admit to liking; for a lot of people, I get the feeling these are two different things.

So! What's your favorite book? What do you actually hold dearest to your heart, and what do you respond with when someone you don't know that well asks that same question?

How Do You Read?

So, anyone who is friends with me on Goodreads (incidentally, feel free to friend me!) will know that my Currently Reading shelf tends to get a little crowded. I know a lot of people prefer to read one book at a time, but that's never been my preferred method of reading.

For me, I usually have at least three books going at any given time: some sort of anthology or other type of bite-sized reading (currently, A History of Civilization in 50 Disasters and The Science of Discworld fill this niche), some series that I'm re-reading (usually in anticipation of a new book coming out - right now, that's Poison Study and Libriomancer), and something new to me that was recommended (City of Stairs and Knots and Crosses fill this niche). There are also other random things that I've picked up along the way (that would be Reflections, Prudence and Night Owls), but that part varies.

I read certain kinds of books faster than others, so some books may take me significantly longer to finish than others. I also try to cull the herd on occasion, and move books that I've started but not picked up again to the On Hold shelf - if it's there, it usually means that I want to pick it up again, just not right now.

Over the years, I've become more comfortable with flat giving up on a book. For a very long time, I felt that if I had committed to spending the money on the book, then I needed to finish it (or at least keep it with the intention of finishing it someday). Now, after some truly rough books, I've finally become willing to walk away from a book without finishing it. It's still difficult, and I still tend to give a bad book more of a chance than I probably should, but life is too short for bad books.

So, what about you? What kinds of books do you find yourself reading more regularly? Is there a method to your reading madness, or do you just start on whatever happens to be nearby?