This week’s questions at thefridayfive@DW

1. Most everyone will recommend a book or two to read, but are there any you would tell people to avoid?

No specific titles but I’d tell people to avoid reading books that don’t bring joy or feel like a duty when they’re reading as a hobby – whether that’s some classic like Jane Eyre or some current domestic award winning novel or a popular pure entertainment novel. And also, if you’ve started to read a book but it feels like work in a bad way, it’s okay to quit it!

2. If you take a book on vacation, are you more likely to take something you haven’t read yet or an old favorite?

Physical books: something I haven’t read, and preferably at least 2 of them! But I’d also bring my tablet which has books not yet read. books read many times over and books I’m in the middle of.

3. Do you read any genres by the season? Like horror around Halloween? Cozy Mysteries in the Winter? Romance in the Summer?

No seasonal readings for me! I read whatever I can get my hands on whenever I get it in my hands! I have a lot of books on queue in the library, so they get to me whenever regardless of the season and I’m always excited to get started on them.

4. If you read a lot of Fiction do you prefer an author that has a series with the same character(s), or do you prefer stand-alone stories?

I used to prefer series by a slight margin, but the last few years I’ve started to feel like everything needs to be a series nowadays to get published and it’s boring, sometimes even unsuitable/unneeded. I’ve noticed I get a lot of delight from stand-alones now!

5. Is there a book that you wish you could read again, but experience it like it was the first time?

Oh, so many! Watchers by Dean R. Koontz (first ever I read from him!), The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, the entire The Expanse series by by James S. A. Corey and many more!

Then there are several books series that I wish I had read in the correct order. Back in the day, it was often not mentioned anywhere on the jacket that it part of a series and you only figured it out after starting. Or now the jacket says “Shetland Series” but not number, so you’d accidentally read them in wrong order if you didn’t make a point of finding out the correct order. I’m very strict about reading in correct order these days, having been burned so many times.