This meme has been kicking around for a while now, but I've enjoyed reading other bloggers' responses and thought I'd give it a go myself at the suggestion of Julie at AustenOnly.
Do you snack while you read? Not so much. I often read while eating an actual meal, but I'm generally not a big between-meals snacker. If so, what is your favorite reading snack? Well, if pressed I would rarely say "no" to salt-and-vinegar potato chips.
What is your favorite drink while reading? Fresca. (Beverage of the gods.) Or just plain old ice water.
Do you tend to mark your books while you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you? I would only ever write in a textbook, never any other kind of book. That's what Post-It notes are for!
How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book open flat? Bookmarks, usually postcards I pick up at museums or elsewhere in my travels. Occasionally a dog-ear in a paperback book. I never EVER lay a book open flat.
Fiction, nonfiction, or both? Both, although I go through phases. I just finished a long run of non-fiction (I read a lot of history), and am now embarking on what I think is going to be a nice long stretch of fiction.
Are you a person who tends to read to the end of a chapter, or can you stop anywhere? Anywhere.
Are you the type of person to throw a book across the room or on the floor if the author irritates you? Um... no. Not really a drama queen.
If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop and look it up right away? One of my few worthwhile accomplishments is a black belt in vocabulary, so unless I'm reading a book on a technical or scientific subject I don't often encounter an unfamiliar word, but when I do I MUST look it up right then and there, otherwise I am incapable of continuing.
What are you currently reading? Honestly, Dearest, You're Dead, by Jack Fredrickson; The Imperfectionists, by Tom Rachman; The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande; Innocent, by Scott Turow.
What is the last book you bought? Last weekend I bought Those Who Save Us, by Jenna Blum, on the avid recommendation of a colleague.
Do you have a favorite time/place to read? Anytime, anywhere. Although I confess I'm looking forward to a long plane ride I have coming up this Saturday so I can have 6 or 7 uninterrupted hours of reading. Bliss! (Well, only because I upgraded to business class with 7 billion frequent flyer miles and some bone marrow, otherwise "bliss" would be "misery.")
Do you prefer series books or stand-alones? No preference. I do, however, love discovering a series after several books have already been published. This is what happened, for example, with Donna Leon's Inspector Brunetti series set in Venice. I didn't start reading this series until there were already about ten books and then I devoured them one after the other. What a enjoyable few weeks of reading THAT was!
Is there a specific book or author you find yourself recommending over and over? I'm forever trying to persuade people to read Anthony Trollope. (Really! You should!) I also love to recommend P.G. Wodehouse, Barbara Pym, and Dorothy Sayers. And lest anyone think I read only British authors, perish the thought -- I love Edith Wharton, Henry James (I know, I know, he became a British subject as an adult, but he's still homegrown), and on the contemporary scene, I'm a big fan of Dennis Lehane, Richard Russo, and Gail Godwin.
How do you organize your books (by genre, title, author's last name, etc.)? First by genre -- fiction in the living room, separated into American and British sections, with a shelf for French lit; general non-fiction in the dining area; essays and art books in the foyer; music-related-books in a huge basket bear the piano; biographies, design titles, and gardening books in the bedroom. (Of course, there are also random piles, especially of the larger-format art & design books, stacked high in a couple of spots -- including one pile I use as a side-table near my livingroom couch.) Then, although I do keep each author's work grouped together, I don't alphabetize or otherwise organize them on the shelves.