Welcome back for the second edition of “You’ve got Q’s, I’ve got A’s,” in which I will visit a few more of the respondents to my blogiversary survey and address the questions they left for me. And for those of you who missed – or skipped – the survey the first time around, I’m re-printing it at the end of this post. C’mon, y’all, I really don’t enjoy groveling…but it would make me very happy to see you joining in and responding in the comments here!

** I’m glad that Mike chose to participate. If you’re a frequent visitor, you’ve probably seen him around here – he’s one of the most regular commenters  – and you should check out his take on the world at his blog Everything Under the Sun. He’s a lifelong resident of the Chicago suburbs who works a very weird schedule sometimes, and he has a wife, two kids (one of each), and a beautiful Golden Retriever named Quincy who recently celebrated his first birthday. We met as participants in the Weekend Assignments, and he wouldn’t mind seeing some discussion of Sci-Fi books here – but that means I would have to read some. Mike’s question is in reference to the accident my family had in February:

Did I not mention that? Yes, we did – it’s a 2009 Honda Accord, and my husband has been driving it for a little over a month. He likes it a lot – much roomier and more comfortable than his old Civic, and it handles well too. The purchase did mean he had to acknowledge that he’s a grown-up now, though – he went for the interior amenities instead of the V-6 engine.

** Heather J’s blogging career began when she decided to document her reading during the year she entered her third decade in the blog Age 30: A Year of Books. When that year ended, she wanted to keep documenting, and so she re-named the blog Age 30+…A Lifetime of Books. She also maintains a blog for her book club, and is a fellow Lost fanatic who contributes to the LOST Book Challenge blog as an episode recapper and book reviewer. Heather and her 7-year-old son have a book club of their own, where they read books together and she posts their discussions – I love that idea! Perhaps it’s not surprising that Heather’s question is book-related:

Honestly, I would avoid being in that situation if at all possible. I don’t often make make off-the-cuff book suggestions to anyone, even to those I do know pretty well. I would definitely ask them a few questions about their interests and reading habits, and try to get a sense of their personality, before tossing any suggestions out there. However, there are a few books that I have liked so much that I’ve pretty much recommended them to anyone who will listen:

And one I’m sure I’ll be recommending a lot in the future, since I just read it within the last month or so and haven’t had too many chances to plug it yet:

** Tanabata blogs at In Spring It is The Dawn, where her photographs and book reviews are the main attractions. She and I first encountered each other over at Musings of a Bookish Kitty, where we’re both frequent commenters on Wendy (Literary Feline)‘s posts. She’s a traveler herself – currently living in Japan, previously residing in England, native of Canada – who particularly enjoys my posts about my family’s wanderings, and left a message for my husband:

“(T)ell Tall Paul you have to take more holidays, so you can blog about them! Think it’ll work? ;)” Consider him told!

Tanabata’s question is one that I’m sure many of us reading junkies have thought about often:

There’s one wall of built-in bookshelves, with free-standing shelves on a couple of other walls. There is actually enough shelf space to allow me to organize the books! I’ve sorted them alphabetically by author within the fiction and nonfiction divisions, and TBR Purgatory is not mingling with the books that I’ve read already. All of the bookshelves have glass doors, to keep the books free of dust and allow me to skim the shelves easily (so I don’t forgt what’s there). A couple of large windows provide natural light, and one of them has a comfortable, built-in window seat – a chest near the window holds some blankets and throw pillows to make that nook even cozier. Additional seating is provided by an armchair with an ottoman and a well-upholstered couch; reading lamps and small tables (to hold drinks, snacks, and extra books) are well-placed among the furnishings. It’s a welcoming room, and it’s located not too far from the center of the house, so that the readers aren’t sequestered.

Can you picture it? Can you tell that I have?

** Nicole‘s book blog, Linus’s Blanket, is a relatively recent addition to my books blogroll, and I’m enjoying getting to know her through that and Twitter. Nicole’s another former Southerner – now a New Yorker, by way of Alabama. She likes the mix of things she finds here, and she says that you may see a variation on TBIF over at her place one of these days. Nicole asked about one of my favorite topics that’s NOT books:

I enjoy cooking when I’m not rushed about it, but I don’t cook nearly as much as I used to. A few years of living on my own – when I really only had to cook twice a week – and a second marriage to a man who’s often content with popcorn or cereal for dinner really cut back on my cooking habits, and an evening commute of over an hour isn’t terribly motivating either. Having said that, I do make very good homemade tomato sauce, and pasta of almost any kind always works for me. These days, my favorite meal to prepare happens to be my stepson’s favorite meal to eat, so I get a lot of gratification from it: barbecue meatloaf (made with ground turkey and chicken, onion soup mix, and barbecue sauce) with macaroni and cheese on the side, a nod to my own Southern roots.

** I met Wendi when she took over “Tuesday Thingers” from Marie at The Boston Bibliophile. Her blog is Wendi’s Book Corner ~ Rainy Day Reads in Seattle – which also answers the “where are you from?” question – where she reviews more nonfiction than many of us do, and I really like the way she structures her reviews. Wendi goes a bit meta with her blogging-related question:

Comments! They inspire me! Seriously, I really enjoy the conversational aspects of blogging much more than I could have imagined, and I’ve gotten to know some great people that I doubt I ever would have encountered otherwise. I started this blog to keep track of my reading, and it’s definitely helped me a lot with that, but it’s become a lot more besides. I’m glad to have a place of my own to express myself and develop my writing – and since it’s my place, I get to write about whatever I want! Luckily, some of it seems to strike the right chord with people.

** A few of the folks who have answered my survey didn’t leave questions for me to answer, but I want to give them their shout-outs too:

Kim from Sophisticated Dorkiness is a grad student from Madison, Wisconsin, a fellow Weekly Geek, and founder of the Blog Improvement Project. She’s a fan of TBIF, where I collect all of my weekly book-meme responses in one ridiculously long post.

Ali is a home-schooling mom in Oregon who blogs at Worducopia and is one of the leaders of the Weekly Geeks team. She likes the Saturday Review and posts about my family, in addition to the book-related stuff.

Michelle of Fluttering Butterflies visits from England fairly often; she’s a student and the mother of two young sons who likes the variety of content here.

So many of us read Harriet the Spy when we were kids – did you know that she has a blog now? In any case, there is a blog called Spynotes authored by Harriet – draw your own conclusions. I was introduced to this Harriet by the Green-Eyed Siren and immediately added Spynotes to my blogroll; she’s another Chicago-based blogger, and she also blogs about parenting and educating gifted children at AJ’s Clubhouse. She’s relatively new here, but says she likes it enough to keep coming back, so that’s good.

And as threatened promised, here’s the original survey once again:

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