ms mac did this bookly meme a while ago, and i… stole it. but i added on the first question to be different. you know i like to talk books! plus, it’s kind of an ideal post-trashionista ‘what next for my reading future?’ (or something slightly less self-indulgent).

what have you just read?

a very interesting collection of funny autobiographical essays on being fired, called… fired! tales of the canned, cancelled, downsized and dismissed. i really recommend it. before that, home by julie myerson which was a work of art. and i also just read and loved on becoming fearless so much i have added arianna huffington to my inspiring women list.

what are you reading now?

how to survive your mother. it sounds like a self-help book and the cover looks like a misery memoir, but it’s neither. it’s part TV journo jonathan maitland’s biography of his mother (a very interesting character) and partly a memoir of his investigation into her um, ‘misdeeds’, which he only becomes aware of in his forties… funny, sometimes shocking and a definite page turner.

do you have any idea what you’ll read when you’re done with that?

yes, thank you.

oh, you want me to tell you?

i have louise doughty’s novel in a year waiting for me at the library along with water for elephants. (i’m also hoping bill bryson’s shakespeare and peter falk’s autobiog turn up there soon…)

what’s the worst thing you were ever forced to read?

at junior school, a teacher made us listen to her read - which is even worse - the hobbit. i floated off into a trance and hated tolkein from that day forwards.

what’s one book you always recommend to just about anyone?

there isn’t one book i recommend to everyone, but i don’t know anyone who’s hated marley & me, and i keep forcing between, georgia on everyone ‘cos i loved it so much.

admit it, sadly the librarians at your library know you on a first name basis, don’t they?

no. *sob* - i long for them to know me by name!

is there a book you absolutely love, but for some reason, people never think it sounds interesting, or maybe they read it and don’t like it at all?

well, i loved tepper isn’t going out, a satire about the problem of parking in new york. i know how dry that sounds, but it’s a wonderfully funny, clever little book by the great - and very underrated - calvin trillin.

also, i don’t know anyone who loves elinor lipman like i do, although everyone should.

do you read books while you eat?

of course! that or watch tv.

while you bathe?

i haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate baths. hate ‘em! and there’s no need to take a book into the shower.

while you watch movies or tv?

noooooo. that would be silly. although during ocean’s 13, i wished i had a book.

actually, i have browsed a book during boring bits of movies or when my mum’s watching (UGH!) jeremy kyle or similar abominations of the small screen.

while you listen to music?

i don’t really listen to music. i used to, i’m just not bothered anymore. except v. occasionally, in which case i’m usually doing something else at the same time - but never reading, or my brain would explode.

while you’re on the computer? 

no.

when you were little did other children tease you about your reading habits?

what, the fact that i had some?

reading’s never been a stigma where i come from. plus, there were pur-lenty of other things for them to tease me about, trust me.

what’s the last thing you stayed up half the night reading because it was so good you couldn’t put it down?

that damn laurie notaro, i think. SO good!