7 Deadly Sins of Reading

I'm getting ready to answer some questions for a SwapBot swap and thought I'd test it out here.  I'm supposed to answer the following questions.

• GREED: What is your most expensive book? Most inexpensive book?
• WRATH: What author do you have a love/hate relationship with?
• GLUTTONY: What book have you deliciously devoured over and over with no shame whatsoever?
• SLOTH: What book have you neglected reading due to laziness?
• PRIDE: What books do you most talk about in order to sound like a very intellectual reader?
• LUST: What attributes do you find most attractive in male or female characters?
• ENVY: What books would you most like to receive as a gift?

Maybe THE most expensive book I own is the one I typed -- "Fundamentals of Statistical and Thermal Physics," a textbook by Frederick Reif.  I don't remember how much it cost when it was published in about 1965, but it is still being sold today for $107.  You can get it second hand for $76.  Of course my copy is autographed, so it is probably worth more.  I looked up reader comments on the book on Amazon today and was pleased to read this comment:  "For a book that never saw a second edition, it is remarkably free of typos and errata."  Yay me!

As for the most inexpensive book, there are some that I have purchased on line for 1 cent.  The postage to mail them was significantly more than the cost of the book!

The love-hate relationship is with two authors:  James Patterson and Patricia Cornwell.  Patterson because he was one of my favorite authors before he started becoming an "industry," co-authoring with others and cranking out two or three books a year.  I strongly suspect that his "co-author-ship" consists of putting his name on the cover.  Some of them (Like "Zoo," the worst of the lot!) are godawful, but some still retain the magic that they had when I first discovered him.  Detective Alex Cross deserves better treatment than he has been getting lately

As to Patricia Cornwell things happened when she wrote "Blow Fly," which was the first dreadful book of hers.  I keep hoping to find what I found in her first several books, and occasionally there is a spark of the old Cornwell, but usually I am disappointed.  Again.  Kay Scarpetta seems to fare all right, but what Cornwell has allowed to happen to Merino and to her niece Lucy is unforgivable.

As for gluttony, it would have to be the "Outlander" series by Diana Gabaldon, of course.  I've read the books more than once and listen to the audio books frequently.  It's my go-to thing to listen to in the car if I'm not currently listening to a new book, and at the book store, if I only have an hour to read, I'll pick up one the books and just read at random.

My slothful confession is I have often not finished the more serious books, even those I really want to read, like Rachel Maddow's book.  I tend to be very shallow and stick with the easy to read thrillers.

Pride, hmmm?  Well any of the aforementioned "more serious" books that I actually finished I'm more likely to mention than to say that I read Rob Lowe's autobiography.

I like my female characters to have spunk and pride and to be able to survive on their own, if necessary.  I like the men to be gentle and polite and have a good sense of humor...and totally devoted to the women to whom they are attracted. And definitely not into S&M or sucking anybody's blood ("50 Shades" or "The Twilight Series")

The books on my Amazon wish list are usually the more expensive ones, usually something to do with show biz, either movies or theater, like "As You Wish: Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride," or Alan Cumming's autobiography, or "Nothing Like a Dame: Conversations with the Great Women of Musical Theater."