I have ALWAYS been obsessed with the Nutcracker. When I was younger, I danced in the Nutcracker every year with my dance studio. When I learned to dance on pointe, my first performance in toe shoes was as an angel in the Nutcracker.

When we moved to Florida, my new studio didn’t put on a production of the Nutcracker, and this devastated me as I had fallen hopelessly in love at this point. I had to stay involved somehow, so I started a collection. Today my nutcracker collection is quite extensive, and I am so thrilled that I have my Christmas decorations in North Carolina now because I will be able to put some of them up in my apartment! No worries, I’ll post pictures when that happens

I was thrilled when my senior year in high school, the women’s chorus that I was the president of at my school was offered the opportunity to sing the vocals at the end of the first act. I was thrilled to be involved again with my favorite ballet and a now required part of my Christmas. It was fantastic to be able to participate in this show in a new way, and I still sing along when I hear the soundtrack!

And now, it’s all coming full circle. Today, here in graduate school, I am in my box office rotation. And every five minutes or so the phone rings and I sell a few Nutcracker tickets to children and their grandparents . . . does it sound cheesy for me to say this makes me feel all warm and fuzzy?

I love the Nutcracker . . .

Well, ya know I had to participate in this one! If you want to do this one, please let me know in the comments so that I can read what you have to say! Officially, I dub that Brittany and Amy have to do this one, but anyone can join in!

Hardback or trade paperback or mass market paperback? Trade paperback. Hardbacks are too big and mass markets are too small - I like to be able to read with the book in one hand, between my thumb and pinkie.

Amazon or brick and mortar? AMAZON!!! The prices are soooo much cheaper, plus I can do all the wishlist/recommendation stuff. Also, I have been known to walk out of a bookstore with 2 overflowing bags of books . . . when I hadn’t intended to buy any . . .

Barnes & Noble or Borders? Barnes and Noble - love the atmosphere, and the selection is better.

Bookmark or dogear? Bookmark bookmark bookmark!!! My mom makes beautiful bookmarks out of beads and ribbon, and now I can’t live without mine!

Alphabetize by author or alphabetize by title or random? At the moment they are all just sort of grouped by genre, but that is because I have a severe lack of a good bookcase. When I get a good bookcase for my next apartment, I’m probably gonna go all out and file them by their Dewey numbers, so that’s genre, then author alpha.

Keep, throw away, or sell? Keep books that I really really loved, and then the ones that I don’t I TRADE!!! All of my books that are not sentimental for me are listed at Bookcrossing.com (which I highly recommend all readers use), and then I trade either with other BCers or on PaperBackSwap.com. This means that I have spent significantly less money on books in the past 6 months or so, and my wallet thanks me for that.

Keep dustjacket or toss it? I keep it - even though they’re annoying, they look nice, and they’re part of the book!

Read with dustjacket or remove it? Like I said, they’re annoying! I always manage to rip them if I read with them on, so off they go!

Short story or novel? Novel! Though give me some Edgar Allan Poe and I’ll be happy all afternoon.

Collection (short stories by same author) or anthology (short stories by different authors)? Collection. I often find that anthologies are too disjointed for me.

Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket? Oooooooo, LOVE Harry Potter! Though, to be fair, I haven’t read Lemony Snicket, only saw the movie, so that’s on the TBR list.

Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks? I am soooo horrible about this. I stop reading when I get tired, though often I get invigorated by reading, so I don’t get tired . . . which means I read until the book is done, even if that’s at 4:30AM.

“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”? Neither. How about “there was a shoe sale at Barney’s” . . .

Buy or Borrow? Buy. Another thing I’m really bad at. I really really want that book to be MINE. Getting to the point where I’m OK with trading for “new” books took a while (yeah, OCD much?), but I feel like they are mine, so it’s OK. Sometimes I borrow from my mom, but let’s be honest, I feel like I partially own all of her stuff, and visa versa, ya know?

New or used? New or traded. I rarely buy used (unless it’s a textbook - then we’ve reached a different area altogether).

Buying choice: book reviews, recommendation or browse? I like to browse, but if I’m buying chick lit off of Amazon (which I rarely do anymore), the reader reviews are helpful. Since those are all pretty mindless anyways, the opinions tend to lead you in the right direction.

Tidy ending or cliffhanger? I usually want a tidy ending. I know it may be more intellectual to let you figure it out yourself at the end, but I’m reading for pleasure - indulge me.

Morning reading, afternoon reading or nighttime reading? Nighttime. If I read in the day I feel like I should be doing something else, and then I can’t enjoy it as much. Though I do tend to read in certain places - airports/airplanes, coffeeshops, when I get my hair highlighted (I’m sure they love how untalkative I am) . . .

Stand-alone or series? It depends on the series. I usually go for stand-alones because there aren’t many good series in the genres that I like to read.

Favorite series? While now it’s probably Harry Potter, I probably would need to say Baby-Sitters Club is my all time favorite . . . that series changed my life.

Favorite children’s book? What a difficult question! I don’t think I can answer this one . . . it requires some serious soul-searching . . .

Favorite book of which nobody else has heard? Don’t really have much to contribute to this one. I really like Thomas Hardy books, and if you’re not an English major, you may not have heard of him . . .

Favorite books read last year? Last year wasn’t too hot for reading - I was reading for class, and then I was on reading burnout.

Favorite books of all time? Ahhhhh! Another one that I don’t know how to answer! Mmmm, let’s go with Baby-Sitters Club, a collection of Edgar Allan Poe, Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks, and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.

Least favorite book you finished last year? Had to be one of those awful things I read last year for my pre-1700 World civ class . . .

What are you reading right now? Just finished Loose Lips: A Novel by Claire Berlinski last night!

What are you reading next? The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Hat Tip: Shannon @ Rocks In My Dryer

I got invited out with Living Parables for a 1/2 birthday celebration for one of the members who was abroad last semester. It was great to get to see them all again - Parables is by far the thing I miss the most about being in college. It was good to see the Parables who were still there from when I was there, and it was fun to get to know the new Parables a little better (even Marcus, the weird one ;-)). Thanks guys for a fun evening!!!

Also, I just found out a that a childhood friend of mine who got married last year is now pregnant . . . and I’m a little freaked out. I’m 22, and it’s a little strange to think that I’ve got a friend who will be a mother soon (she’s my age). I’m super excited for her. She’s going to make a great mom. But I was just getting used to the idea of buying wedding gifts. Must go find cute pink something for the new little Greystone girl!

I just spent the past hour and a half chasing down every last reference I could find to something that I saw mentioned in passing on a website . . . The Baby-Sitters Club.

I LOVED these books. I was a member of the fan club, so I got three new books every month, and a newsletter, and all sorts of cool BSC fan-stuff . . . stickers, keychains, the works. I eventually owned all the books, and I had the movie (which I remember being disappointed in - my first book-to-movie disappointment!). I got Red Cross certified to be a baby-sitter, and I even tried to start up my own baby-sitters club (which failed miserably due to a lack of fellow baby-sitters).

Man, I was obsessed for YEARS. Those books came with us on vacation, out to dinner, to school - I remember my teachers telling my parents that I was reading them in class when I was supposed to be working (even though I’d finished my work). My parents had to put me on a “book diet,” monitoring how much I read. Now, keep in mind, I read LOTS of books, so this wasn’t BSC specific, but having over a hundred of these babies sure didn’t help.

I still remember when we donated my entire set of books once I was in high school. It still makes me sad to think that they’re gone, and even though I know that now others can enjoy them, a little piece of me still wants them for my own.

Did you read Baby-Sitters Club books? Or any others? The Boxcar Children and Little House on the Prairie books were also favorites ;-)!