1. Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews?

I absolutely hate self-help books, especially if they've been recommended by Oprah. I have nothing against Oprah, just against self-help books that she's recommended. 

2. Borrowing shamelessly from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde, you are told you can't die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for a while, eventually you realize it’s past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave?

I do own a book which I use when insomnia hits. It's a great reference book, but lousy, soporifc, and perhaps life-ending reading: The Textbook of Human Evolutionary Anatomy by Christopher Dean and Michael Aiello.

3. Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you’ve read, when in fact you’ve been nowhere near it?

Possibly War and Peace. I honestly did try to read it.  

4. You’re interviewing for the post of Official Book Adviser to some VIP (who’s not a big reader). What’s the first book you’d recommend and why? 

Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. I'd want to work with someone who had an imagination and a willingness to suspend disbelief, and his/her opinion of this book would let me know a lot about that person.  

5.A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with? 

Hmmm. Probably French - I have some French but not enough for my liking - as I'd love to read André Gide in the original French, and also the book Les Grands Meaulnes by Alain Robbe-Grillait [all spelling of book and title questionable] as they had such a profound effect on the writings of John Fowles.  

6. A mischievous fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will reread once a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick? 

I already have an annual reread of Pride and Prejudice and of Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose. I suppose the good fairy could add Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres to that list, or perhaps something by Rohinton Mistry.  

7. I know that the book blogging community, and its various challenges, have pushed my reading borders. What’s one bookish thing you ‘discovered’ from book blogging (maybe a new genre, or author, or new appreciation for cover art – anything)? 

The only book blogging community of which I'm a member is the 50 book challenge - but I have tried so many different books, successful and unsuccessful, because of the community. The bookish thing that I've learned is that vampire stories are cool! I'd never read one before because I can be a pretentious ass sometimes, but I soaked up vampires for about three months last year, and Stephenie Meyer's Twilight was honestly one of my favourite books of 2007.

8. That good fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she’s granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leather-bound? Is it full of first edition hard covers? Pristine trade paperbacks? Perhaps a few favourite authors have inscribed their works? Go ahead – let your imagination run free.

-  a really good collection of Canadian fiction. I'm embarassed by how little I own.
- every Pulitzer Prize-winning book ever published.
- a first edition of Pride and Prejudice
- a book by every literature Nobelist
- tons of poetry
- an absolutely perfect comfy chair to curl up in, with nearby areas for notebooks, pens, water bottle, and perhaps a mini-fridge stocked with Diet Pepsi.