What Does Reader Rob Want?

 

Reader Questionnaire: What Does Reader Rob Want?

(With a tip of the hat to the Inside the Actor’s Studio)

 

First Name:  Rob
Gender:  Male
Age Range:61+
Occupation:  Retired (very tiring)

What occupation (other than yours) would you like to try? Never gave anything but writing a thought, past the age of say 7

What sound or noise do you love? Many-many.  Rain after drought.  The onset of a thunderstorm in hot summer weather.  The laughter of children.

What sound or noise do you hate? Whining, especially of children, but even of cats

What is your favorite word? Too many to list, I love words.  Easier to list least favorite, but I can’t think what would be worst.

Fiction or Nonfiction? That I read?  Both.

Genre? Usually SF/fantasy in fiction, sometimes a mystery; history, bio, autobio, and recent events in nonfiction

Ebook, audio book, or physical book? I still prefer a physical book, partly because my Kindle’s index is messed up.  It only lists half a dozen books, though if I remember title or author I can pull up the others.  But who can remember them all?  Also, the physical book will still be readable, whereas magnetic memories are very frail.

What makes you choose a book to read? Author? Cover? Blurb? Any or all of the foregoing, and other things as well:  reviews, recommendations, etc.

Recommendation?  Anything by James Schmitz.  I also like Jack McDevitt, Jack Vance, Matthew Hughes, and a whole bunch of classics, Heinlein and all that.  

What makes you put down a book? Bad writing, lack of logic, inaccurate characterization or observation.  If’s well-written but merely dull, I’ll probably go on, but I’ll never re-read it.  A good book bears re-reading.

What are you reading now? Currently re-reading C. J. Cherryh’s “Chanur” series.

Do you re-read books? The good ones, yes.

All time favorite book? Too many to list.  There are a hundred in the top ten, even.

If heaven exists, what would you want St. Peter to say?  “Welcome!  The library’s that way.”

~~~~~

Hi! This is Lynette again.

I love that last answer, don’t you?

Now I have to confess, Rob Chilson is my co-author and a dear friend. He and I wrote three White Box novellas, two of which were published in Analog Science Fiction, Science Fact Magazine. He graciously agreed to take my little questionnaire. Here’s a photo of us from a few years back.

Want to know a little more about Rob? Here’s a portion of his bio:

I was born at home in Oklahoma, after my mother spent part of the morning hoeing in the garden. It was a pretty old-fashioned family even for that time (1945) and place. My father was a scarecrow. We subsequently moved to California, where my memories begin. I remember the first flake of snow I ever saw. (It disappeared before I got a good look at it.) Since then I’ve lost track of snowflakes; we moved back to Missouri (my mother’s natal state) when I was eight, and I have been a confirmed Midwesterner ever since.

I decided, about age six, that I wanted to be a writer. I even wrote a couple of stories. I concluded that I was not yet ready to be a writer, so postponed it until I was grown up. At age eleven, I concluded that I now knew enough to be a writer; for instance, I now understood improper fractions.

Read more on his website: http://www.robchilson.name

Better yet, buy one of his books. One of my favorites is his spoof on horror comics called Black as Blood.

You are a reader (or you wouldn’t be reading this blog). Would you like to be included in this series? Click here to download the Reader Interview as a pdf. Click here for the Reader Interview as a word document.