If you had to pick five fictional literary characters who would best embody you (in some aspect, either now or in the past), who would you choose?
Laura Ingalls
The Dark Lady
Viola/Cesario
Mrs. Dalloway

This was a hard question. I tend not to identify with characters, a habit I picked up when I was reading mostly books with male protagonists.

Which five books (any genre) have had the greatest influence on you?
Othello (this is what got me hooked on Shakespeare)
1984 (scared the crap out of me)
Women of Brewster Place
Meridian (both of these books allowed me to explore the issues of race and racism in a way I hadn’t before)
One Hundred Years of Solitude (first real book I read in one gulp)

What is your favorite commonly censored book?
Huck Finn

If you would ever burn a book (God forbid), which book would it be? Why?
I would never burn a book on principle even if I hated it. But . . . Gravity’s Rainbow–yuk!

Are you a monogamous reader, or do you like to read around?
I’m usually reading two or three at once, but if I get really involved in one, I’ll put the others aside.

Last one, and be honest: Do you skip ahead to the ending?
Never. And I probably should have when I was in college.