Reading: love it or hate it?

This week's GTT topic is reading/books.  I love reading.  Love it!  Surfing The Intertubez is probably the only thing I do more often and might enjoy a teeny, tiny bit more, and let's face it: still reading!

My mom is an avid reader; I don't really remember her reading to me a lot, but I grew up watching her have a book close at hand all the time.  I have been voraciously devouring books since I learned how to read (even though it's one of my favourite pastimes*, I can't remember when I learned to read).  I took a book with me EVERYWHERE we went.  No, seriously - I remember riding in the backseat of the car (I was probably 5 or 6) going to pick Dad up from work and trying to read snatches as we drove under street lights.   

It used to drive Mom CRAZY: instead of dragging around a dirty blanket or a raggedy stuffed toy, (library) books were my security blanket (so, something fairly expensive to replace if lost, since they didn't belong to us).  Now that I think about it, it's little wonder I had trouble making friends when I was a kid - I was an antisocial little bugger!  I guess it could be argued that I sought solace in books because it was so hard for me to make friends...  (I went to nine schools in nine years: we moved a LOT.)  Books were an excellent escape for me.  And the best part?  I didn't have to do the imagining because some author was doing it for me!

As I've gotten older, reading has truly become a beloved pastime.  I spent so many years reading "scholarly journals" and text books (took me forEVah to finish my damned degree, remember) that I only read fluff now.  I *might* pick up a biography if it really interests me, and there WAS that spell a few years back where true crime books really intrigued me, but nine times out of ten I'm reading fiction - and some really crap fiction, to boot.  *cough*Twilight*cough*

I tend to lean towards mystery/crime novels (think Faye Kellerman) and chick lit (think Jennifer Crusie).  I'm not crazy about the Harlequin romance-type stuff; sci-fi novels don't really interest me (and I RE.FUSE. to spell it "syfy"); and if I pick up a book without realizing it's a historical romance, I'll throw it (gently!) across the room - not my thing.

I frequent the public library like it's going out of style because a) I love to read, b) I'm cheap, and c) I don't have the space to house all the books I'd end up buying.  I dog-ear the pages unless it's a book I've borrowed from a friend.  If your editor did a piss-poor job on proofing your book and it's full of grammatical errors (or you can't keep your characters straight), I likely won't read you again (honest to Ceiling Cat, this is why I stopped reading early Danielle Steel when in high school - that shit was BAD).  I only read one book at a time - NEVER more.  I have a two-chapter rule: if a book still hasn't grabbed my attention after chapter two, it's probably gonna continue to suck (IM(not so)HO).  Life's too short for bad books!

Do you read for pleasure?  What is your favourite topic/genre?  Who is your favourite author?  Do you have a favourite book?

*"Pastime" always looks SO WRONG to me!