I’ve seen this challenge/tag thing going around on BookTube recently, and I don’t know how well it applies to a blog since there’s supposed to be a timing element to it that 1) I’m not going to do and 2) even if I did do it, you wouldn’t be able to tell without a video. So instead I’m just going to answer the questions like for a regular tag, and it should still be fun.
There are a lot of questions—20, to be exact—so let’s go!
#1: Do you have a book with deckled edges?
Yes, I do! Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake.
#2: Do you have a book with 3 or more people on the cover?
Yes, of course I do. I have many, but here’s a couple of examples: Little House in the Big Woods, The Lost Hero.
#3: Do you have a book based on another fictional story?
Yes! Here’s Cinder by Marissa Meyer.
#4: Do you have a book with a title 10 letters long?
Incarceron by Catherine Fisher!
#5: Do you have a book with a title that starts and ends with the same letter?
This question was the first one I had trouble with. I stared at every single book on my shelves, and I was only able to find one book out of my entire collection that starts and end with the same letter—and that book is Shady Characters by Keith Houston, which is actually a nonfiction book about the history behind typographic characters, some well-known and well-used, some less so. Yes, it’s a very nerdy book, but I love these types of things.
#6: Do you have a Mass Market Paperback book?
Yes, I do. I know a lot of people hate Mass Market Paperbacks, but I don’t really understand why. Sure, they’re not floppy, often not as pretty as other editions, but most of the time they’re cheaper than regular paperbacks, which, you know, saving money is always a good thing in my opinion.
Anyway, here’s a Mass Market Paperback that I own: Elantris by Brandon Sanderson.
#7: Do you have a book written by an author using a pen name?
Well, J.K. Rowling is technically a pen name, since the author’s actual name is Joanne Rowling, and that’s the only one I can think of off the top of my head. Here’s a book of hers I’ve read recently, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
#8: Do you have a book with a character’s name in the title?
The last book I chose counts, but I want to try to pick a different book for every question, so here’s another one: Cress by Marissa Meyer. That one was an easy one, since all of the Lunar Chronicles books are titled after the main character of that book.
#9: Do you have a book with 2 maps in it?
Yep! Pretty much all of Brandon Sanderson’s books have at least two maps, but here’s the one I chose: The Alloy of Law.
#10: Do you have a book that was turned into a TV show?
Apparently not. I have a million books that have been or are going to be turned into movies, but none that have been turned into a TV show. The closest thing I have to that is my two Avatar: The Last Airbender graphic novels, but those are graphic novels based on a TV show, not books that have been turned into a TV show, so… I don’t think they count.
#11: Do you have a book written by someone who is originally famous for something else? (celebrity/athlete/politician/TV personality…)
Indeed I do! Rhett & Link’s Book of Mythicality by the YouTubers Rhett and Link from Good Mythical Morning, who are two of my favorite YouTubers. This book is kind of a combination memoir/self-help book/comedy book. I don’t really know how to describe it, and I actually haven’t read it. But I do own it, and it’s by YouTubers.
#12: Do you have a book with a clock on the cover?
I knew exactly what to do for this question—go straight for a time-travel book. This is Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix, the first book in the Missing series, which was a childhood obsession of mine. In the newer editions and in later books in this series, they changed the covers and the clock is even more obvious on those, but I don’t like the cover change.
So. I chose this edition, and I don’t know if you can see, but there’s half of a translucent clock face superimposed over the image.
#13: Do you have a poetry book?
Fun fact about me (or I guess it’s not that fun, actually): I don’t usually like poetry. So, um, no, I don’t own any books that are only poetry, but I do own these two books which contain poetry, along with some short stories, photography, and drawings.
These are the Spring 2018 and Fall 2018 editions of my university’s literary magazine, and I was actually on the editing team that helped pick submissions for and put together the one with the lightbulb on the cover, so that’s pretty cool.
Does this count? I want to say yes just because I want as many points as I can get, but let me know down in the comments if you disagree.
#14: Do you have a book with an award stamp on it?
Once again, I’m counting this one, but feel free to disagree with me in the comments if you feel so inclined. This is The Secret History of Las Vegas by Chris Abani, which is a book that I had to read for a class a few semesters ago. The gray circle in the corner that says “An Edgar Award Winner” is not really a stamp, because it’s actually part of the cover and it’s not raised or anything, but it is a thing that lets you know this book has won an award, so I think it counts.
#15: Do you have a book written by an author with the same initials as you?
Um, no. I don’t even have to look at my shelves to tell you that, but I’m going to go check anyway. My first name starts with an A and my last name starts with a Z. Not very many authors’ last names start with a Z, and I only own books by three authors that fall under that category: Francesca Zappia’s Eliza and her Monsters, Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, and Kat Zhang’s Hybrid Chronicles trilogy. None of those three have first names that start with an A, so that’s an automatic loss for me.
I’d be very interested to know if you guys know of any authors with AZ initials—if you do, leave a comment.
#16: Do you have a book of short stories?
Yes, several. Pictured is These Are Our Demands by Matthew Pitt, who is a professor at my university, but I also have Because You Love to Hate Me, Stars Above, two short story collections by Brandon Sanderson, and two by Rick Riordan.
#17: Do you have a book that is between 500 and 510 pages long?
Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman, coming in at 504 pages.
#18: Do you have a book that was turned into a movie?
Yes, many, like I mentioned earlier. Here’s one: Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon. See, my copy even has “soon to be a major motion picture” on the cover. No, that’s not a sticker; it’s part of the cover and I can’t remove it.
#19: Do you have a graphic novel?
I already talked about my Avatar graphic novels, but I have others too, like this one: Wires and Nerve by Marissa Meyer.
#20: Do you have a book written by 2 or more authors?
Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff.
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That’s all for this challenge today! Thanks so much for reading,and I’ll see you later! -Ariel