Hello, everyone! It feels like it’s been forever since I’ve done a post that wasn’t just a standard TBR or wrap-up, but I finally have some time this month for something a little more fun (not that those other kinds of posts aren’t fun; they just get tiring when it’s all you do for a month). So today, I thought I’d do a book tag! I wasn’t tagged by anyone and I don’t know who the original creator is. I just found this tag with a random Google search and thought it looked cool, so here we are.
Let’s get started!
1. How many books are too many for a series?
This is going to sound like a cop-out answer, but I don’t really think there is a limit, as long as the author is still able to create unique and engaging stories. If I love a series, I’m going to be just as happy reading book 20 as I am reading book 1. With that being said, I haven’t yet read any super long series, so I suppose my answer to this could change.
2. How do you feel about cliffhangers?
Does anyone really like cliffhangers?
Personally, I have pretty mixed feelings on them. They’re certainly very exciting (and occasionally rage-inducing), and they’re a great way for an author to ensure that a large portion of readers will be picking up the next book as soon as they can. On the other hand, though, it seems like putting a cliffhanger is a great way to set readers up to be disappointed with the next book, since their expectations will be so high it will be almost impossible to meet that.
I mean, there’s a reason why The Mark of Athena is my favorite book in the Heroes of Olympus series, while the books that come after that I didn’t love as much.
3. Hardcover or paperback?
I like both, but I prefer paperback. If you’re interested in my in-depth thoughts on the pros and cons of both, I have an entire post all about it, which you can read by clicking here.
4. Favorite book?
Don’t the makers of these tags know this question is impossible to answer? Instead of answering with one book, let me just give you a list of faves off the top of my head:
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (really, Brandon Sanderson’s books in general are my favorite)
The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan (and the whole PJO series—but book 4’s my fave)
Little Do We Know by Tamara Ireland Stone
Truthwitch by Susan Dennard
The Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer (my fave from that is Cress)
Etc.
5. Least favorite book?
There really aren’t very many books I hate. If I don’t think I’ll like a book (or even if I think I might, and it’s a genre I don’t typically read), I just don’t read it. That can sometimes be an issue, because it means that I don’t tend read very widely (almost exclusively fantasy, as you can see with just a casual glance through my blog posts—I want to try to branch out a little more, though).
Most of the books I really don’t like are ones I had to read for school (so mostly classics). I guess I can list a couple of the ones that really stand out in my memory as ones I hated.
1984 by George Orwell (I loved Animal Farm by him, though)
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
6. Love triangles, yes or no?
No. I don’t think I’ve ever read a love triangle I liked, even in books by my favorite authors.
7. The most recent book you couldn’t finish?
I have a bad habit of picking up books, reading a few pages, and then never going back to the book—even if I was liking what I read. I do intend to actually finish the book at some point though.
One of the books that happened to recently was The Kingdom by Jess Rothenberg. I actually got it from the library, so I need to read it sooner than later.
8. A book you’re currently reading?
Well, The Kingdom, kind of, like I just said.
But the book that I’m actively reading at the moment is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I got the audiobook through my library’s Libby app, and it’s due in 3 days, so I’m kind of putting all other reading aside until I’m done with it. If I don’t finish it before it gets automatically returned, then I’ll have to wait at least a month before I can read it again.
9. Last book you recommended to someone?
I guess Sightwitch, since I raved about how much I loved that book in my February wrap-up.
This is a hard one because I really don’t recommend books to people very often, other than on this blog. I honestly just don’t talk about books with people very much in my real life—which is, of course, why I started this blog in the first place.
10. Oldest book you’ve read by publication date?
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. I read it in high school.
11. Newest book you’ve read by publication date?
Starsight by Brandon Sanderson. It came out in November of last year, and I only just got around to reading it last month.
12. Favorite author?
Brandon Sanderson.
13. Buying books or borrowing books?
Borrowing, 100%. I try to only buy books I’m pretty sure I’ll love, or ones by authors whose books I like (although, since I discovered BookOutlet, I’ve had a little more trouble sticking to this rule). If I end up falling in love with a book I got from the library, I can always go out and buy myself a copy later if I want.
14. A book you dislike that everyone seems to love?
At the risk of offending someone, I have to say City of Bones and Cassandra Clare in general. To be fair, I haven’t read most of her books. I read the first two books in the Mortal Instruments series and at least part of the third book (I can’t remember if I finished it or not), and I didn’t like them.
I know everyone says that the Infernal Devices are much better, but to be honest, I’m just… not interested. There are so many books I would rather be reading, and at this point, Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunter books are such a huge time commitment (there are what, 13 or 14 books now, spread across several different series?). I just don’t think it’s worth it for me.
15. Bookmarks or dog ears?
Bookmarks. I’m not as concerned about damaging my books as some people are, and of course, you can do whatever you want with a book that you bought, but I do try to keep my books in reasonably decent shape. Part of that includes not dog earing pages unless I absolutely have to.
Another thing is that, at least to me, bookmarks are just more practical. It’s a lot easier to quickly find your place if you shove a bookmark into the page instead of just dog-earing a corner. Plus, bookmarks are not hard to come by. I very rarely use bookmarks intended for the purpose. Instead, I use whatever random thing is lying near by (or, if the book’s a hardcover, I’ll use the dust jacket).
16. A book you can always reread?
The Percy Jackson series. No matter how many times I read those books, I still love them.
17. Can you read while listening to music?
It depends on the type of music—and on how invested I am in the book. Instrumental music is usually fine regardless of the book, but I typically can’t listen to music with lyrics unless it’s a book I’m really into—and even then, I might not be able to. With that being said, I very rarely read while listening to music. The only time I do it is when I’m trying to drown out some other noise, like people talking, but since I don’t typically read when other people are around, that’s not usually a problem.
18. One POV or multiple?
Depends on the book. I’ve read some books (like Allegiant), where I was annoyed that the author decided to have more than one POV, because I didn’t think it was necessary. On the other hand, though, I love epic fantasy, and I can’t imagine how someone could successfully pull off an epic fantasy story without having multiple POVs (though I guess The Name of the Wind might disprove that—but even that doesn’t spend the entire time in Kvothe’s head).
Honestly, I don’t really care how many POVs there are, as long as there’s a good reason for them to be there.
19. Do you read a book in one sitting or over multiple days?
When I was younger, I was a “read a book in one sitting” kind of person. I still probably would be, but now that I’m older, I have a bunch of other responsibilities that make it so I don’t generally have time to devote an entire day to reading (or if I do, I usually feel guilty about reading all day instead of doing other things). So these days, I tend to read books over multiple days more often than not.
20. Who do you tag?
If you’re reading this, and you want to do this tag, consider yourself tagged! I had a lot of fun with it!
Okay, that’s it for today! Thank you so much for reading, everyone! I’ll see you soon.
-Ariel