The Birthday Book Tag!

Today’s my birthday! And since this year my birthday happened to coincide with a post day, I decided to be a little self-indulgent and do a birthday-related book tag. The original creator of this tag is Antonia from Always Books.

Let’s get into the questions, shall we?

#1: Birthday Cake – a book with a plot that seems cliché, but you adore it anyway

I’m choosing The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon for this one. This book, at its most basic, is about two teenagers who meet each other and fall in love in one day—“love at first sight,” basically. If that’s not the most clichéd thing I’ve ever heard, then I don’t know what is. But what makes this book so great is how Nicola Yoon plays with the trope and makes it something entirely different. This is a beautiful book that deals with some really important topics, and I would recommend everyone read it.

#2 Party Guests – your most anticipated book release for this year

Does this count books that have already come out? Because I think the book that I was anticipating the most at the beginning of the year was Again, but Better by Christine Riccio, but that book has already come out, and I already own it (though I haven’t read it yet—oops), so I feel like I can’t choose that one.

In fact, most of the books I had on my most anticipated releases list back in January have already come out. There are a few still to come, though, and I think the one I’m most excited about is probably Starsight by Brandon Sanderson, which, according to Goodreads, is supposed to come out on November 26, 2019. You guys know how much I love Brandon Sanderson, so of course I will be reading this book as soon as I possibly can.

#3 Birthday Presents – a book that surprised you with how much you loved it

The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson. I read this book the first time several years ago, and I remember not liking it very much—I never bothered to continue with the series, and I never had any intention to. But for some reason, in spite of the fact that I have so many other, newer books I want to read, I kept feeling this pull to reread this book. I couldn’t get over the idea that maybe I hadn’t given it a fair enough chance. So, finally, I caved and reread it—and guess what? I adored it.

I was surprised, because even though I’d had a feeling I might end up liking it more than I did, I still didn’t really think I would love it that much. But I did. It was great, and now I’m reading the second book.

#4 “Happy Birthday” Song – a book that certainly deserved all the hype it got

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan. I read this book recently, and I have to admit, when I went into it I was a little apprehensive. I tend to be very apprehensive when it comes to books that get a lot of hype, so much so that, often, I never end up reading them (I’m looking at you, The Book Thief—for some  more examples of this, go check out my posts about some popular books I plan on and don’t plan on ever reading here and here). But this book had such a cool-sounding premise that I couldn’t resist, so I read it and loved it.

#5 Happy Music – a book with some very beautiful and truly memorable quotes

See, my problem here is that I never remember exact quotes in books, no matter how beautiful they are. So instead I’m just going to pick a book that I remember having beautiful writing and a beautiful story. To me, Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper is the perfect choice for this. I read it a long time ago, so I didn’t remember much about it before I looked up the synopsis on Goodreads, but it impacted me enough that I still remember how I felt about it even all these years later.

It’s about a girl with cerebral palsy who is looked down upon by her peers because she can’t walk or talk, but she’s very smart, and more than anything, she wants to be able to prove that to others. I don’t have this disability, nor do I know anyone who does, so I don’t know how good the representation was; I just know that when I read this book as a kid, I loved it.

#6 Getting Older – a book you read a long time ago, but you think you would appreciate more if you read it as a more mature reader

I suppose I could choose Out of My Mind for this question too, but in the interest of not being repetitive, I want to choose something else. There are so many things I could choose for this question—The Hobbit, The Magician’s Nephew (though that one I never actually finished reading), Hatchet, The Outsiders, to name a few—but I think I’m going to choose To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I guess it wasn’t technically that long ago when I read this book; I read it for English class in my sophomore year of high school, which was only about 4 ½ years ago, but 4 ½ years is also almost a fourth of my entire life, so to me, it feels like a long time.

When I read this book, I didn’t get the hype. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the fact that it’s an incredibly important story, that it was a game-changer in the time it came out, that it’s still changing the world in so many ways, and that it’s a classic. I respect all that, but for me, personally, at the time that I read it, it was just okay. I think maybe if I reread it now that I’m older I’d like it more, but with that said, I doubt that I ever will read it again.

#7 Sweet Birthday Memories – a book that kept you incredibly happy during a sad or demanding period of your life

The thing about me and this question is that, generally, when I’m sad or stressed, I’m also not reading very much, or in some cases, any at all. Nothing puts me into a reading slump faster than giving me a whole heap of real-life responsibilities and some depression on the side. So this question is hard, but I’m going to try.

I guess I can fall back on my old fave, Rick Riordan, particularly the Percy Jackson series, Heroes of Olympus, and the Kane Chronicles. Those books always manage to put a smile on my face, and that was true back when I first read them too.

Okay, that’s all I have for this post today! I tag anyone who wants to do it. Let me know down in the comments, what’s a book that helped you during a hard time in your life?

Thanks for reading, everyone! I’ll see you soon.

-Ariel