Hello everyone and welcome or welcome back! Today I am bringing you guys a tag. I am not sure who is the original creator if this post, but I found it on a blog called Paper Fury. If you see this and know differently, let me know and I will update this post! However, lets just jump into it and let me know down below what your answers are to these questions. I would love to read them!
1. How many books are too many for a series?
Honestly, I have stuck around with some really long series. I have finished, I believe, two series that were 12 books, one being House of Night series by PC and Kristin Cast, and the other is Cirque Du Freak by Darren Shan. I am currently reading the 12th book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kids series, and there are currently 14 or 15. I think 5 or 6 should be the max. Most of those series that continue forever have really short books that could easily be combined or removed. However, I do think it is okay to have a ton of books, if they are episodic, such as the Diary of a Wimpy Kid, or have many different series in one, for instance Rick Riordan’s series.
2. How do you feel about cliffhangers?
I don’t have much thought about cliffhangers. I don’t really like starting ongoing series so, I don’t often have to deal with that. I might be upset about a cliffhanger at first, but I am most likely to forget about it before the next book comes out.
3. Hardcover or paperback?
I am a paperback kind of person. Paperbacks are cheaper. I prefer to get books as cheap as I can, so I can buy more. I do have some preferences for hardcovers. For instance, I got rid of all my paperbacks and mass market paperbacks a few years ago of Stephen King. I have been attempting to get all of his large hardbacks. I also don’t mind if my series match in covers or paperback/hardcovers. I especially love giant paperbacks!
4. Favorite book?
I have a shelf on my Goodreads of all my favorite books I have ever read. There are 42 books on that list. I think having ONE favorite of anything is hard! My favorite book of 2020 has to be Radio Silence by Alice Oseman. I did get this as an audiobook and I would love to buy this book and reread it next year. I loved literally everything about that book, particularly Aled’s character. If a book emotionally devastates me, it is likely to become one of my favorites as well.
5. Least favorite book?
I can think of two books that I would list as my least favorites of all time. Both of them I read more than five years ago. The first would be Allegiant by Veronica Roth, which I read in 2013. I cannot even say all the reasons why I hated this book because of spoilers. However, I did read this book 7 years ago, and I can still remember everything I hated about it. I will just say, without spoiling it, there is a character who is in the entire series, who completely changes in this book. There are multiple POVs, one being this character, that you cannot differentiate.
The second book is Project Cain by Geoffrey Girard, which I read in 2014. This is another one I can clearly remember every reason I didn’t like it. This one is about a kid named Jeff. He is a clone of the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. In this book, there is this experiment where they clone serial killers over and over and put them into different life scenarios. There would be our Jeff, who has a really ideal household, and then another Jeffrey clone, who is put into an abusive household, and so on. The point is to see if they were driven to madness or were born killers. Basically, a nature over nurture type scenario. The idea for this book is so good, the execution was not. The actual plot is about Jeff and another guy searching for a band of cloned serial killers that have gone on a killing spree. If you are interested in random facts about serial killers, this book had that. It was a bit of an info-dump. Girard did this weird thing where there wasn’t any dialogue and you could only hear half of the conversations when the MC was on the phone, because the book was told in Jeff’s head. Also, Jeff’s internal monologue was offensive. I am not sure Girard has ever met a teenager, or he would know they don’t talk like that. Jeff would say ‘like’ and ‘totally’ all the time. I hope someone else does this idea in the future, but better.
6. Love triangle, yes or no?
Not a big fan of romance in general. I have been trying to read it more in 2020. However, I don’t care for love triangles. I am not against someone changing their mind, but leading two people on is a terrible thing to do.
7. The most recent book you couldn’t finish?
Even if We Break by Marieke Nijkamp. I tried really hard to finish this book, but it was lackluster for me. I recently talked about this book in my wrap up for October, if you would like to see more of my thoughts. Or, you can check out the review I left on Goodreads. I just struggled to care about any of the characters or what was going on.
8. A book you’re currently reading?
I am currently reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid book 12 called The Getaway by Jeff Kinney. These books are about a middle schooler who gets himself in all types of trouble. This one follows the family going on vacation on Christmas Eve to somewhere where it is warm. I am only 60 pages in so far. All these books are episodic and I love them all!
9. Last book you recommended to someone?
My husband tells me Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. I feel like I am always telling him what books I am reading, and that he should read them. We both saw this movie at the same time, and I have since read the book. He is now half way through reading it for the first time. I think he likes it and I know it could have been so much better not having seen the movie first, but it is still a good read, and a staple in the mystery/thriller book community.
10. Oldest book you’ve read by publication date?
The oldest book I have read is the Illiad by Homer. I have been thinking about rereading the Illiad and Odyssey recently. I read these in high school and have been thinking about reading some retellings of the stories like Circe.
11. Newest book you’ve read by publication date?
Again, Even if We Break by Marieke Nijkamp. This book came out in September 2020. Another book I just finished that came out in September, but before that one, was Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson. This book was heartbreaking. It is about a boy whose father is a football player and begins to suffer from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy or CTE. CTE is caused by repetitive concussions. His father slowly starts to suffer from memory loss and anger outbursts. He is still alive, but the MC is losing him.
12. Favorite authors?
My number one favorite author has always been Stephen King. I own about 40 books of his. Stephen King got me into reading. If you saw my post about all the books I own that I have not read, you will notice he was not on there. I do not count his books when I talk about unread books I own. I just want to own them all, and I don’t pressure myself to read them. I am also very much aware how much older he is than me, and I will live much longer than him. So, I don’t want to run out of his books too early in my lifetime. The second author is PC Cast. I have read around 20 books by her. I do think some of the books I loved by her earlier in my life are a bit problematic now, including the House of Night series, but I still look forward to her releases. My third favorite author is Sophie Kinsella. This one may come as a surprise because she is known for being a contemporary romance author. However, I have loved her books ever since I read Finding Audrey. I do identify with Audrey a lot, and I loved seeing her character. Another one is Alex Gino. I love all 3 of their books. They write amazing middle grade books that everyone should read. I found them from their book George, it is a book that has been on the banned books for many years because it has a transgender MC. Lastly, I would have to say Elizabeth Acevedo. I have also read all 3 of her books. I love her writing and I love all he characters. I think any woman or girl could relate to the MC in her book Poet X, but my favorite has to be With the Fire on High.
13. Buying books or borrowing books?
Both. I go into moods for borrowing audiobook and physically reading. In 2020, around 80% of my books have been audiobooks. However, I have been getting back into reading physical books these last few months. This year I have read over 100 books, and there is no way I would buy that many books in one year. When I do buy books, I usually splurge on forty or fifty books, and then don’t buy books for the rest of the year.
14. A book you dislike that everyone seems to love?
Well, this list could go on and on. I remember in 2013, I used to do Booktube. I read The Fault in Our Stars and I really disliked it. As a matter of fact, I DNF’d it. I predicted the ending and looked it up and have since seen the movie. Back then, no one in the book community really talked about disliking really popular books, and it doesn’t even say on my Goodreads that I did read it. The book community is so much more diverse in every way now, including opinions. Another would be the Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare. I have spoiler reviews for most of her books on my goodreads pages. I have so many problems with it. Ironically, I own every one of these books I mentioned.
15. Bookmarks or dog ears?
I have a quite large collection of bookmarks. I don’t believe in dog earing. However, people can do what they want with their own books, as long as they don’t dog ear mine.
16. A book you can always reread?
I don’t really reread that many books. I have this fear of hating a book when I reread it after so many years. However, I think one I would love to read over and over would be the Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken. I absolutely love that series. I will most likely reread in many times in my life. I never hear anyone reading this series anymore, it was popular back in 2013 during the wave of dystopian books, but I wish more people would talk about it.
17. Can you read while listening to music?
I used to do this a lot. However, I cannot seem to concentrate on the words in the book when I am listening to music anymore. As I stated before, I mostly listen to audiobook so, that just wouldn’t work. I don’t really like anything being on around me while I read, because I will read much slower.
18. One POV or multiple?
I think I prefer multiple POVs. I really love what it adds to the story. I really love it when the two POVs are people who don’t know one another and we get to see them before they even meet. For instance, An Ember in the Ashes. When there is only one POV, there isn’t always much room to develop characters outside of that person and the side characters cannot live their lives without the MC knowing exactly what is happening.
19. Do you read a book in one sitting or over multiple days?
The longer it takes me to read a book, the more I realize I probably don’t like it, unless it is really long. If I go four or five days on the same moderately sized book, I will eventually decide it probably isn’t for me. I a really loving those live sprints lately, I can read almost a whole book during those. If you know of any people who do those each week or just regularly, please let me know!
20. Who do you tag?
I tag anyone who sees this and would like to do it. Honestly, I don’t know really anyone in the book community to tag.