It’s a Saturday night, I’m alone and I have a whole bottle of wine to myself. Let’s do a book tag!
1. A Popular Book or series that you didn’t like.
I love fantasy – adore it. But I couldn’t stand The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. It had an interesting beginning and world building but suffered from poor pacing and unlikeable main characters. I may have read this during a very difficult time in my life, which could have attributed to my overall feeling of the book – yet it’s not something I will pick up to re read any time soon.
2. A Popular Book or series that every one else seems to hate but you love.
This is a hard one. I had to trawl through my Goodreads account to find a suitable candidate. So here’s one – Sylvia by Bryce Courtenay. A novel set during the Children’s Crusade, with a young girl called Sylvia who sings like an angel. It’s been awhile since I’ve read it (8 years?) and I remember really enjoying it, but there are quite a few one star reviews for it on Goodreads.
3. A Love Triangle where the main character ended up with the person you did NOT want them to end up with (warn people for spoilers) OR an OTP that you don’t like.
I don’t particularly care for love triangles – rarely do they work as a ‘good’ plot point for me. So let’s take the easy route and say Edward and Bella from the Twilight series. Bella should have gone ‘stuff you and all your supernatural creepy nonsense,’ and travelled around the world as a bartender (single and free).
4. A popular book Genre that you hardly reach for.
I like to think that I read across several different genres, but I really don’t. So perhaps Contemporary YA? I’m of an age where I want the high school bullshit out of my life already. It’s been 7 years and it still haunts me.
5. A popular or beloved character that you do not like.
Diana Bishop from A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness? Is she popular? I didn’t find her particularly engaging, and found her taste in men deplorable. You, an intelligent and independent woman getting all lusty over a moody and overprotective vampire. Erggh.
6. A popular author that you can’t seem to get into.
John Green. I enjoy his vlogbrothers videos, but his novels seem like a fantasy for a younger me. But then again as a teenager I was reading high fantasy and books about female circumcision and feet binding in China. Perhaps I would have the same feelings as I do now.
7. A popular book trope that you’re tired of seeing. (examples “lost princess”, corrupt ruler, love triangles, etc.)
I’ve seen novels that have worked with an old trope and made it beautiful. A popular book trope does not necessarily mean lazy writing. That said, I try to avoid any books with the “chosen one.”
8. A popular series that you have no interest in reading.
Let’s delve into Fantasy again. So I’ll pick something I sort of tried to read – Eragon by Christopher Paolini. It was terrible, so I doubt I’ll be reading the rest of the book and Inheritance Cycle series.
9. The saying goes “The book is always better than the movie”, but what movie or T.V. show adaptation do you prefer more than the book?
I love, love, love Howl’s Moving Castle. And although the book by Diana Wynne Jones is lovely and different, I prefer the movie adaptation.
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