Hello bookworms!
Hope you’re keeping well. I thought I would pop in to do a fun book tag I found through The Writing Hufflepuff. It seemed like a cool way to catch you up with you guys and discuss what I’ve been reading lately, and vice versa. Hope you enjoy!
What was the last book you marked as read?
The last book I marked as read on Goodreads was The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowing. Knowing I’m a Potterhead you may be thinking, huh? How has Becky not read this by now? Well, I don’t really know. When I was younger the Harry Potter spin offs never really interested to me, but I’ve recently devoured Quiddich through the Ages, Fantastic Beasts and now Beedle, and oh, I have to say, I left the best until last! I really didn’t expect to love Beedle as much as I did. IT WAS ADORABLE. IT WAS FUN AND QUIRKY. IT WAS EVERYTHING I LOVE ABOUT ROWLING. Each little tale was smart and clever, with a wizarding world related moral attached, and Albus Dumbledore’s notes on each story added an extra layer of interest that made me yearn to reread HP all over again. *Sigh.*
What are you currently reading?
I’m currently reading two great, but vastly opposite books. When I’m in a lighthearted mood, I’m working my way through The Assassin’s Blade by Sarah J Maas, a prequel book of short stories to Throne of Glass. This basically equals to lots of swish swordfighting, sneaky betrayals and lots of Sardothien shipping. I have to say, prequels usually suck but so far this one is great, because each of the stories link and are actually of interest/relevant to the main series plot-line. I couldn’t say the Throne of Glass series is a must read, I actually find it pretty cringy at times. But its VERY lightweight, fun, and the fantasy world is getting jusssttt interesting enough to pique my interest. Impressive, considering I almost DNF’d the first book and thought it was awful. In other words, this series comes under my favourite term ‘junk food‘.
The second book I’m reading is The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, and this book? Ohh my gawdddd this boooooook. It’s messing with my head SO BAD. It’s unbelievably intense and the writing is so….visceral. I mean, a world where women exist in society solely to be babymakers and concubines, where there are horrific baby making rituals, just EUGHH. Sometimes when I put this novel down I actually feel sick. Women have absolutely no rights in this dystopian world and it is terrifying. Even scarier is how quickly the world is shown to flip from sexual freedom and women’s rights to containment and suffocating submission. And these women? They can’t even have knives or matches because they might try to kill themselves. It’s that bad people. You know when you’ve barely even started a book and you realise it’s got the power to utterly destroy you and it WILL, its just a matter of time? Yeah, that. What have I gone and done picking this up?! HAAAALLLLPPPP.
What was the last book you marked as ‘to read’?
The last book I marked as ‘to read’ on Goodreads was Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur. It’s actually a collection of poetry which is interesting for me because I hate almost all poetry, but occasionally something will catch my eye. Milk and Honey is one of those. I read a few brilliant excepts and knew I had to try it out. It’s full of little life lessons learnt that are achingly real and true. I think it appeals to me because it’s a lot less poetry-like than normal poetry, if that makes sense. I need to get my hands on a copy, stat!
Do you use the star rating system?
Why indeedy I do. On Goodreads and my blog. I know people sometimes dislike how rigid having only 5 stars can be, but I’ve always had a set idea in my mind that defines each category. I like the star rating system, it’s universally recognised which means you can make a quick glance and know if a book if worth looking into further. Want to know more about how I rate books? Check out my rating system explained.
Are you doing the 2017 reading challenge?
I’ve never been interested in the Goodreads Reading Challenge and have hand on heart never taken part in it. I feel like, for me, it would make me focus on the wrong thing – finishing books rather than enjoying them, looking at the numbers rather than the story. That’s just a weakness in my personality, though! I do, however, look at my reading stats on Goodreads all the time, my number of books read, the different genres read, and I do have a little competition with myself to beat the number of pages I read the previous year (which makes me obsessed with making sure I find the right edition of book on there so the pages match!).
Do you have a wishlist?
Uh, OF COURSE. AND IT IS LONGER THAN MY INTESTINE. AND I HEAR THAT’S PRETTY LONG.
Let’s just say it’s a certainty that my wishlist will outlive me. Such is the life of a bookworm. Behold one small section of it:
Who are your favorite authors?
*Sigh.* To quote Mark Darcy from Bridget Jones the Edge of Reason, I refuse to dignify this question with an answer. (Hopefully my answer will work out better for me than it did for him.)
Have you joined any groups?
I think I belong to one…that I never look at and annoys me with unwanted notifications. Other than that, I haven’t been lucky enough to come across an awesome one I want to join. Not that I’ve looked very hard… RECOMMENDATION TIME PEOPLE.
How many Goodreads shelves do you have?
40. I’m an overachiever. 😉 There are simple ones relating to genre that are useful for blogging or chronicling your reading habits, but then there are also the fun ones like epic sass, quirkiness abound, subverting sterotypes, rooting for the villian, etc. These are the ones that are more useful to readers I guess, and I created them because I’m always looking for exciting books that fit into these categories!
I Tag…
Anyone who wants to do this! Hey, I’m lookin’ at you, bookworm.
Blogs-Of-A-Bookaholic 
Ah, I’m tempted to do this- but alas, I’m on LibraryThing rather than Goodreads. It’s interesting that the Throne of Glass series has grown on you- I’ve heard similar things, and I do love me a good junk food series, but that first book just sounded so very bad…
I actually found I can’t do wishlists because all that tends to happen then is that I forget the books are there and then they just sit and I do nothing about actually reading them. I’ve taken to adding books I want to the “For Later” shelf of my library system, which I’m hoping will make it easier to get at once I finish my owned-but-unread books.
Well how dare you. Such a hipster. 😉
I haven’t tried library thing, it sounds really useful from the way you’ve described it though. “For later”, I like that. I must admit some of my wishlist has sat on Goodreads for a loooong time, occasionally I have a big clear out!
Hmm, to be honest, I wouldn’t recommend Throne of Glass to you as yet. The first book was pretty awful, the second I really enjoyed, and I just finished the one I mentioned here and I would give it 3 stars. It’s not the most well written series and it’s pretty cringy, the characters are kinda bland (and as someone who reads normal epic fantasy it’s so not on the same level, or even the same continent as most awesome fantasies). And yet, for some reason I’m still reading it. I think because it has potential. Parts are good and I’m getting more invested!
(first I somehow didn’t see that you’d replied to this until now so, uh… better late than never?) Hahaha but LT is so much fun! You can do all sorts of neat stuff with the appearance and categorization, which I don’t recall Goodreads allowing, and they have all these really fun random stats like measuring the stack of books against landmarks (my book stack would be higher than the Sphinx, apparently, but I have a ways to go til I hit the Statue of Liberty) and a guess bar on a book’s page about whether or not you’d like the book (not always accurate but fun as far as it goes). It also makes it really easy to snoop around on other people’s collections and even has a way for you to mark “interesting libraries” so you can snoop through the collections you find intriguing. The only downside to it is that I think there’s a limited number of books before you have to pay and it’s not quite as social as Goodreads – which is actually a bit of an upside for me, since I prefer things to be low-key, but I can understand why for most people that’s a bug and not a feature. I can see why LT’s not for everyone, and I used to not use it very much, but it’s really grown on me since I started to use it regularly last year.
Throne of Glass sounds like a fast-food series of sorts, where it’s bad in many ways but also sometimes it’s exactly what you want and nothing else fits. I have at least one series like that, where if you asked, I’d have to give a bunch of disclaimers that it’s completely ridiculous and really not well-written at some/many points… but it’s also so much fun and sometimes it happens to be the only thing I crave. The literary equivalent of McDonald’s at 1 in the morning.
Well, you are putting me to shame as it has taken me even longer to answer your return comment (I seem to have somehow missed it also until now).
Your disclaimers that you’ve mentioned sound so like me it’s unreal. I have said that many a time about a fast food series. It is weird how sometimes you crave those problematic books, isn’t it? I guess that’s the magic of reading. Sometimes things just grab you despite their flaws and you can’t resist the draw!
Bonjour, book buddy Becky!
Not sure I’ll answer all of these, but here we go:
The last book I read was “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and before that was “The Martian”. I’ve been reading “Martin Chuzzlewit” for roughly a thousand years right now (well, since August), so I’ve been putting it down and going back to it after I finish a book in between. MC will not defeat me though!
After I’m done with MC, (sometime after the next Olympics) I have “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” and the novelisation of “Rogue One” to read.
The last book I marked to read is a new Patrick Ness – “Release”. Mr Ness is always worth reading, and I tagged that one this morning. Here’s the link: www(dot)goodreads.com/book/show/31194576
Bonjour, Tony. 😀
I watched the film of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and you know what? I NEVER knew Fitzgerald wrote it until you recommended it to me. That kind of blew my mind. I must admit, I don’t have much memory of the movie, but I do remember feeling a bit indifferent about it. I would be very curious to read the book, though! I also watched the movie of The Martian which was pretty awesome. Ohh dear, I’m letting bookworms down here, aren’t I? xD
Oh wow, that sounds like a struggle. I do admire how many Dickens you’ve managed to plough through (as you know, I’m doing the same thing but much more slowly) but that sounds dire. I won’t rush to pick up that one any time soon!
I’m interested to see what you think of Peregrine, many people have mixed thoughts. I really like the first book but recently picked up the second in the series – and wish I hadn’t. Ack.
MORE NESS IS ALWAYS EXCITING.
I thought the movie of The Martian was excellent as well…a rare case of the book being as good as the film.
I remember you have that cool set of Dickens with the red covers…if Chuzzlewit is next on your list, I’d find another one. You know when Dickens spends almost a chapter describing an inn, he was being paid by the word…
Useful to remember that Peregrine isn’t worth going past the first book!
Good to know!
I do indeedy, and I am slowly making my way through them. Because of our previous Dickens discussion, I’ve decided to tackle Bleak House next… as soon as I get the nerve to pick it up, ha!
Ohh dear.. as much as I do love a good Dickens description, that does rather sound like overkill.
Hahaha, Becky, you are fabulous! I, too, decline to dignify questions like “favorite author”. I dunno; which day? Some books are creatures of mood.
But I’ll take the lightning round version of this questionnaire:
Last book? The Bear & the Nightingale (great reviews; I hated it)
Current book: -s. Ghengis Khan and the Making of the Modern World (Jack Weatherford), Life After Life (Kate Atkinson), Tristan and Isolde (Francis Gentry’s translation)
Marked to read: Daughter of a Thousand Years (Amalia Carosella)
Ratings system: oh yes. I’m very judge.
Groups: nope
Reading challenge: My to-read list is its own challenge
Glad to hear you’re like The Handmaid’s Tale – it’s an amazing book (and very controversial when it first came out).
Hahaa, thanks. I try. 😉
I am definitely a mood reader when it comes to books! For instance, I’m on a real fantasy kick right now.
Hmm, if I had a penny for every time that happened.
Hehee, very judge. I second that! And the to read list.
I can’t even imagine the explosion that would have occurred when Handmaid’s Tale first came out. It was absolutely shocking for me now, let alone when it was fresh. I’m still not over it, I keep going over things again and again in my head. Maybe that’s a good thing.
Longer than your intestine – bahahaha!! That made me giggle because it’s true for me too. In fact, it kind of upsets me that I have more books than I can read in my lifetime. I feel bad for the books that I may never get to :(.
Heheee, I’m glad!!! I just remembered something about intestines and tennis courts.
It is saddening indeed. Sometimes I wish there was a machine that could zap awesome stories into your head instantly… but then, part of my love of reading is the act of looking at the pages, feeling my eyes move and smelling glorious books. 😀
I couldn’t agree more :).
This is awesome! I never thought to do something like this on my book blog. I like doing the Goodreads reading challenge myself but this year, I set it low because I was beginning to count the books rather than enjoying it.
Thanks, Ashley, glad you liked it!
The occasional tag can be great fun, as long as it isn’t all a book blog is made up of. 🙂
I think the key with the Goodreads book challenge is to make it something achievable. When people try and up it each year it’s just too much pressure (I think).
Agreed. I know a lady who reads around 200 books a year and I wanna know how she does it. I think all she does is read and go to work. O.O
WOW. That is impressive. Would be totally unachievable for me, but I would love to know her secret!
I actually read a pretty cool article on this topic a while back and I’ve just dug it out. Thought you might be interested. 🙂 It definitely stopped me wasting so much time that I could have used to read! https://www.google.co.uk/amp/thoughtcatalog.com/ryan-holiday/2013/06/how-to-read-more-a-lot-more/amp/
That IS interesting. I read something similar once that you give priorities to things that you find important, so if you can’t find time to read or write, then it’s not that important to you, because you’d find time.
I liked to know how to read 100-200 books in a year too. I tried once, but only got to around 70/80. I don’t like pushing myself.
I think there’s definitely some truth to that one. My boyfriend always says he doesn’t have ‘time’ to read, but he just fills his time with other things he would rather do, like IT coding. 🙂
But then again, I also think some people just can’t afford the luxury of doing something that isn’t going to earn the money/result in something, which is really sad.
Nice!!! Some good variety of reading you have going on right now! I agree with your philosophy on not using the GR challenge. Here have been years where it really was a numbers game for me, and that’s no fun. Right now I set one, but mainly use it to keep track of rated/reviews titles. 🙂 I happily recommend the Fantasy Buddy Reads group. They’re awesome! 🙂
Thanks, Niki! It sure is, opposite ends of the spectrum. 🙂
That’s interesting that it did have that effect for you. Like I said, I’ve never used it so I only suspect, knowing my personality, that it would cause me to focus on the numbers. But I do quite like the idea of using it to keep track or rated and reviewed titles.
I’ll have to look up the fantasy buddy reads group!
If I remember right, the “stats” feature keeps track of everything you read, rated, and reviewed that year without the challenge, so that might be a good solution. 🙂 I set my goal much lower than normal anyway because it stresses me out not hitting it. One year I actually went in and lowered it at the end of year because having it not completed was annoying haha.
Yeah I’m certainly guilty of looking at the stats page a lot… I like to see how and what I’ve been reading. I particularly love being able to see a total of how many books you’ve rated what.
Hahaa, I think I would probably end up doing that too!
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Nice! Love your posts
Thank you so much!
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Ahh my eyes enjoyed looking over your responses. I haven’t read a book for months but I’m potentially feeling the bookworm stirrings…
Haven’t read a book for months?!?! This is truly tragic. I am sending you bookworm vibes right now. You will be picking up a novel in no time. 😉
‘on’ the three wise men delivering “GIFTS”
When one connects!!! Don’t the GIFTS a-flow
June June you went to soon 😕
Oh!
It started in April 😳
WTH rhymes with April? Apart from staple!!
(April April………………. Ich habe vergesson april)
DR BECKY 😱
🌟🌟🌟
Your rhyming has good timing.
(Oh dear, I think I should stick to normal prose…) xD
Yeah funny you should mention timing!, And that was some pretty neat rhyming 😛
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I love this tag and ahh your post is absolutely beautiful! ❤ Being a new blogger (and only having been on Goodreads prior to it), I'm definitely going to do this tag as well! 🙂
Awh, thank you so much! I hope you enjoy completing the tag. Your blog is beautiful too – love the blue watercolour splashes!
This is a fun booktag! I use goodreads constantly, so I’m interested in hearing more about how other people are using the site 🙂
It is interesting seeing how readers use the site differently, quite often with these sort of tags I come across some feature on it I didn’t even know existed!