I Dare You Book Tag

Thanks to Krista and Dawlyn at Little Blind Book Finds for tagging me in this one! I really enjoyed reading this tag, I thought the questions were great. Hopefully I enjoy making it just as much, and hopefully you all enjoy reading it!

Rules:

You must be honest.
You must answer all the questions.
You must tag at least 4 people.

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What book has been on your shelf the longest?

I’m not sure if this means my bookshelf or my TBR shelf, so I’ll answer both.

I’ve had a book called The Imperfectionists on my TBR shelf since like, 2013 or something. I bought it, then got swept up in some other series and just never got around to it. It’s lived in like, four different houses/apartments and never been picked up. I feel kind of bad for it, actually.

As to which book I’ve owned the longest, it’s hard to say. I still have most of my childhood picture books. The rattiest ones, however, are The Cat in the Hat Comes Back and Horton Hears a Who. 

What is your current read, your last read, and the book you’ll read next?

Currently reading Turtles All the Way Down. I hope I like it…

Last read Shopgirl by Steve Martin. Review coming on Tuesday. I really really really wanted to like it, but basically hated it. 😦

Next I have three books coming in from the library: Stalking Jack the Ripper, Renegades, and The Song of Achilles. I’m really looking forward to all three, and I’m not sure which one I’ll read first!

What book did everyone like, but you hated?

There are so many books that I could answer for this, especially YA books. Although, since becoming a book blogger I learned that not EVERYONE loved them, and in fact I am not alone! But I really didn’t like The Mortal Instruments. I read it to see what the fuss was about, and found it pretty dumb. Although I’m not completely alone, that still seems to be a pretty unpopular opinion.

What book do you keep telling yourself you’ll read, but you probably won’t?

Hmmm, I’m not really sure how to answer that one! I just looked through my TBR, and I fully intend to read all of them at some point! I think The Goblin Emperor is the one that’s most likely to get deleted next time I clean it out, though. It’s been there for a really long time, and even though it sounds interesting I don’t think it’s very popular/widely-read, so I might lose interest.

What book are you saving for retirement?

Hahaha! I don’t even know! Maybe Tolstoy or Dickens?

Last page: read it first, or wait til the end?

I can’t understand people who read the last page first. Why would you spoil the entire thing for yourself? I’ve literally never done that and have no intention of ever doing so.

Acknowledgement: waste of paper and ink, or interesting aside?

I don’t think the acknowledgement is a waste of paper, but I don’t usually read it either. I feel like the purpose of the acknowledgement is to be enjoyed by the author and the people they’re acknowledging, and the rest of us don’t really matter.

Which book character would you switch places with?

Nobody, I love my life!

But in the spirit of answering all the questions, I would love to live in the Harry Potter world, obviously. If I HAD to choose somebody other than myself to be, it would probably be Hermione Granger. Which, I’m sure is a wildly popular answer.

Do you have a book which reminds you of something specific in your life? (Place, time, person)

Actually, yes. All kinds of books! But I’ll limit my answer to one.

In the second grade my best friend, Claire, and I were advanced readers in our class, already reading chapter books while everyone else was still reading picture books. Our teacher would assign us a chapter book to read while everyone else did … whatever they did. One time she allowed us to choose our own book! It could be any book in the library, but it HAD to be about an animal. Claire chose Bunnicula, and I chose Ribsey, a Beverley Cleary book. Bunnicula was a much easier read, and Claire finished it that first afternoon and I was SO JEALOUS! So every time I read or talk about Bunnicula, I think of my childhood best friend.

Name a book you acquired in an interesting way.

Every year I participate in the Reddit book exchange, which is a really fun way to get new books! Last year was a total dud, but the year before my Secret Santa sent me Life After Life and The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, both of which I wanted to read. I didn’t really enjoy The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, but Life After Life definitely has a permanent spot on my bookshelf!

Have you ever given a special book away to a special person for a special reason?

WHY WOULD I GIVE AWAY A SPECIAL BOOK?!?!?!? Nobody is that special, NOBODY! I would buy them a new copy, obviously. Geez, what is wrong with you people? I guess you want me to give away my child if I find someone who loves him enough too?

Which book has been with you the most places?

That’s a hard one, because I take my books EVERYWHERE! I feel like there’s three potential answers here.

1. The Lord of the Rings because I’ve read them so many times that I’ve actually had to replace the entire series three or four times because the books literally fell apart. With that much wear and tear they’ve probably been to all kinds of places!

2. My Animorphs series, just because when I was in 4th-5th grade that’s basically 80% of what I read, and like I said, I take my books with me everywhere.

3. Eldest, because I happen to remember that it was in my suitcase with me on my Europe vacation in high school. We went to Paris, Wengen (a tiny town in Switzerland), Rome, Florence, and Venice. That’s a lot of places for a big ol’ book!

Any “required reading” you hated in high school that wasn’t so bad two years later?

Haha, no. I don’t re-read books I didn’t like. One chance is all you get, buster!

Used or brand new?

As I wrote about in a discussion-type post last week, I don’t really do used books. I like the idea of them, but I have a bunch of weird things that cause me to prefer new books whenever possible. But in 2017, most of my books have come from the library anyway.

Have you ever read a Dan Brown book?

I read every single Dan Brown book in high school. That’s right. All of them. Whatever new one came out this year I have no intention of reading, however. Dan Brown books get kind of less good the more of them you read…

Have you ever seen a movie you liked more than the book?

Plenty of times. In fact, I’m sitting on a post about that very thing! Just waiting for the right time to post it, really. But for today I’ll mention The Fault in Our Stars. Not because the movie was better than the book, but because when I read the book I was fully expecting Hazel to die, so I built a big giant wall of apathy that prevented me from really enjoying it. My bad.

Have you ever read a book that made you hungry, cookbooks included?

Probably, but I’m hungry most of the time, so I don’t really remember.

Who is the person whose book advice you’ll always take?

Hmm, I don’t know! My own, I guess. I really read books on whims, so even someone who I really trust will probably not be able to convince me to read a book that I’m not interested in, or convince me not to read a book I want to. But there’s a couple of people on Goodreads that I really trust if I’m on the fence because we tend to have the same opinions. Emily May is one of those people.

Is there a book out of your comfort zone (e.g., outside your usual reading genre) that you ended up loving?

I almost never read non-fiction, but I absolutely ADORED 1776 by David McCullough. It read almost like a novel, which was amazing. I’ve been meaning to read more of his since I enjoyed 1776 so much, but haven’t gotten to it. Like I said, I mostly stick to fiction.

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That was fun! I tag:

• Ginger Mom Reads (Because we just started following each other and I want to get to know her better. Go check out her blog, it looks so professional!)
• The Orangutan Librarian (Because they always has the best answers for tags)
• A Bookish Human (Because I haven’t tagged her in a while)
• Kristin Kraves Books (Because I don’t know why)