It’s been a long time since I got round to doing a book tag, so thought I’d do this one straight away to stop me forgetting. Thanks to Jess for tagging me!
RULES:
You must be honest
You must answer all the questions
You must tag at least 4 people
1. What book has been on your shelf the longest?
Probably my copy of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘The Lost World’. Either that or my ‘Sharpe’ collection by Bernard Cornwell.
2. What is your current read, your last read, and the book you’ll read next?
I am currently reading two books; ‘Assassin’s Creed Renaissance’ by Oliver Bowden (paperback) and ‘Clockwork Wonderland’ (horror anthology based in Wonderland) courtesy of Horroraddicts.net. My last read was ‘Critical Failures’ by Robert Bevan. My next read will either be ‘Shadow and Bone’ by Leigh Bardugo or ‘Critical Failures 2 (A Storm of S-words)’ by Robert Bevan.
3. What book did everyone like, but you hated?
American Gods. I have never been so bored when reading/listening a novel/audiobook rated so highly by so many.
4. What book do you keep telling yourself you’ll read, but you probably won’t?
I haven’t actually told myself this and let myself down. I read everything I’m interested in reading.
5. What book are you saving for retirement?
None. Why save abook for another 40 years when I could drop dead next week? Madness.
6. Last page: read it first, or wait ’til the end?
Read the last page first? Are you mad? Why ruin the hard work of the author to build up to an ending by reading it? I struggle to enjoy something if I know what’s going to happen.
7. Acknowledgement: waste of paper and ink, or interesting aside?
As an author, myself, I feel it’s only proper to thank those that helped you succeed. So I’d never call it a waste of paper.
8. Which book character would you switch places with?
Fitz from the Farseer Trilogy. I’d try and do the impossible; make it so he’s not a miserable bugger.
9. Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life? (Place, time, person?)
My dad and I are big fans of the Sharpe TV series and the novels by Bernard Cornwell. So reading those always makes me think of him. He used to make little dioramas set in the Napoleonic era. So it makes me think of those.
10. Name a book that you acquired in an interesting way.
I used to proofread the warhammer novels for the Black Library, I have a contributor copy, signed by the author, which is nice.
11. Have you ever given a book away for a special reason to a special person?
I don’t give books away. Unless I really don’t like them. Then it’s only to the charity shops.
12. Which book has been with you most places?
My Kindle goes to work with me and goes on holiday with me. As do my audiobooks. So it’s never one specific book.
13. Any “required reading” you hated in high school that wasn’t so bad two years later?
Nope. Still hate Pride and Prejudice with every fibre of being.
14. Used or brand new?
I like both. Nothing beats finding a little gem in a charity shop. There’s a used book store in my town and I often come out with five books for less than a brand new novel would cost me.
15. Have you ever read a Dan Brown book?
Angels and Demons, the Da Vinci Code and part of the Lost Symbol.
16. Have you ever seen a movie you liked more than the book?
I’ve seen a few that I would say are on par, but none I think was better. But then, I don’t really enjoy sitting down for ages to watch films. So books always win for me.
17. Have you ever read a book that’s made you hungry, cookbooks included?
There is a chef in the Powder Mage trilogy that can make anything, quite literally out of thin air. The descriptions often make me hungry. As did the descriptions of meals in A Song of Ice and Fire, but that’s because George R.R Martin takes six pages to describe a meal.
18. Who is the person whose book advice you’ll always take?
Drew from Tattooed Book Geek. We both have incredibly similar taste in books. The general rule of thumb is that if he likes something I’ll like it, and vice versa …except for Cold Feet. No way I’m reading that.
19. Is there a book out of your comfort zone (e.g., outside your usual reading genre) that you ended up loving?
The only thing I can think of is ‘The Lost World’ by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Before I read that, I had no interest in books by the classic authors, or historical fiction. Now both are what I’d class as some of ‘my favourite generes’.
I tag:
Liz at Cover to Cover
Drew at Tattooed Book Geek
Lashaan at Bookidote
Rose at Around the Library in 80 Days (my favourite blog name. Ever).
Mel at Meltotheany
Krysti at YA and Wine
Don’t worry if you’ve already been tagged or, simply, don’t do tags 🙂
“Nope. Still hate Pride and Prejudice with every fibre of being.”
I am no longer sure about our soul bond! I thought we were best of friends and then THIS revelation?!?
Yeah, not every classic is going to appeal to everyone…
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I can’t help it 😦 I am more Jules Verne and Conan Doyle than Jane Austen. Romance has never really been my genre.
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yeah, outside of Austen, I’d rather bite a bullet than read a romance…
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You didn’t strike me as the romance type. Glad I wasn’t entirely wrong on that one.
I didn’t hate all school reads. Loved Of Mice and Men.
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Here’s how I treat romance:
https://bookstooge.wordpress.com/2016/06/23/venetia/
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That review quite literally made my night! I’m half-tempted to read one of the dinosaur erotica novels just to take a swan dive out of my comfort zone.
Yes. There is genuinely a series out there where women make love to dinosaurs.
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Yeah, I use to follow someone on Booklikes who would review those kind of books “just because”. She got a good laugh out of them…
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Just looked. They are only about 20 pages long yet they cost £2.09. Sounds like a bit of a rip off!
I don’t want Amazon suggesting things I may like because I bought ‘Taken by the T-Rex’!
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Watch out, it will even affect your suggestions if you browse it.
My wife and I have a joint account, so some of the things that come across for “me” aren’t things I’d really use as a guy 😀
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Wait … what? I just browsed it. I feel so violated!
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Thanks for the nomination… I don’t think i’ve done this one before so will defo add it to my tag schedule (yes, I have a tag schedule 😀 ) and do this soonish…
I love your answer to Q nr 5 and re Pride & Prejudice as well- I never dug that book either… as for dino erotica – I thought the same thing- I want to read it just to have a bit of a craic! I once accepted a reading challenge by someone on Goodreads for an erotica book… well, holy crap! that was crazy read… I reviewed it and people got a good laugh out of it, but I just wanted to… you know, gag and bleach myself all over!
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That’s my outlook! Just not sure I can justify two pounds for 20 pages. Especially for something I can’t see as being worth it.
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Thanks for the tag. I suck at doing tags but I’ll try to get around to it.😀
Ha! GRRM takes 6 pages to describe a meal! Very True! Like when they were going through the larders at Castle Black in Dance of Dragon’s, page after page of the amount of food in the stores and yet, he sends a Raven to inform readers on the outcome of a battle in a short paragraph!😂
Thanks for the mention too.😀
I enjoyed Cold Feet and I fully expected mockery and haughty derision over it. Especially as I have now read something that your mother would like! And, on the weird side, I now have the answer to a question that I never would have thought of asking about your mother and it will give me nightmares, shudders!
Oh my! Try not to make Fitz miserable! Is that even possible? I’m pretty sure that Fitz, pain and misery all go hand in hand together.
Eurgh, Dino porn. There’s loads of it! I found some very weird and crazy covers when I did those fun and inappropriate book covers posts. They are so short too! 20 pages, £2.50 WTF! Who buys them!
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The price for these dino books is such a rip off! Crazy people, fetishists and friends of the author, I imagine.
I admit Fitz not being a miserable wretch would be a losing battle.
The castle black larder sprung to mind when doing this post.
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Some of the reviews for the books are negative though! Which is weird because surely whoever buys the book must realise what it’d be like! I mean, Taken by the T-Rex certainly doesn’t sound like a 5* read full of deep story and eloquent prose!
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I REALLY want to read it. Be perfect for a short read review. Just don’t want to throw money away!
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We need to find a free one or at least a cheap one and get a group to read it, me, you, Liz, etc! 🙂
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I’m down with this idea. I’ll have a look to see what I can find.
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I also know from the last fun covers post I did that some of those weird books are available in audio book format! If you have any spare audible credit!😂
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I’m not wasting a credit. Audio books are an addiction. Would the Mchale stop being such a lethario? About as likely as my throwing a credit away 😉
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Thank you so much! This tag looks really fun, I’ll send you a link when I finish.
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I loved this tag! Your answers were amazing… 😀 What book are you saving for retirement? “None. Why save a book for another 40 years when I could drop dead next week? Madness.” Seriously why “save” any book???
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I know! Could not believe that question. There’s only one reason I’d put off readjng a book and that’s becauase it looked bad.
Thank you 😊
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Congrats on getting tagged, and this has resulted in a really fun post. Loved reading your answers. And you are so right: why save any book? That said….my backlog on books is currently huge, so huge in fact that I wonder if I will complete it before hitting retirement lol 😂😂
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I’d be interested in seeing your answers but in a film context.
I know the feeling. Since blogging I have seen so many books and films I need to read. But time is in so short a supply 😦
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Yeah, and the strange thing is: I keep asking my boss for a year off to watch movies, tv series and read books, but he keeps saying that I am not allowed to that. Really weird, no idea why that is 😂
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Sounds like you and I both need better bosses. Mine says the same.
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I’m not too surprised by your thoughts on American Gods. I just recently finished it and man.. It was reaaaally long, and sort of all over the place! I did see why it was so good to the eyes so many people, but it wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be either. I’m also a huge fan of used books. That satisfying feeling of getting 5 used books or more for the price of 1 new book is insane amazing! You must also be the first person to talk about Sir Conan Arthur Doyle’s other books, beside anything related to Sherlock Holmes. Interesting stuff. I’m actually curious to try The Lost World myself now hahah Thanks again for tagging me, man. I appreciate that.
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No problem!
Sir Arthur’s books are wonderful. I have read a fair few of his short stories as well. The Lost world is wonderful. Some people do seem to forget he wrote anything other than Sherlock.
And I am glad I’m not the only one who felt underwhelmed by American Gods.
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Are we seriously talking dino erotica here 😉 Just when I thought I saw it all lol. I’ve got two more quirks to add to my reading habit list it seems. I actually ‘save’ books to read (I have good me, bad me waiting for me and I’m scared it’ll be really good and then I’ll have even more trouble making a top 10 for this year so I’m hoping to read it the first week of January. Also, I have (in the past, I’ve outgrown the habit) read the really last sentence of a novel before. It normally doesn’t reveal anything and generally doesn’t mean anything yet but it’s so nice that you read the whole novel then and THEN it makes sense. Yep I’m weird but sweet too ;-). Anyway, very interesting answers!
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At least the sweetness makes up for it 😉
I once read the last sentence or two. It mentioned a character being alive. Totally made me not care for the pages before that where everyone assumed him dead 😦
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Yep, gives people the wrong impression right away ;-). Oh no, yep if I’d have an experience like that I wouldn’t continue to read the last sentences either! I’ve never had that happen to me luckily, but I stopped doing it anyway 🙂
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Sams about the retirement thing and reading the last page of a book! I have no idea what will happen and I (or the world) might not even make it to my retirement, so I don’t feel the ended to save any books for it! And I don’t know why someone would ever read the last page of a book? WHY?
I watched the American Gods show, and it’s weird, but a part of me still wants to continue watching it because I want to know what the heck is going on? 😂 And I’m naturally drawn to the weird things. We’ll see if I ever pick up the book afterwards, though!
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I have been tempted by the show. I only hope it’s better than the book. Can’t explain how let down I felt.
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