Happy Friday everyone! It’s time for a tag.
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I was tagged by Astra @ A Stranger’s Guide to Novels, Fatima @ Noteable Pad, and Lauren @ Just Lauren to complete The Harry Potter Book Tag. Please go and check out all of their blogs – you won’t regret it 🙂
This awesome tag was created by Trang and Lashaan over at Bookitode, as were the amazing graphics below, which they have very kindly said anyone who completes this tag may use!
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The only rule of this tag is that YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO USE HARRY POTTER AS AN ANSWER. Given that Harry Potter is my go-to answer for most book tag questions, I am going to find this challenging 😛
A book in which you found the theme interesting, but you’d like to rewrite it:
This may be an unpopular opinion, but…
As much as I’ve loved other books by Patrick Ness, and as much as I did enjoy this one, I’m choosing The Rest of Us Just Live Here. I LOVED the concept of this book – the idea that living an ordinary life can be just as thrilling and meaningful as living the life of the ‘chosen one’ and going on some magical, paranormal, crazy adventure. However…
I felt that in order for this book to work, the ‘ordinary life’ plot needed to pack a bigger punch. I found the story a little bit average… I wanted more to happen, and I wanted to feel more. Instead, I was left with the impression that the magical, paranormal, crazy adventure would have been more exciting to read.
The first book in a series that got you hooked:
Pines by Blake Crouch is one of the most original, addictive, creepy, intriguing books I’ve ever read, and I binge-read the rest of the series within a couple of days of finishing it. I don’t know anyone else who has read these books – if you have, let me know, as I’m dying to talk about them with somebody!
If you like books with…
a) Creepy small towns in the middle of nowhere where it’s obvious something extremely shady is going down
b) Weird townspeople who give you the heebie-jeebies with their odd and decidedly sinister behaviour
c) Crazy twists that leave your mouth hanging open
… then you will enjoy this series as much as I did!
Read the Goodreads synopsis here. That’s an order. 🙂
A book you wish you could have right now:
ACCIO EMPIRE OF STORMS!!!! *waves plastic wand from fancy dress shop* …. Damn, it’s not working! 😥 Being a muggle is the worst, you guys.
A killer book. Both senses. Take it as you like:
I don’t tend to read many books which involve lots of killing haha. But as it involves an investigation into a ‘suspicious suicide’, let me take this opportunity to gush about how much I love Night Film by Marish Pessl again! (Like I needed an excuse?!)
This book is killer. It’s just perfection. The writing is dark and compelling and quite probably some kind of addictive substance because it gets right into your veins and possesses you for the entire reading experience.
If you like books with…
a) Surreal, creepy happenings which mess with your mind so much you have no idea what is and isn’t real
b) Elusive, enigmatic characters with sinister reputations
c) Ambiguous endings (I know those aren’t everyone’s cuppa…)
… then you simply must read this book IMMEDIATELY.
Read the Goodreads synopsis here. That’s another order. 🙂
A book that you found really confusing:
I had to study the Endgame, a play by Samuel Beckett, at uni. I’m still confused about what it’s really supposed to mean. But maybe that’s the whole point…
It’s about these people who have no legs and live in dustbins. It’s the end of the world, and they’re living out the rest of their numbered days in said dustbins, talking about random nonsense such as the fact that there are no more bicycles left in the world, and that nothing means anything any more.
It’s super weird, but I actually kind of liked it, because I like super weird stuff 🙂
Your spirit animal book:
Cath from Fangirl is my soul sister. I’m a bookworm, an introvert, fandom is a huge part of my life, and like Cath, I need fictional worlds to help me cope with the real one! Also, after reading Carry On, I’m just as obsessed with Simon and Baz as she is! ❤
A dark, twisted book:
This is a difficult question to answer, because there are so many! Most recently, I’d choose Lies Like Love by Louisa Reid, which gets off to a vaguely sinister start (girl with severe depression moves into lonely house with creepily overbearing mother), but becomes steadily darker and twistier.
A book that surprised you in a great way:
Cheryl Strayed’s memoir, about hiking the Pacific Crest trail on her own, with no hiking experience whatsoever, and a backpack she could barely lift off the ground, isn’t the type of book I normally pick up. I was expecting to find Wild interesting, but I wasn’t expecting to be so blown away emotionally. I honestly felt that this book changed my life – it helped me to put some things in perspective, and showed me that there are always ways to heal yourself, no matter how far you’ve wandered from your path.
I tag the following lovely people:
Anne @ The Book Adventures of Annelise Lestrange
Charley @ Books and Bakes
Amanda @ Cover 2 Cover Mom
Beth @ Reading Every Night
Ali @ I Wuv Books
Matt @ Ravenclaw Pride
Emma @ The Book Crunch
Magda @ Magini Books
As always, no pressure if you’ve already done the tag/have a million tags on your to-do list/can’t be bothered 🙂
Much love and hope you all have a fabulous weekend! ❤
The Mud and Stars Book Blog 
This is awesome! Thanks for thinking of me 🙂 x
Thanks! And you’re very welcome 🙂 Look forward to seeing your answers if you decide to do that tag! x
I loved reading your answers Jess 🙂 Pines and Night Film sound GREAT (and also quite creepy) so I’m definitely considering reading those.
I have a really horrible Beckett memory which you’ve somehow managed to resurface. Around a year ago, I was doing my A2 English lit exam (in which we compared plays, poems and prose) and it was all going well, until I turned the page and lo, behold – I spotted an extract from Krapp’s Last Tape by Beckett (which, let me just tell you, makes NO SENSE), so I wrote a terrible essay because I had no clue what that play was about. I’ve not ventured anywhere near Beckett since. Should I try Endgame?
Ahh thank you 😀 Yes they were both pretty creepy, and I loved them so much – I consider them both to be favourite books, especially Night Film! Highly recommend 🙂 And haha apologies for reawakening a Beckett related nightmare – I would have NO idea what to write if something like that came up in an exam. Thankfully I just had an (unassessed) essay on it, so I could afford to write a load of rubbish haha. I’ve never read Krapp’s Last Tape (what’s it about? Or is that kind of impossible to answer?!), or any other Beckett, but from what I gather, most of his plays are pretty nonsensical. If you didn’t like that one, you may not enjoy Endgame, but it might be different if just reading it for pleasure and not having to analyse it 🙂 I personally liked it because it was so weird and strangely humorous even though it’s technically tragic. I think it’s worth a shot, as long as you go into it knowing it won’t make much sense! 🙂
Haha if I remember correctly, it’s a one-act play about an old man listening to a tape from a long time ago, in which he narrates his life. It’s so nonsensical, and I didn’t understand anything. That’s the whole play. An old guy listening to a tape. I remember at the time, all the English students were furious because Beckett is a degree level author. He shouldn’t have been in our exam.
I think I’ll have to give Endgame a read then! I might enjoy it more knowing I don’t have to analyse it, and my A Level grade isn’t in the equation. 🙂
Sounds like a strange one! I may give it a read one day 🙂 That definitely should not have been on your exam. To be honest, I struggled to understand it at degree level, and I think I probably would now 😛 It’s so much easier to enjoy books when there’s no exam-stress attached to them. I remember there were several books I loved before uni that I ended up studying, and I couldn’t bring myself to re-read them at all until I knew the outcome of my degree – it made me feel sick to even look at them!!
Oh gosh! I know exactly what you mean. I felt the same about Wuthering Heights and a few other books (although, I didn’t actually like Wuthering Heights before studying it either). I just preferred them a lot more when I knew my grade didn’t depend on my knowledge of them.
Love this! Being a Muggle really does suck 🙂
Thanks! 🙂 Haha, I know right?! Sadly still waiting for my Hogwarts letter… 😥
I’m chuckling at the idea of you waving your plastic wand around wishing for Empire of Storms–totally understandable. 🙂 Speaking of Wild, I found the movie pretty empowering, especially the ending, and must get around to reading the book one of these days.
Haha, glad it made you chuckle 🙂 If only it had worked…! Ooh yes, I have also seen the movie adaptation of Wild – it was fantastic! But I absolutely recommend picking up the book, it really was empowering and inspiring and basically just all kinds of amazing 🙂
I felt the same way about The Rest of us Just Live Here!! I kept waiting for something bigger to happen, but it just kind of fail flat for me.
Ahh glad I’m not the only one who felt this way – thought I was being controversial haha. A lot of people raved about it, but like you, I was waiting to be blown away, and it just never happened. It was actually the first Patrick Ness book I read, and I’ve since read The Chaos Walking trilogy and LOVED them. Have you read any of his other books?
Yeah girl, I talked about that in my review. I kinda feel like I had it over-hyped in my head since soooo many people liked it lol I have not yet, like you that was my first of his books too. The Chaos Walking trilogy is one I’ve looked at reading, just have to find the time!! 🙂
I have not read ANY of these books… The shame!!! Fangirl is on my TBR list! I have seen Wild around, but you make me want to go buy it ASAP!!!
Thanks for the tag! I’ve actually already done this tag, it is an awesome tag 😊
You’re welcome! 🙂 Ahhh you definitely should buy Wild, it’s such an inspiring read, and I can’t recommend it enough! And I hope you enjoy Fangirl – it’s one of my favourite comfort books I’ll be re-reading for years! Have you read any other Rainbow Rowell books?
I haven’t read ANY RR books ((hanging head in shame))
Haha, well, Fangirl is an excellent place to start!
Pines sounds amazing!
I’ve got Lies Like Love on my TBR shelf at the mo but wasn’t that bothered about it… I am more intrigued after reading this!
Pines IS amazing 😀 Definitely recommend giving it a go – it was so creepy and addictive, and I’m desperate to find another book which gives me the same feeling as I had whilst reading it! Lies Like Love was great – I didn’t really know what to expect from it, as the synopsis was quite vague, but I thought it was very cleverly done, and ended up going in a completely different direction than expected.
I’ll have to give it another go. I found the main character quite annoying when I started it the other day x
Ahh that’s a shame 😦 hope you can get back into it, as it’s so upsetting when you spend money on a book but end up finding it disappointing 😦 x
It is! It was part of a subscription gift though so I was paying for a risk really lol x
Ahh that’s cool, I keep seeing all these subscription boxes and getting really envious – I think I’ll have to subscribe to one soon 🙂 Which one do you get? x
It’s finished now but I used to get the Willoughby Book Club. It was ok but you don’t get a lot for your money x
I have watched Wayward Pines on Fox but I really want to read the series 🙂 This was so perfect I loved your answers 🙂 I am gonna do this tag 🙂
Thanks so much 🙂 And I look forward to seeing your answers to the tag! Oooh is the TV show good? I’ve only read the books, but I’m desperate to watch the series! I’m hoping it will make its way onto Netflix at some point 🙂 I definitely recommend the books, they were so addictive!
the show was also so addictive and suspenseful check it out 🙂 but I am sure the books are better
Ahh sounds awesome, I’ll definitely check it out 😀 Hope you enjoy the books!
I gotta do this tag soon!! I totally agree wit your answer for Fangirl – Cath is a complex character, but a relatable one on so many ways as well.
Ooh definitely, it was a really fun tag 🙂 And exactly, Cath is extremely relatable in so many ways. Really want to re-read that book soon 🙂