Answering 26 Bookish Questions From A to Z
Bookworm struggles to name just a few favorite books 🤓
I saw these questions a while back on Reading is a Novel idea and thought it looked like a fun prompt, but I never got round to finishing it, until now… So here are my 26 Bookish questions and answers.
Author You’ve Read the Most Books From — Not counting children’s books (I think Mary Pope Osborne’s Magic Tree House series was over 30 books long 😅) It’s probably Isabel Allende, followed closely by Murakami and Sarah J. Maas, eclectic right?
Best Sequel — I really liked the sequel in A Shade of Magic Series by V.E. Schwab “A Gathering of Shadows”. A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas was also a really strong sequel.
Currently Reading — My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman and Letter to a Stranger: Essays to the Ones Who Haunt Us .
Drink Choice While Reading — I’d probably say coffee, just as reflex. But I usually don’t drink when I’m reading.
E-Reader or Physical Book — Both! I love seeing the physical copies lining up my shelves and I do think reading physical books feels different, but I’ve come to appreciate e-books too. They’re very convenient when traveling and while I never underline or scribble on the physical ones, I highlight and note to my heart’s content on the e-books.
Fictional Character You Probably Would Have Dated in High School — No idea. Given that I’ve always been an eclectic reader I have no idea what my younger self would answer 😅. I think at the end of high school I was reading Jane Austen (Northanger Abbey was my favorite so: Mr Tilney), but I was also going through Isabel Allende’s novels (less proper and more passionate leads than the Tilneys of the world) and fantasy books where I usually went for the antihero like Murtagh in Eragon…
Glad You Gave This Book a Chance — All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai.
Hidden Gem — Blackberry Wine by Joanne Harris
If I Could Only Recommend One Book, It Would Be This (An underrated book that no one is talking about) This is a tough one because it’s hard to think of a book everyone will like, the best recommendations consider what you like to read… disclaimer aside, here are some books which could probably get more hype in their respective genres: Out of Love by Hazel Hayes (Romance), Necessary People by Anna Pitoniak (Suspense), The Humans by Matt Haig (Science Fiction/ Humor), The People We Keep by Allison Larkin and America for Beginners by Leah Franqui (Fiction)
Important Moment in Your Reading Life — I feel like I’ve always loved reading so there’s a lot of fond memories. I remember reading the Magic Tree House books, first with my mum (as my English was pretty basic back then), and then by myself marking the words I didn’t know so I could ask her after. Inkheart is the first book I remember being so engrossed in the story that the real world disappeared, and I loved gushing over it with friends and family after. The year I helped out at the school library was magical, so many books to choose from! I read to my heart’s delight. The summer right after I left the school where I was getting bullied I read a lot too, and it was a great way to disconnect from that and reconnect with other stories. I guess discovering bookdepository (RIP) should probably get a mention too 😅
Just Finished — Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo. I love the way she writes and would have gladly kept reading about these characters.
Kind of Books I Won’t Read — I haven’t read any Horror books, and to be honest I’m not very tempted to. I’ll read the occasional thriller and that’s nerve-racking enough for me.
Longest Book You’ve Read — I would have thought it was one of the Wheel of Time books which are +600 pages, but book VII: Kingdom of Ash in the Throne of Glass series is 736 pages (yes, I googled). And then I remembered I read 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami and that’s 925 pages long. Unless memory fails, that’s the one to beat.
Major Book Hangover Because Of — [If you don’t know what a book hangover is, it’s basically that feeling when you finish reading a book or series and ask yourself, “What do I do now?”] I’ve had too many… finishing The Invisible Life of Addie Larue and the last book in the Assassin’s Apprentice Trilogy are the first that come to mind.
Number of Bookcases You Own — Three? For now ;) A girl can dream.
One Book You’ve Read Multiple Times — There’s a few I’ve reread over the years, Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, Blackberry Wine by Joane Harris, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón... (Actually wrote a post about why I reread and my most reread books)
Preferred Place to Read — Anywhere, everywhere. When I’m home I’ll usually gravitate to the couch.
Quote That Inspires You, or Gives You All the Feels, From a Book You’ve Read — There’s a lot of quotes and phrases that made me pause and reread, I have a google doc where I copy the sentences and fragments I like (and it’s really long). Without looking at said doc though, I’d probably say “Breathing dreams like air” from Fitzgerald.
Reading Regret — Nothing comes to mind, but I have left some books unfinished over the last couple of years if I wasn’t engaging with the story.
Series You Started and Need to Finish — The Wheel of Time. I’m a little over half way through, I read lots of other books in between though. I also learned that Robin Hobb has other trilogies set in the same world as the Assasins’ Apprentice one which I’d like to read, and of course the Kingkiller Chronicle if Rothfuss ever publishes the last book/s.
Three of Your All Time Favorite Books
The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue by V. E. Schwab
Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Unapologetic Fanperson For — Well-developed secondary characters, stories about finding where you fit in, stories about immigrants and children of immigrants, stories with writer characters, fantasy novels where authors create cultures and languages and imaginary worlds, stories with good romance (not necessarily romance novels), antiheroes and lyrical writing.
Very Excited For This New Release (more than all the others) — I haven’t kept up with a lot of new releases recently, but I was very excited to attend the presentation of Elisabet Benavent’s latest novel at the International Book Fair in Buenos Aires and I had been eagerly awaiting Elizabeth Acevedo’s latest book as it was her first novel for adults.
Worst Bookish Habit — I have a really hard time lending my books, also not-buying books when I still have unread ones on the shelf, also reading several books at the same time. And needing to read the book before seeing the movie?
X Marks the Spot (start at the top left of your shelf and pick the 27th book) — Just Like You by Nick Hornby (haven’t read it yet).
Your Latest Book Purchase — I recently bought Three Floors by Eshkol Nevo and The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai.
Zzz-Snatcher Book (the last book that kept you up late) — Carrie Soto is back by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
And that’s it!
If you decide to answer the prompt yourself, feel free to tag me so I can read it!