The Bookworm Tag

I couldn’t pass these questions up. I just couldn’t. They are all about books ‘n things. What is there not to like? (unless you don’t like books, then we need to have a conversation…)

Thank you for tagging me Bookmarkedone!

And now, for the questions…

How is your bookshelf organized? By color, author, genre, size, etc.?

Author and genre. Fantasy on this shelf, poetry on this shelf, etc. Books by the same author are put together, which means I can’t organize by size, because someone in the publishing world decided that all books by the same author must be different shapes and sizes. In fact, why not make an entire series different sizes! (glares into space)

The only time this doesn’t work well is when authors decide to dabble in multiple genres. Which I applaud, but it does make it hard to organize my shelves. (looking at you CS Lewis)

What’s the last MG book you read and did you like it?

The last MG book I read was ‘Children of the Flying City’ by James Sheehan.

I did not like it. I didn’t even finish it.

At first, I was very excited. It has a flying city, air ships, and a found family of street kids. But instead of focusing on all that fun stuff, the book focused more on death, blood, and the terrible decisions the character is supposedly making that I did not find to be so terrible. Give him a break, the kid is twelve, and I think he is making perfectly normal decisions for a terrified twelve year old. But no, the narrator had to go on and on about how terrible his decision was and how he would regret trusting an adult for the rest of his born days. Ugh.

I would not recommend it to MG readers. It is dark and hopeless and honestly rather bloody. If anything I would recommend it to YA readers who enjoy an omniscient narrator and ‘Lord of the Flies’.

Pirates or street thieves (or both)?

Pirates! Bonus points if they are sky pirates. No, I actually was not a fan of Pirates of the Caribbean. I will take them in books where they are super angsty and try to save the world. Please and thank you.

What’s one of the most fictional things you’ve ever done (went skydiving, played a character at a Renaissance faire, set fire to something, tamed a dragon, had high tea with the queen)?

Ummmmmm… What is considered fictional? Would getting engaged count? Or riding the Eye in London? Or walking around the ruins of a Roman city in Israel? We’ll go with the latter one, walking on hundreds of years old tile was pretty cool.

Bookmarks! Do you use them? Do you memorize the page number? Do you have ticket stubs and old receipts you use instead? Or do you swallow a book whole in one sitting so nothing’s left to mark?

If there is a bookmark in reach, I use it. If there is a receipt, ticket stub, dollar bill, or another book handy I will also use those. I even used my phone as a bookmark once or twice. Though that habit ended when my phone slipped out of the book and promptly broke. After having it for less than a week. Whoops?

The Mysterious Thrift Shop: What’s the weirdest/creepiest place you bought a book, and what was it? The better the find and the weirder the shop, the better.

I actually have not been in many weird/creepy book stores. Though the coolest one I have been too was under a bridge in London. On top of a bunch of folding tables were boxes and boxes of books. They weren’t organized by any system, just dumped into the nearest available box. People around the tables quietly went through the hodge podge of books, occasionally showing a particularly interesting one to their partner. I didn’t buy anything there, but I enjoyed looking through the collection.

What fictional world would you want to vacation in?

Sounis, Eddis, and Attolia in The Thief! It is one of the few worlds that my peace loving, non-sword wielding self could actually survive in. There is nothing dire going on, and if I meet the right people, a high chance on being allowed in the royal libraries. They are gorgeous, and I would do anything to spend an afternoon in those vaulted rooms.

Do your librarians know you by name?

Ahem. Oh yeah. When one has been going to a particular library since one was very small, the librarians may or may not be well acquainted with ones reading preferences, and entire families gossip. ‘Nuff said.

Hardcover, paperback, eBook, or audiobook, and why?

Usually, paperback. They are easier to stuff into purses and suitcases and usually smaller, which helps when you are doing the above things. However, hardbacks often have prettier covers, which is always nice. And ebooks are never forgotten or left behind because they live on my phone. Which is helpful when my scatterbrained, wedding planning self sometimes locks her keys inside her house… (that was an embarrassing phone call to my mom)

It honestly depends on what book it is and what experience I want to have with it. Do I want to hold the book in my hands? Is this book going to have maps and/or illustrations to drool over? How much do I feel invested in this book or series? If I am very invested, I get the paperback or hardcover. Less invested, I get the ebook. It’s a complicated question guys, and I have probably spent waaaay too long deciding what format I want to read a particular book in.

As for audio books, only on long car trips. End of story.

What’s one of the first books you ever read/the book that made you fall in love with reading (and the story behind it)?

Why do you ask me these questions? I don’t know! I actually don’t remember not knowing how to read. According to my mom, it was a very painful process. But I have conveniently blocked it out of my memory and now can only remember being able to dive into fictional worlds.

Narnia introduced me to the fantastical, as it was read aloud my imagination was swept away to another world. In that world anything could happen, and my mind wandered through those lands with the Pevensies and away from them.

Little Women showed me to the beauty of the ordinary life. I did not have to find a portal to have a wonderful life, I just had to find the beauty in the one I was given.

Lord of the Rings swallowed me whole and transported me to a world I forgot was only on the page until I was called for dinner. Then it spit me out dazed and confused to see reality once again.

Nancy Drew was my comfort read. I knew the mystery would be solved and everything would turn out all right. In an occasionally mixed up and confusing world, this series was solid, predictable, and comforting.

All these books drew me in and introduced me to worlds beyond my own, with heroes I could admire, villains I could hate, and lessons to teach me. I didn’t read to escape myself, I read to find myself. At the side of the Pevensie children, Jo March, Frodo Baggins, and Nancy Drew I learned about the person I was, and the woman I wanted to become. Books shaped my life, and I wouldn’t be the same without them.

(I am just now realizing that I may have read the question wrong, but this is my answer and I am sticking too it)

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Well then, there you have it! Thank you again Bookmarkedone for tagging me!

And if any of you lovely bloggers want to take the tag, have at it and enjoy!

Shaina Merrick