The Writer’s Book Tag

Greetings friends! I have been long absent due to complex and overwhelming circumstance involving time thieves, Schuman, and Spanish verbs. But now, having thwarted the time thieves, fled from Schuman, and conjugated the Spanish verbs, I find myself able to write to you again.

In short, I am back!

Or maybe Schuman killed me and this is just my ghost or my enstranged twin or my banker writing this. I guess you’ll never know.

Anyway! I have returned (or my ghost has returned or whatever) for a very specific purpose. I am here in answer to the call of my fellow blogger, the wonderful Katie@The Act Diary who has tagged me in her fantastic Writer’s Book Tag!

A-hem.

First Draft: A book or series you’ve never read before

The broadway musical Les Misérables, based on the novel of the same name by Victor Hugo, is, I think, my favorite musical of all time (I only say “I think” because all time hasn’t passed yet so I can’t say for absolute certain). The music is glorious, the story is both tragic and inspiring, and the characters include GAVROCHE.

You may be wondering, “If you’re really such a big fan of this musical, why haven’t you read the book yet?”

To answer that question, let’s look at this book from a different angle:

THIS BOOK IS A PAPERBACK BRICK.

Also my sister read it and informed me that there are long chapters all about Napoleon and his battle strategies. I guess Victor Hugo thought that was pretty cool, but I don’t know if I’m quite ready to try and tackle it yet.

Someday.

For now, my sister just tells me about all the Gavroche parts and we weep loving tears for him.

Second Draft: A book or series you didn’t like as much the second time you read it

So this is technically cheating because I never re-read these books, but I can’t think of a book that fits the criteria, so this will have to do. Have mercy on me.

When I was a wee child of ten, I was mildly obsessed The Deltora Quest series by Emily Rodda. I bought the first four books. Then I got a great big book that had all eight books in it. I thought the stories were really exciting and the characters were really deep.

Bless my heart.

I never finished the series. I honestly don’t remember which book I stopped on, but I think it was book five. Though I never re-read them, I’m pretty sure if I did I would not be so enamored with them as I once was.

I didn’t even remember the name of the series. I had to look it up.

And the creepy bug thing on the cover of Shifting Sands??? How was I not disturbed by this as a child???

Final Draft: A book or series you’ve liked for a really long time

Another book I first read as a wee child of ten was The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. Over the years my sister and I have kept reading it over and over again thinking, “This time we’re going to realize how dumb it is. This time we’ll realize we’ve outgrown it.”

Well, it hasn’t happened yet.

I don’t really read the rest of the series anymore (except The Sea of Monsters because the GUINEA PIG PART), and the Heroes of Olympus series was kind of disappointing. It gets boring when Percy and his friends are just like, “Oh, yeah. I just took down a couple giants and a handful of deadly monsters. What else is new?”

But I love The Lightning Thief, back when Percy didn’t have any idea what the heck was going on and he was just a wee child trying not to die.

Also The Lightning Thief has Groovy Darin, so….

Killing Off Your Characters: A book or series that made you cry

I have no idea what’s going on in this picture. You should thank me for sparing you the awful 90s cover.

I read Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens after watching the movie so I KNEW what was going to happen already.

I’m just lucky to have the sort of family where you can come down stairs sobbing and when your mom asks what’s wrong and you can say “SMIKE!” and she’ll understand.

Plot Holes: A book or series that disappointed you

I read the All the Wrong Questions series by Lemony Snicket right after re-reading A Series of Unfortunate Events. I thought, “Hey! A backstory series!” And I’m all for backstories (in case you couldn’t tell by my whole post of longing for them), so I checked out the books at the library posthaste and proceeded to read them.

And they weren’t awful. But they were just… sort of mediocre. They didn’t really connect to A Series of Unfortunate Events all that much. Lemony Snicket was the main character, but, aside from a few brief scenes, we didn’t get to see him interacting with other members of VFD. Instead he was in a little coastal town making jolly new friends who are never mentioned in the other books.

And falling ridiculously in love with Ellington Feint??? If she made such a huge impact on your life, why is she never mentioned again?? And what about Beatrice??? Her name was mentioned once in the whole series and only in passing.

Also, the climax involved this magical, mythical creature that didn’t really seem to fit the tone of the rest of the story.

Writer’s Block: A book or series you never finished

I read the first book of The Chronicles of Egg by Geoff Rodkey, mostly because the kid’s name was Egg. Do I need another reason?

The book was alright. There were some funny parts, and I liked the main character well enough and someone tried to throw him off a cliff which is always fun. However, I was very unimpressed with the climax (by which I mean the ANTI-CLIMAX), and there was a considerable amount of rude humor which I am not a big fan of.

Still, in spite of these failings, I was interested enough to read the sequel. Upon finishing said sequel (which also was rather lacking in the climax department), I thought, “Well, I might as well read the third one.” Only to realize that the third book had not yet been released and would not be released for ANOTHER YEAR.

By the time the book came out, I had moved on with my life.

When the book appeared on the shelf at the library, I picked it up. I glanced at the back.

Then I put it back on the shelf and walked away.

I hope I didn’t break the poor book’s heart.

Feedback: A book or series you’d recommend to anyone and everyone

I never would have read The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope if I had not been forced to by the powers that be which dictated my education. The description on the back cover was less than inspiring. Ghosts and romance. Whoopee.

But it was AMAZING. It’s quite witty and hilarious. There’s a wonderful cast of very clever, very entertaining characters. Basically it’s a historical fiction book about the revolutionary war and there are spies and sleeping pills and Peaceable Sherwood and baked beans and one of the best marriage proposal’s ever.

Go reeeeaaaad it.

So there you have it. Thanks again to Katie@ The Act Diary!

Now I tag…

Jem Jones

May@Forever and Everly

Lillian@Inky Insanity

 

Have you read any of these books? What books have you been reading? Feel free to tag yourself!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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