20 Questions Book Tag

So I found this over on The Fox's Hideaway, don't know who actually started it, but I thought it looked fun, so I saved it, and decided to do it for one of my posts as I worked on my Blog Ahead Challenge back in October.  So some of the answers might be a little off since I actually wrote an posted this in October for things that are most recent answers.


1.  HOW MANY BOOKS ARE TOO MANY FOR A SERIES?

Honestly, I don't have a preference.  I feel like as long as the series has somewhere to go, and isn't just repeating the same storyline over and over, it's good to go.  I mean I always love getting back with my favorite characters, but reading the same plot over and over is a drag.


2.  HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT CLIFFHANGERS?

Once again, I don't really mind them.  As crazy as they can make me at the end of a book though, it is what can get me to go buy the next one right away if it is available. But it can be frustrating if I have to wait a long time for the next one because it hasn't been published yet.


3.  HARDCOVER OR PAPERBACK?

So, yes, hardcovers are very nice, and often have beautiful covers, and look nice on a bookshelf. But when I'm actually reading, I really like to hold a paperback the most. They're usually so much easier to hold, not too heavy, the right size, etc.  (Except for ones like my ARC of The Burning Shadow by JLA).  Plus, lately a lot of the books I want to buy and own are romance, and so many of those are just only available in paperback.  Also my ARC collection, those are all paperback, so it's nice to have those matching as well.


4.  FAVORITE BOOK?

There's no ways to pick just one, there are so many books out there that I love!  If I name a few they would be It by Stephen King, Watchers by Dean Koontz, the Twilight series, the Harry Potter series, the After series, just to name a few.


5.  LEAST FAVORITE BOOK?

I was not a fan of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night.


6.  LOVE TRIANGLES, YES OR NO?

Sure, why not?  Some of the best all time romance stories are love triangles, my usual favorite example is Gone with the Wind.


7.  THE MOST RECENT BOOK YOU COULDN'T FINISH?

This is a hard one because I pretty much DNF books pretty early in because I can't get into them and there are just too many other books I want to read to waste time on one I'm not enjoying. Most recent was Every Stolen Breath by Kimberly Gabriel, and it wasn't that it wasn't good, I just went into it thinking it was something different than what it really was, and that made me not be able to get into it.


8.  A BOOK YOU'RE CURRENTLY READING?

I'm currently reading It's Not PMS, It's You by Rich Amooi, and listening to Grin and Beard It by Penny Reid


9.  LAST BOOK YOU RECOMMENDED TO SOMEONE?

As I mentioned above, I was posting this in October, so I'm guessing most likely I've recently recommended anything from the SmartyPants Romance series.


10.  OLDEST BOOK YOU'VE READ BY PUBLICATION DATE?

This one is hard to figure out, but I'm going to guess Romeo and Juliet.

11.  NEWEST BOOK YOU'VE READ BY PUBLICATION DATE?

Blindsided by Amy Daws

12.  FAVORITE AUTHOR?

Like with the favorite book, impossible to pick just one!  A few current favorites are Emma Hart, Helena Hunting, Amy Daws, and Penny Reid.

13.  BUYING BOOKS OR BORROWING BOOKS?

So, I love to own books.  I love my bookshelves.  I am poor though, and so I do tend to borrow audiobooks and love to get ARCs or egalleys.  But I will often end up buying those audiobooks or ebooks as physical books if I want to own them for my shelves.

14.  A BOOK YOU DISLIKE THAT EVERYONE SEEMS TO LOVE?

I was just discussing this with a student.  I am not the hugest fan of the Cinder series. The first book was okay, nothing that spectacular in my opinion, and I wasn't a fan of the second one.

15.  BOOKMARKS OR DOG EARS?

So, another reason I like paperback is because I will dog-ear those pages as I read it. Only if it is my own book though!  I love bookmarks, and keep buying cute ones, but then I never seem to use them.

16.  A BOOK YOU CAN ALWAYS RE-READ?

I rarely have time to re-read these days, even though I used to re-read books like It and the whole Flowers in the Attic series over and over.  But I know that I do tend to relisten to the audiobook of the first two books in the After series once in a while.  Also Play by Kylie Scott, or Before Jamaica Lane by Samantha Young are ones I read over and over because I love my boys!

17.  CAN YOU READ WHILE LISTENING TO MUSIC?

Sure.  I actually do a lot of reading in front of the tv at night, in bed or during commercials when I'm sitting on the couch.

18.  ONE POV OR MULTIPLE?

I actually like my romance books to have both points of view whenever possible.  And I don't mind the multiple POV stories if I can tell who they are without getting confused because they are different enough sounding in their chapter.

19.  DO YOU READ A BOOK IN ONE SITTING OR OVER MULTIPLE DAYS?

I wish!  I don't have the time to do that thanks to working two jobs, and a dog that makes me take him out every hour or two when I'm home.  Plus, other things that happen in life.  But I've done it before, and I totally can, and like to when I can.  Not to mention with how overbooked I am with review books right now, I've been having to read some in less than 48 hours in order to write reviews.

20.  WHO DO YOU TAG?

Anyone who wants to do this, please join in!  But I'd love it if you came back and left me a link so I can check out your answers too.  

It's Magic Time! Harry Potter Book Tag

I found this tag over on We Live and Breathe Books, and although it seems everyone was doing this back in August, I thought it would be fun to save for when I was doing my Blog Ahead Challenge to have some posts pre-made for November and December.  And really, HP is always good at Christmas time since there is a Christmas scene in every book.  There wasn't a set button I could find, so I made one with my picture from meeting the Weasley twins back in the spring at our local Comic-Con.  This tag was created by Book Roast.



EXPECTO PATRONUM: A childhood book connected to good memories?

 I loved this book so much I did a book report where my mom helped me make a Bunnicula puppet that I still own to this day.  In fact, shortly after I began teaching, the author visited the students at the school where I worked.  I had to meet him and show him my puppet, which he was really impressed with.


EXPELLIARMUS: A book that took you by surprise?

   I didn't ever think this was something I would like.  But I had just begun working at B. Dalton Bookstore, and we were able to strip the cover off of paperbacks that we had to send back when the publisher requested. At the time, there were only 3 or 4 in the series out.  The other employees encouraged me to take the first one home and give it a try.  Needless to say, I was immediately hooked and now am a lifelong HP fan, proud Hufflepuff all the way!


PRIOR INCANTATO: The last book you read?

I actually completed this post back in October, so it was hard to put a book down for this spell. What I ended up going with was what is listed on my blogging calendar for being reviewed right before this post will go up.  I've been reading and loving all the books in the SmartyPants Romance series, and so you'll have to go back to yesterday's blog posts to see how much I might have enjoyed this one!  Now if this isn't the last one I read, it was probably another one in the series.



ALOHAMORA: A book that introduced you to a genre you'd never considered before?

  Okay, so it's probably not a genre exactly, but up until about 10 or less years ago, I was always only into very clean-cut guys.  This is the series that maybe got me reading about tattooed boys with piercings.



RIDDIKULUS: A funny book you've read?

 So, pretty much every book by Emma Hart cracks me up so much!  But, this one was probably one of my favorites, due to its connections to one of my all time favorite tv shows, The Big Bang Theory.



SONORUS: A book you think everyone should know about?

 This is a book that my last school district made a theme for everyone to read one year, and it is short and sweet, and really made me think.  I realized that I do things like when I'm in a bad mood, I take it out on someone without even realizing it.  While I'm still working on not doing these things myself, it has also helped me to realize that someone else may be just doing the same thing and not actually being mean to me on purpose, and that helps just by itself.



OBLIVIATE: A book or spoiler you would like to forget you ever read?

 So if you liked this book,  you probably don't want to read what I have to say about it.  This became a really big seller in the Barnes and Noble where I work for a while, and as it was a print on demand book at the time, we had a lot of people requesting, but it wasn't something we could just get to have on the shelf.  I noticed it was mostly teenagers asking for it, so I decided to get a set of the series for my school library.  Another librarian in the district wondered why I'd ordered them, because they were supposedly erotica.  Um, no.  It's not, yes, there is some sexual stuff in it, but it's not erotica.  I read it because of the other librarian bringing this to my attention.  And wow, it was boring and stupid, and I have no idea why any teen would want to read this book about a middle-aged man, one that isn't even cool in any way shape or form!  So I wish I'd never read it, but I'm glad I did, to know.



IMPERIO: A book you had to read for school?

 I don't feel like I read as many books in school as others had to read, but this is one that I remember reading.


CRUCIO: A book that was painful to read?

 I love dogs.  And this book made me cry so much it hurt at the end!  And even knowing what was going to happen, I went and saw the movie.  It is a book I can never read again and I'll never watch the movie again either.  I just cannot stand reading or thinking about dogs dying. Having had to twice make the decision to put my own dogs down as an adult breaks me to still think about.



AVADA KEDAVRA: A book that could kill (interpret as you will)?

 Left to interpret this one how I would, I am going with the fact that reading and holding this very large, over 400 page book, almost killed my arms.

I don't usually tag people on these, I figure if you want to do this you will.  If you decide to join in, I'd love to have you stop back by and drop me a link to your post so I can check it out.  If you just want to share what your choice for one of these would be, please feel free to leave me a comment with that as well!

Lunar New Year Book Tag

So, Saturday, Jan 28, 2017 is Lunar New Year.   Happy Year of the Rooster!  Millions of people around the world celebrate Lunar New Year, mostly in Asian cultures.

To celebrate the Year of the Rooster this year, Tiff @ Mostly YA Lit teamed up with  Joey @ Thoughts and Afterthoughts  to bring you the Lunar New Year Book Tag!  Instructions, downloads, and a link back are at the bottom of Tiff's post HERE.

Here’s the deal: like in Western astrology, Chinese culture has it’s own zodiac, based on the year you were born and a corresponding animal. There are 12 animal signs and they each represent different personalities. This book tag is based on those.

Which Chinese zodiac animal you are?

• Click over here for list of dates. Match up your birthday to the corresponding year, and that’s your animal.
• Or if you’re good at math, try this handy trick from TravelChinaGuide.com: Divide your year of birth by 12 and read the remainder. If the number of the year can be divided with no remainder, take the remainder as zero. Each remainder corresponds to an animal sign.

0: Monkey	1: Rooster	2: Dog	3: Pig
4: Rat	5: Ox	6: Tiger	7: Rabbit
8: Dragon	9: Snake	10: Horse	11: Sheep

Got it? You can read more about the different signs here, or below in each of the graphics!

And here are my answers to this fun book tag!

I'm going to give two, my most anticipated 2017 YA is Reign of Serpents (Blood of Gods and Royals #3) by Eleanor Herman, and my most anticipated 2017 adult fiction is Buns (Hudson Valley #3) by Alice Clayton.

 Hmm, books that I read over and over is what I guess I'll pick.  Probably After by Anna Todd, Before Jamaica Lane (On Dublin Street #3) by Samantha Young, and Play (Stage Dive #2) by Kylie Scott. 

Okay, so really, I spend so much money on books.  But, let's see, I'm going to say that I spend too much money going to the Dollar Tree stores and buying up books for both myself and the library where I work. 

So I am a Rat.  This is my sign for the Chinese Zodiac.  Hmm, there are several authors that I feel fly under the radar.  One is Cara Lynn Shultz, I loved her Spellbound series. 

I think I'm going to pick Hermione from the Harry Potter books.  We could also always pick Edward from the Twilight series. 

Okay, there are a few for this one.  First I'm going to pick Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher for suicide, along with just recently Teach Me To Forget by Erica M. Chapman.  Second is the Riders of the Apocalypse series by Jackie Morse Kessler which covers eating disorders, anger/cutting, disease, etc.:  Hunger, Rage, Lost, and Breath.  And one more, Tease by Amanda Maciel is a good book on bullying.

Hmm, probably one of Alice Clayton's Hudson Valley series, Nuts or Cream of the Crop. 

I mentioned one above, but another favorite is The Heir and the Spare by Emily Albright. 

Okay, I've got to again say the After series.  Hardin Scott is extremely manipulative.

Hmm, well, I'll pick one from 2016 just to narrow it down.  I love the funny covers on the Hudson Valley series by Alice Clayton, but I'm going to pick a pretty cover from last year, And I Darken by Kiersten White. 

Hmm, I read so many funny books last year, this is a hard one.  Really, so many of the characters in Alice Clayton's books.  But really, I have to pick Mal Ericson from Play by Kylie Scott wins hands down.  He makes me laugh so much!  He is my favorite book boyfriend!

I'm not going to tag anyone specifically, just join in if you want!  You can get all the images above by going HERE to get them.  You can also then join  into the link up to see what everyone else has chosen!