I’ve had this tag in my drafts for a REALLY long time. Dini tagged me almost a year ago, and I’m finally getting to it. Better late than never. Right? At first, I found it really daunting, but it actually turned out to be a lot of fun. Without further ado, here are my answers to the A-Z Book Tag.
This tag was originally created by Jamie @ The Perpetual Page Turner and it was actually called the A-Z Survey.
A: AUTHOR YOU’VE READ THE MOST BOOKS FROM
The author I’ve read the most is Cassandra Clare at 18 books. Terry Goodkind comes in a close second at 17 books. I honestly find this answer a bit hilarious because neither of these authors would be in my list of favorites. They just happened to write series I started when I was really young and haven’t wanted to give up on since I’m too invested now to stop. lol. Although, I actually just put my entire collection of Terry Goodkind books for sale on Pango a few days ago. I know I’m never going to read them again now that I’m done with the series. There are so many books with much better writing to spend my time on now. 🙂
B: BEST SEQUEL EVER
I tend to have a hit or miss relationship with sequels a lot of the time, but Ryan Cahill hit it out of the park with Of Darkness and Light.
C: CURRENTLY READING
The Dragon Republic by R. F. Kuang, Dragonfall by L. R. Lam, The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater
D: DRINK OF CHOICE
It has to be Dr Pepper. That is my drink. When I’m trying to be healthy, I’ll have ice water, but I’ll be wishing it was Dr Pepper. lol.
E: E-READER OR PHYSICAL BOOK
My thoughts on this have changed drastically since I started blogging. I used to only read physical books. Since I’ve started getting eARCs, I’ve grown increasingly more reliant on my Kindle. Now I don’t really have a preference. Looking at this year’s stats so far, the number of digital versus physical books I’ve read is pretty much the same. The actual winner is audiobooks by quite a bit, which is also a huge change from just a couple years ago considering I would almost never read that way. Now I pretty much always have an audiobook going. So, I guess the answer is neither. 🙂
F: FICTIONAL CHARACTER YOU WOULD’VE DATED IN HIGH SCHOOL
I really had to stop and think about this one. As a teenager, I was super nerdy and awkward as hell. I probably would have dated just about anyone who asked. 🤣 I recently read Right Where I Left You by Julian Winters and identified so much with Isaac. I could definitely see myself dating his best friend turned boyfriend, Diego. We could have been nerdy together, and he would know how to deal with my awkwardness and social anxiety without making me feel bad about it.
G: GLAD YOU GAVE THIS BOOK A CHANCE
Initially, I didn’t really want to read this book. The description didn’t appeal to me, and I was wary of all the hype. I only read it to fulfill a POPSUGAR prompt, and I’m so glad I did. I ended up loving Daisy Jones & The Six.
H: HIDDEN GEM
Ymir is a book I rarely see anyone talking about, which is a real shame. It is a sci fi re-telling of Beowulf, and I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. It was super gritty and fascinating, and I cannot recommend it enough.
I: IMPORTANT MOMENT IN YOUR READING LIFE
There isn’t really one moment that stands out as the ‘most important.’ However, the start of my blog in March 2021 would definitely be a big one. I wouldn’t have read most of the books that I did in the last few years if it wasn’t for blogging. So, my reading life right now would look very different without it.
J: JUST FINISHED
The last book I finished was Paladin’s Grace by T. Kingfisher. I absolutely loved this book. The banter was sublime, and I liked the murder mystery and the cute pet.
K: KIND OF BOOK YOU WON’T READ
There’s not really a kind of book I won’t read, but I don’t read a ton of classics or horror. They just aren’t usually my jam unless I’m in a really particular mood.
L: LONGEST BOOK YOU’VE READ
I was not surprised by this at all because this chonky thing comes in at 1006 pages. I enjoyed the story a lot, but Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell definitely felt its length.
M: MAJOR BOOK HANGOVER BECAUSE OF…
Y’all. This book broke me. I was in a horrible mood for almost a week after finishing it because it just had me all in my feelings way too much. Definitely read More Happy Than Not if you need a good cry.
N: NUMBER OF BOOKSHELVES YOU OWN
Hmmm. Hold up a second while I go count… seven. That’s just the ones with my books. My wife has three more for her books, as well. What can I say? We like our books. 🙂
O: ONE BOOK YOU’VE READ MULTIPLE TIMES
The Dark Is Rising is one of my favorite books. I don’t even know how many times I’ve read it since I was a child, but it’s probably more than five times at this point.
P: PREFERRED PLACE TO READ
My favorite place to read has a tendency to shift with my mood. Right now it is probably my bed, but I also enjoy reading on the patio when the weather is nice or upstairs in my media room where most of my bookshelves live.
Q: QUOTE THAT INSPIRES YOU
I think happiness is fleeting. It’s not a state of being, it’s moments. Contentment is better to strive for as a state of being.
A History of Madness by Rebecca Crunden
R: READING REGRETS
I don’t really have any reading regrets other than not reading more in my twenties. I was super busy with work and school and didn’t really make the time to read much of anything at all. I missed out on so much in that time, and it has led to me struggling to balance all the backlist books and new releases I want to read.
S: SERIES YOU’VE STARTED AND NEED TO FINISH
This is a joke right? The answer here is obviously ALL OF THEM. 🤣 Here’s some of the ones I consider most pressing at the moment:
The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang, A Chorus of Dragons by Jenn Lyons, A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater, Swords and Fire by Melissa Caruso
T: THREE OF YOUR ALL-TIME FAVOURITE BOOKS
How am I supposed to choose only three?! OMG. This is so hard… Some of my favorites have been mentioned as answers already. So, I’m going to pick three of my faves that haven’t been mentioned yet.
Babel by R. F. Kuang, Jade Legacy by Fonda Lee, The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake
U: UNAPOLOGETIC FANGIRL FOR
I freak out over pretty much anything Star Wars. I consume every piece of Star Wars media that gets released, whether it is books, movies, TV shows, comics, or video games. I love it all and am so grateful that there is so much new content set in that universe.
V: VERY EXCITED ABOUT THIS RELEASE
I loved Little Thieves so much. So, of course I’m very excited about Painted Devils releasing soon.
W: WORST BOOKISH HABIT
I think my worst habit has to be buying/borrowing/requesting way more books than I can realistically read. My backlog is SO HUGE, and it has honestly gotten a bit stressful.
X: X-MARKS THE SPOT. PICK THE 27TH BOOK FROM YOUR TOP SHELF
Revelle is a recent release I’m hoping to read soon. I love the cover so much and am so intrigued in the premise of Moulin Rouge set during prohibition with magic.
Y: YOUR LAST PURCHASE
The last book I purchased was the ebook of Revenant Prince. I loved the first book in this series and am looking forward to reading this one soon (hopefully).
Z: Z SNATCHER. A BOOK THAT KEPT YOU UP WAY TOO LATE
I stayed up so late listening to Engines of Chaos. I could not stop because everything was so tense, and I just NEEDED to know what would happen next.
This is a fun one! I had it in my drafts for so long before I did it, haha. I think the most books I’ve read have been by Cassandra Clare too!
She just has so many books! lol. This was definitely a fun one. I honestly don’t know why I put it off for so long. Once I got going, it flew by really quick.
Thanks so much for the tag! This looks like a lot of fun. And I think we have the same bad book habit. lol
Don’t most of us have that bad book habit? lol. I look forward to your other answers if you decide to do the tag. 🙂 It took me almost a year to finally get to it. So, no pressure.
Omg this tag is so long, lol!! Challenge accepted, but it will take me some time. 😛 I saw the first few lines of your review for Engines of Chaos and that put it on my radar for me. Love a tense, twisty series. I used to read Cassandra Clare, but her Mortal Instruments series wasn’t finished when I was reading it. So then I forgot about it and that was that.
What do you think of Dragonfall so far? That’s another book I kept going back to on NG but ultimately decided to be good and not add to my list.
I hope you enjoy Engines of Empire & Engines of Chaos when you pick them up. I didn’t really connect with the characters that much in the first book, but the story was still wild and an interesting read with phenomenal worldbuilding.
The beginning of Dragonfall has been ROUGH. I just hit 20% and am starting to enjoy it more, though. The first bit was just a lot of unclear info-dumping, as if the characters were giving a really bad lecture. lol. The dragon is beginning to grow on me, and it is starting to be fun following him around as he learns to navigate the human world.
Oh yikes, sorry to hear that about Dragonfall! Hopefully it gets better as you continue to read it. I’ve seen a lot of disappointment from readers that this book wasn’t picked up as a special edition by Fairyloot or Illumicrate, so I assumed it would be a great read…still plenty of pages left for it to be so!
I enjoyed reading your answers to this tag. I hope that you get to finish your series soon as there are some great series in that collection. I’m definitely not with you on Cassandra Clare or Terry Goodkind as I think I’ve read one book by each of them 😲
Honestly, you’re probably not missing out on much on the Clare and Goodkind front. I never realized how bad Goodkind’s writing was until I started reading more books. So much of the Sword of Truth series is laughably bad in retrospect.
Omg, was it really a year ago that I tagged you!? Where does time go? Has it been that long? 😂 Haha! I really enjoyed reading your answers though! I recently bought a copy of Silvera’s book after hearing great things about it and now I’m kinda scared to pick it up cos I’m such an emotional reader so I defo will be crying, lol. I’m excited to try Cahill’s & Kingfisher’s books too! Also, Dr. Pepper and Jade Legacy FTW! 😍
Great tag, Cassandra Clare is also the author I have read the most from, which honestly isn’t surprising considering that fact the Shadowhunter books are some of my favourites.
Love that quote and I’m always stressing myself out with having too many books I need to read 😊
[…] Chris at Biblio Nerd Reflections tagged me to do this way back in April. Like him, I also found this A-Z Book Tag a bit daunting, so it sat in my drafts for a while. But I have the day off and I’m resting my brain after finishing HOUSE OF EARTH AND BLOOD, so I figured today is the day to do it. […]