A Few of My Favorite Things…Book Tag?

It’s not natural for my blog to go this long without me posting a book tag. So here’s a post to set my blog to rights!

I’m not sure if it’s intended as a book tag, but I’ll say it is and be happy. I found it on Roof Beam Reader.

A book you’ve read more than once:

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

There are so many, but I chose Harry Potter because I’ve reread those books the most.

A book you would take on a desert island: 

The Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs by Tristan Gooley

I’ve never read this, but it’s a book I’d like to get because I don’t shit about nature. I’d be hopeless on that desert island.

A book that made you cry:

Girls in Pants by Ann Brashares

I didn’t cry, but Girls in Pants made me shed a tear. It’s the third book in the YA contemporary series Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

A book that scared you:

‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King

Actually, ‘Salem’s Lot wasn’t scary. I included the pic here because the edition I read, which looked like this, included the short story Jerusalem’s Lot and that shit was scary. It gives some backstory on the town ‘Salem’s Lot is set in. Both ‘Salem’s Lot and the short story are about vampires and are pretty creepy. I recommend both.

A book that made you laugh out loud:

Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson

Lawson’s hilarious memoir about battling mental illness.

A book that disgusted you:

The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort

A memoir about stockbroker Jordan Belfort. I couldn’t finish this book. I gave up on it after a few pages in. It’s poorly written and I couldn’t stand the dude in the first couple pages. I seriously don’t understand why the average rating for this is 4 stars on Goodreads.

Strangely, I didn’t mind the movie as much.

A book you loved in preschool:

Cinderella

Umm… I have no idea, but I assume it was this Cinderella book because it was one of my favorite books as I kid.

A book you loved in elementary school:

The Neverending Story by Michael Ende

Definitely The Neverending Story. It was at this age that I discovered fantasy books and gobbled them up as soon as I found them at the library, which only had the Narnia books and The Neverending Story, so I reread them often.

The Neverending Story is a YA fantasy story about a boy who finds refuge from bullies in a book store from which he steals a book and visits an amazing fantasy world. It’s really good and I highly recommend it. The edition above has illustrations. 🙂

A book you loved in middle school:

Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce

I moved to the U.S. by this time, so I had access to even more fantasy novels. I was beyond excited to read them all and immediately fell in love with the Song of the Lioness series when I read Tamora Pierce’s Alanna. It’s a YA fantasy novel about a girl who poses as a boy so she can become a knight. Alanna was, and still is, one of my favorite female characters.

By the way, back then (in the late 1990s) there wasn’t much distinction between middle-grade and YA novels (at least at my library). The age distinction was usually just adult and children.

A book you loved in high school:

The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley

The real answer to this is all the Robin McKinley books I read, so basically all the books she had published by the early 2000s. I loved McKinley’s writing, so I guess my love of descriptive writing has always been part of me. I loved how immersive her stories are because I’d always get lost in them, and I loved that the protagonist was always a strong female character.

The Hero and the Crown is about a girl who’s a princess but is treated as an outcast by her relatives and others because of her lineage. She teaches herself to fight dragons and later saves her kingdom from one.

Flyy Girl by Omar Tyree

I’ve always been all over the place in terms of genre. Back in high school, I also read lots of contemporary fiction, especially Black urban fiction, which was one of my favorite genres back then.

Flyy Girl is a coming-of-age story about a teenage Black girl. I loved this book and reread it often in high school.

A book you hated in high school:

Walden by Henry David Thoreau

I hated this book. I hated it so much that the sentiment has stayed with me all these years. Ugh!!!

Let’s just move on…

A book you loved in college:

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz

This is the first book I was assigned to read for a class in college and actually liked. I was surprised and wondered why professors didn’t assign more books like it.

It’s a contemporary novel about a Dominican boy living in New Jersey whose family is cursed.

A book that challenged your identity:

This is a hard one. I can’t point to any one book for the answer. Actually, nothing specific comes to mind, but I have read books that challenge how I view religion and spirituality as well as being a woman and Black in the U.S. and in a world that denounces Blackness. No one book has done this, but various stories have many me consider aspects of my identity.

A series that you love:

The Golden Fool by Robin Hobb

This is the second book in the Tawney Man trilogy, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite fantasy books. The series is part of the larger Realm of the Elderlings series, which, at this moment, is my favorite fantasy series. The Tawney Man trilogy totally sold me on it.

If you’re interested in fantasy books, I highly recommend this series to you. It begins with the Farseer trilogy, which is about the bastard son of a prince who becomes an assassin’s apprentice. The overall series is long, but the books are broken up into trilogies and they are all good reads. 😀

Your favorite horror book:

The Shining by Stephen King

I read this last year and it was so good! I was hooked. It’s about a clairvoyant boy who visits a haunted hotel for the winter season with his family. Craziness ensues.

Your favorite science fiction book:

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I’m not a huge fan of sci-fi, but there are a few sci-fi books and comics I like. Collins’s YA novel The Hunger Games is certainly one of them. It’s about a girl who sacrifices herself for her sister to enter a dangerous tournament where kids fight to the death.

Your favorite fantasy book:

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

Since I’ve already mentioned all my other favorite fantasy books, I’ll go with A Game of Thrones here. I love the story — the horrible and great characters, the political intrigue, how immersive the world is… I enjoy reading it and am currently rereading the series again.

Your favorite mystery:

Velvet, Vol. 1: Before the Living End by Ed Brubaker, illus. by Steve Epting

I don’t read a lot of mysteries, but I really enjoyed this comic book about a woman who’s framed for a murder. It was fun and I really need to continue with the next volume.

Your favorite biography:

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

It’s a memoir, not a biography, but I haven’t read a biography in a very long time so I otherwise don’t have an answer for this. Anyway, I really love Eat, Pray, Love. It’s one of my favorite books and is both inspiring and uplifting to me.

Your favorite classic:

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

It’s my absolute favorite. I’ve loved it since I first read it in high school. I love the writing the most and how well it captures the voices of Black folk living in the South in the Florida everglades. It’s a beautiful story about a woman growing and becoming more independent and accepting who she is.

Your favorite romance book:

Unteachable by Leah Raeder

I don’t read much romance either, but I really liked this one because of its taboo subject and how descriptive it is. It’s a new-adult novel about an 18-year-old girl in high school who enters into a sexual relationship with her teacher.

Your favorite book not on this list:

Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa

This is my favorite comic book/graphic novel/manga. It’s awesome and is a sci-fi/fantasy manga about two brothers trying to mend their bodies. I love the story. It touches on all my favorite topics: philosophy, religion, mythology (well, the mythology of the manga’s world), etc.

What book are you currently reading:

The Oddling Prince by Nancy Springer

The Oddling Prince, which is a YA fantasy novel that hints at fairytale retelling.

What book have you been meaning to read:

The Encyclopedia of Early Earth by Isabel Greenberg (illus.)

I need to read it and return it to the library. I’ve had it “checked out” for over a year now. I seriously need to prioritize this one.

Well, that’s it.

If yah like it and wanna do it… Well, I won’t stop yah. Have fun! 🙂

Advertisement