I've seen this on various blogs since the release of Pokémon Go, and I'm not surprised, because this is literally the best tag I have ever seen. My life pretty much exclusively consists of catching Pokémon these days, but I thought I'd take a break from the gym (Pokémon Gym, guys, not a real one; I thought you knew me better than that) to answer these rather excellent questions...
I swear I actually worked out which book sparked my love of reading, once, and I'm fairly sure I blogged it. What isn't helpful is that I can't remember the book, nor can I remember in which post I put that exciting info, so... I'm just going to go with the books I remember most from my childhood: the
Rainbow Magic books by Daisy Meadows (pseudonym, anyone?), all of the books by Qwyneth Rees, and of course I devoured everything written by Roald Dahl. I also loved
Goosebumps,
Charlie and Lola... I could go on, but I'm not going to, because I've already written a post about my childhood favourites
here!
Harry Potter, obviously. It's nearly twenty years old, so it's a classic, right? (Also, that means I'm nearly twenty. WHAT.)
This is a hard question, because my tastes mostly
do correspond with what's popular. If everyone's talking about a certain book and urging you to read it, it's probably going to be good. However... I have very much lost interest in the trend of adult colouring books. Firstly, why does something already freely available to everyone of any age need the word 'adult' in front of it for an adult to feel comfortable buying it? It's weird. I don't know. I enjoy making colouring videos like
this one, but I've never actually filled a whole colouring book. I can't be bothered and, even though they're using the whole mindfulness thing as a selling point, I don't find them calming. They're a bit tedious, actually. *shrug*
Obviously, books like
Divergent and
The Hunger Games are all very similar, and I recently enjoyed
The 100 series by Kass Morgan, but I felt it was hugely similar to
Matched by Ally Condie. Some of my favourite books, though, like
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins and
Hello, I Love You by Katie M. Stout are similar, yet I love them anyway. When I like something, I tend to want more of it, so similar books don't reeeeaaally bother me unless they're crap.
Don't yell at me, but I don't think I've ever read anything by Maggie Stiefvater, Leigh Bardugo, Laini Taylor, V.E. Schwab or Sarah J. Maas. Each of them have written so many books that I don't know where to start and, like I said in
this post, it's daunting, time-consuming and more than a little financially-crippling to get into several massive series at once.
Fish Out of Water by Natalie Whipple. I remember reading and reading and reading, and then looking at my phone and discovering it was 5am and I hadn't slept. I was so confused because it really didn't feel like it had been that long.
SO. MANY. Draco and Harry (
Harry Potter), Scorpius and Albus (
Cursed Child), Clary and Jace (
The Mortal Instruments), Emma and Julian (
The Dark Artifices), Simon and Baz (
Carry On), Charlie and Gabriel (
Songs About a Girl), Allie and Carter (
Night School), Eden and Tyler (
Did I Mention I Love You?)... there are more. Lots more.
I'm going to go with
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. I lost a whole Christmas Eve to this book.
I know a lot of people get annoyed when authors keep adding to worlds they've created, but I love it. They're clearly passionate about their series, and more books means more detail, realism and familiarity. I've seen even the biggest fans be put off because they think the authors are milking it for more money, but I personally don't think that's the case - and I'm the most cynical person ever. So, I LOVE
Cursed Child (J.K. Rowling) and all the new Shadowhunter books (Cassandra Clare.) Let's be honest, neither of them are desperate for money...
When I found out I'd be studying Shakespeare's
Antony and Cleopatra, I was like... why/how are we supposed to study something that isn't even English/ugh/hating life. The usual. But after we'd studied it in depth and I understood what it was about, I actually quite enjoyed it. I wouldn't re-read it, but it wasn't as horrific as I'd originally thought. The same thing is happening again, this time with
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë - although it's taking a bloody long time to get through.
I'm excited to get stuck into Sarah J Maas's books one day, as they seem to be on the same level of awesome as Cassandra Clare's books, and you know how much I love her. Hopefully I'll enjoy them as much as everyone else!
I'm not overly bothered about collector's editions, but my
Harry Potter books came from the charity shop, so they're all battered and... well-loved, shall we say. It looks messy on my shelves, too, because some of the books are little paperbacks, and others are huge hardbacks. It would be lovely to have one of the pretty new box-sets.
I'm ashamed to admit that I'm not hugely up-to-date on the latest debuts, but I'm looking forward to Rachael Lucas's 2017 release,
The State of Grace, which isn't her overall debut but is her first foray into YA. I believe it's an #ownvoices novel about Asperger's Syndrome, which should be interesting as some of my family and friends have this. She's also been really cool whenever we've spoken on Twitter. (Authors, if you don't have Twitter, you really should get it. I promise it'll make a difference!)
Cassandra Clare and C.J. Daugherty. If you didn't see that coming, I'm a bit concerned. Maybe you should read my blog more often.
Last year I read and adored the first book in a new trilogy by C.J. Daugherty and Carina Rozenfeld, and I've been waiting for the next instalment for OVER A YEAR. I don't know how I've done it, to be honest.
That was so fun to answer, and whoever came up with this tag is a genius! If you're reading this, then I tag YOU. I'd love to see what answers you come up with!
Do you play Pokémon Go? What team are you in? Mystic FTW.
