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Day 05 - A book that makes you happy

I have a few books that I read when I need an up.

Diana Wynne Jones’ The Magicians of Caprona, The Lives of Christopher Chant, and The Dark Lord of Derkholm all make me so super happy to read - the first two because they are just hilarious, the latter because it is an honestly fantastic and interesting book, with all the sadness and happiness that is signature of a good book. (not that the others don’t have that, this just has.. more?)

Mercury Beach by Tessa Duder has the honour of being a book that I loved the happy ending of so much that I memorised it. I also loved that it was set in New Zealand, kind of not far from where my parents grew up.

There are so many books that make me happy; I could just start rattling off names of pretty much every book I’ve read and rated above an 8/10 (which is a lot – my inner critique is a softy and ignores many flaws others might find!)

But I read because I want to read a good story. To feel the characters emotions as they go through a journey of self discovery, of discovery, of love, of loss, of triumph. And after the characters have been run the gamut of emotions, they generally have succeeded in their quest (to beat evil, to win the girl, to win the guy, to stand up for them selves, to be better…) or realised they were questing for something else entirely; and that self recognition and reflection from characters at the end of the story, to see how far they have come – and even if it doesn’t end happily there is always a thread of hope. Hope for the future or whatever, and that can sometimes be enough to make me really ridiculously happy. It really doesn’t take much.

Day 04 - Favorite book of your favorite series

I would say that this is a toss up between Winters Heart, which is book 9 of the Wheel of Time, Lord of Shadows by Jennifer Fallon (book 3 of the Second Sons - I’m counting this trilogy long enough to count as a series haha), Fragile Eternity (book 3) by Melissa Marr, and I could still pick at least four books from the Animorphs series that I could happily include as part of a deserted island collection.  The books that I choose are for the elements of character development that occur in that part of the series story arc - or the huge world changing events that happen in the course of the story. Like the massive ending to Winters Heart. That last 100 pages are almost falling out of my copy, I adore the ending so much!

The Second Sons book has one of the best endings ever - I love this series for breaking the genre mold, it’s a high fantasy world with no magic, just politics. And goddamn it’s convoluted and confusing and amazing. Dirk Provin is my hero, seriously.  If you’re looking for a good political thriller and don’t mind that it’s set on a world with two suns and in a semi-medieval time, I’m telling you to read these books.. AMAZING. 

As much as I love a brilliant stand alone book - and think that some books would have been more powerful and amazing left as a stand alone (The Hunger Games, I’m looking at you) I do love a series. I love to be absorbed in a world, in a battle for good and evil. An epic quest to change the world, to save an ideal, to get the girl/guy.

I love the time that can be taken to develop characters, and show how they mature and grow and learn over the course of the events in the novel. The same in tv shows. I adore movies for their scope, but tv shows just have that time to get to where they want to be. Big series can afford to meander along and have their characters come to realisation in time, rather than having to learn in a hurry - or even better, they can have both.  One thing that I love more than anything else is a good world build in a fictional universe. The continuity and feel of a world are very important to me, to feel absorbed by the story being told. Like the Wheel of Time, there are prophesies foretold in the first books, that come true in books 12, and little hints all along the way of things to come. I love noticing these things, or realising upon retreads this was always the plan for the story, and that the author loved the story so much he’s had these things planned for an absolute eternity. 

I think that was my problem with later Harry Potter books, she created an amazing world, and failed to do much with setting up the story arc. Yes, voldemort and blah, but I’m sorry.. Each book was so standalone - she invented everything for each book. Which is all well and good, but I’d been spoiled by other books, where they knew their plot and how they were getting there - even 7 books away, and this lack of foresight threw me. Plus Harry and Ron seemed really thick to me. How can Ron have grown up as a wizard and still had to have Hermione explain everything at the beginning? Haha. I know that he and Harry were standing in for the audience so everything could be explained to us, but it just made me mad that he was so stupid haha. Not a Ron fan.

Anyway back to what I began to say; I just feel that something as important as horcruxes maybe should have been mentioned earlier- or the elder wand, and blah. Just even a hint, you know? To show these things as being super important, and how to bring down the ultimate evil.. Even if they weren’t named, just even a hint of some of the other things, not just bring them up as required.

I’m a fan of the very long term planning :) 

ETA: Links, because I love a post with links. Also fixing up ipad autocorrects.

Day 03 - Your favourite series

Oh, wow.. Picking just one series? Ok. So series is longer than trilogy - for this question at least, so.. Favourite series.

I adored Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time for years - until I got sick of the wait between books, so I got distracted by other series. I’ll read them and love them again when they are all out, I just hate waiting forever for them!  The Circle of Magic/Circle Opens by Tamora Pierce is amazing - all nine books of it. I read it often.  The Laws of Magic series by Michael Pryor is amazing- I adore the world he created for these books..

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead is a great series. Rose Hathaway is one of my favourite characters in any story. This is a vampire love story that I can get behind. Bloodlines is fantastic too - but it’s only two books so far…

Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr is one of my favourite series of the last 4 years. Her world of fey things has such depth. And all the characters are so gorgeous. Seth, Irial and Niall are my favorites! 

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer is gorgeous! l I love the development of Holly and Artemis throughout the books, and the whole tempo of the books is pretty damn good. 

The Gone series by Michael Grant is AMAZING.

I’m discounting Mortal Instruments even though there are now more books - it started as a trilogy, and it is really just two trilogies together, not a series. :) So I don’t really have a favourite series, I have lots of favourites haha.

ETA: Links and fix up the ipad autocorrects

Day 02 - A book that you’ve read more than 3 times

Umm, just one? I have at least one book I’ve read like 50 times, a few I’ve read 30+ times, and hundreds I’ve read 5-20 times.

I read The Andalite Chronicles by K A Applegate 27 times in 9 weeks when I was in year 8, because goddamn I loved that book. It would have been more, but the library wanted the book back seeing as I had extended my loan as long as I could. I bought it a week later and read it again. I’ve read it at least that many times again in the 14 years since. I adored the Animorph world, and this book is still a great story, maybe because it meant so much to me as a teenager, and a bit because it is still a good story, but this is one of my favourite books, and I’m ok with admitting that.

I’m actually a massive fan of the extension books of many worlds, the books that fill in the gaps that the main story doesn’t have time to cover. Building up the backstory of characters and making me love them even more.

Some I’ve read at least 30 times are Mercury Beach by Tessa Duder, The Pastures of the Blue Crane by H F Brinsmead, Feeling Sorry for Celia by Jacklyn Moriaty, Rowan of Rin by Emily Rodda… Most of Diana Wynne Jones’ books. Next tier would hold Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (9 times in the first week puts it there regardless of the 14 years since I first read it) The Song of The Lioness and Circle of Magic series by Tamora Pierce, Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead, Wheel of Time (books 1-9 especially) by Robert Jordan, the Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer, The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare, all of the Trixie Belden Books, The Second Sons Trilogy by Jennifer Fallon.. And I could go on. These are just the ones that I can see while I’m sitting on the couch in my lounge room haha.. I love to re read books, I’m a serial re reader.

ETA: Links, tags and fix up the ipad autocorrects

Day 01 - Best book you read last year
This is the one year that I didn’t make it to triple digits, (due to life getting in my way haha) so my options are somewhat more limited than in other years. That said, I’ve read some great books this year. I’m also going to limit it to new books, books that I read for the first time in the last year, which limits it some more.

So, mostly going backwards chronologically: Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, by Jenny Lawson was fantastic, Clockwork Prince, and City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare are amazing, (as all of hers always are) Black Heart by Holly Black, Fear by Michael Grant, an AMAZING book/series I fucking adore and am absolutely hanging out for the next., and The Vast Fields of Ordinary by Nick Burd were my 10/10 star books for this past year (I’m not really critical enough, most of the books that I read rate pretty highly, you’ve got to be appalling to get less than five, but 10/10 were the ones that leave me thinking my life is better having had read these books, either for thoughtful reasons, or just brilliant storytelling and characters and worlds I loved having been introduced to)

Now, I’m going to talk about a couple of the books in more detail.
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened - Jenny Lawson / The Blogess.
Now I’m not normally a fan of the autobiography - not generally my cup of tea, but this book is HILARIOUS. Im a massive fan of her writing style - its not everyone’s taste, but it is mine. This book made me laugh and cry, and I’ve read it three times now.

Fear - Michael Grant
Apparently I’ve been a fan of his since I was barely a teenager, even if I didn’t know it: he cowrote The Animorphs books, and I fucking adored those books. Now, his Gone series is brutal and raw and I love these books. I think that they get better and better as the series goes on, and his characters go through hell time and time again. It has the nice supernatural element I enjoy in all my books, and the YA element which helps make a better tighter story - I love YA books, they cut out all unnecessary crap like pages of description and romance for the sake of getting a character laid… I don’t like useless padding for a book. I love a good long book, but I want every word to be there for a reason, to advance the story, and I find that YA is better at that than many adult books. Anyway, back to Fear, if you enjoy the idea of The Hunger Games, kinda crossed with Tomorrow, When The War Began and mashed up with something like a teenage Lost (kinda, maybe? All alone on a crazy enclosed island location where things aren’t always what they seem? If what I understand about lost is right haha) these are the books for you. I totally recommend them. AMAZING. and really pretty covers - all black with the name of the book in bright bold outline-y writing.

The Vast Fields of Ordinary - Nick Burd
I really enjoyed this book. I was going through a phase of reading all the LGBTQ books I thought sounded interesting - and this one delivered. I liked the story, and the characters, and I really enjoyed the restlessness that you feel in the book, the characters are at a turning point, but are stuck where they are - in that break between high school and uni. And I relate to those kinds of ideas. Not entirely sure why I specifically really enjoyed this book, I just really did. Good read, if you ever get the chance.

Day 02 - A book that you’ve read more than 3 times
Day 03 - Your favorite series
Day 04 - Favorite book of your favorite series
Day 05 - A book that makes you happy
Day 06 - A book that makes you sad
Day 07 - Most underrated book
Day 08 - Most overrated book
Day 09 - A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 10 - Favorite classic book
Day 11 - A book you hated
Day 12 - A book you used to love but don’t anymore
Day 13 - Your favorite writer
Day 14 - Favorite book of your favorite writer
Day 15 - Favorite male character
Day 16 - Favorite female character
Day 17 - Favorite quote from your favorite book
Day 18 - A book that disappointed you
Day 19 - Favorite book turned into a movie
Day 20 - Favorite romance book
Day 21 - Favorite book from your childhood
Day 22 - Favorite quote about books
Day 23 - A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t
Day 24 - A book that you wish more people would’ve read
Day 25 - A character who you can relate to the most
Day 26 - A book that changed your opinion about something
Day 27 - The most surprising plot twist or ending
Day 28 - Favorite title
Day 29 - A book everyone hated but you liked
Day 30 - Your favorite book of all time

ETA: Links, Tags and fix ipad autocorrects. Its still set on American, apparently.