Three Bookish Things Tag
It’s been a while since I did a tag, and I have this whole back-logged list of them, either ones I’ve been actually tagged in, or ones I’ve seen and thought, “that looks cool, I’m stealing it!” So today, I’m going to do one! Mostly because I am getting all antsy about my cover reveal on Monday, and this gives me something to do between now and then!
I can’t, erm… remember if anyone actually tagged me for this one. But I remember I first saw it at Short and Snappy over a year ago. (yeah, my tag back log goes back years… why do you ask?)
I have no idea what the rules are, but you get to talk about some of your favorite bookish things, and that sounds like something right up my alley.
But first!
I discovered something the other day that is simultaneously awesome and humbling!
This little blog of mine is being visited (and possibly even read?!?) by readers in SIXTEEN different countries!
I have to admit, that kind of blew me away. I am such a tiny little fish in the authorial ocean, and I still get super excited over 15 pages read or a single book sold. When other authors ask me for advice, I glance over my shoulder to make sure they’re not talking to someone else.
But sixteen different countries! That’s cool.
So I would love to know, dear Reader… where in the world ARE YOU? Let me know in the comments!
And now, on to the tag!
3 Favorite Authors
Starting out with a super hard one right off the bat, eh? Well, narrowing it down to three is really difficult. But I’m going to go a little bit different than normal here and go with my 3 favorite INDIE authors, which is still extremely difficult, but does narrow the field down a tiny bit. So here goes…
Looking over my indie-author bookshelf, if we’re going simply on the basis of the authors whose books I own the most of, that would have to be:
H.L. Burke - who writes quirky, fun stories with quirky, fun characters and yet she also manages to weave a lot of depth into her character arcs and does some really neat world-building. I own a lot of her books. Not quite all of them… yet… and I haven’t even read all of the ones I own, but I love her books rather a lot, enough that she’s one of my “insta-buy” authors.
Kyle Robert Shultz - I love his Beaumont and Beasley series (though I’m also enjoying the Crockett and Crane saga). I enjoy the conglomeration of fairy tales and myths and legends that he weaves together and the fun world-building in which all these sorts of stories are actually TRUE and part of the world’s history. And they make me laugh. Kyle is a master of humor.
Savannah Jezowski - has a beautiful way with words that just entrances me. I love that she weaves poignancy and humor together in interesting and often unique ways that reflect the realities of life. Her characters step off the page and become real people to me while I’m reading, and I’m massively impressed with the breadth of her ability to write in various genres - from gothic fantasy to fantasy-meets-Jane-Austen to contemporary holiday/religious/romantic fiction and she keeps me reading even when it’s not fantasy! (side note: I couldn’t find my copy of the Carpenter’s Wife for this picture, which is bugging me because the picture feels incomplete without it).
3 Weirdest Things Used as a Bookmark
Um… I don’t use a lot of weird things as bookmarks, partially because I have so many of my own bookmarks printed now that I never run out, even when I’m reading 20 books at the same time.
But, off the top of my head… the three weirdest things I can remember using would be:
A four-leaf clover
My foot
Another book
3 Series Binged
Hmmm, I tend to have this major problem where I often start reading books before the next one is written, so binging a series is kind of a rare option for me. But let’s see…
The Belgariad/Malorean by David Eddings - one of the few series I didn’t find until AFTER all the books had been written. Derek and I picked this one up to read together and I wasn’t sure we were going to enjoy it because the prologue in the first book is RIDICULOUS… and I actually love prologues… but the story itself and the characters reeled me in and I devoured the entire series in one fell swoop.
Dresden Files by Jim Butcher - I don’t know if I can count this since I haven’t actually finished all the books (I caught up with the author again before the most recent book came out and there are still more in the series coming) but I blitzed through the books that were available.
Half Upon a Time by James Riley - This middle grade trilogy was absolutely ADORABLE and full of fairy tale twists and turns and retellings and it humor and it was just so fun. I’d say this is probably the most recent series I’ve binged, and I enjoyed every minute of it.
3 Characters You Love
Oh boy. This one is probably going to be the most difficult ever, because there are so many lovable characters out there and any I don’t mention are just going to glare at me forever.
Boromir - from the Lord of the Rings. I love Boromir (and all the Fellowship characters, okay?) so much and I think he was treated rather unfairly by Peter Jackson (I get why he did what he did, but please, if you’ve only seen the movies, don’t judge Boromir just on that… he was a far more complex character and a far more noble and heroic one than what the movies portray).
Cimorene - from Dealing with Dragons. Probably one of my all-time favorites, and she always gets my vote for “character I’d most like to hang out with” in surveys like this. She’s so practical and high on common sense, and I think we’d get along swimmingly. Also, she gets to hang out with dragons, so that’s always a bonus.
Allis Evanenko - from the Steel City Genie series by Janeen Ippolito. Allis is just kind of a blast, and you never really know what she’s going to do next (it helps that SHE rarely knows what she’s going to do next), but it’s almost always going to be something awesome. Also, even though she’s got all this crazy-amazing power, she has a really good heart and cares about people and desperately wants to keep everyone safe.
3 Unpopular Bookish Opinions
Sometimes, the movie is better. le gasp! But it’s true. I know as a book dragon I’m supposed to staunchly argue that the book is always better, but I just don’t believe that. I’ve seen plenty of movies where the movie did a better job with the story than the book did (and it’s not just because I saw the movie first, either, in many of these cases, I read the book first, but still thought the movie was better). I’d give examples, but that’s a whole ‘nother post I’m planning, a list of books where the movie was better… stay tuned!
I love prologues. Though I am learning that this isn’t as unpopular as the people who hate prologues would have you believe, it’s more split 50/50, but the “I hate prologues” people seem to be a little louder than the “I love prologues” people. Anyway, I just love them. Most of my books have them because I think they’re cool.
I hate first person present tense. Now that I’ve said that out loud, guess what I’m probably going to write someday. But I have to say, most of my least-favorite-reading-experiences tend to be with 1st-person-present-tense books.
3 Popular Bookish Opinions
The Lord of the Rings is awesome.
I love Harry Potter.
Dragons make everything 100% more better. (even sentences that use phrases like “more better”)
3 Favorite Book Covers
Oooh, can I say my own? That’s probably cheating. Okay, here we go… in order of most favorite to third favorite…
3 Book Goals for this Year
Book goals.
That's highly open-ended, you know.
But here are a few of mine.
Read at least 30 books. I’m actually almost done with this goal, so I’m probably going to bump it up a little bit, since I still have over half a year ahead of me to get more reading done.
Publish An Echo of the Fae. If all goes well, this should happen on June 21st, and so far there don’t appear to be any unexpected hiccoughs to this plan. I am very excited about this.
Edit The Orb and the Airship and Mantles of Oak and Iron. This is my big stretch goal, since editing has been a lot slower of a process than I was anticipating, but I’d like to get through at least the first two books before the end of the year. With the release almost here, I’m hoping to get back to editing and make some good progress on it.
And there we have the 3 Bookish Things Tag! I hope you enjoyed reading. What are some of YOUR bookish things? I shan’t tag anyone because I have no idea who has already done this and who hasn’t, but if you enjoyed the tag and want to do it, I’d love to read your answers, so feel free to steal it! (I stole it in the first place, anyway!) Or just pick the ones you want to answer and share them in the comments, that’s fun, too!
Here’s a clean list of questions if you want to use them:
3 Favorite Authors
3 Weirdest Things Used as a Bookmark
3 Series Binged
3 Characters You Love
3 Unpopular Bookish Opinions
3 Popular Bookish Opinions
3 Favorite Book Covers
3 Book Goals for this Year