I saw this over at Jessica @ The Awkward Book Blogger, and my sleuthing ended with a now-deleted blog, so I can’t track back to the beginning of who created it. I was originally going to post another writing post, but given that would be my third this week, and I don’t want to inundate you with all my amazing characters all at once, we’re going to save that post for a rainy day and instead do a chill tag!

How many books are too many for a series?

None? This is such a strange question to me, and, admittedly, not one I understand all that much. Although, I guess I could get in the mindset of someone approaching a new series and feeling intimidated about the size of it. There are definitely series that I haven’t started just because of the sheer number of books, but I think it’s less about the number of books in a series than the content. Much like a TV show that just keeps going on and on and on until it’s really not all that good anymore, if the content of a series is just repetitive and starting to get boring, then it would make sense to want an end to it, but if the series continues to deliver new and intriguing stories, why set a limit on how many books should be in it? Granted, there are definitely exceptions to this rule, too. The Shadowhunters series is pretty much the same thing over and over, but I’ll keep reading it until the end of time.

How do you feel about cliff-hangers?

Don’t ask my CPs this! I am a huge fan of cliffhangers, and it is something I get yelled at about often. Not because they’re not well done, but just because I employ them all the damn time. I’m warning you now, if I’m publishing not a standalone, there’s going to be a cliffhanger somewhere. In a duology, it will happen at the end of the first book. In a trilogy, it’ll happen at the end of the second. I’ll probably never write a quartet, though who knows! And then I’ll really be screwed trying to figure out where the cliffhanger belongs.

I love reading them, too, even though a lot of the series I read are in the middle of publishing, and then it feels like a personal attack when I have to wait for the next book, which should inspire me to not write cliffhangers in my own books, but alas. It’s way too much fun.

Hardcover or paperback?

It depends. I really do love hardcovers, and I hate when I get into a series late and my covers don’t match because the first few will be paperbacks, but there’s something to be said for paperbacks, too. Weirdly enough, I generally like hardcovers for fantasy and paperback for contemporaries. It doesn’t make sense, but I know why I like it, too. Fantasy is usually something I’m focusing more on, something that I’m actively reading. Not that I don’t actively read contemporaries, but I’m a little more chill, a little less oh my gods about the whole thing, and uhhhhh, I like to break the spine on my paperbacks because it’s my book, and I’ll do what I damn please.

Favorite book?

Ever????? I mean, I did figure out my top ten not too long ago, which was a chaotic experience, and which has already changed a bit, so we see how fickle I am about this question! Honestly, I’d probably list Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater here, which I’m sure is literally no one else’s favorite book, and it’s probably mostly nostalgia at this point that makes me love it so much, but it’s a) my most-read book, b) 100% a comfort read, and c) was already listed in my top three, so that feels fitting.

Least favorite book?

Oh, there’s so many options! Because I’m feeling salty, here’s all the books I’ve given one star to:

1. A Passage to India by EM Forster (Technically, I don’t think I ever finished this? I read it in high school, and I hated it so much that I asked the teacher if I could go to a local restaurant that shared the same name and review that instead. He said yes, and now it’s one of my favorite restaurants.)
2. Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan (I know this is controversial, and I don’t care. This book was utterly terrible.)
3. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis (I distinctly remember deciding I was going to give this series another chance, slogging through the first one, and then giving up almost at the end of this one because Lewis just fills me with boredom & rage all at once!)
4. 27 Hours by Tristina Wright (I wrote an entire post about why this book is trash, so I’m not repeating it here.)
5. Witchbody by Sabrina Scott (I think my review does a pretty good job of explaining with this is a whole bucket of nope, but in case you’re not feeling like reading more today, it’s racist, transphobic, and classist, among other things.)
6. Vassa in the Night by Sarah Porter (Oh my gosh, this was one of the first YA books I read in 2016 when I was finally getting back into reading, and it was the worsttttttttt.)
7. Fans of the Impossible Life by Kate Scelsa (I honestly cannot remember a single thing about this book other than I was getting to a rage-reading vibe toward the end of it, so you’ll have to take my word for it that I don’t like it!)
8. Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer (Let it be known that this one-star rating was while I was actively enjoying the Twilight series, so this is not just me being salty after the fact. I hated it when I first read it, even though I was so in love that I went to all of the midnight premieres. This was the book that opened my eyes to the rest of the issues with the series.)
9. Phantom Armies of the Night by Claude Lecouteux (I was so upset about this one because it was the only book I could find that spent specific time on the Wild Hunt, and it was just exhausting to get through.)
10. The Essential Dalai Lama: His Important Teachings by HH, the Dalai Lama XIV (This one breaks my heart because I don’t ever want to not like something that His Holiness wrote, but this is honestly impossible to read.)
11. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli (I kind of want to revisit this because really? I hated this? But I’ve also never not been right about my tastes from college.)
12. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz (Ah, yes, the other controversial book on this list, and one that made me never want to read something else by this author, moving on!)

Well, I’m sure that honesty got me into trouble somehow.

Love triangles, yes or no?

It depends. Take the Tessa/Jem/Will triangle in Shadowhunters–I really enjoyed how it was done, particularly because it didn’t break the friends apart, rather strengthened them. I like, too, how it was done because, given that Tessa is immortal, it’s not like she fought over them. She just, you know, waited until Jem was reborn again to love him once more. I think that explains the it depends because if the love triangle is only there for drama, I don’t want it. I’m just not into relationship drama when it shatters the friendship between people, so if the love triangle is at the expense of the characters’ other relationships, I’m all set.

Also, I saw someone make a really good point recently. Is it really a love triangle when it’s always two guys in love with the same girl? Nah, that’s just a V. A true triangle would have the two love interests also being interested in one another. Challenge issued!

The most recent book you couldn’t finish?

Oh, I very rarely DNF, but that’s not because I push through, just because I’ve gotten good enough with knowing what I like that I don’t really need to DNF. The most recent one I can think of, though, is the first Witcher book. It should have been something I liked, so I’m not really sure why it wasn’t, but I couldn’t get past the first 100 pages.

A book you’re currently reading?

At the time of this posting, I will have definitely finished The Silmarillion (or else, Mary, get your act together), and I’ll probably have finished my abrupt reread of Shadow & Bone, so I will either be reading Siege & Storm because I’m apparently trying to reread the entire universe before the show releases at the end of April, or I’ll be in the midst of one of my women’s history month TBR books. Or, because I’m a monster, I will have abandoned everything and be reading one of the one thousand preorders I have set for this month.

Last book you recommended to someone?

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab! This feels a little like cheating because Sara sent me that and ACOTAR, and I had a lot to say about ACOTAR before swerving into “I can literally recommend anything Schwab has written”, so it was less of me recommending it to her and more of me vehemently trying to get her not to read ACOTAR. Recommendation, in truth, would probably be the Grishaverse because I told Sara that I needed her to read it so we could watch the show together so I had another person to scream with.

Oldest book you’ve read by publication date?

This is going to take some sleuthing, hold please.

Beowulf? TDC is definitely post-Beowulf publication, but I’m trying to think if I’ve read anything earlier than that. When was Chaucer? The Canterbury Tales was 1400s, and Beowulf is disputed somewhere between 700-1000, so that’s still earlier. Unless this question is really asking what publication date I’ve read, not what publication date it was actually released. If that, then The Divine Comedy because I have a copy from 1901, and that’s the earliest I’ve got.

Newest book you’ve read by publication date?

Whatever released recently! Uhhhhh–oh, Lore by Alexandra Bracken! I just read it last month, and since this is going up this week, I won’t have started & finished anything later than that.

Favorite author?

I was going to say easy and drop Maggie Stiefvater’s name in here, butttttt I think I’m switching this to JRR Tolkien. I’ve fallen in love with him a lot more over the last couple of years, and I already loved him an insane amount. Considering I’m dedicating the entire month to a Silmarillion readalong (which starts posting tomorrow!), I think I’ve got to go with the Professor.

Buying books or borrowing books?

Buying. I really don’t like borrowing. I will almost always feel too pressured to read it and just end up not reading it. Instead, I’ll hoard it for a few weeks to a couple months, finally get too fed up, and send it on back. I haven’t utilized the library since I was a child, and I don’t like borrowing books from friends (or letting them borrow mine), so I’m a strict buyer.

A book you dislike that everyone seems to love?

See above? There are at least two books on there that I know people love dearly, but alas, here I am. I also quickly grew to dislike the All Souls trilogy toward the end, which I talked about in some detail here. I wasn’t a fan of The Cruel Prince by Holly Black, but I like the second two, so I don’t think that really counts, though I also hated Tithe a lot, so I’ve been hesitant to read any of her other books. UGH, don’t even get me started on ASOUE, I can’t believe I didn’t one-star the last book. And Nathaniel Hawthorne drives me up a wall.

Bookmarks or dog-ears?

Dog-ears! I lose my phone about six times a day, and I don’t particularly like bookmarks, and they’re my books, so if anyone wants to say something salty about me dog-earing the books I own, then take yourself somewhere else. It’s not monstrous, and y’all are aggravating.

A book you can always reread?

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater! I’ve read it around seven times now? That seems too low. I’m also definitely going to get up there with both Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston and Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender. I’ve read RWRB three times now in the span of one year, and I’m getting there with Felix. Oh my gosh, and Emergency Contact by Mary HK Choi! I said I was going to reread it in February, and I didn’t because I’m the worst, and I might have to fit it into March because I miss it.

Can you read while listening to music?

Yes! I’m almost always listening to music while I read because there are six people & four animals in my house, and it’s a lot. That, and my bedroom is adjacent to the living room, and I share a wall with the family TV, so it gets pretty loud. If I don’t have headphones in, I usually have my speaker playing, and the only time that I’m not listening to music is late at night when I can finally just have uninterrupted quiet.

It depends on what kind of music, too. Generally, I listen to whatever I just listen to normally, but if I really want to set the mood, I’ll find a soundtrack that fits the book.

One POV or multiple?

Multiple. I have nothing against one, and I’ll read it no problem, but if I had to pick one kind of book until the end of my days, it would definitely be multiple POV. My favorite genre is fantasy, so this makes sense since multiple just works so well with fantasy, and I think I definitely like one POV for contemporary over multiple, but yeah. If I had to choose, it’s a no-brainer for me, especially considering almost all of my books are multiple.

Do you read a book in one sitting or over multiple days?

It depends! I definitely read them over multiple days more often, but there have been a few (The Wicker King by K. Ancrum & Bad Call by Stephen Wallenfels most notably) that I’ve felt haunted by until I had to read them all at once.

Who do you tag?

I can’t remember who I’ve seen done this, but Lisa @ Way Too Fantasy & Kim @ Traveling Books!