The “How I Choose My Books” Tag

Destiny, the object of my obsession/blogger over at Howling Libraries, did this tag and was unsurprisingly amazing at it. Read her post!!!

This is going to be very interesting to do because I myself have no clue how I choose my books. So it’ll be a learning experience for us all.

1. Find a book on your shelves or e-reader with a blue cover. What made you want to pick up this book?

This is difficult, because over three-seventeenths of my books are blue. I have very many blue books because I love blue. (Also, I have seventeen shelves and over three of them are blue. I’m not a fractions wizard.)

So I’ll just insert my Instagram post from today here, because half of the books in it are blue! Hurray!

The first blue book in this photo is Emma, by Jane Austen. I picked up all other Jane Austen books because she is my favorite, but not this one. I have still not read it, but my mom bought it for me when I was approximately 14 because a) my name is Emma and b) she thought the cover was pretty.

She also bought me Great Expectations because my neighbor at the beach, who even then was prettier and cooler and slightly older than me, had it as a summer reading assignment and our moms thought it would be a good idea for use to share that experience.

Guess what? Neither of us read it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BYBmcUOFlv9/?taken-by=emmareadstoomuch 

 

2. Think of a book you didn’t expect to enjoy, but did. Why did you read it in the first place?

I didn’t expect to enjoy Carry On, by Rainbow Rowell, but I thought it was pretty good. The fanfiction-y parts of Fangirl were my least favorite. I straight up skipped them when I reread it a little while back. So when I saw she was publishing a whole freakin’ book of those dumb chapters – even IGNORING the fact that it was stolen from inspired by the concept of Harry Potter – I was like, f*********ck. (Isn’t it creative how I did that?) But Rainbow Rowell was my queen then, and she remains an auto-buy author now, and honestly there are some things you just have to accept.

But I thought it was fun! The line between Potter-stealing and Potter-inspired is now just a mile long stretch of copies of that book, so that was less than ideal, but it wasn’t a completely un-enjoyable read.

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3. Stand in front of your bookshelf with your eyes closed and pick a book at random. How did you discover this book?

Now you want me to STAND? This was so much easier when I was just scrolling through my Instagram feed.

Also my bookshelf has a big empty space in the middle so this is impractical as well as physically grueling.

Okay. I am groaning and sighing and muttering angrily and thinking about expletives very hard, but I am getting up and doing it.

AHHH! IT’S THE NIGHT CIRCUS!!!! *cheers from the crowd because this book is amazing*

Ah, sh*t, wait.

I straight up do not remember how I discovered this book.

Probably Instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BX3HIyTF1Jn/?taken-by=emmareadstoomuch

 

4. Pick a book that someone personally recommended to you. What did you think of it?

I try to never take recommendations if I can help it, because my average rating is 3.03 and I hate books all the time and I just don’t want the blame for that to rest on anyone but me, because I suck and I totally deserve it.

But recently my best friend (personally, obviously) recommended I read Mayhem. I was in the mood for some trashy romance, so I picked it up. I have read very little new adult romance in my time on this great green earth, but I enjoyed this.

The lead guy in it is very hot.

Hurray, best friends who probably know your bookish interests better than you know yourself!

 

5. Pick a book that you discovered through BookTube/book blogs.

Oof. I don’t know if there is one.

Oh, wait, hang on…I have a distant memory of 2014-me watching that really famous BookTuber girl with the weird username do a video on contemporary recommendations. (When I first got back into reading, in 2014, I only read contemporaries. I still have a soft spot for them, if “soft spot” means “I pick them up pretty often and almost always tear them apart.)

Is the username PolandBananasBooks? That seems ridiculous and awful, but I don’t want to believe that my brain came up with that on its own.

Anyway. Without digging up that video, let me try to remember what I picked up because of it.

Oh, Christ, I had to look up the video. I really hated that so much. I can’t do BookTube. (AND IT WAS POLANDBANANASBOOKS. WHYYYYY. WHEN WILL MY SUFFERING END.)

Okay. Good news: she listed the books in the description. I think I may have read Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour for the first time because of that video.

I liked it okay the first time. But not so much the second.

(She also recommended some of the books in this stack below, but more importantly *I* recommend most of the books in the stack below.

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6. Find a book on your shelves or e-reader with a one-word title. What drew you to this book?

Me (chanting): Egghead, Egghead, Egghead!

What you may not know about me is that my interests in life are dual: books and comedy. Well, and sweets, I guess. And the time-consuming, fulfilling charity work upon which I spend my days.

BUT MAINLY BOOKS AND COMEDY.

I kid, I kid. Sweets are definitely up there, too.

Anyway. One of my favorite comedians/people/Twitter users is Bo Burnham. He has a book of poetry called Egghead. It, like everything he does, is VERY GOOD.

I recommend him to no one because he’s a very specific type of funny and there’s a very specific type of way you should ease into his comedy, like if a hot tub is slightly too hot when you first get in but then you’re eventually submerged and it’s perfect and oH MY GOD YOU DROPPED YOUR BOOK THE BOOK IS IN THE WATER LUXURIATING IN THE JACUZZI BUBBLES OH NO THE INK THE PRECIOUS PAGES EVERYTHING IS RUINED.

That last bit, I guess, corresponds to the fact that he may have retired from stand-up comedy.

I’m going to shut up now. Message me on Goodreads if you want to be instructed on Bo Burnham.

I’ll prepare myself for the zero messages.

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7. What book did you discover through a film/TV adaptation?

Oh Jesus. I’ve talked about A Little Princess far too much recently, but, I guess, technically…the Pretty Little Liars books?

A series I stopped both watching and reading six years ago. Go me! Very applicable and interesting answer! How relatable! Great content! Hilarious response!

Oh, wait, The Princess Bride is also one! That’s a book and a movie I love equally. But I saw the movie first. (Get off my d*ck, I was a CHILD. Probably ILLITERATE. Certainly ILL-EQUIPPED to handle the DEVASTATINGLY HUMOROUS PROSE and MIND-BOGGLING IRONY of this AMERICAN CLASSIC. And even MORE ILL-EQUIPPED to handle the scene where the VERY HOT WESTLEY is TORTURED and KILLED.)

(Yes, I am maybe traumatized.)

 

8. Think of your all time favorite book(s). When did you read them and why did you pick them up in the first place?

When will you guys get tired of me talking about Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland? Oh, it already happened? Cool. Got it.

Even *I* get sick of talking about Alice once in a while (not really but I have to keep producing fresh and fun content if I want to connect with the Internet teens and infiltrate the community – yes I’m a spy for the NSA), so I’ll give a different, almost-favorite book.

I can’t even say Gatsby, because I’m posting that review soon and SPOILERS!

So I will say The Little Prince, which I read in junior-year French class because it was assigned. I love French and foxes and cute lil profound stories so this was destined to be a fave, honestly. And I tend to not hate school-assigned reading either.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BW0f5Gdlrcj/?taken-by=emmareadstoomuch

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This was v fun, even if I feel none the wiser on how or why I pick up books and I’m sure you’re even more confused and upset and close to exiting the page. But honestly, why not give the post a like while you’re here.

Thanks again to my queen pal Destiny. I’m going to tag a few faves o’ mine:

• Name twin
• Also name twin
• Two cool bloggers for the price of one
• Two more cool bloggers for the price of one!
• The entirety of my Kik inbox