Goodreads Book Tag: Feat. the Second-Best Website in the World

WE HAVE DISCOVERED THE GREATEST TAG ON EARTH.

It sits here before you now: a combination of my second-favorite website (nothing beats Book Outlet) (on an unrelated note, Book Outlet, please sponsor me), and a series of questions that allow me to unapologetically talk about myself for as long as I deem fit. (And I deem “forever” to be fit.)

I would be remiss if I did not thank the person who gave me the gift of this tag a million times. Bonus, it was Holly @ Nut Free Nerd, who has an AMAZING blog. And the coolest-ever taste in books. And is currently studying abroad in England and generally being unbelievably rad. Follow her!!!

Okay I literally cannot hold my excitement in any longer, so…

AWAY WE GO.

 

 

What was the last book you marked as ‘read’?

Eliza and Her Monsters. I, um…didn’t like it? This shouldn’t be surprising at this point but also it was extremely surprising to approximately one thousand people, including some people I like who also liked this book.

Sorry to Elise. Sorry to the Mays. Am I scared to review this book at this point? Honestly, yes. Perhaps I will do it in two years, when hopefully all of the fury and anguish has died down slightly.

I finished it two (2) days ago and gave it two (2) stars! Fun.

 

What are you currently reading?

Hahahaha. Always like 10 books in reality and 0 on Goodreads. I have a really weird aversion to marking books as “currently reading,” because hopefully I’ll be done it soon anyways and who really cares if I’m just going to add the read dates in later.

On Goodreads, I am “currently” “reading” When Dimple Met Rishi (which I am not enjoying at all and have been forcing myself to pick up intermittently) and A Court of Wings and Ruin (which I started in June and haven’t touched in three months but I am way too stubborn to give up). (Also I really want to one-star the sh*t out of it. I’ll get there. Someday. When I’m strong enough.)

 

What was the last book you marked as TBR?

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo. I’m pretty intensely excited about this book despite having literally no reason to be excited at all. I liked the Six of Crows duology a lot but I hated the Grisha trilogy so much I DNFed it halfway through the second book. And that’s the trilogy Nikolai Lantsov is in, and King of Scars is his book. Like I didn’t even like him enough to try to make it through the second half of that one book. So why am I excited? Who knows. But I am.

Can’t wait to be hit with the sweet sweet taste of crushing disappointment following illogically elevated expectations :):):)

 

What book do you plan to read next?

Who “””plans'””” anything anymore? Who does anything except let life happen to them? Who picks out books beyond seeing if any falls out of the sky and lands in front of them, open to exactly the first page and NOT the table of contents because that’s not the first page, really, now is it.

I’m considering reading a lot of things. I’ve been considering finally goddamn finishing A Court of Wings and Ruin for the last four months. I’m considering actually completing any of the books I’ve started, like Rebecca, or A Thousand Paper Birds, or Falling Kingdoms, or The Bedlam Stacks, or Robin Hood, or The Wide Awake Princess, or Starflight, or The Kiss of Deception, or The Anatomical Shape of a Heart, or A Study in Charlotte, or Mansfield Park, or The Trial, or The Knife of Never Letting Go.

But never planning.

 

Do you use the star rating system?

I love being a #rebel. Something that people don’t think about is if you live within the rules sometimes, that means you get to break them all the more often. This is how I feel about Goodreads star ratings.

Example: Goodreads goddamn loves making its users’ lives a living hell by refusing to grant the most basic of wishes. Yes I am talking about half stars. THERE’S A HUGE, INSURMOUNTABLE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THREE AND FOUR STARS. YOU COULD FOUND A NATION IN THE SPACE BETWEEN ONE STAR AND TWO.

Because they refused to grant me this, I have granted it to myself by making shelves. Like, I have a one star shelf, a one and a half star shelf, a two star shelf, two and a half, and so on. (What if I just listed them all out here? Would that be funny or just annoying? I personally fall into both of those categories so well it can be difficult to tell.)

Also, if I don’t wanna rate a book then I don’t. And I have a different key (in my Goodreads description) for each star. It’s called being a rebel, ever heard of it?

 

Are you doing a 2017 reading challenge?

Um. In the way that, yes, I technically have one up, and yes, I want to complete it, and yes, it was my intention to do so.

In the way that “it seems feasible that I could complete this goal by the end of the year, a.k.a. just over two months from now,” no. No, I do not.

Six books behind baby!!!! Look at that thing not go. Nothing like not reading to bring your reading challenge down a notch.

 

Do you have a wishlist?

HELL YES I DO. Why, ya wanna buy me something? (Please. I have no money.)

I technically have a to-buy shelf on Goodreads, but I never look at it and it’s probably hopelessly outdated. Amazon all the way. Much more convenient. Sorry, Goodreads. But I’m still mad because I thought about half stars so this is my revenge.

 

What book do you plan to buy next?

No books ever for all time. I haven’t bought a book in almost two months. I have no money. I can’t buy myself a burrito without feeling the guilt for the next five to seven business days. I’ve actually gone into a hospital and had them manually rewire my brain so I’ve fully forgotten that book-buying was a viable option for me once upon a time.

Oh wait. I just remembered I bought two used books a couple weeks ago. IT WAS THREE DOLLARS IT DOESN’T COUNT AND NEITHER WERE ON MY WISHLIST.

But I really wish I could buy The Language of Thorns. Or Wonder Woman. Or Warcross.

Sigh.

Do you have any favorite quotes? Share a few.

I HAVE SO MANY FAVORITE QUOTES THIS IS SO HARD THEY’RE ALL SO GOOD BECAUSE I HAVE IMPECCABLE TASTE AND I’M THE ONE WHO HAS CAREFULLY CURATED THEM.

Ugh this is hard.

Whatever. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the greatest quotes ever, of all time, no exceptions.

“With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy?”

-Oscar Wilde

“Thus, though we cannot make our sun / Stand still, yet we will make him run.”

-Andrew Marvell

“Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I’m not living.”

–Everything is Illuminated

“I am all in a sea of wonders.”

–Dracula

“(What are your ghosts like?)
(They are on the insides of the lids of my eyes.)
(This is also where my ghosts reside.)
(You have ghosts?)
(Of course I have ghosts.)
(But you are a child.)
(I am not a child.)
(But you have not known love.)
(These are my ghosts, the spaces amid love.)”

–Everything is Illuminated

“I would always rather be happy than dignified.”

–Jane Eyre

“I wasn’t actually in love, but I felt a sort of tender curiosity.”

–The Great Gatsby

“Strange as it may seem, I still hope for the best, even though the best, like an interesting piece of mail, so rarely arrives, and even when it does it can be lost so easily.”

-Lemony Snicket

“If you love a flower that lives on a star, it is sweet to look at the sky at night. All the stars are a-bloom with flowers…”

–The Little Prince

 

Who are your favorite authors?

I don’t know how you do this on Goodreads. I don’t know how the widget works, or how you get the lil list thing to show on your profile, or whatever. But I do have favorite authors. That I have. And they are:

• John Steinbeck
• F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Jane Austen
• Lemony Snicket
• Jonathan Safran Foer
• Roald Dahl

 

Have you joined any groups?

Just the poll one because I love answering questions. But I have forty-nine unread invitations so I guess I can always comb through those if I’ve got a hankering for some group activity.

(Hint: I have never, once, in my whole life, had a hankering for some group activity.)

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BEST TAG BEST TAG BEST TAG.

I think a lot of people have done this one by now (because that’s what happens when you take a millennium to do a tag) so I tag EVERYBODY! Link me in your responses so I can see them!!!

Do you use Goodreads? Do you LOVE it? Do you love to hate it?*

*Those are the only options.