A Reading Meme, Because Because.

So, I totally thieved this meme from Laura K Curtis, who, by the way, has an excellent post up at the moment about protecting yourself and your data online that you should all go read right now. It’s okay. I’ll wait until you’re done… 🙂

Done? Okay. Cool. On to the meme-ing……..

A. Author You’ve Read The Most Books From: Terry Pratchett. Hard to compete with a series that is 30+ books long 😀 Although if you counted rereads and not just individual books, the Harry Potter series is up there (27 reads since beginning of 2007, more prior to that), and Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels books come in close too (20 reads total). Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series is probably second for single read throughs, at 18-with-no-rereads.
B. Best Sequel Ever: Cross My Heart And Hope To Spy by Ally Carter (although the final book in the series is the real clincher); Linger by Maggie Stiefvater; Red Glove by Holly Black; or something from the four aforementioned series.
C. Currently Reading: Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr and Parang by Omar Musa.
D. Drink of Choice While Reading: Tap water, or hot water with the juice of one lemon plus a generous tablespoon of honey. Or peppermint tea. These, strikingly enough, are pretty much all I ever drink anyway. O:) 🙂
E. E-Reader or Physical Books: Physical, hands down. I have a kindle, prefer the Sonys my last school had, and yet still infinitely prefer the weight of a book in my hands that tells me how far I have to go, and allows me to flick back and forth to admire authors’ foreshadowing Skillz.
F. Fictional Character You Would Have Dated In High School: Sam from Maggie Stiefvater’s Wolves of Mercy Falls series. Not that I ever had a crush on him (I never had any fictional crushes, am I weird?), but he’s a really sweet, genuine, lovely person who knows how to handle a respectful relationship. *fistbump*. Gansey, from Stiefvater’s recent Raven Boys series, is also on the list I guess, mostly because I am like him in oh-so-many-terrifying ways. 🙂
G. Glad You Gave This Book A Chance: As an adult, Ilona Andrews’ Magic Bites. Yup, the same Ilona Andrews whose books I have read more often than nearly any other author. It took me THREE GOES to get through the first three chapters of her first Kate Daniels book, and I am SO glad I did, because this is one of my favouritest series in the whole wide world.

Also, as a child, I was excited to discover that the book an aunty had given me for Christmas and that I had delayed reading for years because I thought it would be boring actually turned out to be fabulous: The Lost Princess by George MacDonald. Actually, I realise now this exact description also applies to another novel Christmas-gifted to me by another aunty: Eucalyptus, by Murray Bail. It was dense to get through, but gratifying.

H. Hidden Gem Book: The Night Rainbow by Claire King. Oh my gosh you guys, THIS BOOK. I bought it purely on a whim because I’d seen it in an airport bookstore and the hardback cover is GLORIOUS, but it literally blew me away. Such clever, gorgeous, lush, poetic storytelling in a genre I am HORRIBLY, **HORRIBLY** picky in (lit. fic.).
I. Important Moments of Your Reading Life: Most important reading moment: my best friend introduced me to Terry Pratchett in Year 8 (Moving Pictures, if you’re curious). Previously, my reading had been pretty exclusively horse-focused: The Saddle Club, Thoroughbreds, lots of horsey non-fiction, The Silver Brumby, etc. I’d read the Narnia series, because of course, but Moving Pictures was my first introduction to a) adult books and b) the fantasy genre, and I fell in love.
J. Just Finished: Most recently, Free Agent by J.C. Nelson. An awesome urban fantasy debut with a really original setting and worldbuilding. Check it out; you won’t be disappointed.
K. Kinds of Books You Won’t Read: Horror (my childhood fear of the dark tends to re-emerge if I expose myself to the horror genre ;)) and anything bleak or depressing. I loathe depressing books with an unmitigated passion.
L. Longest Book You’ve Read: Gone With The Wind, though in truth I never read the last two chapters because I got bored. Milton’s Paradise Lost FELT like the longest book I’ve ever read (and to be fair, it IS pretty long); I appreciate its skill but it’s a story I’m intimately familiar with and it bored the socks off me (I had to read it for uni). Otherwise, books from Robert Jordan’s The Wheel Of Time Series; I’ve still never made it past book 6, even though I really want to. Last year I started listening to them as audio books in an attempt to make it through the series… I’m midway through book 4 still 😀
M. Major Book Hangover Because Of: Maggie Stiefvater’s The Scorpio Races. Actually, just most Stiefvater books generally. And Ilona Andrews’ Magic Rises. Man, that book suckered me in emotionally. Also anything from Small Favors onwards in Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series.
N. Number of Bookcases You Own: 5, but one is half height because it has drawers in the bottom, and one is a display bookcase, so is only half full. The other three are packed and in places double-stacked to bursting point.
O. One Book That You Have Read Multiple Times: Er, see question A. Harry Potter series, Kate Daniels series, Gallagher Girls series, anything by Maggie Stiefvater. These are my comfort-reads. Also Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta, and Draco Malfoy, Amazing Bouncing… Rat?, which is an awesome fanfic by Sarah Rees Brennan written before she was an Officially Published Professional.
P. Preferred Place to Read: Anywhere I can recline 😉 Our lovely comfy recliner lounges, bed, or the bath.

Q. Quote From A Book That Inspires You: It’s our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. – Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
R. Reading Regret: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Look, I get why this is an Important Book. I really do. But it’s depressing as hell and twice as dark, and it just…. Urgh. I hated it for everything it was and represented and made me feel. …I need a shower now.
S. Series You Started and Need to Finish: Robert Jordan’s The Wheel Of Time series. See L. Plus all those series I’m currently following that haven’t been completed yet.
T. Three Of Your All-Time Favourite Books: Trying to list books I haven’t mentioned yet: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh, and Arcadia by Tom Stoppard, which is technically a play, but never mind.
U. Unapologetic Fangirl For: Ilona Andrews, J.K. Rowling, Jim Butcher, Maggie Stiefvater, Ally Carter’s Gallagher Girls series, Liana Brooks.
W. Worst Bookish Habit: …Um, yeah. See, when I’m reading, I tend to get really absorbed in what I’m reading. So if you interrupt me… Well, let’s just say it’s a little like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuRuwR2JSXI *

* Apparently I need to include a trigger warning in this for male-criminals-calling-women-Girl. It’s a parody of how cranky readers get when they are interrupted – so cranky we might as well be crooks, right? Get it? *sigh* I hope someone out there gets it or I will be left feeling very stupid.

V. Very Excited For This Release More Than Any Other: OHMYGOSH BLUE LILY, LILY BLUE COMES OUT IN JUST OVER A MONTH. A WHOLE ENTIRE MONTH HOW WILL I LIVE DEATH TRAGEDY DESTRUCTION. Even MORE impatient for this impending release (book III in Stiefvater’s The Raven Boys Cycle) because I will get my copy of Sinner, a companion novel to Stiefvater’s Wolves of Mercy Falls series, at the SAME TIME. SIGNED. WITH PRETTY PICTURES DRAWN IN IT.

OH MY GOSH I WILL DIE BEFORE THEN.

If you haven’t read The Raven Boys series yet, THIS IS YOUR OFFICIAL CALL TO ACTION. GO AND READ THEM. Maggie Stiefvater is my writing hero; her prose is beautiful and lyrical and layered and literary, while her plots are pacey and explosiony, and her characters are so profoundly real it feels like she is just writing a biography rather than making these people up. YOU GUYS. MAGGIE STIEFVATER IS A WORD GENIUS AND YOU NEED TO READ THE RAVEN BOYS CYCLE if you AT ALL like well-written characters in contemporary fantasy settings. READ THEM. READ them NOW.
X. Marks The Spot (Start On Your Bookshelf And Count to the 27th Book): Magic Strikes, book III in Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels series. (YES. THE ONE I HAVE REREAD MILLIONS OF TIMES AND THAT YOU TOO SHOULD READ IF YOU LIKE URBAN FANTASY AND AWESOME ANCIENT MYTHOLOGY.)
Y. Your Latest Book Purchase: Online, Free Agent by J.C. Nelson. In person, Here Come The Dogs by Omar Musa.
Z. ZZZ-Snatcher (last book that kept you up WAY late): Worst ever was Ilona Andrews’ Magic Rises. I literally had to stay up until 2am, and it was the night before school started for the year, because I was too emotionally wired to sleep until I knew that the hero *mild spoiler* wasn’t actually jerking the main character around. Phew. That was a killer.

So there you go! My A-Z of reading. Feel free to join in with the meme (or not). If you do, I’d love to read your answers, so let me know – leave a comment, or tweet me, or something 🙂

Have a grand week!