25 Bookish Facts About Me

Because I’ve been missing for a while I thought a reintroduction was in order. I was tagged for this by Ellyn @ allonsythornraxx.

Also I knowwww I need to take new photos of my bookshelf to use but I don’t have a good phone camera and using an actual camera means I have to find the charger and transfer it to my computer and it’s so much effort. I promise I’ll do it before the end of the year. But I have exams until November, and then it’s nanowrimo…

1. I don’t really get that attached to ships unless the book becomes my whole life (ie The Raven Cycle). While I do often think the relationships that develop are cute, I don’t really care either way.
2. When I was younger I was really into historical novels, I loved reading books set in ancient egypt or england in the time of the celts, but I’ve struggled to find good YA historical novels that aren’t entirely romance so I don’t read much history any more (please please give me recommendations).
3. I also used to read a looooooot of books about horses or farms because I really loved the idea of having a horse but it was impossible where I lived
4. As much as I love true crime, reading horror or thriller novels makes me too paranoid for my own safety because I have an overactive mind.
5. I mostly commonly read physical books because my phone is terrible and doesn’t have space to store audio or ebooks. Plus ebooks aren’t great for my eyes and audiobooks can be frustrating if there is other noise in the area like people talking or traffic.
6. I’m not super big on trying to guess how a book is going to end, I prefer to just experience it and let myself be surprised. But if I’m waiting for the next/last book in a series I sometimes come up with theories.
7. I used to hate using bookmarks, I would just remember the page number and open up to the right place. Now I don’t know how I survived! Bookmarks make everything so much easier.
8. I actually prefer paperbacks to hardcovers, they’re lighter and cheaper and easier to read. Hardbacks are so much hassle with their dust jackets.
9. My first “classic” was probably the Chronicles of NARNIA which I read at around 7 years old. I love this series and I really need to reread it. It makes me a bit sad how some people ignore the later books thought because I remember enjoying them quite a bit.
10. World building is probably my favorite thing about fantasy (and it’s why I love writing too). I love seeing how societies in fantasy novels work and how they approach concepts of money, climate and government differently.
11. On the concept of worldbuilding, I don’t really struggle to keep a thousand different details in my head because I’ve been reading intense high fantasy novels for as long as I can remember.
12. My favorite series / authors are (in this order) The Obernewtyn Chronicles by Isobelle Carmody, The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater and Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger because each of them really revolutionized my reading experience and changed the way I thought about books.
13. I track my reading using a spreadsheet, this includes information about the length and genre of the book along with how it did for diversity in various areas and whether I had a strong emotional reaction to it.
14. I did a post at the beginning of the year analysing my reading statistics from 2017 (the first year I tracked my reading) which I loved doing and found very interesting. I definitely plan to do one for this year.
15. So far this year I’ve read 17 books, 12 of which have been fantasy or sci-fi. Only one of them has been a 2018 release (Obsidio) and none of them have had mental health rep?? (pick up your game fantasy).
    
16. I’m not a big movie person so while I think the trend of more ya books being adapted into films is cool, I’m more on board for adaptations to TV shows.
17. I’ve never really gotten into comics which sucks because some of them sound really cool, but I can’t find them anywhere near me and the couple that I’ve borrowed from libraries I haven’t really enjoyed.
18. I actually love Pride and Prejudice. When I first read the book I thought it was alright, but now having studied it in school and watched like 10 different adaptations I think it’s amazing.
19. I went through a couple of interesting book trends around 5 years ago, I spent ages reading only dystopian climate change novels and then a while only reading novels set in world war two… it’s now at the point where I kind of can’t stand either subgenre because I’ve read soooo many of them and they all blended together in my head.
20. I will forever love books with an adventure or survival theme, like when characters are lost somewhere and have to be really clever to survive.
21. I’m completely happy to lend my books to friends, I don’t really care if they damage the book a little bit as long as it’s still readable, but I do tend to get worried when I borrow books from friends that I’m going to damage them.
22. I’ve read every single book that’s been assigned to me as required reading at school because I felt like I had to.
23. I carry a book with me everywhere, which is often a really good conversation starter with people I only kind of know
24. I kind of feel bad whenever I sit down to read in my house, as if I should be using my time better, so I tend to read more when I’m out of the house or when it’s late at night and I can tell myself I’ll only read for 30 minutes even if I actually read for hours
25. I used to never reread books, but that changed a year or so before I started this blog when I reread the same book 5 times in a week. Since then I’ve really enjoyed going back and rereading some of my childhood favorites. I keep getting the urge to reread books I’ve only finished a couple of months ago because I love them so much and it’s nice to know that I could if I wanted to.

I struggled a lot more than I thought I would to come up with all of these! I’m not going to tag anyone, but I’d love to hear a couple of interesting bookish facts about you guys in the comments below.