Month: February 2019

Harry Potter Book Tag

aquapages // eline3 Comments

I do not remember where I first saw this book tag, I’ve had it saved as a post idea for a while, but you’re welcome to do it if you want to! The Harry Potter Book Tag was created by Trang and Lashaan at Bookidote. 

A book you found the theme interesting, but you’d like to rewrite it.

This is most books I don’t like, because they usually had something special in their synopsis that made me read them.

The first book in a series that got you hooked.

A Living Nightmare by Darren Shan is the first book of a series called Cirque du Freak and absolutely got me hooked not only that series and the more gruesome Demonata series, but vampires, monsters and demons in general as a (way too young haha) kid. People ask me if X book is appropriate for their eight year old? I’m like “YES and also I’m not the right person to ask because I mostly say no to only game of thrones and lord of the rings (for different reasons)”

A book you wish you could have right now.

Like every collector’s edition. Six of crows collectors edition is even cheap, but I can’t bring myself to buy it because I move next year for uni and what then? I don’t need books that I’ve already read? But I want them all, so badly. A dedicated library is my dream in whatever apartment or house I live in as a “real adult”.

A killer book. Both senses. Take it as you like.

I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga.

A book that you found really confusing.

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. I knew I liked it, but I didn’t understand it at once. I still don’t get all of it after one read through, but firstly I know who Kafka is now. I expect a tiny applause and lots of gasps at that, I know it’s weird. Murakami answered 1200 questions about it allegedly and I’m going to delve into it after some more readthroughs once because:

In an interview posted on his English language website, Murakami says that the secret to understanding the novel lies in reading it several times: “Kafka on the Shorecontains several riddles, but there aren’t any solutions provided. Instead, several of these riddles combine, and through their interaction the possibility of a solution takes shape. And the form this solution takes will be different for each reader. To put it another way, the riddles function as part of the solution. It’s hard to explain, but that’s the kind of novel I set out to write”.

A dark twisted book.

The tv series “You” on netflix. Book-wise is harder. The torture and physical and psychological conditions Kaladin is put under in The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson really struck me as so amazingly written and utterly terrifying because it’s such a cruel play on having to work together as a team, but everyone dying before trust can be built. 

Your spirit animal book.

I don’t know what this means, but the answer is “Graceling” by Kristin Cashore. I need to reread it and review it as an adult, but it was so precious to me growing up. Katsa is a really fierce, violent warrior who has emotions, but doesn’t let any hardships she’s put through stop her. I love her so much and would carry her in my mind like she could give me strength. 

A book that surprised you in a great way, reveals more than it is

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins seems like such an average title, cover and synopsis, but it went freaking MAD. It built up forever, both the world and the character with their interactions, and then ascended in chaos as worlds were torn down and Gods missing and the main character isn’t as unassuming as she’s been the whole book. It’s one of those books that sticks in your mind afterwards and has become one of my favourite, but I can’t promote it to people without SPOILING THE WHOLE DAMN THING. It’s just plot-twists!! But they’re not really plot-twists, they’re just a twisted plot. Led by twisted characters? I love it and I think a lot more would as well, if they picked it up. 

Why Audiobooks Are Great (I Changed My Mind) & Some Recommendations

aquapages // eline7 Comments

I’ve experimented with what kind of audiobooks I like, through different free trials of platforms, before eventually paying for one. I went through the whole summer on free trials, listening to the beginning of a lot of books. I didn’t like audiobooks until this summer because I really like to read books myself. I’ve read a lot and have become good at it, I don’t need to narrate voices in my head always, so info can go in and translate to pictures in my head – it’s a lot faster. Reading physically I can choose the pace myself, pausing at sections with beautiful writing. Physical books are easier to bookmark or take notes in.

But here’s why I changed my mind and now also like audiobooks:

  • Audiobooks can be enjoyed by people who don’t like to read for so many different and good reasons, like just not being able to sit down and focus for that long. It makes books more accessible.
  • There’s easier to find time for audiobooks and you can do other things while listening (the reason I love podcasts), like cleaning, training, sitting on the bus for hours or try to fall asleep
  • BUT MOST OF ALL – I was admitted to the hospital this summer and because of illness I could not focus enough to read. It’s so hard to read without concentration or your mind in the right place, in a way it isn’t so difficult to listen to small chunks of audiobooks. This really converted me, as I saw why audiobooks are better than physical ones in certain situations or for some people
  • It’s so much cooler to hear a memoir told by the author themselves! This is my favourite type of audiobook as you’ll see in my recommendations, it’s just so comforting or adds an extra layer of emotion and realness to the story.

Here’s the recommendations:

Memoirs narrated by the author

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah: IF YOU WANT TO PICK ONE, PICK THIS. It’s so damn good, as Trevor is already a driven comic and an amazing story-teller. It’s hilarious, it’s heart-warming, heart-wrenching, informative. Just 10/10 will listen to it a lot and one that many will love without knowing much about Trevor Noah.

Buffering by Hannah Hart: I wrote and then lost the review of this book, but it’s so heartwrenching, good and honest. She talks about being lesbian and how it was to realize that in a family where her dad later became jehovas witness and her mom was a schizofrenic. About having to make choices for the family and the best of her sister, of growing up to soon and trying to find herself afterwards. I cried, a lot.

My Fight / Your Fight by Ronda Rousey: Listen to this to get motivated to train your ass off or excell at anything really. It’s written before she lost and her popularity went downhill quick, but it really brings out the human sides of Ronda as well, in a sometimes natural way.

Secrets For the Mad by dodie: If you like dodie, her voice is really calming to listen to for so long and the audiobook itself is excellent. If you don’t know who she is, don’t pick it up, it doesn’t really tell a powerful stand-alone story like the others here.

I’ve Only Found One Fictional Audiobook I Loved? And A Lot of Okay Ones

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo reads like a memoir/biography, only it’s fictional and not only is the story excellent, but it’s the only fictional audiobook I really fell into and embraced as possibly better than the physically reading it. The narrator is excellent.

If you just want to find audiobooks that have good narrators here’s a short list: If we were villains by M. L. Rio, The poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo, The price guide to the occult by Leslye Walton (didn’t like the story personally) and The power of habit.

PS: If you want more – here’s all my audiobook reviews tagged. And if you like poetry, poetry collections on audio are so great to listen to! I recommend Mary Oliver’s.

Do you like audiobooks or do you prefer ebooks/physical books? I’ll appreciate audiobook recommendations!