Ok… so this year…. I failed hard on book blogging.
Like so hard.
As in I stopped in June and have not been able to get back into the role since.
I know… i’m a bad blogger.
But as my 2016 Book Challenge this year enters it’s last leg and I begin planning things for the new year, I’ve decided to kick things off right for the new year, I’m just going to go ahead and try to immerse myself in the blogging world. Some of my favourite posts are book tags and so I went hunting for a festive tag to get things going.
I wasn’t tagged in this, and I’m not quite sure who the original creator was but I saw this on Reader Rayner’s blog and had to give it a whirl.
- A Fictional Family you would like to spend Christmas dinner with;
I would love to spend Christmas Dinner with the Murray’s at Lallybroch (Outlander Series). I feel like Jenny and Ian would have a nice, quiet and homey Christmas planned surrounded by their many children and grand children. I imagine it to be a larger version of my on family’s Christmas and I think that’s why there’s a pull there. And I just love Lallybroch ok?
2. A bookish item you would like to receive as a Christmas gift.
Just books mate. Any book on my good reads TBR list would be lovely.
3. A fictional character you think would be the perfect Christmas elf
Come on, wouldn’t Luna be the perfect Elf? I feel like she’d get a lot done but you’d get quite weird presents. But she’s so immersed in the magical and her own world, I feel like she’d volunteer for the job and take it quite seriously.
4. Match a book to its perfect Christmas song
This was a hard one. Took me a bit to think of a good match. In the end I think the best fit is; “Baby it’s Cold Outside” and A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas
5. Bah Humbug; a book or a fictional character you’ve been disappointed in and that should be put on the naughty list.
This was a hard one. I think it’s because I generally have read quite good books recently and because I’m very picky on my reading pile, I can generally avoid duds. However, in a case of good luck running out, I did pick a dud while on Holidays recently that I thought would be fantastic but I’m really struggling to get into. I’m about 1/2 way through and seriously considering marking it as a DNF. It’s really disappointing because I was quite excited about the book as it promised an interesting premise and a new twist on a classic. It hasn’t delivered. So I name Stealing Snow by Danielle Page as my candidate.
6. A book or character you think deserves more love and appreciation and deserves to be put on the nice list.
My answer for this could in fact be Outlander but that would be lame and I don’t like repeating books on tags. Outlander does have- by the end of 2016- quite a growing fanbase so I’ve decided to shine light on another gem that doesn’t get a lot of press, why I don’t know.
Yo this book is HILARIOUS. I read this book this year upon a buzzfeed recommendation of little known books and I LOVED it. It’s silly, it’s frenetic, it’s poignant and so ridiculous it’s genius. Libba Bray purposefully delves into uncharted waters and creates a brilliant criticism of current western society. It’s a book that I think everyone needs to read; it’s quick and a lot deeper than you see on first glance.
7. Red, Gold and Green; a book cover that has a wonderfully christmasy feel to it
This may be a bit out there this one, but I’m nominating the Raven King which is the last book in the Raven Cycle series by Maggie Steifvater. My reasoning behind this decision is that it’s like the “Ice Queen” in a bunch of stories I could have chosen. It’s a much darker Christmas tale than we usually hear at this time of year, but the triumph of friendship and family over the odds is what cinched the deal. This is a book about coming together to face a large threat. The quest to get home during the holiday season (at least on the south coast in Australia) could be mirrored by the boy’s and Blue’s dash towards the end. And hey, at least we all know that our family situations at home are not as mad as Blue’s or the boy’s.
8. A book or a series that you love so much that you want everyone to find it under your Christmas Tree this year so that they can read it and love it too
Again, it was hard not to pick Outlander. But, I’ve instead gone for…
This book just needs to be read by everyone. I think it would cater to multiple tastes and it’s got a message that everyone needs to hear. This book turned my year around and when I was feeling truly crap about myself, it held my hand, sang soft Dolly Parton songs in my ear and showed me that things were ok. This book is a triumph and everyone needs to read it.
Thank you all for indulging me, both with this post and this year. I tag everyone who would like to have a go with this tag. It’s lots of fun.
The Undecided Bookworm 