Wednesday 29 August 2012

Top Ten Tuesday (1)

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the girls over at The Broke and The Bookish. This meme feature features a different theme every week, showcasing book-related lists. And hey, who doesn't love a good list?

This week's Top Ten:
Bookish Confessions

1. I can not resist the smell of old books' pages, especially if the pages are yellowy and fragile. That's why I love stopping by second hand book stores. The whole place smells like old books!

2. I judge books by their covers. I don't even bother reading the synopsis. If the cover looks awesome, then I'll read it. If it looks horrible, then I won't. I always feel slightly ashamed whenever I do it, but I'm not going to stop. I didn't always base my choices on covers. It was because of this book I read - Thirteenth Child. The cover wasn't the best but the synopsis really captured me. I started it out, expecting to have this magical experience. Turned out, it was one of the most boring books I've ever read. It was so slow and the characters were ordinary at best. The climax literally happened at the last ten pages of the book, and the term 'climax' is used very, very loosely here. The synopsis was more like a summary than anything else. Besides, I've discovered that it's much more fun delving into a book clueless about anything. They reveal way too much in the synopsis. The inciting incident in the story becomes a twist and it's just fun.

3. I haven't read Lord of the Rings. I tried out The Hobbit, but that bored me stiff. I'm pretty sure I ended up skimming a quarter of the whole book. I'm sorry, but I just couldn't get into it. Maybe next time...

4. I had a Twilight phase. Along with half of the teenage girls population, I was completely obsessed with Twilight at the height of its popularity. I bawled my eyes out in New Moon when Edward left Bella, and remember that month thing Stephanie Meyer did? The one where she had like three pages blank except for the month's names to express the passage of time and agony Bella felt when Edward left her. Yeah, that thing. I was crying at that part as well. I even read Midnight Sun and cursed Meyer when she decided not to continue it. I repeat, it was a phase. I don't feel the same way about Twilight any more but I can't deny the good times I had reading the saga.

5. I feel like books that my school assign me to read are automatically boring and stupid. This year, we studied Montana 1948 by Larry Watson and it wasn't even that. The fact that I'm forced to read this piece of work just makes me want to hate it. Maybe it's because I'm just sick of talking about the book day after day. And with people who don't even give a damn about literature. I love a good book discussion but if it's just three people participating, then it's just no fun.

6. I can barely remember what happened in books I've finished reading, especially if I didn't read it this year. It's really embarrassing actually because I only remember liking a certain book but if you ask me what the main character's name is, I wouldn't be able to tell you (Nineteen Minutes). I have to reread a bunch of books. This is really cumbersome when the book is from a series and I can't even remember what happened in the first book (The Lost Hero). I wasn't really making a conscious effort to become an active reader then. Reading was just a hobby to me, and it was just fun. It still is but when I found out about Goodreads, I discovered discussions, quizzes, threads, basically the book-lovers' community. It became more than a hobby and I guess I started paying more attention to what I'm reading. 

7. I don't hesitate to DNF a book anymore. I used to not even be able to entertain the idea of not finishing a book, especially if it's read for pleasure. No matter how much I'm enjoying the book, I used to force myself to finish it. But now, I'm not even going to bother. If it's slow at the beginning, or the main character is annoying, or the writing is just bad, then I'm not going to waste my time trudging through it. There are better books out there and my TBR pile is ridiculously long. I'm going to spend my time reading something I enjoy.
This is not to say I drop a book whenever I feel like it. I only DNF when it's reallly bad and I don't even care what happens anymore.

8. I'm scared of poetry. I don't understand it. It confuses me. I don't like that I don't understand it and that it confuses me.

9. Whenever I read a book out loud, I end up putting an English accent. I don't know why. It's not on purpose, I swear.

10. I borrowed a paperback from my friend once, and I accidentally creased the cover. (Gasp! I know, I'm sorry) I got really scared and didn't admit to doing it. I pretended I got it that way- it was plausible because there were two people before me who borrowed it from her- but I don't think she bought it.


This was a lot harder than I originally thought. I realize it's not Tuesday anymore, but there was some confusion about the time zone.

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