I found this tag over at Zezee with Books during one of her book tag weeks and thought it looked fun. It’s been a while but I’ve finally gotten around to filling this one out!
FIRST BOOK IN YOUR COLLECTION | LAST BOOK YOU BOUGHT
Well I don’t know what the first book in my collection is really, I’ve been buying books so long. And I do have a few from childhood. But ones that I bought myself? I was definitely buying Fantasy books early to mid-90’s on my own. What was the first? Hmmm, probably *not* The Mageborn Traitor by Melanie Rawn because I think that wasn’t until ’97, but let’s go with that one anyway. And one of my latest purchases! We Could Be Heroes by Mike Chen. I really enjoyed his previous book so I’m looking forward to this one.
A CHEAP BOOK | AN EXPENSIVE BOOK
How about two different editions of the same book? 😉 I first bought The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss as a cheap paperback. I love this series! Recently I spent $40 on the 10th Anniversary edition of the same book. That I already own. Well, $40 isn’t a ton of money (it’s probably not the most expensive book I own) but it’s a lot of money to spend on a book that you already have!
A BOOK WITH A MALE PROTAGONIST | ONE WITH A FEMALE PROTAGONIST
Two great Urban Fantasy books! I don’t read a ton of books solely with a male protagonist–not sure why I just gravitate towards female protagonists. But anyway, Storm Front, the first of The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher immediately came to mind. And what better series to compare it against than the latest Ilona Andrews, Blood Heir? Two very fun books.
A BOOK YOU READ FAST | ONE THAT TOOK YOU A LONG TIME TO READ
The Witching Hour by Anne Rice is over 1000 pages. And yet I read it over a weekend. Steel Crow Saga by Paul Krueger is a little over 500 pages and yet it took me about 5 weeks to read. Sometimes it really depends how much you’re into a book as to how fast you get through it.
PRETTY COVER | UGLY COVER
I hate to call out books for their covers. However, this Cover for Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones is not doing it any favors. On the other hand, the cover for Ombria in Shadow, like a lot of Patricia A McKillip’s covers, is spectacularly beautiful.
A NATIONAL BOOK | AN INTERNATIONAL BOOK
I’m not exactly sure how to fill this one out? But since I live in the US I picked not only a US author but one local to myself–A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker. Can’t get much more local to me than that! For International I’m going with City of Lies by Sam Hawke who hails from Australia. 🙂
A THIN BOOK | A THICK BOOK
Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh is just a 100 pages of green man goodness. While Samantha Shannon’s The Priory of the Orange Tree is quite the chonker coming in at 848 pages! (Honestly surprised it’s not longer–it felt longer haha.)
A FICTION BOOK | A NONFICTION BOOK
Well, I have a thing for Tudors so I have actually read some non-fiction books on the subject including David Starkey’s Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne. This was back in college. I don’t read nearly enough non-fiction these days. (I should do something about that.) Anywho. A fun fiction book featuring the Tudors is My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows. Probably one of the most fun books I’ve read!
ROMANTIC BOOK | ACTION BOOK
This was actually harder to figure out than I thought it would be–a lot of the more romantic books I read also have a fair bit of action. So I went with Heart of Stone by Johannes T. Evans which is a very slow burn slice of life historical paranormal romance. Versus the 2nd book in Tanya Huff’s military sci-fi Confederation series, The Better Part of Valor.
A BOOK THAT MADE YOU HAPPY | A BOOK THAT MADE YOU SAD
I try not to read books that make me sad because I just get too much in my feelings and sad books leave me feeling even more depressed than I normally feel on an every day basis. Like I’ll just keep thinking about what made me sad and get sad all over again for weeks afterward. Anyway. A book that I LOVE that makes me happy every time I read it because I love the main character so much is The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. One that made me sad…for some reason The Oddling Prince by Nancy Springer. That book hit me hard in the feelings because I empathized so much with the feeling of rejection. I don’t know why but I ended up ugly crying through a good portion of that one! It’s funny now that I look back on it and I loved the book, even though I know it’s not a story that everyone will mesh with. It worked for me. 🙂
And that’s it for this tag! I’m not tagging anyone this time around but if you feel like filling this one out, consider yourself tagged!
Way Too Fantasy 
I like this tag and your answers.
That cover for Fire and Hemlock certainly doesn’t do the book any favours.
Lynn 😀
Thanks! That cover is…..yeah. It’s very off putting! LOL
This looks like a fun tag. Great answers too. I wouldn’t be able to guess at the first book in my collection!
It was fun to fill out for sure. Probably my actual first one is a children’s book I still have but I liked the idea of one that I bought myself. 🙂
This is a fun tag! Although I’m laughing at the “pretty cover ugly cover” question. So blunt, lol.
It really was a blunt question, I feel like I had to call something out to answer it lol.
Fun post! And that ugly cover was good! 😂
LOL, thanks! It was a lot of fun to fil this one out. 🙂
Glad you did the tag too. Love that updated cover of Name of the Wind.
And I love the Patricia McKillip book cover too. I’ve yet to try her work.
I really love McKillip. I recommend Od Magic – that was a good one. I also really loved In The Forests of Serre.
this looks like such a fun tag! also, that second cover of name of the wind is so gorgeous!
It was totally fun to fill this one out. 🙂
Yeah, I really like that new cover too, it’s so much more interesting than the original. 🙂
Ooh, what a fun tag! I will defo be bookmarking this for when I want a fun one to do 😊 Also, totes agree with that ugly cover. Yikes! It’s scary. Haha
Oh, I look forward to your picks for this one. 🙂
Hahaha, right???