I was tagged by Hannah Russel on the Hannaconda blog to answer some book questions. Am I a great fit for this? Maybe, maybe not – I don’t read as much as a lot of other people do, but that’s why I tagged some GREAT readers.
20 Questions Book Tag
This tag was created by buydebook on Goodreads. You can find the post here!
1. How many books is too many books in a book series?
I don’t think the number of books matters to me. My personal belief is that most, if not all, of the books need to be capable of standing on their own. They need an overarching goal or theme to tie them together, yeah, but I don’t really like when a book ends at a cliffhanger or in the middle of something.
2. How do you feel about cliffhangers?
I like cliffhangers at the end of chapters or sections. They can make me flip the page and not stop reading. But I hate when books end on cliffhangers. Sometimes I won’t pick up the next book out of spite after reading a cliffhanger ending.
3. Hardcover or paperback?
What is this shit? I like ebooks best. I dislike how, at this juncture in my life, I have enough ‘stuff’ that I can’t easily move where I live. An ebook, however, helps me stay as close to my mobile youth as possible.
4. Favorite book?
I don’t really have a problem with saying Watership Down. Here’s a review I did this spring.
5. Least favorite book?
I’ve said before Piper and Grudem’s Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, but since this blog focuses on fiction, I’m going to add a book whose review is coming out on this site next month (spoilers…).
(Had to leave in the elmo gif that Hannah Russel left there… it was perfect).
6. Love triangles, yes or no?
God, I can barely withstand romantic subplots. So no.
7. The most recent book you just couldn’t finish?
Well, since I finished Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court this spring (just due to laziness, not due to dislike of the book),
the last book I didn’t finish was Thoreau’s Walden as assigned in Sophomore English in high school.
8. A book you’re currently reading?
So, there’s a trilogy of reviews I’m posting in December… this is the second book in that trilogy.
9. Last book you recommended to someone?
Void Forge is an indie book I found somehow. I recommended it to someone who liked Ready Player One, but wanted something with fewer 80’s orgasms. It has some of the typical problems of self-published work, but I find myself thinking about it repeatedly and believe it a pretty good piece of work.
10. Oldest book you’ve read? (Publication date)
Eep… does this count things I had to read in high school? Because if so, I had to read the middle english Canterbury Tales. If it’s looking at stuff I’ve read on my own, I did Shakespeare’s Macbeth without provocation by school.
11. Newest book you’ve read? (Publication date)
It comes out officially in November, but Fire’s Hope by E. Kathryn!
12. Favorite author?
Hmm… not very good at this question. I don’t read many repeats of author’s books, even in series. I’m terrible.
Right now I guess Ann Leckie may be up there.
13. Buying books or borrowing books?
I like to buy books and support authors, but I’ll borrow from a library if I don’t have the budget or if I’m not sure about what I’m getting.
14. A book you dislike that everyone else seem to love?
I’ve read several of Herbert’s works and I just can’t stand them.
15. Bookmarks or dog-ears?
I usually just use a piece of cardboard or paper I find lying around. Or I remember where I was.
16. A book you can always reread?
I put Fire Sea only because Watership Down was already on the list. Probably read Watership Down fourteen or fifteen times.
17. Can you read while hearing music?
Yes
18. One POV or multiple POV’s? (POV’s = Point of views)
I like one POV when it’s done well.
19. Do you read a book in one sitting or over multiple days?
I can read in one sitting, but recently I’ve had a bunch of massive books to read that I simply can’t read in one sitting.
20. Who do you tag?
Brian from Books of Brian (a recent post here)
Alex from MyBookWorld24 (a recent post here)
Tom from Eagle Canyon Flyer (a recent post here)
Ahh, geez. You are so good to me. Thank you, my friend. Does this mean I’m ‘tagged.’ LOL
Only if you want to be. I did this because I enjoyed these questions, but I really flipping hate feeling forceful about these things.
I’m doing it, too.
Thanks, doing it right now it’ll be posted next week.
Looking forward to it!
Thanks
Regarding how many books in a series – I agree! The author should continue as long as the story lines are solid and there is something more to contribute to the world they have created. I think we’ve all run across series which should have stopped at some point, but didn’t.
One of my favorite Sci-Fi series was the Honor Harrington books by David Weber. The first ten or so were WONDERFUL. The second half took the entire world in a different direction, and I just wasn’t on board. The author admits he was going to kill off the main character and end the series, but readers wanted more so he kept going. Sometimes authors need to say NO to their readers and end the thing before it starts going downhill.
People often don’t realize that they want endings. At the same time, I recognize that sometimes authors continue a story just so they can keep making money – that’s the saddest bastardization of the art because it’s just so understandable and often necessary.
You’re right of course, and it is sad. I’ve already had readers exhorting me to crank out additional books, even though I consider the story lines finished. I may lose potential sales, but in the end they are MY stories and I get to decide how to use them. No one’s ever accused me of being a marketing genius, and that’s OK.
Was it you who made a post about how disgusting the marketing for the otherwise fantastic Murderbot series was?
Nope!
Wow – just saw this and never been tagged before. This is a test! You’re actually asking me to put some thought into a post. 😬
I’ll try to get something up tonight or tomorrow. Thank you.
Brian
Sometimes I won’t pick up the next book out of spite after reading a cliffhanger ending. – 😂
That’s disappointing to hear about Dune, I normally hear great things about it… I need to check out the goodreads preview to see if I will like it.
I found the main character to be a Mary Sue. Like with Herbert’s other works, I found the female characters to be lacking for very little reason. I accept weak non-white-cis-male characters in works that are created in a culture in which more cannot be expected, but Herbert doesn’t qualify for that.
We do, sadly, often find that in older fantasy. I recall George Martin didn’t like Aragorn for that reason, but I do think that Frodo was an interesting character. I hear that you can tell that Tolkien hated Boromir and so wrote him with a black and white approach *rolls eyes* whereas the films took a different route and, ultimately, made him a more sympathetic character.