Hi guys! I’ve been seeing this tag around for a while and I think it looks like a lot of fun – so I’m gonna do it. Even though no one tagged me. Cause for some reason I only want to do the tags no one tags me to do. I wonder what that says about my personality.
NO. 1: THE FIRST BOOK YOU EVER READ (OR WAS READ TO YOU)
According to my mom the first book she read to me was Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty. The first ones I remember her reading to me are Roald Dahl’s books, I have very clear memories of us reading The BFG and The Witches, two of my childhood favorites.
NO. 2: THE FIRST BOOK YOU EVER BOUGHT WITH YOUR OWN MONEY
I was lucky enough to grow up in a home full of books and readers. If there was a book I wanted, we didn’t already have, I just had to ask. So I didn’t buy myself books until I started traveling and I think the first one I bought was The Virgin Suicides my first time in Paris.
NO. 3: A BOOK YOU STAYED UP ALL NIGHT READING
This is a slightly ridiculous answer, but it’s Emma by Jane Austen. I simply couldn’t sleep until I knew for sure that Emma and Mr. Knightly would get their happy ending.
NO. 4: WHAT BOOK OR SERIES WILL YOU NEVER FORGET?
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden. It’s my favorite book of all time and I love with all my heart.
NO. 5: A BOOK YOU FREQUENTLY THINK ABOUT
I mean, it’s obviously Harry Potter. I think about those books at least once a day. No other book or series have taken up such a large portion of my mind for such a long time and I doubt one ever will.
NO. 6: A SCENE THAT HAS HAUNTED YOU FOR YEARS AFTER READING IT
Though there are a lot of haunting scenes in The God of Small Things, it’s not one specific scene, but rather the overall mood and theme of the book that’s haunted me ever since I read it. I still have lines from it stuck in my head like a song, like the one about the love laws: “…the laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much.”
NO. 7: AN UNFORGETTABLE CHARACTER
Headstrong, free spirited and wild hearted Vasya Petrovna (The main character of The Bear and the Nightingale) of course. She’s my forever favorite.
NO. 8: A BOOK THAT CHANGED YOUR OPINION ABOUT SOMETHING
Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson. I’ve always been fond of fairytale and myhology retellings. But when it comes to retellings of classic literature, I’m more apprehensive. But after reading the first few lines of Tiger Lily in the bookstore, I couldn’t resist taking it home with me and despite my misgivings, I loved it to pieces. It showed me there’s a lot of value in exploring a classic work from a fresh perspective!
NO. 9: SHARE ANOTHER RANDOM BOOKISH MEMORY
One of my favorites is the time my mom forced my favorite author on me. She found Daughter of Smoke and Bone at a book sale and texted me to ask if I wanted a copy. My shallow self took one look at the cover and was like hard nope, that looks likes 50 shades of angels. But my mom has no respect for my decision making skills, so she bought it anyway. I still didn’t want it. But she kept asking me if I’d read it and finally I was like, OK FINE I’LL READ THE BLOODY BOOK IF YOU CARE SO DEEPLY. And that’s the story of how Laini Taylor became my favorite author. Moms really do know best.
Great tag! Who cares if no one tagged you, this was fun! I’m going to need to add Tiger Lily to my TBR, it sounds fantastic! 💖💖
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Thank you 💕 That makes me so happy, Tiger Lily deserves more love! Fair warning though: it’s beautiful, but it’s heartbreaking.
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Wonderful post, Aurora! 💕
I can’t wait to read The Bear and the Nightingale, so I’m really excited to hear that it’s a favorite of yours. & Tiger Lily sounds really intriguing!
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Thank you, Lily! I hope you enjoy The Bear and the Nightingale, it’s so wonderful 💕
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(Fun tags no one tagged me to do are also my favorite kind of tags.)
I understand what you mean about the Daughter of Smoke and Bone US cover. I don’t know if I would have bought it if the Italian edition had that one. The Italian cover is a blue feather on a white background, and it isn’t that great either, but at least it never reminded me of 50 shades?
I want to believe I would have bought it anyway because I can’t imagine never discovering Laini Taylor, but I haven’t seen a cover for DoSaB that I actually like and that fits the mood or themes of the story (all the pretty ones are vague!).
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I actually have the Norwegian edition, but it has the exact same cover as the US edition and the rather unfortunate title ‘Dark Angel’. The combination definitley didn’t make it appealing to me and I still can’t deal with how photoshopped the mask looks. I tried googling the Italian one, but I can’t find it! What’s it called in Italian? I can’t imagine never discovering Laini Taylor either, her books make the world a little more magical 💕
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…that is an unfortunate title/cover combination.
In Italian it’s “La chimera di Praga” (=the Chimera from Prague) and it has a very bland cover that says nothing about the story, but the title intrigued me and that’s why I picked it up.
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Yup! I see what you mean, it’s pretty but bland. I’d have picked it up based on that title too, it’s very intriguing. Plus, Prague is such a cool setting.
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ROALD DAHL!!! I was in love with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory c: That and the Wizard of Oz!! such great memories
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I love Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!!! I still want my golden ticket 😂
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I have The Bear and the Nightingale on my TBR and I can’t wait to read it!
It’s not so much a scene that stayed with me so much as advice… I had an awful temper as a child and because my parents are also hot-headed people I thought that having a temper and acting out was fine and normal but I read Little Women (which I know is not everyone’s cup of tea) and Marmee tells Jo about having to reign in her own temper because it impacts others negatively and I was honestly schooled in that moment. I kid you not, I took advice from a fictional character and it was some good advice!
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It’s a wonderful book, I hope you love it as much as I do!
I love that story! That’s amazing. I wish I’d read Little Women as a child too, cause that’s some excellent advice!
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Awesome post Aurora! I love how your mom made you read Daughter of Smoke and Bone hehe, I too had huge prejudice toward it because of the cover, but I’d realized my mistake through various reviews, and can’t wait to read it now! 🙂 I find it interesting how everyone was read to as a kid. My mom, and especially grandma would just tell me stories, including fairy tales, fables etc., and sometimes we’d change the ending if I asked hehe, it’s kind of a custom in my country. 🙂
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Thank you so much! Daughter of Smoke and Bone truly deserves a better cover, I hope you enjoy reading it! My mom’s a big reader/book hoarder just like me, so I think it was pretty natural for her to read with me 🙂 That sounds amazing, I love fairy tales! Norwegian fairy tales aren’t the most interesting though…
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I have that feeling too, can’t wait to get to it! 🙂 Hehe my mom too, she got me into books and fantasy 🙂 Me too, I adore them! They are to me haha, but I love all sorts! 🙂
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Vasya ❤
I honestly cannot remember the first book I ever bought… I might wrack my brains though cause this is such a cute tag
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I love her so much 💕
I had to wrack my brains pretty hard to answer that one too. Do it! It’s so fun and I’d love to read your answers!
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Your mom is so cool, DOSAB is in my favorite list too 🙂
If I would do this tag, I would mention Six of Crows because it is my favorite book of all time and I am always thinking about it!
I want to read The bear and the Nightingale even more now!!!
Great choices btw
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My mom’s the coolest 💕
I love Six of Crows too, it’s so good and all the characters are amazing. I hope you enjoy The Bear and the Nightingale if you pick it up! Thank you so much!
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I can’t remember the first book read to me or even the first book I bought with my own money… though for the latter I’m pretty sure it was from Scholastic Book Fair (I distinctly remember that they only took checks so I gave my allowance money to my parents and they wrote a check for the book order form… but I can’t recall what books I ordered!). This is a fun tag. I also loved Bear and the Nightingale!
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I don’t remember the first book read to me either, but to be fair – I was probably a baby. The Scholastic Book Fair sounds so fun, I wish we had something like that in Norway! The Bear and the Nightingale ❤️
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Oh I love this tag. I would love to partake in it but I honestly can’t even remember a lot of the books for these questions. I wish I remembered because I feel that would be fun to see what they are.
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It such a fun one! You can always just guess the ones you’re not sure about? 🙂
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That is very true. I do like when the tags make me think.
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Every time I read one of your posts I remember that I need to read the Bear and the Nightinggale lol. And Omg I love that memory with your mom! My mom is like that, too. I feel that she is my book and reading enabler, but I love it. My most recent favorite memory was going to YallWest with her and she just kept grabbing books for us when I was focusing on getting just a couple lol. Scenes that still haunt me are the end to Of Mice and Men and way too many scenes in Night by Elie Wiesel.
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I love this comment! I’m glad my bog is fulfilling is purpose, which is literally just making people want to read The Bear and the Nightingale, lol. That’s awesome, my mom’s totally my book and reading enabler too! I could probably fill a whole bookshelf just with the books she’s talked me into getting, it’s the best.
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There is a book of short stories I read in high school called Say Your One of Them. One of the short stories is about the Rwandan genocide, to this day I still think about that story.
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I haven’t read it, but I can imagine a story with that subject matter would be incredibly haunting!
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The Bear and The Nightingale sounds so interesting! I’ve heard it compared to Uprooted by Naomi Novak which I loved. Does it have any romance in it like Uprooted does?
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It’s a wonderful book! There’s a tiny glimmer of romance in it, but it’s not a big part of the plot like in Uprooted. I think it might be eventually though, it’s just a super slow burn. They’re more similar in setting and the fairytale influences 🙂
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