Ten things that make me instantly want to read a book

Can you believe I have never done a Top Ten Tuesday? Me neither. So, this is a meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish, and this week’s theme is Top Ten Things That Make Me Instantly Want To Read a Book.

Fairy tale retellings

I love any kind of fairy tale retelling, whether it’s set in modern times, olden days, the real world or a completely fictional fantasy setting. It could be a direct retelling like the Twisted Tales series by Liz Braswell, which reimagine classic Disney fairy tales, or a vaguely inspired story, like A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, which is based on Beauty and the Beast.

I just love the familiarity of sinking into a story you already know well, and seeing how authors have tweaked and changed the original to create something new and exciting.

Doomed love stories

I know, I’m a glutton for punishment, but there has to be a reason why Romeo and Juliet is Shakespeare’s most famous play. In fact, almost all of the Bard’s plays end with someone unhappy and alone – Othello, Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice probably…

Modern contemporaries like The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, Me Before You by Jojo Moyes and classics like Wuthering Heights just speak to a dark little part of my soul that longs for the characters to suffer and end up miserable. I don’t know how I got this way, I’m very happily married!

Epic books that span years/decades/generations

I just really like to know people’s life stories, how the events of their youth can affect them years later, or even their children and grandchildren. Even better if it’s a slow burn romance that doesn’t come together until the very end, a la Where Rainbows End (Love, Rosie) by Cecelia Ahern. Flashbacks and other similar plot devices can give the feel of an epic story within a more conventional plot, but I just love seeing the key events as if I was really there, rather than hearing about them second hand.

Ghosts

Who doesn’t love a good ghost story? My favourite kind are suspenseful and bloody, with bonus points if the MC is some kind of supernatural hunter, like the Winchesters. My absolute favourite is Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake, Cas is endearingly sarcastic and witty, and the romance element is unlike anything I’ve read before. Plus, there’s lots of blood and killing and ghostly screaming and such.

Sassy/snarky characters

Nobody likes boring protagonists who drift along with no agency and very little personality, sobbing and whining and generally being wet blankets. Characters with a little sass and a pinch of snark are my favourite. Whether they’re just dark-humoured or truly damaged, I just can’t get enough of their witty repartee. See: Jace from The Mortal Instruments by Cassie Clare, Ronan from The Raven Cycle by Maggie Steifvater and Jorg from Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence.

High Fantasy

High Fantasy refers to novels set in an entirely fictional fantasy world, like Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. I love the escapism of opening a book and submerging myself in a completely different world, with new rules of science and magic, strange customs and cultures, and maybe an invented language or two. My favourites are Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas and Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse series, Six of Crows.

Mythical creatures

Dragons! Unicorns! Mermaids! Centaurs!

Give me all the mythical creatures and I will be a happy bunny.

Circuses

This is a relatively new one for me, but I’m almost finished listening to the audio book of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, and I’m loving the atmospheric and magical setting of the circus. Caraval by Stephanie Garber is also right at the top of my wish list, and I’m open to any other circus book recs if you have them?

Adorable boys

By this I mean the sweet, kind and gentle male characters that capture your heart and don’t let go. They’re usually tortured souls who don’t think they’re good enough for their love interest, or even their friends. Think Adam Parrish from The Raven Cycle by Maggie Steifvater, Jem Carstairs from The Infernal Devices by Cassie Clare and Nathan from Half Bad by Sally Green.

Who needs bad boys when you can have this lot?

Food!

Set your story in a bakery or an ice cream parlour and I am there. Make your characters love food and constantly describe the delicious smells and tastes they come across on their travels. Introduce me to new delicacies from around the world, or fictional fancies from your fantasy world. Just give me all the food.

Those are the ten things that make me pick up a book and buy/borrow it immediately. What makes you read a specific book, above all the others on your astronomical TBR pile? Let me know in the comments.

Lyndsey

Camp Nano word count: 15,914 (45% of 35k)

Ruler of books tag

I was tagged by the lovely Tanya and Shanya of Twin Bookmarks to do the Ruler of Books tag, which was created by Ariel Bisset (check out her booktube channel!). This is my first ever tag and I’m so excited! I’ll tag a few bloggers at the end, but if you fancy doing this tag yourself just copy the questions and leave a link to your post in the comments, I’d love to see your answers.

Without further ado…

What book would you make everyone read?

There are so many books I would love for everyone to read just so I could chat to them about them! But, I honestly think that everyone should read The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. It’s such a beautiful and heartbreaking book, with a very honest depiction of loss and grief. The concept of the young victim telling her story from heaven is really clever and makes the story even more painful, but Sebold manages to make it such a touching book. The film with Saoirse Ronan is quite good too, but not a patch on the book.

What would you abolish in book construction?

Everyone seems to be going for mid series cover changes (so annoying!), and non-standard heights making our bookshelves look wonky and uneven, so I’m going to go a different way. I would abolish the new trend of printing on super thin, Bible style pages. I know they are used to make really long books more manageable in size, but I am a closet page dog-earer, and the last thing I need is to think I’m going to tear the page by folding it! Or turning it. Or generally touching it. Only robust paper for me, please!

What author would you commission to write you any book?

As a major HP fan I can’t not say J.K. Rowling to this. She’s proven that she can write in several different genres – if you haven’t checked out her crime thriller series Cormoran Strike (written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith) then you definitely should, the first three are being turned into a BBC mini series this Autumn.

I’d love to see what she could do with the YA genre, I know Harry Potter became less Middle Grade and more Young Adult as the series progressed, but I’d really like to read a YA fantasy, or even contemporary, as I know she’d do a brilliant job.

What book would you demote to the library basement to make room for new books?

I’m sorry to say that I am not a fan of the Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard. It’s just not my taste, but I know lots of people love it. It’s too similar to so many other series in my opinion, it’s like a combination of The Hunger Games, The Grisha Trilogy and X Men, and with nothing new to add. It just isn’t for me, unfortunately.

What cover artist would you commission to make a mural?

I honestly absolutely adore the covers from the Red Queen series! It’s such a shame I don’t enjoy the books, because these covers are glorious.

What characters face would you put on a coin?

It has to be Aelin Ashryver-Galathynius from the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas. She is the ultimate queen, and every queen needs her face on a coin. Maybe Rowan Whitethorn’s face could be on the tails side?

What book would you award the “Ruler of Books” 2016 Prize to?

The book that gave me the biggest book hangover of my entire life came out in 2016, and that was A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas. I am desperate to get my hands on A Court of Wings and Ruin when it comes out next month! Maas is a genius in my opinion, her characters are so real and flawed, her dialogue is witty and hilarious, and she is the master of the fictional book boyfriend. I think we’re all agreed on Rhysand, right?

I think I’d be a pretty magnanimous ruler of books! If you’ve done this tag before, or don’t fancy it, don’t worry! But if you do, I tag…

Kristi @ YA and Wine

Kelly @ Kelly’s Rambles

Jenn, Caitlyn & Eden @ Thrice Read

Blaise @ The Book Boulevard

Until next time!

Lyndsey

Camp NaNoWriMo word count: 11,854

Ten adaptations I loved

There is nothing more controversial among the bookish community than a TV or movie adaptation of a popular book or series.

I am personally a big fan of adaptations. If I’ve read the book I get really excited to see it brought to life, and to compare the version in my imagination to the one presented on screen. If I haven’t read the book, it either encourages me to get a copy and read it quick before the adaptation comes out, or it means I don’t have to now! Sometimes, I’m not that keen on reading a specific book because there are so many amazing ones on my TBR, but I’ll happily watch a 2 hour movie, or the first episode of a TV show to see if I like it.

Some adaptations have been done really well, and others have been absolutely terrible – but that’s a blog for another time. In no particular order, here are ten of my favourites!

Harry Potter

HP is widely held as a successful adaptation, it not only smashed box office records, but fans of the books loved it too. No adaptation is perfect, but Harry Potter comes close – I’m pretty sure that if you close your eyes and think of a scene from the books, even one not shown in the films, you’ll picture the actors. I can’t think of a single character I would have cast differently. As a massive fan of the book series and someone who grew up with these characters, the films really did J.K. Rowling’s creation justice and I still watch them all the time – especially at Christmas!

Shadowhunters

The Mortal Instruments is another one of my all time favourite book series, and I actually enjoyed the film version with Jamie Campbell Bower and Lily Collins. To be honest, I just loved Robert Sheehan as Simon – has anyone else seen Misfits? Nathan was my favourite! Back to the point, Shadowhunters isn’t the most faithful adaptation but I just really enjoy it as a TV show, rather than a show based on a book. The acting is a bit iffy, but it’s not the worst I’ve ever seen, and it’s just a bit of fun with some of my favourite fictional characters (Team Malec!).

Me Before You

I bought this book just before the film came out and read it on holiday within a couple of days. I wanted to have read it before I went to see the film. If you’ve read Me Before You, you’ll understand why after finishing the book I couldn’t face seeing the film at the cinema. I did watch it recently on Netflix and it actually wasn’t as emotional and heartbreaking as I had expected. Don’t get me wrong, it is still emotional and heartbreaking, but it’s also funny and uplifting and heartwarming. I thought they did a fantastic job of translating the story to the screen, and I thought the casting was excellent.

PS. I Love You

I have loved Cecelia Ahern ever since reading PS. I Love You over ten years ago, and I’ve read almost everything she has written since. The movie with Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler is a great film, even though a lot of things have changed from the book, like the setting, and the method of receiving the notes. It’s one of those films you can enjoy whether or not you’ve read the book because there are enough differences, and enough similarities.

On the subject of Cecelia Ahern, I also loved Love, Rosie (or Where Rainbows End, as it was called originally) both the book, and the film with Sam Claflin and Lily Collins – go check it out!

Pretty Little Liars

This is one book series I haven’t read, but I absolutely love the show! There are 16 books in the series, and 7 seasons of the TV show – that’s a lot of content to consume and you don’t need to read the books in order to enjoy the show. If you haven’t seen PLL, it’s like a combination of Mean Girls and a murder mystery. It starts off in high school, but don’t let that put you off, these girls deal with some very adult problems, and their parents and teachers feature quite heavily too. It’s a fun, roller coaster ride of suspense and emotions, and we find out whodunnit in a matter of weeks, so get on Netflix now and binge watch all 7 seasons!

Game of Thrones

This is another book series I haven’t read, but I do own the first book so I’ll get round to reading it eventually! George R. R. Martin hasn’t finished writing the books yet, and the show has not only caught up but overtaken them, so the story lines diverge quite a bit, meaning there’s something new for book fans in the show. I know this is a major bugbear of some book fans, but it doesn’t bother me, I actually like when adaptations are slightly different, it makes it easier to separate the two in my mind. When the books are as enormous as A Song of Ice and Fire, its nice to have a shorter, more manageable version to get stuck into.

The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings

I’m ashamed to say that I haven’t read these either, but I do have the boxset and fully intend to read them before the year is out! I preferred The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings personally, even though I don’t necessarily think it needed to be split into three films… I’m a huge fantasy fan so I know I’ll love the books, it’s just an intimidating task, but I feel like I have a head start as I know the characters’ and place names already.

Chronicles of Narnia

I read the Narnia books as a kid and loved them, and even now I still enjoy the films, there’s just something so magical about them. I read that they are actually planning to make the next film soon, after a long break since Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It’s a shame the original characters gradually stop appearing as they have outgrown Narnia, but I’ll probably still watch it when it comes out.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover

I watched the BBC adaptation of this on Netflix recently, it features Richard Madden as the groundskeeper Oliver Mellors (the lover), Holliday Granger as Lady Constance Chatterley and Edward Norton as Sir Clifford Chatterley. I thought the casting was excellent, I have seen the original version with Sean Bean and Joely Richardson, but I haven’t read the book so I can’t comment as to its faithfulness (I’ve read reviews that say it’s not very faithful at all, but that didn’t stop me enjoying it!).

(Yes, I know this gif is from GoT but there weren’t any from LCL, and this is basically how he looked as the brooding Mellors anyway!)

War and Peace

Another book I haven’t attempted to read and probably won’t, although this series did make me more inclined to give it a try. War and Peace spans decades, the war and the peace times in between, and how it affects the characters’ lives. The adaptation was lush, with great casting and beautiful period details. It’s chock full of famous faces, which always helps when I watch adaptations, is that just me? I definitely enjoyed this one and finally know what happens in one of the most famous books in existence!

What are your favourite book to movie and TV adaptations? Give your recommendations in the comments! Which adaptations have you hated? I’ll do a blog of my least favourite at some point so we can compare.

Lyndsey