Yesterday was National Book Lovers Day. I’ll just be sitting over here in a corner, aghast and sobbing. A bookworm that missed a day to celebrate loving books?
That’s serious misery. Probably on par with Frodo failing to destroy the Ring or a stray moon crashing into Narnia before the Pevensies ever visited.
Tears and wailing aside, let’s celebrate National Book Lovers Day now. Why not? After all, wizards are never late (shhh, don’t tell anyone I’m Gandalf’s successor).
Grab some popcorn and a mug of butterbeer, and plop down in your favorite reading nook. Time to talk books and favorites and all the things.
Favorite Book Cover
Okay, let’s be honest. This is hard. There are so many gorgeous covers to choose from, so many different styles and nuances (look at me, spelling fancy words properly 😛 ). But one that springs immediately to mind is Curio, by Evangeline Denmark.
The first time I saw this cover, I was like, “MUST READ PLEASE NOW!” I didn’t really know anything about the story, but the cover was so eye-catching that I needed to know what awaited in the pages beneath its beauty.
Favorite Book Genre
Why? Are you prepared to sit through a three-hour monologue? Yes? *cracks knuckles*
You hath been warned.
- Dragons and terrifying beasts and new races and
- Magic systems and magical abilities
- Chivalry and treachery and all the ry’s
- Unique worlds simultaneously similar and utterly different from ours
- New places to see, cities to visit, lands to explore
- Swords and arrows and lances, oh my!
- CASTLES
Okay, I’m done.
Favorite Book Character
What? That’s like choosing between chocolate and Doctor Who and Marvel and beach vacation. Plus no characters are created equal—though some have the misfortune of being shallow copycats.
If I *have* to choose, I’ll go with Shallan, from the Stormlight Archive series by Brandon Sanderson. Her backstory is one of the most compelling I’ve ever read, and she’s a prefect mixture of sarcasm, wit, heroicness, scholarly knowledge, loyalty, and courage.
Favorite Opening Line
Szeth-son-son-Vallano, Truthless of Shivonar wore white on the day he was to kill a king.
That beauty hails from The Way of Kings, the first book in the Stormlight Archive. Just wow.
Favorite Story World
Continuing the theme…Roshar, the setting for the Stormlight Archive. I know, I know, I sound biased. For good reason.
Seriously, if you haven’t read these books or don’t know what I’m talking about, just stop. Forget school and work. Forget social media. Forget eating.
Leave everything and go bury yourself in this series.
You will thank me, earthling. Your life will be forever changed.
Favorite Book Series
Why must picking favorites be soooo hard? Ah, the pains of being a bookworm.
For the sake of simplicity, let’s say “completed book series.”
After much debate and consideration (a whopping 10 seconds worth), I think I’ll say the Mistborn trilogy, again by Brandon Sanderson (yes, the man’s a genius and I adore everything he writes, okay, I’m done now).
An utterly unique world, fascinating magic system, compelling storylines, diverse characters, plot twists galore, mystery upon mystery, romance, drama, sacrifice, probing themes. You get the idea.
Putting my rebel hat on (rules are more like guidelines anyway, right? 😛 ), I’ll add I really really loved The Blood of Kings Trilogy by Jill Williamson. Hunger Games also rocked, but the ending. So weak, so sad.
And Wheel of Time would probably have topped my list if not for books 6-10. *sigh*
Favorite Standalone Book
Lord of the Rings. Not even a question. Not even a contest. Why are we even having this conversation in the first place?
And in case you’re wondering, yes, LOTR is *one* book, just divided into three volumes. Goes to prove Peter Jackson has a fondness for turning single books into movie trilogies.
*cough* Please no Silmarillion trilogy *cough*
Currently Reading
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Only a handful of chapters in, but finding it quite enjoyable and amusing. Dudley tho…Yikes! 😮
Bumping up my geek cred step by step.
I’m also reviewing a book for the new Lorehaven magazine. Can’t say which one, because anonymous reviews policy, but it’s spec-fic, and that’s good enough for me.
~~~ LET’S TALK ~~~
⇒ What are your bookish favorites in any of the categories I mentioned?
⇒ What are you currently reading?
27 thoughts on “Bookish Favorites in Honor of National Book Lovers Day”
WHAT YESTERDAY WAS NATIONAL BOOK LOVERS DAY? How did I miss this? *cries*
*high-fives* Fantasy fans forever!! 😀 It really is one of the best genres, period.
I’ve wanted to read the Mistborn trilogy forever…IT SOUNDS EPIC. I’ve wanted to read *anything* by Brandon Sanderson, actually. XD His writing style sound amazing.
IKR?!?! I actually found out about it by accident and was like 😮 😮 😮 what is the meaning of life now? 😛
*high-fives* YES! Hands down, no questions asked.
Wait…you haven’t read anything by Brandon Sanderson? 0_0 Seriously, you. must. read. Mistborn. And Stormlight Archive. And the Reckoners. And pretty much anything that has his name on it.
Oathbringer’s out in 3 months and a day.
I’m not freaking out are you freaking out no I’m just very interested in this author and the magical qualities his writing possesses!!
Sorry for the tardy reply…I’ve been out of town and sick. :-/
But YES AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! Can. Not. Wait. 😀 😀
Goldstone Wood takes the cake for all of these. That is all. 🙂
YES ABOUT LORD OF THE RINGS THOUGH. It makes me crazy that so few people understand that.
Wow, that’s high praise. I haven’t read any Goldstone Wood stories…
IKR? Same here. The movie trilogy was fine. No problems with that. But technically it’s. one. book. *gets down off soap box*
What a lovely book-lovers-day post! I can’t believe I didn’t even know book-lovers-day was a thing…. joins you sobbing in the corner.
FANTASY!!!!!
Curio’s cover is AMAZING. WOW.
I would be up for a Silmarillion Trilogy!!!! Or mini-series. (And, I mean, come on… YES, LOTR is one book… but do you seriously think a single movie could have done it justice? There’s a REASON it’s been sold as a trilogy for 63 years… I have a copy that has it all in one volume and it’s like: Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan… eat your hearts out… massive!)
Currently I am reading Cress… after zipping through Cinder and Scarlet… and the Lunar Chronicles have me hooked (thanks, Silmarillion Awards!) The only thing that annoys me about the books is that there is NO indication anywhere on the covers as to which book is what number in the series, so I’ve had to do some research and be careful about the order I read them in. WHY?!??! Why is it so hard? I mean… at LEAST put the number on the title page or SOMETHING!!! Grrr. Pet peeve.
(Says the girl who didn’t put any indication about a series or book number on her own covers… ahem ahem… but it is clearly delineated on the title pages… so… there’s that) LOL
Thanks, Jenelle! And yes, the struggle is real. LOL
Maybe certain stories from The Silmarillion, but doing the entire thing seems overkill. Though yes, I totally agree that LOTR absolutely needed 3 movies to do it justice, because yes it was such a massive book and needed to be split up into three volumes. Thus the decades of confusion on whether or not it’s a trilogy. 😛
I’ve heard so much about that series and I’m crazy curious now. Why is it so amazing?
Haha, that must be super annoying (for future reference when I get around to reading it, what’s the proper order?) And we can totally ignore the fact that you didn’t number your covers either… 😉
Well, they’re fairy tale retellings… which I sort of knew, but didn’t really put two and two together until I started reading them. But there is a lot of uniqueness to them because of the sort of sci-fi/futuristic nature to them. They take place on Earth… but this Earth’s moon has an indigenous population that is human, but with sort of magical abilities… and the queen of the moon very much wants to control Earth. The fairy-tale aspect makes the stories feel familiar… and yet, you’re not quite sure what’s going to happen, because there are a lot of other things happening, as well. They are easy reads, so that makes them fun. And the characters are very well-written and likable… not without faults or making mistakes, but definitely worth rooting for.
The order is Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, Fairest, and Winter.
Thank you 🙂 🙂
That sounds fantastic! 😀 Love how imaginative they are. Guess my TBR pile is going to be growing again…
Oh, and I tagged you: http://jenelleschmidt.com/strangest-browser-searches/ don’t feel like you have to do it, but hey, I mean, if you are like me and ever have trouble coming up with a blog post idea… 🙂
Ooohhh, I saw this on FB yesterday. I’d totally love to do it! Though I’m not sure how interesting my results would be. 😛
I didn’t think my results would be all that interesting, either… but if you think about it separate from the knowledge that you’re an author… that makes it more entertaining. Like… what would the CIA think of my researching, for example: the causes of an avalanche, the best ways to avoid an avalanche, the likelihood of dying in an avalanche, how fast you need to find someone after they are buried by an avalanche, and what the most common cause of death is after being buried in an avalanche are…. if they did NOT know that I was an author? 😀
Haha, this is very true. LOL
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