This tag originated from GirlReading on YouTube, who created it in this video. I thought the questions were really interesting basic questions that I don’t necessarily talk about a lot, so I wanted to give it a shot!

1. E-book or physical book

Physical; I love my Kindle, but I can’t overstate my love of the feel of a physical book.

2. Paperback or hardback?

Hardback; I just find them more comfortable and definitely more durable than paperback. They’re also just prettier, honestly.

3. Online or in-store book shopping?

In-store, always; I love browsing, and I greatly value bookstores, both chain and independent, as places of community, so I want to support them.

4. Trilogies or series?

The longer the better, honestly; I don’t like endings, so I want as long a time with characters as possible. I think the sweet spot for me is probably 5-6 books.

5. Heroes or villains?

Antiheroes! I mean, I don’t have the same love of villains as everybody else does, so I suppose I’d have to choose heroes if it came down to it, but I just really love my morally-gray characters.

6. A book you want everyone to read?

I’m going to go with one that not many people have actually read in comparison to my first thoughts, which I’m sure everybody’s heard about (*cough* Pride and Prejudice, Anne of Green Gables, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, Little Women *cough*) and go with The Reading List, by Sara Nisha Adams.

7. Recommend an underrated book

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender

8. The last book you finished?

We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin, which I read for my Russian Lit Class and finished this afternoon. The last book that I read for fun was Ophelia After All, by Racquel Marie, which I got as an eARC from NetGalley and adored; I’ll be posting my review of it during the first week of February, and it comes out February 8, 2022.

9. The last book you bought?

See this post for my most recent book hauls; I haven’t bought anything new since then

10. Weirdest thing you’ve used as a bookmark?

I think I might have used a shoe once? I don’t know; I’m fairly good at keeping my book darts with me, so the only time I use weird things as bookmarks is when I need to get up quickly for a moment

11. Used books: yes or no?

Honestly, no; I like the concept, but just don’t buy a lot of them, nor do I really aim to start buying them. Used bookstores tend to stress me out, but I just don’t feel great about buying used books online without being able to see them for myself beforehand.

14. Top three favorite genres?

Young Adult Fantasy

Young Adult Contemporary

Literary Fiction

15. Borrow or buy?

Buy. I mean, I got probably half of the 175 books I read last year from the library, but I will buy any book that I think there’s a chance that I’ll love. I reread a lot, so I like having books on hand. But basically it really does come down to how likely I think I am to enjoy a given book.

16. Characters or plot?

Characters, all the way. I can deal with interesting characters and uninteresting plot, but nothing will make me give a book with a decent plot and flat characters more than 3, or maaaaybe 3.5 stars (I say decent plot because I don’t think you can even have a good plot without good character work).

17. Long or short books?

Long, definitely.

I will stipulate that it has to be a long book with a lot of content, rather than a long book that’s overly drawn out. For me, it’s the same as series; I want as much time with a book as possible, but not so much time that quality begins to be sacrificed.

18. Long or short chapters?

It depends on structure; for multiple POV stories, short chapters, and otherwise I don’t really care.

19. Name the first three books you think of

  1. Truly Devious
  2. City of Bones
  3. The Bane Chronicles

20. Books that make you laugh or cry?

Laugh: Anything by Rick Riordan

Cry: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is the most recent book that I can remember bringing me to tears.

21. Our world or fictional worlds?

Fictional worlds, always; I love fantasy for a reason

22. Audiobooks: yes or no?

No; I just don’t have the patience, honestly. Additionally, most audiobook narrators’ voices annoy me. I’m also very into Critical Role, so if I’m not listening to music then I’m listening to that, and I just have no interest to adding audiobooks to that cycle.

23. Do you ever judge a book by its cover?

Very often; I would never buy a book for its cover (unless it’s an extra addition of a book that I really love), but I can absolutely be dissuaded from reading (or at least buying a book due to its cover

24. Book-to-movie or book-to-TV adaptatiosn?

Book-to-TV almost always; I will say that I prefer Pride and Prejudice (2005) to the BBC version, as my one exception.

25. A movie or TV show you prefer to its book?

i’m not sure about preferring it to the book, but I definitely love the A Series of Unfortunate Events TV series at least as much as the books. I also can’t speak too highly of Pride & Prejudice (2005) or The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, but I love the original book too much to even begin to claim that they’re on the same level as it.

26. Series or Standalones?

Series, always; see my answer for trilogies or series,.

So that was the rapid fire book tag! I hope you enjoyed it; I certainly did. I think it’s the sort of post that I could maybe revisit in 2-3 years to see how my opinions have shifted.

Do you have any particularly strong opinions on any of these? Disagree with me vehemently on anything? Comment below!