And now, it’s time for something a little different! Chris from Biblio Nerd Reflections tagged me in a book tag called “The Last 10 Books.” I’m fairly certain I’ve never done a book tag before, so I thought I’d give this fun one a shot. Make sure to pop over to Chris’s site to see his answers, and keep reading to see mine.
Last Book I Bought
For Thanksgiving I visited my husband’s family near Boston. This meant I had an opportunity to stop by Brookline Booksmith, one of the most well known bookstores in the country. I seem to only ever go there on the busiest shopping weekend of the year; this past Friday was no different. They expanded the store since I last visited a few years ago. Even if you’re not a book person (gasp!), there’s plenty of other fun items to peruse (e.g., puzzles, games, kitchen things).
While there I picked up Uprooted by Naomi Novik. I’m kind of on a kick of retold fairy tales, so I look forward to eventually reading this. I have Spinning Silver as well, but I also have yet to read that. I also wanted to buy Jade City by Fonda Lee due to its overwhelming popularity on book Twitter; but unfortunately the first book was out of stock.
Last Book I Re-Read
Honestly, I don’t re-read books much anymore. I used to when I was a kid. I’m pretty sure the last book I re-read was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone just before the COVID-19 pandemic started.
Last Book I Gave Up On
I used to be Team Never DNF. Lately I feel that life is too short to keep reading a book you’re in which you’re not very invested. The last book I gave up on is Fathoms: The World in the Whale by Rebecca Giggs. I like to switch to nonfiction after a few fiction books, but I just couldn’t get into this book. I think I felt this way because I was in the middle of moving house and because it felt like reading an encyclopedia. It’s easy to see the author is passionate about whales. But it was a slog to get through each page because of the high level vocabulary and dense sentence structures.
Last Book I Said I Read But Didn’t
I don’t think I’ve ever done this before, so I have nothing to say here!
Last Book I Wrote in the Margins Of
I don’t do this anymore. But back in high school when the Harry Potter series was still incomplete I got really deep into looking for clues about what might happen next. So I wrote short notes about my theories in the margins. I can’t remember which book(s) I did this to, but likely one of the later books.
Last Book I Lost
Again, I don’t think I’ve ever lost a book? Sorry to be boring, but I can usually keep track of my things, including books!
Last Book That I Had Signed
Midnight in Everwood is the last signed book I received. When I ordered the gold foil ballerina special edition, I didn’t realize it would be signed. (Or maybe I didn’t read the description very well!) So that was a nice surprise. My goal is to read it before Christmas, which means I’ll pause reading my NetGalley approvals.
Last Book I Had to Replace
I thought really hard on this one, and I have another non-answer. I don’t think I’ve ever had to replace a book. I’ve certainly bought multiple editions of the same book. And I’ve bought books after borrowing and reading them from the library. But I don’t recall ever needing to replace a book.
Last Book I Argued Over
I’ve never argued over a book, but I have discussed books with fellow readers. I don’t get to discuss books often since I’m not aware of many of my offline friends reading a lot. But every now and then we read the same books and it’s fun to have someone to talk to about them. I think the closest I’ve come to arguing over a book, and it wasn’t really arguing, was about Tamlin in A Court of Thorns and Roses. If you know, you know.
Last Book You Couldn’t Find
If this means a lost book, then I don’t have an answer. If this means finding out a book is out of stock in a bookstore, then my answer is Jade City by Fonda Lee. As I mentioned in an earlier prompt, it was out of stock. Though, to be honest, I’ll probably end up checking it out of my local library. I’m running out of space on my fiction bookshelf and the books in the series are a bit thicker than I expected!
Currently Reading: I’m currently still reading the Prophecy of Love by T. Satterfield and The Cicada Tree by Robert Gwaltney. Both of these are from NetGalley. I’ve shifted my focus more to the Prophecy of Love because it was actually published a little while ago and I should be a good book blogger and actually finish it!
Recently Finished: I’m excited to say that I finally finished reading Half Sick of Shadows by Laura Sebastian. I absolutely loved it! I dare say it’s even my favorite read of 2021. There’s a 99% chance that any sort of review I write won’t do it justice, but I’ll try!
Reading Next: After waiting for well over a month, Skin of the Sea by Natasha Bowen finally came into the library for me. I’m not sure what was going on behind the scenes, but it took over a month from the publication date for my library to change the status from “On Order” to available for pick up. Usually my county is pretty quick with getting new releases out to readers. This is purely speculation, but I wonder if the supply chain issues had some part in the delay. Oh well, it’s here now! I’ll pick it up by the end of this week.
