Mid Year Freak Out Book Tag 2017

I rarely do tags, but I thought this one would be fun to do.

1.BEST BOOK YOU’VE READ SO FAR IN 2017?

The Republic of Thieves (Gentleman Bastard #3) by Scott Lynch

The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber

The Final Empire (Mistborn #1) by Brandon Sanderson

One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus

Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven

I LOVE these books ❤

2.BEST SEQUEL OF 2017 SO FAR?

18966806

Morning Star (Red Rising #3) by Pierce Brown

I haven’t read that many sequels this year, but this series was FANTASTIC.

3.NEW RELEASE YOU HAVEN’T READ YET, BUT WANT TO?

I haven’t been good at reading new releases so far this year. I blame it on my book buying ban, and that I have been focusing on my TBR mountain. I need to buy some of the new releases because there are so many I want to read, they all sounds so good. I couldn’t choose just one book, so I made a separate post earlier this week dedicated to this question. Here is a link to the post: 2017 YA Releases I’m Dying To Read But Haven’t Yet!

4.MOST ANTICIPATED RELEASE OF THE SECOND HALF OF 2017?

Warcross (Warcross #1) by Marie Lu

27 Hours (The Nightside Saga #1) by Tristina Wright

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

Because You Love to Hate Me: 13 Tales of Villainy

First We Were IV by Alexandra Sirowy

5.BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT?

station-eleven-by-emily-st-john-mandel

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

My expectations for this book was really high. I liked some parts of the book, but it wasn’t what I expected it to be. I ended up giving it 3 stars.

6.BIGGEST SURPRISE?

kafka-on-the-shore-by-haruki-murakami

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

I received this book as a birthday present 1 ½ years ago from a friend. The person who gave it to me loved the book and thought I would too. I was very skeptical to pick it up because I didn’t want to hate it. I had also previously read Norwegian Wood by the same author, and I didn’t care for that book. I’m actually currently reading this book now, I have about 80 pages left. I love this book and I already know it will be one of my favorite reads of 2017. Even though it have some scenes that are problematic that I didn’t like (the woman in the woods), the book speaks to my heart. It’s just so weird and interesting and captivating.

7.FAVORITE NEW AUTHOR (DEBUT OR NEW TO YOU)?

This is hard because I feel that you have to read more than one book from an author to call them your favorite. Here are some new to me authors that I have read and really enjoyed this year. 

Michel Faber author of The Book of Strange New Things

Jennifer Niven author of Holding Up the Universe

Karen m. McManus author of One of Us Is Lying – This book is also a debut. 

Brandon Sanderson author of The Final Empire (Mistborn #1)

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie author of We Should All Be Feminists

8.NEWEST FICTIONAL CRUSH?

I don’t get fictional crushes, but the closest to a fictional crush I have right now is Oshima from Kafka on The Shore. It’s weird because he is a know it all type of person.

9.NEWEST FAVORITE CHARACTER?

Oshima and Nakata from Kafka on The Shore

Molly and her moms from The Upside of Unrequited

10.BOOK THAT MADE YOU CRY?

American Street by Ibi Zoboi

I don’t think I have cried from a book this year. Hmm maybe I cried at the end of American Street by Ibi Zoboi. Really good book.

11.BOOK THAT MADE YOU HAPPY?

Holding up the Universe by Jennifer Niven

The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli

12.FAVORITE BOOK TO MOVIE ADAPTATION YOU’VE SEEN THIS YEAR?

I rarely watch movies. I can only remember that I have watched 2 movies this year, and that is Zodiac and Inside Out. But there is one series that I really liked called Big Little Lies, and that is a book to series adaptation. I haven’t read the book yet, but I might do it in the future. Really good and intriguing series that keeps you guessing until the end. Let me know if you have watched the series.

13.FAVORITE REVIEW YOU’VE WRITTEN THIS YEAR?

This is a hard question because I’m a perfectionist and hard on myself. I have to go with my latest review: One of us is lying.

14.MOST BEAUTIFUL BOOK YOU BOUGHT OR RECEIVED SO FAR THIS YEAR?

20th-ann-hp-book

This has to be the new Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone books. THEY ARE SO BEAUTIFUL and I want them all! I contained myself and only bought the hardback and paperback of in Ravenclaw editions. 

15.WHAT BOOKS DO YOU NEED TO READ BY THE END OF THE YEAR?

All of the books. If you combine my TBR and the new releases I want to read, you have the answer. I think this question will be too much. I might do a separate post on this as well soon.

-I’m tagging you, and if you have already done it leave me the link and I’ll check it out 🙂 

❤ -Rakel

| – TWITTER – | – GOODREADS – | – FACEBOOK – | – INSTAGRAM –|

Dashing Through The Snow Book TAG

Christmas is right around the corner. To make my blog a little more festive and to get into the Christmas spirit here is a Christmas themed TAG.

1NAME A BOOK YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE UNDER THE CHRISTMAS TREE.

All the Books On My Christmas Wish List post.

giphy (1).gif

2NAME A BOOK YOU’LL BE READING DURING THE CHRISTMAS SEASON.

I planning to finish reading 12 Days of Dash And Lily by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan, and Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire by J.K. Rowling.

3NAME YOUR FAVORITE CHRISTMAS MOVIE.

I don’t really like Christmas movies. Is that weird? I watched The Rise of the Guardians one night when I couldn’t sleep, it was pretty good.

But there is one movie i watch every year, and that is Tre Nøtter Til Askepott. I’m going to talk more about this movie later in the TAG.

4DO YOU LIKE SNOW?

I love snow around Christmas and I think it is beautiful to look at, but I don’t like the cold and slippery roads that comes with it. Snow isn’t something really special when you live in Norway.

giphy (4).gif

5NAME A CHARACTER YOU WOULD LIKE TO SPEND YOUR CHRISTMAS DAY WITH.

I want The Doctor to take me out on an amazing Christmas themed adventure, like in the Dr Who Christmas special episodes.

giphy (6).gif

giphy-8

6TO GIVE OR RECEIVE.

Not going to lie, I love getting gifts. But I also love giving gifts, so I have to answer both.

7WHAT FICTIONAL PLACE WOULD YOU LIKE TO SPEND CHRISTMAS AT?

It has to be somewhere magical like Hogwarts or the Weasley’s house.

gif_harry_potter_christmas_2.gif

8FONDEST CHRISTMAS MEMORY?

My fondest Christmas memory is watching Tre Nøtter Til Askepott With my brother every Christmas morning. Watching Tre Nøtter Til Askepott is something a lot of Norwegians has as a tradition. It is kind of weird because Tre Nøtter Til Askepott is a Czech retelling of Cinderella from 1973. It is also badly dubbed by a man and it is always funny to listen to (we don’t dub movies is Norway, we only use subtitles). This tradition is kind of weird, but there is no Christmas without this movie.

You can actually watch the whole movie here:

9. CAN YOU SAY CHRISTMAS TREE TEN TIMES FAST IN A ROW (PRONOUNCING IT CORRECTLY)?

No I failed

giphy-3

❤ -Rakel

-What Is Your Favorite Christmas Memory?

 

Down The TBR Hole

I read Imaginaryplacesonpaper’s Down the TBR Hole blog post. I thought it was such a good idea that I wanted to do it myself. I think she is the maker of this TAG/book meme and HERE is her post.

I’m not sure how often I will be doing this, maybe once a month. Currently I have 256 books on my To-Read shelf on Goodreads. Some of the books I own a copy of, but majority of the books I don’t own. There is a lot of random books on this list, I bet there is some that I don’t want to read anymore.

“Most of you probably know this feeling, you’re Goodreads TBR pile keeps growing and growing and it seems like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. You keep adding, but you add more than you actually read. And then when you’re scrolling through your list, you realize that you have no idea what half the books are about and why you added them. Well that’s going to change!” –Lost In A Story

The Rules:

  • Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
  • Order on ascending date added.
  • Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books. Of course if you do this weekly, you start where you left off the last time.
  • Read the synopses of the books
  • Decide: keep it or should it go?

1232The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

I don’t need to read the synopsis to know that I still want to read this book.

Keep

162132 The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus by Richard Preston

Before I read the synopsis I was like, what is this, why did I want to read this book. But now I kind of want to read it. I’m not sure.

Keep (for now)

325853 Hunger by Knut Hamsun 

Norwegian title: Sult

This is a Norwegian classic. I still want to read it. 

Keep

3983234 Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson

Norwegian title: Ut og stjæle hester

Another book from a Norwegian author. I might read this some day, and I will always remember the title, but for now it has to go. 

Go

718655 Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden

I don’t remember this book. After reading the synopsis I’m interested in it. This is a book that would be great to read on my kindle I think. This is also written by an Australian author. 

Keep

 

 

❤ -Rakel

The Goodreads TAG

This is a fun TAG to do because I love Goodreads. I probably use it every day, either for logging my reads or adding new books. If you want to add me you can find my profile HERE

What was the last book you marked as ‘read’?

22456248

The Sea of Monster by Rick Riordan. I gave it 4 stars.

What are you currently reading?

Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

What was the last book you marked as ‘TBR’?

28962906

Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco

What book do you plan to read next?

Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Tatiana and Alexander by Paullina Simons

The 2 books I chose to read for the Tome Topple Readathon

Do you use the star rating system?

I do. I pretty much use the Goodreads star rating system. I want to start rating with half stars, and not only full stars.

Are you doing a 2016 Reading Challenge?

My challenge for this year was originally 40 books, but I changed it to 50 halfway through the year I think. I have read 46 books so far.

goodreads-46boker

Do you have a wishlist?

My wishlist is so long. Probably every book on my To-Read shelves on Goodreads. I also have a wishlist on Bookdepository and amazon haha.

What book do you plan to buy next?

26258306

The Twelve Days of Dash and Lily by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan. And I’m planning on getting a lot of books for christmas.

Do you have any favorite quotes, would you like to share a few?

I’m not a quote person. The only quote I remember is this because I found it very funny.

“Even a strong man can succumb to the wiles of a pretty girl with pointy shoes.”
― Joseph Delaney, Attack of the Fiend

Who are your favorite authors?

J.K. Rowling obviously

Jules Verne

Scott Lynch

Marissa Meyer

Have you joined any groups?

I have joined:

Top 5 Wednesday

Tome Topple Readathon

Norway

+++ some more groups

I must say that the only group I use is Top 5 Wednesday

 

❤ -Rakel

 

A-Z About Me TAG

I was tagged by AFirePages. Thank you for tagging me. Go check her out here!

A – Age: 23 only a few days until I’m 24. Shit I’m getting old.

B – Books you are reading: Digital Idols I’m going to finish this book today. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. I’m going to start reading the Percy Jackson book 2 The Sea of Monsters.

C – Chore you hate: Vacuuming.

D – Dessert you love: My favorite has to be Apple Cake.

E – Essential start to your day: Breakfast.

F – Favorite author/book:  Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff, The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. And the author Jules Verne

G – Gold or silver: Both

H – Height: Uhm.. 174cm

I – Instrument you play: I played the trumpet when I was younger.

J – Job title: I don’t have one. I guess my blog is the closest I get to a job, and I don’t get paid haha.

K – Kids: No kids, but does a furbaby count? We had a little dog called Amy, she died earlier this year. I miss her so much.

L – Living arrangements: I moved out from my family home when I was 15 to live in a boarding school. When I was 17 I moved into an apartment with my Boyfriend, and we lived together for a few years. When I got sick I had to move home to my parents. I’m hoping to move in with my BF again, maybe 2017 is the year for me 😀

M – Most overused word in your vocabulary: …..

N – Nicknames: I don’t have one 😦 People use my name Rakel.

O – Overnight hospital stay other than birth: Too many and too personal for the blog sorry.

P – Pet peeve: People that don’t close the doors on the kitchen cabinets.

Q – Quote you like: I’m not a quote person, so I don’t have one.

R – Right or left handed: Right.

S – Siblings: I have a younger brother. He is 2 years younger than me.

T – Time you woke up today: 11am.

U – Unique thing about you: When I ask myself the answer is nothing. When I ask my boyfriend he says everything haha. But yeah I don’t know.

V – Vegetable you love: I’m a vegetarian so I usually eat a lot of vegetables. I love a lot of vegetables, but my favorite has to be Sweet potato. 

W – Worst habit: Procrastinating.

X – X-rays you’ve had: I broke my arm when I was little.

Y – Yummy food you make: I can make a lot of good dinners, but I don’t like to bake.

Z – Zodiac sign: Scorpio. 

-I’m tagging you to do this TAG!

Burn Rewrite Reread

The Rules:

  • Randomly choose 3 books (pro tip: use the “Sort > Random” option on your Goodreads’ read shelf).
  • For each group, decide which book to burn, which one to rewrite, and which to reread (like Marry, Boff, Kill).
  • Repeat until you completed three rounds (or however many you want to do). I chose to do 5 rounds because it was fun.

Round 1

Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare – REREAD

Zenith by Sasha Alsberg & Lindsay Cummings – REWRITE

The Kill Order by James Dashner- BURN

I really like the Infernal Devices series.The clockwork prince is book two in that serie. Zenith was not that great of a book. It was ok. But not as terrible as The Kill order. I hated that book. It’s the prequel to the Maze Runner series. The other Maze Runner books are better. I liked the first the best. This was an easy round.

Round 2

Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets by J.K Rowling – REREAD

Storm Front by Jim Butcher – REWRITE

Throne Of Glass by Sarah J. Maas – BURN

I have to choose to reread HP. I liked both storm front and Throne of Glass. This is hard to choose. I don’t remember a lot from the Throne Of Glass book. All I remember was that it was ok. I have to reread it if I’ll continue with the series. I feel like TOF don’t live up to the hype. At least not the first book. I have heard that the series gets better. This round was a little bit harder.

Round 3

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff – REREAD

Golden Son by Pierce Brown – REWRITE

Allegiant by Veronica Roth – BURN

I loved Illuminae so I have to put it as reread. And I really like Golden Son. Both books are really good books. It has been years since I read the Divergent series. I really liked the first book. But Allegiant the last book was just ok, and I gave it 3 stars. This round was not that hard to choose. Other than I actually don’t want to rewrite Golden Son.

Round 4

Harry Potter And The Order Of Phoenix by J.K. Rowling – REREAD

Between Shades Of Gray by Ruta Sepetys – REWRITE

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky – BURN

Wow this is hard to choose. I love all of these books. Both HP and Between Shades Of Gray are 5 star reads for me. I’m actually rereading the HP books. And I’m on book 4. So I have to put it on reread. It’s almost 50/50 between the other books. This round was hard to choose. 

Round 5

1984 George by Orwell – REREAD

Crossed by Ally Condie – REWRITE

The Moorigad Dragon by Debra Kristi – BURN

1984 is a classic, and an important book. I actually want to reread it in the future. I don’t know if I like Crossed. When I read it years ago I liked it. I think I had changed my mind if I had read it again now. But I had probably liked it more than The Moorigad Dragon. I really didn’t like that book, it was horrible. In the fire the dragon goes. I have a review on the book here. This round was really easy.

 
I think these rounds was overall easy. I didn’t get any really hard choices. Would you choose the same as me?

Mid Year Freak Out TAG

  1. Best book you’ve read so far in 2016.

Illuminae by Amy Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

I loved this book. It was so good. The creative style of the pages and the way it was put together. And I also loved the story.

  1. Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2016.

Winter by Marissa Meyer

I read this in the beginning of the year. It is the 4th and final book in the Lunar Chronicle. I love that serie. It is one of my favorite.

  1. New release you haven’t read yet, but want to.

Lady midnight by Cassandra Clare

This book was out in March. But I have not read it yet. I hope to read it this year.

  1. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year.

This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

Heartless by Marissa Meyer

Gemina by Amy Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

I can’t choose only one book. This is the 3 books I’m most anticipating.

  1. Biggest disappointment.

The Good Girl by Mary Kubica

I don’t DNF books. I try to finish all the books I read. But I could not finish this. It startet good. But it got so boring. And thrillers should not be boring.

  1. Biggest surprise.

Psycho by Robert Bloch

I didn’t know what to expect of this book before I read it. I knew it was an old black and white movie with the famous shower scene. I didn’t know the story before I read it. I really liked this book.

psycho

  1. Favourite new author. (Debut or new to you)

V E Schwab also known as Victoria Schwab & Lemony snicket

I read vicious by V. E Schwab this year. And It was good. I liked the writing style and the story. I want to read the author’s other books. Especially A Darker Shade Of Magic. And the new one that is coming out.

I also read Lemony Snicket for the first time this year. I have only read 3 books so far.

But I love A Serie of Unfortunate Events. I didn’t read this books when I was a kid. But I love them now as an adult.

  1. Newest fictional crush.

All of the boys in The 100, the tv show. I had to cheat on this one and choose a tv serie, but that should still count, right? Because it’s also a book serie. Even If I haven’t read the books. Haha

  1. Newest favourite character.

Sevro from Red Rising. He and the Howlers is my new favorite characters.

  1. Book that made you cry.

It does not happen often that I cry from books. But I felt the tears in my eyes at the end of Illuminae.

  1. Book that made you happy.

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

This book was a fun read for me. And it made me laugh several times.

  1. Most beautiful book you’ve bought so far this year

The Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson. It is so gorgeous just look at those book covers. BEAUTIFUL!

  1. What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

All of the books on this list. But right now I am most excited about Mistborn and Tatiana and Alexander.

  1. Favourite Book Community Member

I don’t want to say only one person . Because it is so many that I love.
https://mirakelbooks.com/category/tags/
mirakelbooks.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2017-47
237434
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:4QFHOKZJGVD46E3RTE3POMQJDOR4U3EQ
<urn:uuid:42306d06-ca3c-4ad6-a714-bf478df98f5a>
2017-11-24T00:10:21Z
192.0.78.25
text/html
sha1:ASUBZGXHGAVTKHGDP6D5757SJ2YDAKBG
<urn:uuid:0fa70bd8-9522-4966-9906-1fb0eb0f923a>
https://mirakelbooks.com/category/tags/
length
response
<urn:uuid:d1940928-b1af-4b45-94b3-4d4ba8259788>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-236-168-78.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2017-47
operator: Common Crawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for November 2017
publisher: Common Crawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf