Friday - 9/25

[ufcasey]

Hope everyone is having a decent Friday. What have you read this week?

QOTW:
When do you decide to buy a physical book? (Whenever you feel like it? Only if you have already read it and liked it? Only if it came highly recommended? Only if you like the author's previous books? Etc.)


This question is brought to you by the fact that book-tok (the book people on tiktok) buy a whole book series without even having read the first book and that blows my mind

[Vespasia]

Earlier this week I read Home Before Dark by Riley Sager. I really enjoyed it and found it hard to put. Highly recommend if anyone wants something spooky to read next month. The ending was a bit disappointing but definitely not to the point that it ruined the book. 

After that, I reread Fall Into Darkness by Christopher Pike. I have been picking up a few of the paperbacks (original covers only!) off ebay. 

Now I am reading The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi. I'm not that far in but so far it is fine. 

QOTW: I only buy physical books if I need to be able to go back and reference them (cook books and travel guides) or if I am buying them for the pictures (art, comics). Or I suppose if they are nostalgic like the Pike books I mentioned above! I'm actually excited because the hardcopy of Allie Brosh's new book is supposed to be delivered today. 

[dontlook]

I read:
1. Waiting for Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey
2. Friend Zone by Abby Jiminez

Both were cute and quick. I’m 4 books behind my goal so I need a few quick books. I upped my goal this year and I’ve read longer more nonfiction books than ever before which is slowing me down.

I’m currently reading Sold on a Monday.

QOTW: I used to buy books based just on the description or if it was an author I’ve read and enjoyed before. Ive been burned too many times so I stopped. I only buy books that I want to be able to pass around to friends. I bought Becoming and sent it to a cousin when I was done with instructions to pass it on when she was done. I’ll buy Barack Obama’s book when it comes out so I can pass it on too. I don’t enjoy rereading books that much so I utilize the library.

I got DD the 1st book of an eight book series and I was tempted to buy all 8 before she even read the 1st book but decided against it. She did end up liking the 1st book so I might buy the series.

[meowmaps]

Happy Friday!

Goodreads reminded me that it's National Hispanic Heritage Month so I read Children of the Land: A Memoir by Marcelo Hernandez Castillo. It was beautifully written and compelling. I'm currently reading Cantoras (fiction) by Carolina De Robertis. I'm enjoying it and should finish it by the end of the day.

QOTW: I have all The Hunger Games books on my kindle but after I read the series I loved it enough that I wanted the physical books. They're still in the plastic wrap. I guess I thought they would either be worth something someday (?) or I could pass them onto my future progeny. Now that I have DD they're definitely hers.

I also joined Book of the Month at the beginning of the pandemic lockdown because I wanted to read some of the new, buzzy books and they weren't available at the digital library. As soon as the library re-opened I cancelled my BOTM subscription. I really prefer to borrow physical books and then buy ebooks IF there's a good deal. If I had a gigantic house with a designated library space and unlimited funds, that would be a different story.

[rainbowchip]

I finally finished The Coyotes of Carthage last night and I hated it! Between how boring the book was and crap that is going on in my life that put me not in the reading mood, it took me over 3 weeks to finish. And I shouldn't have. The ending was THE WORST. Like throw the book across the room bad.

I started The Betrothed by Kiera Cass so hopefully that's a light pallet cleanser.

QOTW: I typically don't buy books. I don't have space for them and I get most of my stuff from the library (mostly ebooks). If I reread it's usually on audio.
I did by Midnight Sun because I have the other books in paper and didn't want to wait for the library hold.
I've started to buy more books for my kids because the library is kind of a pain to check out from right now. So I have bought a couple series for them without reading the first book but they've worked out pretty well. I guess you can't go wrong with Percy Jackson and series about unicorns.

[ufcasey]

Read:
The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune - fantasy/2.5 stars; This is supposedly an adult fantasy book but it's written like a YA book only with an adult main character and farsical humor like a company whose upper management is only referred to as "Extremely Upper Management". It annoyed me.

Kinsmen Universe by Ilona Andrews - sci-fi/romance/4 stars; This is two novellas set in the same world that was originally published a while ago but I just picked up via my library's Hoopla. I just love this author/writing duo. Even this older stuff. 



QOTW:
So I almost never buy physical books. When I buy a book, it's generally an ebook, and then it's only for an author or series I already like. The rest of my reading is almost completely through my library's ebook/audiobook collection and rarely physical library books. Buying a physical book is only if I already read it and loved it and felt the need to have it on my physical bookshelf (which is really small). So imagine my surprise when I saw these people on TikTok showing off their "book buying haul" and they bought an entire 5 book series having not even read the first book yet! Or another thing I saw was a challenge where they show their bookshelves, and then take off all the books on their shelves they haven't read and show the bookshelves again with that change - and like half of their shelves are empty! I had to know if this was a thing other people really do regularly. 

[tacokick]

Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson

The Last Story of Mina Lee by Nancy Jooyoun Kim

Eat A Peach by David Chang

Mother Land by Leah Franqui

We Run the Tides by Vendela Vida

I liked them all quite a bit!!

QOTW: I don’t really buy any fiction. It’s very rare and normally only if it is something foreign that I absolutely cannot get from the library. I don’t reread books 99% of the time and read a lot. I don’t have that kind of money!

I do buy cookbooks, especially if I’ve checked them out from the library first as a preview.

[meowmaps]

Sept 25, 2020 12:18:57 GMT -5 tacokick said:

Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson

The Last Story of Mina Lee by Nancy Jooyoun Kim

Eat A Peach by David Chang

Mother Land by Leah Franqui

We Run the Tides by Vendela Vida

I liked them all quite a bit!!

QOTW: I don’t really buy any fiction. It’s very rare and normally only if it is something foreign that I absolutely cannot get from the library. I don’t reread books 99% of the time and read a lot. I don’t have that kind of money!

I do buy cookbooks, especially if I’ve checked them out from the library first as a preview.

I have Mother Land in my current library haul. Looking forward to reading it!

[ssmjlm]

The Guest List by Lucy Foley- it was ok. Not as impressed as everyone made it out to be.

QOTW: The last physical book I bought was an out of print book I got used on amazon. I rarely even pay for digital books.

[travella]

I should finish Code Name Helene tonight. It took a little while to get into this book, but I'm enjoying it now. I just got Anxious People by Fredrik Backman so I'm eager to start that next.

QOTW: I rarely buy physical books unless they are for my kids or during quarantine when the library wasn't open.

[charlatti]

I just started A Star is Bored by Byron Lane. It really only caught my attention because the author is the fiancé of Steven Rowley, and I loved both of his books. I don’t know if that’s the best way to pick a book, but I like it so far!

Qotw: I don’t buy many books, mostly just things I have read and want to reread. I will sometimes request books I haven’t read as gifts, though.

[charlatti]

ufcasey, I’m so sad you didn’t like The House in the Cerulean Sea — I loved it! I thought it was supposed to be YA, so maybe that helped? The characters were so much fun. It was a little preachy, but in such a sweet way.

[tacokick]

Sept 25, 2020 12:50:35 GMT -5 meowmaps said:

Sept 25, 2020 12:18:57 GMT -5 tacokick said:

Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson

The Last Story of Mina Lee by Nancy Jooyoun Kim

Eat A Peach by David Chang

Mother Land by Leah Franqui

We Run the Tides by Vendela Vida

I liked them all quite a bit!!

QOTW: I don’t really buy any fiction. It’s very rare and normally only if it is something foreign that I absolutely cannot get from the library. I don’t reread books 99% of the time and read a lot. I don’t have that kind of money!

I do buy cookbooks, especially if I’ve checked them out from the library first as a preview.

I have Mother Land in my current library haul. Looking forward to reading it!

I enjoyed it! I think it was semi-biographical for the author.

[AJL]

It's been a slow reading week for me. I only finished two books (and one was a book I was reading to DD at night.)

Not My Romeo by Ilsa Madden-Mills, 3.5/5* (contemporary romance)
Fire and Ice (Warriors #2) by Erin Hunter, 3/5* (middle grade book; reading it with DD.)

QOTW: I guess I only consider buying the hard copy of a book if it's something that I have read over and over and it just makes sense to buy it. I only have a few hard copy sets of complete book series (Outlander, Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia, and Anne of Green Gables.)  I'm cheap and prefer the library or Kindle Unlimited for my book fixes. 

[minzy]

I read All-America Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely, about an instance of police brutality between a white police officer and black teenager. It’s a 2015 young adult publication, but of course still seems super relevant.

QOTW: I hardly ever buy new books. I sometimes say I don’t just use my library, but practically abuse it. I generally don’t re-read anything. In the last year though, I’ve bought books as gifts, if I can’t get them from my library, if I can get them used, or because someone I know wrote one. Children’s books are the other exception. We always check the library first and I prefer used, but I will buy those all day long if my kids want to read.

[abs]

I finished Party of Two last week. It was cute and much better than Royal Holiday. I have Transcendent Kingdom to start next.

QOTW: I read pretty much exclusively on my Kindle. I haven't bought a physical book for myself in a long time. I do buy a ton for DD though.