The Seven Deadly Sins Book Tag

It's December and, typically, insanity reigns. Luckily for me, there exist amusing book tags to tide me over. This one doesn't even come with a creator to thank or a list of rules to follow, so even those of you who don't like these things that much may still enjoy it.

1- Greed. What is your most inexpensive book? What's your most expensive book?

I have so many books I picked up for free, you have no idea. But the most recent is Grettir the Strong - a print version of the icelandic saga that I picked up for £1 at a "pay what you like" bookshop on the high street.
inexpensive book I've bought in the past few months is

The most expensive book, similarly, that I acquired this year must be The Riverside Chaucer. Yes, it's a course book, but I've been wanting a full collection of the Canterbury Tales for years. Money well spent, then.

2- Wrath. What author do you have a love/hate relationship with?

Phillip Pullman.

His Dark Materials is a beautiful, complex, engaging, awe-inspiring, heart-breaking, world-shattering, forward-looking, story that demands every scrap of attention in the world and then some.

Mr Pullman, however, I have my issues with. The fact that his bestsellers are directly intended to erase modern religion and set up an alternative theology - no, really - being foremost among them.

3- Gluttony. What book have you devoured over and over again?

The Silmarillion. I'm going to go right out and say it, I like this book more than The Lord Of The Rings.

It's everything the trilogy is, combined with a stronger sense of moral ambiguity, massively heightened stakes, and a heart belonging every inch to the epic sagas and pre-historical creation myths that inspired it.

It's wars and loves and losses and falling cities and flying skyboats battling dragons big enough to crush mountain ranges. And then some.

4- Sloth. What book have you neglected due to laziness?

Every year I tell myself I'll finally get around to reading Charles Dickens' Our Mutual Friend. First recommended to me by the teacher who tutored me for my Oxford interview, and who hated the majority of Dickens' work as hard as I did. I'm told it's as good as Great Expectations, maybe better.

Sadly, as I'm already embedded in a degree demanding a lot of heavy reading, so I have reserved my free time for lighter, more entertaining, reads. Sorry Dickens. You just aren't as much fun as The Dresden Files.

5- Pride. What book do you talk about most in order to sound like an intellectual reader?

The Vinlandsagas. Beowulf. The Poetic Edda. The Prose Edda.

You get the picture. Lookit me, the expert on ancient oral tradition, narrative convention and names that, correctly pronounced, sound like you're coughing up a hairball made of concrete.

6- Lust. What attributes do you find attractive in male characters.

Going to take the sexual / romatic element out of this altogether because that's boring and I'm a pernickety wretch.

So, let's have a nice list instead.

• Humour. A character who can make me laugh is one I'll more than happily love in return.
• Power. Perhaps it's my inner megalomaniac talking, but I love a character wielding a hellish amount of punch - particularly if they're just as good at using it.
• Independence. Characters who do their own thing, whether inside or outside their established conventionality, I can support and approve of very easily.
• Empathy. Being aware of and looking out for other people is very important to me personally, and it's lovely to see it reflected in fiction, too.
• Complexity. Self-explanatory. I like a character I can sink my teeth into and taste a person as conflicted, changeable, developmental and real as me.

7- Envy. What book would you most like to receive as a gift?

If Mr George R.R. Martin would like to look down from his ivory tower and recognise a fellow in gleeful fictional xenocide and gift me the entire completed set of his Song of Ice and Fire saga, I would be the happiest woman in the world.

. . . On a more logical note, if anyone would like to buy me books two and three of The Raven Boys cycle, I'd very much like that too.

~ Charley R

Into The Void Of Good Intentions: The To-Be-Read Pile

I've been pretty specific (and pretty dang sporadic) in the content of my posts lately. It's been a bit of an interesting time, getting back to uni and stepping into two new committee roles, trying to reconfigure my system after so long at home. A bit of a year-long creative slump hasn't really helped, either, but I hope that with a little help from some fresh intellectual stimulation I'll be able to claw my way out of that pit before too much longer.

Today, however, I'm going to do something I haven't done in a very long time - a tag post.

And, fittingly enough, it's a tag about my To Be Read pile. Nothing like a look to the future to improve a day, eh?

Thanks to Miriam Joy for pushing this little doozie in my direction - let's begin!

The To-Be-Read Tag

1. How do you keep track of your TBR pile?

I thank God and genetics for my freakishly good memory . . . well, good for remembering the names of books that people have told me I should read, at least. It probably puts them where the timings of my lectures and seminars should be kept.

2. Is your TBR pile mostly print or e-books?

A bit of both? If it's a book belonging to a series I've already started, or by an author I know I like, I will usually hold out for a print copy (whether or not I'll succeed in appeasing my inner nitpickers and find one of an edition that matches the others is an entirely different kettle of fish). 

However, if I'm going into it completely blind, I'll usually get the e-book to save money. Because I might need that extra £2 for a can of baked beans in the very near future. Like my dinner.

3. How do you determine which TBR to read next?

It will depend on what I want to read. If I'm feeling bereft of a particular genre or writing style, I'll reach for the nearest one that fits the bill. 

Most of the books on my TBR are things I want to read for myself, not things I feel like I should or ought to read (though there are exceptions). So it's a bit like a bag of mixed sweets at the cinema; I have a rummage about until I find something I fancy, munch through it, then follow whatever subsequent craving comes next.

4. A book that's been on your TBR the longest?

Probably a book that I've long-since forgotten about by now. That said, people have been pestering me to get back into the Percy Jackson series for just over three years now, and it's flared up again in light of the fact the last book is due to appear some time next month. I only ever read the first book, and never felt inspired enough to pick them up again of my own volition.

5. A book you recently added to your TBR?

The next book in John Gwynne's The Faithful and The Fallen series. 

I wrote a whole blog post about how unexpectedly invested I had found myself in this series. Luckily, Mr Gwynne writes a good deal faster than most of the other authors of the same genre who occupy this list, so hopefully I won't be left to climb the walls for too many years.

6. A book on your TBR strictly because of its beautiful cover?

Veronica Roth's Divergent series. The story holds little to no attraction for me in any greatly inspiring sense, but I've been told it's interesting, has a good main character etc etc.

That, and I'm fond enough of both Harry Potter and The Hunger Games that I think I'll give their lovechild a chance.

Also, I have a thing for enigmatic symbolic covers. Sue me.

7. A book on your TBR pile that you never plan on reading?

Atonement, by Ian MacEwan. I've told myself over and over again I'll read it for its cultural impact / scale / setting / kicks and giggles . . . but I have such unreserved and unashamed hatred for Mr McEwan's writing style and narrative tendencies (looking at you, Enduring Love) that I doubt I will ever muster the willpower to actually pick it up unless my only other choice is to cut off my own hands with a spanner made of bees.

8. An unpublished book in your TBR pile that you're excited for?

The Doors of Stone by Patrick Rothfuss. While I have my suspicions that this trilogy will have to go the Paolini route and extend itself to cover all it may need to, I am dementedly excited for the continuation of this series. Luckily, there's a newly-released novella set in the same world that I can chew on for a little while to lessen the pain of waiting.

9. A book in your TBR that everyone recommends to you?

I'm pretty sure most people recommend me this book on the grounds that they want to watch me tear it to shreds in some manner or other. I seem to have something of a reputation for being very amusing as I brutally vivisect a book, no matter how popular or beloved, in front of horrified fellows and university professors alike.

It's Evermore, by Alyson Noel. People told me it was worse than The House of Night . . . well. I could hardly resist a challenge like that. Onto the list it went, to await its execution date.

10. Number of books in your TBR?

There are fewer fish in the sea, stars in the sky, and ways in which the word "infinite" can be used in pretentious teenage hipster novels than there are books that have, at some point or other, found their way onto my list.

I'm not even joking.

-*-

Well, well, well, wasn't that fun? Now then, the tagging business - I think I'll tag Cait and Mime of The Notebook Sisters, because they're extremely good at these sorts of things, and Liam at Inside Liam's Brain, because I know it will annoy him. In the best possible way.

Or, if you want to do this post at all, dear readers, consider yourselves tagged by proxy. Have fun!

~ Charley R

The Versatile Blogging Award - I Feel Famous :)

This overexcitably-written post is dedicated to the guys at Teens Can Write Too! for tagging my blog (albeit under the name of Spook's Scribblings) and putting it under the Versatile Blogging Award! Thank you, you are awesome!

I feel so famous now *grins*

Ze Rules!
Thou shalt leave a muchly-thankful and grovelling link to thine tagger.
Thou shalt then post 5-7 miscelleaneous bits of info about thine self and thine randomness.
Thou shalt tag others as thou wouldst be tagged by.

Anyway, the gist of this is that I now have to write 5-7 random facts about myself, then tag other authors to pass on the epicosity.

Right, here are my random facts!

1- Yesterday was the first time I pronounced "epitome" correctly.
2- I am a sesquipedontist - a person who uses long words.
3- Moths scare the heebie jeebies out of me. Especially when they fly for my face.
4- I am the proud owner of a small red plushie dragon. He lives in my bed, and his name is Llewellyn.
5- I have a fascination with duct tape
6- Anyone who tries to touch my feet will be kicked in the face. You have been warned.
7- I like to play the banjo with the rubber bands in my braces. It doesn't really work, but by heck it's entertaining.

And now to select my victims ...

Elorithryn over at Diary of a Working, Writing Mother

Kirsty over at 'Tis the Way I Tell 'Em

Miriam Joy over at A Farewell to Sanity

And, last but not least, my buddy sazmontgummiebear over at Randomness