10 Year Challenge Book Tag

People on Twitter have been doing the 10 Year Challenge, but I don’t feel comfortable sharing pictures from my past.

Facial recognition and whatnot.

Anyway.

Zezee posted an excellent tag created by Rincey Reads that DOESN’T REQUIRE PERSONAL PHOTOS.

I’ll take it.

What was your favorite book in 2009?

I’m fairly certain I read Leap Day by Wendy Mass in 2009.

This book got me interested in ensemble novels.

It was my favorite novel for a while because of its fresh premise.

Honorable mention goes to I Am A Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President.

This book is UNDERRATED.

Wait, The Vast Fields of Ordinary was published in 2009?

I CHANGED MY MIND. THIS IS MY FAVORITE BOOK.

NICK BURD IS A VISIONARY.

 

What is your favorite book of 2019?

This answer might change in the coming weeks, but I know at this moment Girl Made of Stars will be in my top ten.

It’s not for everyone – definitely take care of yourself.

If you have the emotional bandwidth, however, please give it a read.

Honorable mention: Technically, You Started It, the most delightfully unexecpted romance I read this year.

 

What was your least favorite book in 2009?

Eesh. I found a couple.

My Fairy Fair Godmother was uncomfortably realistic in the worst ways and unbelievably wacky in others.

I love fractured fairy tales and I was quite disappointed by this one.

I also super-hated North of Beautiful by Justina Chen.

I don’t know what about it rubbed me the wrong way.

Perhaps the self-pitying protagonist or the abusive father or the back-and-forth romance.

Also, the protag has a port-wine stain, but God forbid we show that on the cover.

Let’s get a hot blonde with her eyes lowered and call it good.

Wait, can I yell about one more?

In the Forest of Hands and Teeth was DUUUUMB.

I guessed the “plot twist” on page one and stayed bitter for the rest of the book.

This book came out before zombies got really popular again.

Was THAT a spoiler?

Oh well. You probably would have guessed it on page one like I did.

 

What was your least favorite book in 2019?

Let me consult my list of romances.

ONCE AGAIN, we have two contenders.

Sometime After Midnight really set the tone for DNF-ing books this year.

I will not read your wacky romances about social media and indie music snobs. Get me out of here.

Now let’s talk about my biggest disappointment of the year.

Wayward Son was a half-baked, plotless road trip sequel about nothing.

It accomplished NOTHING.

It developed NOTHING.

It moved me NOT AT ALL.

I DNFed this book and gave up on Rainbow Rowell for good.

 

What is a book published in 2009 that you still want to read?

I don’t know that I ever read How Beautiful the Ordinary.

It looks like my type of book.

 

What is a book published in 2019 you want to get to before 2020?

I don’t have very high hopes, but reading There Will Come a Darkness would be nice.

I’ll see if I can get my hands on it before New Year’s.

 

What is a genre you used to read a lot of that you don’t read as much of anymore?

That would be romance!

YA contemporary romance, to be more specific.

I’m just not interested.

The cutesy-ness of it grates on me.

Give me slow burn or give me death.

 

What is a new genre you’ve discovered since 2009?

Graphic novels are my jam now, I guess.

I especially love the graphic novel versions of various classics.

These adaptations add so much to the story.

 

What is a reading or book habit you are hoping to leave behind in this decade?

I would like to stop reading a dozen books at a time and letting six or more books lie.

Like, if I’m not interested in something, I want to put it away for good instead of pretending “I’ll get to it.”

 

What is a new reading goal or habit you want to create in the upcoming decade?

I’d like to read more books by Native and Asian-American creators.

I don’t seek out these perspectives often.

Time to change that.

I did it! 10 Year Challenge COMPLETED.

How my reading tastes have changed.

Not hugely, but somewhat.

IT’S BEEN QUITE THE DECADE.