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Back in my day, book bloggers did tags! If you've been blogging for 10+ years, then you probably remember tags. One blogger comes up with a set of questions, and then other bloggers answer the questions, either in the comments section or on their own blogs. It was fun. It was a good way to make friends.

A few weeks ago, I was catching up on YouTube videos and saw that Marines @ MyNameIsMarines made a brand-new tag! I don't think I've seen a new tag in years. Maybe I'm not following the right people.

Anyway, I'm going to do the tag. For nostalgia.

Get To Know My Tastes Tag

1. How do you rate books?

I don't use star ratings on the blog because I discovered that people just look at the stars and don't read the review. Then I get comments that say, "How dare you hate my favorite book!" And I'm like, "Dude, I gave it three stars. That's not hate."

I use star ratings on Goodreads because I need them for my own sanity. I've written nearly 1000 book reviews on Goodreads. When I'm making book recommendation lists for the blog, it's super helpful to sort my 1000 books by star ratings. I can remember my favorites quickly.

For me, 3 stars means "average." I enjoyed the book, but it doesn't stand out from the crowd. Four stars is above average. Two stars is below average.

2. What's your review style?

Rambling? Word vomit? I used to write detailed, analytical, organized reviews, but nobody read them, so I gave up. Now I finish a book, flop down at my laptop, and scrape everything out of my brain before I forget what I read. My college professors would be horrified. Sometimes I reread my reviews and go, "What am I even talking about?"

3. What's the book that made you a reader?

The Tommyknockers by Stephen King. Don't read it. It's not good.

When I was a kid, I hated reading. I mostly refused to do it. Then, when I was 11 years old, I needed a book for silent reading time at school. I didn't have a book, so I went into my parents' bedroom, grabbed a random book off their shelf, and brought it to school.

The book was The Tommyknockers. I fell in love with it immediately. It's the first book I remember wanting to read. It was scary, and gritty, and disgusting, and none of the characters said, "Gosh golly!"

Turns out, I didn't hate reading. I hated the library books that are available in conservative Christian towns. Gosh golly! Who knew?

4. Do you read widely or have a genre niche?

I'll try anything once. I attempt to read widely because I'm genre curious. However, I gravitate toward classics, literary fiction, historical fiction, dystopia, fantasy, horror, and creepy nonfiction.

5. Do you prefer character-driven or plot-driven stories?

If I was forced to choose, I'd pick character driven. A book won't hook me if the characters are one dimensional. That's why I rarely read thrillers. If I don't care about the characters, I'm not interested in the plot.

6. A book you love so much that you don't care if others hate it?

I'm not bothered by other people's opinions about books. They're just books.

Maybe I love Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood enough for everybody. I've seen too many people completely miss the point of this novel. I remember a YouTube video where a woman was going off about Oryx & Crake and saying that the author is "promoting a colonizer mindset." All the comments were like, "Ewww, I'm never going to read that book!"

Okay. Oryx & Crake is about a dude who sees himself as a god. He ends up causing the apocalypse because he treats the world as his own personal Sims game. The characters are terrible people, and the author expects the reader to be smart enough to realize that they're terrible. The author is not "promoting" the characters' behavior. She's showing the dangers of their behavior.

Basically, you're not supposed to emulate the people who cause the apocalypse. I don't know why that's hard to understand.

7. What are some "bad" books, tropes, or themes that you love?

 

 

Do V.E. Schwab's books belong in this category? Are we sick of badass female assassins yet? I'm not sick of them, but I'd like to see more variety in their personality and interests.

If you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life. Badass female assassins really love stabbing people. It's their whole personality. They also do super cool backflips sometimes. Then they stab people.

Let's talk about the opposite of stabbing: I've seen hate for cozy fantasy recently. Noooo! Apparently, it's getting too formulaic. Isn't all fantasy formulaic? Maybe I just haven't read enough cozy fantasy to be irritated by the formula.

8. Do you have any dealbreakers in books?

Alcoholism, drug addiction, gratuitous rape scenes, any book promoted on Fox News. I have too much experience with that nonsense in real life and have zero desire to read about it.

What else? I recently DNFed a book because the author didn't know the difference between paramedics and EMTs. He also didn't understand how either of those jobs work. I guess my other dealbreaker is, "Stuff that can be Googled but wasn't Googled."

9. A strong opinion you have about a book released in the past year?

Here's my strong opinion: I rarely read new releases. I'm at the point in my life where I want books to be vetted. If something came out in 2012, and people are still talking about it, then I'll read it.

10. What makes a book stand out to you?

A book will stand out if the author makes me think about something in new ways. The "something" can be small, like a description of a landscape. Or it can be huge, like a nonfiction book that teaches me things, or a plot twist that changes how I see a character.

Do you want to do this tag? Go for it.

Make sure you check out the original tag by Marines @ MyNameIsMarines because I skipped some of the questions and rephrased others.