The ‘How I Choose My Books’ Tag (ORIGINAL).

Hi everyone! I was thinking that it’s interesting how we choose which books we want to read. I always like to say how I discovered certain books, like if I had to study it at school or uni or if it was a favourite of one of my friends, so I can find similar books in the future. So I thought I’d make a tag!

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1. Find a book on your shelves or ereader with a blue cover. What made you want to pick up this book?

Cogheart by Peter Bunzl.

I discovered this through the Waterstones website, as they have a ‘Books of the Month‘ section in which they usually include a children’s book. I was intrigued by the premise and thought I would really enjoy it, but was somewhat disappointed.

(I realise I do talk about Waterstones a lot on this blog, but I am just a big fan and they are also the only large bookshop in Notts, so I go there a lot. I’m not affiliated with them in any way and I’m not making money by mentioning them on here!)

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2. Think of a book you didn’t expect to enjoy, but did. Why did you read it in the first place?

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte.

As this is a classic, I was a bit unsure if I was going to enjoy it and expected it to be a bit boring, but I was drawn in straight away.

I read it for the same reason I pick up most classics – I wanted to read a new book at the time but didn’t want to spend any money, and you can get this for free as an ebook. I had re-read Jane Eyre, one of my favourites, not long before that and I wanted to try more Bronte novels, so I went for this one. I also just want to read as many classics as possible because I’m a bit of show-off.

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3. Stand in front of your bookshelf with your eyes closed and pick up a book at random. (As I’m lazy, I used the random option on Goodreads instead.) How did you discover this book?

There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom by Louis Sachar.

I’ve never read Holes by the same author,  but it’s a well-respected children’s book, so when I saw that this was cheap on Amazon, I decided to give it a go. I wasn’t a big fan at all, but I would still like to read Holes. 

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4. Pick a book that someone personally recommended to you. What did you think of it?

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld.

I looked through my Goodreads and realised I don’t often read books that people actually recommend to me – I just kind of wander to the bookshop / Booktube / Kindle store and make my own mind up.

However, I have read a few books that my friend Matilda has recommended to me, and this was one of them. I borrowed it from her years ago and really enjoyed it, but couldn’t get into the sequels for some reason. I reread Uglies this year, tried the sequels again and really enjoyed them the second time around.

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5. Pick a book that you discovered through YouTube / book blogs. Did it live up to the hype?

I Was Here by Gayle Forman.

I watched the film of If I Stay a couple of years ago and was surprised how much I enjoyed it. When I got into Booktube, I found out that it was based on a book, and then I received I Was Here in a subscription box that I used to get so was really excited to finally get to read a book by the same author as the film I enjoyed so much.

However, it did not live up to the hype! I thought it was well-written and liked the idea behind it, but it focused far too much on the love story, which I just didn’t care about. (The guy was a tosser from the start.)

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6. Find a book on your shelves or ereader with a one-word title. What drew you to this book?

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell.

One year when I was doing NaNoWriMo, Rainbow Rowell wrote a pep talk and I was really interested that Fangirl was written and published as a result of NaNo. I decided to give it a go and have never regretted it! Tying with Attachments, Fangirl is one of my all-time favourite Rowell books. It’s so unique: I’ve never read a book about a writer like Cath, whom I really related to because at one point in my life I felt like I could only write fanfiction too.

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7. What book did you discover through a film / TV adaptation?

So many! If I enjoy a film and then find that it’s based on a book, I always have to go and find that book. (Some people say this is weird because you already know how it ends,  but this is irrelevant to me: there’s usually lots going on in the book that they missed out in the film version.)

A few books I’ve discovered this way:

• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, and by proxy her other books Dark Places and The Grown-Up
• Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
• The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins
• I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens – discovered through the Muppets’ version of course!

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8. Think of your all-time favourite book/s. When did you read these and why did you pick them up in the first place?

The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling – I was around my friend’s house for a sleepover and wanted something to read, so she gave me Prisoner of Azkaban. So I ended up reading the HP books out of order, but I wasn’t any less hooked!

I read this and the others the same year that Goblet of Fire was published, in 2000, so I would have been 9 years old when I first discovered this amazing, life-changing series.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee – I had to read this for school and am forever grateful to the curriculum. We read it for GCSE so I would have been about 14 or 15.

One Day by David Nicholls – A few of my friends were reading this for pleasure at uni. I saw the movie trailer and figured it was a sappy romance that I’d hate, but then I started reading it over my friend Alys’ shoulder. I downloaded it on to my Kindle later and read into the night, laughing and crying.

I TAG:

The Orang-Utan Librarian
Bookshelves & Biros
The Ravenclaw Book Club
Zezee With Books
Caffeinatious

Thanks for stopping by!