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Currently reading: Vulture by Bex Hogan.

Saturday 6 December 2014

Bookish Christmas Q and A

The lovely Jess over at Jess Hearts Books (honestly, check her blog out, it is so good!) made a great post last Friday full of bookish Christmassy questions and it looks and sounds like a lot of fun and she said people are welcome to do their own so I am taking her up on that offer as I want something to really kick start my Christmas spirit and what better way to do that than to talk about some amazing books! Lets get cracking!

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1.) Advent Calendar: what's the next big book release you're counting down to?
Something I am really looking forward to in 2015 is The Death Code by Lindsay Cummings. It is the sequel to The Murder Complex, which just so happens to be one of my favourite books published this year! Her writing is so fresh and vivid and her characters are adorable, and I cannot wait to see what is going to happen next in Meadow and Zephyr's lives!




2.) Snow Day: which best friends from a book could keep you entertained all day long?
I love the dynamics of the relationship and Celaena and Dorien in Sarah J. Maas' Throne of Glass books (no spoilers for Heir of Fire please! I haven't read that one yet!!!) They're both just so much fun and when they are around each other it's a mixture of flirting and friendship and also sometimes contempt. I love them.



3.) The Nativity: which book/series would you most like to see adapted into a movie, TV show, play etc?

I would love to see Darren Shan's Zom-B series be made into a tv show. I think it would work better that way. It's so graphic and so well described, that I think some of the events would make it an eighteen movie and at least if it was on telly it could go out post-watershed and it could still be a real success... I would also loved to the the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series be made into movies. It's a great series that I feel is grossly underrated. I know the rights were sold a while back, then bought back and sold again for them to be made into tv movies, but nothing has been announced or mentioned for quite a while and as a long term fan who really wants to see the books explode even more than they have already it is quite frustrating!


4.) Carol Singing: which musical book character/s would you like to turn up on your doorstep caroling this Christmas? 
Katniss Everdeen. Thankfully, we kind of do have Katniss singing thanks to JLaw's incredible performance! I love that they did The Hanging Tree in Mockingjay Part 1 and that they did it justice. It is such a beautiful song that Katniss could just sing that to me and I would still be in the Christmassy mood! I also think she would do a mean rendition of Jingle Bells!



5.) The Perfect Gift: which book from your wish list would you most like to find under your tree on Christmas morning?
I am such a bad person when it comes to knowing what I would like for Christmas. I am something of an impulse buyer so I do buy a lot of the books I want as and when they come out so there aren't normally many left that I haven't already got and any there are are ones that aren't out yet! One that I haven't yet purchased though but would love for Christmas is Harry Potter: The Creature Vault. It just looks like such a beautiful book and I have heard nothing but good things about it! 


6.) Do You Want To Build a Snowman? What do you think are the key ingredients for a life like character?
Something I need to feel about a character when reading about them is their humanity. They have to feel grounded, 3D, fleshed out, they need to feel as if they are a real person, not just someone made up for the purposes of a story. I like when things are hinted at outside of the story, things that happened before the start of the story, or something that is bubbling under the surface that could lead to something after the end of the story.

7.) Tree, Tinsel, Fairy Lights: most decorative book cover of 2014?
A book cover I absolutely adore is the cover for Messenger of Fear by Michael Grant. It's all red and white which are Christmassy (what with Father Christmas wearing red and white being the colour of snow...) although from reading the synopsis I doubt it is anything Christmassy at all!


8.) Christmas Kisses: which book crush from this year would you most like to kiss underneath the mistletoe?
Oh god, there are so many! So, so many! Tobias/Four from the Divergent series. Dorien from Throne of Glass. Ash from the Black City trilogy. I could go on and on.

9.) Snow Ball Fight: a book that you thought would be a lot of fun but left you feeling cold.
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart is easily the biggest reading disappointment for me this year. There was a massive campaign around it to launch it and everyone kept saying how amazing it was and I could not wait to find out for myself. But as soon as I started reading it was pretty clear that I just wasn't going to feel the connection to it in the same way that everyone else did. That said I did like the writing and it is a great idea, I just didn't really get the hype.


10.) Christmas Traditions: a book that you read over and over again.


This one is so easy for me! So easy! Hogfather by Terry Pratchett! No word of a lie, I read it every year and have done since I first read it back in 2006 or 2007. I can't remember which, it was whatever year the adaptation was on Sky One way back when. It was the first Terry Pratchett book I ever read and I completely and utterly fell in love. The way he writes, the words, the characters, the story itself. It's so Christmassy and yet it couldn't be further from Christmas at the same time. The pure notion of Death himself, riding around in a sleigh as the jolly fat man, in this case the Hogfather, delivering presents for Hogswatch (the Discworld equivalent of Christmas) is so funny. The book itself is so full of insight and wit and Death is so sarcastic I cannot help but laugh and love it even more every time I read it! I can't wait to read it again this Christmas.


11.) The Night Before Christmas: a book that kept you up reading late into the night.
This actually happened to me last night! I had been reading a couple of pages a night due to having to be up early for work, so last night, knowing I wasn't working today, I decided to stay up until I had finished the book. That said book is The Boy in the Dress by David Walliams. I will be giving it a full review, but I will say that I love this book so much. It's entertaining and I know it is aimed at younger kids (the back of the book says 9+) but I found it to be a fun read! It has a great moralistic message that I feel is important. Acceptance. I am very much looking forward to seeing the adaptation that the BBC have done! It is on on Boxing Day. I enjoyed Mr. Stink in 2012 and last years Gangsta Granny so no doubt this is going to be just as good!

12.) Rudolph: which book shone the brightest for you this year? 
A book that really stood out to me this year, and is one I am supposed to be getting around to writing a review for soon, is This Book Is Gay by James Dawson. It isn't exactly a YA book, it isn't fiction. But it is so funny and beautiful and honest and just so so good and I love it and James for writing it!



1 comment:

  1. Great answers Ryan! Thanks for taking part. What a good idea to have Katniss - I love The Hanging Tree! Hope you have a lovely Christmas :)

    ReplyDelete