30-Day Book Challenge: Day 30

Day 30 – My favorite book of all time

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Les Miserables. Full disclosure: I don't know if this is my favorite book, but it is definitely my favorite story. I haven't read the book since I was 12, so I hope to be able to revisit it soon with my increased wealth of knowledge and maturity level, but when I read it back in the 7th grade, I remember there being a lot of long, boring chapters about the student revolution. I would get to one of those chapters, realize it was about the war and not my beloved characters from the Broadway adaptation, and skip it. But as far as stories go, Victor Hugo wove quite the tale of personal struggles, romance and societal challenges. I own a paperback version and downloaded a free version on my Kindle, so I definitely need to reread it soon.

30-Day Book Challenge: Day 29

Day 29 – A book everyone hated but I liked

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I honestly cannot think of anything to put here. I even went so far as to sort my read list on Goodreads by average rating, but every book I've read has at least a 3-star average rating (even the ones I didn't like). So instead, I'm going to tell you a book everyone liked that I didn't:

 

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The Glass Castle. I usually love memoirs, and there wasn't anything wrong with this book necessarily, I just really didn't care for it. My mom and sister both really liked it, and the average rating on Goodreads is 4.14 stars, but I only gave it one. It's just not a book I would recommend to anyone. Sorry!

What about you? Have you read The Glass Castle? Can you think of any books everyone hated but you liked? Have you hated any of the books I've mentioned so far in this challenge? (It's okay, I won't be offended!)

30-Day Book Challenge: Day 28

Day 28 – Favorite title

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Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages. So I haven't actually read this book yet, but it's on my to-read list for no reason other than the title. I don't know anything about it; I haven't even read the summary. Just the title drew me in. I think that makes it good enough to fit this category, right? (And we all know how much I love milk.) Actually, while scrolling through my Goodreads account to find a good book for today, it was mostly non-fiction titles that caught my eye. I'll leave you with a few more examples:

• The Sexual History of London: From Roman Londinium to the Swinging City - Lust, Vice, and Desire Across the Ages, Catharine Arnold
• The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Popularity, Quirk Theory and Why Outsiders Thrive After High School, Alexandra Robbins
• Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, James W. Loewen
• Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, Jon Krakauer
• Fraternity Gang Rape: Sex, Brotherhood, and Privilege on Campus, Peggy Reeves Sanday
• Straight: The Surprisingly Short History of Heterosexuality, Hanne Blank
• From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: How Maps Name, Claim, and Inflame, Mark S. Monmonier

And now upon review of the many strange titles I included, I must add that these books do not necessarily reflect my political, religious or otherwise ideological views. I just think the titles are very intriguing!

What are some of your favorite titles?

30-Day Book Challenge: Day 27

Edited to add: Jessica at Sweet Green Tangerine chose endings as the topic for her April 5th book chat. I decided to link up with this old post because it already explains one of my favorite book endings and also mentions some of my least favorite. Head over to Jessica's blog and check out her post; she hosts a book chat link-up every Thursday!

Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending

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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I know I said I wouldn't use the same book twice in this challenge, but there's a reason the third Harry Potter book is my favorite of the series - the ending is insane! Who would have ever guessed that Ron's rat was an Animagi? Who is actually a Death Eater and responsible for the Potters' murders, no less? Or that Sirius Black was Harry's godfather? And is actually a really nice guy? Or that Lord Voldemort was Harry's father?? (Just kidding!) But seriously, this was always my favorite book because of the sheer twists and turns the plot takes. (What ever happened to the Time Turner, anyway?)

Just to provide a little variety, I'll also share two of my least favorite endings ever, which happen to be from two of my favorite authors:

• Handle With Care, Jodi Picoult
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling

I generally tell people just not to read the epilogues of both these books, because I think they're wonderful right up until the end of the last chapter. I don't want to give anything away in Handle With Care, but I'm assuming you all know how Harry Potter ends, so I'll just say it: I would have known who was marrying whom without J.K. telling me! I thought the epilogue was super cheesy and unnecessary. Although after seeing the epilogue in the movie, I do like how she included the part about Harry naming his son after "the bravest man [he] ever knew." That was sweet. I'm getting goosebumps just typing about it!

What surprise endings did I miss? Has the ending of a book ever ruined an otherwise great story for you?

30-Day Book Challenge: Day 26

Day 26 – A book that changed my opinion about something

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Applying Ethics. It wasn't really the book itself that changed my opinion on something but rather an assignment associated with the book. This was my primary textbook for a philosophy class I took in my second semester of college. (It was one of my top five favorite classes I ever took at Mizzou, btw.) Each chapter in the book deals with a major ethical dilemma (war, abortion, euthanasia, etc.) and presents different philosophical viewpoints on each issue. Occasionally, my professor asked the class to write "reaction" essays to an issue and defend one viewpoint. Our papers didn't necessarily have to reflect what we really believed, and there were times I defended the position I didn't personally side with just because I felt like it.

When I got to the essay about capital punishment, things got interesting. I had never had strong feelings one way or the other, but I did tend to lean toward one side of the debate. While writing my paper, however, I learned that I most definitely was on one side of the fence, and it was not the side I had previously imagined myself to agree with. Now isn't that the ideal academic assignment: something that shows you a part of yourself you had never known before? No wonder I loved that class so much. (Thanks Dr. Melanie Johnson-Moxley!)

P.S. - I admit this post is a little bit of a cop-out because I picked a book about ethics, but I honestly couldn't think of any novels that had changed my mind about something.

30-Day Book Challenge: Day 25

Edited to add: Jessica at Sweet Green Tangerine posed the question, "What character are you most like?" for her March 8th book chat. I decided to link up with this old post because it already answers that question! Check out Jessica's blog; she hosts a book chat link-up every Thursday.

Day 25 – The character I can relate to the most

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Okay, so I'm not British and my parents aren't dentists. And I guess I can't do magic either.... So maybe this is just wishful thinking, but I have to pick Hermione Granger for today's theme. I remember when I read the first book, before I knew there would ever be a movie, I thought I should play Hermione if a movie ever came out. I had big front teeth (and a gap), I was nerdy, I loved logic games (remember how beautifully she performed on the way to the sorcerer's stone?) and all of my friends (except one) were boys. I would have been perfect! That's why I chose the above picture of Hermione. Look at her dorky little smile and her arms full of books! That is totally me.

Image via the University of Hawaii

But I have to admit, I do love Emma Watson. I guess she's an okay alternative to me. In fact, I always answer Emma Watson (with an American accent) during icebreaker games when I'm asked who would play me in a movie. I think that's my last hope at somehow finding a connection to Hermione.

30-Day Book Challenge: Day 24

Day 24 – A book I wish more people would read

 
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Ender's Game. I had never heard of this book until my sister told me about it last year. She had read it for an English class her freshman year of college and written a paper about it. She explained that even though it was science fiction, she didn’t really feel like that’s what the book was about. (Neither of us are big science fiction fans.) Sure, there were alien lifeforms and gravitational alterations and galactic wars, but she insisted the book was more about children and their relationships to each other. Well, she was right. The book was fascinating and I couldn’t put it down! Definitely one of my favorite books now. I think this is a great read for anyone, from children to adults.

P.S. - Ender was the character I wanted to use for Day 15, but I decided to save his story for today instead.

Have you read this book? Heard about it? Apparently it's a series, so I need to go find the second one soon!

30-Day Book Challenge: Day 23

Day 23 – A book I've wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t

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The Great Gatsby. This is one of those books you would think I would have had to read in high school, but that was not the case. So it's remained on my to-read list for a long time, mostly by virtue of being a classic, but also because there are so many references to The Great Gatsby in other literature. For example, I read The Double Bind a few years ago and pretty much learned the whole Gatsby story through reading that novel but was still quite confused by some things. It's my plan to finally The Great Gatsby after I finish Stieg Larsson's trilogy, but who knows what will come up in the meantime.

30-Day Book Challenge: Day 22

Day 22 – Favorite book I own

This one was tough because I own almost all my favorite books! In fact, I own almost all the books I've written about during this series so far, including the complete Harry Potter series, The Time Traveler's Wife, a good number of Jodi Picoult novels and of course all my childhood favorites (I'm saving those to read to my kids one day). But I don't want to repeat books in this challenge, so I'm going to go with a stocking stuffer I got from my mom a few years ago:

 

Image via Noblemania

What's the Difference? This book came with me to college and was often a source of amusement for my friends and me. It is quite the wealth of knowledge: my favorite section is "geek vs. nerd," which also includes bonus information about the related terms "dweeb" and "dork." I know you're dying to know the difference now, so to sum it up:

"A geek seems to be any smart person with an obsessive interest. Despite widespread misconception, that interest does not have to be computers or Star Trek."

"A nerd seems to be any smart person with an obsessive interest, but also a lack of social grace. (Yes, this implies that geeks can indeed have social grace.)"

"A dweeb is a nerd with an extra piece of tape around the nose bridge of his glasses - in other words, a 'mega nerd.' A dork is a person you don't even pretend to like, with good reason. Unlike most geek, nerds, and dweebs, dorks are often stupid, grating, or otherwise unpleasant."

P.S. - When I opened the book to find "geek vs. nerd," it fell open to the right spread (p30-31). I guess I've referenced that section one time too many!

30-Day Book Challenge: Day 21

Edited to add: The Book Chat topic today (May 17) at Sweet Green Tangerine is favorite childhood books, so I'm pulling this gem out of the archives. Enjoy! Of course, Harry Potter only isn't included here because I already used the series too much in this challenge (yup, that's six times!). Plus, though I started reading the series when I was 8, I read them into my high school years, when it ended, so I don't know if I would qualify the whole series as "childhood" books. Also, see my post on The Baby-Sitters Club series—another childhood favorite—here.

Day 21 - Favorite book from my childhood

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The Velveteen Rabbit. And here I go again with the sadness. I don't know what it is, but I just think books, movies and music are infinitesimally better when I have to fight back tears. This also could have worked as "Favorite book turned into a movie," but The Velveteen Rabbit worked for both categories and the one I ended up choosing for the book-turned-movie didn't.

Honorable Mentions: Anne of Green Gables (I actually had that one planned for here, but then I found out it fit somewhere else as well), The Giving Tree, Bridge to Terabithia, Tuck Everlasting, Where the Red Fern Grows and Ella Enchanted.

So tell me, which childhood book(s) will you definitely be reading to your children? 

30-Day Book Challenge: Day 20

Day 20 - Favorite romance book

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Message in a Bottle. There are many books I prefer to this one but have already been used on other days (including The Time Traveler's Wife and Peony in Love). I'm not a huge Nicholas Sparks fan, but I feel like today's challenge is just begging for one of his books, so I will succumb to that desire. Message in a Bottle is my favorite Sparks novel, and it was also turned into a movie with Kevin Costner, who is definitely my old-man crush. Warning: It is really sad, so don't expect a typical romantic tale of happily ever after.

Edited to add: I'm linking up this old post with this week's Book Chat over at Sweet Green Tangerine! Check out the other posts by clicking the button below:

30-Day Book Challenge: Day 19

Day 19 - Favorite book turned into a movie

 
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The Time Traveler's Wife. It's books like these that make me think twice about the old adage, "Don't judge a book by its cover," because that's the very reason I picked this book up. I was in Border's a few summers ago when they were doing their "buy two paperbacks, get one free" deal (oh how I miss Border's), and I plucked this off the shelf solely because I liked the way the spine looked. The cover was also intriguing, as well as the title, so I flipped it open and read the first page. Hooked. This book made me laugh and made me cry. It was a book that made me think and question certain plot lines as I worked out the overlapping timelines in my head, but not to the point that I couldn't thoroughly enjoy the story.

Then, of course, I found out they were making the book into a movie. With Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana, no less! Excellent. I wondered how they would fit all the intricacies of the book into the film, and of course they couldn't, but it was still a great movie. I definitely laughed and cried at the film version, too. I saw it opening night with my dad, brother and some friends, and I remember my dad looking down at me at one point with tears in his eyes. "Great movie, Megan," he half-joked. It was a great movie, but it made all of us cry. Well, except maybe my little brother. :)

30-Day Book Challenge: Day 18

Edited to add: I'm recycling this post for Jessica's Book Chat (hosted at Press Play this week) for June 7. The topic is: What is a book you read & loved but didn’t expect to? Or maybe one you thought you’d really enjoy and then didn’t? This post answers the first part of the prompt, and you can see my failed attempt to find a book I thought I wouldn't like but did here.

Day 18 - A book that disappointed me

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The Magicians. I discovered this book through a list on Oprah's website called "Books to Read After Harry Potter." I had already read many of the suggestions (including The Hunger Games, Narnia and His Dark Materials series) and wasn't interested in some of the others, but The Magicians looked intriguing. It was described as "a grown-up Harry Potter," so I gave it a shot. Well, "grown-up" is certainly one way of putting it. The awkward sexual references and unnecessary vulgar language was a little off-putting at first (a kiss on the lips was stimulating in Rowling's novels), but even after I got used to the writing style I couldn't get over the sheer weirdness of the book. I was constantly asking myself what the heck I had gotten myself into, up until the very last page of the book, which managed to almost pack in enough strangeness to outweigh the rest of the book. But hey, I'm still planning to read the sequel (it was quite the cliffhanger ending), so I can't have been that disappointed. Just more surprised, I guess.

30-Day Book Challenge: Day 17

Day 17 - Favorite quote from my favorite book series

Source: thereadables.tumblr.com via Megan on Pinterest

I was actually going to pick a different Harry Potter quote (see below), but I couldn't find a cool illustrated quote like the one above. :) So, I'm picking both of them, and here's why:

Dumbledore's quote: Wow, talk about truth. Some people are born smarter than others. Some are born with more athletic talents. Some are born with more money or nicer parents or a job lined up for them in daddy's company. But really, though I firmly believe the circumstances of your birth do have an impact on your opportunities in life, it really is your choices that define who you are. Everyone has a 50/50 chance of being born into money or a stable family. But at some point, you have to stop blaming your parents for how you turned out, and start living your own life. Go Dumbledore! Such wisdom.

Image via I Solemnly Swear that I am Up to No Good

Hermione's quote: This is the quote I originally was going to pick, just because it's one I always remembered from the book. I always imagined Hermione and I were kindred spirits, as I, too, was always known as "the brain" in my circle of (mostly male) friends growing up. Although I definitely don't take for granted that school has always come easy to me, I acknowledge there are far more important things, and I love that Hermione put that into clear terms. I think I also like this quote so much because it echoes a little of Dumbledore's words above: There is a certain degree to which you can be born intelligent. Of course, anyone can do well in school if they work hard enough, but I believe there is a part of logic and intelligence that is simply innate. Friendship and loyalty, however, are choices that anyone can make. (And they should.)

P.S. - I could have also easily used one of my favorite Sirius Black quotes (which also follows the theme discussed above) but I already shared that one.

This one was hard because I've read so many great books, and there have been so many quotes that have made me stop and say, "hmm." What are some of your favorite book quotes?

30-Day Book Challenge: Day 16

Edited to add: The Book Chat topic for May 31 is Favorite Female of Fiction, so I'm reusing this old post. I also wanted to share the adorable button Jessica made for this week. Click on it to check out the other posts in the link-up:

Day 16 - Favorite female character

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Anne of Green Gables. I always fancied myself as (a blonde version of) Anne, and I loved her spunky sense of adventure. And then, of course, she grew up to be an aspiring magazine writer. Sound familiar? :) It's been a while since I've read one of her books, but I would love to revisit them someday. I only wish she hadn't grown up so fast....

30-Day Book Challenge: Day 15

Edited to add: Jessica's Book Chat prompt this week at Sweet Green Tangerine is our favorite male character, so I'm linking up with this old post. I also wanted to share the adorable button she made for today. Enjoy!

  
Day 15 – Favorite male character

This one was tough. I didn't want to pick a Harry Potter character because I've been using that series too much during this challenge. I also considered Dirk Pitt, but I already used his series, too. I just finished a book with a pretty cool male character, but I want to save that book for a later date. Choices, choices. But, I finally had to decide, so I did. And the winner is ...

 

Image via Listal

Sir William Stafford, from The Other Boleyn Girl. This is kind of a weak choice, I admit, because although he is a main character, he isn't super present in the book. I do remember silently cheering for him throughout the whole book though, and he's a stable source of support for Mary. So there, I had to pick, and I did!

P.S. - When I was looking for a picture of William Stafford, I noticed he was played by Eddie Redmayne in the 2008 movie. Why does that name sound familiar? Because he's playing Marius in the upcoming Les Miserables movie! Eek! (The casting choices for which I've already blogged about twice - once last month and again yesterday, oddly enough.)

Help me out here - who is your favorite male character from a novel? What obvious characters am I blanking on?

30-Day Book Challenge: Day 14

Day 14 – Favorite book by my favorite writer

 
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The Pact. Ahh, I love this book so much. It was definitely one of the saddest I've read, though. It centers on a teenage couple and the legal drama that unfolds after one of them dies from a gunshot. I don't want to get into too many details, but it is absolutely phenomenal if you don't mind having your heart wrenched out of your chest every 20 pages or so. Oh, Jodi. How wonderful you are.

30-Day Book Challenge: Day 13

Day 13 – My favorite writer

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Jodi Picoult! You might be surprised that I didn't say J.K. Rowling (considering two of my book challenges thus far - Day 2 and Day 3 - have been about Harry Potter), but though I love Rowling's characters and the magical world she created, I've never felt any particular attachment to the author herself. Jodi Picoult, on the other hand, absolutely fascinates me. But I guess if you've been a regular reader of my blog, you're already aware of my slight obsession. :) Her books cover a wide range of ethically charged dilemmas, from reproductive rights to assisted suicide and abuse to adultery. Her characters are always so incredibly well developed, and I've probably cried in at least half of her books. (I'm currently all up-to-date, having read all 18 of her novels, and I can't wait for Lone Wolf to be released at the end of this month!) I also follow Jodi on Twitter, and she seems like a pretty cool mom and person. So kudos to you, Jodi Picoult! You grabbed my attention when I read Plain Truth in 2004 and haven't let go since! Keep writing!

30-Day Book Challenge: Day 12

Day 12 – A book I used to love but don’t anymore

Hmm, this one is tough. I don't often re-read books, so the only thing I can think of is to pick a book I loved growing up that I probably wouldn't enjoy today. In this case, it's actually a series.

The Baby-sitters Club. (I never noticed that had a hyphen until just now.) My sister and I had a huge bookcase full of these books growing up. We had the regular books, the "Super Specials," the mystery editions.... They were quick, fun reads when I was little, but I'm sure they wouldn't hold the same fascination for me now. I particularly remember how Ann M. Martin would spend pages describing each club member and their interests near the beginning of each book. I thought this was so cool growing up because that was my favorite part of writing - the descriptions. I wanted to write novels full of descriptions without any plotline whatsoever! However, I'm sure today that repetitious information would annoy me to no end.

Did you read The Baby-sitters Club growing up? How about Sweet Valley Twins? That was our other big book collection. My mom thought Sweet Valley High was too racy for me, though. Ha.

30-Day Book Challenge: Day 11

Day 11 – A book I hated

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Atonement. I'm one of those people who refuses to see any book-turned-movie if I haven't read the book yet (and am planning to do so). However, I broke this rule with Atonement and severely regretted it. I went to see the movie with my mom's book club (who had just finished reading the novel by Ian McEwan). It was very depressing, of course, but I still liked the movie. The book, which I read a few months later, was a completely different story. First of all, I already knew I hated Briony, so it was difficult for me to read pages and pages about her childhood activities, including a particularly long diatribe on her watching her pinky finger bend and examining the knuckle and thinking about how it all worked. (Yawn.) This tedious writing style, coupled with the decent length of the book (480 pages), made Atonement very sluggish reading. But mostly (SPOILER ALERT) I didn't really want to keep reading when I knew everyone would just die unhappily in the end anyway. I did force myself to finish it and I was not rewarded. Ho-hum.