Tag: Opposite Books Tag

Hi :)

I came across this tag on youtube yesterday, and since it seemed fun and I haven’t done a tag in a while, I thought I would try it out. :)

I believe this is the original video, but since it is in portuguese, I haven’t watched it so I can’t say for certain.

The idea of this tag is that you have to answer a number of questions concerning opposites in the world of books. I’m only going to pick books from my own bookshelf since, well…it’s just going to be easier that way. :)

So let’s have a look at the questions. :)

1.  First book in your collection/Last book you bought.
2. A cheap book/An expensive book.
3. A book with a male protagonist/One with a female protagonist.
4. A book you read fast/One that took you long to read.
5. Pretty cover/Ugly cover.
6. A national book/An international book.
7. A thin book/A thick book.
8. Fiction book/Non-fiction book.
9. Very (way too) romantic book/Action book.
10. A book that made you happy/One that made you sad.

 First book in your collection

For as long as I can remember, I have had books lined up on a shelf in my room. I have received books as gifts, I have inherited books from older cousins, and I have gotten books from school. Basically, what I’m trying to say is…I have no freaking clue which book is the first in my collection. Books have simply always been a huge part of my life.

One thing changed around when I was twelve, though. Up until then, I rarely got new books since my mum thought it was a waste of money to buy books I would only read once and never pick up again (this is something I still take in consideration when I do buy books). So, the main thing that changed when I turned twelve, was that I started re-reading my favourite books, which in turn led to me beginning to actively start buying books for myself.

I have taken a look in a reading journal I used before I found Goodreads, and from what I can see, the first books in my official book-collection were…

New Moon and Eclipse.

This was about the time the first movie came out, and almost every girl my age was reading this series at school. Problem was, it was so damn popular that I couldn’t get my hands on the first one, Twilight. It was out of stock everywhere and it took several weeks for me to get it. That’s why New Moon and Eclipse were the first, not Twilight. It was a real pain, let me tell you. To have these two bastards staring at me for weeks, but not being able to read them…

So yeah, that’s the story of how I started buying books. :)

Last book you bought

This is a bit easier and, unlike the previous question, doesn’t require a very long answer. :)

The last book I bought, was this lovely Percy Jackson box-set:

Finally I have them all in my collection!

A cheap book

If you have been around for a while, you probably know about my obsession concerning the condition of my books. This, and the fact that there are basically no bookstores selling used books remotely close to me, results in me only ever buying new ones.

Books in Sweden are also very expensive, and therefore, I don’t think you will think my cheapest book is very cheap at all…

This is my tiny ass paperback copy of Shadowland by Meg Cabot, and I got it in the store for the price of $10.30.

Yep, that is the cheapest book in my collection. Wait a second while I go and cry somewhere.

An expensive book 

So you might understand my jealousy whenever I see hardcovers at the price of like $9 at Barnes & noble (an average hardcover in Sweden costs about $20 or more, never less).

First time I heard about this, I though YES! This will change my life forever!

Uhm, no….not when the freaking shipping costs twice as much as the book does.

Which brings me to the, probably, most expensive book on my shelf…

This is my signed copy of The Dream Thieves, and if you add the shipping, it cost me $44.44 (without shipping it was $18.99).

So, yeah…

A book with a male protagonist

On a happier note, here you have one of my favourite books with a male protagonist:

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness.

I really, really love books with male protagonists, and I would be forever grateful if you could recommend me some *cough* down in the comments *cough*.

One with a female protagonist 

Like 90 % of the books I read have female protagonists, but this particular gal, I’m extra fond of. :)

And ain’t that cover pretty!

A book you read fast

If I have the time, and if the book is good, I usually read a book in 1-3 days.

This baby, though, is one of the heavier books I have read that fast (my Swedish edition is about 900 pages). I believe it took me about 1-2 days, which I think is a personal record for me. :) It’s also kind of funny considering the fact that I waited three long years for it….

Inheritance by Christopher Paolini.

One that took you long to read

The book on my shelf that I think took me the longest to read, is probably…

…Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver.

*Sigh*

I don’t really know why it took me so long, but even though it is only 384 pages, it took me six months to finish.

Six months.

Definitely not my proudest moment.

Pretty cover

I think we can all agree that this is one attractive cover ;).

Oh Scarlet, if I were a book, I would probably marry you.

Ugly cover. 

This is really easy actually, because not many of the books on my shelves I consider ugly…

except for this one…

Honestly, these covers seriously give me nightmares. Why on earth would anyone do this? I’m sorry and don’t want to be mean, but I would have been so happy if you would have  just gone with the lovely font and some flowers or whatever…

A national book

By this, I suppose they mean a book that takes place in my own country, and I’m just going to get this out there: I don’t like most of the things Sweden produces. I almost never read Swedish books, watch Swedish movies, or listen to Swedish music. It’s not that it’s bad necessarily, I just don’t like it. Therefore I, to say the least, don’t have much to show for in this department. I own a total of two books taking place in Sweden, one that I won in a writing contest  2010 and I didn’t like very much, and one that I read for school last year. It is called Hundraåringen som klev ut genom fönstret och försvann, but you probably know it better as The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared.

I actually quite liked this book. It is, you guessed it, about a hundred-year-old man who climbs out the window of his retirement home on the day of his birthday. He then heads out on a journey through Sweden, and throughout the story, the reader also gets to know more about his insane and hilarious youth, how he helped building the first nuclear bomb, how he insulted Stalin and ended up in Siberia, how he met the fake Albert Einstein, and much, much more. :)

An international book

For this, I could pick basically any book, but I’m going to go with Goliath by Scott Westerfeld, simply because, well, they travel a damn lot in this book. Also, I can’t stop talking about this fantastic series. ;)

A thin book

With only 166 pages, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner is one of the shortest books I own.

A thick book

Well that would be this giant. :)

The Complete Sherlock Holmes happens to be 1077 pages long, and have the tiniest font you could possibly imagine. ;)

Oh, one day I will read this, I promise.

Fiction book

Once again I could have closed my eyes and grabbed any book from my shelf, but I decided to go with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. :)

God, I love this book!

It probably has one of my favourite out of the Swedish covers as well. :)

Non-fiction book 

A little bit harder since I never really read non-fiction, but I managed to dig out this little darling…

This is a book about animals from all around the world, and I absolutely loved it when I was little. I think I have read the whole thing about three or four times, and I have no idea why.

Very (way too) romantic book

I suppose you mean like, romantic to the point of being cheesy and cringe-worthy.

In that case, I’ll go with Twilight.

Action book

Leviathan on the other hand has pretty much no romance at all, and is filled with action and awesome battles. :)

A book that made you happy

This book made me incredibly happy, and awfully sad at the same time….

…which weirdly enough made me even happier. I love when books makes me feel things, both happy and sad, and that is definitely something Eleanor & Park did.

One that made you sad

I’m going to be super-original and go for The Fault in Our Stars. Man, this is a real tear-jerker…

And that was all for today :). Feel free to do this tag yourself, it was a lot of fun. :)

Bye!