This is a tag I found here
AUTHOR YOU’VE READ THE MOST BOOKS FROM
Rick Riordan can’t be human. How can he possibly have written so many damn books? Keep in mind: the above image is not all of the books he’s written. They’re just the ones in his demigods series.
BEST SEQUEL EVER
The Lord of the Rings is technically a sequel to The Hobbit. Totally different vibes, yes, but technically it is a sequel.
CURRENTLY READING
Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay. I have no fixed opinions yet
DRINK OF CHOICE WHILE READING
Depending on the weather, either an English Breakfast tea or an iced latte
E-READER OR PHYSICAL BOOK?
At the moment, with all the moving around and such, I stick mostly to e-readers so that I can carry my library wherever I go and don’t need to spend thousands on shipping costs.
FICTIONAL CHARACTER YOU PROBABLY WOULD HAVE ACTUALLY DATED IN HIGH SCHOOL
This is tough because if I had my way I’d never would have dated anyone in high school – I did, because that was the done thing and I was under the impression that I was just a ‘late bloomer’ and that my sexuality would be kickstarted if I just put myself out there. But if I could go back I wouldn’t force myself into it. If I had to date anyone from a book, I’d have to go with an age-appropriate Edmund Pevensie type; the kind of character who learns from his mistakes and adjusts his behaviour when he’s called out, and also has a little more social ability than me (he was a king, after all, and an ambassador when he was away from Narnia).
GLAD YOU GAVE THIS BOOK A CHANCE:
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green. Wasn’t expecting to enjoy a non-fiction book as much as I enjoyed his fiction ones, but I’m glad I read this one because it was a very poignant meditation on the world as it is. It’s also a kind of fossil of how many of us felt towards the middle/end of 2020.
HIDDEN GEM BOOK
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. Surprisingly tough to find in mainstream bookstores, but a friend put me onto it when she heard that I’d liked Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows. This is a fantastic book with intrigue, humour, and awesome historical fantasy vibes. You just don’t see a lot of historical fantasy books set in medieval Venice. It does actually switch moods dramatically in the middle because… some stuff happens. Keep your tissues close.
IMPORTANT MOMENT IN YOUR READING LIFE
The Harry Potter series by JK Rowling. Yes, I know. But when I was a kid, this book series was one of the most interesting things in my life and, ironically, solidified in my young mind the concept that people must be treated with dignity and humanity, regardless of how different they are to you. It’s not an exaggeration to say that I owe my life and my career to this series. My feelings about Rowling and her politics do not change what these books meant to me when I was young.
JUST FINISHED
Pet by Akwaeke Emezi. Cannot recommend it enough. Pet explores ways that communities can engage with crime and punishment without policing, and it’s fascinating to see this thought experiment in practice. It also shows the limitations of the approaches that were taken in the book – in particular, what happens when people just don’t listen to victims.
KINDS OF BOOKS YOU WON’T READ
Torture porn. I used to read a lot of crime fiction and I had to stop because, in order to raise stakes and compete within the genre, there was a troubling trend of gratuitous sexual violence. I usually skip even the most banal, consensual sex scenes in books; non-consensual, torturous, explained in grizzly detail, scenes that are the core of the book and keep getting revisited because the plot revolves around them… no. Just no. No shade if that’s your thing. It’s just not mine.
LONGEST BOOK YOU’VE READ
The Lord of the Rings is the longest book I’ve read (I count it as one book because that’s what Tolkien would have wanted)
MAJOR BOOK HANGOVER BECAUSE OF
Factfulness by Han Rosling. When I tell you that I will probably be thinking about this book for years… This is a non-fiction book about what the world actually is nowadays, which is vastly different to the outdated information we learned in school. What I learned from this book, and especially the thought processes that I learned about, will likely stick in my head for a while.
NUMBER OF BOOKCASES YOU OWN
Just one in real life. Like I said above, I don’t have a lot of physical books anymore. When I was in university I had over a thousand books at my parents’ house, but they have all moved on to better homes.
ONE BOOK YOU HAVE READ MULTIPLE TIMES
Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson is an essay collection which deals with her experience with mental illness, depression and anxiety. But it also includes her obsession with taxidermy, her ever-exasperated husband, and her relationship with the world at large. I started laughing on the first page.
PREFERRED PLACE TO READ
Somewhere comfy where I can be slightly horizontal but not fully laying down (because I will fall asleep)
QUOTE THAT INSPIRES YOU/GIVES YOU ALL THE FEELS FROM A BOOK YOU’VE READ:
“We must fight like there is something to fight for, like we are something worth fighting for, because we are. And so I choose to believe that we are not approaching the apocalypse, that the end is not coming, and that we will find a way to survive the coming changes.”
John Green, The Anthropocene Reviewed
READING REGRET:
I don’t have any real regrets about reading but I do regret not keeping myself engaged in reading when the world was falling apart; I think I would have survived a little longer if I spent more time in my imagination and less time doom-scrolling and looking for things to be anxious about.
SERIES YOU STARTED AND NEED TO FINISH (ALL BOOKS ARE OUT IN SERIES)
The Simon Snow series by Rainbow Rowell. I loved the first one (much more inclusive and modern than the Harry Potter series, which it pastiches remarkably well) and I knew that the second and third would introduce new conflicts and stakes for the main characters. I found them quite comforting and didn’t want to see them dealing with that. I’ll get around to this when my mental health is strong enough to accept such unknowns
THREE OF YOUR ALL-TIME FAVOURITE BOOKS
The Six of Crows series by Leigh Bardugo, The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis, and Emma by Jane Austen
UNAPOLOGETIC FANGIRL FOR
Lord of the Rings is – and will always be – one of my favourite fantasy worlds.
VERY EXCITED FOR THIS RELEASE
The Adventure Zone: Eleventh Hour by the McElroy family. This is already out by the time this blog goes live, but I have to wait for shipping so it will still be a while. This comic is based on an actual-play D&D podcast that I was utterly obsessed with while it was running. The other comics in the series have been largely true to the original story, with some minor tweaks for character consistency and foreshadowing. I can’t wait to see what they do with this arc
WORST BOOKISH HABIT
I force myself to finish books even when I’m not feeling it – to the point where I will spend weeks not picking up any books at all because the one I have to finish is so unappealing.
X MARKS THE SPOT: START AT THE TOP LEFT OF YOUR SHELF AND PICK THE 27TH BOOK
CS Lewis by Colin Duriez. Great book if you’re interested in the old-school academic vibes of Oxford
YOUR LATEST BOOK PURCHASE
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy. A fucking amazing book that really highlights the importance of oversight when it comes to any kind of child labour. McCurdy came up in Hollywood, which has a lot of oversight and still wasn’t enough to protect her; imagine what those poor kids of MommyBloggers and Instagram models will have to endure before anyone realises that what they’re doing is actually labour too?
ZZZ-SNATCHER BOOK (LAST BOOK THAT KEPT YOU UP WAY LATE)
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi. I didn’t know what to expect going in, but the basic premise of this book is so damn cool that I read it in one sitting.
PS – I love writing and I love eating! If you want to help with the latter (and ONLY if you want) you can maybe buy me a coffee?
Jessica Seymour 