Would You Rather Book Tag

One of these days I’ll actually do a book tag properly and ya know . . . tag some people, but in the mean time I still think it’s fun to fill out the prompts and see where I land. For any new to the blog, or new to book tags in general, I’d definitely recommend checking out some of the tags I’ve done in the past. I’m especially fond of the Dune and Jurassic Park tags, and the Get to Know the Fantasy Reader tag is probably a good place to start if you want to get an idea of where I’m at within the the genre (it’s mostly still accurate)

I found THIS tag on Jenna Falling Letters Blog but couldn’t chase it back to the source . . .

Anyway, please read on and enjoy!

Would you rather read from a hardback, paperback, or e-book?

Paperback. I won’t lie, there are a lot of amazing and beautifully realized hardback books out there (I’m thinking specifically of all these illuminated editions we see now days) which are amazing, and I’ve certainly shelled out a great deal of money for them every now and again (even pre “secret projects”) but my answer comes down to the most practical of reasons: A paperback will usually fit in your coat pocket.

E-books will also generally fit in your coat pocket. This is assuming I never get a newer kindle, which given I’ve had the same PaperWhite for probably a decade and it shows no signs of stopping, indeed I may never get something different.

But I still enjoy turning physical pages. Oddly, this is something that has happened to me as I’ve gotten older. In my 20s I think I was E-books all-day-every-day and didn’t care about physical things like pages. Now I do. I’ll admit I’m at a loss for why. E-books are more efficient. You can own more of them etc. . . . but I still want a paperback.

Tis a mystery.

Would you rather crack the spine of a paperback or ruin a hardback’s dust jacket?

Crack the spine on a paperback. It’s almost unavoidable although I have been met with surprise at the pristine condition of some of my paperbacks. However, you can ostensibly keep a dust jacket looking pristine forever.

Two anecdotes regarding dust jackets:

1) We used to just give away the dust jackets at a library I worked at. Patrons would see them lying in the “free-cycle” area and come to the desk thinking we were giving the books away and would become quite upset when they found out they had to check the items out. I’m not sure what our thinking was for giving out only the dust jackets but we eventually stopped and just started throwing them out.
2) I was once reading by the pool and left the dust jacket of Chuck Palahniuk’s Rant on the table next to me. The wind picked up and blew it right into the water. I had about 3 seconds of utter terror as it wafted through the air, not yet ruined but incapable of being saved. It dried out pretty well but I can tell. I’ve hidden the book on my shelf so that I hardly ever see it. I should probably go get therapy.

Random (only slightly) related anecdote:

1) I met a dude in line for a signing at a conference once reading one of the Game of Thrones books. I thought he’d spilled coffee on the pages but when I asked it turned out the stains were from mushrooms. The hallucinogenic kind. I always thought that was perhaps the most epic reason to tarnish a beautiful book.

Would you prefer info dump on a world/magic system to a drip-feed technique?

If it can be done, drip-feed all the way. However, as a writer I often realize just how difficult this can be to achieve. I’m sure it’s the reason many Fantasy and Science Fiction novels are just doorstoppers. It takes time to dole the info out slowly. It is difficult to think of so many scenes in which you can give the reader just a little more, and then a little more, and still keep everything relevant to the plot.

I’m envious of any who can do it.

Would you rather have a soft magic system or a hard magic system?

Generally, I lean towards hard magic systems, but as they say “only Sith deal in absolutes” (do they say that? Who says that?). A well written soft magic system is just as enjoyable to me as any (again well written) hard magic system. It just seems to be that I end up reading the ones with hard magic (probably because of all the Brando Sando I read hahah)

Would you rather jump on board with a book series and wait to see if it gets traction or wait for a successful book series to be brought to your attention?

Ideally, I’d like to discover something on my own, and then be reaffirmed of its awesomeness by other people later on down the line. However, practically speaking, usually I only find out about books because someone else has already told me about them, and when enough people do, I’ll get FOMO and have to pick it up myself.

So while I’d like the first part of that question to be my answer, it’s probably the second.

Would you rather have dinner with your favorite character or author?

Gonna be honest, on any given day my “favorite character” varies wildly. I’m not really sure who my all-time favorite character even is (maybe a good topic for a future blog post lol). My favorite author is generally pretty consistent. Brandon Sanderson. And yea, it’d be pretty great to get dinner with the guy. Maybe someday . . .

Would you rather read duologies, trilogies or standalone books?

Since I read mainly Fantasy, everything is a trilogy or in many cases even longer (waaayyy longer). A standalone Fantasy feels like . . . well I was gonna say unicorn but those are actually relatively common in this genre so . . . I don’t know, some super rare thing. I just don’t know of that many.

I’m seeing more duologies recently which is intriguing to me but I would say at least as rare as a standalone if not rarer.

Anyway, to answer the question, I think I’m leaning more towards standalones these days, as I’m getting pretty burnt out by these long series. I’ve pretty much given up on the prospect of ever finishing Wheel of Time and just keeping up with the Cosmere seems like a full time job. I’m not sure I’ll ever get to Game of Thrones and recently I got it into my head that I’d like to try Malazan before I promptly shuddered at the sheer number of volumes and ran screaming for a novella.

Would you rather read self-published or traditionally published authors for 2 years straight?

Based on what I actually do, I guess the answer is read trad-pub for two more years, but I’ve been meaning to go on a self-pub binge for quite a while. If you have recs please leave em in the comments!

Would you rather be stuck in your favorite SFF world or your favorite SFF book?

My first thought is fav SFF world because I’d be able to live in a alternate world with cool stuff, but not have any of the pressure of being a hero. But upon further consideration, my final answer would be to be stuck in the book. Because its the characters in the book that get to do all the cool amazing stuff that makes me want to be there instead of here.

For instance, Star Wars is an amazing universe with all kinds of cool and amazing stuff in it. But being a moisture farmer sounds pretty lame . . . unless I was THEE moisture farmer who just happened to be related to some of the most important and dangerous figures in the galaxy, and I was about to go on a mystical quest romping around said galaxy waving a laser sword because my uncle bought some new droids.

Would you rather read Fantasy or Science Fiction?

Generally, Fantasy. And I’ve got a lot of Fantasy on the docket coming up, to the point where I’m getting a bit overwhelmed and have been eyeing science fiction as a change of pace. Again I’d say leave your sci-fi recs in the comments.

Would you rather have your favorite book adapted into a film or into a television series?

These days, I’m leaning towards TV. I think that medium has really shown itself to be a good format for these long fantasy epics that I enjoy reading. The Wheel of Time show is probably my current favorite example. It’s amazing. And would probably make a terrible movie (or 14 movies).

But perhaps if I find some great standalones as I’ve been wanting to, film might turn around.

Worth noting however, I think some of the feeling of burnout I mentioned before with long book series is because of television and the interconnectedness of cinematic universes like Star Wars and Marvel. This includes film but I think it is really going crazy in TV land so while my current choice is TV, it’s a cautious choice to say the least.

Would you rather have to reread your least favorite book every month, or never read your favorite book again?

I’m surprising myself here by saying I’d rather never read my favorite book again. If I tried to read my least fav book every month I don’t think I’d have much time for anything else. And what if my new favorite book is out there somewhere and I never find it cause I’m just reading the same old least favorite over and over. The FOMO is real . . .

Would you rather secretly love a book everyone else hates, or secretly hate a book everyone else loves?

Probably hate a book everyone else loves. I think there is a lot less cognitive work going on in that scenario. If you love something that everyone else hates it can become a crisis. All the rationalizing and apologizing, and maybe even lying (to yourself and other people).

I must have Star Wars on the brain today, but The Phantom Menace is a perfect example. That movie has a lot of hate going towards it (although perhaps not as much as Last Jedi), and for a lot of very valid reasons. But it’s still my favorite. And I’ve spent years trying to figure out why I’m not on the same page as everyone else. It has not been a fun trip and I’ll admit that it just doesn’t make sense. I like what I like. Oh well.

Would you rather dog-ear your book, or never be able to mark your place?

I don’t really have a strong opinion either way, but all things the same, I’d probably just never mark my place. I feel like I can spend the extra time to find where I am each time, and having a nice looking book is its own reward.

Would you rather listen to your favorite book as an audiobook narrated by the worst narrator ever, or never read it again?

I’d take the terrible narrator every time. I will admit that I stayed away from audio books for a very long time because I hadn’t heard any narrators which I liked, but now I’m really enjoying many of them (especially Soneela Nankani. See Daevabad Books, Kaikeyi, Ruin of Kings and Fit For The Gods).

And as easy as it was to give up my fav read a few questions ago, a bad narrator seems like a silly reason to give it up in the long run.

Would you rather have a disappointing end/unfulfilled cliffhanger, or lose your favorite character?

Lose a favorite character. This has happened in some (maybe even most?) of my favorite books. It can suck for sure, but when done well ultimately leads to a better book. A bad cliffhanger is just bad hahah.

Well that’s all I have for you this week. Hope you enjoyed this tag and please leave me your thoughts and feelings in the comments. Or better yet, answer these questions on your own blog and link me as a source. I’ll see a notification and stop by to read your answers.

Until next time . . .