I found this interesting book tag while searching the web on Dwell in Possibility. It seemed appropriate considering we’ve just been enjoying the summer, although most of us probably haven’t been to a beach this year, or at least I haven’t. 😦 I do realise that here in the UK by the time of posting this most of us are probably done with visiting the beach (if you ever did) but I thought I’d get this tag done before it’s considered way too late for summery blog posts, lol. 🙂 It’s a pretty short book tag featuring all the different aspects you’d enjoy at the beach, so I hope you enjoy the tag and my answers.
As always with all book tags please do go ahead if you want to do it yourself, simply let me know you’re doing the tag by either tagging me by putting a link to this blog post in your own and/or leave a comment below with the link to your post, or alternatively just tell me your answers to this tag below. 🙂
1. THE SAND: A book that stuck with you long after you finished reading
I think I’ve said it before but the book Max by Sarah Cohen-Sali was the one book that has stuck with me so long that I couldn’t read for a whole week after reading it. It’s such an interesting and yet disturbing read, with the main character Max being a perfect Nazi child born of their eugenics program. It stayed with me for a week and maybe even more because it really distubed me, the way Max thinks is distressing enough but the book covers a lot of the brutality that the Nazis did, more than you can think of. And maybe it was something that was even more disturbing for me personally because I have family connections to what happened in World War II in Poland with some of my family suffering the same fate as some of the minor characters in the book, so it really stuck with me and to this day I still think about it when I think about the war.
2. THE SUN: A book that burned you
I don’t often come across books that I didn’t like but I think The Dog Who Dared to Dream by Sun-Mi Hwang is one book that I did feel burned after I read it because of the way that the story of a dog and its owner was portrayed. Perhaps it was because the book is written by someone in a very different culture to us here in the UK but I just couldn’t resonate with the poor dog Scraggly being treated the way it was by the owner and the book just left me feeling such a mix of emotions and an overly empty feeling that it’s not one I’d ever want to read again. 😦
3. THE WAVES: A book that calms you down after a long day
I think any funny books would be perfect for the end of a day, especially a day that’s been very hard. Although there’s plenty of great funny books out there, I definitely love the Julius Zebra series by Gary Northfield. There’s just something really brilliant about the humour of these books, set in the historic period of the Romans and being a combination of both silly, funny and a bit factual, they just make me laugh sooo much and are the perfect books I’d pick to read!
4. THE BATHING SUIT: A book with a pretty, summery cover
I just love this one,the UK over of Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch. It’s a fun YA contemporary novel set mainly in Italy after teenager Lina does what her dying mother wished, go there to get to know her father. It’s a great and fun story and has some romance too and it’s a book I’ll definitely read again some day. But for the cover alone it’s just so yummy, isn’t it? 😀
5. THE BIRDS: A book that is everywhere
There’s one book I couldn’t help but see again and again whenever I visited twitter and instagram quite recently is one that’s now got me curious about it. Although contemporary YA novels aren’t my favourite genre, I can’t help but be intrigued by Blood Moon by Lucy Cuthew. A book about periods and online shaming. It sounds like a book that would have been interesting to read as a teenager and although to some people this might sound a bit “eeww”, there’s no getting away from the subject and it’s one that lots of teenage girls may encounter and want to read about. The only book featuring periods I think I ever read as a teenager or pre-teen was Are You There God It’s Me Margaret? by Judy Blume and wow is that one outdated today! So that’s another reason I’m interested in this book, but I am also intrigued by the rather, erm, interesting and maybe shocking to some, cover for Blood Moon. Both the UK and US covers are, um, interesting, aren’t they? 😉 😮
6. THE COMPANY: A book with wonderful characters
I think I’ll go with the Uncle Shawn and Bill series of books by A. L. Kennedy & Gemma Correll, which feature a madcap set of characters. You have the interesting and silly Uncle Shawn, his best friend a badger named Bill, and then there’s the four llamas that all have such weird and different personalities. It’s a really funny set of books that keeps on getting better with every new addition and I just love all the different characters, especially the llamas!
7. THE ICE-COLD DRINKS: A book you absolutely gulped down
There are so many books I’ve just been so engrossed in that I couldn’t put them down, so it’s difficult to choose just one from the whole mix! But if pressed I think I just couldn’t get enough of a book that I recently read and that’s The Beast and the Bethany by Jack Meggitt-Phillips &Isabelle Follath. Although the book isn’t out until October I was lucky enough to read it for a blog tour and I am so glad I did because this book is so brilliantly weird, a bit creepy and very funny with a 511-year-old man, Ebenezer, who wants to stay young forever, a Beast who wants to eat a human child and Bethany who’s a brat and more than a match for both Ebenezer and the Beast. It’s just the perfect children’s book for the Halloween season and I can’t wait for the next book in the series already!
8. THE FUN MEMORIES: A book you can’t wait to return to
I haven’t re-read a lot of books and especially not in the last few years I’ve been blogging as I’ve been on a bit of a crazy book reading trip, reading lots of new releases, but there are definitely a few books I’d love to return to, one of them being Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor, a fantasy that’s just so detailed and wonderful! I absolutely adored this book and just got so absorbed into the whole story while reading it a few years ago. I haven’t yet read the sequel called Muse of Nightmares but I definitely want to and will look forward to tucking back into Strange the Dreamer before I read that. I’m smiling right now just at the thought of it. 🙂
What do you think of my answers to these questions? What would your answers be? Let me know what you think in the comments below 🙂
The Strawberry Post 
Though I do sometimes go to the beach in the Summer, I actually prefer it in the off-season. For one thing, I prefer to stay near a fan in hot weather. For another thing, I hate crowds, so prefer going when most people won’t be there.
Anyway, great answers, and fun tag.
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Thank you! 🙂 I’m with you on preferring to go to places like the beach off-season. I visited a beach up north a few years ago and it was so nice to visit just after the main tourist trade had gone for the year. The beaches are much more empty and you have more of the lovely view to yourself. The only downside is that off-peak can sometimes be very cold, lol. I don’t think I’d cope without a fan in the summer, it’s so horribly hot where I live and sometimes the lack of wind during a heatwave is just too much.
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I prefer cold, so the cooler temperatures for my beach trips is just fine by me. 😉 As for the heat… I only just cope in Summer with a fan, so definitely wouldn’t without one!
By the way, I’m doing this tag on my blog next week. I did have another one scheduled for then, but I moved that one because – like you – I don’t want it to get too far away from Summer before I post this one.
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I’ll look forward to reading it! 😀
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