Going to answer some bookish questions about myself. Not tagging anyone in particular, feel free to do it if you want to. 😀 Tag created by Booktuber GirlReading, original video can be found here.

The Rapid Fire Book Tag

eBooks or physical books?

Physical because I love to sniff and pet books. 😀

Paperback or hardback?

I tend to buy paperbacks for the lower price, but ever since I discovered pre-order swag I’ve been buying a lot more hardcovers oops.

Online or in-store book shopping?

Online is convenient and I’m kind of lazy. But on the other hand, it’s relaxing to just wander around a bookstore browsing titles and being able to feel the books.

Trilogies or series?

It doesn’t matter to me. If the books hold my interest, I’ll keep reading no matter how long the series lasts.

Heroes or villains?

Villains can be interesting but in the end I prefer heroes because I’m a social justice activist, so obviously I want good to prevail. 🙂

A book you want everyone to read?

Hmm, I’d probably go with Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin. It’s such a magical tale that weaves together so many story threads, and the illustrations (done by the author herself) are gorgeous. Below is most of the jacket illustration.

Recommend an underrated book.

The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo. It wasn’t marketed as YA, perhaps because the protagonist is eighteen, which makes her an “adult” based on U.S. legal standards, but the story is fairly YA-esque in my opinion. It’s an #ownvoices fantasy novel set in colonial Malaya (modern-day Malaysia) in 1893, written by a fourth generation Malaysian-Chinese author. It focuses on the story of a girl who is asked to be a ghost bride (a bride to a dead man who did not get to wed during his life) and is then drawn into the Chinese afterlife, where secrets and danger lurk.

The last book you finished?

Song of the Cuckoo Bird by Amulya Malladi. It’s a bittersweet historical fiction novel that spans decades and tells the stories of a family of women who are outcasts in society for various reasons. It’s a very emotionally honest book, with complex, flawed characters. But not for everyone. I talk about why in my review.

Used books, yes or no?

Yes. There are Used – Like New/Very Good books I get through Amazon because they’re cheaper or out of print. And then there are used books I buy at used bookstores, which are a great place to scour for old and/or obscure books by Asian authors. I prefer new books, but I won’t say no to a good used one.

Top three favorite genre?

1. Fantasy – I love magic and alternate universes and fantasy creatures and deities and so on.
2. Diverse contemporary YA – I’ll admit I’m partial to stories about 2nd gen kids because their experiences are so relatable to me.
3. Literary fiction with intergenerational narratives – That’s a very specific category, but it’s what I’m drawn to because so much of my culture is structured around family and heritage and roots, so I love reading about threads that link generations of families together. I get really emotionally invested in family relationships, much more than I do in romantic ones.

Weirdest thing you used as a bookmark?

That little strip you tear off a package/envelope to open it, lol.

Borrow or buy?

Buy. I’m a book dragon, I hoard books. ;D

Characters or plot?

Both. But in general, character-driven stories with not as much plot are better than stories with plot but characters I don’t really care about.

Long or short book?

Depends. 300-400 pages is a decent length for me. 500+ had better be a very good and very involved/complex story because otherwise…nope.

Long or short chapters?

Short ones, I guess. Feels like there are more pauses to take a mental break. More places I can stop reading for the day/time being.

Name the first three books you think of.

First Test (Protector of the Small #1) by Tamora Pierce – The first book in a series that’s among my all-time favorites. A girl enters the training for knighthood, the first since a few centuries ago. She fights against sexism and always defends the underdog. A very feminist series that empowers women of diverse backgrounds.

Hawksong (The Kiesha’ra #1) by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes – Not a very diverse book or series in terms of characters overall, but the author is queer. It features shapeshifters, political intrigue, and romance. There is a queer/lesbian MC in the fourth book, Wolfcry.

The Red Chamber by Pauline A. Chen – An English-language retelling of one of the four great classics of Chinese literature, Dream of the Red Chamber, a story of elite socialites and political intrigue set in Qing China, with a large cast of characters and complex relationships between them all. I haven’t read it yet, but it’s on my TBR. I have vague memories of the drama adaptation that my mom watched when I was very young.

Books that make you laugh or cry?

I think…books that make me cry…I laugh at a lot of things whereas crying at things is relatively unusual for me. It means I’m empathizing deeply enough with the characters to feel pain and sadness on their behalf…

Our world or fictional worlds?

Can’t we have both? Like an AU that’s connected to our world through portals or whatever?

Do you ever judge a book by its cover?

I like pretty covers but I read books with ugly ones and don’t think books are worse for having an ugly cover or better when the cover is pretty. That said, I’d rather have a pretty cover for a book I love.

Audiobooks: yes or no?

No. I’m bad at processing information through sound, so I’d get distracted very easily and miss most of what’s being said. >.>

Book to movie or book to TV adaptation?

Depends. Some books can fit into a movie, others would be better off being TV series so you can get all the details and subplots.

A movie or TV adaptation you preferred to the book?

Unpopular opinion: The Lord of the Rings. I tried to read The Hobbit and I really could not get through it. It was so dry. I don’t feel much guilt though because it’s super white and cisheteronormative. *shrug*

Series or standalone?

I’m definitely a series person. Maybe because I’m always greedy for more about the characters I love?