Category: discussion

discussion

Let’s Talk Bookish – All-Time Favourite Book

Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

Aria @ Book Nook Bits is the new host for Let’s Talk Bookish! If you aren’t following her yet, good check out her blog and give her a follow!

October 6: What Qualifies as an “All-Time Favorite Book?” (Jillian @ Jillian the Bookish Butterfly)

Prompts: What books would you say are your all-time favorites? Do you have lots of them, or just a few? What makes a book one of your all-time favorites?

Welcome to another week of LTB here at DTRH, everyone! It’s the first Friday of October, and today’s topic is about what qualifies as an “all-time favorite book.” I’m assuming everyone has a favourite, though I think it may be even more common to have multiple favourites. Or no favourites at all because who wants to choose?

I think I have a couple of books that come to mind as all-time favourites. One of my old favourites was Memoirs of a Geisha, for it’s captivating tale and heart-wrenching moments. I haven’t read it again in many years but I still feel its effects of how it made me feel at the time. The most recent one I’ve read that also makes it to this ultimate list is The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, which I honestly enjoyed for very similar reasons and also makes it to my top list for similar reasons in the way it made me feel.

I think for the longest time I just had the one, but not because no books were objectively better afterwards, but rather because of the impact it had on me. I still enjoyed plenty of books from when I only had the one favourite, but none that made me feel as much as the first book did. By pure recency bias, I’d probably say Seven Husbands is my new favourite book, though another book, The Song of Achilles, I would say is a very close second—again, for basically all the same reasons. I guess there may only be a narrow set of plot lines that can really tug at my heartstrings, but I think that’s a discussion for another day.

For me, I think a book can be considered my all-time favourite for a bunch of reasons. I have to have enjoyed basically all aspects of the book, and it really had to have a big impact on me emotionally, the magnitude of which is unsurpassed by other books. Another interesting side effect is that if it’s my favourite, I would not want to read it again, almost to preserve that first time impression and to maintain that memory and impact. I have plenty other 5-star rated books that I would read again, although I suppose in general, I don’t have the time or motivation to re-read books except for book clubs or some other particular reason.

Do you all have all-time favourite books? Do you read and re-read them? Maybe I’m just weird for keeping to that one time first impression. Let me know in the comments below!

discussion

Let’s Talk Bookish – Books that Feel like Fall

Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

Aria @ Book Nook Bits is the new host for Let’s Talk Bookish! If you aren’t following her yet, good check out her blog and give her a follow!

September 29: Books That Feel Like Fall

Prompts: It’s officially fall! What books do you want to read this fall? Are there any books or genres that give off autumn vibes to you? Are there any books that you just wouldn’t read during fall?

Welcome to another week of LTB here at DTRH everyone! Today’s (actually, last week’s) topic is about books that feel like fall, now that we’re slowly but surely entering that fall season. I think summer and winter vibes are usually easier to immediately think of, so it’s nice to also take a moment to appreciate my favourite season anyway, autumn!

I read thrillers all year round, but I think the cooling weather in fall definitely hypes up those thrilling novels for me again. I definitely have a list in store, and I will continue to go through them as they come up this season. As the weather cools down, it’s nice to have a matching chilling effect in my novels too. It isn’t always my go-to for a fun summer read, as some thrillers can be quite shocking, but I think fall is the perfect time.

Besides thrillers giving off that autumn vibe, I think fantasies can also have that vibe. I am thinking about this from the perspective of world building, and that long descent into hibernation (i.e., winter) seems perfect for the fantasy world building. If you’re into the summer vibes, fantasy world-building seems like an excellent way to escape the upcoming winter. For me, fantasies definitely are a bit of a commitment, and I think the changing weather really encourages me to escape into the magical realism.

I don’t think there are books I wouldn’t read during any time of the year really, but perhaps practically there are books I wouldn’t read. However, fall to me seems like a very flexible season, and I think if I were to try something new, fall would be a great time to try, while I still have that residual energy from the summer sun.

How do you all feel about fall reading? What are the vibes you get from this season, and how does that affect your own reading habits? Let me know in the comments below!

discussion

Let’s Talk Bookish – Are you a stubborn Reader?

Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

Aria @ Book Nook Bits is the new host for Let’s Talk Bookish! If you aren’t following her yet, good check out her blog and give her a follow!

September 15: How Stubborn of a Reader are You? (Davida Chazan @ The Chocolate Lady’s Book Review Blog)

Prompts: How stubborn of a reader are you? How often do you stray from reading books not in your favorite genres? Do you sometimes dabble in genres you usually stay away from? Or do you read any genre, and have no favorites?

Welcome to another week of LTB here at DTRH, everyone! Today’s topic is about being a “stubborn” reader, which I think is actually a perspective I didn’t think about in genre-picking. I feel like I am personally flexible, but maybe I am not in the grand scheme of things. I wonder how the rest of y’all feel too!

I generally don’t think of myself as a stubborn reader. I’m pretty open to reading other books, particularly ones that my friends suggest me, as long as I am sold on the synopsis. That being said, even if I said I wasn’t stubborn, but all I read was one genre, then I guess that would classify as stubborn. As it stands though, I think I read enough in the fiction realm to not be considered stubborn?

With my book club, I definitely read genres that are not in my favourite categories. They usually are a miss for me, but it is still worth the try, I think. The book club has especially helped me to dabble in genres that I would never have picked up otherwise, usually in the non-fiction category (if that wasn’t obvious). I have a hard time getting into those books, and it wouldn’t be my first pick in general. However, it’s nice to expose yourself to new things once in a while, and that’s what book club does for me.

I definitely have a favourite genre, and that’s thrillers. They’re usually short and “sweet,” and I can read them basically any time because the commitment doesn’t feel that big. But in general, if the premise is interesting enough, I would read anything! I wouldn’t simply rule out a book based on its genre, though of course the topics I am interested in often lends itself to fiction books. Sometimes I think about branching out, but when there are just so many books even within my own genre that I love to read, it becomes hard to find time for books not within that genre. Does anyone else feel that?

How do you all feel about “stubbornness” with your preferred genres? Is branching out really that important? Let me know in the comments below!