Hello! It’s been a while… haha. Somehow time just keeps getting away from me, and a month-long break turned into several – but I think I’m ready to start dipping my toes back into the water.
The wonderful Morgan @Morgan is Reading Again tagged me last month to participate in a blog tag all about favourites. I feel it’s going to be difficult to choose, and I’d probably answer differently if I did it again, but here goes! It’s certainly a nice way to come back to blogging.
1) What are 1-3 of your favourite books of all time?
Even choosing three, this is impossible. I know The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss has to be up here – it’s always a pleasure to read, and just thinking about it now I think I’m itching for a reread. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen probably also needs to be here, as it is also another I find myself going back to time and time again. And I think I’ll choose The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern as my last, as that book felt a little like a homecoming when I read it.
2) What are 1-3 of your favourite authors of all time?
I won’t lie, this question makes me a little sad. I feel like so many authors I used to turn to as my favourites have come out to be problematic in recent years… So I’m going to focus on new authors and books to me, that I’ve read recently where I am so excited to read more from the author, instead.
- B.B. Alston – I read Amari and the Night Brothers earlier this month and it absolutely blew me away. I really cannot wait to see more! The second book comes out this year I believe, and you bet it will be one of the few books I try to read on release day.
- Silvia Moreno-Garcia – I absolutely binged Mexican Gothic when it released back in 2020, and since then I’ve been slowly making my way through Silvia’s other works, mostly in the same fashion of utterly devouring them. I don’t think I’ll ever get enough.
- R.J. Barker – The Bone Ships was my top book of last year. The whole trilogy is already out, and I really want to savour finishing it off over this year – I’ve already reread the first book, when a bookclub reading prompt gave me an excuse to in January.
3) Who is your favourite female character of all time?
For these, I’m going to try and not answer characters from the books I mentioned as my favourites. I think for favourite female I’m going to choose Vasya Petrovna from The Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden (which by the way, I totally now want to put in my top three – I did say I’d changed my mind didn’t I, and I didn’t even make it to the end of the blog post…). I loved her tale, and how she fully comes to her own. She’s flawed but plucky and loyal – and her power had me completely captivated, and wishing it something we could experience.
4) Who is your favourite male character in a book?
Sand dan Glokta from The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie has to get a shout out here. How I could go from loathing to loving him by the end was incredible. He has one of the sharpest minds I’ve come across, and the level of scheming his character partakes in is just amazing, as I love intrigue. He is heavily flawed, and definitely not a nice man – but his wit and seeing how he deals with where his life has taken him totally captured my interest.
5) What is your favourite mythical world?
There are so many! This is really tough.
I fell head-over-heels in love with the world of The Daevabad Trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty instantly, so let’s go with that one. It felt so rich, and it introduced me to more Persian Mythology than I was previously familiar with. I also really enjoyed that the world had a dark element to it – and there weren’t happy endings all round.
I would love to dive back in some time – or if anyone can recommend me some more in the same vein, I would be eternally grateful.
6) What book has your favourite cover?
This is also crazy hard – I feel like books have been getting prettier and prettier too, so it’s only going to get harder. I’m going to choose The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, which was illustrated by Ivan Belikov and designed by David Mann (who seems to design a lot of my favourite covers!). It’s so bright and so intricate – I feel like I’ve stared at it for hours before now. It is just absolutely stunning, and I would have it framed on my wall.
7) What is your favourite book-to-movie adaptation?
Well, I really struggle with adaptations – most notably in film. I feel like tv series always pull it off better, but even then I also struggle. Which is surprising, as I can’t form images in my mind, so never really build up any imagery of what it should look like beforehand. Maybe I’m just too critical of film and TV. I may also be missing that some of my favourite films are actually adaptations (or just not read the book to compare) – as let’s be honest, I always seem to be behind on these things.
I actually might change this to my favourite book-to-tv show, but now I have too many haha. I’m going to go with the BBC mini-series of Pride and Prejudice. I grew up watching it a lot, as it is one of my mum’s favourites too, so it holds a lot of nostalgia – and it is probably the reason I started giving classic books a go. Also, Colin Firth will forever be the best Mr Darcy for me.
8) If you could make any book into a movie, what would it be?
I adored Pirates of the Caribbean growing up – I don’t think I could ever count how many times I watched that film – and I think I need another good ol’ pirate film like that. I’m bringing it up again (I really did love it oh so much) and going with The Bone Ships by R.J. Barker. Although not about pirates, it certainly gives me those vibes – with a motley crew out on the open seas and pursuing an epic quest.
I also think the cinematography could be amazing.
9) What was your favourite childhood book?
Now, I detested reading as a child. I have no fond memories of reading a book – no favourites to look back on. So I guess I will have to go with the book that started my great reading love affair in my teens – Twilight by Stephenie Meyer.
I reread it a couple of years ago, and all it has for me now is a lot of nostalgia – but I do owe it a lot, warts and all.
10) Fantasy or sci-fi? (Or neither?)
This must be the easiest question. Fantasy hands down. I adore history, so with them often having little bits of history tucked away within them, they will always win out for me. I love that with fantasy there is a whole new world to run off too to, and although I do love Grimdark, I also love that it can be sunshine and rainbows when I want, unlike the real world and the real world’s history.
I’ve taken a bit of a break, so I’m not going to tag anyone. Just feel free to say I tagged you, if you want to give this one a go!
The Bookworm's Feast 
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