I was thinking about what I could post that would let you all know a bit more about me but still be book related. Then I came across The Guilty Reader Tag on a few booktube accounts and I thought it would be perfect!! So here goes… if you can relate to anything I say I would love to know – leave me a wee comment š
Q. Have you ever re-gifted a book you’ve been given?
A. No. I definitely have gifted a book that I bought for myself and either never ended up reading or I just didn’t enjoy enough to keep it. To me gifts are so special, especially books, because someone has taken the time to think about what I would like and picked something out for specifically me in mind. When I look at a book I have been gifted, I think about that person who gave me it and how they gave me it. I don’t think I could ever part from those memories – even if it’s a book I don’t like!
Q. Have you ever said you’ve read a book when you haven’t?
A. 100% When I was younger I used to get embarrassed that I hadn’t read the Harry Potter book series as a child. And so I would secretly took them out from the library without telling my friends and read then haha! In the end I only read the first two books once I came to the realisation that it really didn’t matter what I read and I didn’t need to read the books everyone else was reading. Don’t worry all you HP fans reading this, I am currently reading the series for the first time right now – I’m just about to go onto The Order of the Phoenix. Also, when I was in school, I wasn’t the biggest fan of being forced to read even though I loved reading. So I would only read the parts that I really needed to know and where important!
Q. Have you ever borrowed a book and not returned it?
A. Not going to lie… I probably have. It would never be intentional of course, but I’m sure through all my years of reading I must have forgotten about a friends book I borrowed or a library book that got lost when moving house. The only two books – if you can even call them that – that I own but I’m pretty sure where meant to be returned to school are a Higher English close reading practice book and a Human Biology textbook!
Q. Have you ever read a series out of order?
A. My first reaction was to say yes because I recently read TH1RT3EN by Steve Cavanagh which, if I’m not mistaken, is the fourth book in the series. But, I haven’t read any of the other books yet (although I do plan to) so I don’t think that really counts.
Q. Have you ever spoiled a book for someone?
A. …yes… I’m sorry, but I’m going to be honest and say that I have. Again, I never intentionally spoil a book for someone but sometimes I get so passionate about a book I forget to ask if they are reading it/want to read it. Alternatively, on many occasions I have spoiled a book for myself! Whether I read a spoiler-filled review, watched the movie first, or in the height of excitement, skipped ahead a few pages – GUILTY!
Q. Have you ever dog-eared a book?
A. All the dang time! I didn’t actually own a bookmark until last month so all the books I have read up to that point have been dog-eared. And that is okay! I think we need to normalise loving our books and letting that love show on the pages. I’m talking dog-eared pages, broken spines, coffee spills, highlighting, annotations, etc. I understand if it’s a special edition that you want to keep pristine but you won’t be able to keep all you books like that – especially if you love to shop second hand like me! Loved books are beautiful and I will stand by that time and time again.
Q. Have you ever told someone you don’t own a book when you do?
A. Not that I’m aware of. Maybe I have forgotten about a book I own and accidentally told someone I don’t own it. I can be pretty forgetful sometime lol
Q. Have you ever told someone you haven’t read a book when you have?
A. Again, not that I am aware of. Maybe I forgot that I read a book but I think that is highly unlikely. I’m also not ashamed of any of the books I read – and you shouldn’t be either! If you love Fifty Shades of Grey, Twilight, HP and The Cursed Child, Classics or whatever it may be, that is amazing! We are different people with different tastes in books and we all read for different reasons – let’s embrace our uniqueness!
Q. Have you ever skipped a chapter or a section of a book?
A. Yup! Remember when I said I didn’t like to be forced to read in school… I distinctly remember in Higher English we were meant to be reading The Cone Gatherers (you don’t even want to know how long it took me to remember the title for this post!) and the teacher told us that chapters 3, 7 and 12 (I can’t remember the exact chapters obviously) were the really important and pivotal ones and so I only read those ones – and I still passed with flying colours!
Q. Have you ever bad mouthed a book you actually liked?
A. Like I said before, that fact that we all read different books for different reasons is what makes this community so amazing! Imagine how boring it would be if we all read and reviewed the exact same books – no thank you. It is also really important for us to review books honestly as publishers and authors rely on us to improve and grow. It would never be okay to say that you loved a book you actually hated, would it? So why would it be okay to say you hated a book you loved? It’s not! You read books that YOU want to read and that YOU love and don’t do it for anybody but YOURSELF!!
Read With Ro 