This or That – book tag

A few weeks ago, I was tagged by Riddhi from Whispering Stories to do the This or That book tag. I’ve seen a few variations of this tag flying around, but I really liked the questions on this particular one. It’s just a bit of fun and is a nice way for you guys to get to know me a little better too.

As tradition will all tag, please do check out Riddhi’s blog and show her some love. You’re more than welcome to do the tag yourself even if I didn’t tag you in this post. If I did tag you and you want to give it a go, pop a link back to this post at the start.

OK, lets get on with it!

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Pros and cons of re-reading books

Autumn is one of the best months for reading not because you can curl up with a blanket, but because the weather is so wet and miserable you can’t quite muster the motivation to go outside. I find I read more in these months than I do for the rest of the year. However, this means that the autumn months can get a tad expensive with all that extra book buying and that’s not ideal as a student. But this got me thinking, why don’t I just re-read some of my old books? It makes sense, after all my books only collect dust on my shelf and make me sneeze.

After flicking through some of my old books, and not really getting anywhere reading wise, I began to wonder if there were any downsides to reading my old books. I was obviously struggling to get through them, so something had to be wrong. This then lead me down the rabbit hole of the debate with re-reading books, where I think I got a decent enough understanding of it to apply it to my own reading and summaries it for you guys. I don’t think this debate is anywhere near as large as some others in the book community, but either way I hope you enjoy my break down of the pros and cons of re-reading books.

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What’s on my TBR pile

Like every good book lover, I have a long list of books that I say I’m going to read but never truly get around to conquering. Some books are recommendations from friends, others from book bloggers and the rest from titles I’ve just stumbled across in day to day life. I add them all to my list with the hopes of one days getting around to them.

Now that I’m back at university my personal reading has taken a bit of a hit, my university readings for class have taken priority and when I do finally get the time to sit down with a book of my choosing I’m too tired to. This means that my TBR pile is increasing rapidly, so before it gets too out of hand, I thought I’d share with you ten books that are currently on my TBR pile. By no means are these in any order, or scale of preference, these are simple ten random books taken from it.

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Sleeping giants – book review

Wanting a fresh read with a unique structure and exciting twists and turns? Of course you do! This past week I’ve been reading Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel, it’s a gripping science fiction and thriller read.

The basic outline of the plot (spoiler free!) is that parts of a giant entity have been discovered all around the world after being dormant for thousands of years. This opens up the questions of where did this thing come from? Why was it found separated all over the planet? And most importantly, is the human race ready for what is to come? To start to answer these questions a team is put together by a mysterious character who is the puppet master of the whole operation.

Sleeping giants is written in a structure unlike anything I’ve come across before. The whole book is templated off something that would quite easily resemble a top secret file. Almost all of the book is set out in an interview format between this mystery man and the characters he interacts with. This creates a refreshing and unique reading experience.

World building is kept to an absolute minimum as you learn everything through character dialogue. I can appreciate that those of you who like to read more complex world building may be slightly put off by the idea of this however, I’d really recommend you give this book a chance. You won’t be spoon fed anything and this creates the opportunity for your imagination to run wild.

The book itself is about 320 pages long, so it’s a decent sized read and is book one of the Themis files what is made up of three books. Although it is worth mentioning there are some bonus texts that fit into the series. These aren’t novels, they are more works of flash fiction.

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