Alice Book Tag

I thought I would do something different today and making a book tag seemed like fun. So here is my Alice Book Tag inspired by Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. 

“Down the Rabbit-Hole” What are the first books you've read by three of your favorite authors?

I first read the Rithmatist when I won a hardcover copy, and since then I’m a total Brandon Sanderson fan. Jennifer Estep is my second pick, and I started with Touch of Frost.  And for my last pick, I'm going to go with F.T. Bradley's Double Vision.

“Pool of Tears” What book did you think you would love, but ended up not liking?

I’m sorry, I really am, but I thought I would like Towering by Alex Flinn. It was a retelling—I thought I would like it—but nope, nope, nope. Now that I think about it there was a review for it, but it never got posted.

“A Mad Tea-Party” What is one of your favorite series that has more than three books?

I’m going to go with the Mythos Academy series by Jennifer Estep—plus I have all of the print books.

“The Queen’s Croquet Ground” What's your favorite book that has a prince or princess somewhere in the story?

For this one I’m going to say the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer.

And finally “It’s a Cheshire-Cat” What favorite book has a thief as a main or secondary character?

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson—I don’t think this one needs much of an explanation.  If you want to know what I mean, just read the book.

I'm not going to tag anyone since this was just for fun. Feel free to use my questions if you would like to make your own post, but all I ask is that you link back to the original (and/or let me know because I'd love to see your answers). Thanks for stopping by and happy reading!

Musing Mondays (17)

     Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading, that asks you to muse about something book related each week.

My Musings for the week...

Random weekly question: Has any author ever had a huge influence on your reading? Who, and why?

I don't think any one author had a huge influence on my reading. However, recently I have to say that Brandon Sanderson got me interested in fantasy again. His writing style has a way of drawing me into the story.

On another note...
 

So, I started to think about all of the books I’m waiting for this year, and I realized there weren't that many. I thought there were more at first…but I guess not. There are a few older books I want to read, but for the most part my list of new releases is relatively small—like REALLY small.

• Cold Burn of Magic by Jennifer Estep
• Salt & Stone by Victoria Scott
• Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray

That’s it, I’m not kidding. There might be some other fictional books that catch my interest later this year, but for now those are the only ones I’m really waiting for. Of course I'll be searching for more nonfiction books to read.

Question: What books are you waiting for in 2015? Are there any books that you recommend? I'd love to hear your suggestions.

The Friday 56 (17)

     The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice where every Friday you pick a book and turn to page 56 or 56%, and select a sentence or a few, as long as it's not a spoiler. For the full rules, visit the the page HERE

"At the time, the hostile reaction had perplexed Aelyx, but now he understood with crystal clarity why he'd upset the boy."--Until Midnight by Melissa Landers


This quote isn't exactly on page 56 but I wanted to share it anyway. What's on your page 56 this week?

Review: Until Midnight by Melissa Landers

Title: Until Midnight
Author: Melissa Landers
Souce/Format: freebie, iTunes ebook editon
Age Range: YA
Publisher/ Publication Date: Disney Hyperion, December 23, 2014

Goodreads     Amazon    Barnes & Noble     

     When I saw that Until Midnight by Melissa Landers was free, I got it as a way to get introduced to the writers’ style to see if I would be interested in reading the actual novel that went along with it. I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed the short story. It was easy to get into—even though I didn’t read Alienated—it was short and sweet. I liked Cara and Aelyx in this short story and I’m curious to see how their relationship got started. The writing paired nicely with the story, and had a good flow to it. Until Midnight was a great way to start the year, and I might consider picking up another book by Melissa Landers. Actual rating 3.5

Musing Mondays (16)

 
     Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading, that asks you to muse about something book related each week.

My Musings for the week...

     This is the first Musing Mondays post of 2015, hooray! As you can see above I changed the old banner during my vacation so that it matched with the header of Our Thoughts Precisely—and it was missing a dash of blue. So, for this Musing Monday’s I'm going to briefly discuss the Goodreads Reading Challenge. So what is it? Basically, you can set a goal on Goodreads pertaining to the amount of books you want to read in a year, as a sort of challenge for yourself.

     Will I participate in the Goodreads Reading Challenge? 

     No, I won’t be participating in the Reading Challenge this year. I’ve never done so, and I don’t think I ever will.

     Why not?

     I think the simple reason is that I read a random number of books each year—and setting a goal won’t help with that. When I read, it solely depends on what I feel like doing at the time.  For me, I almost feel like I would get through books considerably slower if I set a goal with a specific number, because my enthusiasm wouldn't be there.  As you can see with my 2015: Blogger Resolutions post, all of my goals for the year are pretty open ended.  There's no specific amount for any of them.  They are relatively flexible goals.

     Any final thoughts on the Goodreads Reading Challenge?

     I think the challenge is good for some people and not for others. For me, well, I’m on the not-so-much side.

     Question: What are your thoughts on the Goodreads Reading Challenge? Does setting a goal help you read more or less?

*Check back next Monday for my list of Most Anticipated 2015 New Releases. (Hint: It's going to be short.)