Bea's Bookshelf Tourᝰ.ᐟ

Hey everypony, I am back with another blong! It is going to be another lengthy one, I won't be mad if you skip the text a little... Get comfy :]

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Shelf #1: I went for a fantasy-ish theme here I think! Angel Of Ruin is a book my Nan gave me actually! I like to keep the ones I enjoyed, exchanging books with her is fun even if we don't always have the same tastes <3 The Demon Road trilogy is a childhood favourite of mine! I used to daydream about being in the story so much, Milo was one of my favourite characters and I cried over him for days. I used to own a fair chunk of Derek Landy's Skulduggery Pleasant series but gave them away to an old friend when I was not interested in them at the time... I will own every book in that series when I move out to bring joy to my inner child. The Finisher and the 2nd book are the only ones I have read, I never got around to the 3rd one despite owning it... I remember thinking the 1st one was pretty cool but a bit confusing. I should get back into them by rereading the first book. I held onto them when cleaning out my bookshelf because I remember I liked reading it. The Six Of Crows trilogy was something I loved when I first read it! The library removed everything by Leigh Bardugo though so I had to buy them to reread it. I didn't enjoy it as much as I used to, but it is still cool! I remember being pleasantly surprised with the queer pairing at the time because I felt like I had to be careful with which queer books I picked up. Circe was a book I fell in love with even if it felt a bit hard for me to follow (I know nothing about any mythology ever). I remember liking it a lot more than Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles (pictured in the second shelf). Jurassic Park is naturally in my collection. I fell so in love with the first book even if it was wordy and confusing because I am not a science girl. The differences from the movie worked well if you ignore the sexism, misogyny, and whatnot... The second book, to me, felt less as captivating though perhaps that is because I read it via an e-book. Anyway, fuck yeah to the dinosaurs. A Day of Fallen Night has SUCH a gorgeous cover. I never read the more popular book in the series so I felt quite lost, and also like I did not care that much... I was not a fan of many point of views (I rarely am). But I am intent on eventually rereading it to perhaps change my mind! I have the 2nd book to the Shadow and Bone trilogy (which I did read). I remember little about it and have not touched it since the original reading because I would need to buy the 1st and 3rd book in order to get back into it... I am sure it was still good though. I vaguely recall having a love-hate relationship with the shadow guy. I think he was a shadow guy? The evil guy. And to finish off this shelf, I have The Vanishing Deep and Four Dead Queens. I loved these books so much in my early teens, I felt very inspired by them despite not writing anything with that inspiration. I do not enjoy them as much as I used to (a common thing for me) but I still consider them to be wonderful.

Shelf #2. I have no idea what vibe I was going for, maybe a continuation of the shelf above? Anyway, I had Midnight Sun before any other Twilight book but I found it to be so bad that I just gave it to my Nan. I now have finally read all of the other books though! I am keeping them because my Nan gave them to me, not because I enjoyed them. Bizarre reading experience. The Witching Hour books are children's books but are very dear to me because I remember I had a lot of fun reading them. Maybe if someone in my family or friends of mine has kids who grow up to be readers, and like the genre, I can pass them on! I have always liked supernatural books. Pet Sematary was an interesting read, I think either my first or second maybe third Stephen King book? IT (the book, but also the movies) was not good in my opinion 😿 which disappointed me because a lot of people said it was good. I need to reread Pet Sematary but everytime I try, I get bored... It WAS good when I first read it though. I already mentioned The Song of Achilles but I want to expand on it a bit further. I thought it was okay, I didn't NOT like it, but I also did not understand the hype. I also think I should just not get into things when they are at their peak popularity because I usually have a hard time getting into something I hear a lot about. Lord Loss.... man, I devoured that book multiple times growing up. One of my first horror books ever that I actually got into and loved. It was my cousin's copy and I am forever thankful he isn't a reader because I never would have read this book otherwise. Under My Skin by Juno Dawson was such an interesting book at the time. I hadn't read anything like it before. But hey, fun fact, there is an X-Files episode like the book! Or I should say the book is like that episode. Anyway, I keep it for that X-Files connection. Freeks is a book I don't remember a lot of, but I think it was an okay book also. I keep it just for the genre in a way. And because it has a circus. Behind the Horror: True Stories that Inspired Horror Movies is a non-fic book (one out of the two in my collection) and god I love it sooo much. It creeped me the hell out on multiple occasions. I am not a horror movie girl but I love to read it! Slaying the Vampire Conqueror was a surprisingly enjoyable read and one of the very few books I actually finished so far this year! A bit of a typical fantasy romance in a way but yk! It is good to get back into reading with someone easy to follow. The Invocations was a book I bought solely because of the author being Krystal Sutherland, who wrote an old favourite of mine, A Semi-definitive List Of Worst Nightmares! I did not enjoy it as much as I hoped to but perhaps I need to reread... I bought A Hunger of Thorns and Deep Is the Fen because I used to love Lili Wilkinson's The Erasure Initiative. I... did not like those as much. Actually, I think I have outgrown these books. I am still not parting with them though. Stephen King writes women bizarrely actually, which I forgot to mention. I thought Fairy Tale was good, I just remember how I did not like how women were talked about in his writing. I bought Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil because I saw it talked about a lot and I enjoyed The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. I think I am satisfied with these being the only two books by V. E. Schwab that I have read. Both books had their capturing moments but they also lost me a bit as I felt like they dragged.

Shelf #3. This has been a lot more typing than I intended it to be so perhaps I will shorten it a bit. Karen M. McManus had me captivated when I was a teen, I liked a couple of her books a lot, but now they all have a same feel to them that does not interest me and I cannot say I will be rushing to buy or read any more of her books. I also do think I have just grown out of them. The Reapperance od Rachel Price was good but halfway through, I think it fell off a bit. I prefer A Good Girl's Guide to Murder but even then... The rest of the books kind of sucked a lot. I think my problem is I have outgrown a lot of my collection because majority of these were gifted or bought when I was a teen. Anyway, I have a few more crime/thriller books on this shelf but I want to talk about the more noteable ones I liked. The Woman in the Window had a chokehold on me and I did not see the plot twist coming up! I also found Diane Saxon and Gemma Roger's to have some good books here and there for what they were.

Shelf #4! Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop took me forever to read, and I felt it dragged a bit, but I found the story to be impactful! I think these kind of bookshop books are popular actually, though I am not sure on if this book is. Anyway, Casey McQuiston was an author I enjoyed but I do not think I will rush back to any more books they might publish. I cannot recall the title but there is one not on my shelf that I read and did not enjoy much which was disappointing. Kate In Waiting was a favourite of mine actually, I thought the story was sweet! A Semi-definitive List Of Worst Nightmares still remains a favourite but I do need to reread it. The way phobias impact the characters and the dysfunctional family dynamics really hooked me and resonated with me. I remember it leaving me with hope everytime I reread it. Social Queue and Watch Over Me left an impactful mark me so I absolutely 100% did not permanently borrow them from a library before I left school.... I fear they no longer resonate with me as much, but perhaps I just need to reread them. Emma and Sense and Sensibility are books I fear I may never get into, and actually the same goes for Orbital (no quotation marks is crazy)... I have tried!!! Multiple times!!!! I will get there one day, maybe, hopefully... A majority of these books actually were just faves of mine growing up that I need to reread and not keep just for the sentimental purpose... The two manga are not even the first volumes of their series, I just tried to get into manga with the volumes matching episodes I liked and found I did not enjoy manga... Sorry to my manga loving friends. And then my nonfic bug book! That has a section on Plague Soldier Beetles!! Yayy!!!

Shelf #5!!! I have a children's book solely because the library was going to throw it out and I thought the art was too gorgeous. Maybe someone I know knows someone with a baby that will want it. The Loop is one my Nan gave me that I remember enjoying! Let's ignore Wuthering Heights (I cannot for the life of me get into it because of the writing) and focus on the gorgeousness that is The Call of the Wild! How to Fall in Love was like my first adult romance book I read and actually enjoyed! The Housemaid was a book my bestie got me because she mentioned watching the movie and I told her I would do so when I read the book. Unfortunately the first person point of view made it very hard to get into. It was an alright read. And then a bunch of other books that are not very noteable to me. City of Buried Ghosts was a book my Nan and I both did not like. I didn't even finish it.

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I have a bunch of other books laying around, such as part of the Sookie Stackhouse books (the series the show TrueBlood is based on), White Fang (tied to The Call of the Wild I think? It is by the same author, anyway), Five Survive by Holly Jackson (I decided to give her another chance), the first book to the series that inspired Bridgerton (the book is so freaking bad), Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express (I haven't read any of her books and figured I would get into it), Gwen & Art Are Not in Love (I liked it at the time of reading it as it was easy to breeze through) and I also have The Hunger Games somewhere but the cover is the move poster which annoys me so greatly that I simply have not touched it since.

And I am sooooo glad to be finished with all this typing, I spent ages after writing the initial two paragraphs just... not touching this blog. I am sure it is evident. I hope my efforts are appreciated by whoever puts their time and energy into reading all of this nonsense.

See you all in my next blog xx

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Questions: What are your favourite books, books you recommend, and/or books you are excited to read?