NY Times By The Book Tag

I've been a bit bookish lately, checking out blogs/vlogs of the book community. There's a lot of tags going on out there, but one that caught my attention was the NY Times By The Book Tag. This was created by Marie Berg, and this looked fun and interesting and I wanted to participate, so here we go!

1. What book is on your nightstand now?

I have a few books there right now. I tend to put books I'm planning to read for the month nearby so I don't have to constantly browse my bookshelves for a new read. Current books include Glass Sword, The Diary of a Teenage Girl, I Regret Everything: A Love Story, How to Build a Girl, Pride & Prejudice and The Name of the Wind.

2. What was the last truly great book that you read?

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. I think it helped that I didn't know much about this book but I love the story and I love her writing.

3. If you could meet any writer (dead or alive), who would it be? And what would you want to know?

This is hard. J.K. Rowling is my favorite author, and since she's been giving us a lot of Harry Potter content, I don't really have much more to ask in that aspect. William Shakespeare, probably to clear up some rumors about him. A possible one would be Homer - he's the closest writer I know who wrote about Greek mythology and I want to know more about it. This was ages ago and I think it's inevitable that some parts of history may have gotten lost over time, so it's nice to hear history from the perspective of someone who has lived in that time period. 

4. What books might we be surprised to find on your shelf?

Twilight. I never finished the book but I haven't gotten rid of it either.

5. How do you organize your personal library?

Since my shelves got a recent upgrade, I've grouped my books by author/series and by spine color. A section of my shelves host similar authors and series, and the other is arranged by spine color. This excludes hard bound books as they are housed on the top shelf.

6. What book have you always meant to read and haven’t gotten around to yet? Anything you feel embarrassed never to have read?

You should go look at my shelves - they're full of books I've always meant to read! Off the top of my head: A Song of Ice and Fire series, Thursday Next series, most of the translated fiction I've acquired, this list could go on and on. I've never read Alice in Wonderland, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Catcher in the Rye, The Bell Jar...this list could also go on. I'm slowly starting to get to it, there's too many books to read!

7. Disappointing, overrated, just not good: what book did you feel you were supposed to like but didn't? Do you remember the last book you put down without finishing?

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh. A lot of people have been raving about this and I did not like it. The last book I did not finish was Postcards from a Dead Girl by Kirk Farber. I was never in the mood to read it.

8. What kinds of stories are you drawn to? Any you stay clear of?

I don't think I'm that picky when it comes to stories. As long as the story interests me, I am most likely to read it.

9. If you could require the president to read one book, what would it be?

This is hard because I don't think my country's president is a big reader, or if he were, he would seem to be more interested in non-fiction books, particularly in the business and economic section, sections I really know nothing about, literature-wise. So I'm going to go with what I think any president would enjoy reading - The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. 

10. What do you plan to read next?

If I finish my current to-read list (#1) and re-reading The Order of the Phoenix, I would probably go with I'm Traveling Alone, Find Her, or Everything I Never Told You.