The Aesthetically Pleasing Book Tag

Well, I'm seriously sad to admit that I started this post back in like September and first I didn't have my bookcase entirely cleaned and organized enough to show it off! I still haven't posted completed pictures of it over on Instagram which is sad because I was doing really good at documenting my build over there! But I'm determined to get this post completed and thrown out into the world today since it is actually Tuesday and I can call it a Tag Tuesday post, plus I feel like my life is somewhat put together at least for today!

I didn't create this tag I actually first seen this book tag on Dreamland Book Blog, and it all just clicked for me to create this for my bookcase. My goal for this post is to pick books that no one really talks about and never repeat the same books for different answers throughout this thing. So let's see what I can come up with! But I really just can't wait to show off this bookcase, guys it really took me all summer to do this! And then all fall to even finish writing this post took way too long! It's now January 2020 and I started this back in September. I'm definitely going to make a post about my journey while building this behemoth!

This is the bookshelf that I built over the summer, it was more like I started buying materials and working on it in May and it was completed in August. It didn't take much work to build it was planning out the build, money for the supplies, and then getting it on the wall took a lot of time to do. But for more information about the building process and what all I did to make this dream a reality check out this (post) where I go more in-depth of it all! So let's get into this amazing tag that took me forever to finish!

1. Best Color Combo on a Book Cover

There are so many different color combos that I really love looking at on my shelf that I had a lot to choose from for this answer but ultimately I had to go with my JD Robb/Nora Roberts shelf. Yes, this is one person and this beautiful lady deserved a whole shelf just to herself! I've been dying to make it out to one of her book signings that she does at Turn the Page bookstore all of the time! I made sure they all fit in this shelf too as you can see most of this shelf is my Naked in Death collection! This series is what introduced me to Roberts and since my love for this series is so huge I started branching out into Roberts others works. Since these questions are supposed to be gears towards one book specifically I should pick one book that as the best colors on it and I'm going to have to go with Under Currents by Nora Roberts. I read this book over the summer and I loved it! I think a lot of her newer books are following the same basics for the covers that you see in both Under Currents and Shelter in Place. 

2. Best Typography/Font on a Book Cover

 

I had to have this book somewhere on this list and I'm so glad that it fell under Typography. This book is one of the first books that I can remember that really pulled me into reading and making me want to read all the time! It was so captivating to my fourth-grade self and I had to keep this series. It's definitely one of those series that I keep more for sentimental values because I haven't read it in years. I think it would be something that I would love to read to my kids one day. So I just knew it had to be on this list somewhere! The font of the cover and the title heads is something that I've always loved! I've always loved the curly writing and it the fact that the title is different fonts makes me love it even more because it is so funky, half of it is cursive and the other half is more straightforward. Even though the writing gives off a little funky vibe the cover itself is pretty simple which makes it so perfect!

3. Best Simple Cover

For the best simple cover, I think Nicholas Sparks books will always win! They are usually so simple with either a beach scene or a bike on the cover but since all of his covers have the same simple feeling towards them it's hard to pick just one of his books. So for this one, I pick Nicholas Sparks instead of one single book. I've been slowly rereading them since I have got my bookshelf together and the books are just staring at me. They are something that I definitely want to do a book vs. movie post because his books are always better than the movies!

4. Best End-Pages

I actually just got this book a couple months ago so I haven't read it yet but just looking at this book the end pages are beautiful! I plan on picking it up soon because the concept is sort of like the book I've been trying to write and I cannot wait to jump into this one! After I read the book it will be on the big shelf, the only reason it isn't on the shelf yet is because I'm lazy and I like having a stack of books in my room beside my bed, I think it helps motivate me to get through the book I'm reading a little faster so I can get to it.

5. Best Map

I'm not happy to admit that I have a lot of different copies of this book, but they are all pretty much in different formats! But this copy is my absolute favorite because of the illustrations and I love these maps at the beginning of the book! They help follow the story because you really jump throughout this world so much that these maps help a LOT! Plus I don't read that much fantasy and outside of the fantasy world there aren't a lot of books that have maps in them, so this one was one of the harder ones for me to do.

6. Best Naked Hardback

I actually found this book for this one by pure luck. I literally had to go through all my books looking at the books and pulling off the dust jackets of all my hardback books! I kept gravitating back to my Harry Potter books because their gorgeous but I swore I was going to do different books for each answer sorry Harry! Finally, I found one of the prettiest naked covers that has something other than just the title of the book! This is so simple with just the tiara on the cover but I love the color combo between the different shades of purple to the silver for the tiara. I mean how could I not pick the freaking tiara! Definitely one of my favorites and I didn't even know what it looked like! 

7. Best Back Cover

I kind of cheated with this book because of the back and front cover kind of blend together to make this one. But in all honesty, this back cover is just as important as the front cover and I loved this book back when I read it. I really want to reread this book now that I'm older. From what I remember the cover shows the two main characters and they are exes on a road trip for college that they planned before they broke up, but while they are on the road the truth about why they really broke up comes out. I know this became a popular-ish trope that people either love or hate but I think this was one of the first books with this type of storyline and, to be honest, its the only one I ever read with it and I loved it! Since then I have read more about a road trip and they can be hit or miss with me.

8. Best Chapter Headers

This one I think was literally the hardest one to find anything for. I love chapters that have chapter headings which have become so hard to find in any books today! So many books today don't really have anything for the chapters other than the number. I think it is getting really rare to have chapter titles or even illustrations with the chapter headers. Books with chapter headers can help differentiate between characters when a book is in multiple point-of-views and let me tell you I need that! I always have a hard time remembering which point of view I'm in and it really pulls me out of the story trying to figure out who is who. When I was younger I read the Clique series and they had the location within the chapter headings and I loved it! So the picture above shows a few different books that had chapter titles and I loved them!

9. Best Illustrations

Harry Potter is one of those series that I can read over and over and just never grow tired of it. But when I learned about the illustrated versions coming out it made me so happy! I love these copies and it kind of gave this series a new life for me! For awhile I was getting the new one every year for Christmas but since the books are getting bigger causing the illustrator to use more time on later books the illustrated ones are taking a little longer to come out but it is definitely on the list to pick up as soon as I can get it, which is still usually Christmas presents for me. I've also loved giving these copies to my friends for their kids' Christmas presents. Now that I have a new series that I'm doing on my blog I can't wait to revisit the Harry Potter world for it!

10. Best Spine

I love Book of the Month spines! I think it's just the small square at the beginning of the spines with the BOTM logo is beautiful and they are amazing. Right now I have a stack that is my TBR (left side beginning the shelf) and then the stack in the middle and end are ones I've already finished! Even though I love my set up on the shelf right now my goal is to eventually fill my other bookcase with all BOTM books. The bookcase below is the shelf I made during the summer of 2018 and I think it would look amazing with all BOTM books on it! Right now this case is kind of out of sorts since I moved all of my books over to my giant shelf. So right now the first crate is the books that I want to make a priority this month, the second crate are books that I've bought throughout the month, and then rest is kind of spillover books that I didn't want to put on the big shelf because I liked how the looked over here more!

11. Favorite Cover on Your Shelves

The whole entire Lunar Chronicles series is one of my favorite series ever! The covers are my favorite because they are kind of simplistic but at the same time, they portray their stories so perfectly. If you've read this series you know what I mean and which book is portraying which fairytale they are inspired by! I love fairytale retellings and I'll always be a sucker for them! This series was just perfect for me! I binge read this entire series and I just recently got the physical copies and yet again this is another series that I'm dying to reread! Seeing them on my shelf now I just want to pick them up and start rereading them.

This picture might be a little confusing because it looks like Cress is the second book but it is the third book. I tried to be a little artistic with it but obliviously I'm a bit goofy, and this one was so hard to take since Cinder couldn't fit on the shelf like that. But I still love this picture so much!

The A-Z Bookish Survey

Since it is Tuesday and I've never done a tag on the actual Tag Tuesday so let's change that! I came across the A-Z Survey on My Shelf & Myself  and it looks really interesting. I've only read the first few questions so far so let's see how this goes.

Author You've Read the Most Books From:

I have to say Nora Roberts/JD Robb is the author I feel like I've read the most from lately. Robb and Roberts are the same person, she writes the In Death series under Robb but the rest of her books are under Roberts. I love the In Death series and I'm currently in the middle of the series. Since I love the In Death series I started branching out into Roberts books, and so far I haven't found one I haven't liked but Shelter in Place definitely my favorite right now. 

Best Sequel Ever:

This one is a little bit difficult because I don't read a whole lot of series, and a lot of the sequels I read I feel like hurts the book instead of adding to it. I'm going to count comics and I loved Saga book two. I can't wait to add more of the series to my shelves! I love meeting the grandparents and seeing how this story evolves with more people being added to the story.

Currently Reading:

I'm currently working on two different books. The physical book is Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center. It was my Book of the Month pick in July and I feel like I'm going to love it but I'm having a hard time just sitting down to read! It's not because I'm bored with the book it is because I just have so much going on that it is really interfering with my reading time at the moment. Then I'm also working on The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas on audiobook. I always have at least one of each format going but I'm definitely going through the audiobooks faster at the moment. 

Drink of Choice While Reading:

I don't really care, I know a lot of people love to have tea or coffee or whatever while reading but I don't always have a drink. When I do have a drink it's just because I already had my water sitting there.

E-Reader or Physical Book?

I'm not picky but I'm definitely a mood reader. I have a Kindle and I love using it but I've noticed that if I'm not really hooked into the book I'm reading on my Kindle then I drag through the book. So it really depends on the book for me to pick which version works best for me.

Fictional Character You Probably Would Have Dated in High School:

I've had so many different book boyfriends growing up! I used to be in love with Shane from Morganville Vampires and Cole from the White Rabbit Chronicles! I have no clue why but I loved them growing up. You would think I would be in love Harry from Harry Potter too because of how obsessed with the series I am but I've never pictured any of them as fictional boyfriends. Today me would love to pick Roarke from the In Death series but he wasn't the nicest little boy growing up! If you've read this series you'd know what he went through and how he was before he met Eve. Another recent read that I just loved the character was Zane Bigelow from Under Current! He also had a very hard childhood but I just loved the man he grew up to be! My biggest issue with these guys is I love them with their female counterparts and I don't know how I would feel without these relationships in my life. 

Glad You Gave this Book a Chance:

So of course I have two book that instantly come to mind for this book and that is The Book of Essie by Meghan MacLean Weir and the Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen. Both of these books were Book of the Month books and neither one of these books would've been something I would've picked up on my own. But I absolutely LOVE both of these books. I could see me maybe eventually picking up the Wife Between Us but I would never have picked up Essie! I hate the way Essie looks. I never really hear anyone talk about the Book of Essie but I loved the way that book went. It was insane!

Hidden Gem Book:

I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga! I don't think I ever hear anyone talk about this book ever! This first book was amazing and I loved the series but it was rough too. It's about a Jasper Dent who's father is a serial killer and I thought the perspective of Jazz was so interesting! This is a series and it definitely had its ups and downs but overall I loved the series.

Important Moment in Your Reading Life:

I think I'm currently working through one of the most important moments in my reading life. I've always wanted a library with floor to ceiling bookshelves. I never really cared about the shelves themselves just the fact that they are floor to ceiling and they are all piled with the books. Well I don't have a library BUT I'm currently building my own floor to ceiling bookshelves. They are pretty much done I just need to add the last two shelves! I'm so excited! They are about 7 feet tall and 16 feet wide! I cannot tell you how proud of this book shelf I am. This is the second bookshelf I've ever built and it is very different from the first one. My first book shelf I made is the crate shelf where you screw those wooden crates together. I love this shelf too, I sanded the crates and stained them. This one is actually industrial and screwed into the wall and everything! After it is completely finished and the books are 100% organized I'm going to do to the Aesthetic book tag! I can't wait.

Just Finished:

I just finished Red Rising by Pierce Brown! This book and I have a love/hate relationship. This was a book that I bought because of all the hype around it, and it really sounded so cool. Everyone is comparing the book to Hunger Games, even the synopsis gives you Hunger Game vibes. So when I saw it on sale on the Kindle store I bought it! I tried reading this book 2 times on my Kindle and only made it about 100 pages in and stopped. The book itself has a lot of slow parts and because of that it felt 10x longer on my Kindle. It was seriously like no matter how much I read I never put a dent in the book and it was really discouraging. But I wanted to read it not just because the hype but because it was really interesting overall. So I got it through Overdrive from my local library as an audiobook and I love that I did, because let me tell you I wouldn't have finished it if I had to read this book on my own. It got better in some parts then worse in others. I love the plot twists and the action but there was just so many slow parts that I really don't know how I feel about the book.

Kinds of Books You Won't Read:

I really try to keep an open mind about everything, especially since I'm a mood reader. One day I want to read romance then the next I want to read sci fi. I don't really read historical fiction but I want too because I love history, however I haven't really found one that I love unless you count Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. I feel like that book would be considered historical fiction a little bit and I love it. Same with sci fi I don't really jump into this genre a lot. I mostly stick to drama, romance, and mystery. 

Longest Book You've Ever Read:

The biggest book I've ever read has to be Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows. It is 759 pages, and the biggest book that instantly comes to mind for me, I'm not really sure how to look up books by page count on Goodreads so we are going to have to go with Deathly Hollows. I don't really read much books past 500 pages that often.

Major Book Hangover Because Of:

My last book that really gave me a book hangover was Beyond the Point by Claire Gibson. This chunker was another book from Book of the Month and it was so incredible! The book follows three women from the time they enter West Point to the time they reach their careers and then how the rest of their lives went. There was a lot of incredible moments that happened in this book and some really heartbreaking times. I did get a little annoyed with the three different perspectives but it was so incredible. I love this book.

Number of Bookcases You Own:

I have 3 and 1/2 bookcases because I'm currently working on building my floor to ceiling bookcase. I have another small bookcase but I use it more for our video games than for books. 

One Book You Have Read Multiple Times:

I love rereading books! I reread Harry Potter every year, sometimes multiple times a year since the illustrated versions are coming out. Since the In Death series is so huge I love rereading books to help keep me refreshed in the books. Lately I've been rereading books I loved as a teen just to see if I still love them just as much now as I did when I first read them.

Preferred Place to Read:

I can read literally anywhere. But my favorite place to read is during the day on the couch with the sun for lighting, and with the TV on with my dogs. When it is too quiet I will read aloud to my dogs so it isn't too quiet.

Quote That Inspires You/Give You All The Feels from a Book You've Read:

"Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light." From Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It will always be my favorite quotes of all time.

Reading Regret:

I think my biggest regret when it comes to reading is making myself read through books even after I lose interest in it. I just learned that it is okay to DNF book and that I'm not going to love every book I pick up. Heck I'm just now getting okay with giving books 1 star! 

Series You Started and Need to Finish (All Books Have to be Out):

I would really love to go back the Cassandra Clare! I loved the Immortal Instruments series! I read the first three books in a week, but I didn't know about how expansive the Shadow Hunter world is! I never knew about the prequels and the sequel series. I want to jump back into the world and see how it all goes. I also really, really want to read Alec and Magnus Bane's series! I'm going to have to try this series again.

Three of You All-Time Favorite Books:

Well of course Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling! The adult me has to pick Naked in Death by JD Robb. Then the teen me has to pick Evernight by Claudia Gray, I don't know how many times I've read this book as a teenager.

Very Excited for this Release More than All Others:

I think all of the books that I was extremely excited to come out have already came out this year, which was Under Currents by Nora Roberts and Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

Worst Bookish Habit:

I'm sorry guys but my worst bookish habit is my TBR pile! I have so many books that are sitting on my shelves because I haven't read yet and I still keep buying more books! I have honestly been doing really good this year by letting the Book of the Month be the only book I get each month. There are a few times where I'll get some add-on's in my box or splurge here and there such as my birthday I had gift cards so of course I went to the book store.

Your Latest Book Purchase:

My latest book purchase was actually textbooks for my graduate courses but let's bounce back one purchase and we shall talk about my birthday book haul! I was lucky enough to get the whole entire Lunar Chronicles in my box set! I love this series and I finally got the series in book form and not just on my Kindle. I also got Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson, Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes, and the Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson.

ZZZ-Snatcher Book (Last Book That Kept You Up Way Late):

I love falling asleep reading so I do this all the time but I think the last book I did this with was Well Met by Jen DeLuca! It was such a cute little summer book.