A-Z Bookish Questions: Tag

A-Z Bookish Questions: Tag

It has been a while since I did a bookish tag on my blog and that is when I stumbled upon the A-Z bookish questions tag on Youtube. The tag is pretty simple. I get to answer questions that begin with each letter of the alphabet.

Sounds easy, right? No.

Can you answer these A-Z bookish questions tag? What do you think about my answers? What is your worst bookish habit? Let us chat. Click To Tweet

My mind went completely blank and I somehow couldn’t remember even the last book I read. Sigh. Thankfully Goodreads came to my rescue.

A-Z Bookish questions Tag

Otherwise I am sure I never would have these bookish questions for another ten days. So let us get on with this okay?

Author you’ve read the most books from:

I just headed to Goodreads and checked out my most read authors who unsurprisingly turned to be Sidney Sheldon, followed by Jeffrey Archer. 
I had a phase when I read only their books. Glad I came out of it and became more open to other authors. 

Best Sequel Ever:

I usually don’t read series. But I think the last series that I read completely and enjoyed was the Clifton Chronicles by Jeffrey Archer.

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Currently Reading:

Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu

Drink of Choice While Reading:

I wouldn’t dare to eat or drink while reading. 

A-z Bookish questions Tag Pinterest

E-reader or Physical Book?

Of late I am picking E books over physical books. I moved thrice in the last few years and I lost so many books in the process. And I am now afraid to start collecting again. 

Fictional Character You Probably Would Have Actually Dated In High School:

I had a crush on Cross De Lena from The Last Done by Mario Puzo. I am afraid no one would remember the Mafia Don anymore. (Hint: He is like the Godfather).

Glad You Gave This Book A Chance:

Recently I read a translated work of Korean fiction by Han Kang called the Vegetarian. I can safely say it was pretty weird!

Hidden Gem Book:

Pin now A-z Bookish questions Tag

I found this gem out of accident and I ended up reading the whole series. I think everyone should give it a chance The Little Lady Agency by Hester Browne.

Important Moment in your Reading Life:

I think finding about Goodreads about 5 years ago must be it. I had been blogging for a while then but still I wanted a place to find more books. 

Just Finished:

Just finished Nordic King by Karina Halle as part of my A- Z reading challenge for 2018.

Kinds of Books You Won’t Read:

I rarely read Fantasy and Sci-fi. I am not averse to them, but I don’t feel inclined to pick them up easily.

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Longest Book You’ve Read:

I think it should be ‘Gone with the Wind’ by Margret Mitchell. I have ‘IT’ by Stephen King on my TBR for a long time now but the mere size of it is intimidating me. 

Major book hangover because of:

I usually have a hangover for most of the books. I typically take half the day off before I start another one. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood gave me a major book hangover. I think I took 2-3 days to recover and then I jumped into watching the Netflix adaptation. 

elgeewrites A-Z Bookish Questions: Tag emotions

Number of Bookcases You Own:

I have 3 book shelves currently, each at a different city that I call home. But as I said I lost quite a number of books and I have almost stopped buying physical books.

One Book You Have Read Multiple Times:

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I rarely re-read books except for the classics. I think the last book I re-read was ‘And then there were none‘ by Agatha Christie

Preferred Place To Read:

I love reading during my commute, so that used to be the train. But now I read a lot in my bed, just before catching my beauty sleep.

Quote that inspires you/gives you all the feels from a book you’ve read:

This is a hard one, given that I am obsessed about quotes, especially from books.

I love Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson and not a week goes by without me quoting something from his comics. I have so many of them that I love and am sharing here some of my favorites.

Reality continues to ruin my life.

It’s not denial. I’m just selective about the reality I accept.

I’m killing time while I wait for life to shower me with meaning and happiness

Reading Regret:

I don’t think I regret reading any book, even the ones that I hated or DNF-ed (rarely). But I do regret that I didn’t read some of those childhood classics when I was younger, as reading them as an adult hasn’t been the same. 

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Series You Started And Need To Finish(all books are out in series):

I don’t read books as a series, usually. On the rare occasion I do, I make sure all of the books in the series are already published. You know, waiting is for suckers. (Sorry, but not sorry)

Three of your All-Time Favorite Books:

As any book worm would, I am gonna whine that this is a hardest thing I have ever done, not literally. Yet I told you I would answer all the questions, so here I go:

  1. And then there were none by Agatha Christie
  2. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
  3. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Unapologetic Fangirl For:

I totally have been adoring Khaled Hosseini and Gillian Flynn‘s writing for a while now. 

Update: I literally fan-girled when I met Markus Zusak, Cassandra Clare, Holly Black et al in real life. Read more about it here!

elgeewrites A-Z Bookish Questions: Tag Glee fangirling gif

Very Excited For This Release More Than All The Others:

I do not follow book releases so seriously. I am more of a backlist reader and ARC reviewer

Worst Bookish Habit:

I can’t get myself to give up on books aka DNF easily, which means even if I don’t like a book I would struggle through it.

X Marks The Spot: Start at the top left of your shelf and pick the 27th book:

I don’t have many books on my physical book shelf. So I am gonna do the same with my Google Play which I totally depend on for reading my e-books. 

So the 27th book is The Fourth Monkey Killer by J D Barker which I reviewed here.

Your latest book purchase:

The last book I bought was The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson, which turned to be too long for my taste. 

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ZZZ-snatcher book (last book that kept you up WAY late)

I stayed up all night reading They both die at the end by Adam Silvera
But I am not sure if it was the last book that kept me up, I am just looking through Goodreads list for the answers. I am just guessing, so let me be please. 

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Let us chat

Can you answer these A-z Bookish questions Tag? What do you think about my answers? What is your worst bookish habit? Let us chat. 

A-Z Bookish Questions: Tag

Five Books I Wish I Had Read As A Middle Grader

As many other bookworms I know I started obsessing about books right from my childhood. I can not remember how and when I started reading books in English, and as it is not my mother tongue the books that were available at home were very limited. This meant I had to make do with books that my much much older cousins had on their shelves. 

Hey I am not complaining, because this actually led me to reading Pride and Prejudice, The tale of two cities, Oliver Twist and other classics before I turned a teen. And of course I loved them, but.

Yes, there is a but. 

But this also meant I never got to read books that were meant to be as a middle grader or a teen. I know it is not a big deal and I may have not lost much. That is what I thought until I read a few of those middle grader books that everyone loved but me. 

Five Books I Wish I Had Read As A Middle Grader

Let us talk about some of those books, shall we?

5. A Wrinkle in time by Madeleine L’Engle

Middle Grade


I didn’t read this book until I turned 27, and that might be the reason that I didn’t enjoy it at all. I kinda tried to ignore the strong religious undertone and even then the plot was kinda over simplified, character super unrelatable and dialogue repetitive. 

4. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume

When I started this book I never knew it was a middle grader book. Soon I was sucked into the period trouble and bigger bust goal of the twelve year old Margaret. I liked her relationship with God, but I was sad that I was not able to connect with the characters, again may be due to the age difference.

3. A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket

Middle Grade


I am yet to find a reader saying they don’t like this one. I had to read this before I could watch the Netflix version starred by Neil Harris Patrick. In fact I didn’t even know about the book before I saw the ad for the show. Of course, I liked it but it was obvious that I was not among the target audience. I loved the show though. 

2. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

Middle Grade


I was probably 25 and I enjoyed it enough to continue reading the series. I didn’t dislike it, rather it seemed to be again repetitive and sorta preachy. And that seems to be the theme for all the books of that age, I guess. Again I might have loved it if and when I was 8 – 10 years.

(Does anyone else think the Netflix version is too sad and less endearing?)

1. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Middle Grade


Oh I love Little Women and I am not gonna complain about it. Except for the fact that if I had met the March sisters especially Jo and Laurie when I were a pre teen, they would have been my heroes. Well that didn’t happen and I hate that I missed it.

I am kinda sure I would have loved these book if I read them when I was supposed to have read them. While I didn’t hate them, I could not fall in love with them and that maybe attributed to my ‘older’ age. Sigh. Well, I tried right?

Do you have any such regrets related to your reading choices? When did you start reading? Tell me some books that you missed reading when you were younger and did you regret reading them now? Let us chat. 

Middle Grade

A-Z Bookish Questions: Tag

Top Ten Unreliable Narrators That We Love

There was a time when I was not particularly interested in reading first person narratives and drop the books like it was infected if I find an ‘I’ in an active voice sentence in the first paragraph. That was a long time ago when I was about 8-10 years old. But then, I started trusting the first person narrators and even liking a few a lot – until I came across an unreliable narrator. 

An unreliable narrator shatters the reader’s trust by contradicting themselves or misrepresenting the facts or even outright lying. Well, they can be doing that out of naivete or guilt. That is for the readers to find and that is exactly why I started looking out for such characters. 

Narrators


I can not recall the first time I read a book with an unreliable narrator but as I grew I no doubt I started loving them. I have read more books with an unreliable narrator in the past three years than all the years before then combined. So here I am presenting with my top ten narrators that all of us have come to love, in no particular order.

My Top Ten Unreliable Narrators

10) Humbert Humbert, Lolita

Narrators

Humbert Humbert is the first character that pops up on any reader’s mind when anyone says unreliable narrator and correctly so. Humbert Humbert fancies under age girls and he falls for the 12 year old Lolita. He even marries and kills her mother (I don’t think that is a spoiler) just to be with his step daughter.

As if that is not enough to dislike him, he is an unreliable narrator as well. He not only tries to justify his actions, but also tries to convince the reader of the same through flattery. He constantly contradicts himself and makes outrageous promises both to his ward and the reader.

9) Rachel, The Girl on the Train

Narrators

Rachel’s life is filled with lies, mistrust, depression and alcohol induced blackouts. Sh would live in her past, her dreams or at her drunk state, but her real life. When she suspects a foul play nobody wants to believer, unsurprisingly. 

Her obsession with her unknown people and her ex alike add up to her ‘craziness’. What makes Rachel a great unreliable narrator is the fact that she means well, at least most of the times.

8) Pat Peoples, The Silver Linings Playbook

Narrators

Pat Peoples has just been let out of psych ward and has lots of repressed memories as well. He is emotionally immature and has no concept of negativity. 

He does not remember why he is divorced and is hoping that ex will take him back if he proves himself to be good. He is proof that crazy attracts crazy. And to things make worse, Pat is the worst because he spoils the ending of many classic books. He is definitely one of those unreliable narrators.


7) Jack, Room

Narrators

Five year old Jack has never been out of a shed, where his father had him and his mother trapped even before he was born. But now he is out of his confinement and experiences world for the first time.

With the limited experiences that he has had, he narrates everything as he sees, which may or not be true. It opens the chance for the readers to interpret the events. With the naivete of a young boy’s eyes, Jack thus becomes a classic unreliable narrator. 

6) Unnamed narrator, Fight Club

Narrators

I know I cannot proceed with the list of unreliable narrators without adding Jack from Fight Club. If reading Chuck’s books were difficult his unnamed characters make the reading more difficult and keep it exciting. 

After all that Tyler Durden put our narrator through, the narrartor is not able to prove it was Tyler who caused the Mayhem. He spends a quarter of the book trying to do just that and proving him more and more unreliable as time passes, even to us – until the final reveal.

5) Charlie, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Narrators

Charlie, a freshman in high school, narrates the story in the form of letters to his ‘friend’ and he is taken in by seniors under their wings. He is over emotional yet detached from life as such.

While the story is narrated by him, he blacks out often and has lots of repressed memories making him a perfect choice for unreliable narrator. 

4) Nick and Amy Dunne, Gone Girl

Narrators

I love Gone girl but the two manipulative leads Nick and Amy Dunne made me wonder if everyone around me was lying.

We start by hating Nick and his secrets (and misrepresentations and lies) and want to protect the innocent little Amy, only to find that she is more unreliable and everything we heard from her was a lie as well. If you can read only one book of this list, Gone Girl would be my pick. 


3) Libby Day, Dark places

Narrators

Another one from Gillian Flynn (if you can’t tell, she is one of my favorite authors) on the list. Her other books the Grown up and Sharp Objects have unreliable narrators too!

Twenty five years ago, 7 years old Libby Day testifies against her 15 years old brother Ben, for the massacre of their family – their mother and two younger sisters. Ben is convicted for life, partially on Libby’s testimony and partially on the evidences.

Libby is mentally stunted and doesn’t want to remember anything from the day of murders. And just not that, she is selfish, lives on trust fund and would do anything to get money without working – even trying to revisit her past. Well, that is my favorite kinda narrator – totally unreliable. 

2) Grace Marks, Alias Grace

alias grace

Alias Grace is one of my best reads of the year and its Netflix adaptation is a huge hit as well. The true crime story based on the 16 years imprisonment of Grace Marks for double homicide of his employer and fellow worker.

While her co-conspirator was hung in public, Grace was sent off the mental asylum for years. In the fictionalized version a psychiatrist tries to see through the web of deception and manipulation spun around and by her to set free. With the number of versions of the event and her own mental status, Grace is definitely one of the top contenders for the best unreliable narrators.

1) Piscine ‘Pi’ Patel, Life of Pi

Narrators

Pi crosses the mighty ocean alone in a raft except for the company of a man eating mammal, Richard Parker, a tiger. The narrative of the exhaustive 7 month journey makes one wonder how much is true and how much was just a cope up mechanism.

To make matters worse (or better) Pi leaves it to the reader to decide which version one wants to believe in at the end making us doubt everything we just read. No wonder he is on my list of narrators who are unreliable. 

Do you like unreliable narrations? Who are your favorite unreliable narrators? Do I have them on my list? Let us chat.

narrators
A-Z Bookish Questions: Tag

Can you guess the book from its quotes?

Given the love for quotes, how would you fare if you attempted to guess name the book based on its quotes?

Can you guess the book from its quotes? What is your score? Do you like taking bookish quizzes? Leave your reply as a comment below. Click To Tweet

Go on, give it a chance you might like it. 

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book from its quotes Pin it

Guess the book from its quotes

Y’all know I am obsessed with quotes from books. I mean who isn’t right? But seriously, if you do you should take look at some of my favorites.

You may like these too

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Pin me book from its quotes

Let’s chat

Can you guess the book from its quotes? What is your score? Do you like taking bookish quizzes? Leave your reply as a comment below.

A-Z Bookish Questions: Tag

Tag: I Spy Books!

I was hopping around the blogoshpere looking for inspiration to strike me outta somewhere to write a post. Okay I have been saying that for the past two weeks and nothing worked. Until, yes there is an until. Until I saw this tag from Kristina of Books and Dachshunds called I Spy Book.

The rules are really simple and it seems like fun. It has been a while since I did any tags so why not do one for the heck of it, right?

Rules for the I Spy book Tag:

Find a book that contains (either on the cover or in the title) an example for each category. You must have a separate book for all 20, get as creative as you want and do it within five minutes!

I will be trying to use books that are on my read, reviewed or to be read shelves.Here we go.

1. Food

The Vegetarian by Han Kangelgeewrites Tag: I Spy Books! 1 Veg

Why haven’t I written a review for this book yet?

2. Transportation
elgeewrites Tag: I Spy Books! 2 Car

Fast Cars & Fidgety Feet by Rishad Saam Mehta

3. Weapon
elgeewrites Tag: I Spy Books! 3 weapon

Raakshas – India’s No.1 Serial Killer by Piyush Jha

This is the only question I commented with a related book cover, I think.

4. Animal
elgeewrites Tag: I Spy Books! 4 animal

Dog’s Tale by Mark Twain

5. Number
elgeewrites Tag: I Spy Books! 5 number

The Eleventh Commandment by Jeffrey Archer

6. Something you read
elgeewrites Tag: I Spy Books! 6 letter

Letter, The by Kathryn Hughes

7. Body of Water
elgeewrites Tag: I Spy Books! 7 water

Stillhouse Lake by Rachel Caine

8. Product of fire
elgeewrites Tag: I Spy Books! 8 fire

Born in Fire by Nora Roberts

9. Royalty

Shall We Tell the President? by Jeffrey Archer

elgeewrites Tag: I Spy Books! 9 pres

I am gonna consider the US President as a royalty. They are similar, right? RIGHT?

10. Architecture
elgeewrites Tag: I Spy Books! 10 tower

A Fort of Nine Towers by Qais Akbar Omar

11. Clothing item

Fancy Pants by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

elgeewrites Tag: I Spy Books! 11 Pants

It has been a while since I read any of SEPs books. hmm..

12. Family member

Mummy’s Little Angel by J W Lawson

elgeewrites Tag: I Spy Books! 12 Mummy
13. Time of day

4:50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie

elgeewrites Tag: I Spy Books! 13 time
14. Music

Songs of the Mist by Shashi

elgeewrites Tag: I Spy Books! 14 songs
15. Paranormal being

Devil’S Prayer, The by Lucas Gracias

elgeewrites Tag: I Spy Books! 15 devil
16. Occupation

Guide, The by R.K. Narayan

elgeewrites Tag: I Spy Books! 16 Occ
17. Season

Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly

elgeewrites Tag: I Spy Books! 17 summer

It has been more than a decade since I read this one.

18. Color

Cobalt Blue by Sachin Kundalkar

elgeewrites Tag: I Spy Books! 18 color

I need to write a review on this awesome book.

19. Celestial body

The Stars Shine Down by Sidney Sheldon

elgeewrites Tag: I Spy Books! 19 star

I can’t think of anything other than ‘stars’ for this one.

20. Something that grows

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

elgeewrites Tag: I Spy Books! 20 secret garden

Everything in the garden grows, right?

I DID IT. And it took a lot more than few minutes. Thanks to Goodreads, otherwise I wouldn’t know where to start even. If you think this definitely was an interesting tag, try these as well. You may like them.

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Have you done this tag? If you are interested consider yourself tagged. And in case you find any other cool tags, let me know I might even do it.