#it's been quite a while since I read nan chan so idk if these were the best characters to pick but whatever

[thegreymoon]

Ooh, I want to play! 💚

The Last Book I Read: The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. This was last year but it is the last one I completed fully.

A Book I Recommend: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. Such a good book. The best book. I cannot recommend it enough. It changed my outlook on life and on people in general and made me realise just how casually your own family and community will destroy your life if you let them and not even think for a second that they are doing something wrong. This book caused an entire seismic shift in my mind and made me view humans in a whole different light.

A Book That I Couldn't Put Down: The Husky and His White Cat Shizun by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou. This one is extremely notable to me because it was the first in many, many years that I couldn't put down. It was the cause of my first all-nighter over a book since my teens. I was out of it for a whole week, it derailed my entire life for months and reintroduced the love of reading to me after a very, very long drought.

A Book I've Read Twice (or More): Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. In truth, I've read all my faves multiple times. I love rereading books, but the notable ones have already been mentioned elsewhere on this list, so Elizabeth can have this spot.

A Book on My TBR: Beren and Luthien and The Children of Hurin by JRR Tolkien. These have been on my list for years now, but I must reread The Silmarillion first because I read it so long ago, I've forgotten who all those people are and need a refresher.

A Book I've Put Down: Blood Canticle by Anne Rice. I mean, I've put a lot of books down, but this one is notable because I put not only this book down, but the entire Vampire Chronicles and everything else written by Anne fucking Rice right along with it. I really enjoyed Interview with the Vampire, but all her subsequent books kept getting progressively worse. At least two books before Blood Canticle were absolutely no joy, just pure rage (looking at you, Blood and Gold and The Tale of the Body Thief) but this was the one where I finally said, "Enough!" And purged her entire bibliography from my life.

A Book on My Wishlist: Nan Chan by Tang Jiuqing. I've already preordered the first volume of the official English translation! Fingers crossed that it arrives safely! I've read the fan translation at least three times by now, I love it so much! It's not only one of the best danmei I've read, but one of the best books in general.

A Favorite Book From Childhood: The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. The influence of this book on the entire course of my life cannot be overstated. I can safely say that if I had not discovered Tolkien at a formative age in my life, I would be a completely different person today.

A Book You Would Give to a Friend: IDK. My IRL friends are not big readers. The way it usually goes is I recommend a book to them, they do not read it and I feel stupid. But of the books I successfully lent them in the past, I think the most notable are Fire from Heaven and The Persian Boy by Mary Renault. They kicked off an entire obsession with Alexander the Great among my friend group for a while there.

A Book of Poetry or Lyrics You Own: Graždanski Erotikon by Sava Damjanov. This is the only book of poetry I currently own. I'm not a big fan of poetry. Most of the time, poetry does nothing whatsoever for me (though some of the big epics like The Iliad and Balkan traditional epic poetry held quite a sway over my brain at certain points during my teenage existence). In addition, I did a purge of all paper books in my house a few years ago because they were collecting dust and taking up space. I gave away 98% of all the books I owned and only kept the ones I really loved or couldn't give away for some other reason. The Erotikon stayed behind for "some other reason" (the reason being that it is a book of explicit dirty poetry and illustrations I bought on a whim one day because I thought it would be funny). Unfortunately, it was not particularly funny (nor fun) and I never finished it, but when I did the purge, I was too embarrassed to give it to anyone. So, here it is. Sill in my cupboard. I will never be rid of it and people will find it among my possessions after I die at the age of 104.

A Non-Fiction Book You Own: Anatomy for the Artist by Sarah Simblet. This is one of the few books that survived my purge. I was in my first year of college when I found this book. I was a baby artist and it blew my entire mind. It cost a fortune (for my circumstances at the time) and even though I couldn't afford to buy it, I kept going back to the bookstore every few days to look at it, sighing a sigh of relief every time because it hadn't been sold yet. I begged my brother for the money to buy it and he gave it to me. Getting to buy that book and holding it in my hands afterwards was a religious experience. I never ended up using it as much as I thought I would and it just sat on my shelf unused for years, but I'm sentimentally attached to it and will probably never be ready to part with it.

What are You Currently Reading: Beloved by Toni Morrison. This is such a good book, one of the best things I've ever read but this is my third attempt at finishing it. Every time I try, I get interrupted by something major IRL and then never get around to it. I am also rereading 2ha, currently on volume 4 and hoping to get my hands on (the finally properly translated!!) volume 5 soon.

What Are You Planning on Reading Next: Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. I've watched the drama and been in the midst of the English-speaking fandom (and fandom wank) for years now, so I honestly doubt that this book will have much to offer me at this point, but I feel guilty never having read it. I tried years ago when I first watched The Untamed but the fan translation just didn't sit right with me and I gave up a few pages in. Now that the official translation is out in full, I feel like the time has finally come.

Tagging: everyone who sees this!! 💚

13 Books!

Yoinking this meme from @profiterole-reads

The Last Book I Read: I finished the YA graphic novel Kiss Number 8 by Colleen AF Venable last night.

A Book I Recommend: there aren't many books I'd recommend without knowing who I'm recommending it to, but The Alienist by Caleb Carr is fantastic.

A Book That I Couldn't Put Down: Little Mushroom by Shi Si

A Book I've Read Twice (or More): the Elenium trilogy by David Eddings

A Book on My TBR: my "next ups" are Thousand Autumns vol. 4 by Meng Xi Zhi and Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker.

A Book I've Put Down: it's been a long time since I've really had a DNF? One of the first books I can ever remember DNFing, when I was young, was book 1 of The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey, I just couldn't get into it.

A Book on My Wishlist: I don't have a wish list, most of what I want is pre-ordered and I'll get it when it's available.

A Favorite Book From Childhood: The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede

A Book You Would Give to a Friend: again it depends on the friend???? idek I don't think I can answer this one, no book is universal.

A Book of Poetry or Lyrics You Own: Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

A Non-Fiction Book You Own: all of Stephen Sears Civil War battle analyses are fantastic.

What are You Currently Reading: Copper Coins by Mu Su Li

What Are You Planning on Reading Next: I already answered this on the "a book on my TBR" one, didn't realize it'd come up again, oops.

Tagging: anyone who wants to play! <3