#tags to clarify: I don't have all of ascendance of a bookworm yet

[baked-hylian]

Tag game: Tour my bookshelf!

Thanks for the tag, @hirazuki

An estimate of how many physical books I own: I feel really behind as over the years and moving around I haven't held on to a lot of the books I had once had. At the moment my collection is of roughly 75 books (lost count when my cat wanted to be picked up) including reference books, 36 light novels, 132 manga volumes 11 of which are omnibuses (3-in-1 kind)

Favourite author: That's not actually an easy question for me mostly because I don't pick favourites when it comes to authors, I like different ones for different things. Like I love MXTX for fucked up relationships and situations. And I like the way Tasha Suri and Samantha Shannon describe food in their works The Burning Kingdoms trilogy and The Priory of the Orange Tree. That being said I haven't even tried MXTX's first novel, nor am I clamouring to grab Tasha Suri or Samantha Shannon's other novels, admittedly I am waiting for the prequel follow up to The Priory of the Orange Tree to release in paperback, and Tasha Suri is doing a Doctor Who novel and I'm mildly tempted to check that out, but that's more so the Doctor Who angle.

A popular book I've never read and never intend to read: Honest probably most YA that I didn't read as a kid, I gave an exception to Iron Widow just because I like the author and the youtube content they produced and the concept of imagining the rise to power of the first empress of China as a young woman dealing with some type of alien/monster invasion sounded neat. Another I would say is the first novel from MXTX. There are some tropes from it that sound enjoyable, but I really struggle with the kid eventually growing up and hooking up with his teacher crush for the romance angle. Like I get that because plot technically it shouldn't matter but idk it's just not what I look for when it comes to a romance, yknow?

A popular book I thought was just meh: Under The Whispering Door by TJ Klune. He's the type of author I will only buy on sale as paperback. The House on the Cerulean Sea was super charming and fun, this was just, like sterilized handling of death. Idk I just was not a fan of it, plus the romance of it felt quite weak. Honestly Klune vibes like he'd be better off writing for tweens than adults.

Longest book I own: The Priory of the Orange Tree, if it isn't that then it's this dictionary I have specifically for old timey slang that I found while thrifting.

Longest series I own all the books to: Ascendance of a Bookworm is probably just overall the longest even comparing novels, as by the time they finish publishing it it's going to be some 35ish volumes each at least 300 pages (the odd picture probably drops it closer to 290). I'd say Tian Guan Ci Fu but that's mostly because english translations always wind up longer than the original mandarin, i.e. TGCF is only 3 books long in mandarin but getting 8 volumes in english due to length (although, honestly, I have problems with the way they keep constantly copy pasting the same glossary for each novel, could easily trim 30 pages of that and redistribute the overall story to cut out at least two of those volumes.) Inuyasha for manga and I don't even have half of the series.

Prettiest book I own: Maybe it's because I just finished it, but He Who Drowned the World has an absolutely gorgeous cover. The artwork by JungShan is just so pretty and I love the colour choices.

A book or series I wish more people knew about: Among Thieves and its sequel Thick as Thieves. Just a fun medium fantasy duology with the first book being set up and execution of the heist of a highly important magical item that will determine the fates for everyone around the world. The second dealing with the aftermath of that heist and finding out more about where magic comes from in this world.

Book I'm reading now: .......... The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady volume 3. I know how it sounds and honestly it's better than most isekai nowadays at least.

Book that's been on my TBR list for a while but I still haven't got around to it: The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Tried The Hobbit in high school right around the time I lost interest in reading, feels like it was mostly a me problem so I figured I'd give them another shot. Just gotta find a very specific copy of Return of the King because I already have the others from that set and I don't wanna mix n match too much.

Do you have any books in a language other than English: I used to have a Japanese pokemon card, does that count? French instruction manuals? No? Then no.

And lastly, paperback, hardcover or ebook? Situational. I like hardcover for certain lengths, but I find once you're nearing 600 pages they become irritating. Hardcover is also dependant on how much I like the author/that series as I'm cheap and I've been burned once by disappointment and not letting it happen again. However I do like that certain manga are getting the hardcover treatment, it looks very classy for some of them, like the Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe specials, and the Fullmetal Alchemist recent prints.

Tagging anyone who really wants to talk about their books!