Tag: book tag

Bookish Academy Awards Tag

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I love watching and reading people’s lists for this tag every year, so this year I decided to jump on the bandwagon and do the tag myself! It’s basically a list of all the awards at the Academy Awards, but for the books I read in 2018. I’ll be picking my winners from all the books I read in 2018, not just the ones that were published in 2018. So I have a total of 120 books to pick from and you can see my full list here if you’re interested. I’ve done my best to avoid selecting the same book for multiple categories, but in some cases I felt the same book really was the best pick for both awards. Here we go:

Best Male Protagonist (Best Actor)

Winner: Bitty from Check Please!: #Hockey

Reason: He’s a gay hockey player who loves to bake and make people feel good! What’s not to love?!

Runner ups: Prince Cas from Ruined, Radu from Bright We Burn, Cormoran Strike from Lethal White

Best Female Protagonist (Best Actress):

Winner: Morrigan Crow from Wundersmith

Reason: She is brave and perseveres though she is alienated at her school. She just wants to be accepted and be a good friend.

Runner ups: Kimberly from Girl in Translation, Felicity from The Ladies Guide to Petticoats and Piracy, Maddy from Code Name Verity

Best Male Sidekick (Best Supporting Actor):

Winner: Axel from The Astonishing Color of After

Reason: He is so sweet and such a good friend! He is always there for Leigh and understands when she needs some personal time.

Runner ups: Mitch from Vicious/Vengeful, all the boys in Fence, Benji from Us Against You

Best Female Sidekick (Best Supporting Actress):

Winner: Kitty from To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before

Reason: She has such a great personality and she loves her sisters. She made me laugh so much and I loved her energy!

Runner ups: Amari from Children of Blood and Bone, Sheilagh Fielding from The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, Rosa from Rose Under Fire

Best Writer you discovered for the first time (Best Director):

Winner: K.A. Tucker

Reason: I read her newest book, The Simple Wild and fell in love with her writing, characters, and setting!

Runner ups: Alice Oseman (Radio Silence), Emma Hooper (Our Homesick Songs), Courtney Summers (Sadie)

Best Plot Twist (Best Cinematography):

Winner: Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney

Reason: There are a ton of crazy plot twists and I didn’t see any of them coming! Blew my book club’s mind!

Runner ups: The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager, The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware

Best Action in a Book (Best Visual Effects):

Winner: Ruined by Amy Tintera

Reason: It is so fast-paced, it just throws you into the action right away and it never stops!

Runner ups: Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi, The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang, Vicious by V.E. Schwab

Best Book Cover (Best Costume Design):

Winner: The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan

Reason: LOOK AT IT! This is my first repeat, but I am just so in love with how beautiful this is and all the colours – I had to pick it!

Runner ups: Our Homesick Songs by Emma Hooper, The Simple Wild by K.A. Tucker, Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

Best Audiobook (Best Musical Score):

Winner: Joanne Froggatt in Wuthering Heights

Reason: Froggatt is an accomplished actress and she did a wonderful job with all the accents and drawing me into the story!

Runner ups: Kyla Garcia in I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, Phoebe Robinson in Everything’s Trash, but it’s Okay, Rebekkah Ross in The Nowhere Girls

Most Unique Plot/World (Best Original Screenplay):

Winner: Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend

Reason: I am obsessed with everything about this series. I love the world-building, the plot, and all the characters.

Runner ups: Women Talking by Miriam Toews, The Poppy War by R.F. Huang, Sadie by Courtney Summers

Best Book to Movie Adaptation (Best Adapted Screenplay):

Winner: Love Simon

Reason: I actually liked this more than the book. The acting, storyline, and soundtrack were all amazing! Technically I didn’t read the book, Simon vs. the Homosapiens Agenda, this year, but I did see the movie!

Runner ups: To All the Boys I Loved Before by Jenny Han on Netflix

Best Graphic Novel (Best Animated Feature):

Winner: Fence by C.S. Pacat and Johanna the Mad

Reason: So much wonderful character development in this series! Somehow these authors succeeded in making fencing super interesting!

Runner ups: Saga by Brian K. Vaughan, Check Please!: #Hockey by Ngozi Ukazu

Best Novella or Short Book (Best Short Film):

Winner: Women Talking by Miriam Toews

Reason: Unique storytelling that demonstrates women’s ability to find solace, humour, and healing in one another.

Runner ups: The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline, Songs of a Sourdough by Robert W. Service

Best Historical Fiction (Best Documentary):

Winner: The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

Reason: The writing, the setting, the characters, and the story are all so captivating and richly developed.

Runner ups: Our Homesick Songs by Emma Hooper, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston, Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Best Standalone (Best Picture):

Winner: Our Homesick Songs by Emma Hooper

Reason: The writing is magical and transporting. I loved this mix of historical fiction and magical realism.

Runner ups: The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah, The Simple Wild by K.A. Tucker, Women Talking by Miriam Toews

Reading Habits Tag

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I wanted to try something new on my blog, so I scoured the internet for a fun reading tag and decided on one about reading habits! Here’s some of my preferences, let me know about some of your reading habits in the comments:

1) Do you have a favourite place to read at home?
At home I’m very particular about reading on love seats. I like sitting lengthwise on love seats so that I can tuck my toes into the arm of the couch on the other side and rest the book on my legs. I hate reading on full length couches because I can’t prop up my book. Yes, I’m a little dramatic about it, but I currently only own love seats, so it works out.

2) Do you use bookmarks or just use whatever’s available?
I try and use bookmarks, but sometimes you have to be crafty if you don’t have one nearby!

3) Do you stop reading at any point in the book or do you have to finish the chapter?
I prefer to stop reading at the end of a chapter, but I spend a lot of time reading on public transit, so it rarely works out that way!

4) Do you eat or drink while reading?
Definitely yes. I love having a cup of tea while reading and a snack food like popcorn or goldfish crackers! I also read during a lot of my lunch breaks, so I’ll eat my soup while I read, which takes some coordination not to spill anything!

5) Do you listen to music or TV while reading?
No. I prefer quiet, but my partner likes to listen to music a lot, so I have adapted to listen to his music on low volume in the background. But I think the only reason I can tolerate it is because I don’t know the words to his music. If it was my own music it would be too distracting.

6) Do you prefer to read one book at a time or several?
I used to be a purist about reading only one book at a time. But over the last 6 months I’ve started reading multiple books at a time. I always have 1 audiobook on the go and somewhere between 1 and 3 paperbacks. Depends on the genres, but if it’s an essay book or non-fiction, I like to pair it with something more fast paced.

7) Do you only read at home or everywhere?
I read literally everywhere! My favourite place to read is in my hammock in the park next to my house during the summer and I also really like reading in the bath. But I also read a lot on public transit, walking home from work, during my lunch break, on hiking and camping trips, planes, trains, you name it! Never trust someone who has not brought a book with them!

8) Do you read out loud or silently?
Are there many people that read out loud? The only time I read out loud is when I’m camping because my friend always requests a bedtime story!

9) Do you read ahead or skip pages?
I never skip ahead. I am a bit of a skim reader sometimes in that I don’t necessarily read every word or sentence, but it’s honestly just a speed reading technique and I don’t think I’m missing anything. I hate to skip ahead – on particularly tense chapters, I’ll actually cover the last few lines of the chapter with my hand so that my eyes don’t jump ahead and ruin a chapter cliff-hanger or reveal!

10) Do you break in the spine, or try to keep in like new?
I really try not to break the spine and I put a lot of effort into keeping my books in really good condition. I will always lend out my books to friends because I want to encourage my friends to read and especially to read books that I’ve read and liked so we can talk about them. But it hurts a little because I know they are never going to come back in quite as good condition as they were in before, but books are for reading right?! So I try and get over it!

11) Do you write in your books?
I don’t write in my books, but I usually have some sticky tabs available and I will tab quotes that I really like.

12) Do you prefer reading physical books or ebooks?
A lot of people feel strongly one way or the other, but I actually really like both. If I’m being honest, I prefer reading on my kindle because it’s so lightweight and it has a backlight, so it’s easy to read in bed, in the bath, at night, etc. But I also really like collecting books. So I tend to read multi book series, books with nice covers, and books that I think I’m going to really like in hard copy so that I can add it to my shelf. The rest of the books I will either read on my kindle or borrow from the library.

Well, that’s it for the book tag, let me know about your reading habits and preferences in the comments! Do you agree with me? Do you have particularly strong feelings on any of these habits? I’d love to know!