Over the next couple weeks, if a Top Ten Tuesday isn’t posted or I feel this place has been too silent and forming cobwebs, I’ll add some more letters to The Perpetual Page-Turner‘s A to Z Bookish Survey for you to read. Here’s Part III of the alphabet!
Part I || Part II || Part III || Part IV
Major Book Hangover Because of:
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys. It was so hard to do much of anything after reading that book.
Number of Bookcases You Own:
This shouldn’t be a difficult question. Just look around a count. But it is difficult because, by the standard definition of “bookcase,” I have three. My idea of a bookcase tends to be five shelves or more, some structure that holds books from floor to ceiling and is about an arm’s length or wider, in which case I have two, with two other “half” bookcases. I own two tall bookcases, one medium bookcase with three shelves, and another “half” bookcase with two shelves that stands on top of my desk. I need more…
One Book You Have Read Multiple Times:
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.
Preferred Place To Read:
Usually in bed, but wherever there’s a couch near a window I gravitate towards that as a reading spot. I like to pretend I’m outside when I’m really in my own controlled environment.
Quote that Inspires You/Gives You ALL THE FEELS from a Book You’ve Read:
Not sure about all the feels, but these quotes definitely hit me in the gut every time I read them:
I love the ground under his feet, and the air over his head, and everything he touches and every word he says. I love all his looks, and all his actions and him entirely and all together. –Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
I cannot express it; but surely you and everybody have a notion that there is or should be an existence of yours beyond you. –Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
I know that life isn’t life if you just float through it. I know that the whole point – the only point – is to find the things that matter, and hold on to them, and fight for them, and refuse to let them go. –Delirium by Lauren Oliver
I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will. –Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
You know what I can’t understand? You have all these people telling you all the time how great you are, smart and funny and talented and all that, I mean endlessly, I’ve been telling you for years. So why don’t you believe it? Why do you think people say that stuff, Em? Do you think it’s a conspiracy, people secretly ganging up to be nice about you? –One Day by David Nicholls
Reading Regret:
I regret reading Walden and Grapes of Wrath — sometimes I feel those were the lowest points in my English studies and I should’ve just conformed with everyone else in my class and looked at the Spark Notes instead — and I regret NOT reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I want to someday, but being friends with major LotR fans has somewhat spoiled the books for me at the moment.
Series You Started and Need to Finish (All Books are Out in Series):
Ooof, this is a difficult one, mostly because every series I’ve started I’ve actually finished. Maybe Allegiant and the rest of the Mortal Instruments series. The thing is, I read Mortal Instruments back when it was supposed to be a trilogy-only project. Every book that’s come out since in that particular section of the series has not appealed to me whatsoever — and it may have something to do with the fact that, in my head, the trilogy is done and there’s no need to continue. All the other portions of the series — Infernal Devices, the one set in 2015 LA, the one set in turn-of-the-century London or NYC — I’m invested in, but TMI has been a done deal for me since the mid-2000s.
What are your answers to these second seven letters? Anything you’d recommend I read that could change these answers?
Scribbles & Wanderlust 
6 thoughts on “A to Z Bookish Survey: Part III”
Lark
Such a fun post. My “hangover” book would be The Kite Runner…it made such an impact on me I couldn’t stop thinking about it for 2 weeks; I have 2 bookcases, but on the larger one the books are double-stacked; I’ve read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban multiple times (because it’s my favorite in the series); I like to curl up on my couch to read; couldn’t think of a quote; I regret reading The Ruins by Scott Smith…boy do I wish I could have those wasted hours back! And I still need to finish reading the Mortal Instruments series. Someday. Maybe.
Laura
PoA is the BEST Harry Potter book, hands down. Good one to read over and over again!
“Someday. Maybe.” You crack me up.
Amanda Foster
M) I know I keep giving this answer, but Hunger Games! I read the first book in a day, then had to take a 2 week break to prepare myself for the next one – and then the same thing after Catching Fire. They were insanely intense compared to my normal fare.
N) WELL. I have one big tall one in my bedroom and a little one in my classroom (I took in my favorite personal books because I want my kids to see that I read for pleasure and I re-read books I love. Plus, any books on my shelf earn an automatic recommendation from me so if they can’t decided on anything else, they can always look there). But due to just running out of room in my bedroom last year, I packed up two tall bookshelves worth of books. They’re in boxes, under our stairs, waiting for me to move out and have my own library in my house
O) Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
P) SAME! Curled up in bed or curled up on a sofa next to a window. (That’s definitely how I spent most of the day Sunday)
Q) This is the danger of loving: No matter how powerful you are, no matter how many kingdoms you rule, you cannot stop those you love from dying.-The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
They could lay bare in the utmost detail everything you had done or said or thought but the inner heart, whose workings were mysterious, even to yourself, remained impregnable. – 1984 by George Orwell (Funny story: I never actually read that book in high school, but we had a quiz where we had to tell who said what quote and this one struck me like a ton of bricks. I wrote that on my quiz and I got a bonus point for it!)
You call yourself a free spirit, a “wild thing,” and you’re terrified somebody’s gonna stick you in a cage. Well baby, you’re already in that cage. You built it yourself. And it’s not bounded in the west by Tulip, Texas, or in the east by Somali-land. It’s wherever you go. Because no matter where you run, you just end up running into yourself. – Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Three Stories by Truman Capote
When morning came, for the first time in many months the fire was out, Jo’s place was empty and the room was very still. But a bird sang blithely on a budding bough, close by, the snowdrops blossomed freshly at the window, and the spring sunshine streamed in like a benediction over the placid face upon the pillow–a face so full of painless peace that those who loved it best smiled though their tears, and thanked God that Beth was well at last. – Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
R) Not reading more. That sounds ridiculous but when I get busy, reading and cross stitching are the first two thing to go and those are perhaps the two activities I enjoy most. I think I feel guilty about doing something for pleasure when I should be doing something worthwhile and it’s a lot easier to lesson plan or grade when I’m watching TV, versus reading or cross stitching.
S) I don’t think there are any right now! I read The Selection and The Elite over the last couple of days, but the 3rd book doesn’t come out until May so that doesn’t count.
If you haven’t read Tale of Despereaux or Breakfast at Tiffany’s, I definitely recommend those. BaT is one of my favorite movies, but after a break up, I usually don’t want to hear or see a single bit of romance which is why I love the book – not a hint of romance. Just a girl doin’ her thing.
Laura
I own Tale of Despereaux but I have yet to read it! That quote is fantastic, so I’ll hop to it soon!
BaT the movie is vastly different from the book? Or is it just the hint of romance bit? Oh, Hollywood.
Amanda Foster
I just saw your comment! Tale of Despereaux is perhaps my all-time favorite of favorites of children’s books and tied with Little Women for Top Fav’s. It’s such a sweet little story and you fall so in love with every character. It’s both funny and heart wrenching. My parents gave it to me for Easter years ago and I constantly reread it – bit it was during student teaching, the semester my grandfather’s dies that I actually cried while reading it for the first time. It holds a very special place in my heart – and the movie was dreck.
BaT is both the same and completely different. They pulled a lot of the lines from the books, but Fred is in no way a romantic character. They have a platonic relationship, but he kind of has this fascination for her that could almost border on obsessive. If I remember correctly, I believe he’s gay…so when I’m feeling in the mood for a wild girl who falls in love, I watch the movie. When I’m in the mood for a wild girl who has no need for love, I read the book. Almost like fan fiction hahaha – characters you know and love, but different stories.
Amanda Foster
*but it was during student teaching, the semester my grandfathers died