For the past little while, I haven't been doing my weekly 'Tag Time', mainly because, well, I lost the motivation to do so. This week though, I am bringing it back to do the 'End of Summer Recap' book tag. Seeing as today is the last day of summer, at least before schools start up again, I thought it would be the perfect time to reflect on what I read over the past four months.
I found this on Zezee with Books, but it was created by You Are What You Read, so all credit goes to them.
Here we go!
WHAT BOOK CAN YOU NOT STOP THINKING ABOUT?
I just finished reading Goodnight Punpun, and that is the kind of story that really sticks with you regardless of how much you enjoyed reading it. I also really liked Hell's Paradise which will stick with me as I am highly anticipating the anime. There is also Solo Leveling which was definitely one of the best things I've read probably all year along with Hell's Paradise.
WHICH BOOK WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE NOT READ?
Hmm, there are a lot of books I read that I didn't like and wasted my time reading, but I don't know if there are any that I really regret. Maybe The Troop because it didn't turn out to be the book I was expecting it to be. I ended up rereading The Twilight Saga which was just pure regret. The Other Family was also a bad apple.
WHAT GENRE DID YOU READ THE MOST?
To no one's surprise, fantasy of course. I do read a good amount of mystery thriller or horror books, but almost always my most read here during the month is fantasy. It helps that even when I read manga or manhwas, they are usually fantasy as well.
WHICH BOOK SURPRISED YOU THE MOST?
I want to say Who Made Me a Princess because I did end up enjoying it, but I also kind of expected to because it is a very well-loved manhwa. One book that surprised me was A Secret of Birds & Bone. I honestly don't remember even discovering it, and I haven't seen anyone talking about it either, but I rather enjoyed it. And, of course, there is the Shibuya Incident Arc which somehow still managed to surprise me even though I had already spoiled everything.
WHICH BOOK DISAPPOINTED YOU THE MOST?
A recent read, that being Upgrade. I loved Recursion and Dark Matter, though slightly less than the former, so I wanted this to be just as great. There was also Chainsaw Man as well because there was so much hype surrounding that series and I ended up not liking it. Finally, I want to include The Drowning Woods. Now I wouldn't say it was bad, but I did find it uninteresting which was disappointing because I really liked The Bone Houses.
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE COVER?
I love book covers featuring digitally drawn people, like the work of Charlie Bowater. I know that a lot of people don't like covers with faces on them, but I do when they are done digitally and not like romance novels where a real person is on them. One that I read recently that had a cover like this was The Poison Season, which was also done by Charlie.
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE SUMMER RELEASE?
Out of the releases that came out that I read, my highest-rated books are We Are the Song and The Stardust Thief. They weren't the best, but they were decent books. I may have more luck with the books I have yet to read.
WHICH BOOKS DID YOU PLAN ON READING, BUT YOU NEVER GOT AROUND TO?
I think I ended up reading exactly what I wanted to during the summer since I had a set TBR for some of those months. There were some new releases that came out though that I didn't pick up, such as Youngblood, Out of the Blue, and Babel.
WHICH BOOKS DO YOU PLAN ON READING IN THE FALL/AUTUMN?
I've got a lot of books to cram in before the year-end. I still have several books left on my 'Top 22 Books to Read in 2022' list. I am also participating in Becca's Bookoplathon during September and have a set TBR for that, and also plan on reading some horror and mystery books for the Halloween season.