| LET’S TALK | REREADING BOOKS

Hello lovelies ! it’s time for a discussion post. Today I want to talk about rereading books. It can be considered an aberration to reread a book when your TBR pile is as huge as mine is but I like to reread some of my books.

Why, you may ask ? Well, for many reasons.

First, I like to reread books that I loved. I don’t know why, but it feels like home, you know ? That feeling that you’re going back into a beloved world, with some of your favorite characters… Yeah I definitively find it appealing !

I also reread when I need a fresh reminder of the story. When I pick a sequel, sometimes the story is a little blurry in my mind. Rereading the previous books is then a necessity !

Have you ever suffered from a reading slump ? It’s every reader’s worst enemy ! Well, my way of fighting it is to pick one of my favorite books and reread it. Aaaand that’s how we go back to the first reason I mentionned earlier !  Reading a story I adore is somehow curing me from my slump !

That’s it ! Do you reread books ? If so, why ?

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|LET’S TALK | UNHAULING BOOKS

Hello lovelies ! I’m here with a new discussion post ! It has been a while since I posted one of these !
Today I want to talk about unhauling books.

For a looong time, this idea never crossed my mind. My bookshelves have always been big enough to shelter both books I loved/enjoyed and books I didn’t really appreciate or DNF’d.
Having a bookshelves full of books was the more important than having a shelf with only books I could reread.

I still have some room left on my huge bookshelves, so for now it’s not a room issue. Moreover, I’m planning on adding wall shelves on my bedroom, for my French mass paperbacks.
But I realized something : I have some books, even some that I did enjoy when I read them, that will never reread. Which means, they’re wasting some shelf space, and they could make someone else happy.
So I started thinking about unhauling some of said books. Don’t worry, it only concerns very few books. And I stil haven’t made up my mind completely. Because let’s be honest, I’m very proud of how my bookshelf looks, with all these books I bought throughout these past years.

So, even though I’m not decided yet, I started considering it. Which is a good start, right ?!

What about you ? Do you unhaul books you know you won’t reread ?

 

| LET’S TALK | CHANGES OF MAIN CHARACTER(S) IN A SERIES

Hello lovelies ! It has been a long time since I made a discussion post. Today I wanna talk about the change of main character in a series.

I am currently reading Dark Triumph by Robin Lafevers. It’s the second book in His Fair Assassin. The first book, Grave Mercy was taking place around Ismae. The book follows her on a very important mission regarding Gavriel Duval. But the second book follows Sybella, another girl trained at the convent. She crossed path with Ismae in the previous book, though. It’s the first time I read a fantasy series with a change of main character !

I am used to this change of MC in contemporary/romance series. Usually I don’t mind it, in the contemporary or romance books. It allows the writer to publish a whole series, to stay in a world they have built. Because let’s be honest, a whole romance series around the same MC, it’s pretty rare. I only have the After series in mind. Or maybe it happens when there are a lot of MC, such as in The Islanders series.

But to be honest, I find it rather disturbing in a fantasy series. I get it, His Fair Assassin is not a trilogy but rather companion novels. But I feel like we don’t get to really get attached to the characters. It’s easier when it’s a contemporary series because it’s easier to identify yourself to said character or to a situation. Moreover, we always know a lot about their feelings haha !
So I really prefer it the old fashioned way : a fantasy series with the same MC posse !

What about you, what’s your opinion on the matter ?

 

| LET’S TALK | WHY I AM READING IN ENGLISH

Hello everyone ! Today I wanna talk about something I’ve been asked pretty often : why I’m reading in English. You’ve certainly noticed that it’s not my native language !

It started when I was 18. Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows came out and I needed to read it ASAP. Since it was hyper hyped, the English version was available in every good book shop ! Picture me on my bed, this big book right in front of me and a French/English dictionary next to me. I devoured it, finishing it in less than 24 hours (to avoid being spoiled by a so called friend). I realized then that I enjoyed reading it English and that it wasn’t that complicated after all.

But I never picked another book in English until several years later. I have read several YA books that were really badly translated in French. I felt it was rushed, and justified by “oh well it’s YA. Young readers won’t notice.” I HATED it. Spoiled my reading.
At that time I also started to think about what is now my life goal : moving to London and work as a community pharmacist there.
Which means that I needed to improve my English ( I felt like watching TV show in their original version wasn’t enough)So I started to read more in English. The Fault In Our Stars, TMI series, Ruby Red etc… And I realized that I preferred the original versions to translated ones because they were the author’s words, after all.

A few months later I got introduced to the bookish community thanks to Booktube. Which means that I found out about books that weren’t published in French yet. So I tended to buy more English books than French ones.

And now here I am, reading almost exclusively in English except for books I’m sharing with my parents, or from French authors !

And you ?
Is English your native language ?
If not, why are you reading in English ?

| LET’S TALK | DNF BOOKS

Hello everyone ! Today I’m gonna inaugurate a new category that I named Let’s Talk. Discussions posts are posts that I enjoy reading. I have wanted to start writing for a long time now. In fact, this particular post has stayed in the draft section for weeks (yeah, weeks, I’m that lazy haha).

Today I want to talk about DNF books and the shame that can come with it. Just in case  : DNF = Did Not Finish !

In my case it concerns only three books :

•  The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
• Dragonfly In Amber by Diana Gabaldon.

The reasons I DNF these books are different for each one of them.
For The Book Thief, I found that the POV was too cold (and for a good reason!) and I had troubles to get into the story. The story is beautiful, there’s no questioning that, but I need to be able to get into a story to truly appreciate it.

For All The Light We Cannot See, it was the lack of action. I read it during when I was craving fantasy stories, which wasn’t the best time to pick it, right. I plan to pick it up again, when I feel like it, because the writing style is really beautiful !

For Dragonfly In Amber, it’s the vocabulary added to the political side that got the best of me. I meant to pick it up again multiple times, but didn’t. I know I will pick it up again soon though, because I want to read it before watching the second season of the TV show.

Now, I think it’s okay not to finish a book, regardless of the reason. But, I try my best not to, because I feel it like I fail. I know this is stupid, because you can’t like every book you’ll read. But these 3 books are hyped, AND adult books, not YA. I tell myself that being 27 years old, I SHOULD like them. That it’s more of my age than YA books, that I read easily and like a lot. (Here, I think I just found my next discussion post ! haha). Plus, since they’re hyped, I keep telling myself that I’m missing something.
But for two of them, the vocabulary used isn’t the one I’m used to, and since English is not my native language, it makes the reading less fluid. Because I’ve always read non YA books in French, so I know it’s not really an issue.

So lately, I’ve been trying my best not to feel ashamed because I DNF a book. Reading should ALWAYS be a pleasure, not a struggle.

 

What about you ? What do you think of DNF books ?