THe Rest of That 30 Day Challenge I Forgot To Post

Day 03 – Your favorite series
1. Harry Potter
2. Vladimir Todd
3. Pendergast
4. Pendragon
5. Artemis Fowl*
*I read it as a kid and I liked it well enough but I never finished it.

Day 04 – Favorite book of your favorite series
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Otherwise known as: When shit really starts getting complicated and where Snape is no longer a two dimensional character.
Day 05 – A book that makes you happy
Hamlet—I love that his inaction has more dire consequences than his actions ever could. I love how he toys with madness to get leverage. I love the moralistic issues present in the book and I love the humor the book has.
Day 06 – A book that makes you sad
Atlas Shrugged—It just does.
Day 07 – Most underrated book
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
So what if most of it takes place somewhere that isn’t Hogwarts? That doesn’t mean the plot didn’t happen. What happens at Hogwarts does not stay at Hogwarts.
Day 08 – Most overrated book
Macbeth—I know, I know, technically a play but whatever. It was terrible. The entirety of it. The only part of it that made it worth reading was ONE quote: (“Out damn spot, out!”)
Day 09— A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Hamlet—I thought it was just going to be another shit Shakespeare book with fun language and a bunch of sex jokes but nothing else of merit and it really wasn’t. It was such a great read and I loved every word of it.
But a book I thought I’d absolutely hate but instead absolutely love is Pride & Prejudice. It was so fucking entertaining and silly. It was basically just a ye old rom com and everyone loves a good rom com. I love how painfully shy Darcy is and how much of a dick he was. I love how Lizzy is just as flawed as everybody else. I love how there wasn’t a single perfect character in the book and that they acted realistically given the situations. I found the character’s interactions to be fun to watch and Lizzy’s thoughts to be amazingly relatable. I loved the tone of the narration and I especially adored how ridiculously Lizzy and Darcy acted with each other.
Day 10 – Favorite classic book
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. It was fucking brill. Like seriously one of the best books I’ve read to come out of a non-modern era. It was so rich and complex but simple at the same time. It was an amazing book to read and kept me entertained throughout.
Day 11 – A book you hated
Bullet by L.k.Hamilton—I used to love her series but they went so down hill after she divorced her first husband that they’ve become sort of novel length PWPs instead of stories. I used to really look up to her. It wasn’t often I came across a female author as a kid and when I did their stories wouldn’t be about the struggle between preternatural and man. Sure, it would be there. “Oh no I’m being haunted,” but the plot’s main focus would always be romance. I hated that—still hate that. I just get so sick of reading romantic stories or stories where women can’t be strong without men or where a man doesn’t have a healthy life without a lady by his side and that’s just BORING. But LKH’s books weren’t like that. Anita was a strong, snarky and independent woman who was perfectly fine that way, thank you very much. She didn’t have a “sweety” and that was no sweat off her hot ass. She was good at what she did and a bit quirky. She wasn’t perfect, no, but she wasn’t meant to be. And I loved that. I looked up to that. When I was a teenager LKH was my hero. And I guess that’s why I feel so betrayed by her works now. They are everything I absolutely hated about other female author’s books except exponentially magnified.
/rant
Day 12 – A book you used to love but don’t anymore
Again, just sort of see day 11. I used to love her books but now they’re all tainted by disappointment and betrayal.
Day 13 – Your favorite writer
Neil Gaiman—Hands down one of the most creative and amazing authors that I have ever read. Ever. He is just so damn fabulous. His prose are original, insightful, and fun.
Day 14 – Favorite book of your favorite writer
My favorite book of Neil Gaiman’s is Good Omens—A fantastical witty novel about the coming of apocalypse and how it’s stopped by an angel with a book fetish, a demon with a car fetish, and a small gang of children lead by the antichrist. Yeah, it’s pretty damn amazing.
Day 15 – Favorite male character
Favorite male book character has got to be Aloysius Pendergast. He rocks like rocks rock. Followed by Sherlock Holmes. Because he is also amazing. Batman is not on this list because he is not from a novel.
Day 16 – Favorite female character
Hermione Granger. Because she knows how important it is to study, is loyal to the point of risking everything, has a head on her shoulders the likes of which most can not compare. Because she is a badass motherfucking witch and you best check yourself before she destroys you.
Day 17 – Favorite quote(s) from your favorite book(s)
Oh fuck no. Oh fuck fuck fuuuuck no. This would be a project not some witty short reply. Fucking no.
Day 18 – A book that disappointed you
Every book after Narcissus in Chains By LKH. (See book 11.)
Day 19 – Favorite book turned into a movie
Fight Club—Because everyone needs to learn that what you have is not what you have to lose. ‘You must lose everything before you can gain anything.’ Because we have to embrace our baseness, our savagery before we can truly become civilized instead of shaved monkeys in clothes. Because we all have two sides and we need to learn to give in to that other side sometimes and because we need to learn when not to give in to it. Because the ending scene in Fight Club is the most romantic fucking scene I have e’er clasped my eyes on. And HBC is fucking rad.
Day 20 – Favorite romance book
Pride & Prejudice—Because they had to overcome their pride and their prejudice. Because the relationship was realistic and organic. Because it grew slowly over time through talking and watching. Because Darcy is adorable and because Lizzy isn’t perfect.
Day 21 – Favorite book from your childhood
I don’t remember its name but my grade five teacher read to us this book about a ship of people (pirates?) whose captain dies and they have a woman take over and she comes so fully into the role that they flourish under her hand. But when she gets back to her home country she is forced back into the shackles that are skirts and bodices and she is so trapped. Then she breaks free and returns to her crew to sail the sees in freedom.
Day 22 – Favorite book you own
I only own books I have yet to read and am interested in or books that are favorites of mine. So… sort of all of them.
Day 23 – A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t
The Art of Possessing Joy by Alice Walker. My BFF reaeaeaeally wants me to read it and I love AW’s other book, The Color Purple so I don’t think I can really resist. I will once I get it.
Day 24 – A book that you wish more people would’ve read
Anything. I don’t care what people read or when they read or even how they read so much as they pick up a book and read it. I really don’t give a flying fuck on a hog in a tutu what people read, that’s up to them, I just want them to read regularly and like it.
Day 25 – A character who you can relate to the most
Sophie from Howl’s Moving Castle—because she thinks she’s cursed to an average and uneventful life because of who she was born as but in the end she ends up happy and successful and special and so do all of her siblings but it’s still a struggle and it’s still hard and she’s still not perfect and that is fantastic.
The Troll/Jack from Troll Bridge ( a short by Neil Gaiman)—because he has spent so long underneath that bridge and he wants to live a life and Jack’s imperfect life is exactly what he wants but he’s still afraid of it. And Jack because he spends his whole life stuck in the past and his regrets, forever on that bridge between the future and the past and he keeps choosing the past until he ends up the troll under the bridge, eating away jack’s life.
Day 26 – A book that changed your opinion about something
Fight Club—refer to day 19.
Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending
Howl’s Moving Castle—because like woah, where that portal leads. Really? Holy shit… Because that isn’t a fetish of mine. Haha.
Day 28 – Favorite title
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch.
Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked
Their Eyes Were Watching God. Because it was a good book. Catcher in the Rye. Because the protagonist is my generation. The Giver. Because freedom, choice, and diversity are what make life so worth living and if you remove them then we might as well be dead.
Day 30 – Your favorite book of all time
Hamlet, Fight Club, Please Don’t Kill the Freshmen, Howl’s Moving Castle, Good Omens, The Color Purple, Harry Potter, Sherlock Holmes, Pride & Prejudice, The Picture of Dorian Gray… I really could go on.

Day 02 – A book that you’ve read more than 3 times

I don’t think I’ve ever actually read a book more than once. I honestly don’t see the purpose. I have an excellent recall when it comes to literature so it’s not like I really need it to remember the details. I do, however, reference certain books on occasion and even research further material from them. Particularly Harry Potter. I did do extra reading and research for Harry Potter. I am a big geek when it comes to HP. Those books spanned the entirety of me growing up, pretty much. I started them in grade four and I haven’t really stopped them. But I don’t ever really re-read books. I’ve attempted to read books more than once but I always get distracted or find a new book to read instead.

Day 01 – The best book you read last year

Last year I spent a sleepless night reading Howl’s Moving Castle and I did not live to regret it. It is the only book that I have ever actually read through in one day (graphic novels notwithstanding). From start to finish I was enthralled in this rather mundane narration that took me on this far grasping whimsical tale. It incorporated so many myths and legends and fairy tales that I just could not and would not get over it. The world was rich and captured my imagination so thoroughly that when I finished I felt, not that I had gone through Sophie’s adventure myself, but rested and ready for the world as if refreshed from seven leagues of dejection and imminent failure. I fell in love with Sophie. I felt her heartbreaks and her insecurities. I felt her triumphs and her love. It was Sophie and Howl that carried me through this story. I felt along with Sophie throughout and I fell in love with the person Howl really is… when he’s not chasing after pretty girls.