I’ve not been tagged, but my friend Sharon answered these on her blog (Library Hungry), and I got inspired. I tag anyone who hasn’t done this yet and wants to share their responses.

1) A popular book or series you didn’t like: I’m going to have to go with The Giver on this one… Maybe it’s just because I read it for the first time as an adult and after what seems like a million other books have come out that more or less have the exact same plot and, in my opinion, do it better.

2) A book or series everyone seems to hate, but you love: Like Sharon said in her post, my tastes (for the most part) are pretty mainstream. So, for this question I’m going to shine the light on an older series that doesn’t get a lot of love. Most people, when they think of Madeline L’Engle, shower all the love on her Wrinkle in Time series. I liked that series a lot, but the one that really got me was her series about Meg and Calvin’s family which focuses on the adventures of their children and mostly features their eldest daughter, Polly. The first of these books is apparently considered to be the last (5th) book in the Wrinkle in Time series (called An Acceptable Time). I think that book launched the O’Keefe family spin-off series (or maybe it was the other way around?) that starts with Arm of the Starfish. Both of these books were formative books in my YA reader life. (P.S. While adding links to this post, I realized that the Kindle version of Arm of the Starfish happens to be on sale for $2.99 right now… go buy it! –> )

3) A love triangle or romantic pairing you’re not a fan of: The one in An Ember in the Ashes. It’s actually more than a love triangle. There are conjoined love triangles in this book with one pair appearing in both, then each having their own “third wheel,” so to speak. I’m not even sure what shape that makes. But I was absolutely not invested in any of the pairings and possible romances, even though everyone seems to be all swoony over the boys in this book/series.

4) A popular genre you hardly ever reach for: Horror/Thriller. I’m not into the scary stuff.

5) A beloved book character who gets on your nerves in a major way: This is the part where everyone is going to hate me… Celaena Sardothien (aka Aelin) from the Throne of Glass series… There are a lot of other reasons why I enjoy these books, but the main character is rarely one of them. She’s got that angsty, broody YA hero thing down, and she’s independent to a life-threatening, world-destroying fault. She’s not shown herself to be a very good leader, or friend, which sometimes makes it just really hard to root for her. We’ll see how I feel after I read Empire of Storms, but so far, the books I’ve liked her best in are the prequel novellas. Please note: saying this *does not* mean I don’t like this series. Just because a character gets on your nerves, that doesn’t mean a book is bad. Sometimes it means exactly the opposite. Another example: Book 5 of the Harry Potter series is my favorite and that one features Harry at his most angsty and difficult to love point in the story.

6) A popular author you can’t seem to get into: I really can’t think of anyone here… I can’t think of a time when I wrote off an author because of one book/series I didn’t like. And, I can’t think of an author who is still writing books that I would never read anything by again just because I didn’t like one of their books, or a series they wrote.

7) A trope you’re tired of seeing: At the moment, I am burnt out on the “orphan teen queen/king hiding out as a street urchin / thief / assassin / rebel” trope. For some reason, it feels like this trope, and the “chosen one” trope, have been the only two plot arc choices for nearly every YA fantasy book over the past decade. I’m ready for something new.

8) A popular book or series you have no interest in reading: The Mortal Instruments series. I know this series has some serious fans, but it just doesn’t sound like something I’d enjoy (mostly due to burn-out on that type of story/world/trope). However, at some point I do plan to try her Infernal Devices series.

9) The saying goes: the book is always better than the movie. But what movie or TV adaption did you like better than the original book? I really like the SyFy Channel’s TV show version of The Magicians better than I liked the first book in that series. I haven’t read the other two books in that series, yet. I’m trying to finish them before the second season starts. But so far I like the TV show better.

If you did this book tag, share a link to your post in the comments so I can go check it out!