Happy Tuesday Bibliofriends,

Thanks to Cherelle the Bibliophile for tagging me in the super fun Never Have I Ever Book Tag. It almost feels like some sort of naughty, bookish confession post and I’m so pleased to be doing a book tag again as I haven’t had chance to do one over the past few weeks!

This tag was first created by Madame Writer.

Rules

• Link back to original creator.
• Link back to the person who tagged you or the blog where you first saw this tag.
• Answer all prompts.
• Add one more prompt of your own.
• Tag at least 5 people.
• Don’t lie.
• Have fun!

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NEVER HAVE I EVER…READ A LATER BOOK IN A SERIES BEFORE READING THE FIRST BOOK

I was about to adamantly start shouting “No, no, no!” until I realized that as part of our Crime Fiction module at University we had to read a book called The Fire Engine That Disappeared which was the 5^th book in a Martin Beck crime series – so I guess I have! Also, does it count if you start reading a series than an author brings out a prequel at a later date…? Because that has also happened too many times to count…

NEVER HAVE I EVER…BURNED A BOOK

Not unless you count High School exercise books as part of a ‘finishing school’ ceremony – but not real books… never, never the real books! Haha!

NEVER HAVE I EVER…READ A BOOK I KNEW I WOULD HATE

Probably only as part of a university module (again – it’s turning out that my English Literature degree is starting to come across as a bad reading influence!). I think one of them would have been a play called The Man of Mode. I have zero recollection of it now but I do remember knowing that I wouldn’t enjoy it before I read it.

NEVER HAVE I EVER…WROTE A FANFICTION ABOUT MY FAVOURITE BOOKS

I absolutely have done this! It was a Harry Potter fanfic but there’s no way you’re getting any more info than that – it’s totally top secret! 😂

NEVER HAVE I EVER…LOVED A BOOK WHEN I WAS YOUNG, YET HATED IT WHEN I GOT OLDER

I wouldn’t say that I hate any books now that I loved when I was younger… However (unpopular opinion alert!) I remember loving the Twilight novels so much when they first came out but I don’t think I’d really enjoy them if I read them again now. I think it’s possible that you can grow out of love with a book but I wouldn’t say it has to mean that you hate it.

NEVER HAVE I EVER…DRESSED UP AS ONE OF MY FAVORITE LITERARY CHARACTERS

As a teacher, it’s practically engraved in our contract that dressing up for World Book Day is compulsory so I’ve dressed up as book characters many times. My favourites are Professor McGonagall or Where’s Wally!

NEVER HAVE I EVER…HATED A BOOK BY AN AUTHOR I LOVE

Again, I feel hate is too strong a word for this but…
I adored Alexandra Christo’s debut standalone novel To Kill A Kingdom because her writing style was exquisite. When I read her second novel Into the Crooked Place, which was the start of a brand new series, it felt to me like it was written by a completely different author than To Kill A Kingdom and I was a little disappointed that I didn’t love it as much I hoped I would.

NEVER HAVE I EVER…GONE INTO A BOOKSTORE TO BUY ONE BOOK AND COME OUT WITH MANY MORE

Oh… is this an actual possibility, people actually do this? I applied the #ruleof6 to book-buying before it was ever a Covid thing!

NEVER HAVE I EVER…READ THE ENDING OF A BOOK BEFORE READING THE BEGINNING

Ok, so I kinda have this thing where when I start a new paperback, I have to flip to see which page or chapter the story actually finishes on (I have no idea why!) – and one time I may have ended up reading the final page and being completely spoiled – and for those that “know 😉” one of those times was ’19 years later’… I’ve never shut a book so fast in my life.

NEVER HAVE I EVER…READ I BOOK WITHOUT THE DUST COVER

All the time!! I can’t actually read a hardback with the dust jacket on! It keeps flapping around or slipping off and annoying me, then I always worry about it getting creased or crumpled!

NEVER HAVE I EVER…SKIM READ NEARLY HALF A BOOK

Yes! The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger – I realized last minute that I had to read it for school so I skim read practically the whole thing just before class.

NEVER HAVE I EVER….PRETENDED TO HAVE READ A BOOK THAT I HAVEN’T.

Guilty! I think I’ve claimed before that I’ve read Animal Farm by George Orwell when in reality I’ve only ever seen a snippet of the cartoon film!

NEVER HAVE I EVER…SAW THE MOVIE BEFORE THE BOOK.

Several times, with lots of different films! Sometimes it’s the film that makes me want to read the books! I’d seen all the Lord of the Rings films before actually reading the books – the same with Bridget Jones’ Diary, watching the Bridget films definitely piqued my interest to see if the books were just as good.

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TAG – you’re it!! Feel free to have a go at this tag yourself and link it back to my blog if you want! Drop me a comment and let me know which Never Have I Ever you’d be most guilty of!

Have a great week friends!
T xx