Hey, friends! A week or so ago, we came across this fun book tag post from Alice/The Geeky Burrow, but the original idea came from Read at Midnight. Basically, this will make more sense if you already know something about Pokémon, but each type of Pokémon here will represent a type of book or book series. Since Travis and I are both avid readers and we both love Pokemon, we’d like to share our own favorite books and how they shaped us as the readers and writers we are today.
Travis:
For me it was Brian Jacques’s Redwall books, together with the Chronicles of Narnia.
Whitney:
I know many people will say the Harry Potter series for this one, but for me, it’s a mixture of the Chronicles of Narnia series and Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine.
Travis:
Ah, definitely Ender’s Game. Card’s characters are really weird when it comes down to it, but in a way that I have always found compelling and entertaining.
Whitney:
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. Man, I’ve always wanted to meet or interact with my favorite book characters, and she certainly made me rethink that childhood wish.
Travis:
Well, I don’t spend a whole lot of time chatting about books, and so there hasn’t been much that has been unduly “talked up” to me. If I had to pick something, I think it would probably be the Maze Runner series, though even in that case I read the first book and watched the film before deciding it wasn’t for me.
Whitney:
The covers intrigue me, but the Raven Cycle series is sort of way down on the TBR list because I’ve seen it dressed up too much on “Bookstagram” accounts. Like, that’s the only time I ever feel hipster about something: if everyone’s raving about yet another fantasy series and I don’t see the initial draw, then I purposefully shy away from it. Feel free to persuade me otherwise in the comments if I’m out of my mind here.
Travis:
Gotta go back to Redwall. Those books were huge in building my love of reading, and they were also the first books where I could see that there was a formula. Almost every book had it, but they were still tremendously fun.
Whitney:
Probably The Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. It reminded me a lot of Hunger Games and other dystopian tropes that I’m not a huge fan of. But let’s be serious, I still want to know what happens in the rest of the series.
Travis:
Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive. I’ve loved pretty much everything I’ve read from him, but those books…and there are more still to come! But one day, I’ll get at ’em.
Whitney:
The Lord of the Rings series. I’ve watched the movies multiple times but the books themselves are very intimidating!
Travis:
Kept me up reading? Well, I do a lot of my personal reading at night, but I recently was up into the late (early?) hours reading Star Wars: Bloodline by Claudia Gray.
Whitney:
Recently? Elise Kova’s Air Awakens and Fire Falling. You could also add every book in the Harry Potter series here.
Travis:
Will and Lyra from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy.
Whitney:
Oooh, my heart still beats for Po and Katsa from Kristin Cashore’s Graceling.
Travis:
Fittingly, I burned through Firefight by Brandon Sanderson.
Whitney:
Oh, definitely Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Read that puppy in 3 hours.
Travis:
I can’t say I’ve read any spin-offs, but if you have recommendations, I’m all ears!
Whitney:
Um, I’ll literally never get tired of retellings or novels that take place in exotic places like India and Saudi Arabia. Aladdin spinoffs, for example, are always intriguing to me when done correctly. Wouldn’t mind any spinoffs of folklore in general, if done right.
Travis:
I didn’t expect to enjoy Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series as much as I did. When it got pitched to me, I was left expecting some sort of tryhard trope-turning story, but, well, the writing speaks for itself.
Whitney:
Oh my days, Cinder by Marissa Meyer. I thought it was going to be too cheesy because I based it too much on a) the cover with a red high-heeled shoe and b) a Cinderella retelling. Meyer didn’t disappoint and now I’m hungry for the rest of the series. I wrote about my experience here.
Travis:
Yeah, since I don’t spend a lot of time in book circles, I really don’t get things hyped for me. The one thing on the horizon that might fit the bill is Thrawn, a new Star Wars book from Timothy Zahn, who wrote a trilogy about the titular character decades ago, and has been brought on to contribute to the canon for that universe.
Whitney:
The Court of Thorns and Roses series. I purchased the first book, so I’m halfway there, right?
Travis:
I might weep if given a collector’s edition of the Chronicles of Narnia.
Whitney:
I would like a nice copy of Hans Christian Andersen’s original fairy tales. Like, super nice-looking and super hecka Danish. I can read Danish, so it wouldn’t just be a fancy decoration.
Travis:
I’m afraid I don’t keep up much on the debuts coming out, but I know I’m looking forward to the book Whitney is looking forward to!
Whitney:
I’m not sure if I’m anticipating any debut novels at the moment (besides the one Travis plans on finishing!), but I preordered the novel, Ahsoka, by E.K. Johnston and it just needs to get here in front of my eyeballs ASAP.
Travis:
You may have seen me mention Brandon Sanderson a couple of times? Yeah, him.
Whitney:
Shannon Hale and Marissa Meyer, easily.
Travis:
I’m eagerly awaiting collected volumes of a number of the new Star Wars comic books that have been put out.
Whitney:
I don’t know if this one counts, but ever since I read The Princess Bride, I really wanted to read Buttercup’s Baby. I still don’t know if this is a hoax/cruel sick joke or not, but I’d like to believe someday someone will actually finish this rather than leave me on a literal cliffhanger.
Wanna give this a try, too? Giving credit back to the original post is optional, but feel free to use the graphics. We’re supposed to tag people, but it’s hard to remember who likes reading and Pokémon, so if you’re up for the challenge, consider yourself tagged!
