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[RokofAges75]

Yeah, I was up all night last night reading it LOL.  I will have to tweet about it and tag her.  It was crazy how she said in her acknowledgment s she sent her book proposal to like 41 different agents before she found one who accepted it.  I can't believe so many others passed on it!  It's cool that she is/was a flight attendant, too - that explains why the plane stuff was so detailed and realistic.  It would make a great movie!

[mare]

That will totally be turned into a movie!

It is crazy that was turned down 41 times. Good for her for not giving up. I bet those other 41 agents are kind of bummed out now.

[nicksgal]

Speed on a plane! I love this. That's great that she found the right agent and then the right publisher even after so many tries!

I need to get back into reading books again, just in general, but also for research. Anyone have any good recent YA recommendation s by any chance?

[mare]

I haven’t read a YA since Turtles All the Way Down which was a long time ago. It was good, but anything John Green is pretty go to for young adult. I do have one sitting on my bookshelf called “They Both Die at the End” Hrmm.. wonder what happens?

[nicksgal]

lmao I'm guessing there's actually a subversion in there and they do not die, lol. How do you determine your order for reading the books? Order purchased? Or something else?

Goodreads is a good suggestion to look at for research. I realized after I asked that YA speculative fiction and/or YA romance is probably not what y'all are reading and that's where I would have wanted suggestions more than general YA.

I can't actually think of the last YA book I read. The last book I read was the last one in the Crazy Rich Asians series.

[mare]

I actually buy books in bulk. I just kind of wait and then buy them in one big order. Since I pretty much read everything, I tend to alternate by genre. Like if I read a suspense, then I jump to a comedy or drama. If I read a really long intense novel, then I might go for something short.

I depend on goodreads a lot. I’m doing their reading challenge which I recommend for anyone who wants to get themselves back into reading. You can set the amount. I went for 40 this year.

[RokofAges75]

I finished a YA book called "We Were Liars" last week.  It's kind of hard to define the genre, but I guess I'd say it was mostly a mystery, but with a romantic subplot.  It was pretty good.

I haven't read a ton of YA in recent years, but if you haven't already read them, I highly recommend "Fangirl" and "The Fault in Our Stars."  The main character in Fangirl is a fanfic author who's heading off to college, so it's super relatable.  It has a romantic subplot as well.  And of course, Fault in Our Stars was right up my alley, but it really is a good romance and overall great novel.

[nicksgal]

How many books go in a bulk order, Mare? Do you wait to buy them until you're reading the last book from the last bulk order or something different? I think it makes sense to switch things around, so you don't ever feel stuck in a rut.

I should set myself a reading challenge of some sort. I currently lack the motivation to start and I like a good challenge, lol.

I haven't read either of those! You should probably shame me for being the only person who hasn't read TFIOS, lol! I was really thinking about all of this after watching Ready Player One last weekend, then finding out it was a book, and wondering how different the book was from the movie. And you know, I keep saying that I'm not reading as much as I would like anymore. But the last time I thought "I'd like to read," I read about four books in a month. So, maybe I should get back into it. I think spending all of my time analyzing books in college burned me out.

[RokofAges75]

Oh, please read TFIOS!!!  It's so good!  It's not the typical sappy teen cancer romance, like all the Lurlene McDaniel books I devoured as a tween.  It has some of the same tropes, sure, but it also pokes fun at some of those tropes.  It's actually really funny in parts.  I enjoyed the movie version of it, but of course the book was better.

I think you would really like Fangirl, too!

I need to get back into reading regularly, too.  I finished two books last week, and it felt so good!  I had gotten myself into a rut of reading these really long books that I didn't love, but made myself finish before starting something new.  I probably should allow myself to abandon books more often instead of just not reading LOL.

What's the last book you all abandoned with no intention of finishing and why?  Mine was a Dean Koontz novel called "Your Heart Belongs to Me."  I downloaded it when I was writing A Heart That Isn't Mine and looking for inspiration, even though many of the reviews said it wasn't great.  I thought the genre and subject matter would be enough to keep me reading, but no... it was terrible.  Absolutely terrible.  Cheesy writing... unlikable, unrelatable characters... ugh!  I only read half of it and haven't thought about it since.  It was not worth finishing.

[nicksgal]

Hey, tropes are tools! I always love a good trope. Alright, I'll read things again, eventually. I'm slowly adding books to my list.

Uhhh... I think it was called "Girl, Wash Your Face" or "Girl, Please Wear Sunscreen" or something like that. I wouldn't call it a self-help book, but it was something like that by a comedian/entrepreneur person that looked interesting at Target, but then it wasn't.

How many "this isn't great" reviews does a book need for you to either not read it or consider that it may not be great?

[RokofAges75]

Oh yeah, I know what book you're talking about it.  I haven't read it, and it didn't sound like the kind of book I would enjoy... mostly because the people I saw recommending it are not the kind of people I enjoy either LOL.

I typically don't spend money on anything with less than four stars on Amazon, unless it came highly recommended by people who typically have good taste in books or just sounded really interesting to me.  Obviously, coming from a fanfic background, I can read less than superbly-crafted literature if it's entertaining enough, but I do have to care about or at least be able to connect with the characters somehow.

I went to Amazon to look up the title of that Koontz book, though, and it actually averaged 4.3 stars.  Browsing the reviews, they aren't as bad as I remember.  Some of them said the ending was good and that the main character became more likable as the story went on, so now I'm wondering if maybe I gave up on it too soon LOL.  Would it be bad to read the Wikipedia synopsis to find out how it ended before I decide whether it's worth going back to?

[mare]

Anytime you guys want recs just ask away. I think I’m the one the actually recommended TFIOS to you, Julie. I remember when I read that forever ago, the entire time I was reading it I thought oh my God she’d freakin LOVE this book lol these are the conversations that excite me. I can talk about books for days.

To answer your question Dee, I usually buy books ten at a time. I don’t ever feel guilty about it because books are pretty much the only thing I ever really ‘splurge’ on. I tend to put in an order once I start my last book on my ‘to read’ shelf. I had been ordering from B&N because I had so many gift cards accumulated over 20 years of teaching. But I noticed most of the books are cheaper on Amazon for some reason, so I placed my last order with them.

I very rarely if ever totally give up on a book. Probably because I purchase them lol I even forced myself to finish Twilight! The most recent book I’ve read that I really hated was “Their Eyes Were Watching God” that was rough.

Dean Koontz is kind of an ‘eh’ writer. I call him Stephen King light. Although I loved his book “Intensity” and his “Odd Thomas” series is pretty funny. I tend to forget about him.

I looked up “We Were Liars” on goodreads once you mentioned it, Julie. It had mixed reviews but overall I think it got 3.82 out of 5 stars.

To find books to read, I generally go by my favorite authors. Once SK talks about something, I take note. I know I’ve joked about him before but Devan Sawa has also become my go to for book recs. He’s the reason I read Falling. I’ve asked him for recs and he’s actually replied back more than once and he’s asked me about SK’s true crime series lol

I have never read anything by Lurlene McDaniel. I might give her a go one day.

Is there anything that everyone seems to have loved but when you read it you hated it? For me besides Twilight, it would have to The Goldfinch. It usually takes me one to two weeks tops to get through a book but that one almost took me a year lol

[RokofAges75]

Anytime you guys want recs just ask away. I think I’m the one the actually recommended TFIOS to you, Julie. I remember when I read that forever ago, the entire time I was reading it I thought oh my God she’d freakin LOVE this book lol these are the conversations that excite me. I can talk about books for days.

Yes you did, and you were right!

Dean Koontz is kind of an ‘eh’ writer. I call him Stephen King light. Although I loved his book “Intensity” and his “Odd Thomas” series is pretty funny. I tend to forget about him.

I looked up “We Were Liars” on goodreads once you mentioned it, Julie. It had mixed reviews but overall I think it got 3.82 out of 5 stars.

The only other one I've read by him was called Hideaway.  I liked it, but yeah, he's no Stephen King.

That sounds about right for We Were Liars.  Like I said, it was kinda slow in the beginning, but it got better.  Not the best book I've ever read, but I enjoyed it overall.

I have never read anything by Lurlene McDaniel. I might give her a go one day.

In all honestly, don't bother - you would probably hate her books LOL.  They don't have the wit or humor of TFIOS; they're all very sentimental and sappy.  They're like Hallmark original movies that are about medical stuff instead of Christmas LOL.  I loved them back in the day, but they were definitely written for tween girls.  I could reread them now for nostalgia's sake, but I think if I had picked up one for the first time as an adult, I would have found them incredibly cheesy.

Is there anything that everyone seems to have loved but when you read it you hated it? For me besides Twilight, it would have to The Goldfinch. It usually takes me one to two weeks tops to get through a book but that one almost took me a year lol

Hm... I can't think of anything I actually read and hated.  I didn't even hate Twilight when I first read those books, although they don't hold up on rereads.  There are books, like 50 Shades of Gray, that I just avoided because I knew I would probably hate them.

"Hate" is a strong word, but I struggled to get through Stephen King's "It."  I started reading it before the first movie came out a few years ago, and it took me like a year to finish it - not because it's so long, but because I found it kinda boring.  I usually enjoy his books and plowed through The Stand much quicker.  I didn't hate It and am glad I finally finished it, but it's not one of my favorites from him.

[mare]

Thanks for the heads up. I’ll probably skip her then.

I wasn’t a huge fan of IT either. In general I tend to love his non horror stories over the flat out horror ones. 11/22/63 is my favorite one of his.

Maybe hate is too strong a word. Let’s go with un-enjoyable lol

[nicksgal]

Would it be bad to read the Wikipedia synopsis to find out how it ended before I decide whether it's worth going back to?

Depends on how much you'd be sad if you were spoiled? lol

I did this recently with an Audio book that the teacher I was subbing for in our Summer Camp played while he was driving and only because it was a children's book with something like "The robot eyed the carnage... blah blah blah" as one of the lines, and obviously, if this audio book is missing the last disc of chapters, I needed to find out what happened to this robot (but not enough to buy it and read it, obviously, lol). I think there was a part later on that talked about what animals looked like frozen in snow and a predator describing eating prey... it was delightfully dark for a middle grade story, lol.

And wow, Mare, 10 books at a time and it usually only takes you a couple of weeks per book at most! You're a speed reader!

Do you buy all your books too, Julie? And how long does it typically take you to read?

Books I hated that other people love? The only one I can think of right now is Twilight. I think I've gone on my soap box about how Bella feels like a reader insert character, but I did read the entire series hoping it would get better. I think the issue was that it missed so many of the typical fantasy novel beats in its structure. And sure, it could be argued that it's not really fantasy, it's romance... but it missed most of those too! Like the first two books had the right arc if you read them together, but then why chop a story in half if it shouldn't be cut in half? I could go on for days...