The Name Book Tag


Hello fellow book lovers!

I saw this short book tag floating around on the Internet. It's very simple and quick, you choose any one book for each letter of your name, but I think it sounds like a fun way of hearing about random books and people's opinions on them. Unfortunately I was unable to find the original creator of this tag, the video seems to have been taken down. But still, here we go:



Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb, one of my favourite books. I first read it in 2014 and again last year, it was even better the second time. This is one of those series where you need to form a connection to the characters first in order to really enjoy them, so the books get better with every read. Also, aren't these anniversary editions just perfection? I need to collect them all!  

Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett. The Discworld novels are just pure fun and genius writing. The books of the witches collection are my absolute favourites of the series, and this is one of them. The dialogue between Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg is hilarious and often made me laugh out loud. Oh, and this particular book is a parody of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, and it does an amazing job of it!                   
  The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells. I read this book last year and unfortunately wasn't too impressed with it. It features some very interesting themes and gives one a lot to think about, like all of Wells' stories do. But I just didn't get on with the writing style, it took me till The War of the Worlds to really get used to Wells' style. Maybe I should reread his books, because The War really impressed me (and scared the hell out of me).




The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. Beware, unpopular opinion ahead: I really, really disliked this novel. I love character driven fantasy, so this should have been right up my alley. Unfortunately, I couldn't stand Kvothe as a boy. I know he suffered through trauma and everything, but I really didn't like him, and when I can't like the protagonist, the book usually doesn't do much for me. The story was also really slow, something I usually don't mind and often enjoy. In this case it just dragged too much and didn't seem to get anywhere most of the time. Also, I suffered through the second book and didn't like it either, so I am one of the few people who are not eagerly awaiting book 3, whenever that will be released. This is one of those books where I don't understand the general hype at all, but it's at the same time a great example of how different opinions on one book can be.  


The Alchemist by Ben Jonson. This is a short play concerned with fraud and gullibility. Ben Jonson was a contemporary of Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe and this particular play takes place in the London of their time and offers highly interesting insights into the lives of 16th century Londoners. I read this last year because I chose to compare it to Marlowe's Doctor Faustus for a term paper, and I can really recommend reading these plays together. One can learn a lot about the place magic and the supernatural had in everyday life back then and how it was a device to get to the money of the desperate and hopeful. It isn't exactly an easy and quick read, one has to concentrate quite a bit to get the most out of this short play, but I would still recommend it to fan of Shakespeare's work! 















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