The 90s Kid Book Tag

Considering that I’m generally just a ball of utter nostalgia, I jumped at the chance to do this book tag! Also, it’s Friday, I’m procrastinating on a book review, and in general I wanna kill time until I can eat lunch. 😀

I stumbled upon this tag at Books Are Only the Beginning but I think its original creator is The Literary Phoenix. (The divider thingies are also from there, because I just copied and pasted the whole format lmao). Here we go! (Also it’s long and image heavy so it’s going under a cut)

Pokemon

A GBA game and trading card game where you battled pocket monsters and strived to catch them all.  Back in the day, there were only 150 Pokemon.

The author you need every book from.

Amanda Downum! She’s a super underrated author, in my opinion, but her fantasy trilogy The Necromancer Chronicles remains one of my all-time fantasy favorites. Unfortunately she’s a rather slow writer and hasn’t published anything since 2015, but I’m waiting!

N.K. Jemisin! I was into her before it was cool. ;p That is, she was one of my faves even before The Fifth Season.

Also I feel like Mackenzi Lee is going to be one of these authors judging by the summaries of her upcoming books, but I’m gonna wait to actually read more than one book of hers before I decide.

AIM

AOL Instant Messaging – how 90s kids communicated with their friends after school before everyone had a cell phone.

Book that connected you with your best friend.

Harry Potter! It has connected me with many, many friends! It also remains something I share with my best friend, who isn’t a big reader, unfortunately, but loves Harry Potter. (This is such a boring answer, but like…what can I say. I owe so much to Harry Potter.)

Furby

Creepy needy robots you could teach to talk and were probably demon possessed.  Somehow these made a comeback?

Book that seemed like a good idea but was actually a monster.

The Bloodprint by Ausma Zehanat Khan. This book has the dubious distinction of being the second worst book I read in 2017. I gave it one freaking star, which I almost never do.  I would recommend reading my full review for a list of the many things wrong with it, but mainly this book was such a fucking drag to read. It was physically painful. And it was my most anticipated read of the year and also my biggest disappointment; with a gorgeous cover and a summary that sounded enticingly rich in worldbuilding, I was so convinced I would love this book I even pre-ordered it! I never do that! And then it took me ages and ages to read and I hated every minute of it.

N’SYNC

90s quintessential boy band.  You may have heard of Justin Timberlake?

A book you hated to say Bye, Bye, Bye to.

The Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman, which was my favorite book of 2017. It’s a supernatural Regency thriller/mystery and I devoured it. There’s something about the writing and the feel of this book that just takes you on a journey and makes you feel so comfortable, like you’ve nestled into your favorite armchair with a cup of tea! It’s well-written, the characters are fantastic, and the plot is thrilling! The final book in the trilogy is coming out this year; I’m super excited but I don’t look forward to saying good-bye!

Slimed!

Getting green slime thrown on you, courtesy of the show Figure it Out.  Also apparently still a thing at the Kid’s Choice Awards?

A book everyone loved but you hated.

I have three books for this, because why not! Let the unpopular opinions commence!

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson. Now, I loved Sanderson’s Mistborn series, but I think Elantris was really generic, with super stilted dialogue and terrible Mary Sue and Gary Stu characters. And the twist was a huge letdown.

Legend by Marie Lu. This book is so aggressively mediocre. The writing is terrible, the plot is run-of-the-mill, and by the end I was just skimming. It’s bland and immature, with a heaping of instalove for good measure.

The Wicked Deep by Shea Earnshaw. I didn’t hate this book, but my reaction to it was pretty much, “meh.” It was boring and the romance took up most of it.  Characters were bland. The concept is so cool but was executed pretty terribly.

Oregon Trail

90s computer game you could usually play at school, which was great.  It taught us people used to die a lot of gruesome, messy deaths.

A book that made you wish you died of dysentery.

Desolate by Amy Miles. This is probably the worst book I have ever read in my entire life, which is saying something. This is worse than Twilight. Worse than 50 Shades. It’s so, so bad. It’s basically just hundreds of pages of torture porn and zero plot.

Mixtape/CD

Back before everyone had music on their phones (remember, we didn’t have cell phones!) folks would rip their CDs and make mixes for each other.

3 books you recommend to anyone, anywhere, no matter what.

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander. This is an incredibly important book and should honestly be required reading in schools. It opens your eyes to the United States’ unjust history and present. If you think that the United States has, or has ever had, a fair and decent justice system, read this book.

The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. This is a book that has something for everyone (well, most people). Elegant, old-world writing? Yes. Fantasy? Yes. Novel of manners? Yes. Romance? Yes. It takes all these elements and puts them into a gorgeous, gorgeous novel about finding love and being true to yourself. And yes, I know that sounds sappy, but the strength of this book is that it’s not at all sappy. Even the romance is handled pragmatically. Loved this!

Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli. This book. It’s just so Wholesome. It’s hilarious and sweet and I couldn’t put it down and maybe it can get people to open their hearts and minds a little bit more.

Dial-Up Internet

You know how it’s annoying when you aren’t on LTE?  IMAGING WAITING 10 MINUTES FOR INTERNET TO START AND ANOTHER 20 MINUTES FOR GOOGLE TO LOAD!

A book that took FOR FREAKING EVER to read.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I have been reading this book for five months now. That’s the longest it’s ever taken me to read anything. Even The Bloodprint only took me a month and a half! I definitely don’t hate Jane Eyre as much as I hate that one, however. It’s just so…I don’t know. I can’t even tell you what I don’t like except that it’s not holding my attention. But I am determined to finish it this month!

Kenan Thompson

He’s that guy who’s been on SNL forever.  Also Mighty Ducks.  Good Burger.  Keenan and Kel.  All That.  Everything.

That book you see referenced everywhere and is in everything, but that’s okay because it’s awesome.

A Darker Shade of Magic by Victoria Schwab. I mean, I do think this whole series is way overhyped, but I still love it, so I don’t even mind. And it’s a good series, objectively.

Thumbs Up, Seven Up

A game where most the class closed their eyes and seven people tapped someone’s thumb and you had to guess who did it without peeking.

Book where you peeked just REAL quick at the ending because you don’t like guessing games.

OMG, I never do this because I was burned once and decided never again. I had just gotten Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince like two days after its release day (the delay was because I was in Egypt at the time), and for some reason I flipped to the end and I saw that Dumbledore died and it was horrible so I just…refuse to flip through books like that ever again.

Dunkaroos

These were basically just Teddy Grahams dipped in frosting, which is still a wonderful snack idea.

Your ideal bookish snack.

Hmm, I don’t generally tend to eat or even drink when I’m reading. It’s just a lot of work for me. I have vasomotor rhinitis, or nonallergic chronic runny nose, basically, and it gets worse if I eat or drink. Basically, if I have a few bites or sips of anything I have to blow my nose immediately (it is THE WORST and it makes going out to dinner in groups nightmarish), so that would involve putting the book down constantly and so I just…don’t do it.

Scary Stories to Tell In The Dark

Collections of short stories that would scare any sensible kid!  Plus, there were illustrations…

A book that kept you up all night.

I LOVED these stories as a kid! I’ve always been a huge horror aficionado, and though my tastes have moved well away from the slasher/gore stuff I used to enjoy as a kid, I definitely still enjoy terrifying tales! Oddly enough, though, I haven’t read too many novel-length horror stories! Plus I don’t scare easy at all; scary stuff doesn’t really keep me up at night.

Bill Nye the Science Guy

Basically the coolest thing you got to do in science class was watch Bill Nye.  He has a Netflix show again!

A book that taught you something new.

A Trade Like Any Other: Female Singers and Dancers in Egypt by Karin van Nieuwkerk. This book explores the history of singers and bellydancers in Egypt, from 18th-centuryish to modern day. It was absolutely fascinating to learn about the lives of these entertainers and how they are viewed in society. I learned a ton about entertainment as an organized profession in Egypt, with guilds and unions, and it demystified the lives of bellydancers especially.

That’s it! If you do this tag, link back to me so I can read your answers!