I love book blogs. Sometimes, when I don’t write for a while that is because I am knee-deep in reading and enjoying the adventures of literature through the eyes of my fellow book bloggers.
Recently, I was reading one of my favorite blogs, Thrice Read, and they had featured a tag called, “New York Times by the Book Tag.” While I was intrigued by the title (and the fab post, check it out here) I couldn’t figure out why it was called The New York Times by the Book Tag. The originator of the tag is Marie Berg and there is a youtube link but the video is lost. So, I started backtracking through the different blogs that tagged each other. I started with Thrice Read who was found the tag on Beth’s blog Reading Every Night. Beth was tagged by Jessica at Pour Over Pages. Jessica was tagged by Lois from Lois Reads Books. Lois was tagged by Reg from She Latitude. Now, Reg had tagged a couple of other people but you can only go so far down the rabbit hole. Reg was tagged by Lauren at Wonderless Reviews. And Lauren was tagged by Louise at Genie Reads. Louise was tagged by Michelle at Book Adventures. Now, I don’t know where Michelle’s New York Times post went so I decided this was the end of my journey. Whew!
Now I have five new book blogs to follow, an avalanche of books to add to my TBR and an overwhelming need to tell everyone to drop what they are doing and read Pierce Brown right now (so many bloggers cited his books as ones they meant to read). If I were you I would check out all these fantastic blogs – many of them also include how they organize their books shelves, some with pictures!
New York Times by the Book Tag
What Book is On Your Nightstand Now?
The Complete Make-Ahead Cookbook from America’s Test Kitchen. It gives me delicious dreams.
What was the Last Truly Great Book You Read?
Messy, The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives by Tim Harford is the book I just cannot stop recommending. I love this book and I have become very annoying to those around me by quoting it.
If You Could Meet Any Author – Dead or Alive – Who Would it Be? And What Would You Want to Know?
Truthfully, I do not want to meet any authors. What if I met the author of my favorite book series and I despised him / her? What if she was a horrible excuse for a human being? I feel the same way about actors. I just want to enjoy the books and movies.
What Books Might We Be Surprised to Find On Your Shelf?
I have a ton of reference books on my shelves. But, now that I am looking, I have an alarming number of books about code breaking and ciphering. Huh. I don’t even know Morse Code.
How do you Organize Your Personal Library?
In this past year I purchased all of these wonderful bookshelves from Ikea. I try to keep my books in groups (like with like, series books all together) but I do have one whole bookshelf reserved for TBR and one for all my favorite books.
I am actually waiting for a nice cold weekend to pull them all off and reorganize them. After reading everyone else’s style I have some fantastic ideas.
What Books Have you Always Meant to Read But Haven’t Gotten Around to Yet?
All the major works of Shakespeare. I’m embarrassed that I haven’t actually read any of his great plays.
Disappointed, Overrated, Just Not Good: What Book Did you Feel Like you are Supposed to Like but Didn’t?
I’m on the edge of skipping this one because I don’t like to give negative reviews but this one isn’t a negative review so much as a I-didn’t-like-it-as-much-as-everyone-else book.
People claimed that this book changed their lives. I think that is the part that really bothered me. Kathryn Stockett was “shining a light” on something that I felt like everyone knew about and she didn’t do it as well as I would have liked. However, if this book did change your world view then that is good news and I want to encourage you to dig deeper. Perhaps reading about minority issues from a minority author would be a good place to start.
What Kind of Stories are You Drawn to? Any you Stay Clear of?
I am definitely drawn to stories where everyone gets what is coming to them. I think that is how I keep ending up in the YA and Children’s section. I also enjoy Historical Fiction, Science Fiction, Non-Fiction and Fantasy.
I steer clear of books intending to make you cry. You know the ones.
If You Could Require the President to Read One Book,
What Would It Be?
So many books are on this list. I thought about tomes written about compassion, works of minority authors, immigrant stories, history books, maybe some basic science books. But, I have very little to no faith that someone else is capable of changing his mind. I am going to have to say a nice Children’s Thesaurus.
What Do You Plan to Read Next?
I am wrapping up The Ascendence Trilogy with The Shadow Throne by Jennifer Nielsen.
And there you have it! The New York Times by the Book Tag and a wandering journey through the history of the tag. If anyone knows why it is called this, let me know!
The Costume Making Guide, Creating Armor & Props for Cosplay by Svetlana Quindt is a mind-blowing introduction to how people make cosplay accessories and armor. I have been to one or two events which involved Cosplay but I have never understood how people really put together their outfits. I mean, they sell pieces at the conventions but a single item can set you back $100 so I couldn’t imagine building a whole costume!
I wrote about Echo 
Through the Woods by award winning comic-creator Emily Carroll is a book of five short horror stories. In addition to the art, which I found very creepy (I’d say that this as a good thing, after all it is a horror book), the stories are told in sort of the manner one would any scary tale. Just, imagine that you and your friends are sitting around a campfire. One leans into the glow to speak in a whisper, “There was a girl…and there was a man…” This is how I heard the stories in Through the Woods.
So, today I recommend for you as a 
