Between The Pages: NSFW

A couple of days ago, I saw a tag-video by ChapterStackss and LukeLaneReads about NSFW-books. Because it seemed a fun idea and I have read some NSFW-stuff in the past - and still got a load of them on my TBR - I went ahead and answered the ten questions myself. If you read ahead, please consider this a warning cause there is some very mature content coming up!

1. What is the LAST book you would want your parents to walk in on you reading?

I'd say this will have to be either a Laurell K. Hamilton book or a Highlander novel by Karen Marie Moning (*). If titles like Narcissus In Chains, Incubus Dreams or Kiss Of The Highlander aren't enough of a reason to not make your parents see you reading those books, the covers seem to match the content quite a bit.

2. It’s storming outside, and you’re home alone for the night. What book would only make matters worse?

A lot has to happen before a book can realy frighten me. As fas as I can remember, there were two books that managed to creep me out while reading in bed on an ordinary night.

The first was Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire by J.K. Rowling. The graveyard-scene at the end really freaked me out when I read it the first time. I was twelve back in the days and Lord Voldemort did scare me a bit.

Another scary read was Mo Hayder's Ritual. It featured a creature from African legends and the atmosphere of the book was so tense every single sound around me made my heartrate go up. I even remember peeking above the book to make sure that the creature wasn't lurking somewhere in the shadows. Thanks Mo, I didn't sleep well that night! 

3. Have you ever read a book simply because of the controversy surrounding it?

I have not, as far as I can remember. But I guess that I will, perhaps, maybe, someday, read Fifty Shades. 

4. What is the most cringe-inducing romance or sex scene you have ever read?

If you had asked me this question two months earlier, I would have probably mentioned Laurell K. Hamilton. We're not, however, two months earlier, so Tahereh Mafi's Unravel Me (**) gets to get the honors. I'm fine with mature content, but Juliette and Adam and Juliette and Warner made me cringe so much. Every other thoughts when they were together was about Juliette wanting to touch, ravish, lick and kiss every single inch of his body - didn't matter whether is was Adam or Warner. Reading a horny teen's thoughts is just plain awkward. The almost-sex scene at the end of the book was also very cringe-worthy and awkward. 

While Hamilton tends to go over the top at times, I actually prefer her because she doesn't pretend and just goes for it. Not this very weird and awkward horny stuff.

5. What book has made you question the author's sanity?

This has to be Terry Goodkind. I read Wizard's First Rule when I was almost fifteen and that book shocked me. First with the whole BDSM  Mord Sith Denna-stuff. That were some intensely disturbing chapters. Even now, ten years later, I can't fathom how I got through that without mental damage...

Near the end of the book, when Kahlan goes into the Con Dar, she does some things to Denim Nass, which provided some extra scarring on my soul.

These books are not for the kids!

6. Have you ever put down a book and not finished it because the content was too much for you?

No. I've never put a book down for reasons like this. Cause I'm tough and all that.

7. What fictional character do you have the most NSFW thoughts about?

I'm not one to swoon over a fictional character, but after seeing Game of Thrones, I have the odd NSFW thought about Robb Stark.

8. Show us your most NSFW book cover.

No text needed, I presume. Also, I'd like to point out that the Hamilton one is Not Safe For Anywhere But Your Home. I've read this on the train, and the painfully bright pink cover with the nude woman attracts attention and people tend to look weird.

9. Have you ever read something from the erotica/romance genre, and what did you think?

I've yet to read a downright erotica/romance novel. Up till now, the closest I've been to the genre has been paranormal romance. If I'm in the right mood, I kind of like them. They're far from good novels, but they're good entertainment and I can appreciate them for being simply that and not pretending to be otherwise.

10. You stumble across a portkey. What fictional world would you not want to be transported into?

From what I've already read, I'm dreading to be transported to any Stephen King-universe. I think that in every single story of his, I'll be one of the first to go.

(photo credits Geekologie)

(*) Fifty Shades Of Grey is also a perfectly sound answer to this question, but I took it upon myself not to answer every single question with that book.

(**) I will post my review to this and the previous book, Shatter Me, soon-ish.

Between The Pages: On hibernating ...

While most animals hibernate in Winter, I seem to have fallen asleep in Spring. I have not, however, fallen asleep. Life was just happening and as such, I was too preoccupied with all things non-bookrelated. As a result of that, this blog went on a little Spring-hibernation right up till now.

It was never my intention to take some months off from blogging, hence why I'm not calling it a hiatus. I had every intention of blogging - heck, I even had a post in the makings somewhere in March (*) - but I never made sufficient time for it. As such, time went by and by and by. While this blog might not have been one of the most active out there - putting it midly, shall we? - I have not stopped reading in the meantime. On the contrary, I have devoured a good many books, seen some movie-adaptations and written some reviews on them. In the coming weeks, I'll share my thoughts with you one a lot of those books, but also some related movies and/or TV-shows and some other - hopefully - fun posts.

Stay tuned!

(*) That post will never see the light of day. Seeing as it was, back then, an already late recap of the reading year 2014 and resolutions for 2014, I thought it wise to just press delete. I mean, it's August now, even I don't want to talk anymore about stuff that is so 2013.
 

Between The Pages: It's Madness

It's that time of the year again. March. The month where books grab each other's spine, rip out their pages, kick, grunt, tear, cry, snivel... All to get on top. All the be the one. This year's March Madness Champion.

For the seventh year in a row, HarperCollins Canada is hosting the March Madness, a competition in which 64 books battle it out in four divisions, in the hopes of becoming this year's victor and to forever claim a spot on the Shelf of Fame.

Every week, the books are paired two by two and the one who ends on top at the end of the week - through public voting, once every hour - moves on to the next round. How fun is that?! If you're Canadian, things get even more fun, cause you can win the whole bookish lot.

Since we at The Paper Dragon and Inklingstime are Belgian - although, once every year, we are Pretend-Canadian for one whole month - we're not playing for the big prize. For us, it's pure fun! Drawing our own charts and betting on our favourites, trying to outscore one another (*) and just rooting for some of our darling books. March Madness, an apt name I think.

The whole lot of 64 books is up for view - and vote! - via the link to the March Madness. But let me just share a few of the books I'll be rooting for this year.

Division Middle Earth

The Lord Of The Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, while a Fantasy classic, not my favourite book. Still, I'm voting for it since I have some good memories of this as a whole and, besides the fact that it's not The Most Brilliant Book In The Entire History Of Manking And Beyond, it's still good!

Garth Stein's The Art Of Racing In The Rain is one of the few books that made me cry. A frequent competitor in the Madness, so it's time for Enzo to go all the way and race to the championship!

Room by Emma Donoghue was a very moving read. Disturbing, gripping and leaves a lasting impression.

Division Wildwood

Neil Gaiman's The Ocean At The End Of The Lane is a book I have not read, yet, but solely based on the other offerings from Mr. Gaiman, this is bound to be absolutely terrific and thus a big competitor.

Division Narnia

The Golem And The Jinni by Helene Wecker is another book that's still resting on my TBR, but just like gravity, everytime I come near it, it pulls me closer. Will be a soon-TBR, I think.

While there are other books - whom I've actually read and enjoyed - that look like they will be fierce competitors and go far, these five should try to go all the way. In which case there will be a Division Finale between LotR and Racing in the Rain (I hope!), where I hope the latter takes Division Victory and move on to the semi's.

Other big contenders are, in my opinion, Divergent (Veronica Roth), Blood Gospel (James Rollins), NOS4A2 (Joe Hill), Wolf Hall (Hilary Mantel), The Book of Negroes (Lawrence Hill), Shatter Me (Tahereh Mafi) and Beautiful Ruins (Jess Walters).

Are you playing along? Who are you rooting for?

(*) Why yes, we even made up our own scoring system, with points awarded for a correct bet, bonus points for favourites who are going through, ...

Between The Pages: How to pick a new read

Earlier this week, Jeremy from Inklingstime posted his view on how to choose the next book you're going to read. Because this is quite a fun thing to discuss, I'd like to add my two cents to this topic.

 

First, I'd like to say that Jeremy's Book Competition is tremendously fun. Not only to watch him battling his books with a genuine joy, but also participating and commenting on the various battles (*) is a good way to pass the time. Also, trying to slip some of my books into the competition (**) raises the stakes and makes it even more exciting. Will my books prevail or suffer the first losses?

So, do I do the same? Alas, no. [Insert your booing here]. While J. has quite the overview of his collection, I can't see 2/3 of mine because my books are stacked like hell. With a 1000+ TBR, I can host my very own Grand Slam, qualifiers included, so no, a full-on competition is out of my reach. Instead, I tend to be pretty boring when it comes to choosing a new book to read. I've previously mentioned that I am currently invested in a sh*tload of series and add to that a lot of trilogies or whatever I started but never finished, and you can imagine it's quite hard to keep track of all those bigger storylines and characters. In order to reduce that huge stack of series, I decided to alternate the books I read between three or so major Epic and the same amount of Urban Fantasy series. That way, I have sufficient variety in my reading and do I get to finish those ever-lasting series.
Another way of choosing my books, is through the monthly themed bookchallenge hosted by my reading club. Every month, a theme is chosen and you have to read a book that fits the theme in order to succeed in the challenge. Apart from the challenge, there is the monthly book discussion, in which I tend to partake, which is another way of choosing my books.

However! However. Because of those monthly challenges and discussions - which are almost never ever standalone books - I have a lot of unfinished business in terms of those previously mentioned trilogies, duologies, otherologies and with the Big 8 (***), these tend to get snowed under.
So, next time I pick a stack of books (****), I'll randomly select one or two other lucky ones to join the Big 8. I'd like to be as creative as J. and come up with my very own selection procedure, but I find the well-known bookjar quite satisfying and it suits my means well. The titles I've put into the jar are the next installments of the neglected ~logies and some standalones/others which I planned to read for I don't know how long. When a book is drawn, the next installment joins the others in the jar in the hopes of becoming My Next Top Read.
I've been debating on whether to do the same for the longer series. So whenever I finish one of the Big 8-series, just random draw another big one, but I think this is rather a nay than a yay. I'd rather not let any long-term commitment be a random choice...

Image from (c) www.dailyrecord.co.uk (January 16th 2013)

 

* Booooo- and Yaaaaay-sounds obviously included.

** Watch out for a post along these lines around a month from now #BuildingTension.
*** These are: Sword of Truth, Song of Ice and Fire, Emaneska, Deverry, Riftwar, Hollows, Dresden Files & Anita Blake.
**** The books I want to read mostly aren't directly available, so I have to deconstruct a whole wall of books to get to the ones I want. Even though I quite like doing that - along with cramming new books in the sparse open spaces I have left -, it's not something I want to do every week. I just pick a stack of five to get me through the month or longer and whevener that stack is finished, I pick a new one.