The Terror of Knowing

Welcome everyone to another Thursday and (that’s right) another Tag Thursdsay! This week’s featured tag is The End of the Year Book Tag. As November quickly slips away from us and December looms, the end of 2017 is coming ever closer – where has this year gone ? Seriously though. Now seems like a good time to have a little freak out and then take stock of the time I have left in the year and what I can realistically read in what remains of 2017 so this tag comes at the perfect time. This tag was originally created by the ever-wonderful Ariel Bissett, but I actually spotted this over at The Pewter Wolf so be sure to go check out his blog and his responses as well as Ariel’s!

Are there any books you started this year that you need to finish?

*glances wearily at War and Peace*
Yep, that’s a pretty significant one.

Likewise, I’d like to have finished the A Song of Ice and Fire series by the end of the year so I’m all caught up with that – I just have A Dance with Dragons: Volume 2 to get through, I say “just” but it’s a hefty book in its own right.

Do you have an autumnal book to transition into the end of the year?

Not particularly, since I don’t tend to “read with the seasons” (I even did a blog post about that!) but I definitely find myself reading more atmospheric/evocative things in the autumn. For some reason I think The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater makes for a great read in sort of September/October because it’s slightly hazy and spooky, especially if you listen to the audiobook as read by Will Patton.

Is there a new release you’re still waiting for?

I’m still waiting to buy the illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban which was released a little while ago now but it’s the sort of book people like to gift at Christmas so I’ve held out until now for it. I’m pretty sure my parents are going to gift me it for Christmas and when I say pretty sure I’m 100% sure because I buy books on their behalf and they wrap them up and I try to act surprised on Christmas morning… it’s just how we do things.

What are three books you want to read before the end of the year?

Apart from the ones I mentioned in answer to the ‘books I’ve started’ question, there are quite a few others I’d like to get to. Off the top of my head, though, I’d like to read The Good Immigrant, an Austen re-read (maybe Persuasion?), and Where Angels Fear to Tread by E.M. Forster. I’m sure once I move on from this question several more pressing titles will pop into my head but, for now, those are the ones I can think of.

Is there a book you think could still shock you and become your favourite book of the year?

At this point in the year, it’s highly unlikely, to be honest, since most releases that I was excited about have already been and gone, and I’ve have a pretty stellar reading year already… but I’m happy to be proved wrong!

Have you already started making reading plans for 2018?

Assuming I do actually finish Tolstoy’s War and Peace then I’d like to make a point of picking one classic “big book” a year (at least) and making a little reading project out of it. I’ve started to think about what my next one will be – I’m thinking either Anna Karenina or Doctor Zhivago (if I haven’t tired of Russians) or maybe Les Miserables. Does anyone have any particular opinions about any of these? I’m leaning towards Les Mis because I did my undergraduate dissertation on it but never actually read it cover-to-cover, so I’d like to correct that!

That’s all, folks! If you haven’t done this tag and would like to, please feel free to consider yourself tagged by me – and be sure to leave your blog post in a comment below if you do the tag because I’d love to see your responses!

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