Books As Road Trips // a random post that emerged out of the void

I went on a road trip today. To the dentist.

Well yeah, that’s the closest thing to a road trip I have had in the past two years, and since I had nothing else to write about (*subtly ignores the 14 posts ranging from ‘barely started’ to ‘nearly finished’ sitting in the drafts folder*) I decided to let the impulsive me overrule the overthinking me, and as a result of all this, you’re seeing this extremely random post in front of you.

The idea is to basically compare some of my recent reads to (completely imaginary, I assure you) road trips. Do I realize that doesn’t make any sense? Yes, I do. But I hope the rest of this post makes up for my sub-standard explanation skills.

The Girl Who Drank The Moon by Kelly Barnhill

Your ride is the most gorgeous car (read: book cover) you have ever seen in your life. One look at it, and you know that your journey (the story) is going to be an amazing one. But as you’re going to find out, appearances can be deceptive.

The driver is a grumpy man well into his sixties whose worst nightmare is apparently to be caught speeding. He drives at less than half the speed limit (pace of the book) and you watch on skeptically as a jogging woman overtakes your car. You have half a mind to tell the driver to drop you back home (DNF) but something stops you from doing so. The people you meet on this trip (the characters) aren’t that bad after all, and perhaps your destination (the ending) will be worth it. Then, at about 60% into your trip, something changes. The driver throws back his head and laughs, and then accelerates so fast that you fall backward into your seat. Amazement lines your features as the car is suddenly moving at a tremendous pace. The rest of the trip is thoroughly enjoyable, and you’re almost a tiny bit sorry when it ends.

Where The Mountain Meets The Moon by Grace Lin

You do not pay much attention to how your car looks like, just get in and are eager to start. The driver is a cheerful young fellow who drives at a good, average speed, the smoothness of the journey makes you feel as if you are not moving at all. You fall in love with all the people you meet, however ‘out of the ordinary’ some of them may be (a dragon who can’t fly? “buffalo boys”? talking lion statues? yes we have them all)

You soon discover that the driver is quite talkative and friendly. As you progress through a country that is new to you, he tells you about the places, the cultures, and conjures up endless stories on any subject. At first you’re a little surprised at all the stories, which are inspired from folktales that you’ve never heard of, but soon you become comfortable and begin anticipating and even looking forward to the little impossible-sounding tales he weaves. Your destination is just as beautiful as you had hoped it would be. Overall, a soothing, refreshing ride that you needed.

Bloody Spade by Brittany Walters

The car started moving even before both your feet were inside. You yelp, but finally manage to hoist yourself in. For the first 10% of the journey you are trying to just get seated and get comfortable in the speeding car, whose driver is oblivious to your struggles. But to be honest, your adventure-loving spirit is kinda relishing the chaos of it all. You soon settle in and get the hang of it (“it” being the ability to not fall outside the car or get jerked backward every time the driver decides to speed up) and are thoroughly enjoying yourself.

The second half of the trip is not nearly as impressive. After such an exciting build-up, you are disappointed by how predictable the way and the destination turned out to be. A good ride, but the last few parts of the journey could have been better. An enjoyable one, all the same.

Supernova by Marissa Meyer

No sooner did you get in than the car started moving. You barely have time to take a seat and the person who designed this car had never heard of seatbelts. But who cares? You are having the time of your life. There are sharp turns along the way (plot twists), moments when it feels like your heart may pop out of your mouth, times when you have to clutch your seat for dear life. And so much tension and unpredictability. People might call this reckless, maybe even dangerous, but you’re always up for something like this. Anything to escape the monotony of life, right?

It was a wild, wild ride, but you enjoy every second of it. You’d do it all over again if you got a chance.

Aaand we’re done! I had a lot of fun writing all of this…whatever this was (come to think of it, would these count as reviews? mini-reviews, at least?). Anywayy let me know what you thought of this post in the comments section. See you there!

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The Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag 2021

Is it weird that ever since I became a blogger, I’ve wanted to do the Mid Year Freak Out Tag without knowing what exactly it is? Yes, definitely weird🙃 But now that has changed since I did my homework and read lots of Mid Year Freak Out posts by other bloggers from previous years.

True to the name of this post, I am freaking out. Like seriously, when did time sprout wings? Just yesterday I was getting tired of the new year wishes and memes, and we are halfway through already? Whoa.

Till 25th June, I’ve read 37 books and a total of 14348 pages which are both mind blowing, when compared to previous years (I didn’t track my reading before this year, but I know I got nowhere close to these figures). I am doing quite good on my goodreads goal of 65 books, considering that I am 6 books ahead of schedule. Without further ado, let’s start with the tag!

Best Books So Far In 2021

Surprise surprise! Six Of Crows and The House In The Cerulean Sea. Linked below are my reviews for the same.

Six Of Crows by Leigh Bardugo | Book Review || Book Review: The House In The Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune

Best Sequels In 2021

Supernova was by far the best book in the Renegades trilogy! Read my review here

I love the Aurora Cycle series with all my heart, but somehow Aurora Burning was even better than Aurora Rising! Aurora Burning by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff | Review

Crooked Kingdom does not need any explanation as to why I am willing to die over it. Period.

New Releases I Want To Read

There are SO many of them, but I’ll go with the top 3.

Most Anticipated Release For The Second Half Of 2021

Definitely Aurora’s End, the final book in the Aurora Cycle duology-soon-to-be-a-trilogy. After THAT cliffhanger in Aurora Burning (which is THE worst cliffhanger in the history of cliffhangers, if I do say so myself) I can’t wait to see how this turns out. (Also, can we please scream about THAT GORGEOUS COVER?!)

Biggest Disappointment of 2021

There have been quite a few books that did not live up to my expectations, but the one that hurt the most has to be The Infinity Courts. I rated it 1.5 stars. Shocking, isn’t it? What’s more is that this book had so much potential with such a cool concept *cue the sighing and head shaking* Read my review here.

Biggest Surprises Of 2021

Malamander and Book Scavenger. Both these lovely books reminded me why I love middle grade so much. Linked below are my reviews!

Book Review: Malamander by Thomas Taylor || Book Scavenger by Jennifer Bertman || Mini-review, some art, and a little “book scavenger” game of my own!

Favourite New Authors

Well, Leigh Bardugo and Marissa Meyer probably?

Book That Made You Cry

The House In The Cerulean Sea all the way. It takes a lot for a book to make me cry, and this one had it all and much more.

Book That Made You Happy

Is it cheating if I say The House In The Cerulean Sea again? Because yes, this book gave me ALL the feels. I laughed, I cried, I smiled through my tears.

Most Beautiful Books You Got In 2021

These were both part of my birthday book haul. I am currently reading The Girl Who Drank The Moon.

Books You Need To Read By The End Of 2021

I just picked some books from the top of my head, and though I definitely want to read these books asap, they are in no way the only books I want to read this year. Also if you’ve read any of these, I’d love to hear your opinion!

Which are your best reads of 2021 so far? What are some new releases that you haven’t read yet but want to? Let me know in the comments, and feel free to link your mid year freak out post if you’ve made one!

May Wrap-Up // ft. lots of books, blogging slump and blog redesign!

Hello guys! Hope you had a wonderful month and read some amazing books (what more could a bookworm possibly want?).

I always enjoy writing my monthly wrap-up posts, and this time it’s no different. So grab some snacks and get comfy, because this is going to be a long post (as usual😉). And if you’re on WordPress Reader, please click here to enjoy better formatting!

Believe me when I say that May was an A M A Z I N G reading month, in fact, it has been the best one so far this year! I read so much more than I usually do (thank you, summer vacations🤗).

I read 8 books and a total of 3516 pages in May (compared to 2410 in April and 2059 in March) and though this may not seem a huge number to most of you, it is a big deal for me!

Let’s take a look at all the books I read this month. I will be putting the cover images, the title and author, my rating, a mini-review and link to my full review. (click on the cover image to visit the goodreads page of any book that catches your eye!)

The Flame Of Olympus by Kate O’Hearn [4 stars]

For a book based on Roman mythology, this book did a really good job at not info-dumping all the names of the Roman gods, their life at Olympus etc. And it certainly was a surprise that most of the gods at Olympus were killed or captured right at the beginning of the book (yes, I’m not kidding) so that the story could focus on Emily and Joel rather than the gods. The ending (and the story in general) was quite predictable, but it is a middle grade after all, so that’s acceptable.

The Shadow Watch by S.A. Klopfenstein [3.5 stars] FULL REVIEW

I received a copy of The Shadow Watch for a blog tour I was part of this month. I found it to be a typical YA fantasy in a lot of ways. But it was definitely worth a read, to know why, do have a look at my full review.

The Six Bad Boys by Enid Blyton [4.5 stars] I talked about this here

I reread this in May for the umpteenth time in my life. In my discussion post on the role of fictional parents (linked above) I talked about The Six Bad Boys and how it is an extremely important book for coming-of-age children as well as new parents, and how it makes my all emotional every time I read it🥺

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan [4 stars]

I am buddy reading the entire Heroes of Olympus series with my amazing friends Cass and Nefeli! To be honest, I have always been a little skeptical of Rick Riordan books, but I have to admit, The Lost Hero was pretty good. Jason always seemed a little distant, Piper really needed to sort out her priorities, but Leo pretty much made the book for me.

Malamander by Thomas Taylor [4.5 stars ] FULL REVIEW

Ahhh my second ever audiobook but my first audiobook love😍 (don’t ask me about my first one, it was meh). It was a roller coaster ride of a book, with the narrator increasing his pace and making his voice more urgent and making my heart beat faster as I waited for something to happen and then jumped out of my skin at the narrator’s perfect but ear-splitting imitation of a desk bell (yeah, that actually happened once). Seriously, go read Malamander.

Supernova by Marissa Meyer [4.5 stars ] FULL REVIEW

Whoa whoa. This book was PACKED. It was full to the brim with action, secrets, pressure, redemptions and what not. I think Supernova would have got full 5 stars from me had it not been for that epilogue. But focusing on the good things, I would say, read the Renegades trilogy for the last book guys!!

The Son Of Neptune by Rick Riordan [3 stars]

Idk why exactly, but I liked this one a lot less than The Lost Hero. I understand the Romans are more disciplined and harsh and stuff, but I wanted this book to be entertaining and light, like The Lost Hero. If my mental image of The Lost Hero is a fluffy peach teddy bear, The Son Of Neptune looks something like a dark foreboding castle. Just me? Okay.🙃

The Mark Of Athena by Rick Riordan [4 stars]

Ahh definitely better than The Son Of Neptune…but remember when I said that Jason always felt a bit distant in my mini review of The Lost Hero? Well, take that feeling and multiply it by 10, that is how Jason was in Mark Of Athena (atleast give the guy a POV, man!) Otherwise, it was all good and I cannot wait to start House Of Hades!

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So this month I took part in Wyrd and Wonder, and they had a bingo board! Here’s how my completed bingo board looks like –

The one month I decided not to follow my blogging schedule, I face a blogging slump and go on accidental week-long hiatuses (moral of the story – blogging schedules are very important). Nevertheless, I did have some posts already planned, so it wasn’t that bad.

Some of my favourite posts from May are:

Discussion Post: Role of Parents in MG and YA fantasy (Part 2) + 8 book recommendations with active parent roles!

Book Review: Malamander by Thomas Taylor

Into The Mist || A short story penned by me

Okay, now for the big news. *holds breath* I REDESIGNED MY BLOG!! *lets out the breath in a whoosh* (okay I realize a lot of you have already noticed that, but…now its official, you know?) Of course I didn’t do it all alone. A big thank you to Evin @A Curly Sue’s Ramblings for helping me in setting up the new theme! So what are you guys waiting for? Go check out my new home page HERE!!

In other news, it was my first blogging anniversary on 27^th May! (I have a post for that coming up soon) This blog is now 1 year old, you guys!!

A regular feature of my wrap-up posts, this section is all about promoting other bloggers’ content!

REVIEWS

Ritz @Living, Loving and Reading reviewed These Violent Delights and made a playlist!

April @Booked Till Midnight shares her thoughts on King Of Scars!

Jan @The Doodlecrafter reviewed Rule Of Wolves!

Lia @Chain Of Books reviewed The Immortal Game as part of a blog tour!

OTHER POSTS

Nehal had her first blogging anniversary a few days ago! (can’t believe we both started our respective blogs only 10 days apart!)

Aria @Book Nook Bits discusses age categories in books!

Veronika @Wordy And Whimsical recommends books with the found family trope!

Maya @Pretty Little Scribbles did a character case study!

And that’s a wrap! A pretty eventful month, don’t you think?

Let’s Chat!

What did you read in May? Found any new favourites? Have you read any of the books I mentioned? Do you like the new blog design? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!!

Discussion Post: Role Of Parents In MG And YA Fantasy (Part 1)

Hello everyone, I would like to wish you a very happy Mother’s Day! I wanted to do something special on this occasion, so I came up with this idea for a discussion post – talking about the role of parents in today’s middle grade and young adult fantasy novels! I know it’s slightly long (thank goodness I decided to divide it into two parts!), but I’ve worked quite hard to put all this together, so I really hope you enjoy reading it and also express your opinions, since it is a discussion post. So without further ado, let’s start!

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To put it bluntly, in most modern middle grade and young adult novels, the parents are neglected. And I am not even talking about the other characters’ parents, I am talking about the main character’s. I totally understand the reason. When the entire story is about a teenage girl who, one fine morning, discovers she has magical powers (just talking about a general thing here, not pointing to any book) why would anyone want to know about her mother? But including the parent(s) in the story does enhance it in some cases. I don’t know about you, but I would definitely love to see the parent-child relationship develop through the course of the story. But of course, there are also a lot of novels (especially MG) which involve the parents wholeheartedly.

In this post, we are going to go through the different types of roles parents have in MG and YA fantasies through the examples of popular books.

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I think one of the most common parent-related trope is dead parent(s). It is very convenient to kill off one or both parents before the book even starts. I believe this is because a dead parent not only reduces the complexity of the story (no need to explain the main character’s relationship with them, etc), they also provide a certain backbone to the story, as the main character struggles to accept their deaths, or follow their footsteps etc. Dead parents usually mean that though they are not physically present throughout the events of the book, their presence is somehow felt. This trope has been executed in so different ways, some good, some not-so.

In The Mystwick School of Musicraft by Jessica Khoury, the main character Amelia lost her mother at a very early age, and after her death, her father disappeared. All Amelia wanted was to become a Maestro, because her mother was one. She chose flute (and that too her mother’s) as her instrument because her mother had been a flutist. And she wanted more than anything to go to Mystwick, because it was the music school her mother went too. Later in the book, she mentions (too many times!) that she felt very close to her late mother in Mystwick. And even later, her mother forms a huge part of the ending. I felt the story would have been better if it focused less on the dead mother and more on our main character.

We all know about Harry Potter. Orphaned when he was barely an infant, Harry learns more about his parents at Hogwarts. I like the little details we get, from Sirius and Snape and others, but maybe Harry could have shown a little more, I don’t know, like anger or sorrow or something for his parents throughout the series?

All’s not bad. I have come across books which have executed the dead parent trope wonderfully. Renegades by Marissa Meyer is a very good example. The murder of the mc’s (her name is Nova) parents and sister is actually shown in the very beginning, and after that it kinda takes a backseat. But it definitely fuels Nova’s hatred for the Renegades and her drive to destroy them. There are occasional mentions, enough for the reader to remember why Nova’s doing what she’s doing, but not enough to be irritating or repetitive. The perfect balance.

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Then we have the parents who are very much alive, but not involved much in the story, in other words, the absent parents. I personally don’t favour this trope much. I mean, I know its fiction, but there should be something relatable, right? It is very unrealistic that the parent is totally unaware while their child is off riding dragons and/or meeting dwarves and/or nearly getting killed and what not.

In Orion Lost by Alastair Chrisholm, the adults are all in cyro sleep, leaving only the children aboard the spaceship to deal with everything. The mc’s mother and father are introduced at the beginning of the novel, but then they play no role throughout the story whatsoever. I am not saying its a bad thing, but you know, just absent parents.

Same is the case with Nevermoor series by Jessica Townsend. I mean, I loved all the three books (I rated them 5 stars!) but what I want to point out is that the mc’s father (her mother is dead) has no role throughout the trilogy except being mean to her in the first few pages of the first book.

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And finally we have the books which actually give importance to the parents. I feel this one is the best there is. But you know what, I am not going to talk about these books in this post. I will be discussing these in the second part of this discussion. (Sorry if you came here only for these, but that next post will hopefully be worth the wait!)

Before you leave, I would like to share the results of a small survey I conducted. I put the following question forward to a group of readers –

In a YA or MG fantasy, would you prefer –

1. Absent Parent (Little or no role in the story)
2. Dead Parent
3. Parent with an important role to play

The response was quite overwhelming and one-sided. A total of 85 people answered my question, out of which 73 of them favoured the last option i.e. parents with an important role to play. Of the remaining, 4 answered ‘dead parent’ and 8 chose ‘absent parent’. This means that about 85% prefer books with active parents. I think I agree with them, such books are fun to read.

Since so many of you like books with parent participation, this is what we will be (mostly) discussing in the second part of this discussion post, and teaser – I will be including some recs (books with active parents) too! Stay tuned, it won’t be long before the Part 2 goes up!

Which kind of fictional parents do you like best in MG and YA books? What are your thoughts on portrayal of parents in fantasy for young readers? Feel free to express your opinions in the comments, I would be more than happy to have a friendly discussion!

We’re going on an adventure! || Wyrd & Wonder 2021 TBR

It’s been so long since I took part in any readathon or reading challenge, that when I found out about this entire new world of fantasy lovers, Wyrd and Wonder, I signed up right away! It runs throughout the month of May, and there is like a prompt for every day of the month. What I liked the most about this is that there are no hard and fast rules to this – we can respond to the prompt with a photo, a blog post, anything we want. (psst! As far as I know, sign ups are open throughout the month, so it is not too late to join in! Click HERE to see the intro post, where you will find everything you need to know!)

Obviously I will be reading only fantasy this month, and most of my blog posts will also be centered around the same. Here is how my planned TBR looks like.

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(from top left to bottom right)

• The Girl Who Drank The Moon by Kelly Barnhill
• Orphans of the Tide by Struan Murray
• The Flame of Olympus by Kate O’Hearn (The Wyrd and Wonder mascot this year is a pegasus, so how can I not read this?)
• The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
• Supernova by Marissa Meyer
• The Shadow Watch by S.A. Klopfenstein

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Buddy-read call out!

I would love to buddy read any of these books with you guys! So if any of them is on your TBR as well, let me know in the comments so we can arrange a buddy-read!!

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Before ending this post, I would like to inform you that I will not be following my regular posting schedule in May. There are two reasons for this – 1) because I will be following the respective dates of the prompts from Wyrd & Wonder and 2) since I am comparatively less busy with other stuff this month, I hope to post more frequently than my regular schedule permits. However, I will most probably be back to following my schedule from June.

Are any of these books on your TBR? Are you taking part in any readathon/ reading challenge in May? Would you like to suggest me ideas for different discussion posts, lists, etc related to fantasy that I can do this month? Let me know in the comments! See you there!!

April Wrap-Up // a fantastic reading month!! (ft. me gushing about Shadow and Bone)

So another month gone by! Let’s take a look at my reading, blogging, blog-hopping and other highlights of the month.

April has been, by far, the best reading month this year! I read a total of 7 books, which is pretty impressive considering that I have been trying to level up from my boring 5 books per month since the beginning of this year.

Archenemies by Marissa Meyer [4 stars] Eh, this was one of those books where I was totally lost after the end. I had no idea whether to rate it 3 stars or 4 stars or 5 stars. But finally I settled with 4. At this point of time, I am like – Just tell everyone who Nightmare and Sentinel is!! And if you wanted to keep it secret forever, maybe it could have been unknown to the readers as well? Because it is getting kinda annoying now, to be honest.

The Mystwick School of Musicraft by Jessica Khoury [3 stars] My first audiobook! But what a disappointment the story was. It was too repetitive, to the point that so many things got downright irritating. And the beginning was nice enough, I don’t know what happened after that.

Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception [4 stars] Actually I don’t remember much about this, but I do enjoy a good heist, so that was one of the reasons I gave this 4 stars.

A Wilder Magic by Juliana Brandt [4 stars] This was my first ever ARC!! I got this as a part of a book promo tour I did this month. It was such a beautiful middle grade with amazing platonic relationships. Read my full review HERE.

Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman [4.5 stars] This was easily my favourite book of April. It definitely deserves a lot more hype, I have rarely heard bloggers mention this. There were equal parts mystery, friendship and adventure in Book Scavenger. To read my full review, see my journal spread and play a small bookish game inspired by Book Scavenger, click HERE.

The Infinity Courts by Akemi Dawn Bowman [1.5 stars] Well. I am still debating whether to put up a review for this on my blog or not, since I haven’t really posted a negative review here before, and this is also a very new release. But I did post a review on Goodreads, you can read it HERE.

Misfit (Asura Chronicles #1) by Jo Zaida [3 stars] Another ARC!! So I didn’t enjoy it as much as I had expected to, but it was worth reading anyways. Review to come!

I am proud to report that I carefully followed the posting schedule I had set up for myself last month (except for last week, when I had a blog tour post out of schedule, on a Sunday) throughout the month of April! When I started, I didn’t think I would be able to follow it throughout, to be honest, but turns out I was wrong!

I am not going to link all my posts from this month here, only specific ones. If you would like to see all my posts in April, click HERE.

I have included the links to my posts in their featured images below, so all you have to do is click on the ones that catch your attention!

A discussion post all about book titles! I am quite proud of this one actually, so do check it out if you missed it earlier!

I do love writing 5 star reviews!!

I created a quiz for you to find some great recs!!

I tried to be really active on all of your posts this month, and I think I succeeded to a great extent. I interacted with your blogs wherever I could, and came across some interesting posts in the process.

Amy @A Fangirl’s Opinion wrote about some funny books and characters on April Fools day!

April @Booked Till Midnight shared her recipe for a 5 star read!

Alice @Love For Words related Pride and Prejudice quotes to her everyday life! I have not read Pride and Prejudice completely (I’ve read only short excerpts) but this humorous post had me chuckling out aloud!

Ritz @Living, Loving and Reading Netflix’s Shadow And Bone and her thoughts are SO similar to mine!!

Ashmita @the fictional journal made a list of characters who are likely to jump-scare people!

Ritz @Living, Loving and Reading gives us some great sci-fi recs and also shares her sci-fi tbr!

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Other updates and highlights of the month

• We hit 100 followers in early April!! This is my first big blogging milestone, so thank you so much for that guys🥰 It means a lot to have you enjoy and appreciate my content.
• The Home page of my blog now has a brand new look! I have changed the header image, put in a sidebar and stuff like that.
• My blog now has a Review Policy page.
• I received my first ARCs and took part in my first blog tour this month!
• April was Shadow and Bone month!!!! (oops sorry for all the exclamations, this just shows how much I loved the show) By now, you all know how much the Six Of Crows duology means to me. If you don’t, IT’S MY FAVOURITE BOOK OF ALL TIME!! So naturally I was excited for the S&B show on Netflix. Though I started watching it only for the Crows, the Alina-Darkling storyline also got me hooked and made me wonder why I didn’t read the Shadow and bone trilogy earlier (I am not going to read it now, I want to know the story only from the show). I finished watching all 8 episodes of S&B in four days, and wow I loved seeing my favourite characters brought to life. The casting was just perfect. Freddy Carter is going to be stuck in my mind’s eye as Kaz forever, and same with the others. I didn’t think it was possible to love and admire Kaz more than I did after reading the books, but this show proved me wrong…my heart went out for him even more!! The ‘No mourners, no funerals’ line was also so perfect when it happened. Jesper and Milo were absolute showstealers!! Okay, not gonna ramble any more, but seriously, go watch it!!

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How was your April? Did you watch Shadow And Bone? Have you read any of the books that I read in April? Chat with me in the comments!!

“What’s In The Name?”

Turns out, a lot IS in the name. Listen up, Shakespeare.

This idea just popped up in my mind this morning, so this is pretty spontaneous. In this discussion post, we are going to be looking at how important book titles are, which kind of titles make me take a second look at the book (and which do not) and some of my personal favourite titles. Make yourself comfortable because we are starting…now!

The title of a book is like the first impression the reader gets of the book, perhaps even more so than the cover. The title forms the basis of reader’s judgement about the book. It is the title that gets talked about in general conversations, making it incredibly important for it to be a word or a set of words which catches people’s attention. The title is what is mentioned in as the heading of book review posts on blogs, and other social media.

Most people (including me) would not even care to read the book’s synopsis if the title does not sound good to them. When I am scrolling through Goodreads, I stop only when a title catches my attention. Then I look at the blurb, and then I take a look a the cover, the genres and the ratings. So the very first basis in which I decide to add a book to my tbr is the title, and the rest comes later. Of course, a good title can’t make a boring book look good, but it can definitely make an interesting book seem better. Ultimately, the title should be such that it makes you want to start reading the story.

• A title that uses some reference from the story, without giving away too much.
• A title whose real meaning becomes relevant only when I am quite far into the book. (That moment when I finally understand is like a lightbulb turning on in my head😂)
• Titles with puns, or some sort of word play
• Titles that are easy to pronounce and understand
• Vague one-word titles
• A surreal title that ignites curiosity on hearing it for the first time

• The word ‘and’ as a connector. I mean, I have nothing against it as such, but titles like “A and the B” (not a real book title! I am just giving an example) really discourage me from reading the book. It’s completely all right with children’s books and picture books (remember Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs?) but middle grade and young adult having such titles…its usually a no-go for me.
• Very obvious book titles, which are the names of the main character or the main setting. Any title whose meaning becomes obvious as soon as we start reading the book.

(these are purely my opinions, I do not mean to disregard or offend anyone)

Alright, time for some of my favourite titles! This is going to be interesting….*cracks knuckles*

Mightier Than The Sword by Jeffrey Archer : Can you think of any better way to describe an author? There could have been so many other boring names for this one, but instead the author took up a phrase “The pen is mightier than the sword” and removed the first three words. So impressive, right?

Supernova by Marissa Meyer is the third and final book in the Renegades series. If you don’t have any clue about the story, this may not sound like a very impressive title. But actually this title is a pun, and a good one at that. Its not the supernova as in the “space explosion”, it is supernova as in “the mc’s name is Nova, the book is about superheroes, and Nova is a villain”. Now can you see the genius behind that title?! (And I haven’t read this book yet, but I have read the first two, so I will probably get this this one soon)

An Ember In The Ashes by Sabaa Tahir : Although I didn’t enjoy this book very much, that can’t stop me from appreciating the title, can it? What I liked about this was how initially the reader has no idea why the book is named the way it is, and later on, I think about halfway through the book, this appears for the first time as a quote. “You are an ember in the ashes, Elias Veterius.”,something like this, if I remember correctly?

The First Phone Call From Heaven by Mitch Albom : What an intriguing title! Doesn’t the title itself make most of you want to read this book? And the book was pretty good too, from what I remember.

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie gave me chills from the moment I read the name of the book. And that might be one of the reasons I was so hesitant to read it. Yeah I am a scaredy cat. And it has sort of a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? And then there were none…

13 Reasons Why I think I am talking about this on my blog for the first time! I had read it a couple years back and didn’t really enjoy it that much. But. We are here to talk about the title, so isn’t this a nice, unique one? Kinda makes me feel its the start of an essay. 13 reasons why polar bears are going extinct…okay that just popped into my head 🙃

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Before ending this post, I wanted to share a completely random word fact : Today I realized that the words LUSTRE, RUSTLE and RESULT have exactly the same letters in different arrangements. How’s that?😏

How important do you think book titles are? Are there any books you picked up because of their title? Which are your favourite book titles? Any discussion post remains incomplete without your inputs, so be sure to put your thoughts in the comments section!