Tag: Burn, Re-Write, or Re-Read?

I was tagged for this by the fabulous Meg @ Adrift on Vulcan, and I have seen this tag before over on the BookTubes (I think I saw Katytastic's video, but I'm not sure), so I'm excited to do this tag too! The gist of the game is to randomly select three books from your Goodreads 'read' shelf, and then decide which you would burn, which you would re-write, and which you would re-read. Simple, right? Because I'm a dirty cheater and have done a lot of reading for school, I've taken out children's fiction, plays, non-fiction, and short stories. Let's get started!

Round 1

Burn: The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
I had to read this book for a language module I did in my first year of university, and I'm genuinely surprised that I managed to make it all the way through. I don't mind it when books have more unique narrative styles, but when there's four on the go and the chapters take like four hours to read, it all gets too much. There's one chapter where the character is having a huge mental breakdown and the sentences just run on and on into each other with no punctuation or anything to separate it up. I realise that it's artistic and represents the mental process, but it was just way too much. Re-write: Dracula by Bram Stoker
Dracula is one of my favourite books of all time, but it's obviously not without it's faults. The biggest thing that I'm not keen on is the way Mina writes her diary entries and letters, and the way that she speaks to other characters. It feels like Bram Stoker's way of saying "this character is a woman", and it feels really flowery. Not to the point of it being purple, but it's pretty flowery. I think I'd also put in more of Dracula himself, but the fact that you don't really see him makes him just a bit more spooky.
Re-read: Goliath by Scott Westerfeld
This book, no, this whole series is perfect. It deserves all the re-reads!

Round 2

Burn: The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Oh, look: another book I had to study! I couldn't stand this book when I studied it, I honestly thought it was the worst thing I'd ever read (and then I read James Joyce one year later). I might have established this before, but I absolutely hate Modernist books. I really do. They're too arty-farty for me because they focus so much on style and technique rather than plot. And it doesn't really help that this was translated into English from German, so all of the run-on sentences go on for even longer. Gah, kill it with fire.
Re-write: Divergent by Veronica Roth
I liked Divergent, but the pacing was just not right for me. The beginning was boring and tedious, then the middle got a bit more exciting, and then the end just came out of nowhere. And I also thought that the world-building was really lacking. I didn't know shit about the world or why these people have been put into these factions that are based on vague personality traits. I've actually been told that that's the point to the books: the characters don't know either. But that doesn't mean that I have to like it. So I'd definitely expand on the world-building a lot more and fix up the pacing. Re-read: Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake
I liked Anna Dressed in Blood more than I liked Girl of Nightmares, but it's still a solid series concluder. I still have yet to read any YA horrors that are like this series, so I'd definitely give this series a re-read if I'm ever in the mood for a lot of blood.

Round 3

Burn: Matched by Ally Condie
I really wanted to like this book, but it just didn't work for me. I didn't like Cassia as a character, and the way she narrated the story got on my nerves because something would be happening, and then she'd just completely go off topic and talk about Ky's status as an Aberration. I tried to read the second book, but nope, that one was even worse and I didn't finish it.
Re-write: Origin by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Okay, here's the weird thing: I really liked this book, and I love the Lux series. It's one of my favourites. But, there's a certain part of this book that I wish didn't happen. I'm not going to say what it is for the sake of spoilers, but that moment could have been saved for a possible epilogue in the last book (which I still have yet to read). But yeah, this book was so different to the first three that there were a few things that could have been done differently. It wasn't Mockingjay level different, but still pretty different.
Re-read: Landline by Rainbow Rowell
This book was just okay for me, mainly because I hadn't read any of Rainbow Rowell's adult books, but it wasn't terrible, so I'd probably read it again. The characters (especially Georgie) frustrated me quite a lot and I just wanted to physically shake one or two of them, but I can look past that. Sort of. (Funny story about when I bought this book: even though I'm 19, I have a young face, so when I went to go buy Landline in the bookshop (I found it in the YA section, even though it's an adult book), the cashier warned me that it's for 'more mature readers' because it focuses on marriage. I read American Psycho when I was 16, so I was definitely old enough for Landline.) Now comes the part that I really suck at: the tagging. Because I'm a dirty cheater, I tag... everyone! If you want to do this tag, feel free to do it, and just say that I tagged you!