Books I used to love but not anymore.

Hey guys! I am very excited and also kinda scared to do this tag. I have read many of books over the years and I still have fond memories about most of them but there are some books that I did love at the time I was reading them but for whatever reason all I can do now is cringe when I think about them. They aren’t necessarily bad books but my reading tastes have changed over the years and I don’t see myself enjoying them anymore. So without further ado let’s dive right into it.

1. Divergent by Veronica Roth.

I was obsessed with this book when I was in my teens. This was the series that made me fall in love with the dystopian genre. Of course I was disappointed with the ending but I still loved the whole series because it had a great concept and amazing cast of characters. But as the years went by I started to notice several flaws with the books that I didn’t before especially when it comes to some of the decisions the characters made in this series. And also the movie adaptation just ruined whatever little feelings I had for it🤷‍♀️. I know it’s not fair to judge a book by it’s movie but it was already a dying love and I didn’t need anything else to beat it out of me.

2. The folk in the air series by Holly Black.

This one is a fairly recent read for me. I read it last year when I was in quarantine and I enjoyed it a lot at that time. I guess I got swept away by the hype and binged the entire trilogy. It’s been a year since then and I have completely blocked out about 90% of the plot because it is that forgettable. And now that I have come down from the high I also don’t see how someone can fall in love with their bully. It was just so over the top and ridiculous. I can’t believe I was shipping Carden and Jude so hard.

3. Tairen soul series by C.L. Wilson.

This was one of my favorite series of 2019. It was one of the first adult high fantasy series I have read. I loved the world building and the overall plot of this series and it also had dragons which is my favorite part in any fantasy book. And perhaps these are the reasons why I overlooked some aspects of these books that I shouldn’t have before. This series had some pretty graphic rape scenes which made me very uncomfortable while I was reading it. I ignored them at that time because I was too immersed with the story. But whenever I think about this series I am reminded of those scenes and it’s sort of tainted all my good memories. I wish the author had handled it a bit more delicately because it is such a triggering subject.

4. The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith.

Robert Galbraith is the pseudonym that was used by J.K. Rowling to write this new crime fiction series. I read the first book when I was in 10th grade and I remember loving it so much that I kept recommending this to my friends as well. But now that I have read a few more crime fiction novels, I realise that this isn’t the most original book out there. There wasn’t anything new in the story except the characters & the plot was too predictable.

5. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Everyone has read this book😆. It was such a sensation in my teen years. A lot of my friends had read this and thought that it was the best thing to happen to them. I am exaggerating of course but it did feel that way for a while. I got swept away by the hype and felt the same way too. I can understand why it’s so popular and I agree that it had a good message but it’s been a long time and I am so over it. I have become bit of a pessimist over the years and I just don’t care what this book is trying to preach anymore.

So these are the books that I used to love but now I don’t. I haven’t covered all the books but only the ones that I feel very strongly about. These are completely my personal opinion and it doesn’t mean that these are bad books in any way. So please don’t hate me.🙈

Let me know if you feel the same way about these books or not and share which one of your past favorites would you put in this list in the comment section.

Until then.

Three days of Happiness by Sugaru Miaki.

People who’ve had lots of failures talk about those failures as if to imply that if they have another life, they’ll be a big success. After facing all that hardship, they think they won’t mess up again. But they’re all – me included, of course – making a fundamental mistake. Failures know a lot about failure, sure. But knowing failure is completely different from knowing success. Fixing your mistakes doesn’t mean success takes their place – you’ve just got a point to start at, is all. That’s something failures don’t understand.” – Three Days Of Happiness

HOW MUCH IS LIFE TRULY WORTH?

Kusunoki used to believe he was destined for great things. Ostracized as a child, he held on to a belief that a good life was waiting for him in the years ahead. Now approaching the age of twenty, he’s a completely mediocre college student with no motivation, no dreams, and no money. After learning he can sell his remaining years-and just how little they’re worth-he chooses to divest himself of all but his last three months. Has Kusunoki truly destroyed his last chance to find happiness…or has he somehow found it?

This was one of the most beautifully written books I have read in a long time. Something about it just struck me to the core and now I don’t know how to articulate my thoughts. Is this book perfect? No, of course not. What book ever is! But did it make me happy? Yes, absolutely. I knew when I picked up this book that it’s not going to have a happy ending. It’s tragic and sometimes painful to read but it made me realise every moment of our lives are precious and we shouldn’t waste it on past regrets and hopeless expectations for the future. Everything about this book was just stunning.

Kusunoki isn’t a very lovable character at the start. He isn’t someone we can easily sympathize with at the beginning of the book. He is a poor 20 year old college student and has no drive to work hard but he is still arrogant enough to believe that he is special and is going to achieve great things in the future. He looks down on people and never tries to build any kind of relationship with anyone which basically made him an outcast and pretty isolated from the world. He doesn’t have an easy life and the only hope he has for the future is the ever present feeling of being ‘special’. So after learning that his life has so little worth, it became a pretty easy decision for him to sell away the rest of his lifespan and use the money he gets to live a comfortable life for the next three months. Of course it isn’t an easy transition at first. He made a lot of stupid mistakes and his actions weren’t always acceptable but I could understand that it came from a place of regret for the past and a deep fear for the future. Added to that he had to live with Miyagi, a girl who is assigned to monitor him for the next 3 months of his life so that he doesn’t hurt anyone or does anything illegal. Not only is he not comfortable having a stranger constantly watching him 24/7 and intruding on his personal space he also has to accept the fact that he doesn’t have any family or friend to be by his side when he dies and recognise that it’s entirely his own fault. So it was interesting to see his growth as a person as he gradually comes to terms with his imminent death and also starts to understand his own flaws that put him in this situation. Even Miyagi herself is not just a shadow behind him. She is an outspoken person and pretty vocal about the mistakes Kusunoki made during his life. But the thing that separates Miyagi from a normal person is that she is basically invisible to the world except for the subjects she is supposed to monitor. So we get to see a different side to her personality as well. We get to learn about her reasons for being in this line of work where nobody can see her and the only human contact she could have are with people who don’t have much longer to live. So it’s pretty obvious that she couldn’t get attached to any of her subjects even if they were the only ones who could acknowledge her existence and she also had to toughen herself up to avoid getting hurt by them. So both Kusunoki and Miyagi share the same crushing loneliness and sadness and it was so satisfying to see these two characters who were complete strangers find a common ground and connect with each other in a way they couldn’t do with anybody else.

I really appreciate the way the book was executed. The author doesn’t write anything dramatic but tells the story through these sweet little moments sprinkled throughout the book like making thousand origamis or stargazing in the middle of the night. It was such a fantastic way of exploring the whole concept of happiness and what it should mean in our lives instead of the idealistic version we have created in our minds. Happiness isn’t something we can get by achieving great things in life. If we can find joy from the little moments at the present then our lives can be just as meaningful no matter how short they are. It touched my heart so much. I personally didn’t have any issues with the book. The only complain that any reader would have for it would probably be the less information on the entire process of selling lifespan and I agree that it didn’t dive into the details of it. But that wasn’t the main point of this book and it’s still pretty amazing despite the minor gripe. It was a sad story but it still put a big smile on my face by the end of it and I absolutely adore it just for that reason.

Rating- 4.5/5 ⭐

Until next time.

Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama volume 1-4.

Hey guys! Today’s post is going to be a bit different because I will be reviewing volume 1-4 of an uber popular manga series called Attack on Titan written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama. It has more than 30 volumes so far and I will be talking about only the first 4 volumes in the series.

If you are an anime fan you probably have heard about this story. It is set in a post apocalyptic world where giant humanoid beings called Titans have completely decimated almost all of the population and the remaining humanity is pushed behind three huge circular walls that protect the people from the titans. Our main protagonists Eren Yeager lives in one of the towns behind the outermost wall named Maria and on the year 845 the wall is breached by two new variety of titans killing hundreds of people including Eren’s mother. Eren escapes along with his two childhood friends, Mikasa and Armin and joins the military to fight against these giant beings.

I am pretty new to manga and from the very few series that I have read so far Attack on Titan has one of the most unique artwork I have seen until now. It wasn’t the best out there but the way the writer can portray the absolute madness and brutality of this world through the eyes of the characters made me truly invested in this series. There was this sense of doom in every page of the book that makes this series more chilling to read. You just know you are reading a good story when the writer doesn’t hold back in showing you exactly how horrible the world can become and how everything can turn to hell in a blink of an eye.

The series has great characters and I loved the dynamic between everyone. Eren saw his own mother getting eaten alive by a titan and it left him with some deep psychological scars. He is driven by rage and wants to eradicate every titan alive and it drove him to work hard to become one of the best soldiers among his peers. I was conflicted about his character at the beginning because I thought he was a little reckless but I eventually warmed up to him when I knew more about his backstory and his whole history with the other characters. I loved his friendship with Mikasa and Armin. He deeply cared about them and wanted to protect them as much as he can. It was pretty obvious these two were keeping him sane for the last 5 years after their escape. Mikasa on the other hand is the complete opposite of Eren. She is a straight thinker and her ability to be calm in tough situations is sort of an anchor for Eren and her other comrades. She is a reserved and quiet person mostly due to her horribly traumatic childhood which we are told in detail in the later volumes. She is considered to be a prodigy and had some of the best combat scenes in the story. She has this mysterious side to her that made me more interested in her character arc. Both of them were pretty well developed protagonists and I loved their chemistry and friendship. The other character that was my personal favorite in this series so far was Armin who is the third musketeer of this trio. He was the weakest person in the group and understandably terrified of the Titans. He made a lot of mistakes and was constantly plagued by his own insecurities and failures but he pushed past those flaws in the middle of the battle and did what was needed to be done in that situation. I think it’s admirable to get over that chilling terror and think of an emergency strategy to win and Armin did that so well which made him the MVP of the these 4 volumes for me. I was really impressed with the side characters as well. It was interesting to see their contradicting emotions during the battle against the Titans. At one end they are terrified of them and don’t want to die in such a gruesome way and at the other end they want to fight them because they don’t the remaining humanity to be destroyed by them. The writer did a great job in creating these humane emotions in these characters and making us root for them when we don’t even know if they are going to make it or not.

Overall, it was a pretty solid start to the series. The artwork was great, the combat scenes were amazing and the characters were so cool. Its better to get into this series without knowing anything because there is an element of surprise at every page and it makes this story more thrilling. Its a grim dark world with some very high stakes. Its better to not get attached to any one character because it will only break your heart in the future. I have only read 5% of this series and I am already hooked. I am really excited for what’s in store for me in the next volume.

Until then👇

Big books I plan to read in 2021.

Hey guys! Welcome to 2021. This is my first post for this year and I wanted to start with a pretty intimidating challenge for myself. I have always been scared of reading books that are more than 600 pages long and I rarely put any effort into reading them unless they are sequels to a series that I love. So one of my goals this year would be to face that fear head on. I have decided to choose 10 big books for my TBR this year and try to read atleast one of them every month.

The original creater of this tag is Emily Fox from @Books with Emily Fox. She is one of my favorite booktubers so do check out her channel. 👆

1. Harry Potter and the goblet of fire by J. K. Rowling.

2. Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson.

3. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami.

4. Battle Royale by Koushun Takami .

5. From blood and ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout.

6. Night film by Marisha Pessl.

7. Elantris by Brandon Sanderson.

8. Tigana by Guy Gavriel kay.

9. American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

10. The lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.

So there we go. These are the big intimidating books I plan to read in 2021. Even though I am having a mini panic attack right now I am really excited for this. Let me know if you have any other recommendations for me in the comment section and I will surely check them out. 😊

Peace out ✌

Happy New Year.

Hey guys!!!!! A very very happy new year to everyone. 2020 has been a tough year for all of us and I am so grateful for the safety and well being of my loved ones. I know that we are still in the middle of a pandemic and the future is more uncertain than ever but we made it to a new decade with our strength and resilience and this should be a moment of pride for everyone. It’s still scary to think about the future but I want to start this year with new hope and anticipation. So here and now I make a wish for the safety and happiness of everyone who is reading this post and pray for their better future ahead. Don’t ever lose your faith in yourself. You’ve survived 2020 afterall. 😁