The Seven Heavenly Virtues Book Tag

This tag was originally created by Ola G and Piotrek at Re-enchantment Of The World as a new spin on The Seven Deadly Sins Book Tag.  Thank you to Lashaan at Bookidote for tagging me!

Chastity

Which author/book/series do you wish you had never read?

Listen.  It’s rare that I one star a book.  I picked it up because something about it interested me.  It’s so rare there are only four books out of four hundred on GoodReads I’ve listed as one star.  Even my DNFs I usually give three stars to because I’m more likely to DNF something that’s simply boring me rather than something I straight up hated.  (I guess I am sometimes fueled by rage in my reading…)  So here are three that I did in fact finish (or at least skimmed to the end) and wish I could get back the hours of my life I wasted on them.

Blindness by Jose Saramago – I realize this is supposed to be literary and ooo SYMBOLISM!!! But OMG GIVE ME A BREAK GUY.  This book is ludicrous, the symbolism is obvious, the portrayal of the wife, sickening… I just wouldn’t even recommend this to my least favorite person.  And don’t even get me started on the lack of punctuation.

Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James – I won’t even lie about it.  I read it.  I held a funeral for the brain cells I lost in the process.

Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich – I read this book in it’s entirety, and it’s probably the least deserving read here, but the ending was rage inducing enough to make me retroactively hate the whole book.

Temperance

Which book/series did you find so good, that you didn’t want to read it all at once, and you read it in doses just to make the pleasure last longer?

Uhh yeah.  It just occurred to me that I don’t actually embody any of these seven heavenly virtues…  I just don’t practice that level of self control.  If I love something, I love it til death do us part:

And if it’s a series, forget it. I’m not reading anything else until I’ve finished the whole thing.

So instead, here are three books I loved enough to read more than once:

Under the Dome by Stephen King – I know I’m a broken record with this one.  I’ve read it three times.  I don’t care if the ending sucked.  Which by the way I found totally reasonable (hasn’t every kid who remembers the year 2000 played The Sims and devised 7,293 ways to kill them?).  Anyway, it’s not about the end.  It’s about small town dictators and all the little people that overthrew him.

The Green Mile also by Stephen King – I’ve read it twice.  When people tell me they haven’t read Stephen King, this is usually my go-to recommendation.  Because if you don’t like it, chances are you aren’t human and we probably can’t be friends.  Ha.  Just kidding.

Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer – Okay so I’ve technically only read this one once so far, but I plan to reread it later in the year.  (Like closer to when book four comes out, because I’m so going to fangirl all over that ish.)

Charity

Which book/series/author do you tirelessly push to others, telling them about it or even giving away spare copies bought for that reason?

The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell.  Within five seconds of meeting someone, I will casually mention Vikings, segue into the related Last Kingdom Netflix show, and then insist that they read this book, because the show is good, but also the show is doing it wrong, and they should really read the book.  It’s scary really, how often I manage to do this.

Diligence

Which series/author do you follow no matter what happens and how long you have to wait?

Yes I understand these are “complete”.  There’s still prequels and novellas, and all kinds of stuff De Castell could do with the Greatcoats, and I’ll be over here.  Waiting.  And watching the clock.  And waiting.

On a more serious note- most of my favorite authors put out a book at least once a year so there aren’t many I have to worry about waiting on.

Patience

Is there an author/book/series you’ve read that improved with time the most, starting out unpromising, but ultimately proving rewarding?

Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy was a really frustrating read for me.  I had trouble following the dialogue, the brutality was unspeakable, and the ending, supremely unsatisfying.

Despite that, I read (rather, listened to) The Road a few months later because I couldn’t get Blood Meridian out of my head, and very much enjoyed it.

My next planned read by McCarthy is All the Pretty Horses.  I don’t know why.  Seems romantic.  I’m sure he’ll find a way to ruin it with brains spilled over cow dung and a lack of quotation marks but I’m willing to give it a try.

Kindness

Which author would you consider your role-model in the hassle of everyday life?

Because it’s my dream to be blocked on twitter by @POTUS.  At least once.  #LifeGoals

Humility

Which book/series/author do you find the most under-rated?

The Moon and the Other by John Kessel – Of the books I’ve ever rated 5 stars (okay, technically I gave it 4.5) this book has less than 1,000 ratings and it’s not because it’s brand new.  I think the issue is this one is harder to find.  If you have an opportunity to read it, please do.  Life on the moon is brilliantly imagined, the writing feels literary without being obtuse, and it provided a lot of food for thought.

And that’s it!  I know there weren’t many new books to look at here, if you’ve read any of my Top Ten Tuesday posts, but I still had a lot of fun with this!  I’m not going to tag anyone- mostly because I can’t keep straight who’s done what tags, but if you’d like to participate, please consider yourself tagged.  I’d love to read your answers!