Nintendo Book Tag

Its Monday! And you know what! Things are looking great. This weekend resolved a ton of stuff on my mind. I know that on Friday, I was just talking about it. However, this comes with its own stuff which I’ll talk about in a separate post soon, maybe I’ll vlog it..who knows!

Either way, we’re changing things up. Because of NaNoWriMo, I subscribe to the WordNerds Youtube Channel. Back in August, they did  for their Vloggers’ Choice segment a Nintendo Book Tag! This is their video HERE and the original of this tag is from Sam’s Nonsense HERE. I haven’t done any Tags in a long time but seeing as I’ve been really in the gaming thing lately, I feel inspired to give this a go. However, we are doing a fun post on it for Game Warp with an actual gaming twist.  Here, I’m going to try my luck as intended for books. Some challenging stuff here but let’s give it a go!

Nintendo Book Tag

• NES: A Classic Book You Want To Read

I’m not one that loves war stuff but The Art of War is a book I’ve always wanted to read about strategy. What makes The Art of War very impressive is that his strategies apply to everyday life and not just war. It applies to business and the concepts behind it draw many parallels to the present. Chinese people love to toss around the really popular strategy in everyday life so I’ve always learned some stuff here and there but I feel its also enriching to embrace the works of my own tradition. With that said, when I read this want to read Classic…it wasn’t famous Western works that popped in my head but a bunch of Classic Chinese works that I’ve never found time to read, mostly because I’m born in Canada so while I can read Chinese, its an incredibly slow process, especially with traditional Chinese writing style.

• Super Nintendo (SNES): A Sequel You Liked More Than The First Book

Maybe I’m cheating a little here. Not if they mean like sequel as in like the immediate second novel. Regardless, I love The Prisoner of Azkaban. Its one of my fave sequels and one that I love a ton in the Harry Potter series and definitely much more than Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Its just incredibly magical and has this darkness that keeps it really fun. I still remember a lot of it and I haven’t went back to read the Harry Potter in many, many year (although hopefully one day).

• Nintendo 64: A Book that Revolutionalizes the Way You Look at the World

Maybe it seems like an odd choice but I sometimes read non-fiction books, albeit rare, and this one has by far been one of those very inspiring ones. I read this one as one of the earlier reviews in the earlier days of the blog. You can find the (crappy) review HERE.

Quiet is a really fantastic book that looks at the world from analysing the power of being an introvert. I’ve been an introvert all my life and because of that, my parents have always felt that it’ll make me less competent and always found ways to try to make me more sociable and outgoing. I guess feeling that you are less makes you less confident but Quiet takes a nice reasoning behind the introvert and even those who are introverts but are pseudo-extroverts. Anyways, it changed my view and made me see the value of being an introvert.

• Game Cube: A Popular Book that Did Not Go Over Well with You

Sigh…What do I say to all you John Green fans? He’s just not my type of writer. The Fault of Our Stars is very quotable but that doesn’t make it a great book. My opinion and you know what this book’s plot is? Its a typical Korean drama series. You probably can find a ton of them on Netflix now. Its the classic Korean drama formula that all got brought to light with Autumn in My Heart. Not saying that its bad but its using the same tricks. You can find the review HERE. In this review, you will see that there was an update and my original 3.5 wa a 4 (since Goodreads doesn’t do half stars) but its really somewhere nicking a 3 and it keeps dropping the more I think about it, so I’ll stop. I probably should do an updated review on why.

• Wii: A New Favorite

The Illuminae Files is officially my new favorite series in general. I burned through  Illuminae and then picked up full price Gemina and then read through that one in a hurry. You can find the review for Illuminae HERE and Gemina HERE. This series really take a beautiful turn and uses reading to a third person point of view and gives us wonderful twists and characters and development and mystery, action. Its a gripping sci-fi novel and its a must-read.

• Nintendo Power: Your Favorite Graphic Novel Series (or other series you want to read)

I’ve only read the first book in this Fables series but it was incredibly awesome. You can find the review HERE.

If you are talking about series, I have been quite into the renewed Archie ones. You can read the first volume review HERE.

• Super Mario: A Character You Would Like to Squish Like a Goomba

Typical that John Green makes it twice on my tag, right? My choice of character is Margo Roth Spiegelman. I really didn’t like Paper Towns. Its incredibly boring and what I hate most is the pointless of this main character who just seems really unlikable and rather manipulative. I remember reading this book and thinking that if this book ended the way I was expecting it would (and it did), that I’d hate this character even more. So yeah…I’m not here to give spoilers so I won’t. There are characters, I think further and see their mental journey and that they were meant to be that way, but Margo Roth Spiegelman was just boring and pointless. Perhaps this one meant for a villain character that I wanted to squish, but this is my choice.

If it was a character that I’d like to squish like Goomba (because of his villainous ways), I’d pick the I Am Number Four series villain, Setrakus Ra.

• Zelda: A New Fantasy Book that You Would Consider a New Modern Classic

I honestly have no idea how many people know about The Night Circus. I read this one before the book reviews started here however, I did read this because The Night Circus was born from a NaNoWriMo project. Its honestly a fantastic little fantasy book about magicians and circuses and rivalry and the way destiny messes with these two young magicians who are in love. Its really a great story and a page-turner. If you haven’t read it and love fantasy, this one comes highly recommended on my list.

• Samus Aran: Your Favorite Sci-fi Book (or sci-fi book you want to read)

Since I’ve already talk about Illuminae which is very sci-fi which is one of my faves, I can’t wait to read Obsidio, the next book in The Illuminae Files series however it only releases in March 2018. For something that has already been released. If you have been following here, I’ve professed my love for the I am Number Four series over and over again. The entire book series has been very strong. It has some variation but overall, they are really solid. The series has all released as of last year but being the procrastinator that I am, I’m still desperately waiting to pick up the last 2 books in the series, The Fate of Ten and United as One.

• Pokemon: Book Editions That You Want to Collect

Currently, I have Calvin and Hobbes and Something Under the Bed is Drooling but I want to get all of these beautiful comics. They always are the reason why I sit down and take a break from cleaning the bookcase because I spot them and get caught up. The memories and the friendships and just Calvin and Hobbes are fabulous and fun.

• Donkey Kong: A Book with Original Characters

I feel that nothing is quite as charming as reading the short 80 or so pages of The Little Prince. It has a little prince from a faraway asteroid and a talking flower. He journeys to meet a stranded aviator. He meets these interesting characters and there is just so much to learn about this book. The Little Prince is a special character and sees through many things. He’s deep and interesting.

• Nintendo Fandom: Favorite Nintendo game(s) or game you really want

While Nintendo Switch has just been released and there are some cool titles already out, my heart is still set on getting together some money to pick up a Nintendo 3DS so that I can play these titles. My favorite gaming franchise is Professor Layton and Phoenix Wright and I still have two games to catch up with the Ace Attorney franchise and then they got together and did a game, which was the turning point of when I decided I needed a 3DS eventually (and that was back in 2012). Its still on my mind every single day.

That’s it for this Nintendo Book Tag!
Join in if you’d like in your own post or in the comments below!
Even if you aren’t a gamer, these categories are still fun to think about. 
Happy Monday everyone! 

Paper Towns by John Green

Let’s tackle another John Green novel! If you remember, I read The Fault in Our Stars a month or so ago.  While I’m not a die hard fan, it was an alright novel.  Not so much the more I think about it.  Its incredibly quotable, of course.  I highly doubt I’d go back to reading it though.  However, the trailer of Paper Towns dropped and I saw it a few months ago.  Of course, by now, the movie has gone on the big screen and left it, so I never went to go see the movie but that was my motivation in reading the book.  The trailer was intriguing to say the least.  Its the sort of coming of age adventure that I like to check out.

So here we are with Paper Towns! Let’s see what its all about! 🙂

Paper Towns

by: John Green

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs into his life—dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows. After their all-nighter ends, and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues—and they’re for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew… – Goodreads

Goodreads rating: 2/5 stars (I’m just going to open with the ratings now.  I’ll go back and restructure my posts soon.  It seems like a good way to do it.)

I’m pretty lenient and forgiving with novels, especially YA novels.  I probably shouldn’t since Young Adult is this whole new genre with a thousand trending books every year and a lot of it is hyped up for reasons I can’t decipher.  Anyways, point is, I’m stopping this John Green run unless you all tell me there is a book about a thousand times better than anything you have ever read.  He’s really not for me.  Paper Towns was a new level of boring.  I don’t know if its the pacing or the events or just the writing style.  I had an incredibly hard time getting absorbed into the book.  You know how sometimes you are fully aware of the exact thing you are doing in reality, like I’m reading a book sitting in a bus or standing in line baking under heat.  It didn’t whisk me away from reality or even slightly fall in love with the characters.

Paper Towns has a good premise.  Its really not a bad idea.  What does make it not so great is that what started out as an adventure and finding yourself and discovering the whole idea of how everyone has more than their appearances.  Hey kids, that’s life! I’m not the semi sarcastic, semi bubbly enthusiastic person I am on my blog when I’m at work.  I wasn’t like this even when I went to school.  In high school, we join groups and we bend to peer pressure and these things happen.  So, I get this is a young adult novel and its about teenagers which is why I think the premise is commendable.  However, my issue here is the characters and just the course of events. Its not even the believability of it all.  I can get behind the Paper Towns thing and wanting to leave and start fresh, impulse and adventure, wanting to be you and getting away from all that home stuff, even the whole randomly choosing your childhood friend/neighbor who is really more of an acquaintance.  But this book is about clues, chasing down and finding a girl mindlessly.

To be honest, the characters in here were pretty meh.  I mean, Margo was nothing special.  I guess it works because she isn’t supposed to be. She just is because Q thought she was and has this massive crush on her. While Q is actually just a law-abiding citizen.  You know that typical coming of age teenage boy who a spontaneous girl sends on an adventure.  You know one, you know them all.  Except Q is kind of self-centred and very one track mind. His best friends even point that out and he becomes conscious about it and changes. That’s the character development.  Its not even that there isn’t character development but rather its like at some point, Q doesn’t even know why he’s looking for Margo.  It seems like a reflex or is it the desire to feel wanted or to feel important like he’s done something out of the mold of his routine life and wanting normal things? I don’t know what it is. The characters weren’t that appealing.

Don’t even get me started on the ending. Okay, look, I had a much worse ending in my head that if it did happen, I’d have thrown the book into the fireplace and burnt it.  That didn’t happen so I didn’t have to bake myself in my already pretty hot house.  Point is, the ending was still really like: I don’t know how to work in circles around this anymore so lets just draw this to a close.

Overall, not a fan of Paper Towns.  I can’t even see the appeal.  The characters aren’t very special.  The pacing and story is so boring and honestly when you get to the ending, it really feels like you just went on a wild goose chase for absolutely nothing.  I gave it 2 because one, the premise is there.  Its just the execution wasn’t quite there.  Second, there are some few parts that were interesting to read.  The clues after clues was fun here and there and the beginning had a few decent messages about stepping out of ordinary and having adventures but it just kind of fell apart in this slow tiring way. Its sucks to feel this way for a book because I’m not harsh on books and I really wanted to like this one.

Have you read Paper Towns? Are you a John Green fan? What is your favorite book of his?

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

I’m definitely late to the party for The Fault in Our Stars and I’ve skimmed through a few reviews of John Green trying my best to avoid spoilers. All I know is that its about a girl living with cancer who falls in love with a boy.  Its supposed to be tear jerking and already adapted into a movie lead by Shailene Woodley.  That’s where I’m at with this book so clear mind, clear head going into this.  The deal with these sort of books is that I’m not sure what the depressing level is and sometimes, I’m just not in the mindset to do this especially since I do most of my reading in the morning on the bus.  Crying or being depressed isn’t exactly the way I’d like to start my work day, if you get what I mean. Anyways, I wanted to watch the movie and I really wanted to read this before seeing it so here I am, done after a few days.

The Fault in Our Stars

by John Green

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten. – Goodreads

 I had to put a lot of thought into how to write about The Fault in Our Stars.  I feel that a good bit of you out there who have read this probably liked this a lot more than I did.  Now, that isn’t to say that I didn’t like it.  The book was something different and I give my praise to it for being raw.  Its like getting punched in the gut kind of raw.  And it radiates a feeling that doesn’t really hit until you think about it.  The metaphors John Green uses with stars and constellations and just how deep and simple life actually really is especially if you’ve seen it as you live every day blessed that you are still alive but really not so happy that you are causing so much pain around you.  Its a dramatic life.  I get all that.  I’d lie if I said that my eyes didn’t get all teary as I read a few of the parts.

The Fault in Our Stars couldn’t help but be a little predictable in the actual story.  You know that was where it was going.  You knew the outcome of Augustus and Hazel.  There was no escaping the eventuality of it.  It was just staring at us in the face even before it was announced officially.  Still, John Green does a good job at making us attached to Hazel and Augustus and what they have.  Its poetically and dramatically beautiful.  So look, I thought The Fault in Our Stars in a great book.  Perfect? Not so much.  At one point, it reminded me of the billion of Korean dramas out there.  If you’ve seen at least one of them, you know what I mean.  Its kind of a spoiler, I guess if you know nothing so highlight if you want to see what I mean. Someone always ends up getting cancer or some terminal disease after the couple finally So yeah.  I saw it coming a mile away.  Maybe you did too.

 And maybe that’s why I felt a little not sure how to write this because as much it should hit hard, it didn’t hit me as much initially.  Now thats where I guess my thoughts change a little.  As I tried to work out the thoughts for this review, even now, a good few days later, I eventually sat down and started talking it out to my boyfriend even if he knew nothing about it and I realized that what touched me was not necessarily Hazel and Augustus but rather the whole concept of the tragic love.  The idea that life is taken away before they could have more time being in love or just being more and doing more meaningful things or making a mark in the world but then how these two characters live completely aware of that and most of time accepting the fact of that and eventually enjoying more of life because of that.  They live being as honest as they can to themselves, trying to make the most of their time and seeking out the answers they can.   Because of what they’ve lived through and live with, it makes their life more profound and it lets them see more than we do.  

I guess the idea is that the the fragility of life through the idea of Augustus and Hazel makes us see how we should be grateful for the days we have.  The beauty of our world is really what we make of it.  The fact that these two young ones are able to be so brave and strong for each other, especially through the words of John Green and his metaphors, we get hit with some raw feelings and thats what hits hard.  Not the story about falling in love because its in how you make it connect to the reader.  For me, the after effect of The Fault in our Stars lingering my mind was a lot more than while I was reading it.  While I appreciated the words and the description and each and every character in The Fault in Our Stars, I couldn’t help but feel that the story wasn’t perfect.  Or maybe thats how its supposed to feel at the end: a little empty, a tad hurt and desiring that there was a little more. I really don’t know…

I gave this a 4 out of 5 on Goodreads so yes, I really liked it.  What striked me more about The Fault in our Stars was the fragility of life and those bittersweet moments and not really their love story.

***Updated: After the review went up, as I was updating Goodreads, I had given this more thought and felt that my original 3.5 bumping to 4 was an overstatement so I dropped it back to 3 out of 5.***

 Have you read The Fault in Our Stars? What are your thoughts on it?