Book Chat: Books Making Me Sick!

Posted on the 03 November 2012 by Pocketfulofbooks @PocketfulofBooks

The Book Illness Tag! Description
This book tag was created by SarawithnH.It asks readers to pair books with particular illnesses...which sounds odd but it works! Here are my answers:


1. Diabetes: a book too sweet, like really sweet.


Habibi and Blankets are the sweetest and most beautiful graphic novels I have ever read. The art is as gorgeous as the love stories, and the whole package is just overwhelmingly SWEEET!


2. Chicken Pox: a book you've read once, and will never pick up again.



There are quite a few books that I have read that I am quite sure I would never read again, but these two are definites. I found The Five People You Meet in Heaven to be massively over-sentimental and overwritten; it is one of those books that is so desperately trying to be moving that it inevitably fails miserably. Paper Towns is a more controversial choice, as most people seem to really love John Green's books, but I despised it. The roadtrip section and the endless analysis of Walt Whitman is utterly tedious to read and the teenage characters sound ridiculously pompous and middle-aged. I may try The Fault in Our Stars and see if it can rectify my opinion of Green's books. 3. Influenza: the flu a contagious book that spreads like a virus

These books don't seem to be hugely well-known outside of the blogging world; I never see Anna in bookshops here in the UK. Yet everyone who book blogs seems to have read them (including me). I know that John Green personally recommend Anna so maybe that's how it came to be so popular. They both deserve the praise; they are incredibly addictive!

4. The cycle: a book you read every month, year or often.




I had some obvious answers for this category like Harry Potter and Anne of Green Gables, but I thought I would go for something a bit different. Lady Daisy by Dick King-Smith is one of my favorite stories, about a boy who, whilst cleaning out his Grandma's attic finds a Victorian doll. And she speaks! The tenderness which the boy looks after Lady Daisy the doll is truly heartwarming, and I love the Victorian influence. My other choice is Claudine at St Clare's by Enid Blyton, which is one of the books in Blyton's boarding school St Clare's series. I love it so much; it is quaint and lovely and this book is hilarious (if a little insulting to the French!) I guess both these books remind me of my childhood, which is why I like to revisit them so often.


5. Insomnia: a book that kept you up all night.





This book was impossible to put down. Monsters of Men, the third and final book of Patrick Ness's Chaos Walking trilogy is a fast-paced and nail-biting conclusion to an amazing series. It not only ties up loose ends, but it also adds new elements which other authors would be too scared to do.  6. Amnesia: a book that's forgotten and failed to leave a powerful impression in your memory.


I always forget that I have even read The Peculiars so that seems to have left hardly any impression on me at all! It was pretty uneventful...if I remember correctly! The Long Earth was one I was extremely excited to read as I love Terry Pratchett, but this book didn't have the Pratchett magic. It was just dull, and took me weeks to slog through.
7. Asthma: a book that took your breath away



The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss is a book I only read recently, and it was an instant favorite. It is so gripping with the most amazing world-building you will ever read. I DEFY you to put that book down...even if it is 3 in the morning.

8. Mal nutrition: a book that lacked food for thought.




The Selection by Kiera Cass is probably the most shallow book I have ever read. In a way, that is what made it OK...it was so ludicrous and silly that I was reading with a sort of appalled fascination. 

9. Travel sickness: a book that took you on a journey through time or space or to a specific local on the map.

The Diviners by Libba Bray isn't one of my all time favorite books (I gave it 3/5 stars) but it definitely transports you into the roaring twenties in New York amongst the flappers and jazz and prohibition. It does try a bit too much to seem authentic but even so, I felt I definitely got a strong flavor of that time period from read this book.
Thanks SarawithnH for creating this awesome tag: I really had to think about those answers!