Book Chat: Books Making Me Sick!

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 favourite 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 favourite. 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 favourite 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 flavour of that time period from read this book.
Thanks SarawithnH for creating this awesome tag: I really had to think about those answers!