hello friends!!! can you believe it’s already been FOUR YEARS since i started this wee little blog? in high school years, they’ve graduated and are going to college! WILD. in celebration, the bloggers of TP decided to do a bookish/blog related Q&A for all of y’all so i hope you enjoy~~~ i also shared another q&a on my yotube with a few other personal questions as well :))

THE QUESTIONS!!

which book surprised you the most when reading it?

priscilla: burn for burn by jenny han and siobhan vivian! i ended up liking it a LOT more than i expected, and i’d definitely recommend it!

kaitlin: passenger by alexandra bracken just because…it was kinda a lot more boring than i had anticipated oops.

madeline: the all for the game trilogy by nora sakavic tOTALLY took me by surprise because i was totally glued to the series and binged them in a period of 48 hours. would definitely recommend to those of you who like a dark storyline!

can you tell if you will like a book right away?

haley: sometimes, yes. obviously we all judge books by their covers, and really liking the premise or the author can also sway my judgement. sometimes, these expectations can let me down. but i went into crazy rich asians, with no knowledge of what it’d be about or who the author was, and fell in love within the first ten pages!

chelsea: yes. which is like, fine when i’m in a reading mood and don’t want to waste any time, it’s great! when i’m in a reading slump and desperate to get any literature into my brain, it sucks!

alexandra: sometimes i’ll read a book and will want to start screaming or crying just from the first page or sentence (echm turtles all the way down), but some books are ones i grow to like. a little bit of both!

how do you find time to read so many books?

haley: i still struggle with this, but i find that if you love a book, you’ll naturally make the time. for example, when reading the hate u give, i’d read during breaks between classes, or forget about my phone for hours on end, or even cut down my studying time (having less time means i’d procrastinate less anyways). needless to say, i finished that book in one day!

chelsea: cackling intensifies? i haven’t read a book in SO LONG that i can barely call myself a book blogger. however i’ve been on the road and slowly getting into a brandon sanderson novel my cousin recommended me, so perhaps i see an end to the slump on the horizon? but i second what haley said: if you love a book, you’ll make time for it.

top three fave authors?

madeline: v.e schwab (!! always !!), alice oseman (she has the best characters and diversity), and donna tartt (The Secret History is fabulous, her characters are amazing, and her writing is so immersive).

priscilla: jenny han!! i absolutely LOVE tatbilb <3 i also love kasie west (i’m such a sucker for cute romances and all that) and finallyyyy cassandra clare! I think tmi and tid were the series that got me really into YA books 🙂

best ya book in the world?

priscilla: six of crows is actually amazing. the plot, characters, pacing, EVERYTHING is so perfect. ok but you should probably read the grisha trilogy first or you’ll probably be a bit confused.

chelsea: the raven cycle. i know it’s a series (the dream thieves is my favourite) but TRC was everything i wanted in a series—magic, found families, lgbtq+ rep, richard c. gansey iii. man i love those books with my whole heart.

madeline: radio silence by alice oseman!! i know you guys have heard me talk and tALK about how amazing it is, but that’s only because it truly deserves all the hype in the world. the diversity and quality of the story are both excellent. the characters are so lovely and absolutely RELATABLE.

what do you feel is the most important blogging advice for newbie bloggers?

kaitlin: blog for yourself. honestly, it can become very easy to quickly start blogging for arcs, views, and clout. and although these are benefits of running a successful book blog, over time running a blog where you’re not blogging for yourself becomes extremely tiring and becomes a chore. write about the things you want to write about, the things that make you happy. i’ve learned over time that writing about things you don’t really care about really is no fun and becomes a chore and blogging shouldn’t be a chore. write about what makes you happy, not what others would expect you to write about.

is there a memorable book review you’ve written and why?

alexandra: i’m very proud of my review, discussion, AND RECAP for winter because it took SO LONG. and also my discussions in general? mostly ones like a court of mist and fury, lady midnight, and the unexpected everything.

do you get free books in exchange for online reviews?

alexandra: sometimes, yes! depending on the book, we’ll either get a request from publishers/authors, or request it ourselves through publishers. sometimes we’ll also get unsolicited books to review.

do you read series as they come out or collect & binge read?

chelsea: depends. sometimes i get into series really late (i.e., grisha) and sometimes i follow a series from the first book in the series to the last (i.e., acotar) i honestly 100% prefer when a series is completely released because my goodness is it hard to wait a year for the next installment of a book.

kaitlin: i’m like chelsea. it really depends on the series and when i decide to start it. if i decide to pick up a series when its been completed (vampire academy) i biiiiinge that ish. but if it’s a new series, i usually will just read the books as they come out, which can be really risky because i do sometimes lose interest in the series like, 2 books in and that’s kind of bad but like !! its okay !!

how do you choose bloggers for twirling pages?

alexandra: i had an application process last year and looked through all the applicants interested, and chose those i felt would get along well with my personality and had the blog’s best interest in mind. :)))

what’s the best adapted movies from books you’ve ever seen?

haley: i really enjoyed movies like Love, Simon and Crazy Rich Asians because they were so! wonderfully! done! (unlike percy jackson lol haha xd) but i’d say this award would probably have to go to the harry potter franchise. not a movie, but they even made multiple theme parks for goodness sake!

alexandra: YES CRAZY RICH ASIANS. it’s honestly so so so wonderful i literally cry.

kaitlin: i’ve been terrible with watching movies of books that i have read but definitely, the hunger games series, harry potter, and i thought if i stay was really well done (cried like a little bitch heh).

madeline: my number one adaptation will forever be Love, Simon, but i really loved the adaptation of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before for the most part. Harry Potter will always be an old favorite of mine though, no matter how much time passes.

the best soundtrack of a movie adapted from novels?

madeline: for a movie released recently, i absolutely loved the soundtrack for Love, Simon!! I especially liked all the songs by Bleachers and Strawberries and Cigarettes by Troye Sivan <3 for something a little older, i’ve always been a big fan of the harry potter soundtrack! suuch good instrumentals.

how to improve your reading speed?

haley: read, read, read! there is a direct correlation between fast readers and those who read a lot, and the only way to get quick is to practice. but never forget to enjoy the book, no matter what speed you’re reading at. 🙂

favorite genre?

madeline: fantasy because i find it so captivating and i love the escapism of it! i also enjoy magical realism/fabulism, like The Raven Boys and Bone Gap!

priscilla: romance! i’m such a romantic at heart <3 i love all romance, whether it’s realistic fiction or fantasy!

kaitlin: i love all genres honestly but like, the book hAS to have good romance 🙂

have you read mangas and/or horror novels?

priscilla:i love manga!!! it’s been a while ahhh but omg orange is a MUST READ! some of my childhood favorites are kitchen princess (super super cute series), kaichou wa maid sama, and kamisama kiss (soooo good)

alexandra: soooooo priscilla actually got me into graphic novels/manga!! ish. she introduced me to webtoons (which are THE BEST THING) and i ended up reading more graphic novels as a result.

what’s your favorite sci-fi book?

madeline: Scythe by Neal Shusterman! I feel like a lot of sci-fi/dystopian novels fall into very clean cut stereotypes, and i really don’t dig that! Scythe subverts a lot of those tropes, and the way it approaches the idea that a utopia can actually be a dystopia is absolutely brilliant!

alexandra: gotta agree with madeline. scythe is so SO good!! and i don’t even really like sci-fi.

books you feel don’t deserve the hype they get?

alexandra: red queen red queen red queen – felt like it was a cardboard cut out of every ya dystopian trope. also Illuminae, The Maze Runner, and Throne of Glass (there i said it)

haley: eleanor and park. 🙁 i found the romance to be a little bit too obsessive, and was a bit uncomfortable with some of the racist undertones? especially how park was fetishized. and why is his name park???? that’s a last name. anyways, i liked fangirl a lot more.

madeline: i have to agree with Haley on this one! I couldn’t make it more than a third of the way through the novel because of how gross eleanor’s fetishization of park was. I very closely share an identity with park (half korean!) and it made me so uncomfortable to see eleanor saying these things + not even educating herself on why this was wrong. also, i didn’t really like The Cruel Prince very much or any of Holly Black’s books :/

are you writing anything at the moment?

haley: a few short stories, especially since i just finished the adroit summer mentorship program (which is amazing, i really recommend that you apply if you love writing). also, i wrote the first draft to a manuscript about chinese american identity in ninth grade and am just pulling it out again now to work on it!

kaitlin: school essays T.T

favorite otp from a book?

madeline: ooh this is hard, but Kanej from Six of Crows because of how they respect each other’s boundaries + the level of non-sexual intimacy they share. 10/10 A BEAUTIFUL RELATIONSHIP. (for a bonus brotp can i say Frances Janvier and Aled Last? they are so iconic)

kaitlin: SYDNEY & ADRIAN. the bloodlines series was sooo gooood and it was partly because of the romantic roller coaster of sydney and adrian tbh. and rose and dimitri. all the couples in the vampire academy and bloodlines series are just sdlkfjslkdjf

favorite darkest minds character?

alexandra: hahaha i feel like everyone and their distant cousin know my love for the darkest minds. how can i choose a favorite character??!! i want to choose ruby because she’s one of the main reasons why i love the book so much??? but also chubs??? and zu?!! everyone, basically.

how do you organize your shelves?

priscilla: okay so i have three bookshelves because i was obsessed with collecting books for a few years (unfortunately i never read a lot of them sooo now i’m trying to sell/destash a bunch of them :/ but anyway! my main shelf is all my series, which are roughly in alphabetical order. i have an entire shelf for all my cassandra clare books and another one for harry potter! my other shelves are mostly in rainbow order!

favorite teen romance books?

priscilla:TO ALL THE BOYS I’VE LOVED BEFORE. GO READ IT NOW!! but hm some of my other favorite romance novels are the winner’s curse (the whole trilogy is amazinggg) and pivot point by kasie west!

how do you start expanding your reading genre?

alexandra: i would start with reading something that’s still a little similar to the genre you’re normally reading, but also a little different. for example, if you want to read more adult fiction and enjoy ya, i’d recommend reading something with a little bit of both like the secret history(!!). if you want to read more nonfiction, start with a topic you’re genuinely interested in.

what is your favorite type of blog post to write and why?

haley: haven’t done many, but travel and beauty blog posts! sometimes writing reviews takes into a little more thinking, especially about what to talk about and how to articulate my asdfjklb;a feelings into actual words. but travel and beauty are both things i really really really love and the words just come out!

priscilla:to be honest, i’ve been in a reading slump for about a year now 🙁 i don’t love reading the way i used to, so i haven’t been writing about books. i definitely prefer more lifestyle-ish posts, so i’ll try to post more about what i’m doing these days (which isn’t much tbh ahaha). i also love travel posts but i don’t travel that much, buuuut i am moving to new york soon for college so hopefully i’ll be able to blog about that!

kaitlin: yeah awks guys this is a blog known for books but tbh IM in a reading slump too so honestly, talking about travels is what we love doing now. and honestly, i would be down to do more lifestyle and bullet journal posts in the future. i don’t know, to me it’s really fun to talk about the little things going on in my life and travels.

alexandra: clearly we’ve all been lacking in the blogosphere but *SHRUG*. my favorites to put together are usually seasonal wrapups where i get to update you on ~life~ and also book tags? i haven’t done one in SO LONG, but they were always so fun!

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THE GIVEAWAY~~

as a gift to you, the readers who have stayed by my side – whether you just joined yesterday or if you’ve been reading since day one – i wanted to host a giveaway for a book of your choice! thank you thank you thank you for sticking around through this crazy journey; i honestly wouldn’t be here without you.

terms & conditions

• open to INTERNATIONAL (as long as book depository ships to you! :))
• must be 18 or older OR have your parent’s consent to release a mailing address.
• you will be disqualified for picking up entires you didn’t do.
• you may only use one account to enter.
• if the winner doesn’t respond in 48 hours, i will choose another winner.
• we (twirling pages) are not responsible for anything lost in the mail.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

thank you for everything!! here’s to more four years and counting <3333