Who Am I Book Tag | The Great American Read by PBS

I found this tag over on Meltotheany (she says it was started by PBS Digital Studios, although I cannot find a source to link) and it celebrates PBS’ The Great American Read. If you are not familiar with this series, here is a little snippet from the About page (which you can read in its entirety here):

THE GREAT AMERICAN READ is an eight-part series that explores and celebrates the power of reading, told through the prism of America’s 100 best-loved novels (as chosen in a national survey)*.  It investigates how and why writers create their fictional worlds, how we as readers are affected by these stories, and what these 100 different books have to say about our diverse nation and our shared human experience.

To choose America’s #1 best-loved novel, PBS has opened up voting on their website, on social media, and through SMS; [if you are in the US] you can vote for your favorite book every day, and you can vote for as many books each day as you would like. I watched the launch special back in May and it was excellent – the next installment premieres on September 11th so if you are in the US and/or can stream PBS I would highly recommend tuning in. Learn more about voting and streaming here, and before I continue on this tangent, let’s get into the tag.

If your life was a book genre, what would it be?

I suppose Adventure? Although I’d like it to be Fantasy or Magical Realism.

What villain from a book do you identify with the most?

I have such a hard time with questions like this because I don’t often think about how or if I identify with characters in books. However, I want to play along, so I’m going to cheat a little bit – which is sort of characteristic of the “villain” I’m about to choose – and say I identify with Gretel from the Grimm’s Fairy Tale “Clever Gretel.” Leaving contemptuous individuals in the dust / turning them against each other to achieve the upper hand, success, and happiness (remember, I’m answering this by way of my interpretation, not yours)? No problem.

What protagonist are you most similar to?

Echoing the sentiment above, I feel inclined to mention a female character, and one that I know very well: Ramona Quimby. Is it strange for someone in their mid-twenties to still feel similar to a child character? Oh well; I still do.

Which book did you connect with in the past that you no longer do?

Ruby Holler by Sharon Creech. This book really spoke to me when I read it as a pre-teen, although my life was starkly different than the protagonists’, Florida and Dallas. So while I still love the plot and the characters (I recently re-read it), I don’t feel as connected to the story.

What recent book that you read would you love to be a character in?

I would agree with Meltotheany that Spinning Silver  by Naomi Novik would be a great book to insert myself into as a character, but I’ll also say Witches of East End by Melissa de la Cruz and The Unexpected Inlander by Kellyn Thompson.

How do your reading habits show off your personality?

Well, after reading a book I like to take a while to really reflect upon it, and that is part of my overall personality (I’m not good at debating or expressing myself on the fly). I also like picking up multiple books at once, which is a reflection of my tendency to be a bit scatterbrained. Finally, I love re-reading books, which is a result of my nostalgic soul and obsession with my personal comforts.

What book taught you something about yourself?

Of course there are many, but most recently I learned how much I’ve changed in the past five or so years. I know that I have changed, but the degree of change was not quite obvious until I re-read Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. Understanding and empathizing with a character who felt completely foreign to me during my first read of the book still has me in awe.

There you have it – a little about who I am. If you are reading this, consider yourself tagged! And be sure to check out The Great American Read before voting closes on October 18th.