The Guilty Reader Tag

On By reenchantmentoftheworldIn books, Ola, Piotrek, tag

Piotrek: Back in October we’ve been nominated for this tag by the illustrious Orangutan Librarian herself! A set of dangerous, exhibitionist questions designed to reveal our bookish sins. Lets see how sinful we are, then, within the limits of our honesty 😉

Ola: Mea culpa, mea culpa… I’m getting in the mood 😀

Have you ever re-gifted a book you’ve been given?

Piotrek: I wanted to start this survey with a resolute “NO”, but I think I actually did commit this sin, years ago. There was a book I had two copies of, as I first bought it myself and then received as a gift. I got invited to a birthday party on a very short notice, and did not arrange to buy a joint gift together with other friends, as we used to usually do those days. I gave this book, which was actually much more suited to my taste than the giftee… not a very proud moment. After that, I always either sold such books on Polish equivalent of eBay, or gave them away to strangers.

Ola: I remember I entertained that thought but ultimately didn’t. Said book, which I hate with a passion and know it would’ve been better received by someone else (Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Shadow of the Wind, for those interested) still burdens my shelves.

Have you ever said you’ve read a book when you haven’t?

Piotrek: Do high school lit classes count ;)? Because I’ve been an avid reader since the age of seven, but some of the stuff we’ve been told to read just failed to resonate with me. In one case I admit I was probably wrong and should go back to the book. In a few others – I’m unrepentant.

I don’t remember doing so in recent years. What would be the point?

Ola: Yes, you should revisit this book!!! It’s great, and shame on you! 😀

I don’t think I did… though I might’ve mixed up a comic or two and said I read one meaning the other, and realize that only after the fact.

Have you ever borrowed a book and not returned it?

Piotrek: Actually yes, I did. From an institution, long time ago (I was… perhaps 15 then? not sure). I still have it, an interesting nonfiction of negligible monetary value, and the institution doesn’t even exist any more. I’m a bit horrified and quite certain I was only capable of doing something like this because I really needed to read that book… vacations were coming to an end and I had to take it home!

Ola: Ummm… I still have one book of Piotrek’s 😀 Not telling which one, though! He’ll have to guess 😉

Piotrek: The one GoodReads shows you’re reading from the moment you joined that service?

Ola: You’ve got me! 😀

Have you ever read a series out of order?

Piotrek: I don’t think so, not to my knowledge. I’m actually pretty careful about such things.

Ola: Not intentionally, but I did. I read the first and then the third book of a trilogy, thinking the third is the second one – and I was so freaking impressed with the author for not spoon-feeding me the details and letting me puzzle out what happened in between. I really thought he improved that much over the first book…. Until I started reading what I thought was the conclusion 😀 It was The Millennium Series by Stieg Larsson.

Have you ever spoiled a book for someone?

Piotrek: Have I… probably? I try not to, and I don’t remember any drastic cases, but it’s possible someone has been nursing a grudge for years 😉

Ola: Oh my goodness, YES! A few very memorable times… One was the sixth Harry Potter; I was absolutely convinced our friends read it, and I asked them what they thought of Dumbledore’s death! And another time it was Martin’s Game of Thrones – though it wasn’t really me, we’ve been talking about book vs series differences and generally about wickedness of Martin with our friend and he blurted out that Jamie Lannister lost his hand without realizing my husband hadn’t read that part yet… The bad luck was that it happened right before we watched the next GoT episode with that scene in it, so my husband had never forgiven us for spoiling what would’ve been a memorable moment 😉

Have you ever dog-eared a book?

Piotrek: Never. That’s a grievous sin that should be punished ruthlessly. I have a lot of bookmarks, I use post-it notes, but I don’t mutilate books. I did some notes, in pencil, on some non-fiction tomes. Even that was in the past though.

Ola: No. Absolutely not. And I don’t write in books either, I shudder when I see that. When I take notes, I just open another file on my laptop, and write down quotes and notes in a file.

Have you ever told someone you don’t own a book when you do?

Piotrek: Definitely not. But many people are afraid to ask if they can borrow a book for me, anyway, as I’m known to take good care of them – and expecting the same from others. My sister is one person who count on my leniency and sometimes return books with (gasp!) visible marks. Heh… oh, and one of my nieces once jumped on a copy of Harry Potter I was reading to her older sister. I managed not to scream!

Ola: No. It never occured to me to do it. But I have a few books that were never returned to me, one of them with Pratchett’s signature. Now I kind of wish I had thought about that excuse then…

Have you ever skipped a chapter or a section of a book?

Piotrek: Oh yes. In non-fiction – quite often and I’m not ashamed, sometimes you’re just not interested in everything the books contains. In fiction… well, there are books with boooring, never-ending descriptions of nature (or overly long dialogues) you just have to skip to get to the real action… or so I thought as a young reader 😉

Recently, when listening to an audiobook, I sometimes speed the Audible up, my record being a 1.75 speed. When I’m bored but still want to know what happened. Or hope it will get better again. It usually doesn’t 😉

Ola: In non fiction, yes. Rarely, though, as I mostly read humanities and there usually an argument is being built throughout the whole book, so skipping parts is not helpful. I did DNF a few books, though, and don’t regret it 😀

Have you ever bad mouthed a book you actually liked?

Piotrek: I don’t recall, as politicians say in public hearings… I’m more likely to do the opposite. There are reviews I’d write differently now, and in much harsher tone. There are books I pretended to like to get a better grade (I cared about grades way too much at school). And sometimes I just don’t want to harm the feelings of someone I know liked a certain book very much.

Ola: Are you serious? Me? I bad-mouth only those books that deserve bad mouthing, and when that happens I do it proudly! But I praise great books with equal lavishness, so it all evens out 😀

Piotrek: Ok then. I don’t think we’re terrible human beings, or even sinful readers. Interesting TAG though, made me dig around in my conscience a bit 😉 I hesitate to nominate anyone, but if you read that and feel, well, tempted, to join, please do!

Ola: Tell us all about your little reading vices and sins… Your secrets are safe with us (or not!) 😉

48 thoughts on “The Guilty Reader Tag”

  1. Lol! I enjoyed reading this.
    Ola, I laughed at you and your friend spoiling GOT for your husband about Jaime losing his hand. Lol!
    And Piotrek, I’m with you about not dog-earring books. That’s such a crime. But I do highlight sentences and passages in my books, so you might consider that a major crime too lol!

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    1. Thanks, Zezee! 😀
      Oh my goodness, I remember this so vividly – especially the awkward silence afterwards! 🤣🤣🤣 (not to mention the episode itself, after which my husband just sighed heavily and shook his head)

      Would you be tempted to try this tag out? 😀

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    2. piotrek

      Thanks! Well, as I admitted I did use my pencil in the past, so it would be hypocritical 😉 Important thing is you don’t bend the pages 🙂

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  2. So, I’ve gathered that Piotrek’s basically a saint and Ola is… well, Ola. Of course, I’ve never done any of these things. Nope, of course not.

    Don’t be ridiculous 😅😂

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    2. Well, thank you very much, Will! 😛 I decided to consider this the highest compliment 😀

      This tag was actually a lot of fun. Would you like to give it a try? I’d dearly like to know what books have you spoiled and how it had ended for you! 😂

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  3. It’s a no one all of this, except at times skipping bits in non-fiction, and one assignment read for school I didn’t read. (Not the Magic Mountain btw, which I never pretended to have read. We had to, but it never came up.)

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  4. This was fun to read!
    And… For saying that I have read a book when it wasn’t true, I did it in school too. I always loved to read but that year the teacher said that we had to read a book by an author that I really don’t like because she didn’t had the time to explain him in class and this thing made me mad so I didn’t read the book. But I think that me and the teacher get even, because she didn’t read my paper on it either. I wrote that I didn’t like the reading time and again in that paper and she told me when she give that back to me: “you did a really good job here, it shows that you liked it!!” 😅

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    2. Thank you, Maddalena! 😀
      I do hope you’ll give this tag a chance – I found I love reading other people’s answers, especially when it comes to guilty pleasures and admissions of sin 🤣🤣🤣

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  6. I really like when you two collaborate on a post. It is just fun.

    I’ve seen this around enough times that I thought I had done it. But after looking through my “tag” tag, I don’t see it. I guess I’ll be trying this in January….

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    2. Thanks, Bookstooge! 😀
      It’s a lot of fun, indeed – I’m glad it’s so not only for us, but for you too 🙂

      Yes, this one’s been quite popular – I’ll be looking forward to your answers in Jan!

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  7. Good questions, and I’m glad both your responses are broadly in line with what mine would be. I’ll just address the first one, though: I have re-gifted a book that was gifted to me, though to be fair it was because I already had a copy, and in fact I passed on my own copy while retaining the gifted one! If it was something special (like a first edition hardback or a signed copy) I’d hesitate, however…

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  8. S.D. McKinley

    Would it make you guys cringe if you learned that I rip the last blank page out of a book to create a bookmark? 🤔

    Great read guys and gals. And hello to piotrek, which sadly, I haven’t interacted with much so far. Hello Ms. G.

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    1. piotrek

      I’ll… try to be open-minded. About the torn pages. Non-judgmental etc. 😉

      Thank you, and hi! I’ve been an occasional contributor lately, but I’ll try to do something about it… we’ll see how it goes 😉

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  9. S.D. McKinley

    Well, it’s busy to say the least. But it’s all good busy. It sure isn’t a good thing for my personal indevors. Then, I just realized after like 20 days that doing all physical books right now is actually slowing my reading down to a crawl. I forgot that my technology is already strapped to my hip, unlike a physical book. 😂 I’m going to hit up my friend to borrow Asher’s Gridlinked. I’m excited about that after finishing The Bosch. 😁

    How about yourself. Anything funny or exciting?

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    1. Ooh, Gridlinked – nice! 😀 I do use my Kindle a lot, but mostly for NetGalley titles; somehow reading a physical book gives me the tactile sensations that I associate with reading at 100%, totally focused, whereas screens (Kindle, smartphone) represent more of a convenience reading, when I have a few free minutes 😉 I did read some great books this way, but the pleasure of reading is smaller 😀

      Ah, waiting for Christmas break TBH. We’re hitting the road on Christmas Day and making a loop through most of the North Island, so this is going to be a lot of fun! 😀 Maybe I’ll even post some pictures to make y’all Northern Hemisphere guys warm and fuzzy 😉

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  10. buriedinprint

    I don’t think I’ve ever spoiled a book for someone. Years ago, I was about 300 pages into Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy, when someone told me who the suitable boy turned out to be. I’m still trying to forget. On the up-side, this and one another spoilery crime committed against me have made me very cautious about other people’s information levesl. *snorty laugh* It was such fun to read the interplay between you on this tag.

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    1. Oh, you’re a saint! I think I’d murder someone or at least stop talking to them for a while if they did that to me! Come to think of it, those friends from my Dumbledore slip don’t see us that often anymore… 😂😂😂 I never ever spoiled one intentionally, but I’m pretty sure my list of bookish infringements is even longer than what I mentioned here… 🤣

      Thank you, it was a lot of fun – now we’re keen to tackle another tag soon! 😀

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  13. How on earth did Shadow of the Wind make it on your hate list, Ola!!! I’ve only heard people rave about it my whole life. I honestly never saw a single person say something bad about it hahahaha

    When I was temporarily exploring audiobooks, I tested out 1.5x speed and I couldn’t grasp how some people listened to fiction that way… It was so unnatural that it kind of made me judge some people hahahah Shhh don’t tell. 😉

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    1. Oh my goodness, it’s purple prose of the worst kind, on par with Coelho’s Alchemist… I could write a lengthy treatise on why I despise it so much, starting with weak plot strongly reminiscent of South American soap operas, non-existent character development and frothing overabundance of descriptions but I can just sum it up in one word: horrible. 😝🤢

      Heh, I tend to listen to audiobooks only when traveling – I like them but in moderation, as I find they take much to most of my attention. I see that I could be tempted to speed it up a little, though, since my own silent reading is so much faster than audiobooks! 🤣

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  14. Haha, great tag. Me deface a book!! Never!!! Okay, you dragged it out of me, I have indeed dog eared pages, written on pages, even broke the spine (in my defence that book was bound so tight it was impossible to read). I also may have spilt certain beverages on the pages and okay, dropped a book in the bath before – there was no return from that I’m afraid. Okay – you got me – lock me up and throw away the key. I am a lost cause.
    Lynn 😀

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  15. Pingback: Guilty Reader Tag | Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road

  16. This was so entertaining to read!! 😀
    Yeah I’ve only ever claimed to have read a book I haven’t read in literature classes at uni where I was expected to finish books even if I hated them. haha it’s so easy to spoil GOT!! (ok I may be saying that cos I’ve accidentally done that a number of times! 😉 ) Sometimes people start talking about “that crazy wedding” and you don’t know which one they’re talking about for instance… Oof that’s rough about the signed pratchetts. I think it’s best not to lie… just been getting better at saying that I don’t lend books unless I’m happy not to get them back. That makes sense about non fic. And I really like to speed up audiobooks too (and even like to do that with a lot of Youtube videos as well).

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