The Boujee Book Tag

Okay it is supposed to be a BookTuber book tag but I liked the questions so HERE WE GO!

The Boujee Book(tuber) Tag is created by Olive on the channel abookolive. Do check her channel out. I haven’t done book tags in so long hope you guys enjoy!

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QUESTIONS

What is your average monthly budget for books?

To be honest I don’t have a monthly or even an annual budget for books and this can be disastrous in two ways. One is where I go absolutely bananas at book sales such as Big Bad Wolf Sale and just buy EVERYTHING I want to my hearts content then suffer the consequence for the next few months or I but no books at all and just borrow stuff from the library or at worst read ebooks I requested and was approved on from Netgalley.

What’s the most you’ve ever spent in a bookstore?

On my own money its about RM 200-ish. On my Mom’s money when I was a teen, its RM 500-ish.

Are you willing to pay full price for a brand new release, or will you wait until you have a coupon or there’s a sale?

This highly depends on two things.

1. How much do I want to read that book
2. My current budget and whether I am willing to forgo food for the month

The second reason is painful because books in Malaysia is crazy expensive especially if they’re not locally written books. Like I am not spending RM 50 on a 300 page book when I know for a fact I will finish that book in a day.

But most of the time I don’t really want to read books so much that I am willing to spend money on them anymore especially if they are a series. I just can’t imagine spending my hard earned money that way knowing I can just make myself read ebooks. I am not a huge ebook person but hey free books are free books and when you’re strapped for cash you will read anything you can have for free.

Although I must say if I REALLY want to read that book I will buy it. It’s just that recently books I have waited on to read and paid for with my wage which was earned through blood sweat and tears and then the book is a read I did not enjoy. You can say a part of me was traumatized and has since refused to buy new books unless I am ABSOLUTELY sure I will like it.

I am looking at you Cursed Child and fourth installment of Robert Gailbraith’s book of which I forgot its title

Would you rather buy one new book or several less expensive used copies?

This one is easy! SEVERAL LESS EXPENSIVE USED COPIES DUHHHHHH!

My shelf now are primarily made up of books I buy in used book sales unless I buy them at Big Bad Wolf book sales then yeah those are new but most of the time I just squirrel my way to the used books section and hopefully find one book I enjoy. The Asian in me is like why would I buy one book that cost RM 30 when I could buy 5 books for the same price??

What do you think is a reasonable price for a new hardback book? A paperback? An eBook?

Hmmm… difficult…

Hardback: RM 60 – RM 120

Paperback: RM 35 – RM 50

Ebook: RM 20 max

Hardback and paperback the prices I think should reflect on how thick they are and how beautiful the book cover is.

Is a signed book worth more to you? How about a first edition?

To be honest no. I don’t care. Unless I get to meet my fav historical romance authors in real life then DAMN STRAIGHT I’ll care but if not. Nah, I am pretty ambivalent over it.

What is your most valuable book (sentimental or actual value)?

My books are all only sentimental in value but my most valuable books are my Harry Potter series and also books gifted to me by friends or family members.

Will you pay more for a cover or edition you like better?

Definitely pay more for an edition I like better. I am already paying for this shit I might as well go all out and get the ones I like.

What physical characteristics does a good quality book have?

You know a book is from a good publishing company when everything just looks smooth. Like everything flows you know? From the fonts of the title that matches the color of the cover page. The coverpage art suits the genre of the book. I have no idea how to explain what is in my mind but basically you don’t get wonky fonts or models posing for the coverpage looking as still as a plywood board. Ya feel?

If you won the lottery, what bookish things would you do with the money?

I would buy books that I want basically. Its not exciting but I haven’t bought books that I wanted in a long time.

BONUS: Give us an image (actual or mental) of your dream home library!

This is how I want my reading space to be. With a huge ass window that can open wide, which obviously have safety stuff installed so I wont fall out of it but yeah basically.

Review: Dear Amy by Helen Callaghan

Goodreads

Okay just putting it out there that I also made a BookTube review on this book so if you want to check that out click the link!

Let’s start with the positives first so not everything is a bad vibe. When I first saw this book in the library I was really intrigued by it because the cover looked really nice and the premise looked promising.

Unfortunately, that is all the positive things I have to say for this book as for me it started to go downhill as I read past chapter 2.

I really did not enjoy this book mainly because the main character Margot Lewis is such a difficult character to get behind. She is just so unlikable it was really hard for me to empathize with her or even care about her as a character. Margot is written to be this neurotic, highly paranoid and highly strung individual and we don’t know why she is like this up until the very end and whilst this is a usual ploy used to create suspense but here in this book is just pissed me off because I can’t understand why she is acting this way and by the time I found out I couldn’t care less because Margot was akin to nails on a chalkboard for me.

I do not mind reading about characters who are mentally unstable or people who have anxiety or does overthink because Hello! I am like that too but there must be a reason. I wish the author had done a red herring which might explain to the readers why Margot is acting this way without truly revealing anything. Plus, doing it this way might have made the plot more entertaining to read which leads me to my second point…

The plot. The plot you read on Goodreads is basically everything you need to know and its nothing else making the book so dull and boring and its only 300ish pages but felt like I was reading a book three times its page count.

Last but not least was the romance. Dear Lord did the romance came out of bloody effin nowhere. I think the author did try to insert some instances of where you’re supposed to pick up that they’re going to be together but I as the reader didn’t catch up on it because I didn’t know why they would be into each other.

Like it was not explained in the book as to why they would have romantic feelings for each other. I thought they were just work buddies in this mission to UNCOVER THE TRUTH! Even from Margot’s perspective the only thing I got from her regarding her feelings for Martin was that he was hot and she felt safe with him. Why? She felt safe with him nobody knows.

Will I recommend this book? No I would not.

Will I read something written by this author? Yes, yes I would. I see snippets of brilliance, it just needs to be buffed a bit more.