To celebrate this special day, which happens every August 9, I’m going to share my bookish history and life with you in the form of these 50 themed questions all about books and reading (source).

1. What’s the first book you ever remember reading?

The first book I ever remember reading parts of by myself were from Mortimer the Frog. We had to read it in school in first grade as a class together but also with silent reading.

2. Did someone read to you when you were a child?

I know my parents read to me but I have no memory of it. The earliest memory I have of someone reading to me is when Mom and Dad took us to the library in Flushing, Queens and the librarian read to a giant group of us the book Caps for Sale.

3. Who’s your all-time favorite book character?

It’s a toss up between Josephine March (Little Women) or Jane Eyre (Jane Eyre).

4. Who’s your favorite author of all time? Your favorite book by them?

I don’t have an all-time favorite author because I read new authors all the time, but I have a formative author who changed my life, and that’s Juliet Marillier. And the book: Daughter of the Forest.

5. Has a book ever changed your life?

Yes! Daughter of the Forest made me want to write novels. The Reformatory has stayed with me ever since I read it. And Ghosts of the Tsunami has forever changed what I feel about spiritual things, and what I know of Japan.

6. What genres do you love?

Fantasy (all ages, but predominantly YA), horror, comics, manga, webtoons, and BL.

7. Are there any genres you dislike?

I do not like alternative history books that imagine Hitler winning WWII or The South winning the Civil War.

8. What author (who is still living) would you dearly love to meet?

I want to meet Margaret Rogerson. I’ve loved her YA fantasies, especially Sorcery of Thorns, and I heard she’s from Cincinnati. I’m in Ohio, too! It would be a bit of a drive, but I would be willing to meet her at a bookstore just to chat.

9. Have you ever met a (famous or semi-famous) author face to face? Where?

David Morrell was the guest speaker at my first writers’ residency at Seton Hill University. I was sitting in the second row in a bright red shirt and listening intently to everything he had to say. What made it special was during his break, he walked right up to me and started talking to me out of nowhere. I’ll always remember him describing a loose idea as a “ferret.”

10. Do you prefer paperbacks or eBooks? Why?

This is really hard. I’m a fan of trade paperbacks because they are high quality and can have great design elements like hardcovers, but are cheaper…but eBooks can be really inexpensive. My Kindle has completely changed how I read. Manga eBooks dominate, but if there’s a book that rewired my DNA just from reading, I’ll buy a hard copy of it and call it a keeper. Otherwise all of my reading gets screened through the Kindle. It’s just easier for me to amass large quantities of books for prices like $1.99 (I don’t purchase until something goes on sale unless I can’t wait to read something very badly).

11. Have you ever read a self-published book?

It’s hard for me to tell. First of all, times have changed and you cannot always eyeball a book and say, “someone did that themselves” because self-publishing competes with traditional publishing and they’ve become practically indistinguishable from each other in terms of quality. Also, lots of people hear “indie published” and think “self-published” when that’s not the accurate term. I’m indie-published (as in, my publisher is a small independent press) but I am not self-published. However, people use “indie” and “self” so interchangeably that it makes it hard to tell what’s what. Additionally, more self-publishers are forming their own publishing imprints so they don’t have to list their author name as the publisher, once again making it hard to tell if a publishing company or author published it.

I think I’ve read self-published books, though. If I’m right, here are some of the best: The Faerie Hounds of York by Arden Powell, Prince of the Sorrows by Kellen Graves, and Oak King Holly King by Sebastian Nothwell. Yes, all those books I just listed deal with the fae, and they are all m/m and queer romances. I have great taste.

12. What book or series do you hope and pray will be turned into a movie or TV show one day?

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due. This is a perfect novel so asking it to be filmed in some capacity could actually be a bad idea, as there’s a long history of movies and TV not getting its source material right. But my experience while reading it could only be described as cinematic. A movie (even a soundtrack!) played in my head as I read the words. Things got so tense sometimes I had to “pause” the book and recoup. The book was alive to me. I think if Ryan Coogler was given any budget he wanted and turned The Reformatory into an 8 or 10-episode series with hour-long episodes, he’d be the one to pull it off.

13. Do you think there are any movie adaptations out there that were actually better than the original?

Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy of films is excellent and stand the test of time. While J.R.R. Tolkien’s writing and imagination is breathtaking, he is a challenge to read, and the movies make Middle Earth more palatable and immersive, in my opinion.

14. Has a book you like ever been turned into a movie or TV series that you hated?

I can’t think of any! I can only think of bad books and bad movies! There is a phenomenally popular YA series that I never cared for that got a movie adaptation that was so terrible I had to stop it about fifteen minutes in (it has a 13% rating on Rotten Tomatoes). It later got a TV show that supposedly redeemed it but I won’t watch it because it still looks bad.

15. What’s more important to you: prose or story?

Story. Beautiful writing can’t save flat characters or a nonexistent plot.

16. What attracts you to a book? The cover? Blurb? Recommendation from others?

The very first thing that catches my eye is the cover, as the cover is the most important thing. If it interests me, then I’ll flip over to the back cover and read the blurb. If the blurb is good, then I add the book to my Wishlist to buy when the price drops to 1.99 on eBook or so. If the book is beautiful and has sprayed pages and exclusive bonuses, I’m more tempted to buy a hardcover, but only after extensive research. I almost blew money on a hardcover that had exclusive designs and sprayed edges, only to find out it was a Dramione fanfic (Harry Potter romantic pairing between Hermione and Draco) after looking up more about it. Bullet dodged.

17. Have you read any of the old classics? What did you think of them?

Once I started school, what we primarily studied were old classics with the very occasional contemporary fiction plopped in. I like the classics but sometimes it takes some heavy concentration to wrap my mind around the prose, especially if it’s much older. Some of my favorite classics are Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, Jane Eyre, Dante’s Inferno, Beowulf, and of course, multiple works by Shakespeare, with my favorites being Macbeth and Julius Caesar. I tend to like very old works despite how difficult they can sometimes be to read.

18. Has a book ever scared you or given you nightmares?

I read Stephen King novels starting at age 12 and they scared the crap out of me. The ones that really bothered me in terms of imagery were The Shining, IT, and Desperation. The book that has lived inside my head and still creeps me out is Ghosts of the Tsunami by Richard Lloyd Parry. It made me cry, made me scared, and made me angry. It’s one of the greatest nonfiction works I’ve ever read.

19. Are there any books that are really popular but you dislike?

Yes. I’m not going to name them because so many people love them but I also don’t want to shoot down my fellow authors. These books were hyper-successful and must be doing something right for them to be so thoroughly adored, despite my issues with them.

20. Are there any books that are considered terrible but are your secret pleasure?

I’ll just take a moment here to get on a soap box for a second. I read BL religiously and love almost everything I read. I regularly rate BL four and five stars, even if they are problematic, because if they entertained me, looked beautiful, and kept my interest, that’s at least a 4 star. I always experience cognitive dissonance when I go to Goodreads, select a 4 or 5, and the cumulative score for the BL manga is like a 2.693. What?!? Do I have bad taste or something? I didn’t think so….I just love beautiful men!

21. What’s your favorite book cover?

I think author Judy I. Lin‘s books have some of the best, most beautiful covers around. My favorite is for her book Song of the Six Realms.

22. Do you prefer old books or new ones?

I prefer new books. I think cover designs keep getting more and more beautiful over the years and even the “old” books have been getting great new cover designs. So for aesthetic purposes, I’m going with new. Plus, I want them to be in good shape.

23. What was your favorite book when you were a child?

A tie between Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and Bad News Ballet.

24. How many books do you read a month?

Well, according to my performance last year, I read about 20 books a month. This year I’ve been in quite the slump and I can usually only read around 4 or 5. Time to read tons of manga to catch up!

25. Would you like more time to read books?

Yes, but I would like even more time to write them.

26. Do you like to write reviews on Amazon or Goodreads?

Ever since I became an author and realized my fellow authors are in truth my colleagues, it never felt right to pump out full book reviews anymore. When I was in graduate school I had to review books on my blog for everyone to see, and the authors did find them–both the nice ones, and the nasty ones. When I put myself in their shoes, and realized the world of publishing was a small one, I did a realignment of the self and made some rules: don’t write book reviews anymore; ratings are ok to share, but do not publish any ratings below three stars. I follow the rules of this colorful idiom: don’t shit where you eat. I’m basically trying to hold back on negativity, and if there’s anything bad that needs to be said, I keep the author or book anonymous.

This credo is a bit harder to follow when you’re an actual reviewer for a place like The Beat. I love reviewing anime and manga for them. And I’m an honest reviewer. I’ve shared when things haven’t quite worked for me, but I do so with tact (at least, I think I do, and I have a great editor who also keeps an eye on my stuff). But I will never come right out and say something like, “this was terrible, don’t read it.” Instead I’ll say something like, “due to x, this might not work for readers who are into y.” I police myself far more on my own blog and on Goodreads and Amazon (where I rate, not review)…but when you’re reviewing for the public professionally, you’ve got to be a bit more forthcoming, in my opinion. Plus, I am a fan of anime and manga, but they are not my profession, so I figure I’m not stepping on toes when I review outside my field.

27. In general, do you think books are better or worse now than they used to be?

I like to be optimistic and believe that things improve over the course of time instead of worsen (though I know there are real-life examples of this not being the case). It’s just that, the more I read, the more I like reading. And I wouldn’t like reading if the books were worse. I think every era has awful books and excellent books. I’m just glad that I live in an era where BL manga is widely available.

28. Where do you usually discover new books? Physical bookstores? Online? Social media?

I usually find books through author newsletters, Barnes and Noble and Amazon newsletters, Goodreads, and social media.

29. Have you ever joined a book club?

No. I’m not good enough to manage my time, and I’m a mood reader, too, so I might mentally check out if I’m not into the book club choice. …Actually, now that I think about it, I did take an English elective called BOOK CLUB where we read books in class and discussed them, and they were more contemporary works. That was an enjoyable class.

30. Where do you like to read? At home on the couch? On the train? In bed?

I predominantly like to read in bed because I get cold easily and want to be under the covers, and it’s super comfortable there. But there is a special spot on the couch in the living room I will sat at for reading if I feel like being out and about.

31. What deceased author would you have liked to meet?

Louisa May Alcott.

32. Think about your favorite genre. To you, which author is the master of that genre?

While I would say that Tolkien is considered the master of fantasy, I’m more of a YA fantasy girl, and I would say that Holly Black is one of the masters of the genre. Her YA is consistently good and she has one of my favorite interpretations of the world of Faerie.

33. Do you judge a book by its cover? Would a shoddy cover put you off?

Unfortunately, if the cover is bad, I won’t read the book. Instead, I’ll feel sorry for the author and wonder if that was the best thing they or their publisher could afford, and hope for the best for them.

34. Do certain tropes attract you? For example, orphans, love triangles, anti-heroes?

Most tropes I know come from fanfiction or romance, and the only one that sets my heart aflutter is the Only One Bed trope. It only works if both parties are attracted to each other but haven’t vocalized it yet, so there’s a lot of tension there–should they cuddle? (Cuddling is the best, by the way).

35. Are there any books you haven’t been able to finish? Why not?

I’ve DNF’d lots of books. I used to keep track of them in a document on my phone but decided to stop, because I’m never going to share the name of the book I’ve dropped publicly. Most of the time I’ll DNF if I can’t stand the narrative voice. That’s one of the first things to take me out of a book. For example, I was so excited to read a series about a knight who haunted a castle, and the medium who falls for him…but the first thing she does is call him a “hottie.” Nope. I’m out.

36. What are some of your favorite quotes or scenes from a book?

“It is a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest I go to than I have ever known.” — A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

“I am no bird, and no net ensnares me.” — Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

37. Did you read books in school? Can you remember which ones?

Yes, and I have listed quite a few of them already!

38. Are there any books you could read over and over again and never get bored of?

I could probably reread Ghosts of the Tsunami, as heart-wrenching as that book is, but in general, I don’t reread books. I have reread comics though. I reread the second side story to Sadistic Beauty (the one with Byun Minho and Woongyung Cha) like 900 times because I thought it was hot, but it also had my emotions all twisted up. What a devastating, unhealthy couple. They are both so messed up but I really want them to be happy with each other.

39. What’s the last book you read?

The last book I finished as of writing this is Pink Heart Jam Beat Volume 1 by SHIKKE — which of course, is a BL. It’s the sequel to Pink Heart Jam. I gave it five stars. An unbelievably sweet romance.

40. What’s the last book you bought? Did you buy it online or at a store? eBook or paperback?

The last book I bought was last night through Kindle and it was volume 2 of the Shonen manga The Teen Exorcist. I had just finished volume 1 and needed more, stat! The story is beautifully illustrated and follows the thirteen-year-old grandson of the great onmyoji and exorcist Abe no Seimei, named Masahiro. He has a lot of Edward Elric energy to him, which I like, and the story features yokai, spirits, curses, and mythic beings from China, too. Set in the Heian era, the manga has little moments in between the story where it gives you some historical background so you feel more immersed in the period…it’s a gorgeous, emotional, action-packed series. I rated both volumes 1 & 2 last night on Goodreads and they just aren’t getting the scores I feel the series deserves. Sigh. I’ll keep reading this digitally but I may start collecting hard copies of the manga, which I rarely do. I really like what I’ve read so far.

41. Do you like to display your books on a bookshelf or keep them in a virtual library?

I do both! My bookcases in my bedroom and downstairs in the family room are arranged a certain way (by theme) and are decorated with figurines from anime and comics. One bookcase is entirely devoted to special editions (though that’s slowly being organized and put together). But I want to actually keep track of my physical books, so I use Libib to document everything. I’ve used this app for years–it’s how I kept track of all of my book purchases in Japan before coming back to the USA. And once I got back here, I made one for the physical books I own as well as my media collection (movies, anime, TV, etc.). I was finally able to add my Japanese books to my Libib, but I am unable to add all the doujinshi (fan comics) because they aren’t published with ISBNs or anything like that. I own over 400 physical books excluding the doujinshi I bought in Ikebukuro.

42. Do you prefer flash fiction, short stories, novellas, or novels?

I don’t really read flash fiction but I do enjoy reading short story collections, novellas, and full novels…I tend to like things to be on the shorter side. I very rarely read books over 350 pages…they have to be really, really good for me to push myself to read that much.

43. What book can you recommend to me?

If you want one of the best romances of all time, read every single volume of Heaven Official’s Blessing by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. It’s not just a romance–it’s action, adventure, myth, ghosts, demons, mystery…it’s so good. I’m still only halfway through the series but I love it so much. I want to write like MXTX.

44. When did you last visit a library?

The last time I physically visited a library was in August or September 2022 when I was reinstating my local library card after moving back to the States from Japan. I think my city has a beautiful library but I’ve just been too lazy to go there. Since I prefer eBooks I can use Libby, but I often forget that’s an option.

45. Have you ever had a crush on a book character?

Yes. Hua Cheng, Xie Lian, Nathaniel Thorn, Cardan Greenbriar (yeah, I know, he’s like really toxic), and many of the men in the BL manga and webtoons/manhwa I read.

46. Has a book ever made you laugh out loud?

Books make me smile, but I’ve never laughed. I almost laughed out loud at my own book, Son of the Siren, when I finished writing Kitra’s song at the fire. I wanted it to be a naughty little ditty, and succeeded.

47. Has a book ever made you cry?

I’m so embarrassed to admit that when I read The Fault in Our Stars the first time, I bawled like a baby. I had a much more somber cry with Ghosts of the Tsunami.

48. Are you generally good at guessing twists or being able to see what’s coming? Have any stories genuinely shocked you?

I’m all over the place about this. Sometimes I like to try to guess. Sometimes I don’t want to know. Sometimes I like being right, and sometimes it makes me mad. Some horror and true crime books have shocked me. True crime tends to shock me more. I’d recommend Columbine and People Who Eat Darkness.

49. What’s your favorite drink, snack, or beverage to have beside you while you’re reading?

If I’m in bed, I don’t have snacks or drinks with me because I don’t want to spill anything. If I’m sitting in my little spot on the couch, I’ll probably have zero calorie (or full calorie) soda next to me.

50. What book will you read next?

I just started reading Naomi Watt’s Dare I Say It this morning because I recently turned 42 and the clock is ticking towards menopause…I’m 26% in the book as of today and while it is meant to be a comfort, it’s actually kind of making me worry about the future, so I may discontinue it. But I like the writing and voice and honesty of the book…maybe I’ll come back to it later.