Since people seemed to like my Taylor Swift Book Tag, I searched the internet for another one so that I wouldn’t solely talk about TV shows on here. Believe me, I could talk about them 24/7, but it surely doesn’t hurt to change things up every now and then. That’s why I decided on doing the Opposite Book Tag!

So, the tag is very simple. You have to find books on your shelf for a number of opposing examples. Let’s get started! (And excuse the mediocre photos. I couldn’t find all of the books on the interwebs, so I photographed them myself.)

First book in your collection/Last book you bought

Hmmm … my first book was probably some sort of picture book, but I have no clue which one, so I’ll go with the first English language book in my collection: I speak English! In many ways I believe that book played a huge role in my ever growing affection for this particular language. And the last book I bought was Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. Over the holidays, I fell in love with the TV show and couldn’t bear waiting until April to dive back into the world, so I ordered it with the TV cover.

A cheap book/An expensive book

I got myself a French copy of the Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry at a flee market and it cost me like 2 Euros, so that definitely counts as cheap. Finding a really expensive book is difficult though, since I’m always looking for a way to find the cheapest possibility. If you buy as many books as I do, then you just really have to. I suppose my most expensive book is the complete the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, which cost about 35 Euros and is now used to store my autographs of Ben Barnes and Skandar Keynes.

A book with a male protagonist/One with a female protagonist

Phew, this is for once a little easier category since I can choose almost any random book I own. Female protagonists most likely prevail in my collection, but I do have books from male perspectives as well. So I choose Bitten by Kelley Armstrong for the female protagonist (click on the title to find out more about the book) and Paper Towns by John Green for the male protagonist. No particular reason for that one, just the first one I saw on my shelf.

A book you read fast/One that took you long to read

I flew through We Were Liars by E. Lockhart! It was such an easy and unexpectedly gripping read that I could barely stop and was truly sad when it was over. Das Buch (which translates as The Book) by Wolfgang and Heike Hohlbein on the other hand took me forever. It’s not that I didn’t like it though. As of today, it is still one of the most memorable books I’ve ever read, but it took me months to get through it.

Pretty cover/Ugly cover

I love pretty covers and I get really mad when a series doesn’t match, so I am definitely one of those people who judges a book by its cover. And I doubt that I actually own a really ugly cover, just maybe boring ones. Okay, I own one ugly one, but I need it for a later category and I want to avoid using books twice. So for the pretty cover I choose Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews, because I like the use of colour and the style of the cover in general. And for the ugly one, I’ll go with Colorado Kid by Stephen King, because it’s just nothing interesting.

A national book/An international book

So for all of you who didn’t know, I am from Vienna, Austria and the book I am choosing is called Gut gegen Nordwind (Love Virtually) by Daniel Glattauer, who – big surprise – is Austrian. I love that book so much! It’s comprised of E-Mails between two strangers, click on the English title to read more about it! Again, I can now pick a random book from my shelf (my English language books outweigh my German ones by far). I’ll go with Where Rainbows End (aka Love, Rosie) by Cecelia Ahern, just because the content of the book is so similar to the one of Love Virtually.

A thin book/A thick book

So, this “book” (I’m not sure it really deserves the name) would have been my choice for ugliest cover, but I needed it for thinnest book. The Greatest Man in the World by James Thurber was an impulsive buy, because I desperately wanted to read the Secret Life of Walter Mitty after watching the movie and it’s combined with the Greatest Man. I was really disappointed when I got it in the mail though. I’m not sure the Host by Stephenie Meyer is really my thickest volume, but the German version has something shy of 865 pages, so I’d say it’s amongst the largest books I have.

Fiction book/Non-fiction book

This is such a vague category. I’ll go with My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick for fiction and Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (and other concerns) by Mindy Kaling for non-fiction, just because they are some of my most recent reads.

Very (way too) romantic book/Action book

I have a large Nicholas Sparks collection, so this one is easy. The Best of Me was the last movie adaptation so I’ll take that for romance and The Maze Runner Series by James Dashner for action. That counts right?

A book that made you happy/One that made you sad

Having books in general makes me pretty happy … okay, I’ll try to take this serious. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. A Good Year by Peter Mayle just gives me a warm and fuzzy happy feeling inside and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak just really gets to me in a more sad way.

Sorry this got longer than I thought. I hope you still enjoyed this little insight in my reading habits and if you want to do it too, consider yourself tagged! If you want to discuss any of the books or have more questions, I am more than happy to talk in the comments!