Tag : The College Freshman Book Tag

Disclaimer: All pictures used are taken from the internet and belong to their rightful owners.

Hellooooo bookish people !!

This is a long due post. If you ever tag me on a post, drop me a comment or tweet or email or dm on Twitter or Instagram, informing me about it. Because I may not notice it otherwise (problem with following too many awesome blogs is that you can’t always read all posts). Also, I have something very exciting (at least for me) in store for next weekend 😁 !

Moving on, this tag was created by Dawlyn and Krista @ Little Blind Book Finds and I was tagged by the lovely Never Not Reading. On to the tag then.

Rules :

1. Give credit to the creator (done.)
2. Answer the questions to the best of your ability! You don’t have to be in college or have gone to college to answer these!
3. Tag three people to complete the tag.

The Roommate

Roommates can be a hit or miss experience freshman year, especially when you don’t get the opportunity to pick who you room with. Name a character you’d love to be roommates with and one you’d hate to be roommates with.

Character I’d love to be roommates with: Scout Finch !! I just relate so much with her, I feel I’d be able to get along very well with her and it would be fun.

Character I’d hate to be roommates with: Holden Caulfield (I know being a girl, there’s no chance of this happening, but hey ! this is after all, hypothetical). I think the reason is pretty obvious, I just can’t tolerate so much of whining over nothing !!

Orientation

Before your freshman year officially begins, you typically go to an orientation to familiarize yourself with the campus. Orientation can be both exciting and scary as you’re experiencing something new. Name a book that you read to experience a new genre, or to familiarize yourself with a topic you knew nothing about. Did you like the book? What did you learn from it?

For this, I chose “The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu”. It was the first book I read that was by a Japanese author. As for whether I liked it, I have mixed feelings about this book. The language was sure wonderful and I enjoyed the writing but it’s the story I have a problem with. It’s very difficult when you have to keep reminding yourself that it was written in the 11th century. This book made me so angry, there were times I wanted to just slam the book down and never pick it up again, but I got through it. I consider finishing this book my biggest  achievement as a reader. It just took a lot of patience and reminding myself of 11th century to get through this one.

Homesick

It is normal to experience homesickness at some point after moving away from home for the first time. Name a book from your childhood that you love so much that you sometimes miss, and may even find yourself rereading it often.

There are 2 books that I love and miss.

1. The famous five series. I loved it as a kid and I do miss them quite often, but all the books I’m yet to read stops me from re-reading them.
2. Peter Pan. I used to love this book, but unfortunately, I lost my copy of the book and need to buy a new one. This again keeps getting postponed because of other books.

Choosing A Major

Choosing a major is something every college student has to do at some point, but many students choose their freshman year. Hopefully your major is something you are passionate about. Name a book that you have read about a topic you are passionate about, or a character from a book that shares a similar passion as you.

A book about a topic I’m passionate about : To Kill A Mockingbird.

Character that shares a similar passion as me: Scout Finch (as already mentioned). Her love of books, her curiosity, her eagerness to learn and her sense of justice. Enough said !

Join The Club

Joining different clubs and groups can often be an exciting thing to jump into as a freshman for some, and nerve-wracking for others. Name a popular book or book series that you didn’t think you’d enjoy, but ended up loving.

Definitely, Lord Of The Rings.

I watched the movies first, never got through even one of them (movies) back then. I then borrowed it from a friend in school and found it too long (used to be too impatient, still am ! but now, I’m getting better at it).

Finally got down to reading The Hobbit and LOTR two years back and ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT !! I’m so glad I finally got around to it.

The All-Nighter

As a college freshman and a college student in general, all-nighters are pretty common. Name one book that was so good, you stayed up all night reading it.

This one will have to be “Absolute Power” by David Baldacci. I usually don’t stay up all night reading a book (yes ! I fight the urge and my mom helps by scolding me), but I reached a point in this book where everything I predicted, didn’t happen and I just HAD TO finish the book. I finally finished it at 4 in the morning. Basically, I went to sleep when my mom had just woken up !

The Night Before It’s Due

Speaking of those all-nighters, they usually have something to do with that assignment you put off until the last minute. Name a popular book or book series that you put off reading for way too long.

The Hunger Games. I’ve still not read it. In fact, I don’t think I ever will.

The Hangover

You may or may not have experienced a hangover… or 10 during your freshman year in college. Name a book that left you with a book hangover after you finished it.

The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd !! This was the FIRST EVER Agatha Christie book I read and it left me with a week long hangover. For a week, everyone I met heard me talk only of this book and I asked EVERYONE whether they’d read it. Like literally everyone !!! Even people I met for the first time.

On A Budget

Freshman year, you usually learn what it means to be a broke college student. Name a book that you remember buying even though you were tight on cash, because you just had to have it.

Volume 1 of The Complete Peanuts. This contained the Peanuts Comic strips from 1950-1952. I actually want to buy the whole series. If only I had enough money 😐😟 . If anyone feels extremely generous and wants to send a bookworm like me a gift, you know what to get ! 😜😝😁

English 101

General ed courses are typically all you take freshman year, and English is usually one of them. (Depending on the prof that could be a good thing 😉 ) Name a required reading book that you loved. (it can be middle/high school or college)

I live in India, where we have many educational boards. There’s a central board, an international board and every state has its own educational board. The schools under the international board, probably had “required reading”. But most schools don’t.

In short, we never had any required reading in English. However, there was “Buddha Charithra”, “Mahabharatha” and “Ramayana” in Hindi, and I love all 3 of them.

The Textbook

Part of being a broke college student is trying to find the cheapest way to buy a textbook. To make it worse, some freshman gen ed courses end up having no use for the book at all. Name a book that you spent money on and ended up not liking.

Catcher In the Rye. It was highly recommended by a lot of people and my expectations from it were pretty high. But, I HATED IT. I rather not rant about it.

Office Hours

All professors have office hours, and often times students don’t take advantage of them. Advice for freshman: go to office hours! It is a good idea to get to know your professors. Making connections with them can lead to great tips on assignments, internship opportunities, and job connections. Name a book (autobiography or biography) that you read to get to know more about someone you are interested in.

Wings of Fire: An Autobiography by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. For those of you who don’t know, Mr. Kalam was a teacher, a scientist and India’s 11th President and the most loved, too. He was called “the people’s president”, and rightly so !

In this book, he examines “his early life, effort, hardship, luck and chance that eventually led him to lead Indian space research, nuclear and missile programs” (source: wikipedia). 

I have in fact, read all of the books written by him.

The Mean Professor

There’s always that one professor that no one likes, especially in freshman gen ed courses. Name a villain or any character you disliked, that you would hate to have as a professor.

Anyone who has read the Harry Potter series, cannot possibly name anyone apart from Dolores Umbridge for this question.

Drop The Class

Sometimes It gets to the midpoint of the semester and you can’t take any more of a particular class, and decide to drop it. Name a book or author you thought you’d enjoy reading but ended up not liking.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. It was an interesting concept and I loved the use of those photos, but I just didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Perhaps if I had read it when I was a teenager, I might’ve liked it.

Life Lessons

I learned so many life lessons my freshman year of college. The experience made me learn so much about myself that I didn’t realize. Name a book that has made you reflect on life.

I think I’ve learnt life lessons from every book I’ve read. But, of the ones I’ve read recently (a month back), I would say Isaac Asimov’s short story named “The Last Question“.

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Okay, Phew !! That took a long time and some thinking and browsing through goodreads, but it was fun ! Now, it’s time to tag !!! I tag –

Rakel from  MIRAKELBOOKS

The Orangutan Librarian

Michelle from Sherbet Lemon Reviews

Melissa from The Bookish Wanderer

and anyone else who wants to do this tag !!

Have a good weekend everyone !!

-Vrinda.