15 Day Book Blogger Challenge (Day 1)

Good Books and Good Wine is hosting a book blogger challenge over at her blog to help get things moving with her posts, and I figure that it will do the same for mine! Challenges like this combine two of my favorite things: talking about books and talking about me reading books, so let's get started!

Day 1: Make 15 book related confessions

1) I'm really distressed that I've found so few fantasy/ sci-fi YA books with non-straight/ gender non-conforming main characters (recommend some in the comments!)

2) I've been trying to read more non-fiction about Christianity in the United States (Check out my review of The Unlikely Disciple!) because I find it so fascinating.

3) I wish that more authors valued the friendship between men and women as they did the potential for romance. Not everything has to end in a kiss.

4) I've been seriously considering getting an Artemis Fowl tattoo for over a year now (a small acorn, on the back of my neck.)

5) I'm a Darwinist (Leviathan series, by Scott Westerfeld)

6) I read The Hobbit because I loved the line "You'll have a tale or two to tell when you come back," from the movie trailer. It isn't in the book.

7) I've never read a Harry Potter book. I started the first one a few weeks ago when babysitting and hope to finish it this summer.

8) My favorite book in first grade was Christmas in Camelot by Mary Pope Osborne. I still have my copy.

9) I think that there's a serious problem with the glorification of abusive relationships in young adult fiction today.

10) I've only read one Sherlock Holmes story, the first, and don't really like him in general

11) The last book that I purchased was the second volume of Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated by Fiona Staples. It's one of only a very, very small handful of books that I'll purchase this year

12) My library card was registered on July 7, 1999. I was five and a half years old.

13) I have over 31 items out of various libraries now, all books (and one magazine) piled in a crate next to my bed.

14) My greatest book "success" is the Skulduggery Pleasant series. Someone mentioned it on the Figment boards and I added it to my Goodreads list. A month or so later I looked up some YA books to listen to while I worked and it was one of four random ones that popped up. I downloaded it and two days later it was one of the best books I've read/ listened to. I spent the next four months reading all six that were out at the time, buying them from Europe because they never caught on in the United States.

15) I had to read Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad last semester and wrote a paper about how I believe that the jungle itself is sentient and should be regarded as a character.

And... that's all I've got! Hopefully you guys learned some new things about me with this list and you'll keep learning more about me as this challenge goes on!