The Dim Sum Book Tag

A huge thank you to the wonderful Stephanie over at Adventures of a Bibliophile for tagging me to do this post (and apologies for taking so long to get my act together and actually post it!).
I have been following Stephanie’s blog for a while, and I just love it. She has so many brilliant ideas for posts, and her writing style is so fluid and lovely – please go and check her out!

I love doing tags, they’re so much fun, and anything with food in the title has got me instantly hooked!

So, here are some rules to devour this tag:

• Thank the blogger who nominated you, linking back to their site.
• Devour dim sum and answer the tag questions.
• Tag five others to join your round table for some dim sum fun.
• Food coma.

Tea: 
A book that started off hot but quickly turned cold.

This would have to be Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. When I started reading this book I was part-way through my round the world trip, and travelling through Thailand, which should have been the perfect time in my life to read this. Although it started out promising, as it went on I got so fed up of Gilbert’s whiney, ungrateful attitude, and I found I couldn’t relate to her at all. In the end I gave up in disgust, and still haven’t finished it to this day.

Chiu Chow Dumpling:
A book that features elements of land and sea.

Although this book features rather more sea than land, I think Life of Pi by Yann Martel fits this description pretty well. I absolutely love this book, and even managed to grab a signed copy a few weeks ago when Yann Martel came in to my bookshop!

Rice Noodle Roll:
A favourite multilayered character you’ve read (i.e. Traits? Skills? Morally ambiguous?).

The most obvious character for this question would have to be Odysseus. Homer’s Odyssey was such an integral part of my studies at University, and as with most characters from Greek/Roman myth, they are anything but one-dimensional. Odysseus is described in literature as equal parts brave, heroic, clever, wily, deceptive and selfish. Odysseus is both the man who spent ten years desperately fighting his way home to his beloved wife, going to the depths of the underworld and back, and the man who spent seven of those years ‘imprisoned’ on a desert island with a beautiful goddess. (I mean, come on. Did Odysseus really try that hard to escape?)

Shrimp Dumpling:
A book with a transparent blurb that gives the story away.

I recently read The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge (which is amazing by the way, I definitely recommend it!), and I felt that the blurb for this book gave way too much away. The first major event the blurb describes doesn’t even happen until about halfway through the book, and the element of surprise the author seemed to have been going for is completely lost.

Steamed BBQ Pork Buns:
A book that is fluffy on the outside but packs a punch of flavour (e.g. Message? Depth? Controversy?).

The first book that sprang to mind for this one was The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. As a relatively short ‘coming of age’ YA novel about a young boy starting high school, I wasn’t expecting much. But this novel was surprisingly deep, insightful, and completely beautiful. I wish I’d read it when I was a teenager.

Chicken Feet:
A book with divided opinions.

Sadly (for me at least) the book I’ve found has the most divided opinions is also my favourite book of all time, The Secret History by Donna Tartt. It’s definitely a Marmite kind of book – some people absolutely adore it, and others find it overly pretentious and completely hate it.

Lotus-Wrapped Sticky Rice:
A book you’ve received/given that was nicely packaged.

This is a tricky one. As I’m such a bookworm and work in a bookshop (which comes with a handy 50% discount), most people don’t bother buying me books – they know that if I want to read something, I’ve probably already bought it. And although I’ve bought people books many times, they’re mostly paperbacks. This doesn’t count at all, but I do have my eye on a beautiful hardback Everyman special edition of Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series, so that’ll have to do as a future gift to myself!

Egg Custard Tart:
A book that uses simple ingredients and clichés but executes it perfectly.

When it comes to teenage romance novels, it is so easy to fall into the pit of cringey cliches, but Stephanie Perkins’ Lola and the Boy Next Door executes the requirements for this category beautifully. It manages to be fun, light-hearted and romantic without being just another trashy teenage book, which it easily could have been if Stephanie Perkins wasn’t such a great writer.

Mango Pudding with Evaporated Milk:
Any book recommendation and beverage/snack that’s a winning combination.

This is probably a bit too obvious, but I’ve never craved anything more than I craved chocolate truffles whilst reading Joanne Harris’ Chocolat. The descriptions of food are so intense in this novel, I was literally drooling the entire time I was reading it. And a glass of red wine wouldn’t go amiss here either.

Fried Sesame Balls:
A book cover with embossed text/design you just love to run your fingers over.

This one is hands down Stephen King’s Bazaar of Bad Dreams – the cover design is absolutely beautiful, I could just sit and stroke it all day.

Dim Sum Steam Cart:
The type of carrying bag you use to bring books around.

I always carry at least one book around with me in my everyday handbag, which changes according to just how much crap I feel the need to tote around with me. But if I’m carrying alot of books or my laptop too then I’ll be a good little worker bee and represent with my Hatchards cloth tote bag.

I really enjoyed this tag (although it made me seriously crave some Dim Sum!), and here are the lovely bloggers who I tag:

Brittany from Hey Keep Up

Summer from Xing Sings

Lisa from The Most Happy Me

Holly from hollypyt

Noor from The Book Miner

Have fun ladies!

x