Category: Discussions

Library Dreams

Posted October 15, 2015 / Discussions, Features / 13 Comments
Library Dreams

Chris and I have been looking into houses, because frankly we have too much shit for our one-bedroom apartment. We both have major hobbies that take up LOTS of space – Lego and reading. We’ve talked about looking into 2 or 3 bedroom houses (hopefully with a finished basement) so I can have a library and he can have a Lego studio. Maybe these are pipe dreams, but we’re certainly looking! We have zero plans for children in the future, so we’re going to let ourselves do whatever we want with our extra rooms!I love Amy’s Nookish posts and have been adding bookshelf pictures to my Pinterest for as long as I can remember. I love planning what I want my library to look like in my nonexistent house, so here are some ideas I’ve been pining over. [Images from Pinterest and/or link to stores] Built-in bookshelves My dad is a great DIY person and has a huge built-in wall of shelving for his CD collection (#dads, amrite?). I plan to have him deck out the walls with built-ins, so I don’t have to worry about buying and assembling a million shelves. I would love to have them around at least three out of the four walls. I know my dad would take care of this for me, so it feels like a pretty achievable goal for this room! I may leave one wall empty (above the bed – more on that in a second) because I’d like to have a […]

Fate, Destiny, and Choices – Parallel Life Books

Posted September 24, 2015 / Discussions, Features / 11 Comments
Fate, Destiny, and Choices – Parallel Life Books

I think I’ve talked about this in so many reviews that it’s finally time to bring this topic to its own discussion post. I’ve also touched on it quite a bit during my read-bait series (that will be revived again, I promise) and as a guest post for Andi during Parallel Time Loop. It’s a topic that I think about A LOT and, as a result, love reading books about. I’m going to talk a bit about what guides us through life: fate or choices. Are we destined to reach the same final destination in life, regardless of the decisions we make? Or does each and every choice impact us in some way, where one decision changes everything? I’m not sure we’ll ever know the real answer to this, but some books I’ve read within the past couple of years definitely bring it up in different and interesting ways. I’ll share what piqued my interest in this topic, my thoughts on it, and then some books that deal with it.I think I should preface this conversation with the fact that I am not religious at all. When I sit here talking (uh, typing) about fate and choices and all that jazz, I’m not implying in any way that I think God is the mastermind behind all of it. I’m thinking more along the lines of some grander plan out there. I don’t know what or who or anything… just something bigger than us. I just wanted to clarify that first because I think usually […]

How Do You Buy Books? Update!

Posted August 20, 2015 / Discussions, Features / 20 Comments
How Do You Buy Books? Update!

A long time ago I posted about buying books: my habits, my decision-making process, and why book-buying is hard. In a world where there are multiple formats and locations for purchasing and owning books, how do you decide what to buy and when? I had developed this nifty little chart that showed exactly when and why I’d buy a book in a certain format. My, how things change in less than a year! I’m here today to give you an update on my book-buying habits and how they’ve changed.I would buy a Kindle book if I owned the rest of the series as eBooks, if the Kindle copy was really cheap, or if I didn’t have an audiobook credit at the moment. The biggest reason would be if I just had to have the book RIGHT THEN. Now, some of the same things are true. I’ll buy a Kindle book if I own the rest of the series as e-books. This is definitely true for the Pretty Little Liars and Rusk University series. I already own the beginning books as e-books, why change that?  Otherwise, the only actual time I’ll buy a Kindle book is if there’s a big ass deal going on and I need it. I really don’t feel the need to buy Kindle books anymore! I read mostly eARCs on there at this point. I’m more than happy to accept Kindle books as gifts, but I don’t go out of my way to buy them. I think […]

Review Writing: How to Stop Hating It

Posted August 14, 2015 / Discussions, Features / 43 Comments
Review Writing: How to Stop Hating It

There has been a lot of chatter in the blogosphere about review-writing and how much pretty much everyone hates having to do it. It’s a chore and a daunting task. We just want to READ and not have to stop to write down our thoughts. Do people even read reviews anymore? No one comments on them anymore and bloggers seem to have more fun writing other types of posts – discussions, memes, and original features. People feel pressured to read and review because really, that’s the core point to book blogging. Didn’t everyone start the blog with the purpose of sharing reviews and talking about books? I think the book blogosphere is growing and evolving, but there’s definitely a way to keep reviews in the mix without making it the worst part of blogging. I feel like almost everyone hates it and has been losing an interest in blogging as a result.Honestly? I don’t mind writing reviews. And I like reading other people’s reviews! I’ll admit that overall I am less likely to read a book review compared to a discussion, but I probably read about 70% of the reviews that cross my Bloglovin’ feed. Full disclosure: I do a lot of skimming and checking for the rating, but overall… I still read reviews. And I still like writing them! I have a system worked out where writing reviews is not daunting or scary or time-consuming. I am able to read the book, write the review within the next 24 hours, and […]

A Love Affair with Scribd

Posted July 23, 2015 / Discussions, Features / 17 Comments
A Love Affair with Scribd

If you listen to audiobooks or read ebooks at all, you really need to check out Scribd. I’m kind of obsessed, and I’m here today to tell you ALLLLL about it. Similar to my lengthy love-filled post about Book Host, this will give you the details about Scribd and why it’s the freakin’ best. Also, I was definitely not paid for this – I just want to shre the love. If you’d like to ignore most of this post and get down to the TL;DR, click here! What is it? Scribd is a monthly subscription that offers ebooks and audiobooks. The best part is that it’s UNLIMITED. There are very few, if any, that offer the feature of unlimited. You can download the app on your phone or tablet, or use the internet browser on your computer. The best part is that it’s only $8.99 a month. If you’re thinking about joining, sign up here and I get free days! (You da best.) Why is it better than other options? With a subscription like Audible, you spend $15/month and get ONE audiobook. With Kindle Unlimited, you get unlimited books and some audio for $9.99 a month – but the book selection is pretty bad. The reason I love Scribd is because the selection is actually pretty great. They have a lot of new releases and backlist, both for ebooks and audiobooks. I was surprised to see some pretty great new releases on there, and they’re updated quite a lot. You […]

Head vs. Heart – Reading, Rating, and Reviewing

Posted May 21, 2015 / Discussions, Features / 28 Comments
Head vs. Heart – Reading, Rating, and Reviewing

I loved Shannon’s post – and quiz! – about this topic recently, and it sparked the same kind of discussion in me. Her quiz supported what I already knew about myself. (Book cover links bring you to my review.) Do you read, rate, and review books based more on your HEAD or on your HEART?  In Shannon’s post, she shared that she thought all bloggers are located on a head vs. heart spectrum when reviewing books. Most people lean one way or the other, but there are some that fall towards the middle of the road. Some people can stay unbiased in their reviews, while others either lean towards their emotions OR critical analysis. It got me thinking about how I usually try to fall in the middle, but gravitate more towards my heart over my head… BUT this can vary completely throughout the whole “I’m going to read this book, rate it, and post a review on my blog” process. Following your head or your heart can alter the three stages of the bookish process: reading, rating, and reviewing. Reading Being a book blogger is hard. We always talk about how it feels like the love of reading dwindles as you (a) start being influenced by other readers and books you may not have found before, (b) get more and more review copies, and (c) try to keep up with challenges, schedules, and pub dates. I try as hard as I can to read only books I genuinely have an […]

Best of the Best: April Madness

Posted April 25, 2015 / Discussions, Features / 7 Comments
Best of the Best: April Madness

Andi posted a fun challenge back in March where she did her own March Madness bracket using her five star reads. I was planning on taking part, but never got around to making a post for some reason. She recently shared a blank bracket and challenged everyone to join in! Here’s what I did to get the first round of 32 books: Pulled the list of 5 star and 4.5 star reads from my review index and from Goodreads (if I read them this year but haven’t posted the review yet) Eliminated the Harry Potter books and any other pre-blogging reads and rereads (like the Private and Pretty Little Liars series reviews I have posted) Took the remaining books and did some preliminary eliminations to get to the top 32, which was extremely difficult to do! Lots of good 4.5 star books had to go Used a random number generator to plan out which books would face off against each other The top 32 books and initial matchups, in case the pictures are too small, are:  Gone Girl vs. Just One Day | Split Second vs. A Midsummers’ Nightmare | One Past Midnight vs. All the Bright Places | Meant to Be vs. Shadow and Bone | Aspen vs. Emmy and Oliver | Before I Fall vs. The Husband’s Secret | All Our Yesterdays vs. 99 Days | Anna and the French Kiss vs. The Distance Between Us | Pivot Point vs. Second Chance Summer | Breathe, Annie, Breathe vs. Catching Jordan | Damsel Distressed vs. Ruin and Rising | Twenty Boy Summer […]

My Reading Life (and Other Hobbies Influenced by Parents)

Posted April 23, 2015 / Discussions / 14 Comments
My Reading Life (and Other Hobbies Influenced by Parents)

This discussion post was inspired by Kristen’s recent post about always being an enthusiastic reader and, the more I thought about it, Jamie’s older post about how reading wasn’t cool when she was younger. It got me thinking about my reading story a little more and how my parents have been pretty huge influences on that… as well as some other hobbies. You can see some of the best books from my childhood here! I’ve been a reader my whole life I feel like I’ve talked about my reading story a million times on here, starting with my About page. If you’re bored of that story then move along to the next section, my friend. I was fortunate enough to have parents and other family members who were big on reading. I spent my childhood days living with my books. I was an only child and spent most of my time reading instead of watching TV or doing other kid things. I’d go to the library with my mom or grandmother and Barnes & Noble with my dad, pick out tons of books, and try to savor every word until I could go again. I was pretty crazy about making sure my books lasted as long as possible because I refused to reread them (more on that later). When I think of my childhood, I really do picture reading everywhere – on my grandmother’s front lawn under a tree, in my living room at my old house, walking around inside the pool […]

Organization Part Two: My Traveler’s Notebook

Posted April 12, 2015 / Discussions, Features / 13 Comments
Organization Part Two: My Traveler’s Notebook

Inspired by my recent organizational acquisitions (and posts by Hannah), I wanted to share some information about how I keep myself organized – primarily for blogging and reading, but also a little about my personal organization, too. Part Two: What’s Inside My Traveler’s Notebook In the first part of this series, you saw what’s inside my book bag. Today I’ll give you a little tour of what’s inside my Foxy Fix traveler’s notebook! (The company was previously referred to as Foxy Dori, but she recently posted on Instagram that she’s hoping to keep her brand away from the original company name – Midori – and go by Foxy Fix.) Again, Hannah’s post is probably the best overview you can get, but I’ll try my best to include what’s in my notebook. I know they can kind of be confusing. Ordering a Foxy Dori After seeing Hannah’s post, I bought one within days. I wrote up what I purchased in my last post, but here’s a refresher in case you’d like to know: Colorful Foxy Dori in Dragon Fruit | Wide Size | Quadruple Binding | Black Strap | Stamp #13 (Heart) What does that mean? I ordered the “Colorful Foxy Dori” option, which is made of leather and available in different colors. I chose Dragon Fruit, which is a pretty pink (of course). I got the wide size because it can best hold May Designs notebooks, which is a popular insert option. The quadruple binding means that there are four elastic bands […]