Category: Features

The Evolution of Blog Tours

Posted October 23, 2015 / Discussions, Features / 17 Comments

Lately I’ve noticed a new trend within blog tours: creative and unique posts. The content within the posts is more interesting to read about, and there are themes for each tour. Now, I’m not necessarily saying that the more traditional blog tours aren’t fun to read, but these ones have taken things to a new level. There are a few lately that piqued my interest. If this is the way blog tours and promotional posts are headed, I consider that a major win. I wanted to recognize some of the more unique and fun tours I’ve seen lately, as well as share some of my feelings about blog tours and their overall improvements. I’ve always had mixed feelings about blog tours. I am the kind of blogger that generally avoids requesting ARCs (and I don’t often get the ones that I do request), so that means I usually find other ways to gain access to these titles if I’m really dying for them. Blog tours usually provide the blogger with an eARC (or sometimes physical ARC!) of the book, so I would sign up for the tours of highly anticipated books. Sometimes this would blow up in my face if the book didn’t hit the mark for me, but other times I’d be extremely glad I got the opportunity to read the book early. Either way, blog tours can be a commitment. If you sign up and don’t like it that much, your post will change at the last minute to a […]

Library Dreams

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

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 […]

Inside & Out #16: Shannon from It Starts at Midnight

Posted October 12, 2015 / Features, Inside and Out / 9 Comments

Admiring book covers and bookmarks, shared by you! Welcome to INSIDE AND OUT. This feature includes two of my absolute favorite book-related things: bookmarks (inside) and book covers (out)! I’ve invited guest posters to share their favorite book covers and bookmarks here on the second and fourth Mondays of each month. Sign-ups are always open (see bottom of post)! Check out past posts here. Shannon from It Starts at Midnight Twitter: @ShannonMiz| Instagram: @shannonmiz| Goodreads Tell me a little about yourself: ::Goes to visit past posts to see what kind of stuff other people mention:: Well. Those people didn’t help that much. Let’s see. I have two small humans. I am obsessed with The Hunger Games (this is common knowledge, I think?). I love iced coffee, swimming, and travel. I do 99% of my reading and blogging when normal people would sleep. Talk about your blog (what you blog about/kinds of books, features, etc.): I blog about… bookish things. And sometimes non bookish things, but there’s usually a tie in somewhere. Basically, I do reviews, discussions, Top Ten Tuesdays because lists are nice and also I like to cheat on them, and whatever else strikes my fancy. I love gifs. I love pictures. I love being ridiculous, so it’s rare to find too much seriousness in any one post. Holly @ The Fox’s Hideaway and I do a feature called “Snark From the Ark” where we chat about The 100 episodes. We’ll be back in January, as will The 100. I host the 2015 Discussion Challenge with Nicole […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin – September 2015

Posted October 1, 2015 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 8 Comments

The Bookmark Lit Bulletin was created to wrap up each month and prepare for the next. I share my life happenings, book haul, books I read and reviewed, posts I shared, challenge updates, and more from the previous month. I also let you know what may be coming up on the blog in the coming month. You can read past bulletins here and learn more about the feature here. 10 books read → Physical: 5 | eBook: 2 | eARC: 1 | Audio: 1 | ARC: 1 | Format mix: 0 In 2015… 137 books read of 175 Goodreads goal [78% complete, 7 books ahead of schedule] Blog posts this month: 14 books reviewed and 14 other posts | Challenges this month: 1Well, the time finally came where I decided to get lazy about reading. Definitely not a great month overall, but there was a decent amount of quality over quantity. I enjoyed a lot of the books I read! Average rating for books read in September: 3.9 stars Highlights of the best and worst… Best of the Best | Pleasantly Surprised | Disappointed All of the books read this month: Average rating for books reviewed in September: 3.92 stars I don’t buy a lot of books in general, but I receive a lovely amount from my Secret Sister and through some preordering! I didn’t spend a lot of money on books this month, which is a big win for me. Secret Sister Project New sister’s second box: Ask Again Later by Liz Czukas, Naomi & Eli’s No Kiss List by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn, Emerald Green by Kerstin Gier, matching sticky notes […]

Inside & Out #15: Cynthia from Bingeing on Books

Posted September 28, 2015 / Features, Inside and Out / 0 Comments

Admiring book covers and bookmarks, shared by you! Welcome to INSIDE AND OUT. This feature includes two of my absolute favorite book-related things: bookmarks (inside) and book covers (out)! I’ve invited guest posters to share their favorite book covers and bookmarks here on the second and fourth Mondays of each month. Sign-ups are always open (see bottom of post)! Check out past posts here. Cynthia from Bingeing on Books Twitter: @Bingeingonbooks| Instagram: Bingeingonbooks | Goodreads Tell me a little about yourself: I have been blogging for almost one year (my blog will be one in November!!) and I live in Naples, Italy with my husband and my dog. When I’m not reading books, I love talking about them and writing about them. Oh, and I love pretending that I will actually read all the books on my TBR one day. In addition to all the books, I love travel and binge watching shows on Netflix. Talk about your blog (what you blog about/kinds of books, features, etc.): I mostly blog about Young Adult books, though I read a lot of Adult stuff and Classics too. I post reviews, giveaways, Top Ten lists, and book related discussions. Sometimes I even sneak in some pictures of my recent travels around Europe. Favorite genre: Mostly Fantasy and Science Fiction, though I love a lot of Contemporary Stuff too. Three books you recommend most often and why: This is a difficult question because everyone’s tastes are so different. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend the same thing to everyone. A […]

Fate, Destiny, and Choices – Parallel Life Books

Posted September 24, 2015 / Discussions, Features / 11 Comments

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 […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #56: Fall TBR

Posted September 22, 2015 / TBR Lists, Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 20 Comments

Ten Books on my Fall TBR List Top Ten Tuesdays are hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, where we make lists of our top ten books (or something else!) based on that week’s prompt. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. Book links bring you to Goodreads or my review. I like to try to read a lot of different things, across genres, formats, and where I got them from. I am utterly terrible about sticking to a TBR each month because my moods change SO much. The only “required” reading I usually have to do is if I signed up for a blog tour, for my Book Buddies review, and for my real-life book club. I’ve wanted to find a TBR format that works for me so I can still have some kind of method to my madness and I’ve been lurking on Andi’s TBR methods for a while. I decided to try it for the rest of September and October. Here are some of the categories I came up with… I tried to think of the books I genuinely want to read this fall, and what categories they may fall into. I don’t want to restrict myself too much so I did leave a freebie option or two. I filled this page with categories – 18 books – but I will most likely exceed that number between the rest of September and all of October. That gives me even more wiggle room! Now, some […]

Protected: Slut-Shaming, Relationships, and Feminism in YA

Posted September 17, 2015 / Discussions, Features / 14 Comments

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

Inside & Out #14: Chris, Mr. Bookmark Lit

Posted September 14, 2015 / Features, Inside and Out / 10 Comments

Admiring book covers and bookmarks, shared by you! Welcome to INSIDE AND OUT. This feature includes two of my absolute favorite book-related things: bookmarks (inside) and book covers (out)! I’ve invited guest posters to share their favorite book covers and bookmarks here on the second and fourth Mondays of each month. Sign-ups are always open (see bottom of post)! Check out past posts here. Chris, the wonderful boyfriend of Lauren from Bookmark Lit Instagram: @thebrickbuddy | Flickr: thebrickbuddy Tell me a little about yourself: I’m Chris and I’m a 23 year old old AFOL (adult fan of Lego). Lauren is my girlfriend and forced me to participate in this because someone bailed at the last minute. I like to read graphic novels set in the Marvel universe and build Lego in my spare time. I also like to play video games and watch football. Talk about your blog (what you blog about/kinds of books, features, etc.): I don’t have a blog at the moment, but I take pictures of my Lego creations on my Flickr and Instagram pages. I’ve been reading comics lately, mostly Marvel. I also listen to audiobooks at work sometimes and am in the process of rereading Harry Potter, the Series of Unfortunate Events, Captain Underpants, and a couple of Lego books. Favorite genre: I like fantasy, sci-fi, and superhero graphic novels. Three books you recommend most often and why: Lego: A Love Story by Jonathan Bender because I think it gives good insight into the Lego hobby and is kind of a “coming of age tale” into […]

Beat the Heat Readathon Wrap-Up

Posted September 6, 2015 / Book Challenges, Features / 0 Comments

I finished the Beat the Heat Readathon! Well, this readathon was actually pretty motivating for me! I’ve had weird feelings about reading lately: part of me wants to read every book I see, while the other part of me never wants to read a book again. I’ve just read SO MUCH this year – nonstop- and haven’t given myself much time for anything else. Since I’ve gotten so ahead on my Goodreads challenge, it’s nice knowing that I don’t have to force myself to read when I want to watch TV. It feels nice. I did really want to read this month, though, so this was a nice way to kickstart September, finish up some ARCs, and squeeze in a few more summery books. Here are some details about this two-week long readathon, that was hosted by Novel Heartbeat and Phantasmic Reads: The Beat the Heat Readathon runs from August 24th at 12:00 AM to September 6th at 11:59 PM. What does this readathon entail, you ask? Well, read as much or as little as you want – the main point is to READ! You set your own goal, and for three weeks you read as many books as you can/want to reach your goal! There will be mini-challenges throughout the Readathon for participants, along with a grand prize giveaway at the end! Without further ado, here’s a recap of what my goals were and my progress… Goals and Potential TBR Overall goal → Read between 6-10 books during the two week time […]