Do other bloggers ruin things for you when reading? I don’t mean blogger hype, which I talked about last week/many times before, but I mean actually ruin or change your opinion on certain aspects of books or plot devices. The biggest one for me is love triangles. Before I started blogging, love triangles honestly never bugged me that much. I thought it was a semi-interesting way to add some drama into the plot. For me, the real winner of the love triangle is always clear from the beginning. Did anyone actually think Bella would end up with Jacob instead of Edward? No. Come on. The second guy in a love triangle is just thrown in to cause some conflict. Is this a cliched plot device? Sure. Did it really bother me? Nah. Then, I joined the blogging world, and pretty much found that my love triangle opinion was wrong. I get why people hate them. They’re done too often. They’re never done right. They’re a cliche. They cause unnecessary drama… The list goes on. It sucks for me now because whenever I read a book about love triangles, I can’t help but think of these other bloggers. Their negative opinion has become my opinion and my first thought when reading these books. It sucks! So many books are ruined for me because I can’t get that out of my head. People have SUCH strong opinions about them that I can’t help but think my opinion is just wrong. I’m sorry […]

Describe one of your reading (and blogging) habits. I think I’ve discussed hype and how it affects my reading on here before. (Maybe?) Lately I’ve been thinking about how certain books, especially those that are recently published, get so much hype from bloggers around our section of the internet. I know that most bloggers get review copies and/or follow new releases closely, so I’ve come to expect this. It has me thinking about review variety around the blogosphere. What books to people want us to review? I want people to find my reviews valuable and interesting, but I also want to read what I LIKE to read. I will definitely honor any reviews for books from publishers, but more than likely they’re books that I think look interesting or I requested. Do people dislike reviews of older books? Do you only want to see reviews for new releases? Frankly I’ve been a little bored when checking out my feeds. I see the same reviews for the same few books every week. I’m happy us bloggers are here to promote new releases to the world, but I also like reading about books I may have otherwise missed. I like reading some books that have been on my shelf for a while. Are those posts less interesting? No offense for anyone out there reviewing new releases, because I do it too, but I’m just MUSING about what kind of reviews people care about. Musing Mondays is a meme at Should Be Reading, where […]

 Describe one of your reading habits. This has been a BUSY reading month for me. I don’t mean that I read a lot of books, but I mean that I have a lot of books that I NEED to read within a certain timeframe. I don’t often deal with deadlines when I read, except for when I’m behind on scheduling reviews and know I need to finish my current book by a certain day to keep up with my review schedule. Right now, I have multiple books with deadlines: an ARC that needs to travel to the next person in line by the end of the week, library books that are due in a week, a physical ARC that was released a week ago that deserves a review quickly, and a book I need to finish for a guest post by the end of the week…. EEK. How can I get this done when I normally only read one book at a time?? I’m not sure about other bloggers, but I feel like most people out there read more than one book at a time. I normally can’t do this. The most I can handle is listening to one audiobook while reading one regular book. Sometimes the stories confuse me, if they’re both in the same genre or have similar generic contemporary romance-related plots, but most of the time I just don’t want to read more than one. What’s the point? It’s just as fast to read one book at a […]

 What books are you currently desperate to get your hands on?  Loop by Karen Atkins | Release Date: October 21st 2014 At a school where Quantum Paradox 101 is a required course and history field trips are literal, sixteen year-old time traveler Bree Bennis excels…at screwing up. After Bree botches a solo midterm to the 21st century by accidentally taking a boy hostage (a teensy snafu), she stands to lose her scholarship. But when Bree sneaks back to talk the kid into keeping his yap shut, she doesn’t go back far enough. The boy, Finn, now three years older and hot as a solar flare, is convinced he’s in love with Bree, or rather, a future version of her that doesn’t think he’s a complete pain in the arse. To make matters worse, she inadvertently transports him back to the 23rd century with her. Once home, Bree discovers that a recent rash of accidents at her school are anything but accidental. Someone is attacking time travelers. As Bree and her temporal tagalong uncover seemingly unconnected clues—a broken bracelet, a missing data file, the art heist of the millennium—that lead to the person responsible, she alone has the knowledge to piece the puzzle together. Knowledge only one other person has. Her future self. But when those closest to her become the next victims, Bree realizes the attacker is willing to do anything to stop her. In the past, present, or future. I have read ONE time travel book and I’m so obsessed […]

 What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard I want this book SO BAD. It isn’t released until next year but so many people have the ARCs already and I’m dying to get one, too. Here’s a little funny story about this book and the author. I’m from a small town in Connecticut that is on the Massachusetts border. When I went to college, I became really good friends with a guy from the town in Mass that my town borders. Flash forward four years, we’re still friends and meet up at a local bar. Him and his friend tell me all about how one of their good friends from high school has a book coming out. Victoria Aveyard! This was the first time I heard of her and the plot of the book sounded RIGHT up my alley. Small world, huh? So in other words, Victoria Aveyard is actually a FRIEND OF A FRIEND who grew up in the town NEXT to mine! Now, do I use my connections to see about getting an ARC? The only thing is, my friend from college doesn’t know about my blog and I’m not sure I want him to. So, I don’t really have a good way of contacting the author unless I decide to tell my friend and then talk to her. IDK BUT I NEED THIS BOOK!

Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it. I’ve been struggling through the audiobook for The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton. I’m a little over halfway done with it and I don’t know if I have the energy to continue. I chose it because it seemed like a really interesting concept and had seen some pretty good reviews. Here are all of the things I can’t stand about this book: The audiobook narrator’s voice!!!!! The fact that the entire first half of the book is the random history of Ava’s family, starting back with her great-grandparents in France. We spend nearly 50% of the book listening to the depressing as shit story of how the family got started. This book is obviously somewhat paranormal/unrealistic (I mean, it’s about a girl with wings), but other parts are so bizarre. The grandmother’s sister became a bird or something? The mom disappeared and became a blue dust? There are ghosts following her around? I genuinely don’t get this book. WHEN IS SOMETHING GOING TO HAPPEN??? Ava, the main character, was FINALLY just introduced into the book, and still NOTHING is happening and the book is still continuing to talk about a bunch of random family shit. I am really curious if there even is a plot to this book, or if it will continue to be a sad family history instead. Ugh. […]

Instead of the [other] questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then! TOPIC: Book blog posting schedules and “original” ideas vs. memes This topic has been on my mind a lot lately. I came across a post about how memes are less original than other types of posts. To an extent, this is true.. The point of memes are to get people talking and link up with other bloggers. Without memes, I wouldn’t know of some of the bloggers I’ve come to enjoy following. I started this blog with the intention of reviewing books and giving recommendation lists, without much of an idea of what book blogger sites actually look like. I started seeing these weekly meme posts on some blogs and thought it was such a cool idea to generate conversation, especially when you’re not sure of what to post. I quickly engulfed myself with five different weekly memes (one for each weekday). I never really consider it a chore to make these posts; I enjoy them. Sometimes it can be tedious but mostly it’s rewarding. Once I link up with others, I bring traffic into my blog and can talk with other bloggers. I can see what books they’ve added to their TBR list, what books they finished, and one some of their all-time favorites are. I don’t think that keeping up with weekly memes is unoriginal. Everyone curates their own lists and content for their posts. […]