Tag: discussion

Why I Join and Love Reading Challenges

Posted January 6, 2016 / Discussions, Features / 14 Comments

I love the beginning of one year and end of another, primarily for the wrap-up posts and surveys everyone shares. Creeping on books is the best! But, another reason I love it is because of READING CHALLENGES. I know there are countless people out there who have opinions on reading challenges, and I think they generally fall into one of two camps: GIVE ME ALL THE CHALLENGES. I love them and they’re fun and motivating! GIVE ME NO CHALLENGES. I hate the pressure, regardless of the goal I set. No thanks. It goes without saying that both of these outlooks are F-I-N-E to have. I obviously happen to fall into the first bucket of people because I generally loooove challenges and readathons and readalongs. I just think they’re fun and they tend to motivate me. Even though it looks like I over-do it and go willy-nilly on the sign-ups, there’s a method to my madness. Today let’s talk a bit about reading challenges and why I like them! When I hit my first full year of blogging, I made sure to sign up for a lot of yearly challenges. I finally could! I started blogging in July 2014, so I kept waiting and waiting for 2015 to hit. I ended up signing up for a total of 9 challenges that happened during most or all of the year. You’ve all probably seen my wrap-up posts and surveys, so you may already know that I completed every challenge except for one. That’s pretty solid, […]

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 […]

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.

How Do You Buy Books? Update!

Posted August 20, 2015 / Discussions, Features / 20 Comments

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 […]

Booking Through Thursdays #2

Posted July 31, 2014 / Booking Through Thursdays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

If I could give a brand new, really good book by your favorite author (living or dead) RIGHT NOW, what would you be willing to do for it? Oh goodness, favorite author?? How am I supposed to pick that! It goes without saying that Harry Potter is my favorite book series, but I don’t think that necessarily makes JK Rowling my favorite author. Although, I will say that I would like another Harry Potter book more than almost anything/any other book series. As for the actual question: I’m honestly not sure. I hope JK Rowling wouldn’t be selfish and only give ME the book… because what fun would it be to have the book and not be able to fangirl over it with everyone else? Sorry this didn’t really answer the question…I’m sneaky like that.

Blogging Reflections: On Covers

Posted July 29, 2014 / Other Memes / 10 Comments

Blogging Reflections: Thoughts on Book Covers [Bimonthly feature from Bookshelf Reflections] I’ve been looking for an excuse to expand on this topic! You may remember I posted a top 10 list of Books I’m Judging by the Cover. I mentioned a little bit of my thoughts in that post, but now I can tell you a little bit more. Covers are really important to me; I’m not going to lie. It’s very, very hard to not judge a book by it’s cover. There are so many books out there for our consumption; there have to be explicit signals to make people decide to pick up the book and read the back cover. If a book doesn’t have an appealing cover, people are rarely going to flip it over and see the plot summary. Browsing for books on Goodreads, at Barnes & Noble, or on review sites, covers that catch my eye are the ones I’ll most likely purchase. I really enjoy graphic covers with beautiful typography, or some of the new contemporary YA covers with typography placed over pictures. I think covers should match the book’s plot – that goes without saying. Some covers (especially fantasy ones) can be a little cheesy and cheap… If it looks like the author, with no graphic design skills, threw it together in Paint on their computer, I probably won’t read it. It sucks, but at least I admit I’m being superficial, right? Overall, there are certainly more to books than the covers. There […]

Musing Mondays #1

Posted July 28, 2014 / Musing Mondays, Weekly Memes / 2 Comments

Musing Mondays offer six different topics to choose from to focus on each week. You choose which of the six is most appealing to you that week and run with it! Or, you can muse about anything book-related. Here’s what I chose to respond to this week for my first Musing Monday. Describe one of your reading habits. I’ve talked about this one before quite a bit, but I’ll reiterate. One of my reading habits is that I alternate between e-books and hard copy books. I can’t part with “real” books that easily. I love the convenience of my Kindle and being able to read in the dark, but there’s no better feeling than opening up a paperback and reading. I am trying to read through my extensive collection of books before buying more – but obviously that’s easier said than done. My mom bought me a Kindle for my birthday right before college, but I wasn’t able to use it much during the school year. I found it difficult to balance college studies/reading with personal reading. During the summers and lunch breaks at my internship, I would read as much as possible! I loved my first Kindle very much and it still has some books on it I have yet to read. This past Christmas, my boyfriend got me the new Paperwhite version because I desperately wanted to have a backlight. I love my new Kindle but definitely miss the keyboard and real keys (instead of the touch screen) […]

Booking Through Thursday #1

Posted July 24, 2014 / Booking Through Thursdays, Weekly Memes / 2 Comments

I’m going to do the past two Booking Through Thursday topics to get myself started. Do your reading habits change in the summer? Absolutely! I read SO much more during the summer. When I was in college it was essentially the only time I was able to read for pleasure. Lunch breaks, sitting outside at a table or under a tree, were my favorite time to read. There’s nothing that says “summer” more to me than sitting out and reading a book. I used to love making laps walking around my pool while reading too. Different kind of reading … what do you think about letters? Do you ever send them anymore? Receive them? Or do you just do email and texts instead? Do you miss the days when people used to write letters? I typically only write letters to my grandma at this point. There is something special about getting a letter or card in the mail, but it happens so rarely it doesn’t bother me when I don’t get any. I primarily email and text. I was sort of too young to even write letters when they were popular.