Pardon the Dust: Mild Renovation

I am currently tweaking the blog's template so if you notice something different or off that is the reason.

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[15 Day Challenge] Day 10: Choosing the Next Great Read

The 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge is hosted by April over on Good Books & Good Wine. You can start the challenge anytime you want, Day 1 is here.

How Do You Choose What Book To Read Next?

It’s all about what I am in the mood far. I’ve learned after suffering through many reading slumps that it’s a good idea to mix things up. Sometimes, especially if you are reading a really good series, you just want to read books back to back. I did this with the Skulduggery Pleasant books; I read the first book and then ordered all the other books in the series that were released. When they arrived I devoured 5 books in as many days (or less). It was great; that series is one of my favourites but reading about the same characters, same world, and same genre for 6 books in a row isn’t something I recommend doing on a regular basis. Why? Because I think you’ll burn yourself out mighty quickly, no one likes doing the same thing over and over again no matter how awesome it is.

Example, I love pasta but there is no way that I can be content with eating pasta all day every day for the rest of my life or even a week. I would get bored and sick of it after the second or third day, by day four I would probably never want to even hear the word pasta ever again but then months later after going pasta-free I am positive I’d be craving pasta again.

So what do I do? I go over what I just read. What did I love about this book? What did I hate? What was the most prevalent thing in the book? What do I want from the next book I am going to read? Do I want the same thing or something different? How interested am I in the premise? Do I want to read this book now? If you're answer isn't a resounding YES for that last question then you are probably better off picking up another book even if the one you were considering has been on your shelf or ereader for a year.

If it's a book you've accepted for review then that's a whole other situation because I'm sure you've set yourself a deadline. However, I don't think results are ever good if you have to force yourself to read a book. For that case maybe you should go through your review books and read the first or first three chapters (depending on length) and see which one catches your interest the most.

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[15 Day Challenge] Day 9: Why I blog about Books

The 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge is hosted by April over on Good Books & Good Wine. You can start the challenge anytime you want, Day 1 is here.

Why Do You Blog About Books?

Well like with anything I love or am obsessed with I want to share it and talk about it. Unfortunately all the people I want to talk about books with who would understand my love for them and be able to talk about them with me live very far, far away.

Actually initially I started blogging because I had a lot of time to kill while I was away at university. I am not a very social person so my only friend was my roommate, I spent most of my time reading books and soon after I started reviewing books and then soon after that the blog was created. I don’t have a lot of time to kill any more so my blogging has staggered but meh I still try to get a post out every now and then. My favourite thing to talk about are book covers and they are pretty easy posts to make. Just post a unique or cool or gorgeous cover and share it with the internet. Like I said I just want to talk about my favourite things with people who share my interests.

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[15 Day Challenge] Day 8: What I like on blogs

The 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge is hosted by April over on Good Books & Good Wine. You can start the challenge anytime you want, Day 1 is here.

Quick. Write 15 bullet points of things that appeal to you on blogs!

1. Discussion posts
2. Cover posts
3. Drop Down Menus (this is more a design thing but it counts!)
4. Book to Movie reviews
5. Simple but pretty/fantastical designs with easily legible posts/text
6. Blogs that I can easily navigate – search bar, paging through posts, links to other pages like a review archive.
7. Multiple ways to follow/subscribe to the blog
8. Funny bloggers
9. Posts on manga and/or other graphic novels
10. The occasional personal post, maybe something that’s done once a week that gives a little insight to the non-book lover part of the blogger.
11. If a blogger went to a book related even like an author signing or something big like BEA I always love hearing how it went, what they did and who they saw.
12. Features unique to that blog
13. Replies to comments - honestly seeing that a blogger responds to their visitors makes me more inclined to leave a comment.
14. Tips and Tricks - I love it when a blogger posts about things that I might find helpful.
15. Rants - I don't like to write them but I do like to read them. As long as it's not a personal attack I tend to find them funny and quite informative.

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[15 Day Challenge] Day 7: Blogging Quirks

The 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge is hosted by April over on Good Books & Good Wine. You can start the challenge anytime you want, Day 1 is here.

Talk about your blogging quirks

This question was hard probably because I didn’t really understand what a quirk was; I had to look it up.

a peculiarity of action, behaviour, or personality; mannerism

And I really can’t think of anything.

• When I was blogging regularly I had a spread sheet with a calendar where I schedule my blog posts. I still have it but am not currently using it.
• I organize specific requests into their own folders in my gmail.

That’s all I got. Sad.

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Out This Weekend - The Wolverine

I am honestly tired of Wolverine and would love to see movies about other X-Men characters like Storm and X-Men Origins: Wolverine was a mess of a movie but it's X-Men so I have to see it and I've read good things about this one from someone who didn't like Origins either so I have hope. I'll be checking this out tomorrow.

What movie do you want to see this weekend? What was the last movie you saw?

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[15 Day Challenge] Day 6: Shopping for Books

The 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge is hosted by April over on Good Books & Good Wine. You can start the challenge anytime you want, Day 1 is here. 

  Describe How You Shop For Books

I usually go local. The local indie, Book Nook, for the most part doesn’t have the books I want on its shelf so I order through the bookstore and the books arrive a week later. The only time I shop online is if I want a book with a foreign (non-US) cover so I order from Book Depository or FishPondWorld or if I am ordering an ebook (these I get from amazon).

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Win The Dream Thieves from Bloody Bookaholic

Yes The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater.
The sequel to The Raven Boys.
Here be the gorgeous cover

If you want a chance to win the book go here to the Bloody Bookaholic.

Though I hope I win and not you as selfish at that sounds. I got a chance to read an ARC of The Raven Boys last year, review here so I was pining for it's sequel long before the first book was even released. The Raven Boys was actually one of my favourite if not the favourite book of 2012. So I really really want this book o.o.

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The Last Word: UNFETTERED ... for a great cause!

The Last Word: UNFETTERED ... for a great cause!: When some of the biggest names in the fantasy genre all come together on one project, readers sit up and pay attention. Especially when that...

I am reblogging some interesting news that I thought you guys would be interested in. There is a great cause happening right now. Over a dozen big fantasy authors have come together to contribute original stories for an anthology titled Unfettered. The proceeds from the sale of the anthology are going to help pay the medical bills for Shawn Speaksman. Shawn is Terry Brook's webmaster and in 2011 he was diagnosed with Hogdkin’s lymphoma. Unfortunately Shawn didn't have medical insurance to cover the costs and has accrued a big medical debt over the course of his treatment, but fortunately a lot of great authors have come together to create this anthology to help Mr. Speaksman.

You can purchase the book and read more on the story here.

Even if it wasn't for such a great cause I would have gotten the book anyway. The list of authors are just impressive and that cover is gorgeous.

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[15 Day Challenge] Day 5: Tearjerker

The 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge is hosted by April over on Good Books & Good Wine. You can start the challenge anytime you want, Day 1 is here. 

  Recommend a Tearjerker

Oh gosh. If I Stay by Gayle Foreman and The Prophecy Sisters by Michelle Zink (this one hurt me so bad I couldn’t continue the series). Many other books have made me cry but I don’t think they would qualify as tear jerkers in the general sense.

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[15 Day Challenge] Day 4: Testing tempers

The 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge is hosted by April over on Good Books & Good Wine. You can start the challenge anytime you want, Day 1 is here. 

 What is the last book you flung across the room?

I don’t throw books, even books I hate I can’t mistreat even if I have the urge to. The last book that has made me want to throw it across the room would probably be Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Alice was such a frustrating protagonist, I kept cursing at her and wanting to just reach into the book and shake her. I couldn’t even hit the book because it was an ebook stored on my precious iPad.

The one book (or series) I probably would have set on fire though if they weren't ebooks was Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow. I don't normally curse (even online or at least I didn't back then) but I will say when I finished the last book in this series I was cursing up a storm. Every time I started talking about this series I get upset. One time I was telling my friend about what had happened in the end while I was driving and I nearly ran into the back of another car. This series raises my blood pressure.

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[15 Day Challenge] Day 3: Blogging BFFs

The 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge is hosted by April over on Good Books & Good Wine. You can start the challenge anytime you want, Day 1 is here.

Who are Your Blogger BFFs?

You know when I was going through the challenge and creating answers in advance I skipped this question? First of all I am not a very social person, 9 out of 10 times I will not approach you, and I am equal parts introvert and equal parts shy. I don’t like bothering people at least that’s what it feels like, even when I am in the midst of an online conversation I will cease discussion if I feel the conversation has gone on too long and I am thinking I MUST be bothering the person now. Even when I am friends with them (or think I am friends with them). Second of all I haven’t been blogging a lot lately so ties with people have kind of faded since I haven’t spoken with people in a while. Are these people still my BFFs if I just talk to them occasionally on twitter? Ok I am over thinking things now.

Let’s see well Reeshe (the Vixen to my Sparrow) is my best friend in the real world and although she has moved away to another country and is busy with school right now and doesn’t have internet access where she is living at the moment and can’t really blog at the moment she is still a blogging BFF. Andrea of Aine’s Realm is definitely a blogging buddy; we were online friends before either of us became book bloggers. She lives in another country as well but I have met up with her 3 times and have actually stayed with her 2 of those 3 times. Besides blogging we chat on twitter, have weekly skype chats when Vampire Diaries is in season and mock the show (and fangirl over Bonnie) and we are both members of a Melissa Marr fanforum. I am trying to see if I can get Andrea to go to BEA with me or if I’ll go join her at an ALA signing one day :).

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[15 Day Challenge] Day 2: Bedtime Reading

The 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge is hosted by April over on Good Books & Good Wine. You can start the challenge anytime you want, Day 1 is here.

What’s Your Bedtime Reading Ritual

I suppose this is referring to the days where I actually read on a regular basis like a normal book lover. Well I would just get ready for bed, tell the family good night, prop myself on a pillow and start reading the book of the moment. When I got tired then I would put the book away on my nightstand and if it was really good pick it back up first thing in the morning before I start getting ready for my day.

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[15 Day Challenge] Day 1: Confessions

I know this blog has been quite sleepy for a long time but today I discover a book blogger challenge that seems quite interesting that I wanted to participate in. Now I am not sure how well I will do in this challenge since I have been in a reading coma for the past year but hey maybe this will help me get out of it.
The 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge is hosted by April over on Good Books & Good Wine. You can start the challenge anytime you want, Day 1 is here.

Day 1: Make 15 book related Confessions

1. My favourite kind of covers are illustrated.
2. If a book I love or loved is being made into a movie I try to forget as much detail about the book as possible so I can enjoy the movie on its own and not judge it as an adaptation.
3. I have sadly only read 3 books so far this year and one of them was a novella.
4. I bought the German edition of Shiver just for the pretty cover (because I can’t speak German) and immediately felt guilty when I took the book out of its package.
5. I still have unread ARCs on my shelf for books that released last year.
6. If you damage a book that I lent to you I will most likely never lend you a book ever again and probably be filled with bitterness towards you every time I look at the book.
7. I sometimes find dollar bills in my books (usually Harry Potter).
8. I want to come up with my own book curse like this one and either frame it to hang in my dream library or stick it on the inside of all of my books.
9. When I was away at university I often had days when I was very hungry but I always had a book to read.
10. I want Scholastic to release the 15th Anniversary edition Harry Potter books in hardcover.
11. I loathe spoilers. If I ask you not to spoil me and you continue to reveal spoilery things I will most likely hurt you.
12. I got into book blogging because I had a lot of time on my hands and university and because I wanted to become better at explaining what the books I were reading were about.
13. If a guy that’s interested in me doesn’t like to read books he doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell. Move along non-reader.
14. My favourite series of all time tend to have a great ensemble of characters and detailed and fantastic world building.
15. If a book with gorgeous cover turns out to be a book I hate I feel betrayed.

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