Tag: Book Community

Sundays in Bed With… #MyWeeklyWrapUp

Dini @ dinipandareads8 Comments

We’re back with another Sundays in Bed With… meme! This meme dares to ask you what book has been in your bed this morning and is hosted by Midnight Book Girl. Come share what book you’ve spent time curled up reading in bed with, or which book you wish you had time to read today!

I’ve read very little this weekend… But I’m looking forward to ending my Sunday in bed with The Cousins. I’ve really enjoyed all of McManus’ YA thrillers/mysteries and unsurprisingly, this one has captivated my attention very quickly! I’m already intrigued by the mystery of the Story family and I’m looking forward to seeing how these characters grow!

Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah Story are cousins, but they barely know each another, and they’ve never even met their grandmother. Rich and reclusive, she disinherited their parents before they were born. So when they each receive a letter inviting them to work at her island resort for the summer, they’re surprised . . . and curious.

Their parents are all clear on one point–not going is not an option. This could be the opportunity to get back into Grandmother’s good graces. But when the cousins arrive on the island, it’s immediately clear that she has different plans for them. And the longer they stay, the more they realize how mysterious–and dark–their family’s past is.

The entire Story family has secrets. Whatever pulled them apart years ago isn’t over–and this summer, the cousins will learn everything.

What are you currently reading?

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Top 5 Saturday: Books with Two Authors

Dini @ dinipandareads20 Comments

Welcome back to another Top 5 Saturday! Just in case you don’t know Top 5 Saturday is a weekly meme created by Mandy @ Devouring Books and it’s where we list the top five books (they can be books on your TBR, favourite books, books you loved/hated) based on the week’s topic. You can see the upcoming schedule at the end of my post 🙂 This week’s topic is actually: books with two authors.

I think the first book that I read written by two authors was the Illuminae Files. Actually, it was probably Christina Lauren before I even knew they were two people 😂 But I don’t read a lot of books that are written by two authors although I do have a surprising number of them on my TBR! I’m gonna keep this introduction short and simple and there’s really no need for a lengthy introduction 😉

(book covers are linked to the Goodreads pages!)

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Let’s Talk Bookish: Pros and Cons of Book Blogging

Dini @ dinipandareads29 Comments

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme, hosted by Rukky @Eternity Books  & Dani @ Literary Lion, where we get to discuss certain topics, share our opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts! I’ve listed the upcoming topics in brief at the end of my post, but check out these pages for more information on November 2020 prompts & a list of past prompts!

This week is actually a ‘freebie’ and we could either go back and do a topic we missed or take a break. I decided to go waay back and do a prompt from September 2020!
Check out the other bloggers who already did this prompt too!

Now without further ado… This week’s topic asks us about:

the pros and cons of book blogging

Examples: What do you love about being a book blogger? What do you hate? What makes you stay in this community, and what’s one thing that could possibly drive you away? Do you feel appreciated as a blogger? Are book bloggers given enough credit?

IT’S A BLOGGER’S LIFE FOR ME

I decided to start my book blog after starting a bookstagram. I wanted a better platform for posting reviews and engaging with other readers, and while I was worried about starting another blog after the one I had for 15 years fizzled out, I found I really enjoyed talking about books and now here we are almost two years later!

there’s so much to love!

  • The community: The book community is truly the best! I’ve met so many amazing book lovers across the world and it has been so great to share our book loves and dislikes, and even tidbits about our personal lives. I don’t have (m)any book loving friends IRL, so it’s refreshing to be able to fully geek-out with people who understand why I’m freaking out over fictional events and characters in the first place 😂
  • Finding new favourites: I can’t even count the number of books and authors that I’ve discovered and ended up loving since joining the community. I’ve branched out of comfort zone more times than I can count and the result has almost always been positive. I don’t know how I used to find new books/authors before but there’s no going back now!
  • Sharing recommendations and getting others to try new books/authors: I’ve loved sharing my favourites on my blog and it’s always so exciting to see people mention that they’ve added books to their mountainous TBRs on my recommendation or because of a review I wrote. It’s a crazy incredible feeling especially when they love the book as much as I did! It kinda makes me feel like I’ve levelled up! 🤣
  • ARCs and Blog tours: NGL, one of the reasons I started blogging was because I wanted the chance to access ARCs! Who wouldn’t want to read the latest books before everyone else?! Then I discovered blog tours and discovered indie authors and got access to more new releases and well, the rest is history!
  • Becoming a smarter/better reader: Obviously it’s a process but I’ve definitely become a more conscientious and purposeful reader since I started blogging and that’s really thanks to the community. I never used to really pay much attention to what I was reading–I would just mindlessly consume for pleasure, and while I still do that, I’m also more critical of what I consume and I like to think its made me a better reader 😊

IT CAN GET HARD though…

As good as it’s been having a book blog and being part of the community, I’d be lying if I said it was all roses all the time.

  • It’s time consuming. No matter what anyone tells you, making posts takes a lot of work and eats up a lot of time! Even if I was better organised and actually scheduled ahead of time (cough), I’d still probably spend a big chunk of my free-time on it. I work full time so I mostly work on my blog before/after work or during work breaks, but a lot of my spare time does go toward blogging, including engaging with others! My friends/colleagues who know I have a book blog always comment on how it’s like a second job (albeit a very enjoyable one) and they’re not exactly wrong!
  • The pressure. I feel like there’s a lot of pressure to constantly be reading, churning out content and engaging with others in order to “stay relevant”. It’s not a competition but it can feel like it sometimes when everyone is trying to read more, review more, engage more, etc. All of this obviously comes as part of having a blog but at the same time, it does get overwhelming and can lead to serious burn outs too!
  • Kissing that hard earned money good-bye. As an international blogger, I don’t have access to the majority of ARCs or a library, so 90% of the books that I read are bought out of pocket. Plus, I rarely get book gifts because my family doesn’t believe I need more 🙄 While I’m happy to be discovering new books my savings certainly don’t feel the same way 😂 I’m really thankful to have a steady job that allows me to indulge in this increasingly expensive hobby and I do know how lucky I am!

FEELING APPRECIATED AS A BLOGGER…

I never put much thought into whether or not I’m appreciated as a blogger because I do it for my own enjoyment. It’s a topic that I’ve noticed frequently come up on socials when bloggers share how little they feel appreciated compared to bookstagrammers, booktubers and book-tokers (or whatever they call themselves). But it’s something that I personally try not to think too much about because it’d probably stop me altogether. 😂 There are definitely good days when stats don’t matter and those really bad days when I question what the hell I’m doing, but I do think it’s all part of the process. I don’t believe that people on other platforms don’t also feel the same way sometimes!

2020 has been a rough as year and reading and book blogging has really helped me push through the tough times, so right now my hope is that I won’t stop blogging anytime soon? Being part of the community and engaging with others really gives me the motivation to keep doing what I’m doing, and I’m still loving (almost) every minute of it! 😉

So, what. do you think about book blogging? Do you feel the same way about the pros and cons I listed? What do you love most about book blogging? Do you feel appreciated?

First Lines Friday – 20 November

Dini @ dinipandareads11 Comments

Happy Friday book lovers! We’re back with another First Lines Friday, a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines? Here are the rules:

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
  • Finally… reveal the book!

First lines:

“The police officer’s body goes blurry, then sharpens again.
I don’t stare at him directly. I can’t really focus on one thing in this room, but when I do look, his face shimmers.”

Do you recognize the book these first lines come from?

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#TopTenTuesday: Characters I’d Name a Pet After

Dini @ dinipandareads40 Comments

So, we’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: Characters I’d Name a Pet After!

When I first saw this prompt I came up against a solid wall and couldn’t think of a single character I’d like to name a pet after. In all my life, I think the only pet I’ve named after a character was my first cat when I was a kid and I very originally (cough) named her Totoro.

I was so sure that I was going to give this week a pass, but then I decided to challenge myself by having a look at my shelf to see if any names came to mind from the books staring back at me. Surprisingly, there were a few! I have two doggos in my life right now and it’s been years since I’ve had a cat, so it’s kinda funny that when I thought of these names, I actually pictured them all as names for cats? All of the characters I mention are some of my all-time favourites. Maybe one takes an animal form. Some are full of mischief. Others are very sweet and nerdy. Almost all of them have dry senses of humour and are as sarcastic as I can be IRL. Basically, they’re characters who have wormed their way into my heart and who made my reading experience that much better!

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Goodreads Monday – Minimum Wage Magic by Rachel Aaron

Dini @ dinipandareads15 Comments

Welcome back to Goodreads Monday! It’s been a very hot minute since I did one but I figured I might as well get back into it! This weekly meme was started by @Lauren’s Page Turners and it invites you to pick a book from your TBR and explain why you want to read it. Easy enough, right? Feel free to join in if you want to! I’ll be using a random number generator to pick my books from my insanely long GR Want-to-read list.

This week’s featured book is Minimum Wage Magic (DFZ #1) by Rachel Aaron. This is an urban fantasy with magic and dragons and it has a 4.16 star rating on Goodreads with roughly 400 reviews.

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Sundays in Bed With… #MyWeeklyWrapUp

Dini @ dinipandareads3 Comments

We’re back with another Sundays in Bed With… meme! This meme dares to ask you what book has been in your bed this morning and is hosted by Midnight Book Girl. Come share what book you’ve spent time curled up reading in bed with, or which book you wish you had time to read today!

I picked up a book for all of five minutes this Sunday but now that it’s well into the evening, I’m looking forward to spending the rest of my night in bed with The Boy, the Wolf, and the Stars! I’m reading this for the blog tour next week and I managed to read five minutes of it this morning before my day became crazy! But how good does this synopsis sound?! I’m so excited to cosy up with it tonight!

A boy and his pet fox go on a quest to find a wolf who has eaten all the stars in the sky before the Shadow Witch destroys the stars and removes good magic from the world forever.

Long ago, the land of Ulv was filled with magic. But that was before a wolf ate all the Stars in the night sky, ridding the world of magic and allowing Shadow Creatures, beasts made of shadow and evil, to flourish. Twelve-year-old Bo knows the stories but thinks the Stars and the wolf who ate them are nothing more than myths—until the day Bo’s guardian, Mads, is attacked by a giant wolf straight from the legends. With his dying breath, Mads tells Bo that Ulv is in danger and the only way to prevent the Shadow Creatures from taking over is to return the Stars to the sky.

And so Bo—accompanied by his best friend, a fox called Nix, a girl named Selene who’s magic is tied to the return of the Stars, and Tam, a bird-woman who has vowed to protect Bo at all costs—sets off on a quest to find the three magical keys that will release the Stars. But Bo isn’t the only one who wants the Stars, and the friends soon find themselves fleeing angry villagers, greedy merchants, and a vengeful wolf. And all the while, an evil witch lurks in the shadows and time is running out.

What are you currently reading?

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Let’s Talk Bookish: When It’s Time to Hit the Breaks!

Dini @ dinipandareads16 Comments

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme, hosted by Rukky @Eternity Books  & Dani @ Literary Lion, where we get to discuss certain topics, share our opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts! I’ve listed the upcoming topics in brief at the end of my post, but check out these pages for more information on November 2020 prompts & a list of past prompts!

Now without further ado… This week’s topic asks us about:

WHEN ARE READING BREAKS A GOOD IDEA?

(SUGGESTED BY LYDIA @ LYDIA SCHOCH)
Examples: Do you ever take breaks from reading? What causes you to take a reading break and how long are they typically? When would you recommend reading breaks to others? Do you think reading breaks help you to read more in the long run?

Do you ever take breaks from reading?

Just like with anything, I do think it’s good to take a break from reading every now and again. A break doesn’t necessarily have to mean taking a week or month away (and it also doesn’t necessarily mean putting a stop to perusing books in general 😉), but as a mood reader I find it really helps when I can’t settle on what to read next!

What causes you to take a break and how long are they?

Thinking back on when I’ve taken breaks, I’ve noticed that they’ve all pretty much been unplanned and I took them for various reasons. My most recent break, which happened at the start of the pandemic, was actually the longest I can recall taking and I ended up not really reading anything for about 1.5 months? And I mean I actively didn’t pick up a book during that time. This was mostly because of Animal Crossing LOL. 😂 But I know I’m not alone in saying that the pandemic stress really got to me at the beginning! Other times, I’ve taken weekend or sometimes week long breaks if I really got into a TV show that sucked up all my spare time. I don’t watch a lot of Netflix/TV so this rarely happens but when it does I zone hard on it 😅 I’ve also taken one day breaks a few times especially if I have a slight book hangover and I want to take a breather before diving into whatever I choose to read next.

When would you recommend reading breaks to others & are they helpful in the long run?

Obviously it’s pretty subjective. If you feel you need to take a break, you should definitely do it. As a mood reader, I find taking breaks helps me when nothing I pick up can hold my attention. Putting books aside for a little while does help me to feel refreshed again and eager to get back to reading. Also, as I’ve become more critical of what I read, I find that even when I’m reading something that’s not really heavy or intense, like a romcom, my mind is still always constantly buzzing, analysing and finding things to critique (if anything) and after a while, it does get pretty tiring because then everything feels unenjoyable. At that point, it does wonders to give yourself a break and let your mind rest!

I would recommend taking a break when:

  • Can’t decide what to read or are experiencing a book hangover, especially if it’s a big one!
  • You feel overwhelmed or stressed out about reading
  • You just feel like you need it–whether it’s because you’d rather watch TV or you want to game or whatever it is you want to do. Just do what’s best for you!

So, what do you think? I know that reading is a form of escapism for many of us, but do you ever take reading breaks? How long do they last for and do you find that breaks help you in any way?

First Lines Friday – 13 November

Dini @ dinipandareads13 Comments

Happy Friday book lovers! We’re back with another First Lines Friday, a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines? Here are the rules:

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
  • Finally… reveal the book!

First lines:

“After they found the third body that year, Justin Hawthorne knelt in his backyard and prepared to hear his future.”

Do you recognize the book these first lines come from?

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#TopTenTuesday: Books Titles that Would Make Great Song Titles!

Dini @ dinipandareads26 Comments

So, we’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: Book Titles that Would Make Great Song Titles (submitted by Deanna @ A Novel Glimpse)

I don’t know about you but I’m so glad that this week’s prompt was so fun and easy to do because it’s only Tuesday but Monday already felt like a whole ass week! But I digress…

I ended up listing titles for books that are mostly still on my TBR and when I started thinking about what books would make great titles, I immediately thought back to my “emo” days when songs had titles like “Being from Jersey Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry”, “The Curse of Curves”, “When I Get Home You’re So Dead”, “The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows”, “Cute Without the ‘E’ (Cut From The Team)”, and so on… 😂 So I ended up going down this route for the song titles this week and I think I’d definitely stop to listen to these tracks if I came across these titles? 🤣 My curiosity would be piqued at the very least!

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