Friends, it’s the last #TopTenTuesday of this year and decade! How insane is that?! I just wanted to say that wherever you are and whatever you do to ring in the new year, I hope you have a wonderful 2020. For those who’ve had a particularly trying 2019, I hope that the fresh year will bring more light into your life. And as always, I hope everyone has a very amazingly book-filled year ahead! – 🐼💙
It’s that time of the week again, friends! We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: favorite books I read in 2019. Last Friday I already tried to narrow down my list of favorite reads from the 200+ books that I read this year. I broke it down into categories and I managed to narrow it down to five books per category, which left me with a Top 30–it was hard 😅 Lol I think I just feel guilty because in narrowing it down I end up not mentioning the other amazing books I’ve read, and it’s like I’m ignoring them or not acknowledging the hard work the authors did? 🤣 Is that just me? I’m determined to still try and narrow it down to a Top 10 though so here goes nothing. I’m also gonna keep it short and sweet and stick to pictures.
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HOLY HECK, THIS WAS SO DIFFICULT! What books made it into your Top 10 reads of 2019? Did we pick any of the same books as top reads this year?
It’s that time of the week again, friends! We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: books I hope to find under my tree. My family actually doesn’t celebrate Christmas and neither do we have any kind of Balinese/Indonesian tradition that involves gift exchanges etc. The closest we get to the very festive and jovial mood of Christmas is on New Years Eve. But this year we’re actually planning to do a very small White Elephant round and I’m looking forward to it. I don’t think I’ll be finding any books under “my tree” 😅 but STILL a girl can hope right?! But I also just like to make these lists so here’s what I’d hope to get:
It’s that time of the week again, friends! We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: my December TBR. But as I’ve already written a few posts (like this one and this one here) I thought I would choose a past topic to do and I’ve chosen: books that surprised me (in both good and bad ways) focusing on the books I’ve read this year. I’m splitting the post up into ‘the good’ and ‘the not-so-good’ and for both parts, the books I listed were mostly in order read (from earliest to later in the year), so it’s not about some books being better/worse than others. It was interesting to look back on what books surprised me this year and it’s definitely making me think more about what my top reads for 2019 are going to be!
It’s that time of the week again, friends! We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: a freebie! I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with this freebie, but after some thought I decided that I would try injecting a little bit of holiday cheer to my blog, so I’m looking at the brand new holiday titles on my shelf. I’m not much of a holiday or seasonal reader so I don’t have any Christmassy books, but that is all changed today, friends! Early this morning I read Jana’s ‘A Bookish Little Christmas’ post and couldn’t help getting sucked right into the holiday mood, intense tropical heat notwithstanding! I mean, everything about the post screamed CHRISTMAS BOOK BUYING TIME…and what do you think I did? 😅 If you guessed that I went and bought all the Christmassy books then you’re spot on! Okay, I’m kidding (only a little bit). I did buy some but there are quite a few options available on Kindle Unlimited, in case you’re looking for a holiday read! I’m going to go ahead and say that pretty much 100% of these were cover buys 😍
It’s that time of the week again, friends! We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: holiday reads. BUT since I haven’t really read books to go with the season, I’ve decided to just post my December Possibility Pile! This post might seem repetitive if you’ve read this post and this post already but I’m going to focus on 10 books that I really want to read before the year is out! Obviously, I want to read a lot more than these ten before 2019 is over, but I’m going to do my best to at least see these ones through. By now you know I’m a mood reader so this is going to be tough (maybe) but I’m hoping that December will see me doing these unread books a solid by getting them off the never ending TBR! This isn’t even including the books that I want to read for Task 3 of the #Triwizardathon either but I don’t know what I’ll be reading for that yet!
It’s that time of the week again, friends! We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: thankful freebie. I don’t celebrate Thanksgiving but I can’t help getting caught up in the thankful spirit that’s been going around in the book community lately. 2019 has been a year of… a lot. A lot of everything. In many ways I feel like this year has been one of extremes with either many high-highs and many low-lows, which has been incredibly trying. This basically means that I’ve been a hot-emotional-mess for 90% of the year, including right now! But before I become even more emotional, let’s get to what I’m thankful for this year. As this is a freebie, I’ve decided to keep it simple and write a list of all the bookish and non-bookish things I’m thankful for. Of course, I’ll try to keep it as bookish as possible 😉 Here we go:
A few weeks ago, Leelynn@ Sometimes Leelynn Reads tagged me to do this fun tag and I’m just now getting around to answering it! I love tags (y’all can tag me in all the tags!) but I’m quite horrible at making time to answer them (and it always takes me a while to think of the answers, I’m slow like that)! I’m glad I’ve finally gotten around to answering this one.
If you were a book genre, what would it be?
I’d probably be a contemporary, and mostprobably a contemporary romance because I’m a hopeless romantic. A big one! Despite going through the wringer and having all the bad luck when it comes to love myself, I’m still a fan of the mushy, gushy stuff and I’m one of those people that normally don’t mind having romance storylines in whatever I read (most of the time). I live for unrealistic expectations and being swept off my metaphorical feet!
What villain from a book do you identify with the most?
I always have such a hard time answering these types of questions. I’m going to go and say Victor Vale from Vicious (Villains #1) by V.E. Schwab, but also, Holland Vosijk from Schwab’s Shades of Magic series.
What protagonist are you most similar to?
It’d be too difficult to choose just one character I’m most similar to, but the first one that pops into my head is Hannah Martin from Maybe In Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I resonated with so much of what Hannah felt, thought and experienced.
“I think I have to believe that life will work out the way it needs to. If everything that happens in the world is just a result of chance and there’s no rhyme or reason to any of it, that’s just too chaotic for me to handle. I’d have to go around questioning every decision I’ve ever made, every decision I will ever make. If our fate is determined with every step we take . . . it’s too exhausting. I’d prefer to believe that things happen as they are meant to happen.”
Which book did you connect with in the past that you no longer do?
There are actually a lot that I don’t connect with anymore but I think the biggest ones might be Twilight and Divergent. To be honest, my disconnect with Twilight really happened with all the movies. I mean no offense to anyone who loved the movie(s), but that was the first and only movie that caused me to walk out of the cinema LOL 🙈it just really wasn’t my jam. I never watched the Divergent movies for that reason. There are also a lot of romances that I used to read and love with all the angst in my 5’1″ body, but when I think of them now I cringe so hard!
What recent book would you love to be a character in?
I would love to experience the magic of the grimoires and the Great Libraries from Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson. Also, I’d just totally love to meet Elisabeth, Nathaniel and Silas. I’d be terrified but simultaneously excited by the prospect of stepping into one of these places. Knowing my luck though, I’d probably be hypnotised and lured in by some Class 8 grimoire that gruesomely kills me, but you know, I just want to have the experience of seeing and feeling these books come to life! 🤷🏻♀️
How do your reading habits show off in your personality?
I tend to get intensely stuck in the zone when I’m reading and I think that definitely shows off in my personality. Also, even though I tend to gravitate towards certain genres because they’re in my comfort zone, I’m also not averse to trying a wide variety or something completely new, and I think that’s similar to how approach most of the things in life!
What book taught you something about yourself?
There’s really not one book that I can pinpoint for this answer. I think that I take something away from all the books that I read, including the fantasy ones! There are just too many books that I’ve read in my lifetime that have taught me something for me to choose one. Shameless self-promotion: I did post about books that have shaped me the other day, so you can check that out here if you’re curious to see it!
I’m tagging a few friends (no pressure if you don’t do tags by the way, just ignore me!) but to whoever is reading this, if you want to do it too, feel free to join! Amanda | Emer | Joanna | Sammie | YOU!
Hi friends, thanks for stopping by! My name is Dini and I’m an avid book reader and ultimate book lover. By starting this blog, I want to challenge myself to become a better reader; to be more critical and more aware of what I read, and to better understand what makes a good read (for me). I also hope to connect with other like-minded book lovers and share recommendations with each other. I might not be the most eloquent reviewer, and I might not write the best or most insightful reviews, but I hope to build that up with practice over time.
I’m not a book snob… While I have favorite genres, such as romance, fantasy, historical fiction, and true crime, I’m open to pretty much all genres. The only genre that I don’t read much of is horror (especially paranormal) because I am The Ultimate Chicken™️ that can’t handle it. Although I do love Stephen King, I tend to stay away from his scarier novels (such as IT; sorry, not sorry). Every year I also challenge myself to read more non-fiction–while I don’t dislike NF, it’s difficult for me to keep my attention focused, and I get very easily distracted.
The genres that I like include: YA fantasy/fiction, historical fiction, fantasy/sci-fi, mysteries/thrillers, true crime, romance, new adult, poetry/prose, classics, very rarely horror and occasionally non-fiction.
Don’t be a stranger! Hit that like and subscribe button if you like what you’re seeing. Leave me a comment if you’d like to chat, or if you want to tell me that you dislike or disagree with something that I’ve written. 😂 I’m open to engaging in discussions where we agree and disagree because that’s what life is about!
dinipandareads 