Welcome back to my second week joining the Thursday Discussion posts! Thursday Discussion is a biweekly meme hosted by Ally Writes Things where you write a post based on the prompt for that week. The post can be as long or as short as you want, and you can talk about as much or as little as you want. This week’s topic is books you need to read before the end of 2019 and coincidentally, I’ve just posted on bookstagram about that topic today!
Hosted by Ally Writes Things, Thursday Discussion is a biweekly meme where you write a post based on the prompt for that week. The post can be as long or as short as you want, and you can talk about as much or as little as you want.
Over the last month I’ve seen some Thursday Discussion posts on some of my favorite blogs and I’ve been interested in taking part but one thing or another always took me away from posting (most likely my laziness). I finally decided to join today — although with a different topic than what’s post! Oops, yes, hi! It’s just that this week’s topic is childhood favorites and I have two posts about that already, which you can read here and here. So instead I decided to do my post on a previous discussion topic about books that make me laugh out loud!
Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren. Honestly, Hazel is just the funniest character. I love her spunk and vivaciousness and how she was unapologetically herself!
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman. There was a lot of awkweirdness in this book that had me laughing out loud because not only was it awkweird but it was also incredibly relatable. I laughed quite a lot every time Nina and Tom interacted with each other!
Saga Series by Brian K. Vaughan. This series!!! It’s no secret that this might be my favorite graphic novel ever! I just love everything about it. Some of the characters in this book, especially Lying Cat 😻, really had me cracking up!
Nevernight and Godsgrave (The Nevernight Chronicles #1 & #2) by Jay Kristoff. I have to hand it to Kristoff, as bloody and gory as this book can be, there are so many moments where he can still really have me laughing out loud with his dark and dry humor! Gotta love it 😂
What If It’s Us by Adam Silvera and Becky Albertalli. As much as there were cringey moments in this book that made me feel my age, the characters and their awkwardness really had me laughing out loud. As a side character, Dylan never failed to make me laugh. Arthur was a lottle OTT sometimes but his bumbling innocence really had me laughing too (not in a mean way)!
Side note: I don’t normally do these posts because I don’t feel that I can convey my thoughts and opinions as well as other bloggers do. But I decided to take the plunge this week and I’m hoping it doesn’t fail lol I’d love to know if you enjoyed this post, so I know whether to try doing them more often!
As you can probably tell from the title 😏 today I want to talk about my Kindle and the reasons why I love it. I guess this topic really brings it back to the often discussed ebooks vs. ‘real’ books debate. I obviously still love my paperbacks and hardcovers, but I can’t deny the many advantages that my Kindle gives me, especially as an international reader.
Here’s a little backstory: I got my first Kindle the Christmas after I finished my MA degree in 2012. I was slated to finish with a 2:1, which isn’t a distinction but I’m not the best student and I was honestly just elated that I managed to complete my degree! Lmao. Obviously this meant treating myself, but my partner at the time beat me to it and got me the First Edition Kindle for Christmas. It was probably one of the best gifts I’ve ever received! But that was 2012 and since then, I’ve moved on to the Kindle Paperwhite (2015), followed this year by the latest model (2018), which I was “forced” to upgrade to when an unfortunate accident involving my backpack, laptop and Kindle, rendered the 2015 model dead. Sad times, but we don’t talk about it! 💔
I was really tempted to get the Kindle Oasis because it’s a beaut, and I use my Kindle often enough to justify the hefty price tag, but I still couldn’t bring myself to do it. I’m hoping that *somebody* is going to take a hint that I want it and purchase it for me on my birthday or Christmas/New Year though. Who knows! But the newest Kindle Paperwhite is still pretty awesome. It’s practically got 90% of the Oasis features, it’s just bigger (same size as the OG Paperwhite), and half the price!
There are so many things to love about the Kindle. To state the obvious, it pretty much fits in every bag. I have this tiny Herschel backpack that won’t even fit flip flops, but my Kindle fits perfectly in it! I can conveniently take it everywhere. Sometimes I just don’t want to take paperbacks/hardcovers with me when I go out because they add quite a bit of weight to my bag and I’m so lazy. Plus, I usually fly a lot for work and reading on my Kindle means I don’t have to stop reading when they dim the lights on planes, and I don’t need two hands to read it while standing (i.e. waiting in queues). Not to mention you can have HUNDREDS of books with you at all times and you don’t need more shelf space. I mean, what’s not to love about that?! This indulges the mood reader in me as I can easily browse through the many unread books *coughcough* on my Kindle library and switch to different reads if I’m not feeling it with the ease of a few taps. Another great thing is that I can highlight all the passages and have it automatically stored and linked to Goodreads, which makes finding the important bits super easy to find come review time. I can even share my highlights on Goodreads if I wanted to.
But the best thing about having my Kindle is that I can get so many of the latest releases, more obscure backlist books, and e-ARCs. Living in Indonesia means the newest releases don’t come out until they’re no longer “new”, if they ever release in stores at all. Sure, I can pre-order or get them online, but living on the other side of the world means that books take 2-4 weeks, sometimes longer, to reach me and my impatient ass just can’t deal with that–even if sometimes I don’t read my newest buys right away. But… that’s a different story you can read on my TTT post about avoiding books on my shelves. Yes, even the ones I’m so desperate to get! As for ARCs, well, I can just forget about ever getting physical copies, but I can at least get the e-ARCs on my Kindle. WINNING! 👏🏽
So what am I missing out on when I’m reading on my Kindle? I honestly don’t have a very long list! I mean, it’s definitely not the same reading experience as holding a book, flipping pages and inhaling the new/old book smell; but there are worse things. Also, if I really love an ebook, I usually also want to add it to my physical shelf, so I end up having double copies and that also means bye-bye money (my savings get so sad)! Something that does annoy me about my new Kindle is that the battery runs out much faster. I don’t know why, since I don’t even use the bluetooth feature; but again, it’s not a big deal because it charges quickly!
So was this post basically just an endorsement for the Kindle? Yes. Yes, it was, but I really love my Kindle Paperwhite and I couldn’t imagine my life without it, especially because I would definitely be reading a lot less!
Do you have a Kindle? Do you also love it as much as I love mine? And if you don’t, would you get one or are ebooks not your jam?
dinipandareads 