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.*
*Sorry if a book has been featured twice. I need to make better note of which ones I’ve done already!
This week’s featured book is The Fortunate Ones by Ed Tarkington. This is a literary fiction that is set to be published in January 2021 and currently has a 4.0 rating on Goodreads with 32 reviews. So very early days!
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.*
*Sorry if a book has been featured twice! I need to make better note of which ones I’ve done already!
This week’s featured book is Among the Beasts & Briars by Ashley Poston. This is a fairy tale inspired YA fantasy that was published in October 2020 and has a 3.88 rating on Goodreads with 600+ reviews.
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.*
*Sorry if a book has been featured twice! I need to make better note of which ones I’ve done already!
This week’s featured book is The Waking Forest by Alyssa Wees. This is a YA paranormal fantasy that was published in 2019 and has a 3.35 rating on Goodreads with 300+ reviews. Hmm… Not that great?
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.*
*Sorry if a book has been featured twice! I need to make better note of which ones I’ve done already!
This week’s featured book is Daughter of the Burning City by Amanda Foody. This is a YA fantasy and mystery that was published in 2017 and has a 3.71 rating on Goodreads with almost 1.5k reviews.
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.*
*Sorry if a book has been featured twice! I need to make better note of which ones I’ve done already!
This week’s featured book is The Book of M by Peng Shepherd. This is a post-apocalyptic/dystopian novel that was published in 2018 and has a 3.69 rating on Goodreads with 2k+ reviews.
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:
rereading books
(SUGGESTED BY ARIA @ BOOK NOOK BITS) Examples: Do you reread books? How often? Do you reread a series before reading the newest book? Is there a certain book or series that you always come back to reread? Do you count rereads towards your monthly/yearly goals? Do you feel guilty about rereading books?
Do i reread books?
As frequently as I go on about wanting to reread many books, especially the ones that are my favourites, I actually don’t reread often. Prior to the last two years I think I probably only reread one or two books a year or practically once in a blue moon. My memory is notoriously bad and I often can’t remember what I did earlier in the week let alone the details of books I read years ago, so I always intend to reread more; but with my ever increasing and already endless TBR I find myself feeling less motivated to pick up something that I’ve already read before.
I know many book lovers reread regularly for the comfort of knowing what comes next in a story, plus the fact that it’s a guaranteed win as it was such a joy to read the first time, and I totally get that. That said, I think part of the reason why I don’t reread so often is because I know what happens already and while I might’ve loved it the first time, I feel that takes a bit of the excitement away the second time around.
Aside from that, I think I also just like the idea of “preserving” how I felt about a book after that initial read especially if I really loved it. With rereading there’s always the possibility those feelings might change, and while of course sometimes it’s for the better, I think I prefer keeping those original feelings even if that means the finer details of the story/characters are fuzzy.
do i reread a series before the newest book?
Usually a good amount of time passes between books in a series and because of my awful memory, I know that if I pick up the latest without rereading (or at least recapping) the previous books, I won’t have a clue as to what’s going on! Though considering that my pile of unfinished series keeps growing because I say I’d like to reread the previous books, it’s a pretty good indication of how often I actually get around to doing it 😂 Oddly enough I only started wanting to reread series’ from last year, when before that I was fine with relying on recap sites to refresh my memory–I might struggle at the start but I’d eventually come around to (mostly) figuring it all out by the end. I’m quite tempted to just say “eff it” and pick up the newest book(s) for the series I have waiting in the wings, but I know I’ll come to regret that decision if I do it 🙈
REREADING THE ONES THAT GIVE ME COMFORT…
That’s not to say that I never reread or get around to rereading a series though! Last December, I reread the first two The Folk of the Air books before the finale came out. This is where that whole ‘changed feelings’ thing happened because I remembered adoring The Cruel Prince when I read it for the first time in 2018, but when I reread it those feelings changed… considerably! 🙈
I occasionally reread poetry/prose books, such as Lang Leav’s Memories, but my “go to” rereads are my favourite Austen’s: Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion. For some reason, probably more sentimental than anything, I can keep rereading these two books over and over again and I’d still love the stories as much as I did the first time(s).
TOWARDS MY YEARLY READING GOALS & NOT FEELING GUILTY!
I find it kinda amusing how strict people are with what does and doesn’t count towards monthly/yearly reading goals 😂 If someone wants to include audiobooks, children’s books, and rereads towards their yearly count, then why shouldn’t they and why are you policing them about it? It’s not a competition and it will have zero affect on you and your reading goals! But I digress… 😬
I do count my rereads in my yearly goals because I’m still reading a whole ass book after all! Do I feel guilty about it? No. Do I feel guilty about rereading? Also no! As a mood reader I’m very much for picking up whatever fits my current feelings and if that means rereading something then I’ll go for it, and I encourage everyone to do the same! Of course, it might be slightly different if you’ve committed to reading something before a certain date, but I do find that if I really force myself to read anything I’m not in the mood for, it’ll only negatively influence my feelings toward it, and that’s not fair to either the story or the author!
What are your thoughts, friends? Do you reread books and how often do you do it? What are your “go-to” rereads? Do you also count them towards your yearly goal? Tell me all!
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.
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:
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?
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.
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?
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