Hello Mondays, welcome back to #5OnMyTBR, a meme created by the wonderful E @ The Local Bee Hunter’s Nook. This bookish meme gets us to dig even further into our TBRs by simply posting about five books on our TBR! You can learn more about it here or in the post announcing it. You can find the full list of prompts (past and future) at the end of this post!
This week’s prompt is: Halloween Freebie
Read More »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 The Outsider by Stephen King. This is a psychological thriller that was published several years ago now (2017) and has a 4.05 star rating on Goodreads.
Read More »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 been you’ve spent time curled up reading in bed with, or which book you wish you had time to read today!
This Sunday I’m trying to read but I’m having such a hard time focusing because my moods are a little all over the place! I’ve started reading The Song of the Marked again and I am enjoying it. Even though I haven’t made much of a dent, I’ve laughed a surprising number of times already because the banter is great!
I also started Love Offline as I need to get it read for the tour next week. The blurb says it’s perfect for fans of The Flatshare, Lindsey Kelk and Sophie Kinsella, so I have high expectations? Let’s see how it plays out! Both book covers are linked to the Goodreads pages if you wanna know more about them!
What are you currently reading?
Read More »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: wishlist.
Wishlists! I’m actually not very good at making them and keeping them up to date. Unlike my Goodreads TBR, which has all the books under the sun that I want to read, I very rarely remember to mark a book for my wishlist when browsing either Amazon and/or Book Depository, and more often than not, only remember to do so after I’ve closed everything and am thus too lazy to go back and mark them 😂 Yay for my bank but I guess but boo for those who want to buy me books? (Just kidding, no one wants to buy me books lmao). But anyway, before I manage to wind on even longer, here are five books that are on my Book Depository wishlist! 😉
(book covers are linked to the Goodreads pages!)
Read More »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 October 2020 prompts & a list of past prompts!
Now without further ado… This week’s topic asks us about:
(SUGGESTED BY RUKKY)
Examples: We talk a lot about diverse books and reads, but what really makes a book diverse? Are books written by authors or about characters from Eastern Europe (Lithuania, Ukraine, Hungary, etc) considered diverse? Would you consider a book set in Spain about a Spanish main character diverse? Why or why not? Does diverse mean characters or authors from South America, Asia, and Africa, or from different religious, sexual, ability, etc backgrounds only?
This is a great question and very relevant topic as more readers continue to look for diverse books, and as more diverse books also get published. I’ve been trying to consciously diversify my reads for a while now and 2020 has been my most successful year doing that! I’m a little intimidated about answering this week’s prompt because I think there are quite a few layers to the topic, and I don’t feel comfortable going too in-depth as I’m not that “knowledgeable” about it. But this post is about sharing my thoughts, so I will do that and hopefully I make some sense and don’t come off as (too) uniformed or ridiculous!
Diversity (noun)
Diversity as defined by Merriam-Webster
: the condition of having or being composed of differing elements : VARIETY
especially : the inclusion of different types of people (such as people of different races or cultures) in a group or organization.
: an instance of being composed of differing elements or qualities
When I think about diverse books, I immediately think of stories with characters who are marginalized, BIPOC, and/or LGBTQ+. Or are written by authors of colour or LGBTQ+. I also count books that have representation for different religions, ethnicities, mental health, disability, and chronic illness (among other topics) as diverse too. However, I only classify books as diverse when:
This prompt included a few guiding questions that really made me think whether I would classify certain reads as diverse. For example, if I read a book about Eastern Europe, is that considered diverse? I think if it’s set there and the story is about a straight white character, then no, I wouldn’t. But what if it’s about religion or ethnicity—would I consider it diverse then? I think I probably would because it includes people from different backgrounds. What about a book set in Spain with a Spanish cast—is that diverse? It made me think about a book I read earlier this year called Incendiary by Zoraida Córdova. It’s set during the Spanish inquisition period but in an alternate reality, and I considered it diverse because Cordova is AOC and the characters, including the MC, were diverse.
As I write this I realise that perhaps how I consider books diverse is pretty simplistic? But ultimately, I do think it’s subjective because I don’t believe diversity can be so neatly packaged into a box where it means exactly the same thing for everybody. There are many factors to consider, including our individual backgrounds and experiences, and it also depends on the book/author too.
Is it enough to consider a book diverse if it teaches you about different people, cultures, etc.? Is it enough to consider it diverse if it broadens your world view?
Sorry, I know I haven’t really answered anything in this post and it’s mostly just a bunch of brain blah and word vom that I’m not even sure makes any sense–but it has definitely got me thinking!
Now I’m really curious to know what you think. What makes a book diverse in your opinion? Do you think it’s a strict definition or do you think it’s subjective? I’m keen to know your thoughts if you’d like to share them with me!
Ugh, I’ve been hitting struggle town real hard since last week but… is it just me or is this week lasting forever? I can’t believe it’s Wednesday but I really wish it was already Friday 😂
Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode of WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words, which means I’ll be answering these questions:
Since last week’s update I’ve only managed to read two books. The struggle has been super real what with work really draining my energy, and it feels like I finished reading something other than these two books but… I guess not. Perhaps I’ve just lost the plot and have started making things up? 😂
The Magic Ingredient by Lindy Miller ★★★½
The perfect autumnal romance about second chances, family and discovering what’s important. This was a super sweet and wholesome romance that’s set against the backdrop of a small community, and it has all the wonderful small-town quirkiness that I love in these types of novels! Also, this made me crave sweet desserts like never before! I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to get my hands on a whoopie pie so badly 😂 Read my review.
Hello Mondays, welcome back to #5OnMyTBR, a meme created by the wonderful E @ The Local Bee Hunter’s Nook. This bookish meme gets us to dig even further into our TBRs by simply posting about five books on our TBR! You can learn more about it here or in the post announcing it. You can find the full list of prompts (past and future) at the end of this post!
This week’s prompt is: Enemies-to-Lovers
Read More »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 UNSUB by Meg Gardiner. This is a psychological thriller that was published several years ago now (2017) and has a 4.05 star rating on Goodreads.
Read More »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 been you’ve spent time curled up reading in bed with, or which book you wish you had time to read today!
It’s already Sunday evening and I’ve not done much reading today… But I will be spending the rest of my night in bed reading Legends Rise, book three in the Venators series. I read a bit of it already this morning and I’ve been enjoying it so far! It’s been a while since I read the previous book (also, my memory is weak) it took a little bit of warming up to remember what happened, but it does feel good to be back in this world and with these characters. I still feel like Grey must be protected at all costs and oh my, I’m loving Beltran even more!
The path will be forged in sweat and blood.
Rune, Grey, the shape-shifter Beltran, and willful vampire, Verida, set out to rescue their friend and mentor, Tate, from the gladiator games. But first they must navigate the perils of Eon and its warring factions. Each of this band of four carries with them a secret that threatens to tear their group apart from within. Rune now bears the mark of the promise she made to save Grey’s life-a nixie bubble lodged in her arm that could call her away to do their bidding or spell her death.
Even as their loyalty to their cause and to one another faces its greatest test, Rune’s twin brother Ryker is forging an alliance with their mortal enemy, the powerful sorceress Zio, who has plans of her own for the Venators and Eon. Hearts will be bared, secrets unveiled, and relationships made and destroyed in this stunning new installment of the Venators series
What are you currently reading?
Read More »I know I’m posting a bit later than Friday, but better late than never? Maybe?
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 October 2020 prompts & a list of past prompts!
Now without further ado… This week’s topic asks us about:
(SUGGESTED BY LYDIA @ LYDIA SCHOCH)
Examples: Do you maintain a TBR physically, online or both? How do you decide which books get to go on your TBR? Do you ever “prune” your TBR to remove old books, how do you decide who stays and who goes? How big is your TBR currently?
But that gif is literally me maniacally laughing on top of TBR mountain because… My current TBR on Goodreads is currently at 1,165 books and I haven’t even counted my actual TBR.
*by the way, if anyone wants to be friends on Goodreads you can find me HERE!*
So we already know I keep a TBR on Goodreads and that’s probably my most complete list. Although I first signed up for it in 2012, I only started using it properly in 2018. I did make my way onto the site now and again before then but I guess the majority of the books have been added more recently…
My Goodreads TBR is a combination of books that I own and books that I wish to own, so I definitely haven’t spent all the money to purchase 1K+ books. Trust, I’d be dead broke otherwise! But I still find this number on Goodreads astonishingly and embarrassingly large. You can say I have a very good relationship with the “Want to read” button. 😂
Of course, I also have my “actual” TBR with all the books I own (physically and digitally). But I don’t have a proper record of all these books so I don’t know how many still need to be read. It’s a lot easier to keep track of my physical TBR without any kind of file (most of the time) as I can see what’s on my shelves, but books on my digital TBR tend to disappear into the void until I remember them at random.
Seeing as my GR list is over 1,000 books, I guess you can say I’m not very discerning when it comes to adding to my TBR? 😂 Here’s how I usually decide:
It’s not an overly complicated process. My taste in books is quite eclectic and it doesn’t take much to pique my interest. Although I do mostly read YA SFF and contemporary romance, I don’t limit myself to any particular genre. A lot of people do stick to their tried and true/comfort zone genres (and that’s cool) but I quite like bouncing around because who knows where I’ll find my next favourite, right?!
If you can believe it (which you probably can) my GR TBR last year was actually bigger than it is now. When I felt desperately in need of a way to motivate myself to cull the list, I decided to do the “Down the TBR Hole” meme on a weekly basis. For this meme, I’d look at 10-20 books on my TBR and kick off anything that didn’t sound appealing anymore or books that might still sound interesting but I know I’ll never actually buy a copy of or read anytime soon.
I admittedly struggled to kick anything off the list at first but I know realistically I won’t be able to buy all of the books, especially with even more releases piquing my interest with every year that passes. I was doing a pretty good job of shortening the TBR and managed to kick off about 250+ books (maybe even more) until I stopped doing it because I was too busy doing other things… 😬
I rally think I’ll take time to sit down at the end of 2020 (or maybe in 2021) to do a proper clean up because I know there are plenty on this list that I can get rid of, I just really need to make time to do it! My TBR feels more than a little disorganised and I definitely want to take better control of it moving forward!
How do you manage your TBR? Do you find it easy to cull books from your list? Do you get rid of physical books you don’t want to read? What do you do with the digital books you own and are no longer interested in? Curious to see how everyone manages theirs!
dinipandareads 