Do I really want to go to Hogwarts?

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Harry Potter

So, I thought I would start off the year with an existential crisis…

Ok, so I’ve decided to compile a list of pros and cons of going to Hogwarts

Pros

Magic

Magic is obviously the main reason everyone wants to go to Hogwarts

 

Umm…that’s it?

Like, why else do people want to go to Hogwarts?

The teachers?

The Quidditch?

And so now, we move into the cons.

Cons

Magic is HARD

Like, it takes them ages to learn how to make a feather float!

Hogwarts is dangerous

They actually have to do work

In SO many books/tv shows/movies/etc. they never seem to have to do any work…but at Hogwarts?

Like, seriously. The movies seriously under-represent how much work they have to do.

And they have to write with QUILLS! And INK! And they have to write massive-long essays BY HAND!

Like, I can barely type an essay on my computer, which brings my next point…

There is no internet/computers/technology of any kind

Like, guys, this means no twitter, no youtube…and no Google!!

So, they have to write these massive long essays, by hand, with quills, and they have to do all the research without Google!

Like, how do they even? I suppose it wasn’t so bad back in Harry Potter’s day, because it was the 90s and computers/the internet weren’t quite such a big thing, but these days?

In conclusion

So, I guess as much as I would LOVE to have magic, going to Hogwarts doesn’t seem as great as everyone says.

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What about you guys?

Do you want to go to Hogwarts? Even though the lack of internet/modern technology in general would make it 10x harder than muggle school? Let me know.

Dear Book, I judged you by your cover, I am so sorry

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Bloodlines, Cassandra Clare, City of Bones, Gillian Rubenstein, Legend, Marie Lu, Richelle Mead, Space Demons

So, you know how there’s the saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, and you know how we all totally just do it anyway…

Well, there has been many a time where I have not even picked up a book, purely because I didn’t like the cover…and I have regretted it dearly.

So, here are some books that I have neglected to pick up in the past, because of their covers, but later picked them up to discover I loved them.

Legend, by Marie Lu

I saw this book around the place for ages before I picked it up…

That cover just does not appeal to me. At. All.

I can’t remember what made me eventually pick it up, but pick it up I did…and I loved it.

And then Champion destroyed me.

City of Bones, by Cassandra Clare

 As with Legend, I saw this everywhere, but had no desire to read it…I’m just not a fan of that cover.

But then I heard of a book series called ‘The Mortal Instruments’, and it sounded interesting, so I googled it (this was back before I knew about goodreads), and I discovered that it was this book.

I read the first chapter sample thing online, and I was hooked.

Space Demons, by Gillian Rubenstein

My relationship with this series has a bit of a different story.

See, we had to study an author for school (we literally pulled author names out of a hat to see who we had to study), and I was looking at the books our school library had…

The two sequels for this book both looked appealing, which is the only reason I picked this one up…

And it was a good thing I did, because I love this series.

Bloodlines, by Richelle Mead

THIS. SERIES.

I’d been sort of intending to read the Vampire Academy books for a while (those covers held no real appeal to me, either), but I had no desire at all to read this books until I realised that they were the sequel series.

This is one of my favourite series ever!

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So guys, are there any books that you aren’t reading because their covers don’t appeal to you? Have you ever loved a book but hated the cover? What about the other way around? Have you read a book because of its cover, only to be disappointed?

Let me know.

 

These are a few of my favourite things

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Cara Lynn Shultz, Cynthia Hand, Everything Everything, Lauren James, Lauren Oliver, Leslye Walton, Magonia, Maria Dahvana Headley, Mary E. Pearson, Michelle Hodkin, Nicola Yoon, Spellbound, The Adoration of Jenna Fox, The Last Time We Say Goodbye, The Next Together, The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, Vanishing Girls

Sometimes, you read a book, and it is just full of all the things you love in a book.

Here’s a list of all my favourite things:

Short non-chapter-ish format

As seen in: Everything Everything, The Adoration of Jenna Fox

I’m not sure exactly how to describe this format, but if you’ve read the books above, you’ll know what I’m talking about…those books that are not made up of chapters, but of snippets. Random thoughts, short moments…I just LOVE a book that does this.

Reincarnated/Fated love

As seen in: Spellbound, The Next Together

There’s just something I really love about the whole reincarnated thing, where two characters fall in love over and over only to get horribly separated and have to relive the whole thing again.

News articles/Blog posts/etc

As seen in: Vanishing Girls, The Next Together

Don’t know why, but I always love it when the book is full of news paper articles, or blog posts, or police reports, or the like. I just find it really interesting.

General Weirdness

As seen in: Magonia, The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava lavender

When things are weird, and don’t make a brilliant amount of sense, I just love it!

A good, healthy does of ‘what the heck is going on here?’ is exactly what we all need sometimes.

Amnesia

As seen in: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, The Adoration of Jenna Fox

Where the main character has forgotten things that need remembering. Whether the memories are gradually brought to light throughout the book, or if the character just has to learn to cope with knowing nothing, I very much enjoy forgetfulness.

SCIENCE! And Nerds/smart people

As seen in: The Last Time We Say Goodbye, The Next Together

Smart people are the greatest. Especially when they also love maths 🙂
I like maths.

Stories told in Flashbacks

As seen in: The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

I absolutely LOVE the flashback thing. Where there’s a story happening in the present, and there’s one happening in the past. Love it.

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So, those are my favourite things. What are yours? Do you agree with anything on this list? Do you disagree? Let me know.

Also, if you have any recs you’d like to give me of books containing any of these things. Let’s here ’em.

The Ability to Live in Denial

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Bookish Thoughts

Some of you may have noticed this in the various books that you’ve read, but I’ve definitely noticed over the years that characters that we love have this annoying tendency to die.

And this is quite upsetting

I mean, who doesn’t get upset when their favourite characters die. It’s horrible.

And yes, I am looking at certain authors (who will remain nameless for potential spoiler reasons, but if you’ve read them, you’ll probably know who I’m talking about).

Now, characters usually die for a reason

That’s a generally accepted fact. The authors don’t (usually) kill of the characters for fun (though sometimes it feels like they do).

But sometimes we like to pretend that certain deaths didn’t happen

My mother excels at this. There are certain deaths in the Harry Potter series that she is convinced didn’t happen. She has decided that there was no point, and so it didn’t happen.

For some reason, I am unable to do this

People say if you didn’t like the ending, you should make up your own one in your head. But I can’t do that. If it didn’t happen that way in the book, then I can’t pretend it did. And if it did happen, I can’t pretend it didn’t.

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Am I the only one who can’t do this? Is the ability to live in denial a common thing that I’m lacking? Or do you guys struggle with it too? Let me know.

Dear Book, I know nothing about you, but I need you

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A Darker Shade of Magic, Alexandra Bracken, Amie Kaufman, Illuminae, Jay Kristoff, Passenger, Renee Ahdieh, Susan Dennard, The Wrath and the Dawn, Truthwitch, V.E. Schwab

Has anyone seen all the hype surrounding a book and gone OH MY GOSH I NEED THIS BOOK, and then when you tell your friends about it and how much you need it they’re all “What’s it about?”

And you just…

Since this happens to me all the time, I thought I’d compile a list of books I desperately need, even though I have no idea what they’re about.

Illuminae, by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

As far as I can tell, everyone who’s read this book has absolutely loved it…and so I need it.

Even though I have no flippin’ clue what it’s about.

Like, none whatsoever.

I just need it.

Passenger, by Alexandra Bracken

All I know about this is that Alexandra Bracken wrote it….and that’s more than enough for me to need it.

And look at that cover *gazes adoringly*

 

 

Truthwitch, by Susan Dennard

Wow, do I need this book!

Again, no clue what it’s about, but that cover and that title and everyone says it’s awesome and OH MY GOSH JUST GIVE IT TO ME!

 

 

The Wrath and the Dawn, by Renee Ahdieh

Like, what even is this book about?

I don’t even know. But I’ve heard great things.

 

 

 

A Darker Shade of Magic, by V.E. Schwab

I have heard many a good thing about this book…still have no idea what it’s supposed to be about, but check out that cover!

And that title…it beckons to me.

 

 

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Now, just to clarify, I don’t actually want to know what these books are about…I love surprises.

But this does happen to me way too often, so I have to know: does this happen to anyone else? Or do you all look at the blurb before deciding how much you need it?

Why I Stayed a Blogger

Continuing with my bloguversary week, I’m going to talk about why I stayed a blogger.

I love books

I mean, really, you should all know that by now.

I’ve really enjoyed blogging

It is actually a lot of fun. The writing of reviews, the reading of books, writing other blog posts…

But, really, the reason I keep going is because of you guys

As much fun as it is blogging generally, it is WAY more fun with you guys.

Getting comments, talking with you guys on twitter, is the absolute best! And really, I probably would have quit blogging ages back if you guys hadn’t started talking to me.

And I absolutely love commenting on all your blogs as well 🙂

Don’t forget, I’ve got a giveaway happening

Win a book of choice, ends on Sunday.

To view which books are available to choose from, see this post.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

How I Became a Blogger

Since it’s my bloguversary week, I thought I’d talk about how I became a blogger.

It all started with books

As many of you may have noticed, I love reading.

I needed somewhere on the internet to flail

I had a Tumblr, which was good for the flailing and the seeing other people flail, but I wanted something that was more…blog like.

After several attempts at other blogs, I stumbled upon wordpress

Which I decided was going to be a proper attempt this time, but I still didn’t post often. What with the lacking of ideas, and not actually knowing what I was doing…

Eventually, I sort of figured out what I was doing, and thus this blog was born.

Don’t forget, I’ve got a giveaway happening

Win a book of choice, ends on Sunday.

To view which books are available to choose from, see this post.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

How Do You Blog?

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Bookish Thoughts

Over the past year, I have discovered a rather interesting fact.

There is actually a method to my blogging

I KNOW! I’m surprised too!

You would think that after almost a whole year of blogging, I would have noticed earlier, but, nope. I’m only noticing it now.

I’m a massive scheduler

I schedule everything. There isn’t much I dislike more than clicking the ‘publish now’ button. Honestly. Even if I’m writing a post for that day, I will schedule it, even 5 minutes beforehand.

I see other people, and they’re like “How do you schedule?” And I’m sitting here like, “How do you not?”

I’m also productive in bursts

I will be super productive one day and then spend the next two weeks doing absolutely nothing.

I am not a fan of this, but my brain has decided that that’s how it’s going to work, and there isn’t much I can do about it.

I mean, let’s face it, it’s hard arguing with your brain.

So, How do these qualities affect my blogging

Well, the scheduling and the productive bursts combine to give me this:

I write all my blog posts in one big go, and then schedule them throughout the however-long.

You can see this fact most clearly during the uni semester. At the start of the semester there’ll be quite a few posts from me, but then suddenly there’ll only be one per week.

This is because I’m running out of scheduled posts, and I’m trying to keep them going as long as possible.

This is also one of the reasons I love Top Ten Tuesday so much. When the next group of topics are released, I create a post for all of them, and then write most of them up that day.

Apparently not a lot of people do that?

But does this method have any issues?

Actually, yes. For one thing, it makes creating monthly wrap-up posts an absolute nightmare.

Actually, it makes creating any sort of wrap-up post a nightmare. Because those kinds of posts can’t be written and scheduled a month in advance.

I’m actually super jealous of those who write posts every week.

It also makes it harder for me to comment on ‘current’ events…such as things that go down on twitter. Now, I don’t often like participating in online arguments (or whatever you want to call them), but you see people write response-posts, and I can’t do that…unless the thing happens during one of my ‘write ALL the posts’ days.

And now I’m asking you

Do you have a method to your blogging? What is it? Do you like it, or do you sometimes wish you did things differently? Let me know.

Managing the TBR Pile

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Bookish Thoughts, books, Reading, The TBR Pile

As some of you may be aware, over the last two months, I have been challenging myself to read all the books I own/have out from the library before buying/borrowing any more.

For the most part, I have failed rather miserably in this. The lapses were mainly because I forgot to take into consideration that my birthday is in February, which led to a rather large influx of books…and if I saw a book that was cheap, nothing was going to stop me…and I allowed myself to continue buying new releases.

However, despite this failure, I have learned some valuable lessons in how to manage the TBR pile, but I’ve also discovered that I’m hopeless at following my own advice.

Go One Book at a Time

Pick up a book, start reading. Demonstrate amazing self control and don’t start any other books until that book is done. If the book is frustrating you, then put it down and start the next one.

Life is to short for unamazing books.

Do NOT Under ANY Circumstances Look at the TBR Pile

There is nothing more discouraging while trying to do something than seeing how far you have to go. Looking at and counting all the books you have left to read is a sure way to make you want to curl into a ball and cry.

Don’t do that to yourself.

I mean, seriously, look at that pile.

It’s SCARY!

 

 

Set Yourself Mini-Challenges

With a time limit or without, doesn’t matter. But this is a similar strategy to the previous one. Setting yourself small challenges, and then completing said challenges is a great motivation to keep going.

Make Time For Reading

This is probably obvious, but here’s the thing…I’m one of those people who like to read books in one sitting. And if it is unlikely that I’ll be able to read it in one go, I’m likely to put off reading it until I can.

Unfortunately, this often leads me to spending a couple of weeks obsessing over planning a time to read one book, and not reading anything else.

This is how I fall behind in my Goodreads challenge.

Since I started the challenge, I’ve been a lot better at the whole ‘read for an hour every night’ thing, but I still definitely prefer the ‘read it in one sitting’ thing.

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What do you think? Do you have any more tips for those trying to shrink down their TBR Pile?

(Disclaimer: I have actually read most (not all) of the books in the pile pictured. The books chosen for the pile were chosen for photogenic purposes only. Blame my sister for any inaccuracies.)

The Benefits of Rereading

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Bookish Thoughts

So many books, so little time. So why read a book we’ve read before, when there are so many new ones waiting for us?

It’s familiar

Sometimes we get so overwhelmed with new information that it’s nice to just relax and come back to something familiar. Something we know, where we know the ending and we know the characters and we don’t have to stress about what might happen.

It is actually very relaxing.

It’s like rewatching a movie

People ask me why I buy books if I’ve already read them. I tell them it’s so that I can read it again whenever I want, without having to find it again. Then they ask me why I would want to read it again…I mean, I’ve already read it, what’s the point, I know what happens.

When they ask this, I ask them if they’ve ever rewatched a movie. The answer is usually yes. When I ask them why, they act like it’s a stupid question.

So, why do I reread books? Because sometimes I just feel like it, ok?

The important thing is to not feel bad about the books you’re neglecting

You can only read one book at a time. I know, it’s shocking, but it’s true. And I mean physically reading, not just on your ‘books I swear I will finish one day’ pile. And this means that if you want to reread a book, that’s less time you have to read new books.

And THAT’S OK! You are under no obligation to always read new books. And if you don’t feel like reading something new, forcing yourself to read it will probably impact your enjoyment.

That’s all I really had to say

I love rereading books. I don’t even reread the whole thing. Sometimes I just skim through it to find my favourite parts. Which is part of the reason I don’t like ebooks, because it’s harder to skim through them, but that’s a discussion for another day.

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Question time! Do you ever feel bad about rereading books when there are so many new ones to read? Do you ever reread books? Or do you just stick to the new stuff? Let me know.