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.

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.

Paper vs Computer

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Bookish Thoughts

Here’s the thing: I love computers. Anyone who knows anything about me knows I am addicted to the internet, particularly twitter.
But here’s another thing: I hate computers. I hate the way everything is condensed together and the way you have to scroll and click to find things.

I love writing

I really do. Writing stories just makes me so happy. My preferred method of writing is with a pen and paper.

Here’s the problem: I have recently hit 16,000 words on my current WIP. Now, the thought of writing all those words by hand makes me shudder. But now I try to go through it to find the gaps where stuff is needed (because I don’t write in order), and there is 32 Microsoft word pages.

The temptation to print these pages is overwhelming.

Because I need things to be spread out in front of me

Ideally, with this story, I would print off the pages, spread them out on the floor, and  go to town with a red pen.

Well, the pen would probably be pink, but that’s besides the point.

The point is, I need all the information present in front of me. I need to be able to physically sort through the information with my hands, otherwise I struggle massively.

Unfortunately, This is not how the powers that be see things

Moving away from the topic of writing, we are now in the topic of school. I mentioned briefly in this post a few weeks ago that I tutor students. Specifically, I tutor in maths.

I have six students. Out of those six, 2 have compulsory ipads, because their maths textbook is now an ipad document, instead of an actual book.

Now, I can see their reasoning here. When I was at school, there were some days when my bag would way almost 10kg (which is about 22lbs for those who don’t use kg) because of the weight of the textbooks.

The problem is that I struggle greatly with having an electronic textbook. I need the real thing. And I think substituting computers for textbooks could end up being a detriment to people in the long run.

And this problem extends to blogging

Blogging is almost 100% on the computer. I am great at scheduling posts. In fact, I actually wrote this post in February.

The problem here is that I struggle to keep up with myself in this regard. I have posts scheduled for week in advance, but the only way I can keep track of them all is on the computer.

Which I find difficult. Because I like to see things spread out around me.

You see my problem?

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Question time! Do you have this problem? Are you torn between your love of the internet and your hatred of computers? Or do you think I’m completely insane? Do you prefer writing with a pen and paper, or do you like typing on the computer? Let me know your thoughts.

 

How I Rate Books

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Bookish Thoughts, books, Reading

So, the other day I was thinking about reviews and ratings and such, and I began to question why I have so many 5 star ratings, whilst everyone else seems to not.

And then, I figured it out. So I’ve decided to present to you all a fully comprehensive guide to how I rate books.

5 Stars

This is actually my default rating. It took me a while to figure that out, but for me, a book is automatically 5 stars unless it proves to be undeserving of that 5th star.

A book gets 5 stars if I absolutely loved it, and if there were no dragging points in the book.

4 Stars

As mentioned above, there has to be something missing from the book for the rating to be lowered to 4 stars. Something which made me enjoy the book, but not absolutely love it. Usually this consists of parts that dragged, characters I don’t like, etc.

A book will get 4 stars if I liked it, but it was missing something that was needed to make me love it.

3 Stars

This is the rating given when I couldn’t really care for the book. This is actually quite a negative rating from me…like, I legitimately feel bad for giving books 3 stars.

A book will get 3 stars if I was able to finish it easily enough, but I wouldn’t go around throwing it at people telling them to read it.

2 Stars

This is a severely low rating. I haven’t read many books that have earned two stars, but I have to really not like it to be willing to give it two.

A book will get 2 stars if I struggled to finish it because of how much I didn’t like it.

1 Star

I actually don’t think I’ve ever given a book one star. Because 2 stars is ‘I struggled to finish it’, which means that if it’s likely to end up as a one star book, I don’t even bother finishing it. And I don’t rate DNF books.

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So, that’s my system. I know it’s a bit different for a lot of people, but that is honestly how my brain works.

What do you think? Does my system make any sense to you, or do you think I’m completely mental? Let me know.

Reading is Better with People

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Bookish Thoughts, books, Reading

I have always read a lot, but since I started blogging, I’ve discovered something fascinating about reading: It is better when you have other people with you. Here is a bunch of reasons why:

You have someone to flail with

As I’m sure most of you have noticed, flailing about books is so much more fun when you have someone flailing alongside you.

You have someone who understands

While everyone else is telling you it’s just a book, you have people who understand what you’re going through when you read a particularly heart-breaking book, or when you have just experienced a horrible cliff hanger.

You have someone who you can have discussions with

Sometimes, you just need to discuss a book, and sometimes writing a review just isn’t enough. You need to be able to have someone with whom you can complain about what you didn’t like, or discuss why you loved it so much.

And, most importantly, You have someone to tell you what to read next

I think this is pretty self explanatory. When you’ve finished a book, most often you just need to know which book you should read next, and people are good at telling you that.

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Do you agree? Is there anything I missed?

Why Don’t I Finish Books?

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Blood Of Olympus, Bookish Thoughts, Finishing Books, Rick Riordan

I’m not one to regularly leave books unfinished. Anyone who knows me knows that.

So, when I DON’T finish a book, there must be a pretty good reason, right?

Right. So, here is a list of reasons why I don’t finish books:

1. I don’t want the series to end.

I still haven’t finished Blood of Olympus yet. Because once I do, it will be over.

And I really don’t want it to be over.

2. The book is boring me.

This is probably the most obvious reason. If the book is boring, don’t keep reading it.

Especially since we all have towering TBR piles. Why waste time on the boring books?

3. I put the book down.

I am certain that I am not alone here. I was reading it, I was enjoying it, but then I put it down and walked away.

And now I just can’t pick it up again. I want to read it, I want to see how it ends, but I just can’t.

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So, those are my excuses.

What causes you to not finish books?