Book Ramblings: Divergent (Spoilers!)

I should stop making promises about when I'm going to post my reviews.

I feel like I was a bit hard on Divergent in my non-spoiler review, so for my spoiler-filled ramblings about it, I'm going to talk about all the things I liked about it. Just highlight the blocked text below if you don't mind being spoiled.

Abandoned Reads

Like most people (or at least most people that keep book blogs), I have a to-read pile higher than my height. I've seen book bloggers and vloggers keep track of these books by towering them into literal piles and devoting separate shelves or bookcases, in addition to keeping track of all those books they'd like to read but don't yet own on Good Reads. But I haven't heard much from book bloggers about cleaning up their to-read lists. And considering how long it actually takes to read a book in comparison to the time it takes to click the "Want To Read" button on Good Reads, it seems like the easiest way to stay ahead of your to-read list. 

And yet not one of the book bloggers/vloggers I've come across has yet to address this as an option. Sure, if you bought a book, you're not going to just toss it before reading it because you have a big backlog. But I can't be the only person who still uses a library to check out books I am not 100% sure I'll like, and found ones that were not to my taste or otherwise not worth the time or effort to finish them. Maybe not finishing every book I've ever started just that makes me a bad reader. Maybe I am in fact the only book blogger who does not have the intention of finishing every book she's ever started. 

But just in case I'm not, just in case there is someone else out there who feels the same pang of guilt when permanently removing a book on Good Reads from their shelves, I'm going to admit to it. Despite the guilt, I can't say I would change this about my reading habits. Reading involves an investment of time, and no matter how great the ending may be, it cannot make up for a bad beginning. If I'm not invested in the characters or the plot after a few chapters, then the author has failed in grabbing my attention and I'm putting down the book and not looking back. The way I see it, there's no point in wasting my time on a book that I really am not enjoying or getting anything out of. 

And yet, I feel the desperate need to keep track of these books as well, if only to remind myself years from now that yes, I did try reading X novel, and no, I should not try reading it again. Does anyone know if there's a Good Reads category for that? I tried making a customized shelf called 'abandoned', but it still needs me to label it as read, currently reading, or to read, and my currently reading shelf is freakishly unmanageable as it is.

I will get around to writing those book reviews I owe you this week! I promise!

Happy reading,

Katie

May Book Haul

I'm still not following the whole book buying ban very well, but I did slightly better than last month so I'll take what I can get. (OK so I technically did but another book but it was a present so it doesn't count). However, I spent way more than I did last time, so I'm going to take the book buying ban thing seriously for June and see how it goes.

Anyway, onto the recap!

William Shakespeare: Complete Plays

Jane Austen: Four Classic Novels

Edgar Allen Poe: Complete Tales and Poem

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will 

Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch

Escape from Camp 14 by Blaine Harden

Looking for Alaska by John Green

You might notice that these books are (mostly) a far cry from the YA books I normally buy. I did not walk into the bookstore intending to only buy serious books, but I didn't see anything in YA that looked interesting, and they had big compilations for cheap.

Either way, it's working well for my goal of reading a wider range of books.

Happy reading,

Katie