Booktube-a-thon!

I'm going to be participating in Booktube-a-thon! Even though I'm not a booktuber, I would like to be one eventually, and the only real requirement for participating is to read as much as you possibly can.

I won't be doing all of the challenges, but I'm going to try for most of them.

1. Read an average of 300 pages per day.

2. Read a book over 500 pages.

3. Reread a book.

4. Finish a series.

5. Read a book that's been on your shelf forever.

6. Listen to 1 audiobook.

7. Read a classic.

-Wuthering Heights audiobook - challenges 3, 6, and 7.

-The Ring of Solomon - challenges 4, 5.

-The Lost Hero, The Son of Neptune, and The Mark of Athena - challenge 2, 4.

I doubt I'll get to all of these, but I'll do more reading than I would have otherwise. You might notice that I'm not including any books I'm currently reading. None of them have turned out to be fast reads, otherwise I wouldn't still be reading them. Slower pacing isn't a bad thing for a book, but it certainly isn't a good thing for a book-a-thon.

Since I have a full-time job, I won't be following the booktubeathon hashtag on twitter or any of those challenges, but I'll do a super-short update every night on here to share how I'm doing.

Happy reading,

Katie

Blogging Promises

I'm new to book blogging, and I'm still trying to figure out the best way for me to manage this blog. There's a lot of room for improvement, and that's going to need some more solids decisions on how often I post (daily, weekly, whenever I remember?), what types of posts I make (book hauls, book reviews, reading goals, other general thoughts on book-related topics, other?), and which books I review (all of them, none of them, my favorites, my least favorites, new releases only?). So, how about I make some promises I can't keep?

1. Frequency of posts: I'd love to be able to post several times a week, but trial and error has proved that writing posts on weeknights requires me to stay up past 11 or 12 at night, and I can't handle that on top of getting up early for work. Maybe eventually I will start writing shorter entries that I can post throughout the week, like What I'm Reading Now updates, or answering one question a day from one of those lists of questions regarding favorite or most relatable characters/books/authors/etc, but for now I take a long time to write, and weekends are the only time I can find the huge chunks of time I need. I'll aim for 1 post a week for now, then ramp it up a bit once I've got the hang of that schedule.

2. Subject of posts: My main conundrum here is whether or not I should keep to the lighter side of book blogging like book reviews and book hauls and reading goals, or whether it is ok to talk about the more controversial topics related to books, like the Coverflip related post I made. I'd like to write about more than just my book-buying addiction, but I don't want to alienate readers. Maybe once I figure out more of Blogger's settings, I can hide the main text of some posts under a link so people can seek them out if they find the title interesting but not scroll through the wall of text if they don't.

3. Books to review: Maybe someday I will come to a point where I physically cannot review every book I read, and then I will have to revisit the issue. For now, I read much less than your average book blogger, and though I do still owe you reviews for 3 books, I am not reading enough to pile up any more. However, I have made it twice as difficult for myself by writing 2 reviews of every book I read, one with spoilers and one without, not to mention the occasional GoodReads review. The main purpose of doing spoiler-filled reviews was an excuse to rant or rave about books in incredible detail, and all three of the books I have yet to write reviews for didn't inspire those responses from me. From now on, every book I read gets a normal spoiler-free review, but only the ones that really get under my skin and warrant in-depth analysis (or intense fan squeeing, let's be real here) will get a second review with spoilers.

Well, that's it from me. I've got another post in the works which should be up before the night is out.

Happy reading,

Katie

Book Review: The Demon's Covenant (Spoilers!)

Spoiler filled book review! You know the drill, just highlight the blocked-out text below if you've read the book already or if you want to be spoiled.

But before we get to the spoilers, I will first provide a link to the author's talk about this series, which I will be addressing a bit in my review.

June Book Haul

Hello blog readers!

I've got a a riddle for you. What has two thumbs, a book blog, and can't hold to book buying bans?

Yup, it's this girl. *points to self*

So, I broke my book buying ban last month and bought 3 books. There was no sale, no book store closing, no reason other than I was in a terrible mood and I thought book shopping endorphins would help. (side note: It did not. That's how bad of a mood I was in.)

The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

If I hadn't spent as much on these three books as I spent on the 4 books last month and the 5 books the month before that, I would say I'm getting better. No such luck.

However, I realized I have been saving more money than I thought (and spending less money than I'd feared) so for now the book buying ban is officially off. At least for July, as Half Price Books is having another weeklong sale this week and I already bought 11 books there today. In my defense, 4 of those books were for other people, but 7 books is still a LOT of books. I probably will go back on the ban starting next week.

I'm off to finally write one of the many review posts I owe you guys. Have a great day!

Happy reading, 

Katie

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