15 Day Book Blogger Challenge - Day 15

The 15 Day Book Bloggers Challenge hosted by April @ Good Books and Good Wine. Today is Day 15, and we're talking Book Blogging Mentors.

The first book blogger I ever stumbled across was Anna Reads. Her reviews are short and sweet, and while she reads a lot of stuff I like, she introduces me to a lot more contemporary reads than I think I would normally stumble across.

I found The Story Siren shortly after I started blogging and she introduced me to NetGalley. I've learned a lot from her both what to do and what not to do.

Kimba The Caffeinated Book Reviewer is kind of like my book blogging mom--I've said that already. I was blogging for well over a year before I even stumbled upon her page, but I think I've grown so much because of her. Even just participating in the Sunday Post feature she started. And she's done blogging events and such here and there along with her blogger tips and tricks posts that I love.

I'd heard of this blogger before, but I just didn't feel like I needed another blogger to follow at the time. I follow her now. Parajunkee has helped me grow, and she also does blogger tips posts regularly.

These are the bloggers that I feel like have taught me the most, and I'd really like to thank them for that.

Who are your blogging mentors? Let me know!

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge - Day 14

The 15 Day Book Bloggers Challenge hosted by April @ Good Books and Good Wine.

Today is Day 14 and today's topic is deal breakers. But guys...the Top Ten Tuesday topic of this week is Top Ten Words that Make Me Put Down a Book...so I feel like I'm doubling up here and going to be repeating myself. How about...come back Tuesday to see which words are deal breakers for me in reading.

In the meantime, I'll try to discuss some other deal breakers. I'm not sure if April intended for these to be book, blogging, or what, but I'm doing a mixture of all.

Overall Rating of 3.5 or lower on Goodreads and/or Amazon. The only exceptions to this are when it's a series that I know I want to read and the other books in the series have much higher ratings or an author that I trust (though none of my auto buy authors have been in this situation). I'm not trying to be a snob, but with as many books as there are out there, I just don't have time to read ones that I don't think are going to be at least "good" or "enjoyable."

Gay/Lesbian/Trans/Bi. I'm straight. I'm a Christian. On top of that, I feel that where these topics might have been shocking to be written about years ago, that's just not the case anymore. I feel like the industry is trying to capitalize on the gay rights issues that are popular in the media right now (along with the bullying problems), so the market is SO saturated with these stories that there's nothing new about them. They've become cliche and overdone.

Anti-God/Atheist. As a Christian, it bugs me to no end to have anti-God messages thrown into the middle of a story that just doesn't make any sense for them to be there within the context of what else is going on in the book.

Erotica. Um yeah, not going to happen. Shoot, some of these new adult books really toe the line for me.

Captcha. I know I've mentioned this recently, but every single site that I come to that has this option turned on makes me lose a little bit of patience with this. I try so hard to visit other sites and comment as much as my free time allows, but captcha bugs me not end. I'm afraid I'm going to lose my cool and do something drastic and horrible (what I'm not exactly sure). I just have no clue how anyone except brand new bloggers can even think this is a good idea. And then those bloggers I would hope will come across someone who has been blogging for longer and see them ranting about how much captcha sucks and then they go "well crap, I better run go turn that off because people hate it." And the world becomes a happy place again.

Passive Aggressive. I don't know that everyone knows what this means, but it's one of the most annoying forms of conflict for me. I don't like it used in books, and I don't like it when people use it in comments either. Just say what you need to say.

What are your deal breakers? Let me know!

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge - Day 13

The 15 Day Book Bloggers Challenge hosted by April @ Good Books and Good Wine.

Day 13 in the 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge is about featuring and showcasing an under-appreciated book.

Today I'm choosing Back To You by Priscilla Glenn. You can find my review here.

This book came at a good time for me. I'd read several mediocre books in a row and was getting frustrated. But Back To You grabbed me and I couldn't put it down. I totally neglected household chores and thanksgiving baking in order to read this book. And while I loved it, I just haven't seen many people at all talk about this book, much less give it the props I think it deserves. Check it out people. It's really good.

There's a mixture of the past and the present being told alternatively as well as dual POVs. I was in 100% by page 38. Priscilla Glenn writes in a way that hooks you early on with dozens of questions that you just have to know the answer to.

So what do you think? What's your favorite under-appreciated book? Let me know!

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge - Day 12

The 15 Day Book Bloggers Challenge hosted by April @ Good Books and Good Wine. Day 12 in the 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge is about fighting blogger fatigue.

I honestly can't say that I've ever felt fatigued as a blogger. There have been a few times when I've chosen to spend time actually reading over visiting other blogs and commenting like I should (or feel like I should), but I've not grown tired of blogging yet. So I'm not quite sure how I'll combat this when the time comes.

Considering I started blogging in order to talk about books that I've loved reading--will I ever get tired of talking about books that I've loved reading? Maybe, but not today.

How do you combat blogger fatigue? Let me know!

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge - Day 11

The 15 Day Book Bloggers Challenge hosted by April @ Good Books and Good Wine. Day 11 in the 15 Day Book Blogger's Challenge is all about featuring our top 5 blog posts. This is so hard for me because I'm so critical of my own work, but here goes....

Here's one I did about why I love YA. I did it to enter a giveaway, but I enjoyed discussing why I like this genre. I kind of wish I'd written more though.

My review of Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein.

My review of Slammed by Colleen Hoover.

This post was one of my earlier reviews. I didn't know how to do links, and I didn't put any real information about the book like publication, length, etc. And while my writing isn't the best either (I spotted a few errors re-reading it), my review of Push by Chalene Johnson gives you a good look at who I am.

And this one is about my journey through the many fiction genres and some of my favorite books along the way. Please keep in mind that there is some disput about genres and subgenres. What I've categorized as one genre you might feel falls into a different genre. It's all good.

What are your top five favorite blog posts? Let me know!

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge - Day 10

The 15 Day Book Bloggers Challenge hosted by April @ Good Books and Good Wine. Day 10 in the 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge and today we're discussing how I choose what to read next.

Remember that post I did about blogger confessions and I confessed that I have a spreadsheet (as well as a Goodreads shelf) dedicated to the books that I have in my possession that I haven't read yet? Well yeah...that's kind of how I decide what to read next.

So I read the book description, look at the overall ratings in Goodreads and Amazon, and think about whether or not someone I know and trust has recommended the book to me or rated it highly. That gets it added to the TBR list. Then I discussed in this post, here, how I determine which books to buy.

Once a book has made it in my possession via purchase, borrowing from the library or friend, provided by author, publisher, NetGalley, etc, it gets added to my spreadsheet and Goodreads shelf. Once on the spreadsheet, I look at things like length, publication date, how long I've had it in my possession (especially if I'm borrowing it), and sometimes I just go for what I'm in the mood for or a particular title is stuck in my head. Often times too, I'm reading the sequel in a series. Those kind of take priority if they're new releases in series that I've loved the earlier books. At the same time, I try to read my review books within the proper time frame for the publication date.

Truth be told, sometimes there's no rhyme or reason.

How do you decide what to read next? Let me know!

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge - Day 9

The 15 Day Book Bloggers Challenge hosted by April @ Good Books and Good Wine. Day 9 in the 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge is discussing why I decided to start blogging about books.

I've done like 3 or 4 posts about this at this point--I almost feel like my readers are probably getting sick of hearing about it. But instead of just directing you back to those posts, I'll summarize it again...

I have a lot of friends who read. And surprisingly, most of my reading friends like to read the same stuff I do. Usually if I recommend a book to them or if they recommend a book to me, we all end up loving it or feeling just about the same way--with some variations. However, none of my friends read at the same speed. It's probably obvious, but I read more than most of my friends. So I wanted a way to keep up with what I have read that I think my friends might enjoy, what I thought about each book I've read, and which ones I would really recommend to my friends. It's one of my favorite things to do--talk about books with friends.

Since starting to blog for myself and trying to keep up with it all since my real life friends do not read at the same pace as I do, I've discovered a community of people all over the world who are dying to discuss books. It's wonderful! Love you bookish peeps!

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge - Day 8

The 15 Day Book Bloggers Challenge hosted by April @ Good Books and Good Wine. Day 8 in the 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge is about blog appeal. Here's a quick list of what appeals to me when checking out other blogs...

1) Easy to read - I don't hate the black backgrounds with white writing like many people out there, but add to that a hard-to-read font and it really can hurt your eyes. A page that's easy on the eyes is good for all--granted my page isn't everything I want it to be either.

2) Tips and Tricks post(s) - I don't personally feel qualified to give out in-depth tips and tricks, but I sure do love when other bloggers do. Share the information love.

3) I like participating in memes and I enjoy cover reveals, but if that's all I see a blog doing I typically skip it. So I guess the point here is original content, even if it's just reviews.

4) Cool graphics. I've got to say that I'm totally not good at this. Any original graphic on my blog has been created by my husband, and while I totally love him and appreciate him for doing this for me, it takes time and it'd be so much easier if I could do them myself. So I totally respect anyone who can put together some awesome graphics.

5) A rating system. I know there's a lot of debate about this. And I truly understand how hard it can be to assign a 1 to 5 rating for each book, but I don't typically read reviews of books that I want to read before reading said book--I don't want your opinion to influence my own. So if I can scroll to your rating that gives me a quick and easy idea of whether you enjoyed it or not.

6) NO CAPTCHA!!!!! I cannot stress this enough. I hate CAPTCHA. Especially if I'm trying to participate in a meme and am visiting and commenting on other people's blogs several in a row. It's so frustrating to come across word verification tests on blog after blog. Do yourself and your commenters a favor and remove captcha from your blog. If you need help, message me I'll be happy to assist.

7) Sites with their mobile versions turned on. I work, people. And while I do have internet access at work, that stuff is monitored. I'm not about to go blog browsing on the company's computer. I will, however, browse occasionally and briefly using my cellphone.

8) Positivity. So I know that's not exactly a word, and while I do appreciate negative reviews, I write negative reviews when necessary, and they definitely serve a purpose...just as much as rating every book 5 stars is not constructive neither is rating every book 1 and 2 stars. If I feel negativity exuding from your blog, I'm not bound to stick around. It's hard to quantify this, but I know it when I see it. If you blog to complain, then well...I've got my own problems.

9) Easy to find and multiple ways to follow. Each reader has their own preferences for how they want to keep up with you. My top favorite blogs I follow by email, but I can't follow EVERY blog by email because there are just too many. But I usually follow using a variety of methods so I can keep up without being overwhelmed. If I can't find how to follow you...well I'm not going to try that hard, and I don't like to be pigeon-holed into one or two options either.

10) Short to medium length post. I know I'm probably contradictory to this because my SNL tells me that my reviews can be rather lengthy. So I get how it can be hard to cull the information, but if a post or a review is too long, chances are, I'm not going to read the whole thing.

11) Commenting systems like CommentLuv or Disqus. This isn't a requirement, but I really do like how these systems alert me when someone has replied to a comment I left on their blog, and it's the reason why I added Disqus to my blog--I wanted my commenters to know when I've replied to them. Let's have a conversation.

12) Proper grammar. I know I struggle with this, and everyone has typos every now and then. But if your site runs rampant with grammatical mistakes, chances aren't good that your site will become a favorite of mine.

13) Opinions remain opinions. Obviously, we all have opinions, and that's exactly what we share on our blogs. Our opinions about all things bookish. But I'm immediately turned off when bloggers present their opinions as FACT or the ONLY opinion. When there is no room for someone else's opinion, I'm probably not going to comment for fear of having my opinion bashed.

14) A little bit personal. I like to feel like I'm getting to know the blogger behind a site. I love little life tidbits thrown into the blogs I follow. It's not my favorite when there's more personal posts and content than there is about books. Which leads me to my final point...

15) Focus. I prefer blogs that have a specific purpose. I follow multiple types of blogs. I follow home organization and cleaning blogs. I follow beauty/fashion blogs. I mostly follow book blogs. But I don't really like blogs that try to cover it all.

These are by no means "rules." These 15 things are truly only my preferences...things that appeal to me when I'm visiting other blogs. You should always feel free to have your blog be whatever you want it to be. It is afterall, your blog. Truth be told, I had a really hard time coming up with 15 bullet points.

What appeals to you when you visit another site? Let me know!

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge - Day 7

The 15 Day Book Bloggers Challenge hosted by April @ Good Books and Good Wine. Day 7 in the 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge is talking about Blogging Quirks...

I wasn't really quite sure what April intended with this topic, but here goes...

Blogging Quirks

I blog in HTML. Mostly because I didn't even know that handy Compose option was over there until a ridiculous time had passed in my blogging life. I've found that I can't really switch over to Compose now that I'm actually familiar with SOME HTML.

I format as many posts ahead of time as I can. Right now I have about 16 unpublished drafts with probably just as many reviews typed up that aren't formatted.

I type my reviews within a day or two of reading the book. If too much time passes between me reading the book and writing the review I tend to forget a lot.

I almost always forgot the main female character's name by the time I write my review. I don't know why, but the names just aren't sticking with me like they used to. Unless it's an odd one. I can't tell you how many times I've had to pull Goodreads up when writing my review just so I can find the MC's name. So sad. SMH.

I just recently started highlighting in my Kindle for review purposes. It helps me to spark what I was thinking at the exact moment I read that part.

I don't actually like seeing what other people have highlighted when they read the kindle version of a book. You know how it says "71 people highlighted..." Yeah...I don't really like that.

I have my blog scheduled with posts from now and until mid-late September. Some of my reviews will be changed around with the more review books I read between now and then. Review book posts take priority over reviews of books I've read just because they're on my TBR list.

I've decided not to review or feature books with people half-naked on the cover. I try to keep it family friendly. I have a thirteen year old niece who reads, and whether or not she reads my blog, I want it to be family friendly incase she visits.

I blog for me. Someone during Armchair BEA (I need to go back and see who so I can give them credit) suggested I type up a blogging manifesto that I can go back and look at periodically that describes why I blog. I really need to do that. And while I dearly adore and love my followers and readers, I do still blog for me.

I'm sure there are many more quirks that I have as a blogger, but I can't think of them right now. And I have other blogging needs to attend to. What are your blogging quirks? Let me know!

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge - Day 6

Today is Day 6 of the 15 Day Book Bloggers Challenge hosted by April @ Good Books and Good Wine. Today is about how I shop for books. This ought to be interesting.

So I'm cheap. Honestly, Husband and I are working hard to meet some pretty big financial goals and so that doesn't leave much extra money for book buying. Luckily I have family that contributes to the funds for birthdays and Christmas and this keeps me going money wise. I totally ask for books/gift cards for books for birthday and Christmas. This past Christmas I racked up on books, and shoot for my birthday I racked up in gift cards for books too. Now to the part about how I actually decide what to purchase...

Considering I don't read many reviews of books that I'm planning to read before I've read them, I do look at ratings from bloggers that I follow who have rating systems as well as overall ratings on both Amazon and Goodreads to help me decide. I typically don't spend money on anything that has under a 4 Star overall rating on both of these sites unless I am 100% into the author or the series.

I read the books description when I'm browsing Goodreads or Amazon. If it sounds interesting I'll add it to the TBR list. Being a member of the book blogging community I look to other bloggers to see which books they loved. For me it's not about reading the popular books just because they're popular but trusting that if so many people in the book blogging community loved a particular book then there's a good chance that I will as well.

Books in a series that I've started and loved the earlier books, the sequels and subsequent books automatically get added to my list of ones needing to be bought. Also, some authors are just on the auto-buy list. I've read enough of their work to know that I trust them and want to read everything they write.

But pretty much I've got to have some pretty good reason to think that it's going to be a pretty rocking book before I'll spend the money on it. Gift cards I'm a little more lenient on. And sometimes it just depends on if I can't get the book somewhere else like the library or borrow from a friend. If I want it that bad, I'll just buy it myself.

How do you decide which books to buy?

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge - Day 5

Today is Day 5 of the 15 Day Book Bloggers Challenge hosted by April @ Good Books and Good Wine. Today is all about tear jerkers. Essentially, I'm supposed to recommend one. But ah!!!!!! How do I stop at 1?

Slammed, Point of Retreat, & This Girl (review coming soon) by Colleen Hoover

OR

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

What are your tear-jerker recommendations? Let me know!

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge - Day 4

Day 4 in The 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge hosted by April @ Good Books and Good Wine is about the last book I read that I threw across the room.

Well...that would be Angel of Mercy (Cambion, # 3) by Shannon Dermott. Granted I had the kindle edition of said book and would never throw my beloved Kindle across the room. So this was all figurative.

I haven't posted my review of this book yet, so I'll just say that I was extremely frustrated. The MC. The plot. The sheer amount of grammatical, continuity, and other errors in the book. It all added up to me being extremely frustrated.

What about you? What was the last book you wanted to throw across the room? And why?

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge - Day 3

Day 3 in the 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge hosted by April @ Good Books and Good Wine. Today's topic is Book Blogging BFFs.

Obviously, considering my SNL blogs about books as well, she's pretty much my Book Blogging BFF (Holly @ Words Fueled by Love). Other than that I really haven't "met" anyone I would consider a Book Blogging BFF. I've met a lot of great people and chatted up with a bunch. There's Jennifer from A Librarian's Library. We're fellow Alabamians and we have pretty much the same tastes in books. So that's great. There's Kimba The Caffeinated Book Reviewer. I kind of consider her my blogging mom--I hope that's not totally creepy. :) And then Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard is usually always great about commenting on my posts, and we've probably had the most back and forth conversation out of everyone I've "met". Though there are SO many other bloggers that I've met and really liked and have had great conversations with.

Who are your book blogging BFFs?

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge - Day 2

Day 2 in the 15 Day Blogger Challenge hosted by April @ Good Books and Good Wine is all about bedtime reading habits. So here's the skinny...

1. I don't actually read in bed. I can't find a position that's comfortable for me. My neck starts to hurt, my arms get tired. I sleep on my side most of the time, and I hate when my kindle tries to flip to horizontal just because I rolled over.
2. I read on the couch before bed--or really as much of the night as I can without totally neglecting my wife and housework duties.
3. Depending on the book I'm reading, I usually dream about whatever I was reading before bed. I'll finish the entire book in my sleep and wake up only to realize that everything I dreamed never happened and is in fact not how the book ends.

And that is all there is to my bedtime reading ritual. What about you? What's your bedtime reading habits?

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge - Day 1

I hate finding out about these things last minute--but I guess that's better than not finding out about them at all. I'm going to plan to try to participate in April from Good Books and Good Wine's 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge. Day 1 is Book Related Confessions. So here they are...

My Book Related Confessions

1. I read multiple books at one time. I have 7 listed on my currently reading shelf on Goodreads. I just need my options open. I usually have a couple going on my Kindle/Kindle App, plus a paperback or two, and if I'm lucky an audiobook.
2. Reading multiple books at one time really helps me get through those monster books such as the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R R Martin.
3. I've only ever DNF'd 2 books. I like the idea of the freedom that comes from letting them go...but it's so hard.
4. I definitely judge every book by it's cover. And I've been suckered into several that bombed because of it. But I haven't read many that I just hated the cover.
5. I am a snob about taking care of my books. I ALWAYS take the jacket cover off before loaning my hardback books. And I almost hate to even read a paperback book myself because you know the cover just isn't going to hold up over time.
6. I don't hate love triangles--having lived a few myself, I actually relate to them.
7. I'm a total nerd. Aside from having shelves on Goodreads to keep up with all of my books, I have multiple spreadsheets. My top two spreadsheets are used for keeping up with all of the books I have in my possession that are yet to be read. There's no way I could keep up with that in my head. And for books I want to do a Waiting on Wednesday post for--those sequels that the cover and description aren't released yet.
8. I currently have over 80 books that are in my possession that I have not read yet. The closer I get to 100 the more stressed out I am. I know I'll never get that number to zero and I'll probably never read EVERY book I have, but I will try my hardest.
9. I have a 3rd Generation Kindle, a Kindle Fire, and I use the Kindle App on my phone to read. And I get really frustrated if they don't sync for some reason--first world problems.
10. I get frustrated with my friends when they don't read the books I want them to read in the time I think it should take for them to read them. I know--I'm a horrible friend and not everyone has as much time as I do to read or makes it the priority that I do. I just want them to experience the goodness that I've found in each book.
11. I re-read books and have been known to re-read them several times. I know I've read the Twilight series about 7 or 8 times. And I've read the Vampire Academy series at least 6. I don't re-read as much anymore because I'm trying to read new to me books so that I can share those with my readers. Although, I have recently established two new features for the blog that include re-reads.
12. If I really love a series, I'll own it in multiple formats. I own both paper copies and audio copies of the following series: Twilight, Vampire Academy, Harry Potter, and The Wolves of Mercy Falls. I wish I could buy more audiobooks, but they're so expensive.
13. I'm really protective of my book babies. If someone hated a story or series that I loved, it brings the mama bear out in me. I try so hard to fight it, but I want to go on the attack and claw their eyes out. I feel I must suppress this though because everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
14. If a love triangle (or other shape) is involved, I usually try to follow the main character's feelings and root for the character that the MC really cares the most for, but lately I've found myself fighting a few of these matches with everything I have.
15. I've learned that lyrical/poetic writing is my favorite even though I don't read much poetry itself. Maggie Stiefvater, Carrie Ryan, Lauren Oliver, and Courtney Summers are the authors that most come to mind right now.

And because I'm so rebellious...

16. I must have all of the books in a series in the same format. If I get book 1 in audiobook, I need all of the books in the series on audiobook. If I get book 1 on my Kindle the rest of the series must be kindle editions. If I get book 1 in hardback, I need the rest of the series in hardback.

What are your book related confessions? Let me know!