15 Day Book Blogger Challenge | Days 4-10

The 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge is hosted by April from Good Books and Good Wine, and you can find out all about it here. 

Soo, I've been failing at this challenge. Partly because I've been travelling and without Internet and partly because I'm lazy. But I really do like these ideas for posts, so I'm going to try to catch up and do the last couple of topics.

Day 4: What's the last book you flung across the room?

I don't think I've ever actually flung a book across the room. I'm obsessed with keeping my books in perfect condition, so throwing a book across the room would hurt my soul more than the book itself. There's a couple that have gotten dangerously close, though, and one of them is Kiss Crush Collide by Christine Meredith. It felt like this book was written with the sole intent of pissing me off. The main character is a spoiled brat, the romance storyline is solely physical because neither character has a personality, the fact that this romance occurs while the main character is still going out with another guy is not an issue, the details of the story don't match up, and on and on and on. I can't express my anger towards this book; it was just one big ARGGGH.

Day 5: Recommend a tear jerker.

Tear jerker, yay! I cry at everything, so there's quite a few books I could talk about here. But the book that has made me cry more than any other is Jo Knowles's See You at Harry's. Jo Knowles's writing is always atmospheric and raw and heartbreaking - I'm pretty sure I've cried reading all of her books. And See You at Harry's especially killed me. I can't talk about the actual plot a whole lot because that would spoil it, but it's about a family dealing with a tragedy, and it's heartbreaking and honest and horrible and amazing and just perfect. If you want a book that'll make you bawl your eyes out, this one is definitely it.

Day 6: Describe how you shop for books.

That depends on whether I buy books online or in an actual store. When I buy books online, I choose them carefully and consider how much money I should spend. I usually go through my wishlists and lists of recent releases to decide on a couple of books I want, and then I look at reviews to decide which ones I end up buying. When I go into a bookstore, I am no longer capable of rational thinking. I go into the YA section and start seeing books I want and just piling them on. Once I have a stack of books that I will never be able to afford, I go through them again and settle on which ones I actually want, but I still end up buying too many and spending too much money. Seeing the actual books in bookstores just makes it so much harder to say no...

Day 7: Talk about your blogging quirks.

- I NEED to write my review right after I finish a book - I don't let myself start the next book till I've reviewed my last read. The only exception is when I'm travelling; then I take notes on what I'm going to say in my review and start my next book, and write my actual reviews for all of them when I get home. That already kind of freaks me out - I don't understand how bloggers who are like 10 reviews behind do it, because I forget everything about a book basically as soon as I start the next one.

- When I buy or receive a book and feature it on My New Treasures, I immediately format my review for the book by creating a post with the cover image, description, and all the details I have at the top of my reviews. I don't even know why; it just makes me feel more organized, even if it means I have way too many drafts of reviews of books that I might never read or review.

- I almost never buy books from Amazon, but I use their wishlists to keep track of books. I have a bunch of separate lists, like one for books I want that have already been released, one for books that haven't been released yet, one for books where I'm waiting for the paperback release, one for books that I want finished copies of, one for books I'm planning on featuring in a Bookish Anticipation post, and so on. I know most people use Goodreads for stuff like this, but I like Amazon because you can add a note, and I always put the book's release date as the note.

- I can never start writing my review until after I've settled on a rating. I know I should get my thoughts down first and then base the rating off of that, but more often than not, I choose the rating first and let that determine the overall tone of the review.

Day 8: Quick! Write 15 bullet points of things that appeal to you on blogs.

1. Personality. 

2. A nice design with a font that's easy to read.

3. Discovering new books instead of just seeing reviews of books that everyone is reading.

4. Interacting with readers and responding to comments.

5. Enthusiasm and passion.

(Sorry, I'm too lazy for more than 5...)

Day 9: Why do you blog about books?

I love talking about books, and I don't know enough people in real life to discuss books with because barely anyone I know reads YA - connecting with other readers will always be the #1 reason to keep blogging. But even if there wasn't a single person reading my blog, I still love writing reviews and such because it makes me think about what I'm reading - I like trying to figure out why I liked or disliked something, and blogging has taught me so much on reading critically.

Day 10: How do you choose what book to read next?

Honestly, what I read when has very little to do with the actual content of the books - I try not to read two similar books in a row, but that's really it; the rest is outside factors. One big one is the release date and when I have to have a review up. Another one is format: I read paperbacks when I'm going somewhere and hardcovers and ebooks (no ereader, so I have to read on my computer) when I'm at home.

Wow, those were a lot of topics in one post - had a lot to catch up on! Let me know your answers to any of the questions in the comments!

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge | Day 1

I've decided to take part in the 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge! I only found out about this, like, 30 seconds ago, but I love the idea, so I'm taking part anyways. I don't have as much enthusiasm about this blog as I used to and don't post as much as I'd like to, so this challenge could really help me get excited about bloggy things again and also get me back into the habit of posting on a regular basis. I don't think I will post for every single topic, but I'll do as many as possible. The 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge is hosted by April from Good Books and Good Wine, and you can find out all about it here. Here's the schedule:

Today's topic are book-related confessions.

1. I have the worst memory about what happens in books. It only takes, like, a month for me to forget everything that happened in a book. There's been times when I'm recommending a book to someone and they'll ask whether this-or-that happens, and I will stare at them with a blank face because I will have absolutely no idea. And that doesn't mean the book didn't make an impression on me; I don't even remember what happens in my favorites. I'll remember whether or not I liked a book, but that's it.

2. Even worse than my memory for plots is my memory for character names. Not even while I'm reading a book will I know what the characters are called. Usually, when I write my reviews and talk about characters, I will put something like *main character*, *best friend*, or *love interest* instead of the characters' names, and once I've written my review, I will read through the book's synopsis and other people's reviews to find out the characters' names so I can add them to my review. Again, this does not mean the characters didn't make an impression on me; I can just never remember their names...

3. Characters do not look like people to me. When books are turned into movies and people complain that the actors don't look the way they pictured the characters is the only way I even noticed that other people do picture characters like actual people. To me, they're just kind of gray blobs walking around. I notice the implications of the physical descriptions for the character's personality, but I don't notice the actual physical description - details like the color of someone's hair barely even register to me, unless they play an important part of the story.

4. I always want to get through books as quickly as possible. I don't even know why, but I'm usually happy when there's a chapter break and an almost blank page because that means I'll get to the end sooner. Even if it's a book I'm really enjoying and would like there to be more of once I get to the end, I'm always racing to get to the end as fast as possible.

5. I can spend hours organizing my bookshelves and making sure all my books are aligned and look nice.

6. I am a cover whore. There's books with mediocre descriptions that I bought because of their beautiful covers, and books that sound great that I haven't read because I don't like the cover.

7. Cover changes is one of the things that bugs me most in the world. When my books don't match because of cover changes, or when they change a pretty cover to an uglier one for the release of the paperback version... I get ridiculously worked up about things like that.

8. I have read almost no classics. When I tell people I read a lot and am an English major, and they start talking about how much they love one classic or another, I just stare at them blankly. I've thought about reading The Classics, but then I start making lists of all the books I should read and just give up and go back to reading what I like to read.

9. I have read barely anything outside the contemporary YA genre. I've tried going outside my comfort zone, and I've read a couple of books from most genres. But I never like them as much as contemporary YA, so that's always what I go back to - I usually tune out once I see it's any genre other than my favorite.

10. I NEED to keep my books in perfect condition. I know some people say they like seeing that a book has been read and re-read, but bent corners and all of that makes me cringe. I read my books carefully, trying not to bend the spine. I've even bought another copy of a couple of my favorites that I'd read too many times for them to look nice anymore.

11. I have a hard time not judging people who don't read. I have plenty of friends who don't read, but it always makes it harder for me to start to like someone when they tell me that they don't read for fun.

12. When I lend my books, I go a little crazy worrying about whether or not my friends are treating my books right. I love forcing people to read the books I've read, so I do lend them, but... when others read my books and don't treat them with total care, it takes a LOT of control for me not to rip my book out of their hands and never let them touch it again.

13. I can't leave the house without a book. Even if I'm going somewhere where there's absolutely no chance I'll have time to read, I feel so much better knowing it's there just in case I do need to wait around somewhere.

14. It is almost impossible for me to DNF a book. I just have this thing about finishing every book I start, even if I'm hating it. I wish that had anything to with giving the book a chance, not being able to judge a book until the last page, etc. but that's not true - I know from early on that I won't like a book, and it usually ends up getting a very negative review. Honestly, it has more to do with my obsessive organization - books I've read go on my regular shelves, and books I haven't are stacked on a separate shelf. What would I do with books I didn't finish? That alone is enough to force me to finish every book I start.

15. I can't stop reading unless I've reached the end of a chapter. I'd so much rather end on a cliffhanger at the end of a chapter than at a less suspenseful part in the middle of a chapter. I even try to plan my reading to stop after the 5th or 10th chapter or something like that. That's why alternative formats or really long chapters bug me - they can work really well for the story, but... where do I stop?

So those are my 15 bookish confessions! Do you agree with any of these, or am I the only crazy one? Tell me some of your bookish confessions in the comments!