20 Questions Book Tag

Hi everyone! I'm so excited to get this post up. It's been a month since my last post and I'm so upset about it but school really has been taking up all of my time. However, I've constantly been thinking of posting, reading and I've even bought a few new reads. I thought, what's a better way to come back after a while of not posting? A book tag of course! 

Discussion: How I Read

Reading is such a personal experience, in my opinion. The process is unique for everyone. I always find it super interesting to see the process other readers do in order to actually sit down (or lay down) and read a book. So I thought it'd be fun to let you in on how I read, from how I decide what to read to what I do while reading, when I read, and everything in between.

My Reading Goals (Not Necessarily for the New Year)

This isn't my first post of the year but I'll use this as the opportunity to say Happy New Years! I already know starting out that this is not going to be a great reading year for me as the limited time I have to read is going to be even more restricted. I'm going to have to take courses in the summer semester that will take up most of my time so I was so disappointed that I won't really be able to post my reading goals for the year or a 'the books I've read in 2020' thread on Twitter. But, the more I thought about it, I realized that the goals I have, reading wise, are not just limited for 2020. They're goals I can work on constantly and so I want to share my reading goals that I plan to start and reach, eventually - even if it isn't for this new year.

Review: Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle #3) by Maggie Stiefvater

Blue Sargent has found things. For the first time in her life, she has friends she can trust, a group to which she can belong. The Raven Boys have taken her in as one of their own. Their problems have become hers, and her problems have become theirs.

The trick with found things, though, is how easily they can be lost.

Friends can betray.
Mothers can disappear.
Visions can mislead.
Certainties can unravel. 

Review: A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

It’s 1895, and after the suicide of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma’s reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse, she’s been followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence’s most powerful girls—and their foray into the spiritual world—lead to?

Belated Book Haul!

It's been such a long time since I've made a book haul and this haul is a long time coming! These are a few books that I've collected since the last one I made (which you can find here). I'm so blessed that the majority of these books were sent to me by either the author or a company so thank you so much to everyone who sent these to me.

This is a much smaller pile but they are books I am so excited about so let's get into it!

Get to Know Bookish Terms

Just like any other community, the book community has it's own jargon, slang and terms that are obvious to everyone on the inside but a little confusing to everyone on the outside, particularly the acronyms. However, this can make it confusing for new readers to get into the groove of things when they don't know what everyone is saying and what we mean when we say certain terms. Even for me, a reader who took a massive nearly 10 year break, when I got back into the community, there were a lot of new terms that took me a while to fully understand what they meant. 

So I chose a good number of terms whose meanings I think aren't 100% obvious, separate them into sections where they would relate to one another, and I'm going to define the terms. Hopefully a lot of new readers will find this helpful!

5 Popular Ways to Organize your Bookshelf

A bookshelf is something unique and special to a bookworm and it's so fitting that the way the bookshelf is presented and organized be both of those things as well.

I want to go over the most popular ways I've seen readers showcase their books. All of these are great options for bookshelves of any size and can work for any reader.

This or That Book Tag

Yay! Another book tag! This is such an interesting tag because I think it lets you see what kind of reader I am in a more detailed way so I'm really excited to show you my reading habits and opinions through this! 

5 Places to Buy Cheap Books

One of the hardest things we have to go through as book lovers is how expensive books are to buy! New books are so expensive and the prices just seem to be escalating, some close to $30 just for one book. Even older books in hardback are still not cheap, ranging from $15-$20, especially if they're from popular series or authors. Paperbacks are cheaper but even then, the prices seem to just not be for those of us who want to own the books we love but have a budget. Especially those of who don't want to spent $30+ for just two or three books. 

Nearly all of the books I've been buying lately, however, have been at a greatly discounted price - both old and newer releases. It's one of the most satisfying feelings to be able to own a book and knowing you got a great deal on it so I want to share where I go to buy cheap books. 

Of course, the library is always an amazing option but I did not include that on my list because I want to highlight places where you can go to own books you really want. Also, there are a lot of great discounted book stores that I'm not including simply because they don't exist in my city or anywhere near me. So my list only includes the places I have personal access to.

Reader Problems Book Tag

It's been a while since I've done a book tag and I've been missing them! They're so fun and a great way to get to know me as a reader. Especially this tag. So let's get right into it and enjoy.