For those of you who don’t what the heck I’m talking about:
In summary, Neopets is an online gaming site where you can adopt virtual creatures and collect points, usually by playing mini-games, to buy items to take care of them. Because it is online, users can also interact with other players across the world through various channels on the site, such as chat boards, guilds, and auctions.
Never watching TV again, quitting our jobs, and devoting all our time to reading books won’t put an end to our never-ending TBRs. (Don’t go rushing to your boss with your two weeks just yet, pal.) There’s always a hot, new book we need to get to or an old classic that we’ve neglected.
Honestly, it’s a fortunate problem to have, to be able to read and have too much to read. But still, with all problems, no matter how negligible they seem, we search for ways to mitigate them.
Some people are naturally quick readers—they have the awesome (and scary) ability to hulk-smash dozens of books off their bookshelves every week. Others are auto-didactic and spend years training their eyes and brain to scan pages of stories so that they can finish them faster and faster. Still, there are the laboring bookworms who haven’t and can’t hone the craft of speed-reading for one reason or another.
I’m a part of the laboring class of bookworms 🙋, aka the slow readers, and here’s my take on this topic:
Continue reading “Are You A Speed-Reader? // and why I am a slow reader”Well, it’s not so much that I was resisting them than I didn’t have ✨ free ✨ access to them. However, I’m finally living somewhere where I have access to a public library and its audiobooks, and what. a. GAMECHANGER.
While it’s not all rainbows and sunshine, I’d say it’s pretty close to it. Here are the pros and cons of audiobooks according to a recent convert:
Continue reading “The Pros and Cons of Audiobooks // a listicle by a new audiobook convert”
For the past four years, I studied in a country in Asia where public libraries were virtually nonexistent and university libraries didn’t carry recreational books. I’m originally from the United States, and before I moved, I was fortunate enough to never have to spend money on books; I always had access to a school or city library. It was jolting relocating to place where I didn’t have that luxury and made me realize how much reading is a privilege. I still found ways to read, whether it was buying books online or in bookstores or borrowing from friends, but I missed the ease of having a library with a greater selection of free stories.
I admit, it was never a conversation I joined in much because I did not have many thoughts about the subject. To me, a genre was self-explanatory—a science fiction book was a make-believe story about something ~ sciencey ~ and a fantasy book had magic or dragons or knights so it was… fantastical.
It wasn’t until I recently read this passage from a collection of Neil Gaiman’s nonfiction works that I genuinely reflected upon my basic definition of a genre:
Continue reading “What Is A Genre? // why you may feel cheated by a book”I can attest to that, but it doesn’t stop me from writing them. I still find book reviews fun to create because it gives me a chance to form opinions on books I read and hopefully start discussions about them with others. I also find myself part of the audience that still reads and actively seeks book reviews. But, why?
Kay at Hammock of Books recently made a post revealing her minimal collection of YA books. I loved how conscious she was about the amount of books she was keeping, especially since consumerism in the bookish community is more prevalent with the popularity of book hauls and bookstagram. The neat thing about having such few books is that Kay was able to remember exactly where and when she got them—and how much she spent!
I was inspired to show my own book collection and even more curious to see how much I remembered the history of the books on my *“shelf”.
That being said, I thought I only had six or seven books, but was surprised to find that I actually own eleven! It’s a little alarming considering I’m not actively buying books anymore. However after a little investigation, I deemed that all the books have a place on my “bookshelf” for one reason or another.
Enough meandering, here are the eleven books I own:
Continue reading “My Minimalist Bookshelf Tour // a brief history of the eleven books I own + my 100th post!”Science fiction is my favorite literary genre.
Now, I don’t think any genre is better than another, but I do think you can certainly like one better. In this case, I like science fiction better than all the other genres.
But why?
Is it because I’m naturally fascinated by science?
How does my interest in the study crossover to my love for its companion fiction?
Do robots actually make beeping noises?
. . .
I tried my best to put my feelings into words and came up with this incomplete list of reasons I love sci-fi. Maybe some of you can relate 💃:
Continue reading “Why I Love Science Fiction // five reasons it’s my favorite literary genre”We’re well past this year’s halfway mark, and with that, I’m happy to announce that I’m actually ahead of my Goodreads Reading Challenge of reading fifty books in 2019. This time last year I was flailing around, trying to catch up with my annual reading goal by hosting a personal Post-Mid Year Freak out Read-a-thon. It seems that the same strategy I usually employ to catch up on my reading goal—picking shorter books and reading contemporary fluff—helped put me ahead of schedule. Ultimately though, it was the huge chunks of time I’ve had being in the waiting since I graduated combined with a streak of great book recommendations that allowed me to stay on top of the challenge.
It’s time to pay it forward by highlighting the best of the great book recommendations that I read. Here are my favorite books of 2019 (so far):
Continue reading “My Favorite Books of 2019 (Part 1)”ARCs are “almost-complete” versions of books that publishers send to reviewers to promote the title and gain feedback. This practice isn’t only advantageous to the publishers as the book reviewers literally get FREE books to read (and review) ahead of everyone else. It’s certainly one way to set your book blog apart (although ARC reviews aren’t incredibly uncommon in the blogosphere).
Here’s where I retract my earlier wording. Being a book blogger doesn’t “automatically” put you in the running to receive an ARC. At least when you first start out, you have to put in the time and work to request the title from a publisher which can be done through multiple avenues.
While the idea of receiving a free book is certainly enticing, I still haven’t requested an ARC after three years of blogging for these reasons:
Continue reading “Why I Have Never Requested An ARC”
Belle Can Read 