At the beginning of 2017, I set out to complete four reading challenges and failed four reading challenges.
Continue reading “Why I Struggle to Complete Reading Challenges”
There are certain topics, tropes, and types of characters that make me gravitate towards a book. In this series, I’ll share those items with you all in hopes that an author will come across these posts and answer my pleas for more books about those things. Here’s to screaming into the void (because let’s be real, this series is futile.): Continue reading “Dear Authors, Please Write More About… (Part 1)”
Minimalism is more than a white, bare room aesthetic; it’s a way of thinking and intentionally living, and I find that very appealing. There’s no right way to be a minimalist (or a bookworm, for that matter). To me, intentionally living as a bookworm means keeping the amount of books I own to a minimum by rarely purchasing physical books and getting rid of those of no value to me. Being a bookworm, it’s easy to get carried away with buying books and adding to the seemingly never-ending TBR pile. So, while my virtual TBR is always growing on Goodreads, I don’t have an actual pile of books in my home making me guilty or anxious about all the books I have to read.
Continue reading “How to Be a Minimalist AND a Bookworm”Belle Can Read is a boring name. It’s unoriginal, unimaginative, and uninventive—all of the -UNs.
So, how did I come up with the name? Let me tell you all story you may be able to relate to:
When I was in Elementary School and asked the teacher, “Can I use the bathroom,” the teacher would reply, “I don’t know, can you?” They would then proceed to explain that can meant “to be capable” and may indicated possibility or permission; therefore, I was capable of using the restroom, but I had yet to ask permission to do so.
Believe it or not—and this is going to sound really silly (or stupid)—but that childhood memory about bathrooms was on my mind when I created my blog name.
See, I knew I wanted to incorporate my nickname, Belle, and the blog’s focus, books, in the blog name, but I also didn’t want to spend too much time fussing over the name (Pfft, so much for that. I mean, did you see the post title?). The result was the totally creative name, Belle Can Read. The idea behind it was that although this is a book blog, there’s a possibility that I may post about other topics; even though I can read, I may not always be reading. (Do you understand why I was talking about bathrooms now?)
I’m laughing because the more I think about it, the less sense my reasoning for the blog name makes.
Now, I’m faced with a problem I’m calling The Blog Name Bind. Should I change my blog name? Continue reading “The Blog Name Bind”
I find these posts interesting and have fun reading why people favor book blogging over the other platforms. In this post, I would like to focus on blogging vs. vlogging and why I chose to have a blog over Booktube.
Continue reading “Blogging vs. Vlogging // Why I Chose A Blog Over Booktube”As the year draws to an end, I find myself searching for quick and short reads in a desperate attempt to keep up with my Goodreads Reading Challenge. It’s more difficult than it seems, though. I don’t want to read just any book for the sake of reaching my goal—the book has to genuinely pique my interest.
I figured some of you may be experiencing the same thing as me, so I thought I would share some of my favorite, quick (under 130 pages) reads. Hopefully, there’s something that catches your eye 😊. Continue reading “Quick Reads Recommendations”
If you are an avid reader, you have probably experienced a reading slump before or might even be in one right now. The major manifestations of a reading slump include the lack of interest and/or motivation to read or the inability to finish a book. Reading slumps can occur suddenly without a cause, as a result of a lengthy or boring book, or as a result of an amazing, emotionally exhausting book.
As an avid reader myself, I have been a victim of this phenomenon one too many times and am here to offer some tips to combat it. All of the tips include reading a book because I personally find that the key to getting out of a reading slump is to just read and, most importantly, to choose the right book to read. Continue reading “How To Get Out of a Reading Slump”
I’m proud to say that although I’ve miserably failed at all my other reading goals for 2017, I’ve kept up with my Goodreads Reading Challenge. I’ve read thirty-five out of my fifty book goal, so I figured I would share which ones are my favorite so far 😊.
I recently read a post by Puput from Sparkling Letters about the struggle of writing a coherent positive review. She explained how it’s easier to nitpick things we don’t like in a book than explain why we love another. At one point she wrote:
I mean, why do we love something? We just… do.
It got me thinking about my favorite books and if there was some type of pattern to them that would reveal why exactly I love them. I realized that although they differ greatly in genre, plot, characters, and so forth, there’s three things that they all have in common:
Continue reading “3 Things My Favorite Books Have in Common”
2016 was an eventful year for me. Throughout the year, I would recall things I had done and think did all that really happen this year? There seems to be a general consensus among the people of the interwebs that 2016 wasn’t the best year for the world, but it was personally a good year for me. I feel like I can proudly say I went through a lot of ✧character development✧ this year.
My 2016 resolutions weren’t very specific (ex. read more, exercise more, be more positive), but I think I still accomplished them regardless of that fact. I’m keeping my resolutions very general again since it worked last year and it puts less pressure on me. In 2017, I want to:
Continue reading “My 2017 New Year Resolutions”
Belle Can Read 