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)”
Title: The Upside of Unrequited
Author: Becky Albertalli
Published: April 11, 2017
Pages: 336
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Amazon / Barnes & Nobles / Goodreads
When I was perusing the nominees for Best Young Adult Fiction in the Goodreads Choice Awards 2017, I came across yet another one of Alberatelli’s books and decided to give the author a chance.
Continue reading “Book Review: The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli // a realistic narrative of awkward, first relationships”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”Every book I read is a unique experience. Some of these experiences are memorable for being enlightening and many simply from the joy and comfort they brought to me. There are so many books I’m thankful for, but I managed to pick out only five for this week’s *Top 5 Wednesday:
Continue reading “5 Books I’m Thankful For”
Title: Geekerella
Author: Ashley Poston
Published: April 4, 2017
Pages: 320
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Amazon / Barnes & Nobles / Goodreads
Goodreads Description:
Anything can happen once upon a con…
When geek girl Elle Wittimer sees a cosplay contest sponsored by the producers of Starfield, she has to enter. First prize is an invitation to the ExcelsiCon Cosplay Ball and a meet-and-greet with the actor slated to play Federation Prince Carmindor in the reboot. Elle’s been scraping together tips from her gig at the Magic Pumpkin food truck behind her stepmother’s back, and winning this contest could be her ticket out once and for all—not to mention a fangirl’s dream come true.
Teen actor Darien Freeman is less than thrilled about this year’s ExcelsiCon. He used to live for conventions, but now they’re nothing but jaw-aching photo sessions and awkward meet-and-greets. Playing Federation Prince Carmindor is all he’s ever wanted, but the diehard Starfield fandom has already dismissed him as just another heartthrob. As ExcelsiCon draws near, closet nerd Darien feels more and more like a fake—until he meets a girl who shows him otherwise.
Although one of my semi-guilty pleasures is reading about geeky girls, Geekerella was not something I’d see in a book store and pick up. It just sounded so corny. I thought I would give it a chance anyways since it was nominated for Best Young Adult Fiction in the Goodreads Choice Awards 2017—and I was glad I did.
Continue reading “Book Review: Geekerella by Ashley Poston // a homage to fandoms”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”
Writing this review was an interesting experience for me. For starters, it encompasses my thoughts and feelings for three different books instead of one. I also wrote it well after finishing all the books so my memory of them is kind of fuzzy. Usually, I jot notes while reading books I’m going to review, but I had no intention of making this post until I was almost finished with the third book.
Here’s to firsts!
Continue reading “Book Series Review: The Reckoners by Brandon Sanderson // fantastically written, but not without its faults”November has just begun and (I) people have already started gearing up for Winter and Christmas. In order to counteract all the excitement for the holiday season and reorient (myself) everyone to the time, I decided to do The Fall Book Tag.
I was tagged by Dani from Perspective of a Writer (thank you!); She’s a sweet girl and her blog is full awesome content, so you should give it a look. Continue reading “The Fall Book Tag”
I’ve already gone through the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Tomorrow, I have to re-immerse myself into society and trick people into thinking I’m a functional student. I enjoyed my break, but I didn’t do nearly as much work as I usually do during the school year. I have to switch gears, focus on school, and re-motivate myself to get work done.
I shared what I do when I feel unmotivated on Tumblr, but I thought I would transfer it as a blog post (and slightly modify it) to help any of you who need it. Here’s to two more months of school until I can finally go home (and cry) 🥂: Continue reading “12 Tips To Motivate Yourself To Do Work”
Belle Can Read 