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Cleaning Up The TBR #3

ack in November last year, I did my first “Cleaning Up the TBR” post, something I first saw over on Fictionophile, who had seen it on Lost in a Story, and thought it was a really good idea. I know I’m not the only one who thought the same as I was seeing it everywhere so I am glad to jump on the bandwagon. Hopefully no one will mind 🙂

The idea is you take your Goodreads TBR list, sort by ascending date added, and look at the oldest five to ten items on your list. If you haven’t read them by now, are you likely to? Why or why not? If you want to keep them, make the case. This is my third visit to the list so far, with the last one in January.  Here’s what’s next on the list…

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#LetsDiscuss2018: Am I becoming as grumpy as my characters

Gossiping WomenRecently, I have been feeling a bit grumpy when it comes to reading.  I can’t say it’s a slump because I’m still reading books at pretty much the same rate I always have.  But, picking those books up just isn’t giving me the thrill it once did, even with some of my favourite authors.

I’ve been scratching my head as to the why a fair bit and I think I’ve come to a conclusion that too many of the people in the pages are grumpy, ornery or just down-right angry and it’s beginning to rub off on me.

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#LetsDiscuss2018 – Is Variety The Spice of Blogging Life?

Gossiping Women

Last year around this time I was struggling with how I follow blogs.  I was using Google+, Bloglovin’, WordPress Reader, and email plus Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.  Some bloggers I followed in every which way, others only one.  Because of that, I was missing out on some great posts but seeing others two, three or four times.

It was more than a little frustrating and, as a result, I made the decision that, social media aside, I was going to use Bloglovin’ as my main blog following tool.  For the most part it’s worked.  Recently, though, I’ve started to feel overwhelmed again and I think it’s because I’m following too many people.  If I add everything up, it is close to 300 individual blogs yet I probably only visit 30 or 40 on a regular basis.  

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#LetsDiscuss2018 – Alternate Reading Ways

Gossiping Women
Gossiping Women, illustration in vector format

One of my New Year book-ish resolutions was to read more physical books.  That’s pretty much all I used to read.  Then I got my Kindle and got a bit excited by the world of 99p books out there (who wouldn’t), filled it up and started reading.  And then kept reading.  The books on my shelves, those bought or gifted, sat there.  Waiting patiently and slightly dusty for the day I would pick them up.

For many on the shelves, that day simply hasn’t come.  Which is a shame because, sat where I am on my couch, typing away and looking over at the shelves there are so many books on there that I want to read. I just find, when I get to deciding on my next read, the ebooks always seem to come first.

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Discussion Challenge 2018

Gossiping WomenLast year, I took part in the 2017 Discussion Challenge.  The aim was to build up the courage to write more than reviews, to start expressing my opinion beyond my thoughts on what I had read, even if only just a little bit.  I’m not going to lie, it was hard.  There is something about writing a discussion post, the putting myself out there that had me thinking twice more than once.

In the end, I wrote six posts that I classed as discussions (including one on what made a discussion a discussion, a question I still haven’t quite answered for myself).  This made me a “discussion dabbler” but it was kind of where I thought I would end up.  This year, I want to do more, in fact it’s one of my new year blogging resolutions.  How much better I’m not sure but I’m aiming to at least double my discussion posts to 12 – one a month.  Hopefully, I’ll succeed!

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Looking back, going forward…

So, I know that it isn’t quite the end of 2017 and I should be saving my New Year’s resolutions until the 1st January but I have a feeling there won’t be much blogging from me next week, other than a few scheduled posts, as my to do list is as long as my arm, and I can’t say about the weeks after that as school is out so I’ll be on mommy duty. With all this in mind, I thought I’d spend a bit of time today looking back at my year of book blogging and think about the things I want to accomplish next year.

bullet journal

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Judging books by their cover #3: women walking away…

img_0666Yesterday, posting my latest read on Instagram, I commented that I had – once again – picked a book that had a woman walking away from me.  In a bright coat.  I really can’t resist these books and I’m not sure why.

Is the woman in question walking away from me or into danger?  Should I follow her?  What is she thinking – is she smiling, crying, scowling? So many questions and I want to know the answer to all of them so I have to read the book.

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Book blogger hop: Scary movies (at least in my world)…

Halloween EditionIt’s being a while since I took part in a book blogger hop but, today, the urge struck and – unlike the last few weeks – the question was one I could answer with more than one sentence (one sentence always seems like such a waste of a post).

The other nice thing about this week, after writing three reviews back to back, is that it’s not about books.  It’s about movies…

Off the book topic – What is your favourite scary movie?

So, when it comes to scary movies I have to say I am a bit of wimp.  I think I want to be scared – but, when it comes down to it, I don’t really.  I blame my parents (who doesn’t?), who let me watch scary movies as a child, thinking because they were old and in black and white they were harmless.  How wrong they were!

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When is a discussion a discussion (or not?)

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This year, I am taking part in Feed Your Fiction Addiction’s discussion challenge.  I’d like to say I’m doing well, though I’m not really.  Just doing an update of where I was for this last quarter of the year, though, I started to wonder if maybe I was doing better than I thought and if some of the posts I had written, that I hadn’t classed as discussions really were.  Confused?  Yes, me too!

So, last month for example, I wrote two non-review, non-linky related posts.  One, Crime series I’m officially given up on catching up on…, I tagged as the discussion challenge.  The other, Rarely read genres – suggestions please…, I didn’t.  Why was one tagged and not the other?  The first had a question at the end that asked whether people had series they had given up on or would never get rund to finishing either; the second asked for suggested books I could read. This month, I talked about my favourite female detectives and tagged that too. Again, there was a question at the end.  

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Book blogger hop: choosing books by the their covers

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This week, I’m once again joining in with Billy at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer‘s book blogger hop, where they post a question which you and other bloggers answer, hopping from blog to blog to see people’s answers. This week, the question is…

Have you ever bought a book because you liked its cover art?
The answer is yes, and – I would think – who hasn’t?  I just can’t resist a good cover and actually wrote about this cover love a while ago (you can find the post here).  So, rather than repeating myself I thought I would just share some of my recent favourite covers, ones that absolutely influenced by decision to read them (clicking on the cover will take you to the full review)….