Let’s Talk | Baby It’s Cold Outside Book Tag

November 22, 2020November 22, 2020 bookishluna17 Comments

Hello and welcome to a tag post, I was lucky enough to be tagged by Erin over at Reading on a Star, who also created it! As you can see they are creative and have a ton of fun stuff over on their blog and I really think you should check it out! I am very excited to share my answers and please feel free to complete his tag even if you are not tagged because it was certainly fun to answer.

Rules

Thank the person who tagged you and link to their post.
Display the banner(copy and paste).
Link to the original creator: erin @ Reading On A Star !
Answer the questions!
Tag however many people as you want!

Snow Day – What’s your “comfort” book?

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, this books I read and adored with my mom as a child. To this day it is a book I go back to time and time again. It has such great memories tied to it, but also I love the story and the relationship between the family members so much.

Snow Angels – What’s a book that you love so much you would want to be buried with it(a little morid, but…)?

Well, I don’t think I can pick the same book again so, I will go with Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. I once again enjoy the relationships within the story, but I also like the discussion of no one being truly good or truly bad and you are not always what you are defined to be. I also think it would be interesting being buried with a book that has to do with angels and demons. If ever found it might makes things a bit interesting.

Warm Socks – What’s a book that makes you feel warm inside?(The fluffiest, cutest romance you’ve ever read?)

I think I will go with Beach Read by Emily Henry. I read though it so quickly, I adored the characters and I will always love reading books about authors.

Hot Cocoa – What winter-themed novels have you previously read?

The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon is a great horror read set in the winter. It has disappearance, legends, family secrets, and a bit of historical fiction thrown in. It is a wild ride and I was a book I was pulled into right from the beginning. Th best part is that it is just over 300 pages and is not too long, but has a lot going on.

Sledding – What’s a book with the best plot twists? Who’s an author that always keeps you on your toes?

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton, this book seriously kept me on my toes from start to finish. I don’t want to say too much, but this author is so talented and became an auto buy author because of it.

Ugly Sweaters – What’s a book with the ugliest cover?

The first book that pops up in my mind is the green edition of The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. I enjoyed the book and the movie for that matter, but I always disliked the lime green edition of this book.

Movie Marathon – What’s the last book you binge read?

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune, I sat down last weekend thinking I would read a few chapters. Well, I ended up reading the entire book in a single day and I was honestly tempted to reread it almost right away. I honestly loved the characters and the dynamics of their relationships. I also adored the touch of magic the author added, it was perfect!

I also want to mention The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi, a very similar thing happened when I went to read this book. I sat down to read a chapter or two and ended up reading the entire thing. While this is a beautiful story of a family truly learning who their child is, but it is so heart breaking and emotional. I don’t want to give too much information because I don’t want to spoil anything but I HIGHLY suggest you check this one out. It is one of the few books that made me cry.

Letter to Santa – What’s a book that’s on your wishlist this year?

As of right now I have a whole list you can see here, but the one book I want the most would be Dark Archives by Megan Rosenbloom, a librarian. It is a nonfiction book that discusses a ]very morbid, but interesting topic of books bound in human skin. The author explores the science as well as the historical significance that led to these books being created. I am curious to see how the author will discuss such a dark topic and if she will be telling the story of those who became victims.

I Tag

Misty @ Misty’s Book Space

Jenna @ JK I’m Exploring

Jenna @ Westveil Publishing

Noly @ The Artsy Reader

Tarra @TLC Book Nook

Aoife @ Pretty Purple Polkadots

Rebbie @ Rebbie Reviews

Sarah @ VoyageThroughWor(l)ds

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Let's Talk

Let’s Talk | How I Read 10+ Books a Month

August 23, 2020August 22, 2020 bookishluna10 Comments

Let's Talk

Hello and welcome to a little post where I list a few ways that help me personally read 10+ books a month. Now, this is just my personal experience, but I figured maybe sharing might give some ideas to those who might read this or even maybe get you into the reading mood!

First and foremost, audiobooks! I listen to audiobooks on a few platforms, the one I use the most is free through my library, I use libby. I use this to borrow audiobook (& ebooks), because honestly audiobooks are expensive and I can’t keep up financially with the amount I listen to each month. In second place is scribd, which is a small fee each month that give you access to audiobooks (& ebooks). Lastly, is libro.fm which is an independent bookstore alternative to audible for a monthly fee. I listen to audiobooks when I am cleaning, crocheting, or when my hands are busy, but my mind is not really engaged.

The next thing that helps me is reading before bed each night. A few months ago I wrote a post called, Challenge | One Week Reading Before Bed. Following this challenge, I actually ended up changing up my nighttime routine. I loved my experience so much I kept it as part of my nightly routine. It is really calming for me and helps me wind down after the stress of the day.

Now, this is a bit of an odd one to mention but, I stopped reading books just because of the hype. I realized a lot of the books I was reading I picked up because of the hype. Well, since I realized hyped books I am meh about tend to be slow paced and have little enjoyment, I should just leave them behind. Now I just read books I am really interested in and feel drawn to picking up. Since this switch happened I have read more because I want to pick up my current read more often and for longer periods of time.

Lastly, I am a huge supporter of DNFing books. Now, this is something that I have really embraced over the last few years. I used to have serious feelings of FOMO when I was reading a book I was not liking. I was convinced that there would be a huge turning point and I would see why everyone was loving a book. Well, nine times out of ten, that turning point never really happened. Now, if I don’t like a book after 50-100 pages, depending on the length, I DNF it. For me personally, I have found there is no point in pushing myself to read something I am not enjoying. Not only does it slow down my reading, I could be reading something I am really enjoying.

Well, those are a few ways that help set me up to read 10+ books a month.

What are ways you work reading into your day?

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Let’s Talk | The Bookish Baking Tag

August 4, 2020August 3, 2020 bookishluna16 Comments

Let's Talk Hello and welcome to a tag. I have not done one in a while, I am sorry! But, I was so happy when Alexandra over at Reading by Starlight Blog tagged me to do this. I love baking and books, so this is a perfect combination! Also, I want to note I made this a little extra challenging by only picking books I read this year.

☆ Thank whoever tagged you
☆ Link back to them and the original creator (Kay @ Hammock of Books)
☆ Answer the 12 prompts, and feel free to use these graphics
☆ Tag 5+ friends to share the sweetness

Norse Mytholgy by Neil Gaiman, I picked this one because the start of this book Gaiman goes into his personal history with Norse Mythology and it was really interesting and I felt it really set a great tone to the whole book.

Little Women

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, this novel will forever be a holiday book for me because it just feels cozy and it radiates family to me. This also a book I reread often and when I want to relax so either holiday meaning it has it covered!

Firestarter

Charlie from Firestarter by Stephen King, I feel so much for Charlie in this book and I feel like everyone should just protect this poor girl. I don’t want to say much because you know, spoilers. But, I just want her to be safe and with those who care.

Beach Read by Emily Henry, I mean the cover and title alone really say it all. This was a really fun and you probably heard all about it because so many people have been raving about it. It is a fun read that tackles a few sadder themes, but over all it had full on summer vibes and even a summer romance.

Teen Titans: Raven by Kami Garcia and Gabriel Picolo, so this one I am twisting a bit. Raven really made me think about what makes us, well us. In addition to the importance of family. I feel like the, “who am I?”, “What does it all mean?” are questions a lot of us ask of ourselves from time to time, but I feel like it happens a lot as we grow up in high school. Like I said, I am twisting this prompt a little, sorry!

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, I read this a bit ago and it was a really fun classic to read. I loved that the narrator had a sense of humor and was making fun of the book. On top of that it was a very typical love classic into also a horror/thriller esc. classic. It was quote enjoyable. I ended up writing an entire post about this one, Let’s Talk | BuzzFeed Picks My Jane Austen Novel

Don’t Touch My Hair by Emma Dabiri, this was such a great read. I annotated this book so heavily I needed to buy a new highlighter. This was such a great mixture of memoir and history of slavery all tied together by hair. It is a wonderful anti-racism novel that I think more people need to talk about and read.

Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu, okay, I admit this is not all fluff, but I just loved the relationships in this graphic novel and the support given! I just had to mention it, I need to read more by these two.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, the message of this book, at least to me, was savor all the time we get to spend with those around us. You never know when things will happen and you don’t want to regret not saying something or showing how you care. This was a beautiful short story.

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, this book is HUGE. Now, I love history and I worked with someone who also loved history at an old job. I knew their taste was generally similar to mine and they were having a hard time reading it saying it was slow and dragged. So, I was really afraid to read it. Well, years later I finally read it and this person could not be more wrong, at least in my opinion.

Girl, Woman, Other

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo, such a wonderful book. This book was diverse in so many ways. It was diverse in so many ways, such as age range, race, sexuality, economically. It was a wonderful book and I will say, this should have been the ONLY winner of the 2019 Man Booker Prize.

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, as you all probably know. This book has been on booktube, blogs, and just about everywhere I see books talked about. Well, I picked it up and I really did love it! This author is so talented, I can’t wait to see what they do next. It really is amazing when the hype pays off.

You!

Sign Off 2020

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Hauls & Unboxings

Unboxing | New eReader!

July 17, 2020July 17, 2020 bookishluna24 Comments

Hauls & Unboxings

Hello and welcome to a bit of unboxing of my newest eReader. In the past I have used Nook when they first came out, then I transitioned to Kindle years later. Well, I decided I did not want to have a kindle because they are WAY over priced for what they are and I am not throwing my money away at Amazon. Due to this I started to look around for other options. There were a few things I was looking for specifically; a larger screen, backlight, physical buttons, work with my library. That is the thing about eReaders, they need to be fit for the user and you need to do your own research before purchasing to make sure it is right for you.

I ended up looking back at nook since I have used them in the past. To be honest I was not sure why I left, it was so long ago. I looked at their options and I was looking at the model called the NOOK GlowLight Plus and it was $200.00, which I found too much and didn’t even have the physical buttons I wanted.

I then decided to do a general search for eReader and came across Kobo. I decided to take a closer look and came across Kobo Libra H2O. It checked all the boxes for me personally, it had an internal light, had built in OverDrive(library), and had physical buttons and a larger screen than my kindle. The bonus on top of that it was cheaper then the Nook I came across. I decided to purchase this model for myself and waited for it to arrive.

When my eReader arrived I was so excited, it came in a simple box and I opened it right away to get it all set up and ready to go.

The packaging was simple, but it was more than sufficient to keep it safe. I was just as happy when I opened it and it seemed to be exactly what I needed and wanted. When I did take it out it was a good weight, not too heavy, but not too light that it felt fragile. The buttons felt sturdy and were not loose, which is something that always bothered me. I really dislike when a button wiggles.

My Kobo was really easy to set up, I was fairly surprised. When I switched from Nook to Kindle ecosystem there was a bit of a learning curve, with this it was very intuitive for myself personally. I added my library right away and I was surprised and delighted that I could see my holds and how long they thought it would take my to get them. I could also request books from from my Kobo without having to go on another device like with my Kindle. I will be honest, I don’t buy a ton of ebooks, I mainly use the library so this is a huge deal for me.

I also was able to also add my pocket account, which I was also excited about. I always find blog posts and articles I want to read later on and I have used pocket for a while. Well, turns out these are now automatically sent to my ereader now too! I am really thrilled with what this Kobo can do and I will continue to play with it and I am thinking I might do an update post later to share how I feel after a few weeks or months of use.

Do you have an eReader? If so, which one?

What are your musts when it comes to an eReader?

Sign Off 2020

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Let's Talk

Lets Talk | Preordering Books

March 20, 2018March 11, 2018 bookishluna17 Comments

LetsTalk12:17

Hello and welcome to the March discussion post. I have been loving these the past few months. Being able to hear your options and talk about books just makes me want to blog more. I started bookishluna because I wanted to talk books and to see all the support through comments and taking part in my polls has been great. Thank-you for talking books with me. If you want to read my previous discussion post you can find them here; Lets Talk | Reading Formats , Lets Talk | Big Books.

Last month we talked about big books, this month lets talk about preordering books. But, before we move on to this months discussion topic I want to go over the poll results.

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The Results

The poll this month shows that most people like big books. I will admit I was thinking that more people would say no because they can be intimidating. Either way, if you like big books or not, we can all agree that books are amazing.

What do you think about the poll results?

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When you preorder a book, you are taking a chance, it could work out in your favor or not. A big fear of mine is preordering a book and absolutely hating it. We have all been there, we read a book description or review on a fell bloggers page and thought, “This book is for me”. We preorder it and wait. When it finally arrived we happily open it and maybe share our bookmail on our social media accounts. Then when we go to read the book it falls flat for one reason or another. This is large con when it comes to preordering books. There is no guarantee we are going to like the book.

The pros to preordering are numerous. Sometimes there are preorder goodies, I know when I preordered The Song Rising by Samantha Shannon I was sent a beautiful full colored map of the world. I still have it displayed. Other times there may be exclusive covers, extra art, stickers, and other bookish goodies. Another bonus of preordering books is they are sometimes cheaper. This is not guaranteed, but in some cases if you preorder in advance online they prices may be cheaper. But, I will admit I am an advocate of preordering at a physical books store, chain or independent if you have access to that. When you do this, chances are you will not get a discount.

Another pro, which I find the most powerful is that it supports the author. It helps them get better release day/week numbers which helps them gain support for publishing another book. Now obviously, you can do this by going to the store on opening day, but I am horrible about remember release days. This way you don’t need to remember, it either shows up at your door or you get a phone call saying you can pick up your book.

If you want to hear it from an author you can see that Melissa Albert herself says the best says to support an author when you preorder or buy it in store on the appropriate date. Buying them before release date does not support authors. So if you see a book out before their release date, it does not help their numbers. If you want to ensure you get a copy asap preorder it online or at a bookshop. I myself have seen them out before their date and have gotten super excited because I feel like I have found buried treasure. After realizing it does not help authors I will no longer buy books early.

source: imgur.com — Thanks again for letting me use your tweet!

Now I want to take a moment to say that you can support authors by requesting their books at the library, I don’t always have money for book and I know a lot of people are also in the same boat. Now, I did a bit of reading and the amount of financial support authors get from library sales differ from author to author. I recently read a great post on the topic, How do authors make money from library books? I was curious because I wanted to know that these authors still get the support they deserve when I put a book on hold. It seems that they do, but in different ways. Divider

For me preordering books is something I do when it meets my criteria. For me to preorder a book it has to hit at least 2 of the following; I have read 1 or more of the authors works already and enjoyed them, the description of the books pulls me in, and/or I read a review by someones I trust or know I have similar tastes too. Having this criteria has helped me greatly. I am very rarely disappointed by books I preorder anymore.

Of course there is an exception, if I have read the book as an ARC and I loved it, I am going to preorder it as well. While I do want to support authors, I want to be as sure as I can be before spending money on a book. They can be expensive and sometimes my disposable income in limited.

(Some) Books I have Pre-Ordered and the Criteria They Met

Illustrated editions of Harry Potter: I read them all in original format
The Hazel Wood By Melissa Albert: Received as an ARC and reviewed
Review | The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black: I read 2 books by her and the description sounded amazing.
The Dire King: A Jackaby Novel by William Ritter: I read the other books in the series and loved it, plus the description sounded like it was going to continue being amazing. (P.S this series is one where I loved every book)
I currently have Stephen Kings newest book The Outsider that comes out May 22nd, 2018 preordered. I have read at least 8 of his books and really enjoyed them. On top of that the description gave me the creeps, which is the point of a Stephen King book.

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What do you think about preordering books?

Do you preorder books? Let me know in the poll below.

SignOff12:17

Let's Talk

Lets Talk | Reading Formats

January 13, 2018January 6, 2018 bookishluna11 Comments

LetsTalk12:17

Hello everyone, I wanted to start something a little new on my blog this year. I was thinking that maybe once a month I would introduce a bookish topic we could discuss. The first topic I want to talk about is reading formats. I have to admit, this is a topic I am always a but nosy about. I always like to find out what reading format someone prefers. I always want to know why they like one and don’t like another.

Paperback:

I can see the benefit of paperbacks, they are usually cheaper, smaller, and easy to get your hands on when a book has been out for a bit of time. They also make a nice sound if they are particularly floppy.

Hardbacks:

I can also see the benefit in loving a hard back. They usually have a dust jacket for protection, they hold up a bit better in a bag, and the spine does not break as a paperback.

Audiobook:

Audiobooks have a few benefits as well. You can listen while you are driving, cleaning, or you are participating in another hobby like knitting, coloring, or embroidery. Another important benefit is the fact it is an assistive technology that allows the sight impaired to read.

Ebooks:

Ebooks have a few advantages as well. They are durable, unless you drop them in water. You can highlight make notes without “ruining a book” or using a pen. Another bonus is you can have 100s of books if not more right in the palm of your hand.

Now, I love to focus on the positive aspects of each, mainly because that is my personality. But, I know that each of these also have their disadvantages. I am curious, what do you think the disadvantages of each are? Are there any positives I overlooked or didn’t realize? Which do you prefer? I can’t wait to read your answers.

Also, I am adding a bit of a poll at the end of this post. I thought it would be fun to add the result in my next discussion post. If you click into the embedded poll it will allow you to scroll down to hit submit.