#BookBlogWriMo | My Ratings System & My Favorite Book Blogging Things

Here goes day 14 & 15 of the #BookBlogWriMo 2014 Challenge hosted by Book Bumblings! Go back to my introduction post in order to get more information about this challenge! It's not too late to join in and participate. :]

Yesterday's topic was:

My Ratings System

I have not really spent too much time thinking about this, if I am being honest. While I do give books ratings, I am not sure I have a set list in my head of what causes a book to be a certain number of stars. Should I have something like that? Yikes, I suppose I don't know... Honestly, the book has to be pretty close to perfect (in my eyes) to receive five stars. This means that I loved everything about the book; plot, characters, wording, ending. Sure, it might have some flaws, but they are not enough to make me take away a star.

Four stars is what I give most often. I know that some people hate bloggers like me (sorry) because I give a lot of books 4 stars. However, it is MY opinion, and it is MY decision. If I like a book, and it only has a few things wrong with it, then I see no problem with giving the book a four. If it kept me interested and everything made plenty of sense, then I think that it deserves that much. I know that everyone does not see that the same, though.

I would say that a three stars means that I just thought the book was okay. I was able to finish it, and I did not mind it too much, but I wasn't in love with it. Perhaps it took me awhile to get through it because I put it down, which means that it was not keeping me interested. Still, a three isn't bad, it's just not my favorite. Two stars is for a book that I really did not enjoy. I made it all the way through, but there were things about it that I did not like reading. Perhaps the plot or characters were not well put together, or not believable. Those are major issues for me, and would result in the book receiving a two.

The one star rating is mostly saved for those books that I did not finish, if I give them a rating. I feel that it at least deserves one star, because it has to have something good about it. More likely than not, it was just not a type of book that I really enjoy, and that is not the author's fault. Still, I can't really rate it higher than that if I was not even able to make it through the book.

Today's topic is: 

My Favorite Book Blogging Things

This seems like a really broad topic, so I am not sure what I am really supposed to talk about here...I suppose that I will just wing it and assume that I'm following the prompt! (There doesn't really seem to be a right or wrong answer, so win!)

1. Meeting other bloggers. This is probably my favorite thing about book blogging. I get to meet and talk to other book nerds, and that's pretty exciting! You guys get me, and think that I'm mostly normal for knowing more books titles and authors than anything else (that's normal, right?). It's fun to have a whole group of people that I can relate to and that are there with support when it's needed.

2. Booktube. Now, I have a booktube channel, but it's been ages since I've updated it. After the school year started I haven't had time between teaching, lesson planning, and my hour drive back and forth to work every day. I do, however, enjoy watching other booktuber's videos almost daily. Book hauls are really fun to watch, but I will watch pretty much any videos by my favorite booktubers.

3. BOOKS. I have to admit, one of the best things about book blogging is the books that can come along with it. I have read so many amazing books that I would not have read otherwise. I didn't know that the Indie book group was so huge until I started blogging, and quickly realized that I LOVED reading these books. I've even been able to be a beta reader! I would have never done that without my blog. 

4. Meeting/Talking to authors. To us, authors are our celebrities. It's like someone talking to their favorite actor when an author talks to us at a signing or replies back on Twitter or Instagram. Like I mentioned before, I was a beta reader because I became FRIENDS with the author and we messaged back and forth often on Goodreads. It's AMAZING to be able to talk to the people that write the books we love so much. And the fact that they genuinely love to talk to use is amazing.

#BookBlogWriMo | My Review Process

Here goes day 13 of the #BookBlogWriMo 2014 Challenge hosted by Book Bumblings! Go back to my introduction post in order to get more information about this challenge! It's not too late to join in and participate. :]

Today's topic is:

My Review Process

Yay for writing reviews! (something that I have been seriously slacking on lately...along with reading. I HATE reading slumps!). I really do enjoy writing reviews, probably more than any other type of post, but sometimes it does take some convincing and motivation to sit down and get started. Once I've started typing, then I'm golden. I suppose that my review process depends on three different circumstances; 1. If I am reading the book for a blog tour, 2. If I am reading the book for a publisher/author, 3. If I am reading the book just because I want to.

1. Books for blog tours - I tend to write these reviews pretty much right after I finish reading the book, and I try to have the book finished at least a week before my post date so that I do not have to rush the review. Since I have a date to post, I just set up the skeleton of the post and schedule it for that date. I take notes in a notebook as I read, and then write the review either the day of or the day after I finish reading. I want to make sure I do not forget anything about the book before I have a chance to write the review.

2. Books for publishers/authors - I usually try to schedule these on a certain day on my calendar so I can hold myself to a schedule, though I am not super strict about it as I obviously have to be with blog tours. Like with tours, I take notes about these books in a notebook as well. Sometimes these books will be read a little later if I have blog tour books I need to read or what not. After I finish reading, I usually write the review within the week, but I don't always do it right away since I don't have an official post date.

3. Books I choose - I am less likely to take wordy notes about the books I just choose on my own to read. I tend to get so focused on the book that I forget to write too much down since I know that I'm not reviewing for a tour or publisher. I do tend to write down quotes if I come across a line that I really, really enjoy. I usually just get to writing these reviews whenever I have the time and feel like it, and then I usually post them when I need a post for the blog on a certain day. Nothing specific or scheduled.

#BookBlogWriMo | Advice for Newbie Bloggers

Here goes day 12 of the #BookBlogWriMo 2014 Challenge hosted by Book Bumblings! Go back to my introduction post in order to get more information about this challenge! It's not too late to join in and participate. :]

As some of you may have realized, I did not complete yesterday's post (day 11). I sat down to do it, but could not figure out how to look at the number of views per post on Google Analytics, so I eventually just gave up and decided I was just going to skip one day. No big deal, right?

Today's topic is:

Advice for Newbie Bloggers

I have only been blogging for a little over nine months now, so I might still count as a bit of a newbie myself. I count myself as one, at least. Still, I suppose I have some advice based on my own experience as a recent newbie blogger. I am not sure how helpful it will be, but I will give it a go!

1. Just do it (yup, like Nike tells you to). If you are THINKING about creating a book blog, stop thinking about it and just do it. You are not going to regret it. I wasted several months wondering if I should go through with it, and those are months that I could have spent building my blog and writing posts. Sure, it might be a challenge at first, but it will get easier.

2. Don't sign up for EVERYTHING just so that you have things to post everyday. When I first started, I signed up for way too many blog tours so that I would have something to post about every day. That also meant I had a crazy amount of books I had to read in a fairly short amount of time. While I enjoyed almost all of the books, it was not worth the stress. Be picky about what blog tours you do; make sure that you are actually interested in the book, it will make it much easier to read the book in the time frame and write a review.

3. Be careful with Netgalley. Seriously, Netgalley is the best thing every, but it's also very jealous. I'm still trying to catch up on my books from when I decided to go a bit crazy and request too many things. Only request what you will actually be able to read so your rating is good when it comes time to request that book you REALLY, really want to read.

4. Talk to people. The only way to grow your blog is to talk to other people. Comment on blog posts, but make those comments meaningful. Don't just say that you're a new follower in hopes that they will follow you back. 

5. Get on social media. I know, I know, some people just really don't like social media. I was incredibly hesitant of Twitter, but it has become a wonderful way to talk to other bloggers and connect with authors. I do believe that it has helped grow my blog as well. If anything, it can be pretty fun.

#BookBlogWriMo | #Blogflow & Memes I Meme

Here goes day 9 and 10 of the #BookBlogWriMo 2014 Challenge hosted by Book Bumblings! Go back to my introduction post in order to get more information about this challenge! It's not too late to join in and participate. :] Obviously I missed yesterday (I'm failing at this), so I'm just going to combine the two today...because that's how I roll, obviously.

Yesterday's topic was:

My Blogging Workflow (#Blogflow) 

So, yeah, I'm not sure that I really have much of a blogging workflow. I definitely should, which would be a very good things to improve from this point forward. The first thing I do when I know I need/want to post something is to put it on my Google calendar. From that point, I try to spend the weekends prepping my posts for the week. That would be ideal, at least, I have been really bad about it the past couple of weeks, though. If I know I have reviews or blog tours that week that I'm not quite ready to type the review for, I will create a skeleton of the post. That means putting the book information and pictures up so that I just have to go back and add my review later.

Today's topic is:

Memes I Meme

This can vary a bit depending on the week and what I feel like doing, if I'm being completely honest. Sometimes I don't like the prompt, don't have enough to say, or just don't have the time to do it. On Monday's I do my own thing called Cover Concepts. I'm not sure it's actually a meme, but I'm going to count it. I tend to do Top Ten Tuesdays on occasion, but this is the one that really depends on the prompt and if I have time to create the post. Sometimes I don't have enough to say for a topic, so I skip that week. The one meme I do almost weekly is Stacking the Shelves because I love sharing about what books I picked up that week, and seeing what other people bought as well.

#BookBlogWriMo | My Blogging Toolkit

Welcome to Day 8 of the #BookBlogWriMo 2014 Challenge hosted by Book Bumblings! Go back to my introduction post in order to get more information about this challenge! It's not too late to join in and participate. :]

Today's topic is:

My Blogging Toolkit

I am not sure that I really have too many essential tools in my blogger toolkit, but I will share what I think counts. 

1. Laptop - I do everything for my blog on my laptop unless there is absolutely no way for me to do so. Sometimes I end up staying at my parents (they live close to the school I work at), and when I am there I will either borrow my mom's laptop or create the post on my phone if I can. Still, I prefer to use my laptop because I know where I have everything saved and I'm used to how it works.

2. Google Calendar - I am so grateful that someone told me about Google Calendar when I was so early into blogging because it is one of the best things ever. When I sign up to post a reveal or blog tour, I make sure to add it to the calendar so I do not forget. I also change the colors of the posts once I have typed them so I know what is done and what still needs to be typed up. If you don't already use this, I would highly recommend it.

3. Goodreads - honestly, I reference Goodreads in almost every post that I do. If I need a cover picture, I always look up the book on Goodreads and take the picture from there so I know that they are all the same size. I also use the site for publishing/author/release day info. It's also just fun to look around on the site daily to see about new books I might want to read.

4. Notebook - Even though I type everything on my laptop, I am still a huge fan of handwriting things in notebooks as well. I am just a fan of notebooks in general, really. I like to write things down, it's just how I've always been. I will usually keep notes as I read a book so I remember things to write in my reviews, plan out a blog post that I know I want to do, or maybe just brainstorm some possible future posts. I tend to always have a notebook with me.

I would say that those are my main tools for blogging. Nothing too exciting, but they definitely work for me.

#BookBlogWriMo | #FlashbackFriday - Blog's First Design

Welcome to Day 7 of the #BookBlogWriMo 2014 Challenge hosted by Book Bumblings! Go back to my introduction post in order to get more information about this challenge! It's not too late to join in and participate. :] (Sorry, late again. This week was crazy.)

Today's topic is:

#FlashbackFriday - Blog's First Design 

For this one, we were supposed to use WayBack Machine in order to take a screenshot of our first blog design. The site only had one capture of my blog, but luckily it was done before my design change. As most of you probably already know, I recently had a design made just for my blog, and I am thrilled with it. Before that, I only had one other design, and I just threw it together on my own. It was not the worst, but it certainly was not the best, either. I will leave you with the picture. :] 

#BookBlogWriMo | #TBT - Favorite Childhood Books

Welcome to Day 6 of the #BookBlogWriMo 2014 Challenge hosted by Book Bumblings! Go back to my introduction post in order to get more information about this challenge! It's not too late to join in and participate. :]

Today's topic is:

#TBT: Favorite Childhood Books

 

As I am typing this, I am sitting at my parent's house on my mom's laptop. Naturally, based on the topic, I asked my parents what some of my favorite books were as a child (honestly, I can't remember that far back!). Reading was something that I struggled with when I was younger, and even ended up taking a developmental class in elementary school in order to improve my reading skills because I was behind others my age. I am so relieved for that class, as I know I would not love to read as much as I do now if I still struggled that much with reading.

 

My mom tells me that I was a big fan of this Mother Goose nursery rhyme book that we had. As far as I remember, it just had tons of different nursery rhymes thrown together in it. As I got a bit older, I do know that I was a huge fan of the Junie B. Jones books, Nancy Drew, and The Babysitter's Club. I guess I was a fan of those kind of short, fun chapter books. Thinking back on these things was kind of fun; I enjoyed this prompt!

#BookBlogWriMo | Where I Blog

Welcome to Day 5 of the #BookBlogWriMo 2014 Challenge hosted by Book Bumblings! Go back to my introduction post in order to get more information about this challenge! It's not too late to join in and participate. :]

Today's topic is:

Where I Blog 

There is not much to tell when it comes to this prompt because I don't really switch up where I sit to type up blog posts (except for right now, as I am in bed ill and wanted to get these done). Typically, I do all of the typing for the blog on the couch. I use my laptop for everything, unless I take notes on notebook paper and use those for reference. I have a TV tray that I set my computer on and type like that. I always fear my computer is going to overheat if I keep it on my lap, thus using the TV tray. Besides, it's usually easier to type that was as well. See? Nothing too exciting. If I do know that I need/want to get some posts up on the blog soon, I will write them out in a notebook if I have a break or time at work to do so, that way the post is ready and I just have to type it up and post when I get home.

#BookBlogWriMo | Why I Blog

Welcome to Day 4 of the #BookBlogWriMo 2014 Challenge hosted by Book Bumblings! (Sorry, I know it's a day late! I ended up catching a stomach virus Monday, and I've done very little but lay around since then. Still not feeling great, but things must start to go on, I suppose.) Go back to my introduction post in order to get more information about this challenge! It's not too late to join in and participate. :]

Today's topic is:

Why I Blog 

I am sure that many of us probably have the same reasons for blogging, at least here in the book community. Mostly, I started my blog because I loved to read but did not have too many people to talk to about the books I was reading. My husband is not a reader, and my mom does not read a lot of young adult stuff. My oldest brother reads a lot of the same things, but we live an hour apart and he has a baby girl now, so it does not leave him a lot of time to chat about books. Starting a blog seemed like the best way to fix that problem. Suddenly I had a whole community of people who wanted to talk about the books I was reading/wanting to read, and that was awesome.

Another reason why I blog is because I really like to write. It has been something that I have enjoyed for awhile, though I never really wrote for other people to read before. Sure, I did my papers for school and what not, but that is completely different. It was pretty scary when I first started blogging and realized people would be reading what I write (and that they might actually want to read it), but it has been great. I feel that blogging has a ton of benefits to it, and I have been really enjoying it thus far.

#BookBlogWriMo | Where I Read

Welcome to Day 3 of the #BookBlogWriMo 2014 Challenge hosted by Book Bumblings! Go back to my introduction post in order to get more information about this challenge! It's not too late to join in and participate. :]

Today's topic is:

Where I Read

I really am not picky about where I will read; generally when I have time to read I try to make use of said time no matter where I am. When I am at home, more likely than not I am ready on the couch. I don't tend to read in bed too often because it is more likely that I will fall asleep and forget what I read and where I am in the book. I am not completely opposed to it, though. I also like to read when I take a bubble bath; nice and relaxing.

Everyday at school I have a fifteen minute period in one of my classes were my students do silent reading (It's a school wide reading initiative), so I get to read during that time, too. It's not the most ideal reading time since I do have to break pretty consistently to make sure that my students are actually reading and not causing trouble, but I usually manage to get two or three chapters in on a good day.

I absolutely cannot read when I am in a car or on an airplane, though. I get motion sickness pretty easily, and when I try to read while I'm moving like that it just makes the whole thing that much worse. I do think that I need to get more into audio books though, since I do spend at least two hours of my week days driving to and from work.

#BookBlogWriMo | How I Read

Welcome to Day 2 of the #BookBlogWriMo 2014 Challenge hosted by Book Bumblings! Go back to my introduction post in order to get more information about this challenge! It's not too late to join in and participate. :]

Today's topic is:

How I Read

Honestly, I do not think that I am too picky about how I read my books. Perhaps that is just me thinking that I'm not picky because I am biased, though. I guess I am not quite sure... Whenever given the possibility, I do prefer to read a physical book whenever I have the opportunity to do so. It is just easier for me to keep track of where I am when reading a physical book, and it is much easier to mark things when it is a physical copy as well. Unfortunately, physical copies are also more expensive. I love how hardcover books look on my shelf, but I tend to purchase books in paperback because of the cost. Ah, money ruins everything!

All this being said, I am not opposed to reading on an e-reader. I started out with a Nook when it first came out, but I was not thrilled with it. It was fine, but B&N was still fairly expensive when it came to ebooks. I checked out my husbands Kindle and found that I really did prefer it. Because of this, for Christmas a couple of years ago my husband got me a Kindle. While I used it a bit then, I really did not begin using it steadily until I began my blog about nine months ago. Since then I have read and reviewed several ebooks, something that I am fine with. The only disadvantages are making sure that it stays charged, fitting it in my purse, and marking things as I read.

When it comes to marking things, I am a little bit picky about how I do this. I am pretty unsure about marking in finished copies, so usually I was jot down the page number and quotes in a notebook so that I do not actually have to write in the book. When it comes to ARCs I will take notes and highlight right in the book because I know that if I enjoy the book that I will end up buying a finished copy anyway. I was recently a Beta Reader for an author, and I did write in that book a lot, and even dog-eared some pages, which is something that I rarely ever do in books. It was necessary, though. Overall, I am big on keeping notes in a notebook, though.

 

#BookBlogWriMo | The History of Beneath the Jacket Reviews

Welcome to Day 1 of the #BookBlogWriMo 2014 Challenge hosted by Book Bumblings! Go back to my introduction post in order to get more information about this challenge! I am just starting today, so I will be taking care of Day 1 AND Day 2 today. Let's start with Day 1.

The topic is:

The History of Beneath the Jacket Reviews

I have been reading some YA book blogs for a couple of years now. I have been a big fan of books and reading for awhile, so I would check out these books in order to find new books to read that I may not have heard of before. This was also around the time that I discovered Goodreads and realized just how addicting that could be. While I did enjoy writing as well, I was a bit unsure about starting my own blog. I worried that I would not be able to keep up with it, and that no one would want to read what I write (I feel that this is probably a pretty common fear for people when it comes to creating their blog).

I thought more and more about it as time passed, but it still took me awhile before I was ready to jump in and create a blog myself. It was in February of this year that I decided I was going to give it a go. What was the worst that could happen, after all? It took a couple of days to come up with a name, get it up and running, and have it looked pretty nice. It was on February 4th that my first post went live, and I was so excited about all of it.

Since then, I feel like my blog has evolved a lot. I jumped right into a ton of blog tours at first, and got myself completely overwhelmed with them. Then I was able to calm down on that, but I'm to a point now where I need to start signing up for a few more. I need to find a good in between on that still. I have enjoyed doing several weekly memes, and even coming up with my own weekly ideas. I have reviewed many books, most of which I have really enjoyed. Overall, I would say that my blogging experience has been great so far.

I don't spend too much time worrying about my blog stats at this point. I know that I'm still pretty early in, having about nine months under my belt, and more followers and views will come over time as I continue to post. Last month I did have a new blog design made, and I am thrilled with the visual change on the blog. Overall, I am very happy with where my blog has gone in the first nine months, and I cannot wait to see what happens with it in the future.

#BookBlogWriMo

[Source]

I am sure that most of us are aware that November means NaNoWriMo for most writers. While I love to write and my overall goal and ambition is to have books published, I'm not sure I am ready for NaNoWriMo this year. I have signed up, and I even know the novel I want to write. However, I forgot all about NaNoWriMo until about October 29th, and that did not leave me much time to outline and prepare with having a busy week. I might still do some work on my novel, but I am not sure I will make it to 50,000 words. 

That is what leads me to participate in #BookBlogWriMo with Book Bumblings, while I am not sure that I can write 50k words in a month, I do know that I can do a blog post every day for a month. I know this, because I have done it once before and really enjoyed it. I also have a goal of updating the blog daily for a month, so it seems like a great way to make sure that happens. 

What is #BookBlogWriMo?

It is a version of NaNoWriMo for book bloggers. Each day is a prompt that you answer, and the response can be as short or as long as you like; there are no word requirements for this one! You can post whenever you want during the day as well, as long as you post on that day (I am one day behind, so I will post day 1 and 2 today in order to catch up - it's not too late to participate!). That's it. Simple enough, right? 

Also, as I post my daily responses I will add them all to a list on this post so that it is easy for everyone to find.

So, what are the prompts for each day? Here is the schedule for you.

 

My Posts:

Day 1 | The History of Beneath the Jacket Reviews
Day 2 | How I Read
Day 3 | Where I Read
Day 4 | Why I Blog
Day 5 | Where I Blog
Day 6
Day 7