April Review-A-Thon | Link Up

I have fallen SO behind on writing book reviews lately, and I am determined to fix it as soon as I can. I have read a lot of my Netgalley books, but have yet to write the reviews for them, which is incredibly sad since I know that doing so will boost my Netgalley percentage. Because of this, I have decided to do a sort of Review-A-Thon in April.

So, what do I plan to do for the Review-A-Thon? Personally, I intend to post a book review each WEEKDAY of the month, which I know is a pretty hefty goal, but it is something that I really do want to accomplish. After counting, that means 22 days, which is 22 reviews. That sounds like a ton, but I know that I have that many to write, especially once I finish the books I intend to read in March and April.

What does this mean for you? Obviously I know that some people don't need to write this many reviews in a month. Maybe you do, though. Or maybe you just want to work on writing a few more reviews that you normally would, and doesn't April seem like the perfect time to do that? If you link up below, we can keep each other accountable and support/motivate one another throughout the month. No pressure, but I do intend to host a giveaway at the end of April for those who do link up and post at least a few reviews throughout the month of April!

So, what do you think? Join me?

An InLinkz Link-up

Discussion | How Much Time Do You Make For Commenting Other Bloggers?

Lately I have been thinking about the amount of time I spend commenting other bloggers, or even commenting back when they leave one for me, and I have decided I am probably not making nearly as much time for it as I need to be. I always intend to, and I really want to, but then things get so busy. I spend the time I have on the computer getting things ready to post on the blog, and then I have very little other time left over. I always feel frustrated when that happens though because I do desperately want to comment more, and I know that is what will help grow my blog. With a full time job, and hour commute, working out most nights, and then making dinner...it just never feels like there is enough time to go around!

I thought I would talk to you guys about the whole thing because I am sure that no one would know better about this than other bloggers! How much time do you usually spend commenting on other blogs? Do you have a set time/day that you sit down and do a lot of it? Do you set aside a certain amount of time every day or every other day? Any ideas on how I can improve my ability to get more comments in? Any help and suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Bookshelf Organization | Opinions?

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, last weekend I spent quite a bit of time working on our main bookshelves in the living room. We have two right next to each other; the tall one (part of which is pictured above) and then a smaller one next to it. The tall one has five shelves while the smaller has three. We went through and decided what textbooks or anything else we did not need or want anymore, and I sold those off to Half Price Books. Then I went about putting books on the shelves. I decided to put hardcovers on the tall one, and paperbacks on the smaller. However, I still don't have nearly enough shelf space. The paperbacks are double stacked, and I have even more books in my craft room on shelves in there...yikes!

Now, I think that the shelves already look so much better, but the only part I'm really happy with is the very top of the tall bookshelf, which you can see in the picture above. I have our Harry Potter books, my Legend trilogy box set, along with some newer releases on my TBR shelf, and a little bit of decor. I think I will leave those that way for now...

So, the main point of this post is to figure out how I should go about actually organizing the books. Right now they are just randomly placed, and it's driving me a bit crazy. I thought I would ask for opinions from you guys! How do you organize your own shelves? How do you think that I should do it? Color-coded, alphabetically by title or author, by genre? Should I keep my series together, or should I separate them? Should I keep my TBR and Read books together? HELP! I would really love your opinions, so let's talk about it in the comments below! :]

My Favorite Booktubers: Part One (@sashaalsberg, @bethjune327, @bookables1, @jamie_leigh18, @peruseproject)

As I sat down at the end of 2014 and tried to decide my blog schedule for 2015, I also began making a list of some topics that I want to talk about on the blog this year as well. I have not done nearly as many discussion type posts as I would like to, so I do plan to change that this year. One of the first topics I wrote down was to talk about Booktube (YouTube videos that talk about books). I started watching Booktube channels a few months ago, and have definitely found some favorites. There are some Booktubers whose videos I will watch no matter what they talk about, so I am excited to share some of those people with you today. Check them out, especially if you haven't really looked into Booktube much before. I think that you will find them very entertaining!

1. Sasha @ abookutopia 

Sasha is so fun to watch, and she does a different array of videos, which I think is great! She has done some things with the team from Epic Reads, films some fun book hauls and tags, and even has a video (the one above) telling her viewers all about how to got to be an extra in the Divergent film!

2. Beth @ bethjune327



I just love Beth's sense of humor and personality, and I feel like we have a lot in common just from watching her videos. I really, really loved watching all of her Vlogmas videos in December, but I watch every single video that she posts. She has incredible book collection as well, one that I am definitely very jealous of!

3.  Heather @ Bookables



Heather is another one that I have been watching for months now as I find her to be incredibly relate able. She talks about things other than books (like her beautiful new baby), and I find that I enjoy that a lot as well. We have pretty similar taste in books, which is why I really love watching what she has to say about books.

4. Jamie (and Jeff) @ Ermahgerd Berks



I just LOVE to watch Jamie and Jeff do their videos. They have pretty different taste in books, so it can be very fun to watch them do wrap ups and hauls together. They also complete a lot of tags and challenges together, which always leads to a lot of humor. Jamie also has a beauty channel you can check out if you're into that as well.

5. Regan @ PeruseProject



Regan is from Texas just like me, and that is only one of the reasons why I love her channel. I don't read a lot of adult books, but she talks about some great ones that I'm definitely interested in trying out now. She also shares some of her clothing hauls and other discussions occasionally as well, and I do enjoy those, too.

There we have it, part one of my favorite booktubers! I have several more to share with you, so be on the lookout for those next week some time! :]

Book Buying in 2015

Before I talk about my bookish and blogging resolutions later this week, I thought I would discuss how I intend to handle book buying in 2015. As you are fellow book bloggers/readers, I am sure you understand the problem of buying too many books because they're inexpensive or because you have heard such good things about them. As I started my book blog just this year, and began reading many more books in a year then I used to, I did purchase A LOT of books this year. Probably way more than I needed to, but sometimes it's so hard to say "no". However, that is something that I am going to focus on this year, and because of that I am going to set a few rules for myself for my book buying in 2015. I do fully intend to stick to these rules, and I hope that I am successful with it!

Rule 1: I am going to set aside part of my spending budget each month to pre-order the new books I know that I am going to want that month. I am going to order them at the end of the previous month from Amazon to ensure that I can get them, but that I also don't fork over the extra money at Barnes and Noble because I happen to be in the store and see it there. Amazon prices are much better, and they will be shipped to me on the release day, so I know that I will not have to wait too long for them. I plan to pre-order no more than 4 for any given month (I just pre-ordered three for January, and I am very happy with my selections).

Rule 2: Aside from my pre-order books, I will only allow myself to buy a new book after reading five or more books that I already have on my shelves. That means for every five books I read that I already have, I will allow myself to pick up one book from a store such as Target or Half Price Books. This will cut down on a lot of the impulse buying that I tend to do when I see a new-ish book on sale at Target, and then come home and put it on the shelf and don't actually read it.

Rule 3: I am only going to buy a book if I really, really want to read it, and not just because it's on sale or has a pretty cover. I want to make sure if I am buying books this year that I am actually going to read them, and they won't just sit on the shelves collecting dust.

Rule 4: I am going to try not to buy anymore first books in a series until I finish some of the other series that I already own. This means I will allow myself to buy books to continue a series, but not any that start a brand new one unless I really, really want to read it.

Rule 5: I am going to start checking the reviews and ratings on Goodreads before I make a book purchase. Sure, it might not end up being the same for me since I have liked books that a lot of people hated, and hated books that a lot of people love. Still, I do think that it's a good starting point, so I am going to at least check it out before buying a book.

There we have it, the book buying rules I am going to try to stick to next year. Of course, I am sure I will have some months that are less successful than others (like when Book Outlet has huge sales and sends me coupons), but overall I am going to try to stick to this as much as possible. Is anyone else limiting their book buying in 2015? What are some rules you plan to stick to?

What Causes Me to DNF a Book?

Confession: I really, really, really hate giving up on a book before I have finished reading it.

When I first began blogging at the beginning of the year, I had no idea at all what DNF stood for. I didn't know that people would even share a book on Goodreads, or anywhere for that matter, if they did not finish it. I had such a hard time as it was not finishing books that I was not sure I would ever be able to share that I did so. However, I quickly realized that this information can be very useful to fellow readers and bloggers. If another reader with similar tastes DNFed a book, then there is a likely chance that I would want to do the exact same thing. While it was not easy, I became a little less hesitant to put down books without finishing them. Why should I suffer through reading something that I am really not enjoying? Still, despite being more okay with the whole idea, there were still some things I took into consideration before I would put down a book for good. I thought I would share those things today. Perhaps some of you feel the same way about these things, or maybe I'm just weird (that's a strong possibility).

Reasons I DNF a book: 

1. I cannot get into the story within the first half of the book - I like to give every book a fair chance, so I try to read several chapters before I decide to put it down for good. If I make it more than half way through a book and am enjoying it, then I always want to finish because I figure I have already made it this far. However, if in the first half of the book I'm not happy, I am okay with stopping.

2. I cannot relate to the characters. At all. - It is a really big deal for me that I can relate and understand the characters in a book, and that I have some sort of feelings towards them, whether they are good or bad. If I feel nothing towards the characters, then I feel no obligation to finish reading.

3. It is a sequel in a series, and the series really did not need to be continued - If I begin reading a sequel and do not enjoy the first half of the book, then I will probably stop reading the series unless I have read/heard that the series picks up again. If I enjoyed the first book and got all of the story I really needed, there is no reason to force myself through a sequel.

4. The book is incredibly slow/confusing/a topic I don't enjoy - I think that this is pretty self-explanatory. Some books just read really, really slowly to the point where it is nearly impossible for me to get into the whole thing. I don't usually feel too bad about giving up on these because I know that I would be stuck for ages on the same book otherwise.

5. I do not enjoy the writing - This is probably the main reason for why I put down books throughout the year. There are some authors that tons of people love, but I do not love their writing style. It's bound to happen; we all have our opinions and things we enjoy. Unfortunately, sometimes the writing bothers me so much that I just can't finish a book, no matter how much I might enjoy the premise.

What things cause you to DNF a book?