Last week on FYFA (and in my life):
Not much to tell about this week. I’ve been liking my new organization system for Bloglovin’ – it really helps me feel like I’m getting around the blogosphere better! – but I still just felt a bit overwhelmed for some reason, in general. One of the days, I decided to tackle my overflowing email inboxes and just started to feel really depressed. Does this ever happen to any of you? I just saw ALL the posts from my favorite blogs that have been piling up because I haven’t been able to visit them as often and ALL of the other random things that I need to take care of and I ended up feeling sort of miserable – like I’m failing at keeping up with it all. SO, I ended up unsubscribing from a lot of blog emails and instead adding them to my Active Followers Bloglovin’ feed – because ever since I organized my feed, I actually feel like I’m able to keep up with that better than I have been with my email. And it’s more organized, so it feels less overwhelming. Not sure how this will make me feel in the long run, but for now I’m liking it. We shall see! I hate when I let blogging (and reading other blogs, commenting, etc) turn into something painful instead of joyful – that’s not how it should be!
Anyway, here’s what you may have missed on the blog last week (no discussion, you’ll notice – I just wasn’t feeling inspired and I didn’t want to force myself):
- August Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up Link-Up – Link up your August wrap-up posts here and watch for the giveaway next week!
- Never Been Texted by Linda Joy Singleton (review & giveaway) – Still time to enter to win!
- September Discussion Challenge Link-Up and Giveaway – Now that September is here, it’s time to link up those September discussion posts and enter the giveaway!
- The Body Institute by Carol Riggs (review & giveaway) – Still time to enter to win a $25 gift card!
- The Foxglove Killings by Tara Kelly (review & giveaway) – Still time to enter to win lots of prizes!
- August Wrap-Up
- Stepping Stones by Kacey Vanderkarr (excerpt & giveaway) – Still time to enter to win a $20 gift card and swag pack!
ARC August Update: I finished up ARC August by reading: The Foxglove Killings by Tara Kelly. Overall, I read 10 books for ARC August – not too bad!
Next week on FYFA:
- August Wrap-Up Round-Up Giveaway – Anyone can enter (you didn’t have to link up a post to be eligible for the giveaway).
- Mini-Reviews of What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick, The Iron Trial by Holly Black, I’ll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios and The Last Time We Say Goodbye by Cynthia Hand
- What We Saw by Aaron Hartzler (review)
- Let’s Discuss – something bookish 🙂
For Review:
Great Discussions/Goings On Around the Blogosphere:
- Zoe over at Stories on Stage teaches you How to Make a 3-D Book Cover. The results look great!
- Nikki over at There Were Books Involved taught me some new things about Tweetdeck in her post: How I Manage Twitter, and Pamela over at A Writer’s Tales also discusses Twitter (and Tweetdeck) with Twitter Chats: Headache or Heaven.
- Meg over at Cuddlebuggery wrote a hilarious post about euphemisms in sex scenes with This is Not How You Put Someone in the Mood.
- Freda at The Tale Temptress gives some great advice on Structuring Your Review Posts.
Other Current Giveaways on FYFA:
(Besides the ones listed above)
- August Discussion Challenge Link-Up & Giveaway – Last chance to link up those last few August discussions and enter the giveaway!
- Get Real by Tellulah Darling – Still plenty of time for the pre-order giveaway!
Even More Awesome Giveaways on Other Sites:
There are tons of giveaways going on around the blogosphere!
- Enter to win a year subscription to Uppercase Box. I’ve been hearing so many good things about this bookish subscription service!
- Literary Meanderings is giving you a chance to win one of 5 Copies of Leah Scheier’s YOUR VOICE IS ALL I HEAR
- Tonya over at After Hours at Lilybloombooks is giving away an ebook copy of any book she read in August (including Summer Haikus, which is a book I edited that I’m so excited she loved!)
- Evelyn Skye revealed another character from her upcoming book The Crown’s Game and there’s a giveaway to go along with the reveal.
- The Donor Blog Tour is giving away a Donor swag pack filled With SWAG and a signed book!
- The Social Potato is giving away TWO Preorders of Selected 2016 Titles.
- Clean Teen Publishing is giving away a mystery box of their books!
- Danielle over at Love at First Page and Lili at Lili’s Reflections are finishing up their Summer of Series promotion. Check out all the giveaways!
Lots of good stuff! Have any giveaways or great discussions happening on your site right now? Feel free to share them in the comments!
I really should do that as well. I find that I follow a lot of bloggers that I don’t really visit (for whatever reason). It’s just, I’m one of those auto-follow kind of girl, but does not necessarily mean I read their posts. When someone follows me, I follow back. Then, as a form of introduction, I comment on their post. If they don’t reciprocate, I don’t visit them again unless they do. That’s just me. There are so many blogs to read, but they can’t give me the time of day, I don’t waste mine either. Anyway, thanks for this!
That’s pretty much how I do things as well. In fact now I created a “Commenting” folder in Bloglovin’ – I figure I’ll visit their blog a few times and comment and see if they show up around my blog. If not, I don’t make a specific effort to follow them (though if I happen upon a good post on their blog in my feed, I’ll certainly read it and comment.)
That’s good that Bloglovin is helping you keep track of blogs a bit better. I hate when visiting blogs/commenting feels stressful, but it happens sometimes. Don’t push yourself or stress yourself out over it too much. 🙂
Yes – I don’t want it to be a stressful thing, but I put a lot of pressure on myself when it comes to that for some reason. That can be both good and bad – I like that it keeps me on top of things most of the time, but I sometimes drive myself crazy!
Bloglovin helps me too, because then I can easily see which of the blogs that I follow has new material for me to comment on. It’s a Wonderful Death looks like a cute read.
Grace @ Books of Love
Yes – exactly! Having the folders has really helped me keep track of things!
I’m glad your new organization is helping! I think with how busy I am, this will be a big test to see who I continue to visit. lol awful, I know.
Hope you have a great week!
Sometimes that’s just all you can do. You just keep up with as many blogs as you can and then move on – otherwise you’ll drive yourself crazy!
Ugh, yeah, I completely know how you feel when it comes to email subscriptions in inboxes :/ I hope you have an awesome week and enjoy your new read!
Zareena @ The Slanted Bookshelf
My email can get out of control so quickly. It definitely gets overwhelming sometimes!
I also feel like I fail to keep up with it all. (And it makes me feel worse because I don’t have a family, and I know most do, and I think to myself: What’s your excuse?) I go through phases where I’m on top of things, and then I get too cocky and let things slide and/or I’m just overwhelmed with work, and you know the rest of the story.
When I have time (ahem, Christmas) I am going to organize my Bloglovin stuff. Thank you for sharing!
We all have things that keep us busy – whether it’s family or work or friends – sometimes life just gets crazy!
I only use Bloglovin for my blogs – but I am still working on the best way to organize. Good job on ARC August!! Hope you enjoy your new book -Have a great week!
I’m moving more toward only using Bloglovin’ now too because it’s really a great way to keep organized!
I totally feel ya on the overwhelmed thing. I wasn’t able to keep up with email updates at all this past week (jury duty) and now my inbox is overflowing. I am so behind. I do want to catch up with everyone, though, so I’ll get thru some each day… just as I can. Looking forward to your review of I’ll Meet You There. That one is super high on my TBR and I’m really excited about it!
I think what happens to me is that I get behind and then it all just seems too overwhelming. Hopefully by keeping it more organized on Bloglovin’ that will help.
Yay for organisation of blogs! 😀 I like to keep my inbox for my very top favourite blogs, so I don’t get overwhelmed. I usually only have like 5 or 6 email-subscribed blogs and then I do a lot of commenting back and then scroll through bloglovin’ when I get a chance. xD It’s good to have a system! I hope yours works for you super well, because when blogging gets stressful, gahhh, not fun. >_< XD
I was reserving email for my favorite blogs too (yours is in there, by the way), but lately I feel like I’ve actually been keeping up with Bloglovin’ better than my email because my email was overwhelming. I decided that paring down the email list even more will make me all-around more efficient – hopefully! I hate the guilt that goes with not keeping up with other blogs, but I think that’s just the way it goes sometimes. I just have to remind myself that I’m doing my best!!
Great discussion group suggestions & Giveaway links! I’m on my way to visit these right now 🙂
Glad you are finding a system that is working for you! It is hard to keep up some days, or even weeks. 😉
I finally organized my Bloglovin account and I am so happy. I love having everything neatly divided into categories.
Ugh, I hate that feeling of never being caught up. It’s so oppressive, and honestly, when that happens to me, I just shut down and have a hard time getting out of it. So I totally feel ya. Most blogs are in my RSS reader now because I don’t want to get the emails anymore. It’s a lot more manageable that way! Looking forward to a discussion post soon! And I’ve enjoyed looking at all of your reviews from the past week.
I know how you feel about emails… Gmail sits them in my Forums tab, so I can scan them through there… I use Bloglovin to visit everyone though. Have a great week girl!
Naomi @ Naomi’s Reading Palace