Category: Let’s Discuss

So, the other day, I noticed that Celesta Rimington, author of the upcoming The Elephant’s Girl followed me on Instagram. Since I had recently announced my receipt of a review copy of her book, that didn’t seem excessively odd, but I hadn’t posted anything to Instagram about it (since it wasn’t a physical copy), and it made me wonder how she found me. For some reason, I randomly Googled her book to see if my blog somehow came up from just this one mention. I don’t even know why, but I clicked on the Images tab and found something that sort of shocked me: Relatively close to the top of the search results were two random images from my blog. One was the graphic for my February 2019 Wrap-up(???) and the other was a random Bite-Sized Reviews post. None of the reviews had anything to do with this book. Or… Read more »

Bloggers, do you ever write down a post idea as a draft? Do you ever actually go back and write a post to go with that fabulous idea you had or does it sit in your drafts folder … forever. Not long ago, I was looking for a little inspiration for a post, and it suddenly occurred to me that I might have some ideas squirreled away as drafts. From time to time I’ll have a great idea for a post, but no time to write it. So, I’ll write down a title and save it as a draft. Sometimes I’ll even write a bit more than a title. Problem is, I almost never remember to go back and look at those drafts. And by the time I do, the flash of inspiration I had when I wrote that idea down has fizzled away, and I’m just no longer interested. (I’m… Read more »

I realize this sounds like a joke. Book-related anxiety? What even is that? Being stressed about your bookshelves not being organized enough? Anxiety over not liking a book? Being worried that you might be crushed under your TBR? Well, no. (And sort of yes—except for that last one. I don’t really think I’ll be crushed by my TBR—though I could be injured.) Except I’ve realized that I have actual anxieties that are related to books. This probably isn’t healthy, but I don’t know how to get rid of them besides telling myself to stop freaking out. Which doesn’t work all that well. Some things I stress out about: I can’t read all the books.  This sounds obvious and utterly ridiculous, but I actually have a physical anxiety response when I think about all the books I want to read and the impossibility of reading them all. I’ll be reading someone’s post about an… Read more »

I’ve been seeing lots of these lists around since we’re coming to the end of the 2010s, and I thought I’d jump in! Here’s the thing, this list would be practically impossible to make if I thought about it too hard. So I didn’t. I made a vow to go with my gut when making it. (And, surprisingly, I managed that for the most part without second-guessing myself too much). So, this isn’t a thorough list of books I loved. Heck, if I made another list right now, it might be different. But this is definitely a list of books that impacted me over the last decade. So, how did I come up with the list? I scanned my Goodreads list (in year-published order) and … picked. I sort of randomly decided that I would choose two from each year. And then, like I said, I went with my gut… Read more »

It’s that time of year again. We’ve got the final rounds of the Goodreads Choice Awards going on now. I always like to look at the lists and see what books I’ve read or been eager to read. I saw Sam @ We Live and Breathe Books do just that, and I was inspired to write a post about it too! Then Roberta @ Utopia State of Mind posted about Paste’s 30 Best Young Adult Novels of the 2010s, and I decided I had to see how my reading has stacked up against that list too! I’ll start with the Paste list. This was curated by Eric Smith and the Paste Books staff. I ADORE Eric Smith. His Twitter feed is both hilarious and informative, and if you don’t follow him, you need to. Since he was involved in creating this list, I decided I needed to see it. Here’s their list… Read more »