Bookish Blabber #5: My trip down a black hole, some changes and a new light

My trip down a black hole...

It's so crazy because I've always thought I was in pretty good health. And I am... sort of. So after attending ALA Midwinter I got sick. Just run of the mill winter sick. It wasn't the physical illness that did me in though. It was the mental aspect of it that completely exhausted me. I can't event explain it, I wish I could because it would probably be easier to type all of this out. I was in a funk, lethargic, I couldn't even read for more than an hour or so without wanting to sink into the pit of the earth. I finally decided I was tired of feeling this way and I had made another big decision in my life so it was time to schedule some appointments. The good news here is I'm now back in control of my physical health and that's pretty awesome. 

Some changes...

However, my "funk" still persisted.... womp, womp. I wanted to read, I wanted to blog, I wanted to run and play and do all the things. But I could barely talk myself into leaving the house. This came to a HUGE second decision. I started my own business from home and I sat down with my boss to discuss my upcoming end date. I'll be leaving the university at the end of the spring term. Making this decision was like lifting a boulder off my chest! It's crazy how verbalizing what I wanted/needed to do made everything so real and my plan of action real. 

A new light...

I've come to the conclusion that my "funk" was fear. Unfortunately, since I have anxiety it just made everything that much worse. I'm thinking about seeing a therapist but that's scary too... haha. So maybe. I'm also doing much better. Knowing I have a plan has made getting up in the morning easier. My days are fuller and I come home not completely wiped out. Bonus, I'm starting to read again. For more than an hour at a time. This is inspiring since I'm used to finishing a book in one sitting. 

Another byproduct was that I felt like a failure at a number of things and scared to start back up again. I'm working through that by doing what? Creating plans! Haha, my best coping mechanism to to plan all the things. I'll be focusing on balancing my plans so I don't get overwhelmed and I'm still effective at work, home and on the blog. 

Not a new me, but a RE-newed me.

By no means have I figured out all my issues but I feel like I'm in a better place. I'm ready to jump back on Twitter and Instagram after being absent for a month. I'm ready to blog regularly. I'm SOOOO ready to read and I'm ready to take those next steps professionally. 

Talk to me:

Have you ever needed to make a change?

Felt like you were in a"funk"?

How'd you work through it? Take those next steps?

Bookish Blabber #4: Becoming A Good Book

Becoming A Good Book

"Oh, that was such a good book!" - said every reader ever.

Okay... so what's good about it. I mean give me something more. Back in December I participated in the Best of 2014 Blog Hop and asked entrants to tell me what made a good book. I got tons (okay, like a hundred or so) responses. Most of them fell in these categories...

Is it characters?

All characters, the people we speak aloud to with words of reader wisdom as we flip through the pages. The people we cheer for, fan over, ship in our dreams, and dream about. These characters can make or break a good book. When the connection is not there I'm not invested and therefore... down with the ship.

I won't even begin to mention things like author murder and our characters leave us. Does this make or break a book for you?

*sniffles* moving on...

Is it good writing?

Does the syntax grind your gears or make you feel light and fluffy. Is the prose so on point that you could marry the book? We could go into diatribes about what is "good writing." For me good writing at a minimum does not distract from the story. I've been distracted by sentence structure, use of slang, and other items to where I'm missing what's going on. On the other hand, I've been completely immersed and taken away by good writing. I can feel the world, dream about it in detail, get goosebumps reading an intense paragraph and other goodness. For me the ultimate good writing comes from quotable passages. If I can pull a sentence or two, take it completely out of context and then still fall in love with it, relate to it. That's winning.

Honestly, when I think about good writing I am reminded of this scene from Dead Poets Society. The rules. They're all bull. Rip it out!

Interesting plot twists?

I'm a plotter. Some people really need to connect with characters and I need a good plot. I want to be surprised, I want the couple NOT to get together in the end. I want someone to die, I want big conflict, I want a classic whodunnit. Lucky for me mysteries and thrillers are getting some YA spotlight time this year. Something that can get in my head is sure to please.

What about you? Do you throw the book if the ending is crap or there's a major cliffhanger?  

Witty, clever, romantic dialogue?

I'm such a sucker for good dialogue. One of my favorite books from last year was Better Off Friends by Elizabeth Eulberg. What did this for me was between the chapters she filled the space with very memorable dialogue from the narrators in the present tense. I had feels every time and it prepared me for the next chapters to come. In other novels the dialogue can totally make a character's personality, right princess?

“What were we talking about?”

“How I’m the love of your life.”

“Obviously.”

- Better Off Friends by Elizabeth Eulberg

The feels?

Ahhh... the proverbial feels. I'm a glutton for punishment and gravitate towards books with heavy feels. The kinds of feels that leave me in my big reading chair in the fetal position. Combine this with good writing and solid characters, I'm a goner. Just put a blankie over me while I grieve. Last book to make me cry was about a week or so ago, Maybe One Day. It hurt, it still kinda hurts.

There's also good feels. Frisky, romance feels. Humor feels (often sought after the sad feels). But feels are required in all good reads, IMHO. If I'm not feeling it then... pass.

ALL. THE. THINGS.

The ultimate good book combines several of these traits. I'm connected/invested in the characters, I'm intrigued in the plot line. I'm shedding a tear or hoping for kisses. I'm doodling quotes in my journal and seeking gifs to explain my reading journey. It's not an exact science or there would be a chart for it. At the end of the day I think about these things... 

Did this book extract any strong emotions from me?

Do I care about anyone in this book? Are they my new book boyfriend/girlfriend? Are they a OTP? 

Where there stakes, risks, a hint of originality? 

How motivated was I to finish reading it? 

Do I need to debrief and discuss with others? < This is a big one! If I feel the need to spread the word and discuss the finer points, I'm in deep.

So tell me... what makes a good book?

[Bookish Blabber #3] The Goodreads Purge!

The Goodreads Purge!!

At the end of 2014 I looked at my Goodreads and found it to be cluttered and a lot of my shelves don't even make sense to me. So I have decided to do some house cleaning!

Before:

784 books on to-read shelf 

8 books on on-hold shelf

792 books in the queue

52 non-exclusive shelves (a book can be assigned to several non-exclusive shelves)

My first step is to eliminate the "on-hold" shelf. I created the on-hold shelf when I wasn't brave enough to DNF a book outright. I thought that maybe I would get back to it and not feel as guilty. In the end I need to get rid of this shelf and either place the book back in the TBR pile or cut it all together. 

790 books in the queue

Okay so now the big one, culling the TBR. I was reading a post the other day (sorry I can't remember which blog) but her method was to only place books on the to-read shelf if she actually owned them. In the same spirit I'm going to only add books to my to-read shelf if I have them in my possession (e.g., own a personal copy, advanced copy, etc.). So here goes nothing...

491 to-read, 7 dnf, and 118 interested shelf

So cut out a lot, yay! I did create an exclusive DNF shelf and exclusive interested shelf. These allow me a place to put books that just didn't work for me and those that I'd like to read on day but don't own. 491 books is still a lot so I'll be doing some offline culling as well. 

Next up is shaving down all the non-exclusive shelves because some of these have no books and others I can't remember why I created them to start with... haha! 

18 non-exclusive shelves! 489 to-read!

This de-cluttering felt so awesome. What I discovered is I really need to use the sorting and listopia features on Goodreads. It gives me what I need without having to add books to my shelves. 

So how do you Goodreads? Any more tips for me?

[Bookish Blabber #2] Year in Review, Resolutions and Goals

To kick off my year in review I'm going to complete the Stats Survey from The Book Addict's Guide. I also did The End of Year Book Survey from The Perpetual Page-Turner in December.

Statistics Survey 2014
from The Book Addict's Guide and Andi's ABCs

Number Of...

1. Number of books under 250 pages (not including novellas): 21
2. Number of books read between 400 – 449 pages: 5
3. Number of books read between 450 – 449 pages: 3
4. Number of books read over 500 pages: 1
5. Number of books read over 1000 pages: NONE
6. Number of novellas read: 4
7. Number of books that made you cry: 8
8. Number of books from female POV: 56
9. Number of books from male POV: 18
10. Number of books with alternating POVs: 16
11. Number of DNFs (did not finish): 7
12. Number of five star reads: 6
13. Number of one/two star reads: 4
14. Number of authors met in 2014: unknown, I've attended some really large events BEA, YALLFest among others. So tons!
15. Number of book events attended in 2014: about a dozen including BEA, YALLFest and others
16. Number of books you read in one day: 2
17. Number of audiobooks: 8
18. Number of 2015 books you have on pre-order: none as of yet... trying to practice selective buying :p
19. Number of re-reads: 0

By the Books

1. Book with the highest rating on Goodreads: The Fault In Our Stars, 4.42 avg. rating
2. Book with the lowest rating on Goodreads: Little Blue Lies, 2.99 avg. rating
3. Book read furthest away from home (vacation reads?): Either Belzhar or Black Ice, both were read in Cali (I live in NC)
4. Book that took you the longest to read: Afterworlds, it was the longest and took me FOREVER! (maybe six weeks?)
5. Book that you personally connected with the most: Roomies by Sara Zarr and Tara Altebrando
6. Book that made you love the villain: Jackal from Immortal Rules
7. Book you said you’d come back to but still haven’t picked up again: Brutal Youth and Grasshopper Jungle
8. Book you read waaaay before it’s publication date: I just began blogging this year so this didn't really happen.
9. Book you read on your birthday: Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer
10. Book with a character who shares your name: Meg from I Was Here by Gayle Forman
11. Book you weren’t entirely truthful about when rating (Fluff up any ratings? Rated even though you didn’t finish?): I wouldn't say I was untruthful when rating it but it was only my second review ever, Fire & Flood is probably not a 5-star read.
12. Book you read in 2014 but already want to re-read: The Winner's Curse
13. Book you borrowed from a friend a long time ago and still have: Outlander, borrowed 2+ years ago *hangs head in shame*
14. Book by a foreign author/originally published in another country: none
15. Book you which you could go back and read for the first time again: A Thousand Pieces of You 
16. Most books read by one author this year: Gayle Forman

This and That

1. Happiest and saddest: Better Off Friends; The Fault in Our Stars
2. Longest and shortest: Afterworlds; Just One Night
3. Best and worst: A Thousand Pieces of You; The Silent Wife
4. First and last reads of 2014: That Was Then, This Is Now; The Darkest Part of the Forest
5. First and last books on your bookcase (1st book on the top left and last book on the bottom right): Hunger Games; Winterspell
6. The most disappointing and the biggest pleasant surprise: Love and Other Theories; Belzhar
7. Bandwagon/fandom you joined and one you abandoned: I don't really think in terms of fandoms but I definitely solidified my love for Rainbow Rowell this year and have lost interest in finishing the Mortal Instruments Series.
8. Most lenient and harshest ratings: Fire and Flood; A Hole In My Heart 
9. Most hyped and furthest under the radar that you read: The Fault In Our Stars; Keeper

Grab Bag

1. Book you read that is red: We Should Hang Out Sometime
2. Book you read that starts with M: Madame Tussaud's Apprentice
3. Book you read that you may have hugged when you finished it: My True Love Gave To Me
4. Book you read that you may have wanted to throw across a room: Broken Hearts, Fences and Other Things To Mend
5. Book that has the letters Q, X, or Z in the title (bonus for one of the words in the title beginning with those!): All Unquiet Things
6. Book that suffered some damage this year (food? water? ripped pages/cover? Ouch!): ARC of No Place To Fall may have had an incident :/
7. Food you craved while/after reading a certain book: Crepes after read Anna and the French Kiss
8. First book you read in 2015: Perfect Couple by Jennifer Echols
9. Number of books read that end with a 6 in the page count: 13

Blogging Life

1. Number of posts in 2014: 308
2. Number of reviews posted this year: 95
3. First post of 2014: Launching March 2014! 
4. First review of 2014: Little Blue Lies by Chris Lynch
5. Last post of 2014: Waiting on Wednesday: The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows
6. Last review of 2014: The Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds
7. Least coherent review: Uhh... not sure *shrugs*
8. Review with the most views (regardless of post date): Unremembered by Jessica Brody
9. Post with the most comments: Mortal Gods by Kendare Blake
10. Post you wish you could re-write: Too many to count! This was my first year blogging so there's been a lot of growth and much more to come ;)
11. Most popular post this year (that was posted in 2014): Review of Unremembered by Jessica Brody

Goals and Resolutions!

I'm not sure how much I believe in resolutions... however, I do love me some good old fashion goals. I like goal setting and working towards something. With that said check out my previous posts on my Top Ten Goals for 2014 and Reading Challenges. 

I really tried to only choose challenges that fit with my overall reading goals and habits. I would like to successfully meet the goals by pushing myself a little but nor rearranging my whole life around them.

I've also added the following challenges to my list :) 

31 Days to Better Blogging, hosted by Parajunkee < January 2015

2015 Audiobook Challenge, hosted by The Book Nympho and Hot Listens

Thanks for stopping by and a really awesome 2014!!!! 

Share your goals and/or resolutions :)

[Bookish Blabber #1] 2015 Blog/Book Challenges!

So I've been wanting to get some items done and now have found some challenges to keep my blogging behind in gear! However doing challenges, read-a-thons and the like make me sooooo anxious!!! Does this happen to anyone else? I feel an immense amount of pressure and either do excellent at the task while ignoring all other aspects of my life or fail miserably. :/

I really want to have a positive experience so this time I thought about some things I want to accomplish and then found the challenge to fit my goals. This way I'm not trying to rearrange my goals to fit the challenges. :)

Check out the ones I've signed up for below along with a listing of other challenges I know about but cannot to commit to. 

COYER (Clean Out Your E-Reads Challenge) hosted by Fantasy Is More Fun and Because Reading Is Better Than Real Life

Sign-Up Ends: January 25, 2015

Dates: December 20, 2014 – March 6, 2015

The Deal: Read all those free or nearly free e-reads and audiobooks!

My Goals: I've got a couple audio books sitting in my audibles unread and a WHOLE bunch of e-arcs that need to be read via Edelweiss and Netgalley. I plan to read/review two per week. Participate in at least one read-a-thon and one Twitter party.

Book Blogger Organization Challenge hosted by The Book Addict's Guide

Dates: January 1 – June 30, 2015

The Deal: Get organized!!! Check out the main post to see the focus for each month.

My Goal: Complete at least one of the sub-points for each month.

2015 Discussion Challenge hosted by Feed Your Fiction Addiction and It Starts at Midnight

Sign-Up Ends: December 31, 2015 at 11:59 p.m.

Dates: January 1 – December 31, 2015

The Deal: Post more discussion posts, link up and giveaways!

My Goal: 25-36 discussion posts = Chatty Kathy level! I'm really wanting to do discussion posts regularly. I have a whole list of topics but just haven't committed to it. Hopefully this will help :)

Look for my second ;) Bookish Blabber discussion post on Jan. 1.

Prequel and Sequel Challenge hosted by Novel Heartbeat and Writer Grrl Reads

Sign-Up Ends: December 1, 2015

Dates: January 1 – December 31, 2015

The Deal: Read the sequels and prequels to finish up those series, earn points for each read/review and enter into giveaways for participants.

My Goal: To complete 10 series. Let's do this!!!!!!!

Look out for my Top Ten Tuesday post on Jan. 20 for a list of the series.

Do you plan to participate in a challenge? Have you already signed up for a few? Tell me your feelings about challenges!

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Other Book/Blog Challenges

Check out The Book Vixen's Pinterest Board for a listing of over 75 different reading challenges!

Bout of Books 12 Read-a-thon, sign-ups open until Jan. 6. Hosted by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal

The Re-Read Challenge, sign-ups open until Jan. 30. Hosted by So Obsessed With

Alphabet Reading Challenge Hosted by Escape with Dollycas Into a Good Book

Mythology Reading Challenge hosted by Lili Lost in a Book

Mount TBR Reading Challenge, sign-ups open until Nov. 4, 2015. hosted by My Reader's Block

The Official 2015 TBR Pile Challenge, sign-ups open until Jan. 15, 2015. hosted by Roof Beam Reader

You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2015 hosted by Book Dragon's Lair 

2015 Series Enders Reading Challenge, sign-ups open until Dec. 15, 2015. Hosted by Somewhere Only We Know...

8th Annual Graphic Novel/Magna Challenge hosted by Nicola