Happy Sunday, friends! It’s been a while since I last posted and all I can say is that it’s been rough for me with everything I’ve had to do for uni and motivation hasn’t been around much, but today I’m here to talk about something I adore!
This post is aimed at all of you out there who keep buying books and leaving them on a shelf for years. In that sense, it also applies to me. If you’ve got a large digital pile of ebooks on your devices, it could also help.
In all seriousness, as someone who is currently trying to bring down her tbr pile, I’ve been thinking about this a bit and these are some methods that really helped me and I thought I’d share them because why not?
Continue reading “Five Ways To Bring Down Your TBR Pile” →
I had the idea to write this post a few days ago when I was considering finishing my reread of A Game of Thrones (which I started back in November) before continuing the A Song of Ice and Fire series.
(If you don’t know, A Song of Ice and Fire books are essentially five volumes, divided into seven books, all of which have 600 to 900+ pages… and you know, it’s Game of Thrones… It’s intimidating.)
Ok so, let’s talk about why certain book series can be intimidating!
In my case, it’s usually because they’re so hyped that I’m almost scared of getting into all of that. It took me a while to read The Raven Boys after I first got it, for example, but I instantly adored it. And with The Secret History. I was also really sure I’d love the Percy Jackson books since I loved the movies… but boy was I wrong. ( I don’t hate them, I just… don’t like them very much…)
Just the other day, I saw an artist getting criticized because her fan art of a female character had slightly darker hair…. do I need to say more? (And then, when she replied saying they could just unfollow her if they didn’t like her art, people said she was being rude…… (Am I the only one who finds this funny because of how ridiculous it is?)
When I first started City of Bones, I had no idea how many books there were in The Mortal Instruments series – which at the time were four and are now six? Four or six books might not be intimidating, but if you look at that universe (The Shadowhunter Chronicles), though, there are more than 12 (which is how many I own, by the way).
Although it’s not exactly the same thing, I’ve seen people decide not to watch an anime series or tv show because of how many episodes/seasons it has. Take One Piece, for example. If you don’t know it: One Piece is one of the oldest running anime of all time, probably the oldest besides Pokemon and Dragon Ball, and it currently has 841 episodes and probably a hundred more manga chapters than that. I love it, I’ve watched most of it, but damn, that is intimidating. (It’s cool, it’s about pirates, check it out. The earlier episodes’ animation isn’t as… appealing?… as some recent episodes because it’s from 1999, but it’s worth your time! … I kind of feel like starting from the beginning now… even though I’m still at episode 794…. Yes, it is that good!)
Still, what I say to all of these reasons is: Try it. (Whether it’s a book, anime, or whatever). If you like it, you’ll probably be happy it has that much content/popularity/etc. If you dislike it, you can just stop watching/reading it. Just try it. It seems like pretty basic advice right, some people are still not convinced.
None of these reasons are good reasons not to read a book.
So, have you ever delayed reading/watching something because of any of these reasons?
This month was off to a great start for me in terms of reading but as the semester progresses, the workload increases and it seems I underestimated how much work I would actually have to do this month…
It’s in these times that I turn to ebooks! Most of my classes require me to carry my tablet or computer around as it’s simply not practical to just carry a notebook or use my phone. To those who have light MAC computers, maybe you can carry a physical book with you everywhere but those of us who have a medium sized laptop (I’ve got a 13-15 inch one, I think? the measures may be different), it’s too much weight. Ebooks are practical as hell, though.
Personally, I prefer physical books, but I love any type of book. (I love owning a physical copy of the book because of the feel and the reading experience, in general.) In the past, I’ve read ebook versions of some books that I ended up buying a physical copy of and rereading several times (like The Young Elites and The Song of Achilles).
However, when I’m extremely busy with college, I read ebooks. Plural, yes, as in several a week/day, depending on the size and/or of my free time. I’ll admit one of the perks of reading ebooks is that you can read them in class and your teacher might not even notice anything unusual. Back in March, I read Hollow City, The Foxhole Court, Heartless and Boy Meets Boy (all ebooks), most of them in class and/or in the bus. Sadly, ebooks do take a lot of my tablet’s battery.
Ideally, all ebooks would have a clean, simple format with good margins. Sadly, some are so badly-formatted, it’s actually painful to read. Of course, that is because of the origin of the ebook (which may or may not be an illegal pdf from the internet). I won’t comment any further than this but apparently, Guttenberg.org offers lots of free ebooks. Smashwords also has free ebooks (put there by their authors) and very cheap ebooks.
At the moment, I’d like to read my physical copies of Traitor to the Throne, Spice &Wolf Light Novel Vol. 2 or The Raven Boys. Too much weight for my back and shoulders, though, so I’m currently considering to read one or more of the following books (that I have in ebook format):
What are some of your thoughts on ebooks? Do you prefer them over physical copies? Do you read on your phone or kindle or nook or…? Comment your thoughts!
The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines hype as promotional publicity of an extravagant or contrived kind.
The truth is that at some point we have all read hyped books, sometimes even over-hyped books that we didn’t find interesting at all. I believe the expectations we consciously or subconsciously build are neither good nor bad, in general. The problem is when we cannot separate our hopes for a book from the unrealistic expectations its hype builds. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a book though, people create expectations on pretty much anything. (Although having expectations about a book or a movie, is harmless compared to having expectations about other people. I strongly advise against it and am trying to follow that advice myself. )
For example, until two days ago I was eagerly awaiting my copy of A Court of Wings and Ruin to arrive and my expectations were through the roof. Now, this was partly because lots of people who have already read it have claimed it was amazing – but it’s mainly because my expectations were also high for the previous books in this series and they met them, surpassed them, and punched them in the gut. (So you could say I’ve been suffering from anticipation since the previous book came out last year.)
Personally, I prefer to read fantasy (though I also read other things, especially sub-genres of fantasy because clearly, I like to get out of my comfort zone). I mostly decide if I want to read/buy a book:
I’m sure these are common methods (if they can even be called methods, it’s very basic). I read hyped books and even over-hyped books sometimes too, though I’m not usually happy when it turns out to be the latter. For me, Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children is an over-hyped book (as some of you might know if they read any comment I made about that book series and movie at all). Basically, I think it’s a great concept and fantasy world; and I like the characters, but I dislike the writing and pacing a lot.
The problem with hyped books though is that sometimes you can’t tell why you wanted to read them in the first place. Is it because everyone loves it? Is it because you find it interesting? Can you even remember when was the first time you found out about that book?
It’s even harder when you’re almost certain you’ll love that book but have this small voice inside you that doubts that certainty. At some point, if you’re like me, you’ll even be scared of reading a book because it’s so hyped and you’re just so sure about it – but at the same time – what if it’s not that good, what if you don’t like it?
If you want to talk about any books you feel are under-hyped, over-hyped, or expectations in general (or anything, really), just comment below!
The idea for this post came to me a few days ago, though I dismissed it at first, it came to me today again. It’s just something I wanted to share. It’s not exactly an in-depth analysis of the causes and consequences of expectations but I thought it was something interesting to think about.
Dragons & Paperbacks