Sunshine Blogger Award

Hey everyone!

Today I finally started to catch up on tags. I swear I’ll get to them all! Sometimes I’m hesitant to post certain things because what if I need it for later?? And then I end up not posting anything lol…

I was nominated by Amy @ The Little Book Nerds to do the Sunshine Blogger Award. Thank you so much for the tag!

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What is the Sunshine Blogger Award?

The Sunshine Blogger Award is given to those who are creative, positive and inspiring while spreading sunshine to the blogging community.

The Rules

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you by linking their blog.

2. Answer the questions.

3. Nominate 11 blogs with 11 questions.

4. List the rules as well as display the Sunshine Award Logo on your post.

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Amy’s Questions

1. Do you prefer to read Kindle or physical books?

Physical but I like Kindle when there’s a lot of information or characters because sometimes you can highlight names, and it will tell you a little about what you highlighted.

2. Have you tried audiobooks? If you have, what do you think of them?

Yes, I like them but I usually can’t start one without reading the beginning of the book first. For some reason I retain more of the audiobook if I read the first few chapters.

 

3. Who’s a blogger you most aspire to? and why.

Ah, I think I’m going to go with Kathy @ Pages Below the Vaulted Sky. I love her content and personality! She’s mostly into fantasy, and I find reading her reviews super dangerous because they always have me wanting to read and buy what she reads.

4. Can you listen to music while reading? If you can what music do you mostly listen to?

Sometimes. I read at the cafe I work at a lot and my boss/friend always has some version of Lofi Hip-Hop Radio playing in the background.

5. If you could give the first half of 2018 a rating, what would you give it?

It’s been a really good year for me ^^. I’m doing things I didn’t think I would be able to do again so 5/5 stars! 

6. What do you enjoy most about blogging?

Meeting and talking to people. I think this usually happens in the comments for me, but if there are other platforms everyone just chats on let me know haha… I met Sandra @gotathingforthings on Twitter through the #booksfortrade tag and we constantly chat when time zones allow us haha! Such a coincidence, but I’m happy to have made a new friend!

Kind of weird because these take me forever to do, but I also enjoy writing reviews. I feel most proud of myself when I write them because putting your opinions out in public is scary!

7. Have you been to any conventions?

Yes! I went to YALLWEST this year with my mom and it was super fun! I even wrote up a guide for it. I’ve also been to anime conventions including Fanime and Sac-Anime. I’ve been an artist at these conventions, too! ^^

8. If you could give your past self-advice about blogging what would you tell yourself?

Ah, I still consider myself a new blogger so if you’ve got advice for me have at it because I’m still very lost sometimes >.>. But honestly, I think I’d tell past me that being lost isn’t so bad. I kind of wish I had 2-3 reviews written for when I get in blog slumps, though, not gonna lie. Oh! I’d also tell past me that you’re posts will get better and you’ll become more efficient. Still telling myself that today!

9. What time of the day do you normally read the most?

I read throughout the day, really, but probably sometime in the evening between 6PM-9PM.

10. How do you plan out your next blog post out?

I try to use a planner, but I don’t stick to it a lot. But I have a few general processes. For memes I type out the questions, answer them, then add my intro. Then I add the pictures and links. For reviews I start a post as soon as I start the book, then probably half-way into the book I type out some of my notes so I know what direction I’m going in with my review. Doing this let’s me think about what I want to say while starting a new book. This works for me right now, but I’m hoping I can get them out faster later on.

11. How many completed posts does it take for you to say its a ‘good blogging day’?

Ohhh man…a good blogging day for me is when I’ve outlined a couple posts >.>. If I’ve gotten some of my thoughts out, it’s good enough for me lol. I’m working on it! But I usually don’t completely finish a post until the night before, I mean, I usually have the written parts done earlier. It’s the adding the links and pictures and ping backs that I procrastinate on!

My Questions:

1. Where do you get your inspiration to blog?

2. What intimidates you most about blogging?

3. How has blogging changed your life?

4. Can you point me to some of your favorite “hidden gem” bloggers?

5. How personal do you get in your blog posts?

6. What are 2 of your favorite things to do outside of the bookish world?

7. What’s the last book that surprised you?

8. What is one of your favorite bookish memories?

9. What’s the most extreme thing you’ve done related to books?

10. Can you give me and other bloggers 1-2 blogging tips?

11. If you have a blog theme, how and why did you decide on it?

My Nominees

1. Kathy @ Pages Below the Vaulted Sky

2. Justine @ Bookish Wisps

3. Vera @ Unfiltered Tales (lol sorry I know you just did it but planned this before! No pressure!)

4. Kristina @ Books and Dachshunds

5. Kate @ The Backwardsbookshelf

6. Destiny @ Howling Libraries

7. Melanie @ Mel to the Any

8. Brittany @ Brittany and Her Bookshelf

9. Norrie @ Reading Under the Blankie

10. Hamad @ The Book Prescription

11. Tasya @ The Literary Huntress

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Thanks again for the nomination, Amy! And as always, no pressure if you don’t want to do the tag.

Cya! ^^

Goodreads ◊ Instagram ◊ Twitter ◊ Bloglovin’ ◊ Pinterest

 

Book Blogger Confession Tag

Hey everyone! I started an accelerated summer class on child psychopathology (maybe I’ll review my textbook o.o…just kidding >.>), but I am slowly making my way through Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb and am pretty sure she’s about to find herself a new fan. I am completely obsessed and have been trying so hard to find just a little more time to finish it! But for now, a tag!

I was tagged by Melanie @ Meltotheany to do the Book Blogger Confession Tag. Thanks for always being so nice, Melanie!

Before you read on! There were apparently some interesting questions that lead to lots of ranting.

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1. Which book, most recently, did you not finish?

The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu. This is just for right now. I have to do a lot of thinking when I read books in this trilogy, and it’s not working out for me while I’m in class for child psychopathology. I’ll be picking this book again in July because I need to catch up with the friend I read The Three-Body Problem with!

2. Which book is your guilty pleasure?

I have no idea. I guess I have to go with When It’s Real by Erin Watt because the main male character is kind of a jerk. I still think it’s a cute possible summer read, though!

3. Which book do you love to hate?

Unpopular opinion but, yep, I didn’t love Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I’ve actually debated this with my brother on so many different occasions because he’s a huge fan. I can see how it’s basically fanfiction for people obsessed with video games. Everything that people assume the stereotypical gamer wants to happen happens, and of course there were tons of awesome 80’s pop culture references. But there was some really bad misrepresentation that made me feel uncomfortable and kind of gross whenever I read through those parts. Not all Asian people are otakus with bad skin obsessed with honor. And we can preserve our honor on our own, thank you very much. There were so many other things that upset me about this book, but this answer is already pretty long. >.>

4. Which book would you like to throw into the sea?

Geez, this tag is bringing out opinions I didn’t think I wanted to bring up on my blog yet lol… but for this I have to go with Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea by Guy Delisle. This is one of the only books that I’ve DNF’d and given a rating to. I’d been interested in learning more about the political climate of North Korea ever since reading In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park, so while looking through my university’s library I was immediately drawn to this graphic novel. But not even 10 pages into the book the author says, “[The hotel’s] got those good old standard rooms — cold and impersonal, just like they like them in Asia.” I finally DNF’d at page 35 when the author went on about how he could tell his hotel neighbors were Chinese because they yell at each other from across the hall. So, yes, this book can be chucked into the sea with a boulder attached to it.

5. What book have you read the most?

Sailor Moon by Naoko Takeuchi for sure. I was going to pick a novel, but I had to go with the Sailor Moon manga. I wanted to be a princess of the moon so badly when I was little! I wanted to be Sailor Moon so much, I got my parents to buy me a life sized wedding Barbie for Christmas because I wanted to wear her white dress so I could be like Princess Serenity. I even attempted to write my own fanfiction without knowing it was called fanfiction when I was 13 and started to read fanfiction thinking it was canon. These manga and the anime were my childhood.

6. Which book would you hate to receive as a present?

I have to go with The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. I actually did receive this as a book once and read it! I was really curious as to what the secret was, but it has something to do with everything bad that happens to us happens because we don’t think positively and we don’t shift our thoughts more positively. I just couldn’t get with this message. Buying me a book for my birthday was a nice gesture on my friend’s part though!

7. Which book could you not live without?

I can live without any book, to be honest! If I had to pick I’m just going to cop out and say Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling because I think the world would be a much better place if certain people read it when they were growing up. >.>

8. Which book made you the angriest?

This easily goes to My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward by Mark Lukach. I was so angry when I read this, and now I am just sad. It is a memoir about a man whose wife has bipolar disorder and is 5150’d (put into an involuntary psychiatric hold). This book was marketed as about a man and a woman who love each other and continue to love each other through the woman’s hardships. But the author kept on referring to how beautiful and amazing his wife was prior to her bp disorder and how he didn’t ask to be sucked into the kind of life he was living now. He also gets angry when his wife doesn’t want to see him and when his wife’s parents help around their house. I feel like maybe the husband wanted to let caretakers know that they aren’t alone in their feelings, but I was just so angry and hurt by this book because I had only been diagnosed with bipolar 2 disorder about 2 years prior and hadn’t gotten the hang of living with my illness yet. I have never been 5150’d but I have been through an intensive outpatient program, and the one thing the other patients and I always felt guilty about was how our loved ones had to “deal” with us. Do you know how hard it is to convince yourself in those situations that it’s okay to not think about other people for awhile so you can focus on feeling better yourself??? This book still makes me so angry when it doesn’t make me sad!

9. Which book made you cry the most?

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. >My Review< It was heartbreaking, and I cried way too much over certain parts! It was a mixture of the situation and Madeline Miller’s gorgeous writing that completely destroyed me.

10. Which book cover do you hate the most?

I have no passionate hate for any book cover, but for the sake of this tag, I choose Sing the Four Quarters by Tanya Huff. It sounds so interesting, but that cover is a little boring. However as I type this up, it’s kind of growing on me.

I tag:

Meaghan @ Words Gremlin

Lily @ Sprinkles of Dreams

Angelica @ The Book Cover Girl

Anna @ Reading Peaches

No pressure!

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I hope you were all okay with my ranty answers and possible unpopular opinions!

Cya! ^^

The Mystery Blogger Award

I was nominated for the Mystery Blogger Award by shadowriverdaleharley. Thanks so much! ^^

RULES:

1. Put the award logo on your blog.
2. Thank whoever nominated you and include a link to their blog.
3. Mention the creator of the award and provide a link to their blog as well. (Maggie @okoto enigmas blog)
4. Tell your readers three things about yourself.
5. Nominate 10-20 people.
6. Notify your nominees.
7. Ask your nominees any five questions of your choice, specifying one weird/funny question.
8. Share a link to your best post(s).

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 3 Things About Me

1. I used to be obsessed with video games, specifically RPG’S and MMORPG’s. Gaming doesn’t seem new to the book community so me, too, guys! They were my escapism before books, and I honestly played them for an unhealthy amount of time. I still play sometimes, but not nearly as much.

Fun Fact: Milkz is one of my gamer names lol.

2. I like lifting heavy weights. When I was 22 I was hospitalized for health issues regarding my weight, so I decided to try weight lifting because I didn’t like running. I’ve been in love ever since. Because of my mental health I tend to yo-yo in weight, but I’m slowly learning to be more confident when I’m bigger (like now) as well as when I’m smaller. And it doesn’t mean I can’t be healthy when I’m bigger, too!

 

3. I like to crochet stuffed animals called ‘amigurumi.’ When I was 19, I couldn’t afford to buy presents for people I cared about but still wanted to give them something special. While browsing through an artist alley, I saw an amigurumi for the first time and thought they would be the perfect gift. After that, I taught myself to crochet by watching tutorials on YouTube. I’d love to implement my crafts into my blog, but I’m still trying to figure out how to do it!

shadowriverdaleharley’s Questions

1. Do you watch thirteen reasons why?

A: No

2. Thirteen Reasons Why, Riverdale, Shadowhunters, Supernatural, or all three?

A: I watched two episodes of Shadowhunters??? Oh man, I need to catch myself up with so many TV series.

3. Who is your favorite singer/band?

A: So many! J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Frank Ocean, Bon Iver…I could go on and on.

4. Do you like to write or not?

A: No, actually. Or I at least don’t aspire to be an author. I know that’s weird because I have a book blog, but I think writing and being able to express yourself and your own opinions are so important, so I try!

5. How do you like to organize your bookshelf (by color, alphabetize by title or author, publisher, genre or random.?

A: By genre, then author, then publication date. But I want rainbow bookshelves! I just have too many black books and not enough yellow and orange books >.>

Here is my most recent post.

I nominate…

1.  Literary Huntress

2. Unfiltered Tales

3. Bionic Book Worm

4. Caffeine and Books

5. Start Burnt Reads

6. Pages Below the Vaulted Sky

7. Aurora Librialis

8. Dole Whip and Books

9. Bookish Wisps

10. Lost in a Good Book

No pressure! And let me know if you don’t want to be tagged again ^^.

 

My 5 Questions

1. How did you get into book blogging?

2. What genre of music do you listen to the most?

3. If you could never read a book genre again what would it be?

4. What’s your favorite scent?

5.  What came first, the chicken or the egg?

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Once again, thanks for tagging me, shadowriverdaleharley!

Cya! ^^

-Justine