Thoughtful Thursdays and Sophie and Suze’s review challenge

Good afternoon readers; whilst I was writing down my facts about my blogging habits I started thinking about my review writing habits generally. I have a lovely book review notebook that allows me to write down all my ideas about a book, general thoughts  positive and negative comments, grammatical or spelling mistakes and the like. I do write very in-depth reviews generally because I have so much to say however it does mean that reviews seem to take me forever. A few days ago whilst trawling through my twitter feed (@littlebookblog1) I stumbled upon Sophie and Suze’s review challenge. The idea is basically that you review as many books as you can in ten days starting January 23rd (so tomorrow.)

Although this is something I normally wouldn’t do (because I’m so busy with 1000001 other things) I honestly  want to see whether I can sustain the detailed analysis that I normally try and incorporate into my reviews but also manage to get one done each night that I take part in the challenge. If it is too difficult I will be cutting down the number because I don’t want my reviews to suffer but I think it will be interesting to see how I do. There are a number of bloggers taking part, I’m actually blogger number seventeen, and  each will be attempting a different number of reviews.

I’m going to attempt one a day although I think this will be a struggle for me. Although I type relatively quickly it feels like it takes an age for me to fully collate my thoughts and get everything straightened out. If you’d like to sign up and join me or have any thoughts on getting reviews done or whether you think it’s a tough enough goal I would love to know! See all the information, links and sign up here! http://www.librarianlavender.com/2015/01/sophie-and-suzes-review-challenge.html

The second part of this post is that I have not done a Thoughtful Thursday’s post in weeks. I have been so busy and disorganised with my posting and this year I really want to get a schedule sorted so I can post more regularly and consistently. To match up with the review challenge above, my question for you today is,

‘What is one most important thing you’ve learnt whilst writing reviews?’

Mine would have to be that there is no one way to review a book and I’ve discussed this before, but I’ve learnt that giving ratings doesn’t necessarily help in reviewing a book more succinctly as it doesn’t allow for this; for me at least! I can’t wait to hear what you come up with!

Thoughtful Thursdays from mylittlebookblog

Good afternoon readers; just on my lunch break at work so going to have to make this a quick one! I hope you’re all having a wonderful day even though it is horribly gloomy outside, I am not enjoying the walk to the bus station in the morning at the moment. After today’s rather gruesome review I wanted to ask;

What is the most shocking book you have read?

It could be shocking because of the content, or the writing style, a character or just because it was a little scary! Let me know in the comments 😀

Thoughtful Thursdays

Evening readers! Hope you are all well and happy, and ready to answer today’s question which is,

‘Name a book that made you angry!’

I’m not sure what my answer would be so I’m looking forward to reading yours! 🙂

Forgetful Fridays…. (A Spin off from Thoughtful Thursdays)

Good afternoon wonderful readers, I think it’s fair to say that it has been a fairly eventful week. A couple of days ago Xtrutech sent their newest and least experienced employee (mee) to Interplas, the British Plastics Show. I was petrified but managed to get myself through a number of days selling machinery and parts to new customers. I made it back last night exhausted and in need of a rest. However, I had to send off my story for my match in the ‘Write Club Fight Club,’ which will be posted up later today. Therefore when I finally crawled into bed last night I had completely forgotten to get this weeks question posted up. Never fear, Forgetful Fridays on mylittlebookblog are here.

Today’s question is…. ‘What is the longest period of time you’ve gone without reading?’

This weeks question comes from a more personal starting point. This week has been overwhelmingly wonderful. I had a little bit of a light bulb moment at how far I’ve come already, since the end of my relationship around five months ago. This week I have been selling machines for a company I have only been part of three short months, I have written an article for the online magazine I am now a writer for and have had my second idea approved, I have written a story focused on revenge in under a week whilst maintaining my job and my blog, my Solstice Shorts t-shirt arrived and I have received my first story to read and review for the festival among other less pivotal but incredibly important things.

Back to the question (I promise these bits link ^) when the relationship ended I had a dry reading spell. Mylittlebookblog takes reviews from all genres of books and it is very unlikely that I will refuse a book based on its genre. However, this means that when I review a certain book, I often get a stack of reviews of the same genre. So, say I review a supernatural Y/A novella, I often get a range of books relating to this genre because of authors looking for bloggers who will review their book. It just so happen that around the end of said relationship I had just reviewed a number of soppy chick-lit, first love specials. My inbox was packed full of stories that spoke of love and adoration. I could barely look at a my inbox and ignored mylittlebookblog for around a month. I posted sporadically only because I couldn’t just stop but it was incredibly painful. These books were writing of the perfection of being in love whilst I was sobbing eating cold lasagna in bed wearing a penguin onesie. It took a couple of months to get myself back to reading again; I had a deadline for a book release and the date was getting closer and closer. I’m sure the author would have understood but I didn’t want to let a new potentially incredible author lose their exposure at the perfect time. I read ALL night and early into the morning, when I finally finished the review I was flat out exhausted. I fell asleep for what felt like eternity my blog was saturated with comments and likes and views.

Skip forward five months(ish) and I am so incredibly happy with where I am now. It’s far from perfect but I am so content with the person I have become. I will never stop reading because someone lets me down and hurts me from now on. I can’t imagine what my life would be like now if I had just stopped reading, and at the time I wondered whether I would start again. Now my whole life revolves around writing, editing, posting and living my life through words. Even my job is completely based on my abilities as a writer. So there we go, I’ve written you a life story…. I would love to hear your answers.

Thoughtful Thursdays from mylittlebookblog

So, a few things first, I have a new logo for Thoughtful Thursdays. I started this as a ‘we’ll see how it goes and then depending on the outcome, I might keep it going.’ Every week different people comment and discuss the topics that I send out and I love reading your comments and replying to them, so I have now got a logo for this lovely little feature. Additionally, @littlebookblog, my twitter account, has gone crazy this week; 455 of you lovely people are following my twitter and that is rather wonderful to be honest with you.

The question for this week however is! Are there any books you’ve been avoiding reading?

Now this might seem like an odd question for some people but I have a terrible habit for this. I have been meaning to read George Orwell’s ‘1984’ for around three years now whilst I have also been putting off reading ‘The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. A couple of months ago my delightful ex-housemate Laura gave me a Waterstones gift card, and I bought both books. These I then subsequently left at my parents house so I can still, not read them. Why you ask? I have no explanation, I will read them, I will review them, I HAVE to as they are on my 101 things to do in 1001 days list; but for now, no chance. Anyone else suffer from this?

Thoughtful Thursdays

AFTERNOON,

Feeling a little villainous here on mylittlebookblog; okay lies I’m way too nice. But, I do have another question for you to answer! The question is…..

Favourite fictional villain?

I think mine would have to be Bill Sikes from Oliver Twist but then there are so many! What about the truly wicked Lady Macbeth or Cruella De Vil or Voldemort…goodness there are way too many to pick from! Answers please?

Thoughful Thursdays

 

Hello readers, a very happy Lizzy today, it’s been a very good week, and I am feeling pretty happy this morning. As it is Thursday, I have another question for you! Today’s question is:

What is a genre you rarely read (but wish you did?)

Mine are biographies. I rarely read them but almost always enjoy them when I do. I love reading into other people’s life however I never really have the time. Onto you readers! 

 

Thoughtful Thursdays

Afternoon little bloggers, on my lunch break once again and there will be a new review on later so keep your eyes peeled. Now, I love this question because it tells you so, so much about readers and the question is… 

What is your worst book habit?

I’m going to have a few raised eyebrows about mine unfortunately, I’ll say it quickly so it’s over quickly. Okay, I turn the pages down on the corners of books. Right I said it! I hate myself for it, but I lose bookmarks like there is no tomorrow. No matter what type I buy they end up slipping from the pages and leaving me all confused. This is definitely a bad book habit I need to kick but what are yours? 

Answers please!

Thoughtful Thursdays

Afternoon, my lovely readers,

I am back for another Thoughtful Thursdays question. Recently I have had lots of comments saying what I have posted or written is inspirational, and I want to hear your favourite inspirational quotes to get us in a lovely mood before the weekend. It could be from a book, a film, or just something someone has said to in passing. Let me know and lets get inspired 🙂 ❤

“Keep your face to the sunshine and you can never see the shadow.” ~Helen Keller

Thoughtful Thursdays

Afternoon my lovely little bloggers, I am so incredibly sorry for not posting recently. I’m having a few internet troubles which means uploading bits it’s very difficult. However, do not despair because I am back with another Thoughtful Thursday post. So the question today, is not related to books, but alcohol. The question arose when a friend and I were having a particularly heavy night of drinking and were discussing the best hangover cure. Now, my poor stomach a morning after drinking cannot normally handle anything until late into the afternoon but I have been told that there are many foods that will make you feel better instantly whether it’s bacon sandwiches, coffee, a good ole English breakfast or just a glass of cold milk. So, as I am going out tomorrow night and am rather excited about it, what are your best hangover cures to help me through a despairing Saturday morning!