Thoroughly modern millennial

Tag: books

  • Reading Goals For 2016

    A brand new year means brand new challenges. Though this year’s resolutions are centered around my one word goal, I’m still happy to throw in 5 books I vow to read in 2016 as well. After finishing curating this list I’ve only just now realised all of the authors I’ve picked are all female (YASSS!) and cover a nice range of non-fiction, essays and fictional YA from different genres (go me!).

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    *images via Goodreads

    Changing My Mind: Zadie Smith

    I developed a very serious love for essay writing, but I’ve never managed to actually sit and read one cover to cover – I tend to go via the contents and pick out ones that sound interesting to me. Zadie Smith is an awe inspiring woman, so I’m sure I’ll come out of this one with fully highlighted pages of great quotes.

    Remix: Non Pratt

    This is my ‘want to read cause it looks hella fun’ choice on the list. Non Pratt comes highly recommended by most book bloggers and I’ve heard nothing but good about Remix. I already follow Pratt on Twitter and lover her humour of there so am really looking forward to this one.

    How To Be A Heroine: Samantha Ellis

    Spoiler alert! I’m trying to write a novel with female leading protagonists. In my quest to learn how to write better this year I’m after some decent ‘writing’ critique books that won’t make me feel like I’m reading a journal for an Undergrad dissertation. ‘How to…’ looks ace, plus I’m a bit of geek for books about analyzing books, plus this one comes with a whiff of feminist critique too.

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    *images via Goodreads

    A Darker Shade of Magic: V.E. Schwab

    I read the extract for this a few months ago and ended up buying the book when it came out because I was itching to know more – it then sat on my TBR shelf for a long, long time…Oops! From what I’ve read so far Schwab is throwing out some steampunk-y/The Night Circus vibes with this. I’m dying to get back into good series now that so many of my favourites have finished up, so maybe ADSOM will be the one!

    Only Ever Yours: Louise O’Neil

    I feel like everyone and their mother is trying to recommend this book to me. Which can only mean one of two things 1. It’s going to mother-effin’-mindblowingly good, or 2. It’ll be a let down but I’ll still enjoy it somewhat. I’m hoping for the former. From everything I’ve heard about Only Ever Yours, O’Neil knuckles down to some seriously tough topics. Some reviewers are calling it an accessible Atwood for the YA crowd. I loved Handmaiden’s Tale, so we’ll see how this matches up.

    Additional Goals

    As well as these five books, I’m also going to aim to finish 25 books this year and read 5 graphic novels too. I have Saga and Ms. Marvel to catch up on and received Alias: Jessica Jones over Christmas so am really excited to get back into those.

    As always I’m also keeping on eye out on reading more diversely. I burned through books written by female authors last year, but want to challenge myself to read books written by people of colour and LGBTQ fiction as well. I also seriously need to get ruthless with what I enjoy and what I don’t – no more reading books I can’t be bothered to pick up after 100 pages!

    Linked with that I’m actually going to try and buy less books this year. Fear not, I’ve not gone completely mad but I want to get on with my Netgalley backlog and borrow more books from my local library too. In the effort to save a bit of money this year I want to buy more books second hand. Seeing as Oxford has some fantastic charity and second hand bookshops this should be easy!)

    Give me a shout out in the comments whether any of you have read any of the books I’ve picked out and whether you have any book goals for the year too.

    And whilst I’ve got your attention, why not pop over to Blogger’s Bookshelf and check out what all our team and readers are planning on reading this year too!

    Ria

  • Top 3 | Tips To Get You Reading More Books

    One of the questions I get most often from people is, as a book blogger, how do you find time to read? Short answer? I don’t – you just need to take a look at my slow trawling pace on my Goodreads challenge and my exhaustive TBR pile to see that. Long answer? There’s plenty of tips and trickles of advice I’ve dealt out, but here are my top three (in celebration of three years of Blogger’s Bookshelf!)

    1. The 100 page rule

    Sometimes you start a book and can’t stop, sometimes it takes a while to get going, and the rest of the time you end up taking forever stubbornly finishing a book just because you’ve started. I’m totally guilty of the last point and though it is sometimes the case that some books will take more than 100 pages to gain momentum you shouldn’t have to force yourself to finish a book you don’t enjoy.
    So if you don’t find yourself gripped by a novel by page 100, put it down and start a different book. I’ve only recently starting doing this in myself and it’s taking a while to break out of old habits, but it has meant I’ve been finishing books I really enjoy instead of trudging through something like ‘On The Road’.

    2. Carry a book with you at all times

    Sure this one can get a bit inconvenient, especially when hardbacks can be so heavy, but you never know when you you need to fill a spare 5 minutes in the queue for the bank or waiting for a delayed train. Obviously the solution to heavy books is to use an e-reader, but I quite like the good ol’ fashioned paperback option – and it doesn’t run out of battery.

    3. Ignore book snobs

    Hypocritical considering I’m a book blogger? But I genuinely believe that you shouldn’t read something just because everyone else is or because it’s won a Pulitzer Prize. Like any art form literature is so subjective, so just because everyone is harping on about the latest dystopian doesn’t mean you have to too. Genres like YA and *rolls eyes* chick-lit are often looked down upon by ‘proper literary buffs’ but if you enjoy them then read them!

    Let me know what your top tips for reading more are!

    PSA: ALSO! Don’t forget to enter Blogger’s Bookshelf’s Third Birthday giveaway (there’s a YALC goody bag and a proof copy of The Baby by Lisa Drakeford among other bits and pieces!)

    R.xoxo

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  • Beautiful Books #2 | Favourite Book Covers

    It’s been a while since my first Beautiful Books post and I’ve – obviously – added a few more stunning books to my collection. Here are more of my current favourites.

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    How To Be A Heroine by Samantha Ellis | Alice In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll | Remix by Non Pratt

    First up! Colour! So much colour! I’ve been wanting to read How To Be A Heroine for ages and the cover sums up the entire premise of the book in such a bold way. I’ve already waxed poetic about the various Alice In Wonderland covers for Alice’s Day, but it only hit me that fateful Alice’s Day morning I didn’t actually own a copy of the book myself! I spent a truly embarrassing amount of time in Waterstones comparing editions but I eventually settled on the 2012 Penguin English Library edition. It feels a bit different with it’s little flamingos from the croquet match in the book, I also love the contrast between the yellow/hot pink and the grey. Remix is close to being one of the most fun YA books covers I’ve seen in a long time. Again, it was the bright and bold colours that caught my eye as well as the festival inspired theme to the typography, illustrations and blurb.

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