Reading is Inevitable

On the fourth of February, Em and I made another trip to Barnes & Noble, and I thought I would share what we got! Together, we got a total of three books and two little blind boxes! Looking around the store, it was a bit difficult to pick exactly what it was I wanted. I mean, there’s such a large selection! Sure, I’ve seen most of the books before, but there’s always ones that I’m thinking about reading later. And then there’s the question of if I want to buy the book, or give it a try first with my library’s copy of it. (If they even have it!) There were some sections I knew I could skip over. That’s the first step towards progress. For me, that was skipping the usual fantasy-action-“I must save the world” type of teen book. (Sorry. They’re just not my thing.) I also could pass by this table of popular teen books, which mostly had those type of books. On my book-searching journey, there was also books that I have read, such as The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne. W

As you, my fellow bookstagramers know, bookstagram can be a pretty tough place to gain attention. While we all love books a great deal (after all, we did dedicate a whole account just to the art of being a bookworm), in the end, popularity might boil down to what you've read or your picture quality. Tough stuff right there. I mean, we all love books, so why should it matter which ones we read? So what if we don't read the most popular books on bookstagram? Those dystopian YA books with futuristic societies or tons of action? Who ever said that classic books were bad? And, no, I'm not just talking about those Puffin classics with the beautiful covers - but the ones with less visually appealing covers, too. Who said that our pictures necessarily had to be good? I mean, sure - this is Instagram we're talking about, a social media network built upon pictures - but when did we let that get in the way of what we came here to do? When did we let a less popular style or &qu

I forgot to say this in my last post, but happy May everyone! Since it's the first Friday of the month, you know what that means: A monthly reflection! (Yayy.) Okay, so maybe that doesn't sound all that exciting. "It's just a way for them to look over their statistics for the month", you might say, and, yes, this is true, but this can also be helpful for you, too! You might be interested in this post because... you want to compare to your own blog or bookstagram to ours you'd like to see how we do it you are honestly interested in how we're doing (thank you ♡) you want to laugh at how much I probably failed my goals (it's okay: let it out) you want to know what's coming up for the blog and bookstagram Whatever the reason may be, I hope you enjoy this post! For those of you who are very confused right now because you don't really know what this post is , allow me to explain. In these posts, I not only reflect on the past month for o

All the way back in the beginning of April, I published a post on shoutout-for-shoutout sessions (SFS's) in the bookstagram community, specifically entering  them. Now, I will - after promising to do so back in my first SFS post - finally discuss hosting your own SFS. Em and I have done two shoutout-for-shoutout sessions in the past: one on our own when we hit 1,000 followers, and one with a group of bookstagrammers in honor of the then-new year, 2017. Therefore, shoutout-for-shoutout sessions can be hosted by one account or a group of accounts. As mentioned in my previous post, besides single and group shoutout sessions, there are now two types of SFS's. These two types are post SFS's and story SFS's , the latter available due to the relatively recent addition of Instagram Stories. Basic Guidelines for All SFS's No matter the format of your SFS, there are some basic guidelines that most bookstagrammers follow when hosting a shoutout session. To start, s