Reading is Inevitable

Back in early July, I published a post titled  "Summer 2017 Challenge - Reading Popular YA Books" , in which I explained that, this summer, I wanted to challenge myself to read some books I don't typically read. Actually, these books are what a lot of bookstagrammers read — the more popular young adult fiction books that tend to be of the fantasy genre. These books include well-known series such as Harry Potter , The Hunger Games , and The Mortal Instruments series, as well as stand-alone titles such as Thirteen Reasons Why  (a controversial one, however, due to the Netflix series adaptation) and Anna and the French Kiss . And it's not that I hate all young adult books. I just tend to not read ones more centered around fantasy and romance. But I wanted to read some of these books and give them another shot. Because every book is different, right? And I know that everyone has their own preferences, and that's perfectly okay! Like I said in my last post, ...

I love books. I mean, you have to know that, right? After all, I have a whole blog dedicated to books. There's also a good chance you came from the bookstagram account I co-run with my sister, so you would also know how much I talk about books over there. (It is a book stagram.) And there definitely isn't anything wrong with liking books. My mom actually said recently that she's glad I'd rather buy books than some other stuff kids my age want, whatever that may be. Except there's a problem with liking books too much: You end up buying a lot of them. Sure, I don't have as many books as others do. I've seen people dedicate three or four shelves just for their TBR books. But I still have over 20, a number that makes Em, someone who practically finishes a book days after buying it, shudder and shake her head. And now I've begun to shake my head, too. Yes, having a lot of books gives me options when it's time to pick a new one to read. Even...

Now that we're more or less halfway through 2017, I decided that it's about time to do a little update on how well Em and I are doing with the reading goals we made for ourselves at the beginning of 2017. We didn't make our goals extremely specific. All we did was choose a number based on how much we wanted to read and what seemed reasonable based on how much we knew we had read in 2016. And now it's time to reflect on those goals... oh boy. I honestly don't think things are going well for Em. When I asked her if she remembered her original goal, she had no clue. (It was 50 books!) But, after a few months with only one book finished at the end of each one, she had lessened her goal to a more reasonable 30. (She couldn't remember this number, either!) Drawing knowledge from my experience with my monthly goals for Reading is Inevitable, I don't think that you can do all too well if you don't remember your goals. And it looks like this is true for E...

This summer I am challenging myself to read some popular young adult books. Why would I do this? And why would this even be a challenge? Well, if you know me or have paid attention to the types of books I read through the blog or bookstagram, you would know that I typically don't like the popular young adult or teen books. The books that are popular these days tend to lean towards the fantasy or dystopian genre. Series such as Harry Potter or Divergent or The Mortal Instruments are examples of these fantasy/dystopian popular books. And, personally, I'm not as interested in these genres. Other popular books include those with romance in them, and I've never been too fond of these books as well. For instance, The Fault in Our Stars ? Eh, not much of a fan. And, sure: Having different preferences in books is perfectly okay. I just thought that it might be a good idea to read some of these books because I am completely lost when going on bookstagram. What's a shadow...

So, since 2017 is officially here (and has been for about two weeks), I figured I might as well post about our reading goals for the year! I'll also attempt figuring out all of the books I read in 2016, but I know it'll be far from accurate as I did not write it down and I know I won't remember everything! For 2016, I actually didn't make any reading goals. I just wanted to finish one book a month, I guess! I can happily say that I did complete this very small goal of mine. (Some people aim for 100 books a year!)

Here's a little situation that's very common for me: It's the day before a blog post is supposed to publish. (I have no blog post.) I think to myself, Oh, I have the whole day [afternoon, on school days] to come up with something and write it! No biggy! Soon it's past the afternoon: evening moving into night, and I still don't have a blog post done. I don't even have an idea. What's next? Why, the only thing I really can do: Panic. That's what happened this time, sad to say. (Whoops: I did it again!) I have a little list of blog post ideas that I have conjured up with hours of research spent on the internet, and as I was mentally going through the list, I recalled an idea that I had seen at  http://www.getspokal.com/i-challenged-myself-to-create-100-blog-post-ideas-in-30-minutes/ . In this little post, the writer - Sarah Burke - challenged herself to create 100 blog post ideas in only 30 minutes. I thought to myself, Hey! I have time since it...