FLYTIP: Dog-Ear-Me-Not

FLYTIP is an original feature hosted by Lonna @ FLYLēF in which she generously shares free blog graphics and advice as well as taking part in related discussions. Every other Saturday, there is a different prompt that participants can take part in, so be sure to check out her site for more info. This is my first time participating and I confess I’m really excited about today’s topic. Speaking of, today’s topic is “FLYTIP: Dog-Ear-Me-Not || What are some creative ways you’ve saved your place in a book?”

A few years back, I never went out of my way to find something I could consistently use for a bookmark. I would usually just grab a scrap of paper, receipt, or even a candy wrapper to hold my place. I’m much more consistent these days…well, kind of. I’ve never dog-eared my books and probably never will. One of my greatest pet peeves is when I’m reading a library book and discover that someone has dog-eared it. Why?!?!?! I’m all for people treating their own books however they want, but a library book? It’s a travesty! For this post, I’m sharing a few different ways I save my place while reading.

1. DIY Bookmark – I literally never buy myself bookmarks. I like the idea of a pretty bookmark, but I’m also really cheap and figure, why buy a bookmark when I can just make my own? I actually made the above one from a lovely gift bag and will probably have to replace it soon as you can probably tell from the picture above. I wouldn’t consider myself to be particularly crafty, but I find sitting down and making something to be a really relaxing activity.

2. Spine-Up – I know, I know. This is a terrible thing to do to your books. It could break the spine. Don’t I have any kind of respect for my books? Of course, I do! Sometimes I even remove the dust jacket (see all photos) while I read because I don’t want to accidentally damage it, but when you need to put your book down real quick and your bookmark mark is nowhere to be found, turning a book over is the quickest solution.

3. Review Notebook – I almost never read unless I have my review notebook close at hand. It is unbelievably helpful to have a few notes jotted down when it comes time to write a review and it’s even more helpful when you can just stuff the entire thing into a book to save your place.

4. Pen – I cannot count the number of times I lose my pen. Am I the only one who has this problem? I have lost several and I’m convinced they hide out where all those missing socks from the dryer go. Sometimes I’m a little too quick to jump to conclusions because I’ve panicked that I can’t find my pen, only to discover that I’d been using it as a bookmark the whole time.

5. Cat’s Tail – I have one of the fattest, laziest cats in the world. He will literally let me do anything, so when I was taking photos for this post he decided to camp out on my bed and it was just so hard to resist using his tail as a prop.

How do you save your place in a book? Are you a traditional bookmark user or do you use other unconventional methods? Let’s discuss in the comments!

FLYLēF’s 2nd Anniversary: Friendship Tour + Giveaway

FLYLēF turns two and Lonna was kind enough to invite me to be a part of her friendship tour in celebration of her blogiversary. To celebrate, an amazing group of bloggers have gotten together and have planned friendship-themed posts for you to enjoy, all centered around the theme…

FRIENDSHIP

Please make sure to visit them, and perhaps make a new friend along the way. Also, Lonna is generously hosting a giveaway, so be sure to check out the details at the end of this post.

 FRIENDSHIP 

I think one of the most rewarding aspects of book blogging is the friendships you develop with other readers. And there’s nothing like bonding over a good book. I think most of my blogging friendships started with the love of a book and my TBR thanks (as well as shakes its fist at) every one of you for continually bringing wonderful books to my attention. For this post’s theme, I wanted to share some of my favorite literary friendships. Covers are linked to Goodreads. Be sure to share your favorite literary friendships in the comments!

 

1. Harry, Ron, and Hermione from Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling – You can’t talk about literary friendships without mentioning the Golden Trio. These three go through so much, but they remain loyal to one another. I also think it’s really beautiful that they grew into adulthood with each other by their sides.

2. Remus, Peter, Sirius, and James from Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling – It’s unfortunate that none of these guys got a happy ending; actually, it’s down-right tragic. But I’ve always been touched by the story of Remus being a werewolf and his friends turning themselves into Animagi, so he wouldn’t feel so different and alone. Excuse me, I think I need a tissue…

3. Anne Shirley and Diana Barry from Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery – Is there anything closer than a bosom friend? I loved that beside the Cuthberts, Anne found Diana as well. I mean, sure, she did accidentally get Diana drunk when they were kids, but it was a complete accident!

4. Kaz, Inej, Jesper, Wylan, Nina, and Matthias from Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo – Nothing says real friendship like pulling a couple of impossible heists together. Seriously, how awesome would it be to be a part of this amazing crew of friends?

5. Ada Navarra and Corinne Wells from Iron Cast by Destiny Soria – One of my favorite parts about this debut is the friendship between Ada and Corinne. I really need more books where female friends are front and center. Can I get a sequel?

Bonus: Leslie Knope and Ann Perkins from Parks and Recreation – I loved how unbelievably supportive these two were of each other. There was so much encouragement and love in this relationship, I think their friendship was my favorite relationship in the entire series.

 TESTIMONIAL

I think the first time Lonna and I bonded it was over Robert Beatty’s Serafina and the Black Cloak. I will always associate this book with our friendship. We currently cohost The Comment Challenge together and it has been nothing but a rewarding experience. I could not ask for a more creative and dedicated partner. Honestly, I feel like we’re a match made in heaven and hope in the future we can collaborate in many more blogging projects. Happy blogiversary, Lonna!

  TOUR SCHEDULE  

❖ May 15th – Bookfever: Spotlight / Giveaway
❖ May 15th – A Reader Writer: Spotlight / Giveaway
❖ May 16th – Milky Way of Books: Spotlight / Giveaway
❖ May 16th – Lisa Loves Literature: Spotlight / Giveaway
❖ May 20th – A Kernel of Nonsense: Spotlight / Giveaway
❖ May 21th – SUSANLOVESBOOKS: Spotlight / Giveaway
❖ May 23th – fallxnrobins: Spotlight / Giveaway
❖ May 27th – Utopia State of Mind: Spotlight / Giveaway
❖ May 28th – Book Briefs: Spotlight / Giveaway
❖ May 30th – Foxes & Fairy Tales: Spotlight / Giveaway
❖ June 1st – The Caramel Files: Spotlight / Giveaway

  ABOUT FLYLēF  

Lonna Yen the creative mind behind FLYLēF (pronounced like flyleaf) who enjoys reading late into the night to satisfy her insatiable addiction to mostly young adult and adult novels: romance (contemporary and historical), fantasy, and paranormal (especially vampires). She believes in the magic of spellbinding words coming together to build breathtaking worlds in our minds’ eyes. Happiness is just a book away, find it at FLYLēF.

Lonna is also the host of FLYTIP and Book of Choice Giveaway Hop, and co-host of The Comment Challenge.

Find Lonna @ FLYLēF: Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Google+ | Newsletter

  GIVEAWAY  

Be sure to click on the Rafflecopter Giveaway link below to enter Lonna’s giveaway: A one-month subscription box to Owl Crate, or $35 Amazon gift card for an international winner.

A Rafflecopter Giveaway

May Book of Choice Giveaway Hop

The May Book of Choice Giveaway Hop is hosted by Lonna @ FLYLēF, one of my very good blogging friends. I’ve never joined a giveaway hop before and since this month happens to be my birthday month, I thought I’d celebrate by participating. For this giveaway I will be giving away one book worth up to $15 USD either from Book Depository or Amazon. I thought I’d throw Amazon in there for US participants as I have Amazon Prime and it’s always a good thing when it only takes a couple of days to receive a book. To enter, click on the rafflecopter link below and be sure to check out the other participants’ giveaways as well! Complete giveaway details below. Good luck!

A Rafflecopter Giveaway

Giveaway Details:

• Giveaway runs from May 1st at 12:00am through May 15th at 11:59 pm (PST)
• Open internationally through Book Depository
• If winner is located in the U.S., they have the option of the prize being fulfilled through Amazon
• One lucky winner will win one book of their choice worth up to $15 USD
• Winner will be selected randomly and emailed (you have 72 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen)
• Book can be a preorder of a May 2017 release
• Prize will be fulfilled within 2 weeks or 2 weeks after future release date

May Book of Choice Giveaway Hop – Click the Inlinkz image below for the full list of blogs participating in the May Book of Choice Giveaway Hop!

The Hiatus is Over!

My blogging hiatus officially ended yesterday, but I ended up being really busy and didn’t have a chance to sit down and catch up on anything. I really enjoyed my blogging hiatus and ended up also taking a break from Twitter which sort of drove me crazy the first couple of days (my fingers were itching to open the app), but ultimately I think taking a break from both blogging and Twitter together was a good call. I’m still feeling my reading slump and didn’t read quite as much as I’d lhoped over the past week and a half, but I’ve kind of been dying to get back to blogging in general. I missed so many things about this community though and am ready to get back to discussing books with everyone. I will try to get to all the comments that I missed while away, but I do have a bit of blogging to catch up on including a couple of reviews, so don’t be surprised if I don’t get to them all. I hope everyone has had a lovely April so far. I’m so ecstatic to be back!

Hiatus Time!

Last November I took a necessary break from the blog for personal reasons. It was the first time since I started blogging that I chose to step away from the blog and the break was something I look back on fondly. Recently I’ve been struggling with blogging and reading. I feel like I’ve only been able to put in half the effort I usually do and it’s really starting to get to me. I’ve been feeling really scatterbrained over the last month and there are some days where I feel stretched so thin, it’s hard to find the motivation to do anything book or blogging related. All this is leading up to me taking a little blogging break. From April 12th through the 21st, I’ll be on hiatus. For me, this means I won’t be on the blog and I’ll be shutting off my WordPress notifications. I will have a couple of posts scheduled to go up while I’m away, but I won’t be responding to any comments until I come back. I will still be on Twitter. I haven’t decided how much, but I have no plans as of now to stay off it while on hiatus. If you need me, Twitter or email is the way to go.

Spring Cleaning: Bookworm Edition

If you’re like me, when it comes to your books (physical, digital, or ones you only wish you had), you’re a little disorganized. I have an absurd amount of books on my TBR and this number just seems to grow every week. The books on my shelves have no real order and if I’m honest, I own far too many which I’ll probably never open again. My Goodreads shelves lack the kind of organization I see from other users, making me question my lackluster methods. And when it comes to knowing exactly what’s on my TBR, I don’t always know because my Amazon wishlists do not always match what’s on my Goodreads TBR. There’s also the blog to think about as well, I’ve been sitting on a number of posts and I’m not sure they’ll ever be ready to publish. So this month and next, I want to spend some time cleaning out and organizing my bookish life. There is obviously so much to get to, but I wanted to share ten ways I plan on tackling the disorganization and hopefully this gives you a few idea if you’re looking to do a little spring cleaning yourself.

1. Deleting Books on My TBR – If you have only 30 or 300 books on your TBR, it’s always a good idea to evaluate which books you really intend to read and those it’s okay to cross off.

• What I’ll be doing: Going through the 380 books I currently have on my Goodreads To-Read shelf and delete books I know I won’t be reading. I’m hoping to bring this number way down (under 300?), though that might be too optimistic.

2. Organizing My TBR – Sometimes there are certain books on my TBR that I want to read before any others, but I’m not always good at keeping track of these and before I know it, a year has passed by.

• What I’ll be doing: Creating a shelf of high-priority reads, so next time I’m trying to figure out what to read next, I’m considering these books first.

3. Book Unhaul – It’s time. I can’t recall when my last unhaul was, but I’m feeling the need to get rid of several books from my shelves.

• What I’ll Be Doing: Asking myself the tough questions – Do I need this book? Will I reread this one? Is it important for me to keep an old favorite if I’m not really interested anymore? Will I ever finish this series and if not, why do I need to keep these earlier books?

4. Reorganize My Bookshelves – I’ve been meaning to move my books around. There’s really no set way I have them all set up and I’d like to change this.

• What I’ll Be Doing: I’ve tried almost every way imaginable to organize my shelves and I think the one that works out the best for me is alphabetically. It may seem boring, but I like knowing where books are right off the bat rather than have to study my own shelves to quickly locate a book.

5. Clean Out Blog Drafts – I can’t even tell you how many of my blog drafts are actually posts I plan on publishing. I’m pretty sure some of them are titled but are completely blank.

• What I’ll Be Doing: Completely all those drafts I have that are currently collecting dust. Deleting any I haven’t the time to do or are not interested in anymore.

6. Create/Organize Library Holds Lists – My library’s website allows me to create lists of items and I’ve been using this to try and keep track of books I’d like to request, but they are currently not as organized as I’d like.

• What I’ll Be Doing: Creating several different lists to help me decide what to request for hold next. This should also help when I’m floundering about what to read next.

7. Reconcile Amazon and Goodreads Lists – I have several (small estimate, it’s probably in the dozens) books on one platform that aren’t on the other.

• What I’ll Be Doing: Doing a lot of back and forth between the two platforms to ensure whatever books are on my TBR on one are also on the other.

8. Get Blogging Planner Up-to-Date – Whenever I get into a slump, I start slacking when it comes to my blogging planner. I have been slacking big time.

• What I’ll Be Doing: Take some serious time working on my blogging planner. The farther ahead I plan, the better.

9. Put Unwanted Books Up For Sale – This is something that’s been bouncing around in my head for a while, but I’m thinking of putting the books from my unhaul up for sale.

• What I’ll Be Doing – I’m giving myself until the end of summer to sell any books I can and whatever is left over, I’ll be donating. I really have no idea how I’ll be doing this, but if you have any experience doing so, I’d love to hear from you. I’ve been thinking of putting them up on half.com, Amazon, or setting up a Paypal account and doing it myself.

10. Lowering the Number of People I Follow – Do you ever look at your Twitter, Bloglovin, or WordPress account and wonder why you follow so many people if you don’t interact with them?

• What I’ll Be Doing: I’ve already started cleaning out my bloglovin account. It’s actually kind of sad seeing how many bloggers I still follow whose blogs are no longer active. I also want to evaluate who I’m following based on if we interact and if I ever visit their blog. I really want to clean up my feeds, so the people and blogs I’m interested in following don’t get lost among the ones I’m not.

Are you planning any Spring Cleaning this season? When’s the last time you did a book unhaul? How do you organize your TBR list? Have you ever sold any of your books online? Let’s discuss in the comments!