Monday, August 26, 2013

Challenge Day 9: Why Blog?

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge | Good Books And Good Wine

Why do you blog about books?

I blog about books for two reasons: I love to read and I love to write. What better combination than a book blog?
Books are my life. I have been reading books since I was three. All my friends know me as a bibliophile - that word is even in my email address! I have been called a Book. I have a dream library in my dream house. I give my parents crazy analysis speeches on various classics and they (kindly) smile and nod through the entire thing.
Actually, this blog is the result of those crazy analysis dissertations. You get to read them now, so my parents don't have to hear them (as often. My mom reads this blog).
We have come to the root of the matter - my rambling literary dissertations. A blog is practically an expression of your ideas. I express my ideas on books all the time. I love discussing books. And a book blog is the best place to do it.

When I am reading a book - any book with a plot to it - I am fully happy. Completely at peace. I forget any pressing homework assignments, chores, errands, and just live in the book and the book in me.

It's all very zen.

(And not very useful for getting things done.)

I want to spread my love - no, my crazy, intense infatuation - of books with the world. I want everyone to experience the zen-ness and peace that I have felt.

Maybe if more people read books at an early age, there would be more peace on earth, because there would be more overall happiness.

Peace Through Books!

Ok. Enough of that. You realize how important books are in my life, and why I want to share my love with others. Love is a generous thing - you need to share it.
And this blog is me sharing my love with you.

_________________________________________________________________

I'm going to make two confessions about this blog:
1. It is a lot more work than I thought it would be. It was fine in the beginning when I had what I thought was a long list of post ideas. But then they ran out. This blogging thing is HARD.
2. I'm super nervous about this blog. I know that's common for a starting blogger, but I have all these doubts and questions running through my head. I know it's only been a few months, so I'm gonna stay optimistic and push on!

See you soon! (I'll have a review coming up in a couple days. Why haven't I posted one sooner? One word: School.)

~Sophia




Sunday, August 25, 2013

Challenge Day 7 and Day 8: Quirks and Bullets

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge | Good Books And Good Wine

Today's Day 8, so now I'm all caught up. Woot!

Talk about your blogging quirks

Aha... my blogging quirks...
Well, don't think I've been a blogger for long enough to develop serious quirks.
So I'm going to hand it to you, my dear readers!
What are my blogging quirks? Don't be afraid to be honest. Seriously.

Quick! Write 15 bullet points of things that appeal to you on blogs!

  • Not too much sarcasm and snarkiness.
  • Lots of pictures.
  • Organization - a good archive - neat sidebars with organized buttons. - easy to find things - search bar - clean layout.
  • A readable font for posts. No crazy cursive stuff! No weird colors that inhibit readability!
  • Please, please, please spellcheck! And check your grammar, too! Improper English turns me off from a blog like nothing else.
  • A few personal stories outside of whatever topic they're blogging about. 
  • Friendly - sincerely tries to get to know their readers.
  • Posts at least once a week.
  • Doesn't take themselves or their writing too seriously.
  • Joyful, or at least optimistic. 
  • Posts a few paragraphs long or less, if there is a lack of pictures. 
  • No songs or music - or any sort of noise for that matter.
  • Lots of comments - an active discussion.
  • When they blog about something I like and have similar opinions to mine.
  • An "About me" page. I love finding out more about the blogger, and seeing if they're "my kind of person."
Ok, that was harder than I thought. :-)
Give it a try!

~Sophia



Saturday, August 24, 2013

Challenge Day 5 and Day 6: Tear Jerkers and How I Shop

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge | Good Books And Good Wine

Ok, sorry, this one's a bit late - it's actually Day 7 today! Whoops... I'll catch up eventually...

Recommend a tear jerker

A tear jerker....
Hmmm....

Well, Les Miserables made me cry. So there's one.
Also - Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom made me tear up a bit.
I'm sure there are more, but I just forgot them. I generally don't physically react to books - laughing out loud, crying, etc. I'm the kind of person who can hide their emotions relatively easily.
But my hidden emotions are super strong.

Describe how you shop for books

So... if you look at Day 1, Confession #6, you will see that I rarely spend money on books, because there is a library five minutes away from my house.
So I don't really shop for books.
However, when looking for a book to read at the library, I am very suspicious of all the new arrivals. I don't want to waste my time on a bad book.
(Which is why I read a lot of classics.)
So when I go to the library, I generally have a book in mind - one that a friend has recommended, or one that has been on my booklist for a while. I am very hesitant about trying out a random book from the shelf.
So that's how I "shop" for books.

~Sophia

Thursday, August 22, 2013

A package in the mail

Look look what came in the mail today!




Books for me!


Oh. Just Organic Chemistry.

Ha ha - tricked you!

This is just one of the small things that signify the Beginning of the School Year.
The first day of school for me was on Monday, and I can tell this is going to be a busy year for me (isn't it always?). But it's also going to be super fun.
But because I have a suddenly very-packed schedule, this blog might have to slow down quite a bit. It won't die, don't worry - it's only been a few months, and I'm not going down that quickly. Granted, having a blog was harder work than I thought - having ideas for posts being the hardest part - but I still love writing for it, and I hope to continue doing so for a long time!
I'm hoping to post at least six times a month, though my posts may be drastically shorter now.
Even though I will have less time to write, I think what will suffer more is my fiction writing, rather than my blog writing. And believe me, it's been suffering for quite some time. I'm waiting for the desperate deadlines of NaNoWriMo to wake things up.

Anyway, the next book(s) planned on my list are technically Game of Thrones, but I might end up putting that off for a bit more - not sure if I'm ready for the intensity just now - and read a few more Anne books. Or something else calm.
We'll see.

Hopefully the "What I'm Reading" button on the left side panel will be a little more active in the near future.

Meanwhile, I'll continue this challenge, which will supply me with post ideas at least 'til the end of the month.

I'm also considering trying the Classics Club challenge (read 50+ classics in 5 years), but probably not for a couple months. I'm compiling my list 50 books - any favorite classics that you could recommend? I'd appreciate any input! 

~Sophia

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Challenge Day 3 and Day 4: BFFs and Flinging Books

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge | Good Books And Good Wine
Because my answers to these questions are relatively short (and because I missed posting yesterday), I have clumped them together. So here are Days 3 and 4.

Who are your blogging BFFs?

Ummmm...

So I'm a relatively new blogger.
Which means that all my BFFs are in the real world, and none of them have blogs.
So I have no blogging BFFs.
Sadly.

If you have a blog and want to become my blogging BFF, comment with a link to your blog.
I hope to have many blogging BFFs before my blogging journey here is over!

What's the last book you flung across the room?

I don't fling books.
They are sacred objects.
Even boring or annoying books are still books, which means they are still sacred.
So there.

But if I did fling books, I would fling Moby Dick heartily. Actually, I would probably fall asleep before I could fling it.
Or I would fling Mansfield Park. But not for the same reasons as Moby Dick. Mansfield Park is a good book. I would fling it because I would be so frustrated that Fanny wasn't getting the Edmund she deserved and that Edmund wasn't being as awesome as he could be.

But I don't fling books.

~Sophia

Monday, August 19, 2013

Challenge Day 2: Bedtime Reading Ritual

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge | Good Books And Good Wine
What's your bedtime reading ritual?

I'm still dependent on my parents for things like food, clothing, and housing. So I better do what they tell me. And when my mom says it's lights out, it's lights out.
And reading under the covers suffocates me.
And bugs my sister, because we share a room.

So most of the time, I don't read in bed, or have a bedtime reading ritual.
I end up getting ready for bed, then turning off the lights and falling asleep.
But for those times that I do read in bed, it goes like this:

- Rush rush through the tooth brushing because I know there's a book waiting for me on my bed! And if I finish before my sister, I might have some time to read before she turns the light off!
-Crawl in with my book and read a couple chapters.
-Sister comes in and gets in her bed. "Turn the light out, Sophia!"
-Me: "Let me finish the chapter!" (I get teased for saying this by my family all the time. My dad says I should have a t-shirt with this on it.)
-Sister: Either, "Ok, just the chapter," or "Just turn the light off already!"
-I finish the chapter under or over the covers, depending on my sister's leniency.
-I turn the light off, if it isn't off already.
-I attempt to read more than the one chapter under the covers with a little booklight (that usually is really dim because I forgot to recharge it).
-I persist through as much sweaty suffering as I can, and then emerge, plop the book down on the floor, and turn my booklight off.
-If she's up for it, I chat with my sister for an hour in the dark.
-I spend another hour in the dark thinking about the book, this blog, upcoming parties, plots for novels, and various other exciting parts of my life, before finally drifting off to sleep.

So there you have it. My (not so) elegant reading ritual.

~Sophia

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Challenge Day 1: Bookish Confessions

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge | Good Books And Good Wine
Make 15 book related confessions

Here we go!

1. I can only read one book at a time. I am not one of those readers that can have a couple books going at once. It gets confusing if I'm trying to read two books together - especially if they're in the same genre. But because I read super super fast, it doesn't really matter. I finish a book in no time and can move on to the next one on my list. If I end up sick and tired of the book, I switch to something in a different genre. I'm one of those people that has to finish what I started.

2. I can't stand writing in books. Especially in pen. I never ever make notes in my books. If I'm going to make notes, it's going to be on a post-it. And in my textbooks - I make notes in pencil, so they're not permanent.

3. I don't use bookmarks. Well, I use scrappy train tickets, old receipts, and sometimes an un-sticky post it, but most usually I just dog-ear. Yes, yes, I know some people think just as badly of dog-earing as I think of writing in books, but it's just simpler. I always end up playing with my bookmark as I read and breaking or ruining it, so if it's a scrap of paper it doesn't really matter if it ends up as some sort of weird ripped up folded bit. I do own a lot of bookmarks, though, that I got as gifts, but I rarely use them.

4. I like physical books better than e-books. I have a Kindle that my dad got me for my 16th birthday, but I only "buy" the free classics available, and rarely use it (especially now that it's dead because I dropped it in the water and promptly attempted to turn it on. Yeah, stupid me.). Somehow seeing myself make my way through a long tome is much more gratifying than a percentage in the bottom of a screen on a device that's thinner than a picture book. And the smell and texture of books - and the way they get old and yellowed and awesome...

5. My dream house has one of those old libraries with oak shelves that cover the walls. And a comfy couch in one corner. And a nice desk that matches the oak shelves, with lots of drawers. And possibly a second level balcony with more books.
Yessssss.....

6. I rarely spend money on books. Weird, I know. But the library is my best friend. I read fast, so due dates are no issue. Free books, whenever you want them. There are four libraries in my area, so at least one of them should have the book I want. Also, classics are free on the Kindle, in case I want one now, and not five minutes from now. (Let's disregard the fact that my Kindle is dead at the moment.) I have only spent $3.99 in my entire life on a book. That was when I was very very desperate. It was the night before my flight to Costa Rica and I had no books to take with me, so I resorted to buying one on my Kindle. Of course, I spent more money buying books as gifts for friends, but otherwise - just $3.99.

7. My favorite complement ever was when my friend called me a Book. Another friend was complaining about how he got a 4 on the AP Lit test, and I got a 5. She replied, "But Sophia is a Book. When you're a Book, Lit tests just come naturally. There are gifts that come with being a Book." Yes. I am a Book.
Favorite. Complement. Ever.
Ever.

8. I freaked my dad out when I corrected his reading. I was three years old. He was reading The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh to me before bed, and I was looking over his shoulder. He was tired. He accidentally misread a word.
"Dad?" I said. "You read that wrong."
I showed him exactly what he had read incorrectly, and told him what he should have read.
He woke up completely. :-)

9. I hate grammar errors in books. Especially if they're big ones, like who vs. whom. Darn editor should have been doing his job.
Surprisingly, I am not a Grammar Nazi in speech. Maybe because my sister is one, and yes, I make grammar mistakes too, and know what it is to have them shoved back in my face. It gives the impression that the listener is not listening to the content but for the grammar.

10. I am very hesitant about reading books without a recommendation from a friend. I just don't want to waste my time on a bad book. I don't generally just pick a random book off the library shelf and check it out - I need to have a recommendation from a friend or have read a review.
This is why I read so many classics - they're the "Tried and True." I know they're not all my style, but there's a pretty good chance most of them will be.

11. My favorite books ever are The Chronicles of Narnia. I love them because they are children's books, but they also have a depth that makes them great for adults, as well. I have them all in one volume. I got it for Christmas a few years ago. I have also seen the movies. The first one was good.
The other two, you ask?
Keep reading.

12. I don't judge movies-based-on-books as harshly as you may think. It takes one person to write a book. It takes hundreds to make a movie. And a movie script is mostly dialogue - which is only a small part of a book. What is great in writing may not be so great on the screen.
Which, in continuation of #11, is why I think the movie of Dawn Treader is better than that of Prince Caspian. The plot of the former is not made for cinema. The latter could have worked without so many changes from the original story, which was decently suited to the big screen.

13. I cannot read in the car. My friend's mom once said, "I though that if anyone could read in the car, it would be Sophia!" Nope. Sorry. My inner ear clearly doesn't realize that I am a Book (see #7). :-) I get dizzy if I even read a page. However, I can read on the bus for a short time, and I can read on the train with no problems. Weird, huh?

14. I hope to publish a book of my own, someday. Yes, one of my dreams is to be an author. (the others are to be a pediatrician and a world traveler, if you are wondering.) I'm working on all three dreams, currently.

15. I'm running out of ideas for these confessions. Seriously, this is hard!
Let's just leave it at 14, okay?

If you want, make your own book-related confessions in the comments! 

The challenge continues tomorrow!


~Sophia