Where to even begin...

It's been over 1.5 years since I last uploaded to this blog and so many things have changed. Looking at my last posts, I just got back home from my exchange semester in Seoul? That seems like a lifetime ago. Since then, I graduated university, finished one and started another internship in the legal field, moved into a new apartment with my boyfriend, acquired about a hundred plants and, of course, found myself in a global pandemic - fun times! But through all of it, I never stopped reading and also never stopped missing being a part of the online book community.

This week, I made my 'comeback' on bookstagram, and it just wouldn't feel complete if I didn't also try and revive my blog. I honestly haven't looked at this page in over a year, and scrolling through it now, I feel so proud of what I accomplished with the blog design and everything. I really put so much work into this blog, and despite it never reaching much of an audience, it was my little corner of the internet, where I could be creative in my own way and do what I wanted, for so long. It would be such a shame to give it up completely. So here I am.

I really don't know where to even begin with starting up this blog again. But I wanted to upload this random little post to announce my return, and of course I'll go right back to planning some bookish posts.

10 Popular YA Series I Haven't Read

With Trash My TBR and the likes going around, I've also been inspired to take a look at my goodreads to-read shelf lately, out of curiosity for what I would find there. Like many people, my goodreads tbr has gotten out of hand a long time ago and I tend to add books randomly and then forget about them days later. So today I want to talk about some popular YA series that I found that I never ended up starting, even though they seem to be beloved by many people. These are all older releases that people were talking about a lot when I first started my blog around 5 years ago, which I think is why most of them also happen to be dystopian.

Tome Topple Readathon TBR

I don't usually participate in readathons because they kind of stress me out and most of the time I don't realize they're happening anyway. But! As part of my attempt to be more active on my blog again and as an incentive to keep reading even though I'm abroad and so not constantly surrounded by my bookshelves as a reminder, I decided that taking part in the Tome Topple would be a great idea. Well, the timing might not be perfect since I have midterms coming up, but I'm still going to try my best.

The point of this readathon is to read, you know, tomes. The readathon runs from April 13 until April 26, so two weeks to make my way through as many giant books as I can! For more information, definitely go and watch the announcement video by Sam of Thoughts on Tomes. I love the idea of tackling intimidating books that, let's be honest, I've been putting off for way too long, and this is the perfect opportunity to do so.

2017 Reading Goals

I know, I know, 2017 already started so once again I am late with this post. I hadn't actually planned on doing this but in the last few days I've thought of a few things I want to make an effort to change this year reading-wise, so why not sum it all up in a 2017 reading goals post?

First off, I have set my goodreads reading goal to be 50 books this year, which is less than the past few years, but I want an achievable goal for 2017 that doesn't stress me out the entire time. It would definitely be nice to never see 14 books behind schedule on my goodreads this year. I also don't want to have to lower it like I had to do in 2016, because that's just disappointing. I felt like 50 books was achievable while still being a little bit of a challenge.

I have also compiled a list of 8 books I want to read this year:

On the Topic of Changing my Blog Name

Hello there. I'm here to discuss something dear to my heart today: I have been toying with the idea of changing the name of my blog, and I need to talk about it.

When I first started this blog at the beginning of 2014, I was absolutely clueless as to what I wanted to do with it. I had previously written another blog in order to keep my friends and family updated when I spent three months in Vancouver in 2012. But after I returned back home, there wasn't really a reason to keep the blog going, so I stopped uploading. I still missed the writing aspect of it, which is why (although only a year later) this blog was born. I didn't really think very hard about the name (clearly), and so I just meshed my first and last name together to create schakarin. 

I don't absolutely hate the name; it's my username for pretty much all social media sites, so it seemed fitting at the time to name my blog the same. But now that I've turned (or rather: it turned itself, because when did that even happen?) this into a full-on book blog, I keep thinking that the title of my blog needs to represent that.

So I've pondered over what I would want to use as a new name for almost a year now, and besides the fact that I haven't yet come up with something I'm 100% happy with, I'm also still not entirely sure whether I really want to change the name at all.

One of the reasons for my indecisiveness is because I don't want to confuse people. To be honest, I don't think that there are that many people that even recognize my blog name, so I'm most likely unnecessarily worried. But somehow I'm still a little unsure. Do I have to change all my social media usernames afterwards? Are people going to unfollow me or something because they don't recognize this new name that I came up with? All these things are kind of keeping me back.

The other main reason why I'm hesitating is because of the whole issue with actually coming up with a new name. First of all, I don't have that many ideas. And now that I know and read quite a few book blogs, I'm scared that any name I come up with will be a rip off of some blog or another. That is the last thing that I want. Yet, there are so many book blogs that it's nearly impossible to find something I like that doesn't already exist, or isn't at least similar to something that already exists. This doesn't only concern the blogosphere. I would want to change my bookstagram account name as well so it's the same as my blog, but on Instagram the problem of finding something original that no one else already uses is even more difficult to solve. And don't get me started on twitter.

I also put a lot of pressure on myself to come up with something good. Well, not just good, but brilliant. I mean, I don't think schakarin is a very original and clever name for a blog, but then again I feel like I can get away with it because I literally had no clue what I was doing when I first started this blog. Choosing a stupid name was okay back then, but now that I've been doing this for two years - even though I'm definitely not a pro (yet – hah!) - I feel like people have expectations. You can't just go call yourself bookluvvahh_345 and expect people to applaud you. I mean, it has to at least be better than schakarin.

I also don't want to be limited to only bookish posts if I have a very clearly book-related blog name. I know that I can still post whatever I feel like even if the name suggests that this is a book-related blog but it has still crossed my mind that I might feel more restricted.

I could go on and on, but I guess what I really want to say is that I'm super scared and insecure about this, so I need your advice.

Do you think it's a bad idea to change blog names?

Have you maybe changed yours at some point?

Two Year Blogoversary | GIVEAWAY

HELLO THERE. I am excited today because it is my second blogoversary. How crazy is that? I can't believe I've been doing this thing (more or less regularly) for two years. Where did all that time go? 

But anyway, last year in my Blogoversary post I talked about all the things I wanted to improve about my blogging. Since all of that is still true and it was already frustrating enough to reread that post, I don't want to talk about blogging resolutions etc. today. Rather, I want to do something FUN!

So I'm excited to announce that I'm hosting my very first giveaway! I've finally conquered my fear that no one is going to participate, and now I'm ready.

What You Can Win

As this is the anniversary of my book blog, you can obviously win a book. And since I myself prefer giveaways where the prize is a specific book rather than 'a book of your choice', I thought I would give away one of my favorite books of all time. Don't worry, you still get to choose.

Below is a list of my all time favorite books, and the winner will receive one book of their choice from that list.

• Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, Hardback
• Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor, Hardback
• Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira, Hardback
• Wonder by R.J. Palacio, Hardback
• Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas, Paperback
• Cinder by Marissa Meyer, Hardback
• I'll Give You the Sun, Hardback
• The Hunger Games, Paperback
• The Wrath & the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh, Hardback
• The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey, Hardback
• Just One Day by Gayle Forman, Paperback
• The Edge of Never by J.A. Redmerski, Paperback
• The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, Hardback
• Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz, Hardback
• The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson, Paperback
• A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, Hardback
• The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton, Hardback
• Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson, Paperback
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, Paperback
• Where Rainbows End by Cecelia Ahern, Paperback

How To Enter

Simply fill out the below Rafflecopter Giveaway in order to enter. The giveaway is international, as long as The Book Depository ships to you. Please also note that you need the permission of your parents if you are under 18 because you will need to provide me with your shipping address.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

That's it!

I hope you're as excited about the giveaway as I am about hosting it. 

I also want to thank all you lovely people that keep visiting my blog and especially those that take the time to comment and interact with me. Comments and the like always make my day and I couldn't be happier to be part of the wonderful book blogging community.

2015 Authors A to Z Reading Challenge | WRAP UP

Hello there. So at the beginning of 2015, I decided it would be a good idea to participate in the 2015 Authors A to Z Reading Challenge because, you know, it sounded fun. Now, at the beginning of 2016, I have to admit that I might not be cut out for reading challenges. Because no, I didn't finish the challenge, not even close. I'm still missing 7 letters and while I knew from the start that I wouldn't get some of them (like X for example), others I thought wouldn't be a challenge at all. Well, I was wrong.

Anyway, I just wanted to make a quick wrap up post for the challenge. Admitting failure helps with getting over it, right?

Here are the books that I read for each letter (the links will take you to my review):

A: Aldin, Lisa - One of the Guys

B: Benway, Robin - Emmy & Oliver

C: Cooper, Grier - Wish

D: Demetrios, Heather - I'll Meet You There

E: Ee, Susan - Angelfall

F: Forman, Gayle - I Was Here

G: Glines, Abbi - You Were Mine

H: Hunting, Helena - Clipped Wings

I:

J:

K: Keplinger, Kody - The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend

L: Levithan, David / Cohn, Rachel - Dash and Lily's Book of Dares

M: McGuire, Jamie - Beautiful Redemption

N: Nelson, Jandy - I'll Give You the Sun

O:

P: Palacio, R.J. - Wonder

Q: Quinn, Cari - Shadowboxer

R: Ritchie, Krista and Becca - Kiss The Sky

S: Sanderson, Brandon - The Final Empire (Mistborn)

T: Taylor, Laini - Daughter of Smoke & Bone

U:

V: Vaughan, Brian K. / Staples, Fiona - Saga, Volume 1

W: Webber, Tammara - Easy

X:

Y:

Z:

Are you participating in any cool challenges this year?

Favorite Books of 2015

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! 

I'm here today to reminisce about all the books I read in that year that I can't believe is already over. I read a total of 85 books in 2015, surpassing my goodreads challenge by 15 books. Even if I wasn't as successful as last year (I read 88 books in 2014), I am quite pleased with this result. I did better than expected as I thought that university would take a much larger toll on my reading. 

So after thinking long and hard about everything I read this year, I put together a list of ten books and series that I loved the most. I tried to really focus on the ones that I would want to read again right now and that I still rave about now, after having finished them for a while. Needless to say, I read a lot more than ten books that I enjoyed, but these are just going to be the top of the top. I tried to put them in some order, going from my least favorite (of my top favorites), to the top of the top of the top. As you can guess, that was incredibly hard and I'm still not 100% about the order I went with. I just really love all these books, okay!

The links will take you to the goodreads page, where you should add these books to your TBR if you haven't already!

The Winner's Curse / The Winner's Crime by Marie Ruthkoski

Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy

The Winner's Curse had been sitting on my TBR shelf for quite some time before I finally picked it up this year. Not only is the cover and the whole design of this book gorgeous, the story that Marie Ruthkoski created is imaginative, unique and simply epic. It features a smart and headstrong female lead, a highly shippable but not too prominent romance, political intrigue, war strategizing and an overall very well developed storyline. With that ending of the first book, I recommend you have the second one ready, because you will want to keep reading!

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Retellings

This is the first book in a duology, inspired by A Thousand and One Nights. Set in a fantasy world where the young Caliph takes a different wife every night and has them killed by morning, the story follows Shazi, a young girl who is determined to end these murders. Beautifully written, The Wrath and the Dawn will have you hooked from the very first page. While the fantasy elements weren't the best, the romance easily makes up for it. This ship is seriously everything. I feel like this book hasn't gotten nearly as much attention as it deserves, so if you enjoy romance in fantasy books, read this!

Calloway Sisters Series by Krista and Becca Ritchie

Kiss the Sky / Hothouse Flower / Fuel the Fire

Genres: New Adult, Contemporary

Before you skip ahead simply because of the New Adult genre, please wait a second. This series is not your usual New Adult romance. No overprotective, emotionally abusive boyfriends and innocent, sweet virgins. Krista and Becca Ritchie create a unique set of characters, all with their own issues and flaws, none of them perfect. Three sisters who care for each other deeply, and even if you probably won't see many parallels to your own life given their social status as celebrities, you will feel for them. Before you know it, you're addicted to their story, trust me. This series is so different, well written and just really good, I want everyone to read it.

The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater

The Raven Boys / The Dream Thieves / Blue Lily, Lily Blue

Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy

I went into this series without a clue what it was about, and somehow, that hasn't really changed yet. This might sound like a bad thing, but it really isn't. The Raven Cycle is a very unusual fantasy series, and I don't even want to explain why. I'm just telling you to read it, if you haven't already, so you can see for yourself. Beautiful writing, lovable and complex characters and a magical and somewhat dark feel are only a few of the reasons these books are special and absolutely worth reading. Especially the second book is definitely one of my top top favorites of the year.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, LGBT
Review

The story of Ari and Dante is without a doubt one of the most heartwarming and most touching books I have ever read. It is exceptionally well written and deals with many difficult and important topics. Not only does it address the hardships of growing up and coming to terms with who you are, it also portrays interesting and complicated family dynamics. But most of all, it is a beautiful story of friendship and falling in love.

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Genres: New Adult (Young Adult), Fantasy, Retellings

I haven't tried to make a secret of the fact that I love the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas. But this year, in my opinion, Maas outshone herself with this first book in a new series. While I like Queen of Shadows less and less the more I think about it, I have already read A Court of Thorns and Roses twice. It is everything I have always wanted, and more: well written, addicting and with a brilliant set of characters. I laughed out loud at some parts and couldn't stop swooning at others. Most of all, the ending of the book has me hoping for even better books in the future of this series. I can't wait to see where the story will go and most of all I can't wait to get to know some of the characters better. 

The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

Cinder / Scarlet / Cress

Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Science Fiction

Review of Cinder

I'm sure this isn't the first time you're hearing about this series. I'm here to tell you that yes, it deserves all the hype. The Lunar Chronicle has been one of the most pleasant surprises of the year for me. After hearing countless fantastic things about the series, I finally decided it was time to read it myself, but I still wasn't entirely sure I was going to like it. But Cinder already turned out to be so much more than I expected, and the series just got better from there. I'm now in the middle of reading Winter, and I'm overall just in love with everything (though I am having a harder time than expected getting through the 800 page monster of a book). The characters are phenomenal, the story is action-packed and fast paced, the writing is amazing - I honestly have nothing to complain about. That's why this series absolutely deserves one of the top spots on my list.

I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, LGBT

This book and I did not get off to the best start. For the first fifty pages or so, I was pretty disappointed with the story and had my issues with the writing. But then, everything changed very very quickly, and before I knew it, I couldn't stop reading. The story, the characters and the writing - I fell in love with everything. I'll Give You the Sun takes you on an incredible journey. It broke my heart only to put it back together. From family to friendship to love to grief, everything is portrayed in an exceptionally real way. The amount of character growth both Noah and Jude go through is wonderful to watch and it's what made the story so special. I honestly can't praise this book enough, and I'm begging you all to read it if you haven't already.

Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy by Laini Taylor

Daughter of Smoke & Bone / Days of Blood & Starlight / Dreams of Gods & Monsters

Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy

Review of Daughter of Smoke & Bone / Review of Days of Blood & Starlight

I read this series at the very beginning of the year and I still feel overwhelmed by Laini Taylor's magical writing style. I wrote down some of my favorite quotes when reading the books and I still get goosebumps when I read them now. I seriously can't stress enough how incredibly beautifully written this trilogy is. Add to that the brilliant characters and creatures Laini Taylor brought to life within these pages and you definitely have all-time-favorite material. I remember not being completely on board with the romance in the story but the wonderful friendships portrayed completely made up for that.

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary

This book completely blew me away. Honestly, I was not expecting to feel so many feelings when reading this story. But Wonder made me cry happy tears and sad tears and it touched me more than any other book I've ever read. I loved reading from all the different perspectives the story was told from. All the characters were so complex, honest and real - it was impossible not to understand and feel for every single one of them. August was so strong and brave and I felt so proud of him for all the development he went through. By the end of the story, I was in awe of all that he had accomplished. 

Okay - that's it. 2015 is over and so is this list. I hope you've all had the perfect start into the new year. Let's hope that 2016 has great things in store for all of us!

What books made your favorites list this year?

2015 Authors A-Z Challenge - I Need Help

Hello there. So at the end of last year, I decided to participate in the 2015 Authors A-Z Reading Challenge (here's my sign-up post). The goal is to read a book for each letter of the alphabet according to the author's last name. So in the end, it's only 26 books in a year, and I thought I could finish that easily. But then I kind of forgot about the challenge.

So now I need help. I have a couple of letters left, and I want to finish as many books for these as possible in the two months left. Here is the list of books that I've read so far. I'm still missing the letters I, J, L, O, U, V, X, Y, Z. If you know any authors for these letters and could recommend some good books, that would be perfect! I'm looking for rather easy and quick reads, as I already have a number of books that I also want to read this year. So if you have any suggestions, please let me know!

Okay, so this was just my very quick cry for help. I hope you're all having a wonderful day!

BookTube-A-Thon Wrap-Up

Hello there! I'm here today with my (as always slightly late) BookTube-A-Thon wrap-up! Let's see how my sister and I did with all the reading challenges.

Karin

Challenges:

1. Read a book with blue on the cover: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

2. Read a book by an author who shares the same first letter of your last name: The Raven Boys

3. Read someone else's favorite book: The Raven Boys

4. Read the last book you acquired 

5. Finish a book without letting go of it

6. Read a book you really want to read: The Truth About Alice

7. Read seven books

Page count:

60 (The Wrath & the Dawn)

+ 199 (The Truth About Alice)

+ 268 (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time)

+ 408 (The Raven Boys)

= 935 pages

To be fair, I only finished The Raven Boys today, but I'm still counting it (otherwise I would've failed even worse and we don't want that, right?). I honestly thought I would do much better than this but, if you compare this post to my mid-week update, I hardly read anything in the second part of the week, even though I would've had much more time then.

Valérie

Challenges:

1. Read a book with blue on the cover: The Fault in Our Stars

2. Read a book by an author who shares the same first letter of your last name 

3. Read someone else's favorite book: Just One Day 

4. Read the last book you acquired: The Heir

5. Finish a book without letting go of it

6. Read a book you really want to read: P.S. I Still Love You

7. Read seven books

Page count:

152 (The Heir)

+ 337 (P.S. I Still Love You)

+ 313 (The Fault in Our Stars)

+ 304 (Just One Day)

= 1,106 pages

My sister did a little better but she also only managed to complete four challenges. At least, compared to the mid-week update, she managed to read two more books in the second part of the week. But then we're going to have to be honest here again: She hasn't quite finished Just One Day yet.

Okay, so as you can see, we didn't do very good. And the fact that I only now counted the pages so that we're basically including two more reading days than all the other people, I guess we completely, totally failed. But these things happen, right? What I am taking from this experience is that I'm too much of a mood reader for read-a-thons. This doesn't mean that I won't ever participate in one again, because it was fun. But I just can't force myself to read and I don't want to. I only want to read when I feel like it so that I can get the most out of it. And I think that's okay.

Did anyone else completely fail the BookTube-A-Thon?

Please, so that I can feel better?

BookTube-A-Thon Mid-Week Update

Hello there. It's Wednesday, so it's already half-time for the BookTube-A-Thon. My sister and I did a little recap today of how well we're doing so far and I want to share it with you.

Karin

On Monday, I finished The Wrath & the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh. I had actually hoped to finish this one already on Sunday so that I could get started with the books I had chosen as my TBR for the week right away, but that obviously hadn't worked out. I'm just going to add this to my page count but I'm not going to count it as one of the seven books for Challenge #7. I then picked up The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu and luckily ended up finishing it that night as well.

Then on Tuesday, I started The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon which I finished today. I'm planning to start The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater next, which I'll hopefully fly through. I'm happy with what I've read so far but I'm not doing quite as good as I would've hoped.

Challenges:

1. Read a book with blue on the cover: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

2. Read a book by an author who shares the same first letter of your last name 

3. Read someone else's favorite book

4. Read the last book you acquired 

5. Finish a book without letting go of it

6. Read a book you really want to read: The Truth About Alice

7. Read seven books

Page count:

60 (The Wrath & the Dawn)

+ 199 (The Truth About Alice)

+ 268 (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time)

= 527 pages

Valerie

My sister finished The Heir by Kiera Cass on Monday and then started P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han in the evening, which she finished on Tuesday. She then started The Fault In Our Stars by John Green today.

I'm trying very hard not to be bothered by the fact that my sister is actually doing better than me even though she never normally reads as much as I do. But to be fair, she also finished school this summer and now has nothing to do all day before leaving for England in September. And I'm at work all day ,so of course I can't read as much. But still.

Challenges:

1. Read a book with blue on the cover

2. Read a book by an author who shares the same first letter of your last name 

3. Read someone else's favorite book

4. Read the last book you acquired: The Heir

5. Finish a book without letting go of it

6. Read a book you really want to read: P.S. I Still Love You

7. Read seven books

Page count:

152 (The Heir)

+ 337 (P.S. I Still Love You)

+ 156 (The Fault in Our Stars)

= 645 pages

So that's it for today's update. If you are also participating in the BookTube-A-Thon, good luck, and I hope you are doing good so far.

BookTube-A-Thon TBR

Hello there. As you might know, the BookTube-A-Thon starts tomorrow and even though I don't actually have a booktube channel, I decided to participate and post about my progress on my blog, because why not? If you want to know more about the read-a-thon, go have a look at the official youtube channel and twitter. Basically, the goal is to read as much as possible in one week (August 3 - August 9) and there are seven reading challenges to try to accomplish. I chose the books I want to read around those challenges and could even convince my sister to participate as well, so here are our TBRs:

1. Read a book with blue on the cover

Karin: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

I've already read this book in school once but didn't enjoy it very much. Now I've decided that I want to give it another chance because I think I just didn't really understand a lot the first time I read it and this should be different now.

Valérie: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Can you believe my sister has never actually read this book before? I couldn't, so I told her to read it since it also goes perfectly with the challenge.

2. Read a book by an author who shares the same first letter of your last name 

Karin: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Valérie: The Archived by Victoria Schwab

3. Read someone else's favourite book

Karin: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

All of my friends that actually like to read usually get their books from me, so I've already read all of their favorites. So for this challenge, I had a look at the favorites shelves of some of my goodreads friends, and Jess over at My Reading Dress had marked The Raven Boys as one of her all time favorites. She told me before that I shouldn't give up on Maggie Stiefvater after not liking Shiver, so this seems like a great opportunity to take Jess's advice and give Stiefvater's books a second chance.

Valérie: Just One Day by Gayle Forman

My sister wanted to read my favorite book but because she already has read Fangirl, I had to choose one of my (many) other favorites.

4. Read the last book you acquired 

Karin: Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley

Honestly, I simply bought this book because of the cover but now I guess I'm going to read it sooner than I thought.

Valérie: The Heir by Kiera Cass

This is the last book that she borrowed from me (before putting together this TBR), so I think it counts.

5. Finish a book without letting go of it

Karin: Die Physiker by Friedrich Dürrenmatt

Obviously, I chose a short one for this challenge. This is a German play that I read in school and absolutely loved, so I thought a reread was in order.

Valérie: Die Nase by Nikolaj Gogol

Another very short classic, this time from a Russian author. I read this for school as well and recommended it to my sister because it's a fun and short read.

6. Read a book you really want to read

Karin: The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu

I've had this book for quite a while and really want to read it. I always thought that this would make a great read-a-thon book because it's pretty short. Now that I'm finally participating in a read-a-thon, I just had to read this book.

Valérie: P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han

Like me, my sister loved To All The Boys I've Loved Before but unlike me, she hasn't read the sequel yet but really wants to.

7. Read seven books

Karin: When You're Back by Abbi Glines and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

I highly doubt I'm actually going to complete this last challenge but I chose two additional (rather short) books.

Valérie: Saga Volume One by Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Graphic novels are obviously a great choice for read-a-thon and my sister chose rather big books for the other challenges, so this works great for her.

That's it for our BookTube-A-Thon TBRs. Obviously, these aren't set in stone and we might change them up a little during the week. I really want to fulfill the first six challenges but I most likely won't manage to read seven books due to work and other things. This is the first read-a-thon I'm participating in, so hopefully it will be lots of fun and get me to read more than I usually do. I will try to upload update posts throughout the week (maybe even daily) to let you know how my sister and I are doing with the challenges.

Are you participating in the 2015 BookTube-A-Thon?

If yes, what are you going to read?

I'm still alive!

Sooo, hello there. It's been a while and I'm SORRY. But it had to be this way. I finally, finally made it to the end of the my first year at University and I'm happy to announce that I've survived all of my exams. I can't say how they went at all and I'll only know for sure that it wasn't a complete disaster in September. That leaves me two entire months to worry about it and of course to read lots and lots of books! 

I just wanted to write this quick post to let you know that I am not dead after all and that I intend to continue (or more like restart) writing this blog. I will be gone on vacation quite a bit in July but I think I'll still manage to post regularly.

My first order of business is to upload my May and June Wrap Up soon. I didn't read very much but I did buy some books that I want to show you. There are some that I'm dying to read but I've put a reading ban on the ones I was most excited for so that I wouldn't be too distracted while studying. Which means I'm going to be catching up on all of those now. ACOTAR here I come!

So yes, that's it. I'm happy to be back!

Bibliophile Collection

Hello there. I have something very exciting to share with you today, if slightly different from what I usually post on here. A few weeks ago, I was approached by Sebrina Schultz who has a an Etsy store where, among other things, she sells digital paintings of books. I had a look around her shop and was really impressed with her work, so when she offered to design a custom Bibliophile Collection digital painting of up to ten books of my choice, I was super excited. 

From the picture I sent her of the spines I chose, she created this amazing digital painting:

I love how well the details on the spines turned out, especially on Daughter of Smoke & Bone and A Game of Thrones. Overall, I was really pleased with the result and so Sebrina had it printed and sent to me immediately. Only two weeks later, the finished piece arrived at my house, in perfect condition and exactly how I had imagined it. It looks exactly like in the picture she sent me and the quality of the paper and everything is perfect. Also, the packaging was really nice, with some lovely details here and there.

If you're interested in getting your own digital painting, I strongly recommend having a look at Sebrina's Etsy store. You can get the design she made for me (here) as well as many other lovely predesigned pieces. And if none of those are quite the way you'd want yours to be, Sebrina also offers custom made pieces like the one she did for me (here). You can get them in different sizes and I would recommend maybe going for something bigger than 8x10, which is the size of mine and turned out to be rather small (I know I shouldn't have been surprised but still). 

Until March 31, you can get a 20% discount on anything in her shop, using the code SCHAKARIN. Also, she's hosting a Buffalo Sale on March 10, releasing 5 new prints, so you might want to head over there then.

Let me know if you decide to order one of Sebrina's designs and what you think.

Update

Well, hello there. I haven't uploaded anything to this blog in February yet and that makes me feel so bad. Worst of all, I don't even have a good excuse for why I haven't been posting for the past (almost) two weeks. So I just thought I would give you a general life updated of what has been going on here lately and maybe you'll understand just a tiny little bit why blogging hasn't been my top priority.

• So, first of all, Uni is starting again next week, which means I am starting my second semester and big bad exams are waiting for me at the end of it (only in June but I'm already very much freaking out). That also means that I'm currently enjoying my very last week of free time.

• My boyfriend had exams until the beginning of February and before that we didn't really have a lot of time to spend together. So we're catching up on that at the moment. Yesterday, for example, we went sledding with some of our friends and enjoyed a lovely sunny day in the snow. 

• We currently have a dog living with us. Admittedly, this doesn't really have an impact on my blogging, but it's still exciting. Her name is Ginger and she is super cute. My sister is dog-sitting her for a week and a half and I'm just taking a lot of pictures of her and not being very helpful at all.
• Most importantly, though, I haven't been reading a lot in February. I only finished The Bane Chronicles two days ago (finally) and then picked up The DUFF yesterday (which I also finished yesterday, so that's good). And when I'm in a little bit of a reading slump, I'm usually also in a 'blogging slump' since I do get pretty much all the inspiration for my blog from the books I read (which is pretty obvious considering it's a book blog).

Ugh, these are really bad excuses but I just didn't feel like blogging or reading or anything except being lazy and playing video games or watch movies/TV shows with my boyfriend (we are loving Outlander at the moment). I hope you can understand, I'm sure everyone is going through times like this.

BUT I obviously want to get back on track and show some more love for this blog. I might want to change a few things, though. First of all, I'm not really happy with doing Top 5 Wednesday anymore. I loved posting these in the past, but lately I couldn't really find anything for the given topics, so I just posted nothing at all. Since I do love lists and it's, to be honest, also easier to write something for a given topic, maybe, maybe I'll join Top 10 Tuesday instead. I love reading those posts but choosing ten for each topic is intimidating to me.

Also, I want to (kind of) defend myself and mention this. I haven't been slacking everywhere. On Instagram, I'm doing the #feb15bookchallenge #halfbloodvalentines challenge and post a picture every day in February for that one. Which might not be impressive to most of you, but to me it is. Let me know if you have a bookish instagram, I love to follow new people.

Okay, so that's it, I believe, for what I wanted to talk about today. I hope you don't mind me rambling about my life from time to time. 

How is your February going so far?

One Year of Blogging

Well, hello there. I have just realized that today is my one year blog anniversary (yaay!). To be honest, that doesn't leave me all that excited. The year just flew by so quickly and looking back now, I'm quite happy with what I've written and posted but there's also a lot of things that I want to improve in the future. Since I haven't done a New Year's Resolution post for 2015, let's do a New Blog Year Resolution kind of thing.

Most importantly, I want to connect more with other bloggers. I'm terrible with commenting and even reading other blogs and that needs to change! When I first started this blog, I didn't even know what I wanted it to be about and I had a really hard time finding blogs that I found interesting to read. All I actually did find were beauty related ones and, even though I kind of wanted to be that person that's interested in make-up and stuff, I just wasn't. But now that I've completely dived into the book world, and pretty much only do book related posts, I really have no excuse to not go out there and have a look at all those thousands of wonderful book blogs. I mean, don't get me wrong, I do read some blogs, of course I do. One of the reasons why I don't do it as much as I want to is that long posts and reviews scare me. I find that I often lose interest after a few paragraphs and even though I don't want to, I can't help it. Mostly I just skim-read a post and then go back to bloglovin or so to do the same with the next one. That also always means that I won't comment on that post and that's just stupid. I feel so bad admitting this and I am going to change it. That is what this post is for, after all, and why it's my number one resolution for the future.

Another thing that's been bothering me for a while now is my blog design. I want it to be just a tiny little bit more interesting. I've been looking for nice and free blog themes all over the internet and while I have found a few I like, I can't make sense of the files I downloaded at all. So that's why I have decided that I should just learn the very basics of html and all the other fun stuff that goes into designing a blog. Just so that when I want to change something with it, I can actually make sense of what's already there and not just stare at some < > and //. 

A third thing I want to improve in the future is my writing. I feel like it has gone downhill over the past year and that's not the direction I want it to go. I personally enjoyed reading my first few posts that I wrote about nothing in particular from my everyday life more than some I've written later. Back then, I had tried to bring my personality into the posts I wrote and I really missed that with my latest ones. Somewhere along the line, I had decided that my writing wasn't 'professional' enough. Reading other people's book reviews that were written in such an eloquent style with all those wonderful adjectives to describe people and places, I was kind of intimidated. In comparison, I was just rambling about something that I liked and using words such as 'beautiful' and 'interesting' about a thousand times didn't really make anything better. But somehow, by realizing that and trying to adjust my writing, my posts just got boring in my opinion. So I want to change that (again) and go back to the way I used to write, trying to be funny and sarcastic, more like I was talking than writing a professional review. It's what I myself enjoy reading and how's anyone going to like reading my blog if I don't do so myself? Since English is not my native language and my vocabulary is somewhat limited, I know that I will most likely never be able to write as entertainingly as other bloggers out there, but it's worth trying right?

Okay, so those are the three things I want to change and improve in the future. If you have any tips or so for any of these points (or anything else too), please feel free to leave a comment. And because I am a new person, I promise to comment back and have a look at your blog. I'm excited to see what my next blogging year has waiting for me and it would make me super happy if you stayed around to find out too.

Thank you for reading!

Top 14 Books of 2014

Hello there. I am here today to look back on my whole reading year of 2014. It was the reading year for me, you could say, because I read a grand total of 90 books this year, including novellas but not rereads, even though my goodreads reading challenge only gives me credit for 88 (I read the Lux bind-up editions that include two books each and goodreads doesn't get that). It was the year I finally found my way back to the happy place that exists in books. I used to like reading (although never as much as I do now) but then towards the end of highschool, I had to read more and more books for school and therefore didn't have time to read anything for fun. Sure, the books we read in class weren't bad for the most part, but it's just not the same.

I have never ready an amount of books in a year that comes even close to 2014. I mean, looking at my goodreads 'read' shelf, I have read 172 books in total, in like, ever. And 90 (or 88) books is MORE THAN HALF OF THAT. So half the books I've read in the 20 years I've been on this planet, I read in the past year. That's crazy. But at the same time it makes me insanely proud and happy.

But now, of course, I also want to share with you which books I liked most of all of the ones I've read. And, as you can imagine, choosing 14 from 90 is incredibly hard. But I have decided on 14 books (and sometimes whole series, I'm sorry) that I want to recommend again to anyone. I'm not going into any detail on the books, I'm sure you've read or at least heard of all of them anyway. So, without further ado, here are my most favorite books of 2014.

14.

Anna and the French Kiss / Lola and the Boy Next Door / Isla and the Happily Ever After

by Stephanie Perkins

Ratings: ★★★★ / ★★★★ / ★★★★

 goodreads - Review / goodreads - Review / goodreads

13.

To All The Boys I've Loved Before

by Jenny Han

Rating: ★★★★

 goodreads - Review

12.

Beautiful Disaster

by Jamie McGuire

Rating: ★★★★★

goodreads

11.

The Edge of Never

by J. A. Redmerski

Rating: ★★★★★

goodreads

 10.

Ready Player One

by Ernest Cline

Rating: ★★★★★

goodreads

9.

Amy & Roger's Epic Detour

by Morgan Matson

Rating: ★★★★★

goodreads - Review

8.

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender

by Leslye Walton

Rating: ★★★★★

goodreads - Review

7.

Shatter Me / Destroy Me / Unravel Me / Fracture Me / Ignite Me

by Tahereh Mafi

Ratings: ★★★★ / ★★★★ / ★★★★★ / ★★★★ / ★★★★★

goodreads - Review / goodreads / goodreads / goodreads / goodreads

6.

Just One Day / Just One Year / Just One Night

by Gayle Forman

Ratings: ★★★★★ / ★★★★★ / ★★★★★

goodreads - Review / goodreads / goodreads

5.

The 5th Wave / The Infinite Sea

by Rick Yancey

Ratings: ★★★★★ / ★★★★

goodreads - Review / goodreads

4.

Love Letters To The Dead

by Ava Dellaira
Rating: ★★★★★
goodreads - Review

3.
Clockwork Angel / Clockwork Prince / Clockwork Princess
by Cassandra Clare
Ratings: ★★★★ / ★★★★★ / ★★★★★
goodreads - Review / goodreads / goodreads - Review



2.
Throne of Glass / Crown of Midnight / Heir of Fire
by Sarah J. Maas
Ratings: ★★★★★ / ★★★★★ / ★★★★★
goodreads - Review / goodreads - Review / goodreads
 

1.
Fangirl
by Rainbow Rowell
Rating: ★★★★★
goodreads - Review

So that's it, these are my top 14 favorite books / series of 2014. Let me know what your favorite book was last year. Thank you so much for reading!