Reading slumps are horrible. Horrible. They are the ban of my existence and as a mood reader, what I blame for having so much trouble meeting my reading goals. But over the years, through lots of trials and errors, I’ve found a few ways to beat them. Reread Probably considered the most classical method to beat a reading slump, rereading a favorite is one of your best bets to beat a reading slump. Not much much can reignite the need to read like reading a […]
Can you fall out of love with reading? It seems stupid to ask as I’m running a book blog but can you? Because for the last four years or so it feels like I have. How else can you explain the constant reading slumps, the nonexistent urge to read that used to be so strong, or just feeling meh about every. single. book. you pick up? Or maybe it’s not that I no longer love books or reading, but I just don’t care enough. Or […]
I’m going to be spending a lot of time away from home, on the road, this month, with what my mom’s claiming to be “weekend getaways”. What she really means is we’ll be going on a college visiting spree. ? Anyways, back to the whole point of this post, what books do you bring with you one vacation? Do you even bring any books at all? Typically, I don’t bring any physical books. They’re heavy and take up space… and my mom doesn’t always approve […]
When I was a kid, my English teachers were always fond of promoting post-its. I wouldn’t be surprised if they sold more Post-It notes than Post-It note commercials. The point of post-its was to mark down anything I “didn’t understand” be it definitions, phrases, motivations, etc. and write down my findings after doing some research. For example, if I were to stumble upon the word “disruptive” and had no idea what it could possibly mean, I had to pause my reading, look it up, write […]
It’s day 2 of Armchair BEA and today I’ll be tackling the question: what do readers want? As readers, we want many different things. Here are some of the many things I think can make or break a novel. Characters Diversity As an Asian American, diversity and good representation is very important to me. Although I wish more books will have diverse characters as leads, I will settle for positive representation through a contributing supporting character. The token diversity characters don’t cut it anymore. They […]
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and Bookish. This week’s prompt is “Top Ten Books I Wish Had (More/Less) X In Them”. I chose diversity. This week I’m doing something a little different. I still have a list of books, but also a little discussion to go along with my picks. I originally had ten books picked out until I realized they pretty much all belonged in five categories. Hence the discussion. 🙂 Also, a quick disclaimer. This list is […]
Last week, I went over why originality is dead, especially in YA. I talked about archetypes and how a truly original story can technically never exist. But our discussion doesn’t end there. There always has to be a “but” right? Like I said last week, thanks to tropes and motifs, I think the baseline, the foundation of stories can never really be original. But that doesn’t mean I don’t think books can’t be unique, that there’s no difference between Book A and Book B even […]
This is going to be a two-part discussion. Mainly because if I stuck everything in one post, it would be insanely long. Today, I’m going to go over why it originality appears to be dead. Next week, we’ll discuss if it actually is. Now back to the question. Is originality dead in YA? I don’t think originality is dead. How can something be dead if it never really existed anyways? You see, pretty much after Homer’s stories from way long ago, there are technically no […]
I’ve never been a big fan of hyped books. I just don’t believe in the marketing. Too many times have I been lied to and mislead. Do I feel a little left out when everyone is talking about a certain novel? Well, yeah. But sometimes being part of the crowd is not worth it to me. I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with enjoying a book that has been hyped by what feels like the whole community. I’m not saying I’ve never enjoyed a […]
In the last six months, I passed a few important milestones in my life that include turning 18 years old, graduating from high school, moving away from home, and starting college. In that time, I’ve gotten an interesting perspective on all the YA books I read. It’s so weird reading a book where the main character is no longer someone you can directly relate to, in that moment. Fantasy and dystopian is different because I think age is less influential in those genres, but age […]