To All the People Who Wonder Why I Buy So Many Books

To all the people who wonder why I buy so many books,

That's just the thing. I know people sometimes wonder this about me. Sometimes, they say it aloud. Other times, I can see them thinking it - it's a particular look, only seen when I tell them whatever precious gem is coming my way this time. Because that's just it - I'm not just buying books. To so many of you, books are nothing more than words on a page. Something to do when you're bored or when you have too much time on your hands. Something to do once in a while.

The thing is, books are so much more than that. Words on a page might be a very accurate description of the word 'book', but there is so much hidden in those words. I don't buy books because they have words on a page. I buy books because those words bring me something.

A book is so, so much more. Whole worlds are hidden within them, so many emotions, pieces of life. Imagination, imagination is what fills those pages. Books are not black and white - are not words on a page. Books are filled with every color in the visible spectrum and everything beyond. Books are swirling with actions and conversations and feelings. Books contain planets yet unknown to the human race, books contain universes yet unknown to the human race. Books contain magic and reality and lies and truth. Books are the twisted version of reality and yet the most honest thing you will ever discover.

Imagination inspires imagination. I learn from books. My head is never empty, I am never alone because I have thousands of memories of people I have never met yet know so well. This, this is why I can be silent for as long as I please, this is why I like long journeys and the pieces of quiet in between the moments of life. I am never alone. I am never without a story. I can remember the old and make up the new, and everything in between.

When I open a book, start reading the first page, I am not here anymore. I am whereever the book takes me and feel whatever the book makes me feel and I am whoever the book is about. Stories are powerful, and they contain more wisdom and truth than you could ever imagine. I live not in one world like you do, but in dozens. I can escape this world whenever I want and go somewhere else, can lose myself in an universe that is not ours. I can live whole lives that are not mine, I can fall in love with people who are not real, I can make friends who do not know I exist. I can be surrounded by imagination and fantasy, and I can make it real - real enough.

This is why I buy so many books. I buy more experiences, more worlds. I buy more ideas and inspiration. I buy blood and tears and smiles and life and death. I live a thousand lives. I laugh, I care, I cry, I love. I can feel every emotion and not have moved at all. I can be destroyed and healed by words on a page.

Words on a page.

Maybe to you, books will never be more than that. Maybe to you, it doesn't matter. Maybe you do not care about it. And that's okay. Maybe you know the saying - reading isn't just something you do, it's a way of life.

And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Have I Lost My Shipping Abilities?

Have I Lost My Shipping Abilities?

I don't know what is going on with me lately. Before I started blogging or even had an opinion on whether books were good or not (back then, the only factor I weighed in was whether it was boring or not), I used to ship anyone and everyone. It didn't matter whether I liked the love interest or the main character or not, if I knew they were supposed to be together, I would ship it. By the way, I knew they were supposed to be a couple because
a) the main character thought the LI was smokin' hot
b) a weird 'spark' would pass between the two whenever they touched.

Those were the kind of books I read back then, mostly because they were the hugely popular ones and I simply hadn't heard of the unhyped, good books. Either way, I would ship the couple, and I would be happy when they kissed, no matter how soon that was, and I would be happy whenever they said "I love you" no matter how soon it was. I was, what I call, a 'flexible shipper'.

That, quite obviously, has changed.

I started to get pickier about my romances when I discovered the better books and started blogging. Where I didn't mind instant love before, I now despise it. I used to love it when the LI was sooo hot. Now I roll my eyes. I started liking slow-burn, smoldering romances. The kind that makes you go:



I want there to be that sexual tension and real feeling. I want to see a slowly developing romance and I want it to make me squeal. Now, it most certainly isn't impossible to write a book like that. I have read multiple books that made me SHIP LIKE HELL.

But recently? I don't know. I'm feeling like I'm starting to lose my 'shipping abilities'. Is it because I have read so many mediocre romances lately? Is it because I have read too much romances? After all, every book I've read lately (and basically ever) has a romance. I know one exception, and that is Dear Killer. And even that one has a possible ship should you want to ship someone! It's just that there are so many romances out there... I'm starting to feel like I can't be impressed anymore. I want a book with no kissing! I want a book that makes my brain burn because I'm trying to make the charcaters kiss with my nonexistent magical brain powers! I want to ship it like hell!

Unfortunately, I feel that I can't anymore. I don't know why, but I have read a lot of books recently and none of them have made me ship anything. And not all of them were bad books, mind you. There definitely were some great and 5-star books. I just don't feel it anymore. I have lost that connection not to the characters, but to the sparks that are supposedly flying off the page. It's like those sparks have become invisible to me, like I can't feel them anymore. And I want it to stop. Because if I can't enjoy the romance anymore, a huge part of the book will be ruined for me. Not that everything hinges on the romance, but just about every YA book features one. I want my shipping abilities back. I need them back. I want to cheer when they kiss again, I want to swoon, I want to ship everything.

Have you ever felt like you lost your 'shipping abilities'? If so, what did you do? Can anyone recommend me a YA with an AWESOME romance that will surely bring my shipping abilities back?

I Did Something And It's So Freeing

Recently, Jamie (the Perpetual Page-Turner) wrote this post on the rise of co-bloggers. Now, my post won't have anything to do with co-bloggers, but Jamie's post inspired me.

In her post, she said this:

|"However, I have to wonder if it's the pressure that's out there now that wasn't AS heavy when I was a newbie that is making people search for co-bloggers. There have always been pressures in book blogging but I feel like it's gotten even crazier. There is so much we feel we need to do and have to keep up with. (...) This pressure (I don't know where it came from) to post every day."

 I read this and I realized that it's true. In the past months of blogging, I have constantly challenged myself to post every day. I have consistently failed to. And every day I didn't have a post felt like a failure. Like I shouldn't be a blogger. Like I didn't read fast ebough or wasn't creative enough to come up with something or wasn't smart enough to plan ahead and make sure I had a post every day. I could be faster, stronger, better and I'd failed at it. At first, I thought it was just me challenging myself. And then I realized that I wasn't the one pressuring me. It was a general thing that affected almost every blog out there. A beast that nobody would talk about, but they would surrender to it. 

I discovered my personal beast.

It was such a tiny little thing. One little button on my side bar. My blog archive. It keeps track of every post I put out there. And it keeps counting the number of posts you churn out every month. And it's so easy to see. Every time I 'missed' a day, it would show. If it was the 16th, and there were only 14 posts to be seen, I felt like I'd failed. And my failure was there for the world to see. Each and every one of my visitors could see my archive and know that I hadn't been able to post every day like I felt I should. They could all see it and think that maybe I wasn't commited enough to blogging. 

When I discovered this, I did what I had to do to prevent me from going crazy. I deleted the widget.

And it feels so incredibly good. No way to track my number of failures anymore! In fact, they weren't failures anymore. They were just days on which I hadn't posted because maybe I was busy or had nothing to say. Perfectly normal reasons as to why I don't post every day. I felt freed. For more than a week, I didn't blog. I hardly thought about my blog, and if you know me, you know how incredible that is. This off-week also happened to be my test week. In abandoning all things bloggy in that week, I had more time to concentrate and focus on my tests. In  fact, school's still hard on me. I have hardly had any time to read, let alone blog. Because I deleted the Archive widget, I didn't feel guilty about that anymore.

It's bliss. If anyone feels like the pressure is too much and they can't keep up, I definitely recommend doing this. And if it doesn't help you personally, try finding out what your beast it and beat it! It has helped me to relax and concentrate, and I feel calmer in general. I just want to say something:

It's okay not to post every day. If you do not post once a day, it does not make you a bad blogger. If you post thrice a day, that's amazing. If you post thrice a month, it's amazing. Do whatever works best for you. People will still love you if you take a day, a week, or even a month off. It's okay.

However, I have to wonder if it’s the pressure that’s out there now that wasn’t AS heavy when I was a newbie that is making people search for co-bloggers. There have always been pressures in book blogging but I feel like it’s gotten even crazier. There is so much we feel we need to do and keep up with. SO many new responsibilities. So much reading to do. The ARCs. This pressure (I don’t know where it came from) to post every day. The monetizing of blogs. etc. (Not saying these things are bad at all). - See more at: http://www.perpetualpageturner.com/2013/11/the-rise-of-co-bloggers.html#sthash.UqtKSCxH.dpuf

However, I have to wonder if it’s the pressure that’s out there now that wasn’t AS heavy when I was a newbie that is making people search for co-bloggers. There have always been pressures in book blogging but I feel like it’s gotten even crazier. There is so much we feel we need to do and keep up with. SO many new responsibilities. So much reading to do. The ARCs. This pressure (I don’t know where it came from) to post every day. The monetizing of blogs. etc. (Not saying these things are bad at all). - See more at: http://www.perpetualpageturner.com/2013/11/the-rise-of-co-bloggers.html#sthash.UqtKSCxH.dpuf

However, I have to wonder if it’s the pressure that’s out there now that wasn’t AS heavy when I was a newbie that is making people search for co-bloggers. There have always been pressures in book blogging but I feel like it’s gotten even crazier. There is so much we feel we need to do and keep up with. SO many new responsibilities. So much reading to do. The ARCs. This pressure (I don’t know where it came from) to post every day. The monetizing of blogs. etc. (Not saying these things are bad at all). - See more at: http://www.perpetualpageturner.com/2013/11/the-rise-of-co-bloggers.html#sthash.UqtKSCxH.dpuf

However, I have to wonder if it’s the pressure that’s out there now that wasn’t AS heavy when I was a newbie that is making people search for co-bloggers. There have always been pressures in book blogging but I feel like it’s gotten even crazier. There is so much we feel we need to do and keep up with. SO many new responsibilities. So much reading to do. The ARCs. This pressure (I don’t know where it came from) to post every day. The monetizing of blogs. etc. (Not saying these things are bad at all). - See more at: http://www.perpetualpageturner.com/2013/11/the-rise-of-co-bloggers.html#sthash.UqtKSCxH.dpuf

However, I have to wonder if it’s the pressure that’s out there now that wasn’t AS heavy when I was a newbie that is making people search for co-bloggers. There have always been pressures in book blogging but I feel like it’s gotten even crazier. There is so much we feel we need to do and keep up with. SO many new responsibilities. So much reading to do. The ARCs. This pressure (I don’t know where it came from) to post every day. The monetizing of blogs. etc. (Not saying these things are bad at all). - See more at: http://www.perpetualpageturner.com/2013/11/the-rise-of-co-bloggers.html#sthash.UqtKSCxH.dpuf

However, I have to wonder if it’s the pressure that’s out there now that wasn’t AS heavy when I was a newbie that is making people search for co-bloggers. There have always been pressures in book blogging but I feel like it’s gotten even crazier. There is so much we feel we need to do and keep up with. SO many new responsibilities. So much reading to do. The ARCs. This pressure (I don’t know where it came from) to post every day. The monetizing of blogs. etc. (Not saying these things are bad at all). - See more at: http://www.perpetualpageturner.com/2013/11/the-rise-of-co-bloggers.html#sthash.UqtKSCxH.dpuf

Some books I really need to read!

Some Books I Really Need To Read!

Let me say a couple of words: Champion, Into The Still Blue, Horde... What do all of these have in common? They're upcoming releases and everyone is super excited for them! One more thing they have in common: I haven't read the series...

Everyone's got some of those books: books that everyone raves about, but for some reason you haven't gotten around to yet. These are mine!

It's been months since Aria learned of her mother's death. 

Months since Perry became Blood Lord of the Tides, and months since Aria last saw him.

Now Aria and Perry are about to be reunited. It's a moment they've been longing for with countless expectations. And it's a moment that lives up to all of them. At least, at first. 

Then it slips away. The Tides don't take kindly to former Dwellers like Aria. And the tribe is swirling out of Perry's control. With the Aether storms worsening every day, the only remaining hope for peace and safety is the Still Blue. But does this haven truly exist?

Threatened by false friends and powerful temptations, Aria and Perry wonder, Can their love survive through the ever night? 

In this second book in her spellbinding Under the Never Sky trilogy, Veronica Rossi combines fantasy and sci-fi elements to create a captivating adventure-and a love story as perilous as it is unforgettable.

I really liked Under the Never Sky, and I actually have this one on my e-reader. For some reason I didn't get around to it, but I'm excited to start it, especially now that I have an ARC of Into The Still Blue! However, Finding Bliss in Books is doing this awesome readalong of  several series, and Under The Never Sky is one of them! Of course, I immediately signed up, so I'm very excited :D The readalong will take place somewhere in November, so you can expect reviews of this series around the middle of the month, I think.

What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic's wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic's highest military circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country's most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem. 

From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths - until the day June's brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect. Caught in the ultimate game of cat and mouse, Day is in a race for his family's survival, while June seeks to avenge Metias's death. But in a shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what has really brought them together, and the sinister lengths their country will go to keep its secrets. 

Full of nonstop action, suspense, and romance, this novel is sure to move readers as much as it thrills. 

Everyone loves this series and I haven't read it yet... Hmmm... To buy or not to buy...

A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder. 

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone - one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship - tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

By the way, the first time I saw this cover I totally thought it featured lip-locked fish:

I'm serious! Look at that cover again and try to unsee it!

In Deuce’s world, people earn the right to a name only if they survive their first fifteen years. By that point, each unnamed ‘brat’ has trained into one of three groups–Breeders, Builders, or Hunters, identifiable by the number of scars they bear on their arms. Deuce has wanted to be a Huntress for as long as she can remember.

As a Huntress, her purpose is clear—to brave the dangerous tunnels outside the enclave and bring back meat to feed the group while evading ferocious monsters known as Freaks. She’s worked toward this goal her whole life, and nothing’s going to stop her, not even a beautiful, brooding Hunter named Fade. When the mysterious boy becomes her partner, Deuce’s troubles are just beginning.

Down below, deviation from the rules is punished swiftly and harshly, and Fade doesn’t like following orders. At first Deuce thinks he’s crazy, but as death stalks their sanctuary, and it becomes clear the elders don’t always know best, Deuce wonders if Fade might be telling the truth. Her partner confuses her; she’s never known a boy like him before, as prone to touching her gently as using his knives with feral grace.

As Deuce’s perception shifts, so does the balance in the constant battle for survival. The mindless Freaks, once considered a threat only due to their sheer numbers, show signs of cunning and strategy… but the elders refuse to heed any warnings. Despite imminent disaster, the enclave puts their faith in strictures and sacrifice instead. No matter how she tries, Deuce cannot stem the dark tide that carries her far from the only world she’s ever known.

Another series everyone LOVES and I'm just like "eh". Still haven't read this yet... I don't know why I keep putting it off. Probably because I don't own the book and whenever I go book shopping I'm like: "I could also buy that shiny new release with this money..." And it always ends with me getting the shiny new release, haha!

Do you have any books/series everyone has read but you? What did you think of the books listed above? (no spoilers, of course)

Book Talk Topic: "Oh... So you read Young Adult..."

"Oh... So you read Young Adult..."

Okay, so I'm a bit ranty and feel the need to share it, so there you go. It'll probably very incoherent and rambling, but I need to get this off my chest! So this is what happened (the conversation  was originally in Dutch, but since most of you don't speak it, I translated it) :

Person: I hear you like to read?
Me: Yes, very much! I absolutely love books!
Person: So, what kind of books do you read then?
Me: I read Young Adult mostly. Sometimes I make an exception, but yeah, it's mainly YA.
Person: Ahh... So you don't read real literature...

AHHHHH! This frustrates me to no end, and I get quite angry when people say this. Brace yourselves, people, for there will be a rant.

I have come across this SO many times. Once you say you like Young Adult, you see people thinking that you don't read literature, that you're probably one of those Twilight fangirls, that you only read sappy vampire stories. This is not true. At all. I just don't get why Young Adult can't be seen as literature.

Is it because it's aimed for teens? Because it's about teens? I don't know, but I'm guessing that age has something to do with this. And I don't get why. There are so many beautiful, gorgeous, meaningful stories out there. Young Adult beautiful, gorgeous, meaningful stories. Is it because people think teens are shallow? Teens are shallow, so the books they read must be too? That's bullshit. Even if all teens were shallow (which most of them are not at all), the books are mostly written by adults. And just because someone wouldn't be able to 'understand a metaphor or the deeper meaning of a book' (heavy sarcasm here), it doesn't mean they can't be there. When I look back at books I read as a child, or a show I saw then, I see so much things that I completely missed then. The messages, the references, et cetera. So there. Even in small-children-stuff there's a deeper meaning, so then why wouldn't there be in teen books?

lit·er·a·ture

noun \ˈli-tə-rə-ˌchu̇r, ˈli-trə-ˌchu̇r, ˈli-tə(r)-ˌchu̇r, -chər, -ˌtyu̇r, -ˌtu̇r\ : written works (such as poems, plays, and novels) that are considered to be very good and to have lasting importance

This is what I get when I look up the definition of 'literature'. And guess what? There are Young Adult books out there that are 'very good and have lasting importance'. I give you some examples: Golden, Two Boys Kissing, and many more. In fact, Golden had a life-changing impact on me. So why isn't it seen as literature? Don't ask me.

This goes the other way too. When I read a book that's generally seen as 'literature', and I don't like it or have some critique, people are usually like: 'you're too young to understand'. Again, I call bullshit. I can understand it just fine, thank you very much. I'm generally not bad at finding a deeper message, but sometimes that isn't even the point. When I think that the dialogue is unnatural or the love instant, it doesn't have a thing to do with 'understanding' the novel. Besides, I can have an opinion. That's not wrong in any way.

/end rant 

Okay. *takes deel breath* I just had to write this. I didn't mean to offend anyone or suggest that everyone's like that, but I'm just seriously annoyed and needed to rant. I must say, ranting does help me: I feel much calmer now.

Have you ever had an experience like this? Do you think Young Adult can be literature? Let's discuss! 

Book Talk Topic: Growing Up As A Reader

Growing Up As A Reader

Before I discovered Goodreads, reviewing and blogging, I read. Not a big surprise, eh? I have read books for as long as I can remember. Truth be told, I didn't really think about what I was reading then. Didn't think about underlying messages or clichés. I just liked a book or I didn't, and a book just shouldn't be boring. That's it. If I would have rated books then, there probably wouldn't have been any one-star ratings, except maybe for books that were so incredibly boring that I almost fell asleep. It was then that a major thing happened. I discovered Goodreads.

I loved the site immediately. Not only was it incredibly useful for shelving books and discovering new ones, there were reviews. I could spend hours just sitting on the couch reading Goodreads reviews (I still do that, by the way). I especially enjoyed the one-star, ragey reviews. I just thought those were the most fun to read. But through reading these reviews, I discovered and learned. I saw the clichés that were in most books, saw what certain things really meant, and I started growing up. 

The best example of my bookish coming-of-age would be the House of Night series. Don't shoot me, but that used to be one of my favorite series. I loved the books, devoured them, even. Actually, it was through these books that I started to read English books. There were just more of the English books of this series since translating takes a while. Since I really couldn't wait for the next book in this series (I know, I know), I decided to read the English version. And the next one. And the next one. And suddenly, I found that the English language was just so much more beautiful. I started to dislike Dutch books. In English, everything just sounds twice as good.

Anywho, Goodreads and English books opened up my world. See, it's mostly the hugely hyped books that get translated into Dutch (think Twilight, House of Night, Fallen). And, I'm sorry to say, it's hugely the hyped books that are quite... crappy (or so I think). I didn't realize how much I was changing as a reader until I read Hidden, the tenth (!!) House of Night book. Good God. I hated it. What utter crap I was reading! It was nonsensical, with stupid Mary Sue characters, a stupid plot, etc. I disliked everything about it.

I rated the first nine House of Night books 4 or 5 stars. The tenth, not so much. I decided not to change my rating of Marked - Destined, though, since I did like the books that much when I read them. But it's striking, isn't it, how much someone can change? Have you changed as a reader? And is there a book or series that's basically a symbol of that growth?

Book Talk Topic: He Likes Me, Too!

He likes me, too!

In this very first edition of Book Talk, I’d like to talk about something I’ve seen a lot – if not in every Young Adult book I’ve read. Because every time, every time, the main character sets her eyes on a boy, and she crushes on him, he likes her, too.