Discussion - Am I Rating Books Objectively or Am I Just Nice?

The idea for this discussion was a spur of the moment thing inspired by a conversation with my friend. As usual, we were talking about books we were reading, and at the time, I just went through two books I disliked and rated them 2-3 stars. Jokingly, I recommended that she read them. What she said next had me thinking -

The books you rate 2-3 stars I would give -5 stars, with your too nice reviewing. 

Now, am I too nice? I look back on the ratings I gave a year ago, and now I feel that I would rate some of them lower. These days, I give more 3 star reviews, fewer 4 star, and even less 5 star reviews. The more I read, the more I tire of the same overused plots and tropes, making me rate books lower.

[Discussion] Romance in YA - Am I Too Critical, or is it Really Too Much?

I wanted to make this post for a long time, to fall around the month of February, because you know, romance. But early March isn't too bad!

One recurring theme in my reviews and something I often discuss (ahem complain) about in my reviews is the nature of YA romance. Often times, the romance is a deciding factor in my reviews, if I like the book or not. 

There aren't that many romances I can say I've liked. I'm really picky when it comes to my ships. And how this discussion idea started came from a talk with a friend. I'm at the point in time where I'm older than many of the YA heroines, so my friend believed that I shouldn't be so harsh on said teenagers, who tend to make decisions willy-nilly. Even now I occasionally make impulsive decisions. Yet here I am, complaining about YA romance. 

What is it about YA romance that makes me roll my eyes? Here, my friends, is a few reasons why.

[Discussion] So Many Books, So Little Time, So How Do I Choose?

If you're admittedly a bibliophile, and feel free to raise your hand here because I'm definitely in that category, you've probably wondered at some point in your book-filled life,

As someone who had an on-and-off relationship with books until a few months ago (I only read for school and read the books I got from Bookcon and occasionally, well rarely, I read library books or books from Strand during high school) Shocking, right? I was obsessed with Harry Potter and The Princess Diaries as a kid, but during high school I missed out on so many good books.

So for the past few months, I've been catching up, in a sense. After Bookcon, after finally getting into the whole blogging thing Alice/Yiling were doing, there was a whole world of books for me. I didn't know where to start, but luckily, there are a ton of resources and reasons why I'm into these books today.

1. Recommendations from friends 

My friends read great books, I read reviews of their great books, and then I must read said great books. On occasion, they've even lent me these books because they're amazing people. They're so spot on with their recommendations because I've loved/liked all the books they've recommended/lent me. Definitely, if you're looking for good books, your friends are your best bet because they know you best! Also, we all tend to share similar book interests. 

I've been recommended:

2. Goodreads  

I know some people don't like to do this, but when I see a book that looks like I could read it in the future, I'll check it out on Goodreads for the rating, the synopsis, the reviews (but not too many; don't want any spoilers!) Plus, Goodreads even throws a few suggestions your way after you've read twenty books. Soon enough, your TBR list goes from 0 to fifty in under an hour - whoops. Does anyone else do this, or would they prefer to not know the ratings or reviews of a book before they read it? 

3. Beautiful covers 

Okay, okay, I know the saying goes "You shouldn't judge a book by its cover." As much as we hate to admit it, we do it a lot! When we're casually browsing through a bookstore or scrolling through Goodreads, we will look at those pretty covers, and hopefully they're as pretty on the inside as they are on the outside. So this is me basically admitting my bad habit, and I don't do this as much anymore because I've been kept busy with recommendations and reviews, but it was a good starting point that allowed me to branch out into other books. 

Example of beautiful cover that pulled me in

4. Coincided with my interests 

As a child, I liked princesses and fantasy and mythology, so I gravitated towards books about those things. As an almost adult, I'm into time travel and badass female main characters and arrogant but attractive princes. So I just had to find books that had those types of things I liked. The powers of Google! If you like sports or space or cats - anything, I'm sure there's a book out there about it.

Finally, and this is something I've discovered recently through social media...

5. Fellow book bloggers  

If you are looking for books and don't know what to choose or what to read, book bloggers are always on the lookout for awesome reads! They're passionate about what they do, and they will recommend to you the books they absolutely loved. And they read a tooooon of books, so they know what they're talking about. Lately, I've been on Twitter and snooping around on my fellow book bloggers' blogs. They have really great suggestions, so be sure to check them out!

So here are a few of the resources I used to find books to read/reasons why I picked the books I picked to read. Safe to say my TBR list will never be at zero because of recommendations and book blogs. 

How do you pick your books? Do you go to your friends for advice? Or book bloggers/booktubers? Do you simply google a topic of interest? Or... do you eenie, meenie, mini, mo a book at the library/bookstore? Let me know in the comments below!