Category: 2014-Book Blogger New Year’s Challenge

 We are at the half way point in Book Blogger New Year’s Challenge hosted by Parajunkee.com

Here is Day 7’s direct link up

As a book blogger you have to admit to having some pet peeves, right? I mean we all have them.

I know this morning I was reading some posts and I admit I am guilty to some of the ones bloggers listed as their pet peeves. I think as a blogger you can learn from the lists and make changes. I know that is what I plan on doing. One step at a time.

So here is my list…don’t hate me 🙂 (This list is in no particular order)

1. Having to say “NO” when you are sent a request. I find this is always the hardest thing to do when someone emails you to ask if you will review their book. Its not because I don’t want to review it, its just that I don’t have the time to do it.
2. Design/Fonts/Color. Not quite sure how to label it. I hate discovering a new blog and they have that dark background with white lettering. You know what I mean right? I never stay to read their blog because its just to darn hard on my eyes.
3. Sound effects. I hate where there is music/sound effects on a blog.
4. Drama. I tend to stay away from blogs and bloggers who insist on Drama.
5. Not enough hours in the day to read and blog.
6. Book format changes. Why must publishers put out books in paperback and once they become popular put them in hardcovers? I hate starting a series in paperback and then all of sudden they are hard cover. I like all my books in one format.
7. Not being able to afford to go to all these fantastic book conventions. I just don’t know how some can afford to go to them all.
8. Jumping through hoops to leave a comment. I understand you are probably protecting your blog from spammers but your also making it harder for us  to comment.
9. Copying of ideas. I guess this is geared towards youtubers. I follow one vlogger and they just did something before Christmas and now another vlogger is now doing the same thing. The exact same thing.
10. Finally my last pet peeve is someone not reading my blog/policy to find out where I live or what I read and don’t read. Its all there in black and white.

So that is my list, do we have anything in common?

 We are almost at the half way mark of the Book Blogger New Year’s Challenge.

Be sure to go to Parajunkee.com to link up your Day 6th post

This was a no brainer for me but I just couldn’t put one book I have to put a few. Here is my list of Best Books of 2013 (In my opinion)

What were your favorite books of 2013?

 I am a little late in posting this for today but we have been busy cleaning up our basement and getting rid of stuff we no longer need and doing some repairs. I am hoping to eventually get my wall to wall bookcase down there in the famil room.

Here is the direct link for Day 5

I actually had to think about this because I read quite a few books last year and I pretty much liked them all with the exception of this one:

I read Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire and I really liked it so when I saw this one I picked it up. I didn’t read the back of the book before buying it because silly me thought it was book 2 in the continuing series. Boy was I wrong, this one was told in the male point of view. The exact same book as Beautiful Disaster. I started reading it and but couldn’t finish it because it felt like I was rereading the same book over again.

What book or books were your worst reads of 2013?

Welcome to Day 3 in the Book Blogger New Year’s Challenge.

Here is the direct link to the post at Parjunkee.com

 Hey everyone welcome to Day 2 in the Book Bloggers New Year’s Challenge.

The direct link to link your post to Parajunkee.com is there.

PROS:

• Connecting with other book bloggers online and in real life
• Attending awesome author events
• Reading amazing books before they are released
• Sharing my thoughts on books
• Discovering many great books I might not know about orginally
• Being able to justify my time spent online
• Being able to justify my spending because you need to buy things to talk about them
• Being able to attend conferences

CONS:

• DRAMA
• My over flowing book shelves of books I need to read
• writing good reviews
• all the time I spend online
• Having to decline books that don’t interest me but wanting to promote the aurthor
• the cost to attend conferences

Those are just a few of my Pros and Cons, what are yours?

1. Blog daily. This year I want to make it a point to blog daily (if possible).
2. Read and Review. I really need to get into that habit of reading a book and reviewing it right away. That is something that slipped for me last year. I am making it a point this year to read one book and review it before starting a new one.
3. Commenting/Networking/Interact. I need to get into the habit of commenting on my posts. This has always been a pet peeve of mine and now I need to fix that. I need to pimp my blog more and put myself out there. I need to get more involved with the blogging world.
4. Organize. I need to sit down and plan out my week with what I want to post and try and stick to that schedule. This will allow me to schedule posts in advance.
5. Vlogging. I want to get more into that this year. This will probably consist of book hauls, shelf tours etc.

1. Managing my time. With being a stay at home mom, volunteering at my son’s school library and being a hockey team manager I need to work on this. This will require me to plan out my week in advance so I am not feeling rushed all the time and feeling as though nothing is getting done.
2. No Buy. I have put myself on a no make up buy ban and I am forcing myself to stick with that because this past week I have been cleaning up and wow I have alot of stuff that I really don’t need. That will be an upcoming blog post. I will also be limiting myself in book buying as well. I have been really good about that since the fall because I am no longer an iReward member at Chapters instead I am a plum reward member. Perhaps that will be a future blog post talking about the differences and how it affect my spending there.
3. Organizing. I mentioned above how I have been cleaning up and I am amazed at how much stuff I actually have and own. I decided in 2014 I really need to trim things down and keep only what I need and use. Things that have been sitting unused for the past year or more really needs to find a new home. Over the course of this year I will share those posts with you.
4. Journaling. I use to do this when I was in  high school and when I moved to Montreal but then getting married and starting a family it fell to the side. I think this will be theraputic for me.
5. Getting Healthy. I realized recently that I am so out of shape its not even funny. I was doing really good up until we got back from Hungary. Since then the weight I lost is now back plus some, I have been feeling really blah and unmotivated lately. I have also noticed that I get sick quicker and it lingers so I think getting healthy with eating and exercise will do me good.