April 29th Follow Friday & Book Blogger Hop

Follow Friday is a meme hosted by Rachel at Parajunkee's View. Every week, book bloggers have a chance to connect and check out each other's blogs. Check it out to sign up and participate, or just check it out to check out some great blogs! This is my tenth week participating. This week's question:

Keeping with the dystopian and apocalypse theme that seems to be running rampant on parajunkee.com, I have one very hard question for you: If you were stocking your bomb shelter, what books would you HAVE to include if you only had space for ten?

OH MY GOD HOW WILL I CHOOSE? Can a series count as one book? Cause if it did, that would be swell. No? It doesn't count? *grumbles* Fine...here's my list (in no particular order of importance):

1. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
2. Eragon
3. Wild Magic
4. Wolf Speaker
5. Emperor Mage
6. The Realms of the Gods
7. Before I Fall
8. Paranormalcy
9. Little Brother
10. The Red Pyramid

I could totally tack on another 10 or 20 or 30 or you know, 100 books to this list, but these are the first that came to mind. I wouldn't mind rereading these ones over and over and over and over and over...

And if you do one Follow Meme, why not do two? The more the merrier! The Book Blogger Hop is a meme hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books. Like Follow Friday, It's a place for book bloggers to connect, and "hop" from one another's blogs to get to know each other. Jennifer also asks a question to kick off the conversations. This is my tenth Book Blogger Hop. This week's question:

Summer is coming quickly - what 2011 summer release are you most looking forward to?

Supernaturally by Kiersten White. I keep crossing my fingers and hoping that an ARC will magically appear in my mailbox, but alas, I'm still waiting. *gazes out at mailbox, lovingly* At least July isn't TOO far away.

To all of you returning visitors, thanks again for stopping by my blog, and to all you new visitors, welcome! If you leave a link to your website I'll be sure to check it out over the weekend. Until then, happy Friday! Also, be sure to enter my Hex, a Witch and Angel Tale giveaway. The deadline to enter is tomorrow. :)

Mar. 25th Follow Friday & Book Blogger Hop

Follow Friday is a meme hosted by Rachel at Parajunkee's View. Every week, book bloggers have a chance to connect and check out each other's blogs. Check it out to sign up and participate, or just check it out to check out some great blogs! This is my ninth week participating. This week's question:

Inspired by the Twitter trend of #100factsaboutme, give us 5 book related silly facts about yourself.

Oooh, fun! Okay, here it goes:

1. I make faces when I read. If I'm reading a funny scene, I'll grin. If I'm reading a scene where the character is getting the crap kicked out of them, I wince like I was the one getting punched.
2. I have more books on my shelf that I haven't read than I have, and yet I still continue to buy more.
3. Even though I've read a bunch of angel books in the past few months that I've enjoyed, I can't bring myself to admit that I like the genre.
4. I've become very picky about my book covers. If I have multiple books in a series, then they have to match.
5. My favorite place to read is in the bathtub.

And if you do one Follow Meme, why not do two? The more the merrier! The Book Blogger Hop is a meme hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books. Like Follow Friday, It's a place for book bloggers to connect, and "hop" from one another's blogs to get to know each other. Jennifer also asks a question to kick off the conversations. This is my tenth Book Blogger Hop. This week's question:

If you could physically put yourself into a book or series...which one would it be and why?

Ahhh...this is a tough one. Even though it's tempting to say The Tortall books by Tamora Pierce, I think I'm going to have to go with Harry Potter on this one. Since I was 11, I've dreamed of going to Hogwarts. Seriously, I was actually disappointed when my birthday came and went and I didn't receive a letter. I think it would be amazing to explore the castle, learn magic, and hang out with Harry, Ron and Hermione. Oh, and have a pet owl. I like owls. Especially barn owls.

To all of you returning visitors, thanks again for stopping by my blog, and to all you new visitors, welcome! If you leave a link to your website I'll be sure to check it out over the weekend. Until then, happy Friday!

Feb. 11th Follow Friday & Book Blogger Hop

Follow Friday is a meme hosted by Rachel at Parajunkee's View. Every week, book bloggers have a chance to connect and check out each other's blogs. Check it out to sign up and participate, or just check it out to check out some great blogs! This is my eighth week participating. This week's question:

What is your favorite romance-hero type? Stereotype wise. Do you like the strong silent type or the brute macho man?

Oooh, tough question. If I can help it, I like to avoid both. I prefer characters who are nice with decent social skills and a normal physique. Sorry, but bulging, lumpy muscles creep me out, and I get frustrated when somebody doesn't speak their mind. But I guess if I had to choose one or the other, I'd go with the brute macho man. From what I've seen in the books I've read, the brute macho guys are cocky and at least have a sense of humor.

And if you do one Follow Meme, why not do two? The more the merrier! The Book Blogger Hop is a meme hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books. Like Follow Friday, It's a place for book bloggers to connect, and "hop" from one another's blogs to get to know each other. Jennifer also asks a question to kick off the conversations. This is my ninth Book Blogger Hop. This week's question:

Tell us about one of your posts from this week and give us a link so we can read it (review or otherwise)!

This week I participated in my first ever guest post over at Alice's The Reader Room. Every week she hosts her own meme called Read, Review, Recommended, where she invites other bloggers to recommend a book to her readers. I read and reviewed StarCrossed by Elizabeth C. Bunce. Even though I didn't really like the book at first (it was difficult to get into), by the end I was crazy about it. I can't wait for the sequel. You can check out the review HERE if your curious!

To all of you returning visitors, thanks again for stopping by my blog, and to all you new visitors, welcome! If you leave a link to your website I'll be sure to check it out over the weekend. Until then, happy Friday!

Jan 21st Follow Friday & Book Blogger Hop

Follow Friday is a meme hosted by Rachel at Parajunkee's View. Every week, book bloggers have a chance to connect and check out each other's blogs. Check it out to sign up and participate, or just check it out to check out some great blogs! This is my seventh week participating. This week's question:

Who do you cheer for?

Since I'm a Sconnie I cheer for the Packers and the Badgers, but to be honest, I'm not really into football. Occasionally I'll watch a game, but the following two conditions must be met before I turn the channel to ESPN:

1.) The game has to be somewhat important, like the playoffs or the Rose Bowl.

2.) All episodes of Bones airing on TV at the time of the game are reruns.

What can I say? I have my priorities. Brennan and Booth are much more entertaining than a bunch of spandex-wearing dudes trying to push a ball down a field (no offense football fans, no offense). Though...when somebody makes an interception that's pretty cool.

And if you do one Follow Meme, why not do two? The more the merrier! The Book Blogger Hop is a meme hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books. Like Follow Friday, It's a place for book bloggers to connect, and "hop" from one another's blogs to get to know each other. Jennifer also asks a question to kick off the conversations. This is my eight Book Blogger Hop. Er...or, I guess that it would be my eight Book Blogger Hop if there was one this week.

NO QUESTION THIS WEEK.

To all of you returning visitors, thanks again for stopping by my blog, and to all you new visitors, welcome! If you leave a link to your website I'll be sure to check it out over the weekend. Until then, happy Friday! Oh, and if you haven't already, be sure to sign up for my 100 Follower Giveaway. Deadline to enter is Feb. 7th!

Follow Friday (6) & Book Blogger Hop (7)

Follow Friday is a meme hosted by Rachel at Parajunkee's View. Every week, book bloggers have a chance to connect and check out each other's blogs. Check it out to sign up and participate, or just check it out to check out some great blogs! This is my sixth week participating. This week's question:

What book(s) have you discovered lately from someone's book blog?

Oooh, that's a tough one. Participating on Goodreads has really helped broaden my horizons when it comes to books, so lately I've been pretty familiar with a lot of the stuff that's being blogged about unless it's self-published. I guess one book that I learned about from author Kiersten White's blog before it hit the shelves was Anna and the French Kiss. I had no idea what it was before she started advertising it. Sadly, I still haven't gotten to read it, but it's anxiously awaiting on my shelves, calling my name: "Emi, read me...read me...you know you want to...you know you need an adorable romance in your life right now, even if it is fiction..." Haha, yeah.


And if you do one Follow Meme, why not do two? The more the merrier! This is my seventh Book Blogger Hop.

The Book Blogger Hop is a meme hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books. Like Follow Friday, It's a place for book bloggers to connect, and "hop" from one another's blogs to get to know each other. Jennifer also asks a question to kick off the conversations. This week's question:

What book influenced or changed your life? How did it influence/change you?

The books that hold a special place in my heart have always come at a time when it was right for me to read them. There are quite a few that come to mind, including some big named titles like Harry Potter. But...I think the book that had the most influence on my life was Wild Magic, by Tamora Pierce. I read it when I was 13, just before my parents announced that they were getting a divorce. Now that I'm older I'm glad that they did it because they are much happier, but when you're 13, it's a big deal especially when you don't see it coming. I didn't totally collapse under depression, but my mood changed enough for my teachers and friends to notice and worry. Pierce's books provided a form of escape. I was able to relate to Daine and the other characters and find joy in their adventures, so much that the books got me reading and thinking about fantasy all the time. It changed my perspective on things. Helped me become more confident and adventurous, and less likely to worry about little things and the consequences of standing up for what I wanted (my friends and I had a history of 'fighting the system' in a positive way throughout high school, but I won't get into that). Pierce's books (Wild Magic, the first one I read) inspired me so much that I decided in high school that I wanted to become a writer, which is what I'm working on to this day.

So yeah, I know, a bit sappy, but hey. Honesty is the best policy, right? And the question was asked, so...Win!

To all of you returning visitors, thanks again for stopping by my blog, and to all you new visitors, welcome! If you leave a link to your website I'll be sure to check it out over the weekend. Until then, happy Friday!

Follow Friday (5) & Book Blogger Hop (6)

Follow Friday is a meme hosted by Rachel at the Parajunkee's View. Every week, book bloggers have a chance to connect and check out each other's blogs. Check it out to sign up and participate, or just check it out to check out some great blogs! This is my fifth week participating. This week's question:

What are you studying in college?

I'm a junior studying English with an emphasis in Creative Writing (fiction). If my school offered it, I'd probably dual major as an English and Library and Information Studies student. They offer the cooooooooolest classes about children's and young-adult literature. Talking about trends and themes in those books gets my blood pumping, you know? I had the opportunity to take a class on children's lit this semester, and absolutely LOVED it. I'll probably apply to a LIS graduate program after I graduate. Maybe Simmons? I dunno. Anyone out there have any recommendations? I know all about UW Madison's LIS program, so no need to tell me about that. (Now you get three guesses to guess where I go to school and the first two don't count.) :P

And if you do one Follow Meme, why not do two? The more the merrier! This is my sixth Book Blogger Hop.

The Book Blogger Hop is a meme hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books. Like Follow Friday, It's a place for book bloggers to connect, and "hop" from one another's blogs to get to know each other. Check it out to sign up and participate! Even if your blog doesn't get listed this week, you can view other people's blogs and make some friends. :P In addition, Jennifer also asks a question to kick off the conversations. This week's question:

What do you consider the most important in a story: the plot or the characters?

Ooooooh, this is a tough one. On one hand, I can't really get into a story if I don't care about the main character. But then again...I could be reading about the most interesting person in the world but be totally bored out of my skull of nothing happens to him/her/it. I think it really is a combination of the two. All of the great stories have characters with strong voices and engaging plots. After all, when you read a book, you read it for the whole package, right?

To all of you returning visitors, thanks again for stopping by my blog, and to all you new visitors, welcome! If you leave a link to your website I'll be sure to check it out over the weekend. Until then, happy Friday! I hope everyone's holiday planning is going well. I dunno about you, but I am sooooo behind on my shopping. I'll have to brave the weather and coffee-stimulated crowds to get some stuff this weekend.

Follow Friday (4) & Book Blogger Hop (5)

Follow Friday is a meme hosted by Rachel at the Parajunkee's View. Every week, book bloggers have a chance to connect and check out each other's blogs. Check it out to sign up and participate, or just check it out to check out some great blogs! This is my fourth week participating. This week's question:

What do you do besides reading/reviewing as a hobby?

I do a lot of things. I write fiction, draw cartoons, watch movies (like, Harry Potter), play RPG video games (Pokemon, Harvest Moon, Tales of Symphonia, and Ace Attorney mostly), think about dinosaurs, hang out with friends, eat food, stalk Kristina, think more about dinosaurs, watch Bones, watch videos of octopi on Youtube...like this one:

That is one awesomely awesome octopus.
So yeah, I pretty much do whatever when I'm not reading!

And if you do one Follow Meme, why not do two? The more the merrier! This is my Fifth Book Blogger Hop.

The Book Blogger Hop is a meme hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books. Like Follow Friday, It's a place for book bloggers to connect, and "hop" from one another's blogs to get to know each other. Check it out to sign up and participate! Even if your blog doesn't get listed this week, you can view other people's blogs and make some friends. :P In addition, Jennifer also asks a question to kick off the conversations. This week's question:

What popular book and hyped book in the blogosphere did you NOT enjoy and how did you feel about posting your review?

I actually can't think of any hyped books that I haven't enjoyed recently. Well, wait, I take that back. I'm not sure if it was hyped around the blogosphere, but I didn't really enjoy reading Shadow Hills by Anastasia Hopcus. It was getting pretty good reviews on Goodreads, so I assumed I was going to enjoy it. But I was disappointed in the end because the mystery that was advertised on the jacket of the book got solved quickly and then put on the back burner so the plot could focus on the main character's love life. A shame, really. The mystery was so cool! Anyway, I plan on writing a review about it this week, so you can get the whole scoop then.

So what about you guys? What do you do in your free time besides blog and tweet about what you read? What books have you been recently disappointed with?

To all of you returning visitors, thanks again for stopping by my blog, and to all you new visitors, welcome! If you leave a link to your website I'll be sure to check it out over the weekend. Until then, happy Friday, and go see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows p.1 if you haven't already!

Follow Friday (3) & Book Blogger Hop (4)

Follow Friday is a meme hosted by Rachel at the Parajunkee's View. Every week, book bloggers have a chance to connect and check out each other's blogs. Check it out to sign up and participate, or just check it out to check out some great blogs! This is my third week participating. This week's question:

How long have you been book blogging?

I started book blogging back in...July? Wow, it doesn't feel like it's been 5 months! However, I still feel like I'm new to the book blogging scene because I don't participate in a lot of they other popular memes, such as Waiting on Wed. Hm...Maybe I should start? :P

And if you do one Follow meme, why not do two? The more the merrier! This is my Fourth Book Blogger Hop.

The Book Blogger Hop is a meme hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books. Like Follow Friday, It's a place for book bloggers to connect, and "hop" from one another's blogs to get to know each other. Check it out to sign up and participate! Even if your blog doesn't get listed this week, you can view other people's blogs and make some friends. :P In addition, Jennifer also asks a question to kick off the conversations. This week's question:

Since Thanksgiving is coming up next week, let's use this week's Hop to share what we are most thankful for and what our holiday traditions are!

Oh man, where to start? I'm really thankful for my family, friends, the fact that I have a working computer (which, without it, I wouldn't be able to post this), a promising pile of TBR books on my shelf...Really, pretty much everything that is in my life right now I'm thankful for. As for Thanksgiving traditions, I don't really have any. My parents are divorced, so I've always spent half of Thanksgiving at one house, and half of it at the other. We always do something different too. One year, my dad took us up north to have a fancy lobster dinner. Another, we went to the movies. Another, we stayed at home and built rocket ships with Legos. So I guess the tradition is in not having one? Either way its fun.

What about you guys? To all of you returning visitors, thanks again for stopping by my blog, and to all you new visitors, welcome! If you leave a link to your website I'll be sure to check it out when I get home from classes today. Until then, happy Friday!

Follow Friday (2) & Book Blogger Hop (3)!

Follow Friday is a meme hosted by Rachel at the Parajunkee's View. Every week, book bloggers have a chance to connect and check out each other's blogs. Check it out to sign up and participate, or just check it out to check out some great blogs! This is my second week participating. This week's question:

If you have, or would have a daughter, what book would you want your daughter to read?

I don't have a daughter (or any kids for that matter), but if I did I would really encourage her to read the Tortall books by Tamora Pierce--especially The Immortals Quartet. Those books meant a lot to me as a kid, and pretty much turned me into a bookaholic, so I would hope that they would get her as excited about reading and fantasy as it did me. But then again, so long as she's reading at all, I'd be happy. I'll take the "librarian's motto" approach: The right book for the right child at the right time. That's the goal. There are too many books out there to recommended anyway!

And if you do one Follow meme, why not do two? The more the merrier! This is my third Book Blogger Hop.

The Book Blogger Hop is a meme hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books. Like Follow Friday, It's a place for book bloggers to connect, and "hop" from one another's blogs to get to know each other. Check it out to sign up and participate! Even if your blog doesn't get listed this week, you can view other people's blogs and make some friends. :P In addition, Jennifer also asks a question to kick off the conversations. This week's question:

What is the one bookish thing you would love to have, no matter the cost?

I would want to build a tower in my house with a spiral staircase. At the top of the tower would be a small library, with shelves that took up the entire wall, filled with all of my favorite books. There would also be an oh-so-comfortable chair for reading in, and a freaking huge desk so I could spread out while I worked on writing for NaNoWriMo. I tend to get intense...and messy...when writing 2,000+ words a day. Oh, and there would totally be toy dinosaurs all around the place. Shoved in the shelves, on the desk, on the floor, hanging from the ceiling, etc. They'd be like...book guardians. Yes, book guardians sounds about right. They roamed the earth for millions of years, so why not roam my reading room? I think I have a new goal in life.

What about you guys? If you had a kid, what would you want her to read? Dr. Seuss? Little House on the Prairie? What about your bookish wish? Would do you want if you could get anything? To all of you returning visitors, thanks again for stopping by my blog, and to all you new visitors, welcome! If you leave a link to your website I'll be sure to check it out when I get home from classes today. Until then, happy Friday!

Follow Friday (1) & Book Blogger Hop (2)

Follow Friday is a meme hosted by Rachel at the Parajunkee's View. Every week, book bloggers have a chance to connect and check out each other's blogs. Check it out to sign up and participate, or just check it out to check out some great blogs! This is my first week participating. This week's question:

What is your reading suggestion this week?

Hands down, it's got to be Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld. It's pure love in the condensed form of 481 pages. Seriously, pick it up. And if you haven't read Leviathan, the first book in the series, you totally should. That one is made of sunshine, happiness, and rainbows, especially if you're into steampunk/rewritten fantastical versions of history. (It's like historical fiction, except enough elements have been changed so you KNOW that there's no way it could be real.)

In addition, this week I'm participating for the second time in the Book Blogger Hop! I just had too much fun last week.

The Book Blogger Hop is a meme hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books. Like Follow Friday, It's a place for book bloggers to connect, and "hop" from one another's blogs to get to know each other. Check it out to sign up and participate! Even if your blog doesn't get listed this week, you can view other people's blogs and make some friends. :P In addition, Jennifer also asks a question to kick off the conversations. This week's question:

When you read a book that you just can't get into, do you stick it out and keep reading or move to your next title?

Lately, I try to stick it out till the end, even if I hate it. I find that there is always something to learn from a book, even if it's not good, which is a lesson I can take and apply to my own writing. In addition, I learn a lot about myself when I dissect a book for the reason(s) why I didn't enjoy it: My values, dreams, opinions about stereotypes...you get the idea. :)

What about you guys? What is your recommendation this week, and will you put a book down if you can't get into it?