Tidbit: The Problem With Reading Big Books

So, I'm currently reading A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. You know, the 807 page one? It's pretty big and therefore, it's taking me a while to read it. The problem with that? I don't have any reviews.

With school and extra-curriculars and other life-stuff, reading large books is hard! And the thing is, I've read books bigger than 800 pages, but it's taking a long time to get through this one! I love it, a lot, but it's just a slow reading process! And because I'm not a believer in the whole 'reading schedule' thing, even though that would probably mean a lot less stress, I haven't got any reviews this week! I think I might be able to post one, but it wouldn't be good so I don't think I could post it!

I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm currently reading a big book because I want to expand my reading horizons and read more than YA, so I don't think there will be a regular review up this week. My apologies and also, I was wondering, if you're a blogger, how do you keep up to date on reviews if you're behind? 

Happy reading! (I'll be trying to finish GoT this weekend!)
~Kristy

Top Ten Tuesday: Worlds I'd Never Want to Live In

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.This week's topic  is: Top Ten Worlds I'd Never Want to Live In.

1. Panem (The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins) -- Um, I think this is pretty self-explanatory....

2. New America (Eve by Anna Carey) -- Okay, so I haven't finished this series and I don't know if I will, but I just would not want to live in this place. 

3. Future Love-less USA (Delirium by Lauren Oliver) -- Again, pretty self explanatory, right? No love, completely unfeeling, no creativity... 

4. The Society (Matched by Ally Condie) -- As much as I disliked this series in the end, I remember hating the world it was set in even more.

5. Westeros (A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin) -- Okay, actually, this is kind of a draw for me, because on one hand I'd love to live here! But then at the same time, it's pretty brutal, you know? So... yeah, I guess it would depend on who I was if I lived there. 


Okay, that's honestly all I can think of, but if y'all leave me your links to your lists this week, maybe I'll be reminded of some worlds I wouldn't want to live in and I'll add them to the list!

Happy reading!
~Kristy

Stacking the Shelves (49)

Stacking the Shelves is a book haul meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews -This is a great way for us to share what books we added to our shelves each week.


Purchased (Second-Hand):

I am so excited to read this! I've heard nothing but great things about Philippa Gregory's novels and I've always loved historical fiction, so I really hope I like this one. I'm trying to expand my horizons a bit in the genres I read this year, so I decided to give some non-YA books a try that I've been dying to read!


What did you get this week?! I'd love to see, so leave me a link and I'll check it out!

Happy reading!
~Kristy

Review: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Author: Rainbow Rowell

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Page Count: 526 Pages, Hardcover

Date Published: September 10th, 2013

Find it on Goodreads: Fangirl

Source: Purchased

In Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl, Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan, but for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.
Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.
Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.
For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

Last year, Rainbow Rowell's book Eleanor & Park became one of my top favourite stories... ever. I completely fell in love with everything about it, so when Fangirl was released, I was SO excited, but also a little nervous to read it. I put it off for a while but then when I finally picked it up, I couldn't remember why. 

Rainbow Rowell, HOW ARE YOU IN MY MIND? This author has an exceptional talent, at least in my opinion, for creating characters that are relatable and real. They have their quirks, their  insecurities, their passions... I love them. Cath was no exception. I loved how Rowell brought in the aspect of fandom and fanfiction to this book because that is such a huge part of pop culture right now, or at least in mine. I've been obsessed with Harry Potter since I can remember, so I really connected with Cath and Wren's love for Simon Snow... I thought it was really great how Harry Potter was actually referenced in Fangirl, to make known that Simon Snow was something entirely different, even if it was about an 11-year old orphan who learns he's a magician. ;) 

I also really loved the love story and how it wasn't a total love-at-first-sight kind of thing and it actually took time for Cath and the guy to fall for each other. They were friends first and the guy was so patient and kind because he knew Cath was nervous and it was just so. cute. I also loved how much of a role Cath's family played in the story. Her relationship with her twin sister changed as they got into university and her dad had to deal with them not being home... It was a great change from a lot of those books where the family isn't very present. 

Once again, Rainbow Rowell has amazed me with her exceptional talent. She creates characters that become companions as I read and I completely fall into her books. Fangirl was absolutely lovely. It was fun, sad, hilarious, raw, and anything and everything in between. It was relatable, oh so relatable. I felt like Cath was an extension on me, just as I felt with Eleanor. This book made me remember how I felt when the last book of Harry Potter was released and my love for that series. Rowell is one of my favourite authors and I cannot wait to read more of her incredible work. 

Happy reading!

~Kristy

Writing for School

Hey everyone! Happy Friday! Today, I wanted to talk about something everyone's probably familiar with or at least was at one time or another: Writing... For school. You know, the essays, free writes, big presentations that take ten million hours to prepare.

Now, we've all had to do it, so this is old news, but in my English class we recently had to write an essay connecting three literary works we studied in class. I had to do a similar assignment last year and absolutely loved it, but this year, the essay had me in tears and made me panicky and anxious and it just wasn't a pretty sight. Why? Because I didn't care about what I was writing.

Last year, our entire syllabus was incredible, having to do with free speech, conformity vs. individuality and a lot of other subjects that I found very interesting. However, this was the year we studied Lord of the Flies by William Golding and other works all about power and control. While I didn't mind the works we studied, I found writing about them to be painful and I could not for the life of me find a topic to stick with that I actually cared about.

This is not to say that I don't care about the subjects related to the book, I just couldn't force myself to be passionate about it. While I appreciated Lord of the Flies, I definitely didn't love it. I really liked Macbeth, but at the same time, it's absolutely not my favourite. I just didn't find a spark within myself to write an essay linking these works and others together... Not like last year, where I got to talk about the Holocaust and Dead Poet's Society  and I was able to reference John Green and J.K. Rowling... Last year's essay came naturally to me and I did very well on the assignment, getting the highest mark in the class. This year though, I wrote and re-wrote but nothing was coming out and it wasn't even writer's block... it was just a lack of interest and complete frustration. When I tried to talk to my teacher about my struggles, I felt as if he didn't think caring about what you were writing was important. I understand that this assignment needed to get done, but I really felt hopeless. But then I was able to compromise with him and he gave me permission to write a paragraph on a source that we didn't use in class.... SHERLOCK!!! So in my essay, I found ways to incorporate my everyday loves: I compared Macbeth and Voldemort in one paragraph and talked all about Moriarty in another. It made this awful assignment a little bit better. I know that not every writing assignment I get in my life will be like this, where I am able to change it a bit to my liking, but it was really nice to be able to take something so completely uninspiring and dull and make it exciting for myself.

I don't really know what I wanted to accomplish with this post, but I thought I'd write about it anyways and see what your thoughts were on writing for school and even just having to write things that don't interest you... Let me know what you think!

Happy reading!
~Kristy

(Speaking of school and writing, I was contacted a little while ago by Grammarly, which is an online proofreader that is SO USEFUL and I thought I'd mention it for those of you who haven't heard of it! I like to use Grammarly's grammar check when my mind has been completely taken over by Wrackspurts and am stressing out so much that no positive thoughts can come to mind to get rid of them. You know the feeling, when you're writing and then all of a sudden it's just... a complete and total mess? Yeah, it sucks.)