Top Ten Tuesday (28)

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly event hosted at The Broke and the Bookish.

This week’s topic:

Top Ten Favorite Book Covers of Books I’ve Read

I don't think the topic was specific to this year, so I'm not sticking with this year alone or else I would've never had a full list. Ha. And this doesn’t necessarily mean I enjoyed the book if it's on the list. There have been some seriously hot covers, but disappointing reads. I did try to make sure I picked covers of books I loved though.



The Wicked Lovely Series was full of gorgeous covers actually. I liked pretty much all of them. But the Darkest Mercy cover is my favorite of the bunch. The coloring is amazing. I want this cover as a poster on my wall.

I liked the Days of Blood & Starlight cover better than the first installment because of the pop of red. It also just seemed like an overall cleaner cover than the other. Of course, I still loved the Daughter of
Smoke & Bone cover, but not as much as I did this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh Distant Waves, I loved your cover, but didn't really enjoy the content. Damn cover tease.

 

I haven't liked the other covers in the set much, but Wither had me immediately looking forward to the book when it first came out. Even though the pretty dresses can get cliche at times, I still adore them anyway.

I like the Ashes paperback cover better than the hardback cover which is unusual. I tend to like the original images better if they do a redesign. But this yellow pops and I loved the way they did the font.

   










The Radleys is just really a different cover in my opinion. Bats? Totally cool. I looked at this and immediately wanted it.

 

There's something peaceful about looking at this cover. Bright. Especially since you can see from above that a majority of my cover love seems to fall into darker covers with just pops of colors. But I really like New Girl's cover. A lot of the underwater-themed covers are pretty to me. I just can't add them to this list because I haven't read many. Ha.

And that's all I have for now. Well, I'm sure I *could've* showed off some more I really loved covers for...but I can't take all day to create a post. Ack. :P Hahaha... I know it's not a full ten, but it's close enough. These are probably as close to my top-fave covers of the moment in the recent few years at least. They always change though. :) Thanks for dropping by!


What's your Top Ten?






Discussion: Confessions of a Book Blogger

What you are about to read are actual confessions. Some of my deepest secrets that I’ve decided to open up and share with you today. With these confessions, I’ve also included some helpful (hopefully) tips that might work for anyone who also is harboring the same secrets.

Confession #1: I cry. A LOT. Why? Because I can get my feelings hurt easily with some things. I’m an emotional person. I get emotional with books. I get emotional with blogging. This place is like my second home and I’ve made some wonderful online friends since I’ve started. But sometimes, my blog goes through these “dry spells” in which I get no comments for long periods of time and my page views dwindle up and down--no matter how hard I’ve been working. It can really put the pressure and stress on and make me an emotional wreck even though I try not to let it worry me.


Blogger Tip: Sometimes it can’t be helped. And I KNOW there’s bound to be dry spells--especially during a busy season like conventions, school starting, a holiday etc. The best thing to do is to take a step back, a deep breath, and just relax. It works out. Come up with some fresh ideas to get some interaction going with your followers... a new feature, some new memes, etc. I’ve even taken a short hiatus before to make myself feel better in order to get back in the groove.

Confession #2: That green-eyed monster dwells in me. Okay. I really confess. I do get jealous sometimes. I probably wouldn’t be human if I didn’t. I’ve been blogging over two years and do you know how many physical ARCs I’ve received from a publisher (that I’ve personally requested, and not won in some contest)? Two. I know it’s not about the ARCs. I never think that at all. I buy so many books that I have to be put on temp bans because of debt (oops). But sometimes it does make me a bit sad to be turned down for a book I’m really excited about… Also, I’ve never been to a convention. Likely won’t be able to ever go--at least not for another several years--because they’re just too darn expensive. I get ridiculously excited for my friends who go, but there’s a small ounce of jealousy (maybe a majority of disappointment actually) only because I want to meet them too. Like I said. Human. We all get it.

Blogger Tip: New to blogging? Remember, most bloggers aren’t in this for the ARCs. If that’s the only reason you signed up to blog, you should probably rethink this.
When requesting ARCs, be professional and patient. And everyone has their own system. I guess I work better with the digital e-galleys at the moment. Feel the green-eyed monster coming on because someone got a galley that you wanted? It happens. Get over it. No need to bitch about it. And I have seen people actually get so worked up before that they get bitchy. No need for that. That’s when you’re crossing the line. You could just wait for the book’s release and BUY IT.

Confession #3: I hate commenting. I know. This is one of the biggest things about blogging, too. But I’m such a lurker. You wouldn’t believe how often I visit and read so many blogs a day/week, but I really do. I just don’t like commenting. I’m working to comment more often--and I have been commenting more lately on blogs. I just have never liked commenting because it seems every time I get around to comment, every one before me has already said what I was going to say. Then I feel silly for saying the same thing. And usually, when I leave a comment it’s going to be fairly long and meaningful. Not just a “great post” and that’s it.



Blogger tip: Comments are important. We all know this. To be a blogger of any sort there has to be interaction in the community. If you want to gain new followers, you have to get out there and comment your little heart out and be consistent with it. I suggest even setting aside one or two days a week when you’re not posting anything and just using that for your blog surfing/commenting.

　


What do you think? Do you have any additional tips to offer with the above confessions? Do you have any blogging confessions of your own? Discuss below!


Is this a discussion post you would like to see more of as well? I could create a form in which other bloggers can fill out and enter their own confessions to be shared in future posts. Let me know!




 

Stacking the Shelves #11

 

 

 

Stacking the Shelves is about sharing the books you’re adding to your shelves for the week. Show off the books you’ve bought, won, borrowed, etc. While it’s usually hosted on Saturdays, it can be posted any day of the week that works. For my own personal time management, my STS posts will be on Sundays when I make them. STS is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews. Click to learn more and follow other awesome bloggers!

I haven’t done a STS post in some time. Normally, I’m not a big fan of doing them for just the e-galleys I get, and since I haven’t been able to get to an actual bookstore in MONTHS to have a field day buying books, I haven’t really felt the need to share my hauls lately. Now my book ban is temporarily over and I am back to annoying my local stores. (insert evil laugh)

Yes, that’s me in the above photo in the bookstore recently. My good blogger friend at The Book Slayer made the suggestion I take a pic with my first trip going back since it’d been such a long hiatus. Haha. I really wasn’t planning to at first, but then my shopping buddy snapped it and I decided to share. By the way, I happened to be standing by one of my favorite author’s books, so it worked out (Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely just in case you were wondering.).

So yes! For a change I have a great haul in the last month (most particularly the store-bought ones in the last week) and I’m so excited to share!

Bought:


Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
Shadow & Bone by Leigh Bardugo (FINALLY…I hugged it.)
The 5th Wave by Rick Yancy
Juliet Immortal by Stacey Jay (Not pictured--it was borrowed by a friend)
3 X-Men Comic Books

Received for Review from Quirk Books:

The Resurrectionist by E.B. Hudspeth

*I also received Monsters (Ashes #3) by Ilsa J.Bick a few weeks ago from EgmontUSA but can’t share the photo of this ARC copy since they haven’t released the cover yet. Just take my word that it’s pretty awesome! :P I almost made an oops the first day I got it from all of my excitement because I didn’t know it wasn’t a released cover, and tweeted it, and had to quickly delete it within two minutes. Ack! So embarrassing. Luckily I was forgiven. Ha.

E-galleys I’ve been approved of in the last couple of weeks (I’m really excited for these!):

The Humans by Matt Haig
Rush by Eve Silver



Did you have a haul this last week or two?

　


Happy reading!