Tag: discussion post

Top Ten Tuesday – Non-Bookish Hobbies

Posted on by

Hello everyone and welcome to today’s Top Ten Tuesday post!

Today’s topic is actually a little premature as it’s earmarked for Tuesday 3rd November. Unfortunately, I have a blog tour that day but I really wanted to share the post anyway. It’s especially relevant at the moment as I am finding myself turning more to non-bookish hobbies.  I also think this post is a fun way for you to get to know a little more about me!

So, here are my top ten non-bookish hobbies, and for fun, I’m posting them in reverse order: –

 

Logic Puzzles

From classic puzzle books, Sudoku, codebreakers and hanjie are puzzles I really enjoy trying to decode. Classic games like Minesweeper are fun too. I think it’s fair to say that I don’t have a particular bias towards numbers, words or pictures when it comes to employing logic to solve a puzzle – I just enjoy the challenge of using the clues I’m given to complete a puzzle.

I haven’t done a logic grid puzzle in a long time, but those are good too! Half the battle with those is reading the word clues very carefully to make sure you got all the information out of them.

 

Watch documentaries

I don’t watch much TV, but lately, I’ve taken to watching documentaries. I’ve watched nearly3 series’ of Blowing Up History over the past couple of months, as well as David Attenborough’s The Galapagos Islands docu-series. I’m sure I watched these years ago, but I enjoyed it again! I also enjoy TV mystery/thrillers and dramas, but I haven’t watched so many of those lately.

 

Watching YouTube

From instructional videos to watching people play games like Minecraft, I enjoy watching a video or two on YouTube… especially when I’m eating.

 

Play Minecraft

Playing Minecraft is something I also enjoy, although I haven’t logged on for a little while now. The last time I went to play I discovered my wireless mouse was broken. That was the end of August. I tend to play Minecraft for a bit and then stop, but then get back into it again. I haven’t played all that much since the Nether update went live, so maybe that’s my excuse to get back into it again! The next update has just been announced and sounds great, so I’ll definitely be getting back into it again when that’s released!

 

Listening to music

I almost forgot to add this to my list even though it’s something I do every day. That’s precisely the reason I overlooked it – it’s an ingrained habit. I love music across a variety of genres. From some of the more modern music to singer/songwriter, musical tracks and even soundtracks (I’m sure you’ll be REALLY surprised to know I have all the Game of Thrones soundtracks downloaded… NOT!) I really enjoy a variety of music. It depends on my mood as to what I listen to.

 

Writing

It’s hard to think of writing and blogging as separate to reading given that the two have gone so hand-in-hand for such a long time. But, they are technically different hobbies. I like taking the time to share my thoughts on something, whether it’s a book, an idea – you name it… I’ll have an opinion on it! Taking the time to write several times a week over the course of a few years stacks up and consequently, I find it a lot easier to write now than I did when I started blogging in 2017.

 

Knitting

Knitting is a new hobby I’ve taken up in the last month or two and I’m enjoying the challenge of it. I learned the very basics of knitting as a child, so I’m not completely new to it. I think my knowledge of it only went so far as learning the garter stitch and figuring out (the hard way) how not to add or drop stitches. That first ‘scarf’ I made, was awful. I can still picture that first section I did in brown, full of holes and scruffy as anything. In hindsight, the colour choice was a premonition for how it was going to turn out…

I still make plenty of mistakes now, but I’m also taking on more stitches and more complicated patterns… so that’s my excuse.

 

Crochet

I’ve been crocheting longer than knitting; however, I love the two just as much!! Ironically, crochet is the more complicated of the two crafts (in my opinion) as there are more stitch types and combinations etc but I found that easier to learn than knitting.

A little weird fact for you – I learned how to do these crafts at different times and in different ways, so I knit right-handed but crochet left-handed.

 

Learn new things

I guess you have probably figured out from some of the entries here that a lot of my ‘motivation’ behind them is learning new things. More than anything, I love to learn – whether it is picking up a new skill or just finding out something I didn’t know yesterday. I enjoyed going to school (for the most part) and so I try to make everyday a school day!

 

Spend time with friends/family

Above all these things, my friends and family mean the most to me and so spending time with them is the thing I look forward to most. I am very lucky to be close to my family and we see each other a lot! I also have a close-knit circle of friends that are great fun to spend time with. You see a lot of jokes about readers and avoiding socialising in favour of staying home and reading. I’m really not like that at all. I do enjoy socialising and I’m grateful for the wonderful people I have in my life. I’d give up every hobby in this list for them if I had to, so of course they take the top spot on this list!

 

What are your hobbies? Let’s chat and get to know each other!

 

 

signature

Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads

Book Subscription Boxes – Yay or Nay?

Posted on by

Book Subscription Boxes have really taken off in recent years. If you are stuck for finding a new read, need a push to pick up something different or are just curious, book subscription boxes are a good way to expand your reading horizons.

Just to give an idea of how many subscription services there are, and the themes/genres they cater to, here is a list published by the Independent that may be of interest. I couldn’t possibly list them all here, but to summarise – if there is a niche, it’s probably catered for.

I’ve toyed with the idea of one before; I’ve even done a decent amount of research to find one that’s a good fit for me. I always find myself talking myself out of it, however, and for the same reasons. I’m not saying that books subscription boxes aren’t great – others really enjoy them. If you do, I’d love to hear why! But here are my reasons and reservations over signing up to one personally: –

 

Books

I don’t like the idea of not having a choice over the books I would get. There is nothing worse for me than not liking a book, especially when I’ve paid for it. I say that at the risk of sounding tight-fisted, but that’s not the case at all. I spend more than enough on books. In fact, I buy a lot of the books I read and feature on my blog in one format or another. But if I spend my hard-earned money on a book and then I don’t enjoy it, or can’t read it, I feel cheated. Even I get it wrong. There are books I have ‘vetted’ and bought expecting to love them but didn’t. It’s disappointing, but it happens. I did the best thing I could with them and donated them to charity.

With a book subscription box, I’m one further step removed from the book or books I’ll receive. I’m pretty open-minded about what I’ll pick up, but that doesn’t mean I’ll read and love everything I get. I’m of the opinion that with a subscription box, I’m at more risk of getting something I wouldn’t want than if I just went to my local bookstore and chose something for myself. For the same reason, I don’t get on with book clubs. Ultimately, I don’t want to invest (financially or my time) into something I don’t want to read. There’s plenty more out there I will want to read. It’s as simple as that.

Yes, subscription boxes are more likely to encourage you to broaden your horizons. I don’t dispute that. If you love that then a subscription might work for you. Personally, if I want to try something new or that I’m unsure of, I’m more likely to try and borrow it from my library instead. That way if I don’t like it, I haven’t lost anything.

 

Book Related Merchandise

I have watched a good few ‘unboxing’ videos on YouTube and some of the subscription boxes are really cute with their themed book and extra goodies. From bookmarks to badges and beverage samples, they have an array of complementary items perfect for book lovers.

My personal bugbear is that after a year of subscriptions I’d be fast on my way to clogging up the house with, for want of a word, crap. Yes, themed bookmarks and little candles are cute, but can I possibly use them all? No. I don’t even have particularly like-minded friends I could pass them onto. Some come with some beautiful stationery, which I admit I would like. Let’s be honest though – I’m a stationery fiend and I don’t need any help hoarding more!

 

Pricing

Can I talk about the elephant in the room and say that some subscription box services are really expensive?! Not all of them are – I feel the need to jump in with that in case there are those interested that haven’t really done the research into it to know the market. But still, how some of them justify the price, I’m not sure.

The prices of the subscription range featured in the Independent’s article range from 9.99 to 34.99 per month. I find the top end of that to be quite pricey. I have found other boxes advertised for as much as £49 online. Fair enough, quite often they feature new or exclusive stuff. I suppose what it boils down to is whether you are willing to pay for that. That’s an entirely personal choice, but for me, it’s a no. I’d rather spend my money on another book instead.

 

Have you received a book subscription box before? What do you think of them? I’d love to hear your experiences or thoughts about them!

 

 

signature

Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads

Netgalley: Yay or Nay?

Posted on by

I signed up to Netgalley not long after I started my blog, however, I am still unsure really as to how I feel about it two years on.

Back in May 2018 I published a post called Five Reasons I don’t Rate Netgalley. Every point in that post still stands. I am only a very occasional user of the service. It comes in handy for some blog tours I take part in, but it’s rare that I go on and have a browse to find something of my own accord.

A lot of bloggers love the site and frequently brag about downloading too many books; I just don’t understand it. I can’t say I have ever found many books I want to download on there at any one time. At best, I’ll make the odd request here and there. I have one currently for The Mothers by Sarah Naughton, but that’s all.

My profile is too small to successfully request the newest and most popular books, but equally, I would feel that in order to get to a point where I would be accepted, I would have to read a lot of books I’m not that interested in to get there. I’m not doing it. I am not going to force myself to read books that don’t appeal to me.

If I’m honest, I think it is over-rated. I keep my account because it does come in handy. Sometimes it makes for a change to see what else is out there, or to try a debut author. I’ll never be one of these bloggers that live off Netgalley and I am okay with that. There are so many amazing books elsewhere that I don’t feel I am missing out.

Do you use Netgalley? What are your thoughts on the site?

 

signature

Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads

Books I Wish I Had Never Read

Posted on by

It’s rare that I have such strong feelings against books, but sometimes, you do really wish you never read. Whether it’s because they are difficult to get into, have flat storylines or disappointing endings, no one wants to want to DNF a book. Mind you, with some of these… I wish I had!

Which books do I wish I had never read?

 

American Gods – Neil Gaiman

I enjoyed Neil Gaiman’s Stardust well enough, but American Gods fell short of expectation. At the time I was reading it there was a lot of hype about the Netflix series too, which didn’t make me feel any better about not loving it. I finished the book with mixed feelings, but it left more questions than answers. It was confusing and not at all what I expected. After I read it, I was told that re-reading it would be a benefit. I quickly changed my mind though – I’ve wasted several hours on it already. My copy went to charity and hopefully to a more appreciative reader than I.

 

Re-Wired – S. R. Johannes

I don’t like DNFing if I can avoid it, but I had to for this Netgalley download. The main character, in my opinion, is extremely unlikeable (to the point of intolerable) and unrelatable. I felt the pacing of the narrative was jumpy and inconsistent too, which made for difficult reading. I wasn’t enjoying it, so I stopped. Simple as. I wish I hadn’t downloaded it. I didn’t even bother to review it here on my blog. It got one on Goodreads and on Netgalley only.

 

Ekata: Fall of Darkness

… AND here is another Netgalley download that turned out to be a poor choice for me. Put it this way, this is how I summarised my review: –

If you like reading about moody, insecure and overly-hormonal teenagers, spending every free moment not training to save the world fawning over each other, then this book is definitely for you!

My God, I just wanted to bash these character’s heads together. Aside from the mushy relationship between them, they were pretty flat. The ending wasn’t great either – totally set up for a sequel but there is no decent conclusion to the events of the book. The only thing I liked about the book was the world-building.

 

Books of Pellinor – Alison Croggan

This series is about 2,000 pages all-in-all, so not a short one. I was actually really enjoying it, but the last book and the conclusion to the series totally ruined the rest of it for me. Rather, should I say what conclusion? The ending was rushed into the last few pages and consequently it’s anti-climactic. If you took the last 100 odd pages of The Singing and re-wrote it, it could be fantastic.

As it is, I feel like I wasted my time with the whole thing now.

 

The Darkness That Comes Before – R Scott Bakker

This is a clear winner for the top choice in books I wish I had never read. The worse thing is, I convinced myself to stick with it thinking it would get better. It didn’t. As an epic fantasy novel, it should have been right up my street. The world-building was confusing, the characters not that likeable or even interesting and there is a lot of focus on the religion and Holy War that I couldn’t invest into. Sorry to say, I wasn’t a fan of it… AT ALL!

I have enjoyed so many books like it before, but this was just something else. Never again will I attempt to read this book, or even this author. That’s how much I have been put off!

What books do you wish you had never read?

 

 

signature

Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads

 

 

Paid Advertising – Is it worth it?

Posted on by

I’ve often wondered whether forking out my hard-earned money to pay for advertising on Facebook/Instagram was worth it. I decided to run a little experiment at the end of September to see whether it made a difference to my regular traffic and if I would get the promised 86-240 odd viewers a day for my advert.

To try and maximise the potential, I tried to choose a very neutral post – one that would appeal to as many people as possible. I wanted to stay away from reviews to avoid genre bias. In the end, I opted for my recent Book Blogger Problems tag. I paid $5 for the advert to last five days, which reached viewers on both Facebook and Instagram. Shall we see how both did?

 

Facebook

Facebook indicated that I could expect between 80 and 240 odd viewers a day for this advert. I was grossly disappointed with it. At the end of the five days, these are the stats.

Yes, I got a measly 37 engagements. I didn’t even get the suggested minimum per day over the span of the advert! I dread to think how an advert performed if you picked more selective content. The more niche you go then in theory you’ll get less viewers. I barely got any as it is.

As of writing this post, I have had just over 4,550 views in the 900 days since beginning my blog. That averages at 5 views a day. In the five day advert period, my page views varied from 3 – 21.

Comparing this advert period with the first few days of October, I’ve had nearly as many page views and interactions organically compared with the advert period. Okay, Blogtober will be having a bit of an effect on the figures as I have fresh content every day, but still, not massive. Only 7 of 37 actually went on to look at my blog, and I have no new subscribers for the trouble.
Could do better, Facebook.

 

Instagram

The stats for Instagram don’t look any better either, I am sad to say. The post received 21 likes in the period.
I would say that normally isn’t to be sniffed at… but this is how my posts perform normally WITHOUT advertising. In fact, I have posts which have performed better, such as my post about winning a signed copy of The Testaments.
My promoted post didn’t refer anyone to my blog, either. I didn’t expect as many from Instagram as Facebook, but as it happens I got none at all.

 

So – Is it worth it?

In my experience and opinion, absolutely not! I won’t be bothering again. I know for a fact that if I put the effort into blog hopping and reading new blogs etc, I could get more viewers to my blog and my content myself.

Sure, I am sure advertising is great if you don’t have the time to do this. Maybe if I had spent more it would have had a bigger impact. As it stands, the traffic to my blog and the “boost” my content got was so paltry that it isn’t even worth it.

I’ll save my money to buy something else more exciting in future… like more books!

Have you or would you ever paid for advertising? Did it work for you?

 

 

signature

Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads

Manx LitFest – Re-telling of Frankenstein by Ben Haggarty and Sianed Jones

Posted on by

A couple of weeks ago now I attended a fantastic event – a re-telling of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein by Ben Haggarty and Sianed Jones.

 

About the Book

We all know the story. Frankenstein, in his fascination for creating “perfect life” through his love of science, accidentally creates a monster. Horrified, he shuns the monster which flees and goes into hiding.

Frankenstein’s monster gradually evolves from a base-instinct creature to something more human by learning from them secretly. But humans don’t accept him; they reject him for his horrifying appearance. Therefore, his loneliness and rage for the contempt shown make him a bitter, twisted creature. Frankenstein comes to rue the day of the monster’s creation.

 

 

Organisers

The event was held as part of the Manx LitFest in September. The first Manx LitFest took place in September 2012. So, this year was the seventh such festival.

In addition, as this year marks the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, organisers approached Ben Haggarty for the event. Ben is the leader of the Crick Crack Club, a successful performance storytelling group in the UK. He has performed at the Manx LitFest in previous years and they appealed to him (not for the first time) to perform Frankenstein. This year, he agreed.

 

Location

The Gaiety Theatre was the ideal location. Constructed at the end of the Victorian era and opened to the public in July 1900, it is an old theatre. Historically, it has undergone extensive restoration work to preserve the building as close to the original design as possible. As a result, the ornate Victorian architecture of the building itself truly set the tone before the performance even began.

Fun fact: The Gaiety Theatre is one of the few remaining theatres in the world to have a functioning Corsican Trap.

I also had the benefit of a central seat in the third row… and I confess I turned up quite early. So, I spent a while admiring the place whilst I waited. It’s not that I have never been before; I have never been on my own before. You notice quite a lot of things when there aren’t distractions to keep you from them!

 

My Thoughts…

Ben Haggarty (as the primary storyteller) and Sianed Jones (multi-instrumental and vocal accompaniment) performed Frankenstein very well. The musical pieces performed by Sianed are the perfect counterpart to Ben’s narration. At times the music helps to build the atmosphere and tension. In others, it serves to break up the narration and keeps the performance flowing. As a result, it added the right atmosphere to an already haunting tale.

The storytelling itself was excellent. Ben has a real talent for conducting himself on stage and consequently keeping the audience engaged. No word was left unpolished and no gesture unplanned. Consequently, he portrayed each of the characters clearly and perfectly. Naturally, Ben has to embody a number of roles at any given time and he switches between them effortlessly! The dialogue in which Frankenstein and the monster confront each other is intense and very well executed.

The fact that I rushed home and picked up the book straightaway is a testament to how much I enjoyed this performance. This was the first time that I attended an event like this… and I am glad I did!

I sincerely hope it isn’t the last.

 

Do we encourage children to read as much as we could?

Posted on by

It only takes one look at my blog to establish that I am a voracious reader. I haven’t always been so fanatical about it though. I’ve always enjoyed reading, even as a child, but it was only since the beginning of last year that I truly caught the book bug.

My mum and dad had been reading to me long before I could l talk. Granted, I probably spent a lot of the time either staring vacantly at the pictures or trying to snatch the book from them at first. All beginnings are humble ones. Whether conscious or not, children learn from the example set by adults – and who are they around more than their parents? Be it by direct interaction or just observing others;

 

babies are like sponges.

 

I am sure there are many parents out there that discovered this very quickly. My mum did too. I took my time in learning to crawl, which eventually progressed to walking. What I lacked in motivation to move, however, I made up for elsewhere. In particular, I was very good at picking up words – rude ones especially. I was caught muttering phrases like “oh for fuck’s sake” to myself many a time. Even when you think kids aren’t paying attention, they are – aren’t they mum?

Kids have amazing skill sets and they’re completely underestimated. They will unashamedly declare that they “SNIFFED BACK THEIR SNOT”, or that the person in front of you at the checkout smells, much to the amusement of any adult (quietly tittering to themselves) too polite/honest to say so. If they can pick upon such obvious things, it makes you wonder what else fails to escape their notice.

A child’s mind really starts to mature once they go to school (or alternative education). They are introduced to a world of small people, just like them. They are no longer the centre of attention. They have to share and make friends and find their place in the world. Most importantly of all though, they start to learn. In order to do that, they have to learn to read – and this is expected to be encouraged at home.  

 

But do we really do enough to encourage our children to read?

 

We have already established that reading is an integral part of learning, but are we setting the right example? Statistics would suggest, not exactly.

A YouGov study conducted in 2014 gave some interesting results when British adults were asked about their reading habits. The study includes quite a lot of information, including age demographic, gender and location. If you want to take a look at the results yourself, you can find them here:-

 

One of the most interesting points, in my opinion, was how nearly 50% of adults described themselves as either avid or regular readers. Note that this is entirely subjective, so we cannot really comment on or assess this piece of information. What I found most shocking though (as an avid reader I admit I am biased), was how many books most of those questioned reported to read. The most common answer was between 3 and 5 books.

 

What this means…

 

To get an idea of how this works out on a practical scale, I did some searching on Google. A rough estimate for average words per novel has been suggested at about 90,000 and the average reading speed at 300 words per minute. Let’s take those numbers and apply it to an adult who says they read the maximum number of books in that bracket (5). Do you know how many minutes a day an adult would have to read to hit this target over the course of a year?

Five. Only five minutes a day. 

Another, broader study also came to similar conclusions, reporting four books as the most common response given by a similar sample size of readers. This study, in contrast to the one quoted above, is American rather than British. You can find the link to the article here.

So, if the vast majority of parents are reading the equivalent of fewer than five minutes a day, is that really sending our children the right message? We all have our own families, commitments, and schedules. I am not trying to pass judgment here… only to make you ask yourself the following question:  

Could we do more to show children that reading is fun? Could we all read a little more to show that it is more than just a chore, or learning exercise?