It's A Start | Book Talk #1

I'm starting a new series. Again. I don't know what I'm thinking. This came to me as I was binge watching Ariel Bissett's videos. I love her content and how she isn't afraid to voice her honest, sometimes brutally so, opinions. She puts up a lot of really interesting discussions about mostly modern literature and they're really worth checking out if you love those kind of things. Or if you love books in general, really. Just check it out. She's great.

On her channel, she doesn't do monthly wrap-ups like most booktubers do. Instead, she's got a series called 'Book Reviews' where she talks briefly about what she thinks of the books that she's read. She said that sometimes she doesn't have that much to say to put up a full length review for a book. So, she accumulates short reviews every couple of months to share her opinions about what she read in between one review video and another. Does that make sense? I hope it does. You can watch her latest Book Review video by clicking here. She explains it better than I can. clicky, clicky.

Because I'm not very good at writing lengthy reviews, I decided to do the same thing. Review a few books in smaller chunks to share my thoughts on them. I think it will make it easier for me to keep track of what I'm reading. I also think that it will help me with my reading challenge in one way or another.

Okay, enough with the rambling. Let's get on to the reviews!

2016 Reading Challenge

If you haven't noticed, there's a new tab on the top of my blog. It has been there for a couple of weeks. So you can check it out after you finish reading this post. Click click, people.

The reading challenge is from a PopSugar article which you can check out here if you want to print it out for yourself. It is basically a list of categories that you can check off as you read something that match it. Simple as that.

I attempted this challenge last year and failed ever so miserably. So, I want to try again and see how I go with this one. There are 40 challenges in total and since I set reading 40 books as one of my 2016 goals, I can read one book for each challenge. I opt for 40 because it was my goal for 2015 and I failed. I have always read more than 40 books since 2012 and it was a slap in the face for me that I failed the reading challenge last year. So this year, I'm trying for a redemption. I hope I can get it together. *fingers crossed*

This doesn't mean that I'm gonna read based on the categories in the challenge. You know I'm not that dedicated. I'm still going to read whatever the hell I want, but it would be great if most of them could help me check off the boxes. Maybe once in a while I will read something that fits the categories to branch out. I tend to stay in the YA or Middle Grade bubble most of the time and I think it's time for me to read something different.

You can tell me if you are participating in any reading challenges in the comment below if you want. I'm interested in what you guys plan to read (or currently reading) in 2016.

I'll see you next time!
Riz

Hashtag Goals | 2016 Resolutions

More like "resolutions", you feel? No, you probably don't feel. What I'm saying is the word "resolution" has always been kind of vague to me. Plus I never really take my yearly resolutions seriously anyway. I mostly use it as a guideline of what I want to achieve instead of something that I have to stick to. I don't beat myself too hard if I don't check it off by the end of the year, but I do make sure that I at least try to have it crossed out.

My resolutions for the past couple years has always been really vague. Be more organised? What does that even mean, past me? So this year I'll try to make it more specific so I could measure my achievement. And actually feel like I've achieved something, you know?

So here are my goals for 2016:

It Has Been A Good Year | 2015 Favourites

It's 2016. Wow. Nothing's really changed or improved just yet. But it was my dad's birthday a few days ago but I can't be with my family then which was kind of sad. Although, we talked on the phone for a few minutes (and it's freaking expensive) which was nice.

2016 has been going for a few days now. It's not too bad so far. I read a few books already, starting the year strong. Well, most of them are graphic novels but they are sooo good. They're like the chocolate chips cookies of books. I love them quite a bit.

Anyway, I've told you that 2015 was such a lovely year for me in my last post. I also talked about the wonderful memories that I had during the year. Now, I can't possibly not share my favourite things as well, can I? Well, I can but I'm telling you anyway so suck it.