Birthday Haul!

TODAY is my birthday. I am 24 years young. :) Had a wonderful birthday celebration weekend. Had my party on Friday, my niece's 1st birthday on Saturday, and went to a haunted hayride with a bunch of awesome people on Sunday. Needless to say, I'm exhausted, which is why I took today off: to lay around my house and do nothing all day! :) Mainly I'm here to show off my birthday book haul. I must say Sean did pretty good for himself considering he is not a book guy at all (though I think he may be entering the world of audio books! Who knows... maybe we'll see a guest post from my boo one day... hm..)

He got me:

Perfect Ruin by Lauren DeStefano

(isn't that cover freaking gorgeous?!)

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith

I then purchased for myself, with birthday funds:

Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shephard, and

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

(this one is a re-read, I just needed a new copy)

He also got me this:

A pillow to lounge around and read on..

And...

Wait for it...

He got me...

AN IPAD MINI!!!

What's also freaking AWESOME is that my parents got me this:

(my actual copies are at my mom's and I have to go get them later.. boooo)

All in all, a great weekend. And now for some pictures of my weekend! Enjoy! :)

My birthday celebration - before the bar

After the bar!

This brat's actual birthday was yesterday.

Haunted Hayride group

Now I'm off to lounge around with Sean and do absolutely nothing for the entire day! Thanks for stopping by to share in my birthday fun! Talk to you all soon!

A.

Features - Are they just too much?

For those of you who follow my blog, if I come up on your Bloglovin' of GFC feed, you most likely came upon my blog through a feature - either Top Ten Tuesday or Feature and Follow Friday, which are the two I generally always participate in (if that isn't the case, let me know - I'd love to know how we became blogging pals!) When I first started this blog, my main goal (aside from reading and reviewing) was networking and posting. I felt like if I only posted my reviews, I'd be posting - what?, once a week, if that? And I wanted to meet people, other bloggers. Hence, features and memes (cue hallelujah music).

Top Ten Tuesday: I love this feature, mostly because I love lists more than anything else in life, but sometimes I simply cannot relate to the list or think of more than one or two things to put on said lists.

This is what I feel like when trying to get all the features up.

Feature and Follow Friday: Definitely sometimes a fun topic, especially now that they've mixed things up a bit, but I definitely do this one more for the networking aspect.

I used to participate in Waiting on Wednesday, but as my TBR list grew with already-released books, I found it hard to focus on unreleased ones I really wanted every single week. Sometimes I would do the Mailbox Monday, or Booking Through Thursday, but it all just seems too much, doesn't it?

Lately, I find I've been forcing myself to participate in at least those two, and I do enjoy them, but I'm finding I'm getting sick of the same old stuff. I wish I had more discussion post ideas, but I don't. Psht, I wish I had more time, but I also don't.

So my question for you is: When you are reading a blog and it's posting about features and memes that you don't participate in, do you bother to read them? I know I hardly do unless it has a specific topic that catches my eye (e.g. Harry Potter), so I imagine that the case would be the same for most bloggers such as myself. Do you think it's too much? Would you rather read a blog that posts every day, but often with features and memes (blitzes, interviews, giveaways, etc, even though I don't really do these), blogs that have lots of reviews and discussion posts, or blogs that focus on their reviews, even if they might only be once per week? Is there something else you like to see on a blog?

My main concern is that I don't want to get bogged down in the social aspect of blogging (even though I looovveeee you guys, and would never shy away from the social aspect as a whole), because the whole point of book review blogs is to review. And I've been focusing a lot on reading as much as possible and getting out at least one review per week, though I'd love to do more.

Anyway, what are your thoughts on blogs that are always overrun with book blitzes, features, etc, and blogs that just pump out the basics? Or do you prefer a happy medium?

I'd love to discuss this with you guys, see how other people see the blogging world... :)

A.

To Read or Not to Read?! THAT is the question...

I have a READING DILEMMA!!! This never happens to me. First, let me ask you this:

If you push through a book you don't like, do you go on to the next in the series, give the author another chance? Or do you forget it ever existed and move on to the next series?

I generally do finish books and series. In fact, I usually finish a book and/or series no matter what because I don't like to leave things unfinished. But I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. I have read the first two books in the Caster Series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, Beautiful Creatures and Beautiful Darkness.

I sort of enjoyed the first one because it was a fresh, unique world to explore. The second book, while somewhat enjoyable, left a bad taste in my mouth for the series as a whole - I just dont get the books.

I promised myself I'd read the next two, but just thinking about picking up the next one after reading two I just didn't love... I don't know if I can do it.

I know what you're all going to tell me: just don't read them. I know. Reading shouldn't be about forcing yourself to read anything, but just me as a person, I hate leaving things unfinished. It gives me anxiety :)

So instead of telling me what I should do from an objective POV, tell me what you would do if you'd already invested yourself halfway through a series that just rubbed you the wrong way?

HELP!

A.