Tuesday Tag #1 How I Read

There are a heap of tags out there! I've found lots of great new books by reading/watching tag videos and posts so I thought I would dedicated some Tuesdays to answering some of these. Hopefully you can get some ideas for books to read too.

I saw this tag over at Pan Alchemist's blog so head on over there to check out her answers too. 

"How I read" Tag
1) How do you find out about new books to read?
A combination of book tube, blogs, good reads and seeing what's being promoted by my favourite bookstores.  Because I'm doing a few challenges I also look up books based on titles that fit into the challenges and find new and interesting books that way.

The latest book I found was The Lost and the Found by Cat Clarke.It's about a girl who's sister went missing when she was younger and is now coming home. Can't wait to check it out.


 2) How did you get into reading?
School. I'm a bit of a nerd and I really loved school. I tried really hard at school so in primary school that meant reading lots of books from the book bin which got me started. In later primary there was the Baby Sitters club! Oh how I loved them... lol. Then in high school I had some great English teachers who picked some great books for us to read and study and that cemented my love of reading. 



3) How has your taste in books changed since you've got older?
I've always been a pretty wide reader, so not really.

4) How often do you buy books?
I try not to buy too many. I'll buy a book when I find it on sale or at a good price. Books can be very expensive in Australia so I try not to buy too many, plus I have limited space on my bookshelf. I do buy a book at least once a month for my book club though.


5) How did you get into booktubing? (Blogging)
I haven't stared booktubing.... yet. I've been thinking about it but I'm a bit shy and there can be a lot of hate out there on Youtube. I used to have a blog to share all my crafting endeavours so I am familiar with blogging, and thought this would be a nicer way for me to share my thoughts. If you have a blog or a blog recommendation let me know in the comments!

6) How do you react when you don't like the end of a book?
I can't say this happens all that much. I guess if I don't like the ending I'll quickly forget about the book and there fore how it ended.

7) How often have you taken a sneaky look at the back page of a book to see if it's a happy ending?
Nope. I like that feeling of racing towards the last page to find out what happens. Why would I want to spoil it for myself.

8) How many people are you going to tag, and who are they?
If you would like to play along please do! And leave a link down below so I can see your answers. 

Happy Reading
Sarah

Monday Musings (June 29)

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by A Daily Rhythm that asks you to answer a question from a list of prompts. I decided to answer a few :)

I am currently reading... The Girl with all the Gifts by M.R. Carey. It's not quite what I expected but it's pretty good.

Up next I think I'll read...Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. I am in need of some romantic contemporary very soon. I think this will fit the bill perfectly.

I bought the following books in the past week... My birthday came early!! My husband gave me two books (3 weeks early) He's so nice! I got The Martian by Andy Weir (yay!) and Lexicon by Max Barry.

I can't wait to get a copy of... Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee. It's not long till the sequel to "To Kill a Mockingbird" comes out. I need to re-read the original very soon.

Would love to know what you've been reading and what you're looking forward to.
Happy Reading
Sarah

Five on Friday #1

Today's topic is 5 books I'm looking forward to reading

1. A Court of Thorns and Roses - Sarah J. Maas
   The book that everyone's been talking about, I picked it up not that long ago and hope to get to it soon.
2. The Martian - Andy Weir
   Am hoping to get this for my Birthday (I've nagged my husband about it so I hope he gets the hint!) I really want to read this before the movie comes out, and before I accidentally see a trailer for it.
3. What Alice Forgot - Lianne Moriarty
   I loved The Husband's Secret so bought 2 Lianne Moriarty books for Mum for mothers day, she's finished this one so has passed it onto me. She liked it so I hope I do too
4. Anna and the French Kiss - Stephanie Perkins
   I am in desperate need for some fun and romance, and I've heard great things about this book. Plus I need to read it before it's due back at the Library
5. To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
   Technically a Re-Read, but am really looking forward to rediscovering this beautiful book before the sequel is released... not long to go now!

What books are you looking forward to reading?
Happy Reading
Sarah

Monday Musings (June 15)

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by A Daily Rhythm that asks you to answer a question from a list of prompts. You can visit the post here. I decided to answer a few :)

I am currently reading... Vicious by V.E. Schwab. I've just got one word - amazing! Need to finish writing this post so I can get back to it asap.


Up next I think I'll read...The Girl with all the Gifts - It's my bookclub book for this month so I need to get on that.

I bought the following books in the past week... In Dymocks I found a box set of the first three Throne of Glass novels and may have convinced my husband to buy it for my Birthday. Which feeds into the next prompt

I wish I could read..., but ....  I want to read Throne of Glass but can't because it's not my Birthday for another month!!

I can't wait to get a copy of... The Martian by Andy Weir. The trailer for the movie adaptation just came out and my husband wants to go see it so I need to read the book before I see any spoilers.

Would love to know what you've been reading and what you're looking forward to.
Happy Reading
Sarah

My Thoughts on Stars

Generally speaking we give books a star rating out of five. And I think this has some problems.

It is so hard to rate a book like To Kill a Mockingbird against something like Fangirl. They are both great books but in completely different ways. As far as I'm concerned they are both 5/5 books because I enjoyed them both so much. But when I am awarding my 5 stars, I just can't give 5 stars to Fangirl because when it comes down to it, it doesn't come close to the greatness of To Kill a Mockingbird. They just aren't in the same league.

I know that there are half stars too, but goodreads doesn't allow for this so you have to decide between 4 or 5 stars. And when it comes down to it A LOT of books are going to be rounded up from 3.5 and down from 4.5 to fit into that 4 star category. So it's hard to see a difference between all the 4 star books.

I think a book can be 5 stars in it's genre or for it's purpose and not be a truly five star book in the grand scheme of all books. Literature is so hard to rate against chick lit. Really a book can be a better book as a whole, but get less stars because I didn't enjoy it as much. It doesn't seem right. 

I look back at some of the books I have given star ratings to several years ago and I think to myself, "How on earth did I rate that book a 5 star book?" But I guess at the time I loved it and hadn't read as widely then, or was into a different style then. Do I change the rating based on what I think now? 

I think I need to decide how I'm going to rate my books and just go from there, but I don't feel like I've found the right system yet. What system do you use?

Here are some questions for you...

How you you rate books? 

Do you wish there was another ratings system?

Do you change your mind about ratings? 

Would you like another way to rate things?

Do you think about whether books will stand the test of time when rating them?

Do you take into account classic 5 star books when rating the latest releases?

Any other thoughts?

I would love to hear from you

Sarah

May Wrap Up

The start of the month went swimmingly! I read so much in the lead up to and during Bout of Books 13.0. But then I hit a super slump... I kept reading but the book I was reading really felt like a chore. I've finished that now and feel a bit more enthused about the book I'm reading now :)

Books:
Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell
Sufficient Grace - Amy Espeseth
We Were Liars - E.Lockhart
Horseradish - Lemony Snicket
Tales from Outer Suburbia - Shaun Tan
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl - Jesse Andrews
The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman
Scott Pilgrim vs. The Universe (Scott Pilgrim #5) - Bryan Lee O'Malley
Locke & Key (Vol.1 to 6) - Joe Hill

Total of 14 - which is pretty good. I can't believe I feel like I haven't been reading enough, this is heaps!!
I've written about a lot of these books during Bout of Books so I won't repeat my thoughts here but I will mention some of the other books I read this month.

Fangirl was amazing. I loved it so much, I can see why everyone is talking about it so much. I could really relate to the characters, I was engaged with their story, I kept turning the pages. This book had everything I needed for a really great read.
I wasn't so interested in the Simon Snow fan fiction. It was written well and would have been interesting as a book on it's own, but I felt like it took me away from the characters too much.
This book is 5 stars in it's niche (fun, easy to read, YA contemporary, romantic comedy) but 4 stars overall.

Sufficient Grace was interesting, it reminded me a lot of Montana 1948 which I read in high school. It was a story about two girls who live in rural america and their struggles. It was really well written, the descriptions were poetic and the scene was set beautifully. It was an slow book and emotional, but in a subtle kind of way. I enjoyed this for what it was.... but the blurb had one of my pet peeves, where it tells you a plot point that doesn't occur until 3/4s of the way through the book. (And in this case it wasn't even entirely correct!)

The Ocean at the End of the Lane was a bit of a struggle. I read the first half and was really enjoying it but then I hit a slump and struggled with the rest of it. I'm not sure if it was the book or if it was just me but I just wanted to be done with it. The images and events were fascinating, I liked the use of magic and how unique it was. I could appreciate this but couldn't enjoy it. Don't let my review put you off though, I'll give Neil Gaiman another go when I'm in a better reading mood.

Locke & Key was the best! I'm only new to graphic novels but this series was really enjoyable.  I said 'wow' out loud at least once every book, the story and art was amazing. I'm sold on the graphic novel concept now!

I'm halfway through the audio book of Shiver by Maggie Steifvater, hopefully will finish it in June.

Hope you had a good reading month. If you have any recomendations for something fun to read let me know.
Happy Reading
Sarah