Bookworms are generally peculiar little beasts.
Adorably peculiar, I might add. Which is the best kind of peculiar. We are fantastic little creatures that love books and darkness and warm hobbit holes and crumpets and WiFi and howling fervently over characters who don’t exist. * DOES THIS NOT EARN US THE “PECULIAR” TITLE, HMMM??
Now I’m sure ALL bookworms have our peculiar habits too. So why not list them down and (A) we can mutually nod and agree on odd things we do, and (B) you can also learn more about meeeeee. And I know you’re 100% keen on that because I am your favourite. **
* I fully admit that there are bookworms out there who are nice and friendly and enjoy sunshine and the outdoors and probably lettuce or something equally bizarre. And we should acknowledge they’re brilliant too. But obviously the darkness-hobbit-hiding-crumpet-consuming bookworms are better BECAUSE I AM ONE and I am of the best. Obviously.
** If this is not true, SHHHHH DON’T BREAK MY HEART OMG. Let me live in my delusions.
Today’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt is “Ten Facts About Me“ and I’m doing a confession-y twist on it because I only recently did a #WritersConfessions post and I thought these two would look pretty together. Plus who doesn’t like confessing all the things??? I know your evil little minds want to know.
- I REVIEW BOOKS 2 SECONDS AFTER FINISHING THEM.
Which means I rush into reviews full of feels and flailing emotions and either (A) fangirl magnanimously or (B) rant rigorously. It’s quite fun. It’s also full of peril. It ends with me howling about giraffe youtube videos (this happened) or comparing characters to various desserts or writing bullet-point lists of why I’m marrying the cover at dawn. But I genuinely must write my reviews this fast or I just forget everything. My brain is the cousin of Swiss Cheese.
- NAMES? WHAT NAMES? I REMEMBER NO NAMES.
Despite confessing to having name-crushes and having lists of favourite-names — I HAVE NO MEMORY FOR NAMES AT ALL. Especially books written in 1st person. Like what even is your name, person??? I finish a book. I stare at the book. I stare at my dribbling attempts to write a review. I think “Perhaps his name was Frank.” I spend a lot of time crying piteously.
ACCURATE REPRESENTATION OF MY FACE TRYING TO REMEMBER CHARACTER NAMES.
- I HAVE A SPREADSHEET TO CALCULATE MY READING.
Yes I’m on Goodreads too. GOODREADS AND A SPREADSHEET. I MEAN A LITTLE OVER THE TOP, MAYBE, CAIT???? (Never.) I am on a strict schedule to read 20 books per month (believe it or not, this is to stop me overchieving with my reading) and I calculate things like publisher, release date, country, diversity, source, and character names. Remember my last point about forgetting all the character names always? YEAH. So this one goes down like a poodle in a sea of avocado. BUT I WANT TO ANALYSE WHICH NAMES ARE OVER-USED IN YA. So heck yes I’ll take 365 days to do so. Myobsessiondedication knows no bounds.
- GOODREADS IS MY OTP.
I also review everything on Goodreads and like 15% of things on my blog. I basically only review ARCs on my blog. So all library books and bought-books just kersplat on Goodreads. ERGO YOU WANT TO FOLLOW ME THERE BY THE BY. Goodreads is like my darling, my BFF, my calculating little JARVIS partner, my OTP. Okay so it’s mildly obvious that I REALLY LIKE GOODREADS. NOW FOR SOME FUN FACTS ABOUT THIS:- My GR reviews are largely unedited.
- Meaning, dude, I just fangirl and ramble and typo like the Typo Queen I am.
- I have a challenge question for GR friends to ask how they found me.
- The answer I keep receiving is “BECAUSE YOU’RE EVERYWHERE CAIT.”
- Which means World Domination Plan A is working brilliantly. (Mwahahahhah ha ha hah.)
- I get a surprising amount of friend-requests from people who have logged 3 books and have 3,000 friends. I mean, WHYYYYYYYY. (They get denied, surprise surprise.)
- I update goodreads religiously.
- I’M #1 REVIEWER IN AUSTRALIA BTW.
- Making reading-status-updates are basically my favourite thing of ever.
THIS IS MY READING PROGRESS FOR DEATHLESS. I AMUSE MYSELF GREATLY.
- I REFUSE TO SAY CHARACTER NAMES CORRECTLY.
NOT ALWAYS! I’m not an disagreeable grape all the time. It’s just…LOOK SOME NAMES JUST DO NOT LOOK HOW THEY SOUND. For instance: Sean Kendrick from The Scoprio Races. (This book is my life by the way and it actually physically HURTS MY SOUL how much I love it.) I say “Seen”. I know it’s “Shawn”. BUT I CAN’T STOP SAYING SEEN. While reading Deathless, the main character is the Russian name “Koschei”. I’m trying to break the habit of “Ko-check” which to be honest I DON’T EVEN KNOW HOW I GOT THAT. It’s “Ko-shay”. Let’s just accept the fact that (A) I can’t read and (B) my brain rejects logic on occasion.
- I HATE PREDICTING PLOTS.
Okay I confess: IT MAKES ME FEEL SMART SOMETIMES. But ultimately??? It annoys me copiously because I came here for a good time, fiends. I didn’t come here to work out the killer on page-5 or to pick out which characters would die by chapter 3. And worse — I actually accurately predict books a lot. This is probably because (A) I’m a writer, so I’m always like “So who would I maim here” and whoops, there you are and there they go, and (B) I read a lot. A LOT. And after a while you just start to know. So books surprise me about 4% of the time and it’s tragic. Hold me while I cry, Bob.
- I PROCRASTINATE GOOD BOOKS.
I wrote a whole post on the bizarreness of this. But it comes down to the fact that (A) I am a Vulcan and do not like to feel all the things BECAUSE IT’S EXHAUSTING, ergo, I avoid books I know will be feelsy (even thogh I still do freaking love them….omg it makes no sense) and (B) I’m a wimp and always go for small books. If it’s 400+ pages — HELLO MY NAME IS PROCRASTINATION.
- FLUFFY BOOKS ARE MY NEMISES.
I need dragons. AND STABBING. And a little bit of maiming, okay??! I can’t stand this happy fluff with these ice cream dates and these proms and these hair catastrophes. I NEED COOKIES FROM THE DARK SIDE AND A BIT OF MURDER, JOHN. My favourite books = dark tragedy.
- I’M ABSOLUTELY OBSESSED WITH #BOOKSTAGRAM.
That is to say, if I see a photo of a pretty book — I JUST HAVE TO ADORE IT. And it also means that I buy books specifically for their cover. And if I really loved a book and know I’ll blog about it a lot? I must buy it strictly for bookish photos. Also I JUST HIT 10,000 FOLLOWERS so join me. I’m amazing. Not to mention the other slightly peculiar #bookstagram related things I do, like:- I scamper about the house stealing things for props.
- My parental has some gorgeous peacock feathers in her room.
- DON’T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT. I WOULDN’T STEAL THEM.
- Um, yes, I did buy a camera specifically for this
obsessionhobby. - Did I just acquire Penguin Postcards specifically for #bookstagram?
- Yes.
- Phrases I frequently shout: “IT’S AESTHETIC” and “IT’S FOR BOOKSTAGRAM YOU WOULDN’T UNDERSTAND.”
- Getting 1,000+ likes on a photo is the best thing of my ever. I might shriek.
- Packing up the photoshoot MESS is a race between me and my dog, who coincidentally likes to eat props.
- Conversations like so happen:
- Parental: “I have literally no photos of you.”
- Me: “BUT YOU CAN HAVE PHOTOS OF MY BOOKS SO ISN’T THAT FUN?”
- I CAN’T “DNF” BOOKS.
“DNF” doesn’t stand for “Delicious Nefarious Frosting” like it really ought to, but rather for “Did Not Finish”. And I finish everything I read. Unfortunately. This means I blaze through books that are worse than my toast making abilities (which is pretty bad) and I spend a lot of time writing crab-apple reviews (which I actually guilty enjoy writing, and oh oops, my evil overlord is showing) and I do get VERY FRUSTRATED READING SOMETIMES. But if I DNF I end up thinking about the book way too much. And part of me always hope the ending will be better??? Like sure the first 300-pages are worse than the idea of eating parsley pureed grasshopper legs, but WHAT IF THE ENDING INVOLVES DRAGONS AND TORTURE AND THE GOOD STUFF???? I must find out. I don’t like unfinished business.
OMGOODNESS I also pronouce Sean as “Seen”. I thought I was the only one who did that until now!!! I think I call him that because he likes the sea, and sea is in his name, soo Seen?? Also, YES to the forgetting character’s names in first-person books. Sometimes I end up referring to them as “I” because their name appeared about once in the first chapter and never again.
Now for my own confession…I judge a lot by the cover. I read blurbs of course, but a lot of the time I’ll grab the cover that I like the most in a bookstore and give it preferential treatment. Whoops.
AHHH MELISSA WE ARE SO TWINS!! *hi fives* I honestly would name my child Seen. And his life would be this confusion of “But how do I even say my name because my mother knows nothing”…bless me and my genius evil ideas. And like BEAN = SEAN = why aren’t they the same?!?
I totally cover judge too. ALL THE TIME. And it actually physically pains me if I really like a book but hate the cover.😂
CAIT I HOPE YOU’RE GOING TO SHARE SOME OF THE STATS FROM YOUR OBSESSIVE…erm, DEDICATED BOOK SPREADSHEETS. Because I love stats.
But yes, as you know, I am completely obsessed with Bookstagram. I just went on a book-buying spree on Book Depository and they all have gorgeous covers. No regrets.
I can’t DNF books either. I’m just too stubborn.
STUBBORNNESS FOR THE WIN. *hi fives* And I just feel guilty reviewing books without finishing them too…hahah. Omg. I’m a sad bean.
AND YES OF COURSE I WILL SHARE STATS. Probably at the end of the year in an epic stat saturated post. It’s gonna be awesome. :’) Let’s go with “dedicated” yes yes, not obsessed. I’m sure I’m sane and normal.
Also your bookstagram skills are AMAZING, BTW.
I also cannot DNF books, mainly because I always feel guilty if I do! Those papers, the effort the author gave to write the book, I don’t want to let them be in vain. As bad as the story goes, I have to finish it!
I’ve just finished reading Carry On, and there were moments where I wish I could stop reading for a few days because I didn’t want it to end! But I wanted to know what happened next!
Why is this such a huge problem to me I have no idea.
I’m glad I’m not alone with my anti-DNFing!!😂 And I feel super guilty if it’s like an ARC or what not. Because gahhhh, how can I accurately write a review if I didn’t finish?!? Although if I super hate the book I will skim. AHH I LOVED CARRY ON!! Once I got over thinking it was ripping off Harry Potter…hhahah. But the ending was TOTALLY unique and Simon/Baz foreverrrrr. <3
It’s so similar yet so different from Harry Potter!
Oh my goodness, a couple of days ago I was going through the Carry On tag on Tumblr and people were making a big deal about chapter 61. I hadn’t reached that chapter yet at that time, but then I DID. That chapter was WILD. SnowBaz, what an OTP.
Awesome post! 🙂
I always seem to review books I’ve read a few days (or even up to a week) after I’ve finished them. This is purely through laziness, and whilst it gives me time to really think about my feelings on the book, it does mean I have basically forgotten the entire book before I write the review, which is not good! I generally have to have a quick flick back through the book first so I at least remember what the book was about and the main character’s names (I’m also not good with those either!) 🙂
For someone who writes I’m actually notorioiusly bad at predicting book plots. Sometimes I’ll read a book and someone will be all like ‘wasn’t that ending so obvious?’ and I have to agree so I don’t look stupid, when actually I’m more like ‘what? I was super shocked and surprised!’ And I can’t DNF either. I can’t actually remember the last book I had to give up on…I’ve read a few books I really didn’t like, but I always try and stick it out just so it won’t have defeated me! 🙂
THANK YOU LAURA. *twirls happily*
I kind of admire you thinking about the book before the review though!! I think about it DURING the review.😂 And honestly, when I don’t know WHAT I think, my reviews are just 99% blather.
Dnfing is SO SO HARD. People who can do it are to be bowed to, probably. I just…gah, to unfinished business!! I’d rather torture myself through it and then be finished, done, and dusted.😂
Ahahahahah that face, though!!!
I procrastinate good books too. Like, the Outlander series. I love them so much. But have only read the first 4, because every single one of them has put me in tears at some point. I greatly dislike being asked to explain why I’m crying over words in a book, because inevitably I’ve been somewhere semi-public when this has happened.
ISN’T IT THE MOST ACCURATE GIF FACE OF EVER?!?😂
And YES, omg being really emotionally involved in a book is super exhausting right?!? I’ve never ended up crying in public over a book yet. LUCKY Me.😂 I tend to just get really cranky because I’m so emotional over a book and people will be like “Why are you in a mood?” to which I reply “IT’S THE BOOK’S FAULT DARNIT” like the mature creature I am.
Same with me with the character names. I just can’t remember them! Usually, a few hours or days after reading a book, the names of the characters are already all mixed up in my head, and then later on, I have these one hour memory lapses about characters names.
#bookstruggles
I literally am reviewing a book 2 seconds late rand will be like “WHAT WERE THEIR NAMES????” 😂 And the other day I was reading a Russian book and omg…I didn’t even pretend to try their names.😂 LIFE IS HARD.
MURDER JOHN, MURDERRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!! (Sorry, I’m drinking coffee and you just set off my Sherlockian side – it’s not the safest of combos.)
I’m one of those weird people who keeps their Goodreads private because it’s linked to a personal account and I have stalker-with-axe paranoia. Plus, a girl’s gotta keep up an air of mystery, especially in the ninja assassin princess business (*pulls out fan and flicks it in a way that is meant to be mysterious but effect is spoilt by hitting eyes or jamming fingers in the narrow bit*)
Same as why I use Cee Arr (that & if you can’t pronounce Sean, then my real name will tie your tongue in knots.) (And Cee Arr is said like C R,) (People don’t seem to get this.) (And I thought I was being so smart when I came up with it) (*sighs*)
I reckon my Goodreads friends – who don’t know about my blog – must think that I’m holding publishers’ families/pets/Netflix subscription up for ransom with all the reading-before-pub-date I do… but it adds to the mystery thing (*tries to open fan out, accidentally flings it and breaks a window*)
Oh, and I’m continually pronouncing names wrong from books – and then when I know the real thing, my brain refuses to change it. Or I keep reading it a different way every time I come across it. Like with David Levithan’s Boy Meets Boy, my pronunciation for Joni kept switching between Johnny and Joanie (it was a female character – a dude character would’ve got slapped with Johnny and been done with it)
Wow, I really went off on one in this comment… I’m going to blame the coffee. And the fact that I’m procrastinating having to do adult-ing. 😉
MWAHHAHAH SHERLOCKIAN SIDE ARISE!! Tell me if you need a shock blanket. 😉
And air of mystery can be fun *nods* Although my GR is anything by mysterious hahaha…although, no, wait, it is mysterious how I manage to write so many ranty reviews.😂 I need to pick my books better! Ahem. And omg I won’t even pretend to know how I was mentally pronouncing your name.😂 Sometimes online I just recognise names but don’t even try to say them in my head?! I OFTEN SAY THEM BACKWARDS ANYWAY. SO MUCH FAIL, CAIT.😂
And coffee is excellent to blame. :’) Pfft, who wants to do adulting? Ew. *gives you cupcakes with sprinkles*
Maybe just a sheet 😉
YAY!!!!! CUPCAKE!!!!!!!!!!!! XD
I procrastinate on good books, too! And also forget names, but I do that IRL as well.
I totally do it IRL as well, too, with forgetting names. The other day I was like “Oh and…omg what’s the kids name? WHAT’S MY SISTER’S CHILD’S NAME??” I am the worst aunt.😂
I can relate to literally 90% of this post. Pronouncing names? Ehh, does it really matter how they’re actually pronounced when I don’t say them out loud anyway!? And I also really have to review books ASAP after I finish them because otherwise, my head gets messy and I’ll put something from book review 1 in book review 2 and something from book review 3 in the review for book 1… Basically, it won’t end up well if I procrastinate writing those reviews… And Bookstagram has become my new obsession since I’m on summer break and stuck at home for about 5 weeks, so I’ve pretty much seen all the photos on my feed AND NEED MORE. Also, I totally relate on to not DNFing books. I simply just can’t do it.
Loved this post, as always! 🙂
OMG WE ARE TWINS, AYLA! *shares cake with you* And omg so totally true about names. WHO CARES HOW THEY’RE PRONOUNCED.😂 Although listening to audiobooks can be kind of startling.😂 Like right now I’m re-reading Six of Crows and I can barely recognise the names because they all sound SO DIFFERENT OUT LOUD. And yayyy that you don’t DNF either!! I feel like most people do and I’m just jealous of that ability hahhahaa.
OMG I pronounce the names however I like too. Sean is a given for me 🙂 I also used to pronounce Ellywe (or something like that, I forgot it) from Throne Of Glass as Ella. 🤐 It’s way more fun than pronouncing them the way we’re supposed to, right?!? (That’s what I tell myself.)
YES! And sometimes brains get stubborn, right?! And they don’t like to change name ideas.😂 How did you say Chaol?! I always said “Chay-al” and I think it’s supposed to be “Kale” *facepalm* 😂
I pronounce Chaol as ‘Chay-al’ too! Everyone pronounces it as Kale or Cole, though. Obviously, they aren’t aware of the correct pronunciation like we are XD
Those darn fantasy names, right?!😂 SO CONFUSING.
omg Cait YOU MAKE ME LAUGH SO MUCH. I am ridiculous when it comes to tracking my reading. I use an AMAZING spreadsheet that you can download (http://itsallaboutbooks.de/2015/10/spreadsheet-books-2016/) AND I have a word document that has all of my unread books and tbr’s and wrap ups and what not ANDDDDD I have multiple reading journals 😂 HELP I HAVE A PROBLEM.
OMG I AM SO GLAD YOU TRACK YORU BOOKS OBSESSIVELY TOO!! *hi fives* We are awesome, clearly, the most fabulous. *nods sagely* I like my spreadsheet set up but everyone else is using Crini’s and it seems really awesome too.😂
What better place is there to confess weird (but charming) bookworm habits than here? Certainly NOT in real life where my friends stare at me and scream: “You can quote whole paragraphs from LotR?! What are you???” and I’m like: Wait, you guys can’t? Oh… (This happend last weekend, btw. XD)
Anyway, I actually catalogue all the books I read in a used-to-be-small-but-isn’t-anymore book. Ehem. Good to see I’m not the only one.^-^’ I LOVE cataloguing my books, organizing them on my shelves (evry other week or so I change their order), photographing them (something my parents don’t understand at all. Pff. Ignoramuses.) and yeah, I also like reading them. One could say I’m a bit obsessed. In a charming kind of way, of course. But aren’t all bookworms? 😉
As for the character names: I mostly refer to them with their first letter to prevent mispronouncing them all.the.time. ^-^’ Although it can be a bit complicated if there are three T.s in a book… And I just love Goodreads! *happy sigh*
I share your dislike for predictable plots (who doesn’t?). One of the downsides of reading that much. (Still, the benefits predominate. Like 100000 benefits to 1 disadvantage.) That’s why I rarely read thrillers since most of the time I can guess who is the murderer on page 14 out of 400 or so. Not cool.
A last confession: while I love talking about books all the time and telling people to go and read them…I don’t like people touching my books. They can still admire my shelves, though. Because I’m nice like that. XD
WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY “FRIENDS IN REAL LIFE”??? 😂😂 hahahahah just kidding. Ahem. But yes. Blogs are much better places to be accepted for all one’s incredibly weird bookworm habits. :’)
I’m SO GLAD I’m not alone in loving organising books!! Sometimes it’s even more fun than reading them….shhhh. But I’m super lucky that my parentals totally don’t mind my bookphotographing habits. Although I think they really wished I took more photos of me. BUT WHY ME WHEN THERE ARE GORGEOUS BOOKS??? I have my priorities in order. :’)
And agh, yes, I mean, you wouldn’t think reading copiously has downsides, right?! BUT IT DOES. 🙁 I really am always in the search for books that will surprise me!!
SAME THOUGH. Like “please go read this book…but just not mine”.😂
Sometimes just staring at books or gushing about how I’ll clearly love them are half the fun of actually reading a book. ^-^’
There are almost no photographs of me either! But my parents don’t try to take some…their favourite motive is our cat or my Ma’s garden. XD Priorities are important!
Agreed. It’s so rare that you read something completely new! And almost always it’s FANTASTIC.
Yes, they are my precious! And libraries need their customers and authors someone who buys their hard work, anyway.^-^
Your book aesthetics are lovely. 🙂 Worth all the work. 🙂
And I procrastinate, too – especially when it comes to longer books. Generally if it’s more than 350 pages, it doesn’t even get checked out on my library card. 😛
Omg thank you, Daley!! *blushes* And omg WE ARE TWINS WITH THE FEAR OF LARGE BOOKS *hi fives* Why do books even need to be 500+ pages though?! Like whyyyy.😂
I have follow your Goodreads account and I love it 😀
I mean I love your reviews and it is different content from your blog 😀 so yes it is awesome 😀
after found out you review books 2 second after finishing it made me thinking maybe I should follow your steps too..
I mean my memory is not good either, but I am afraid about what people said about my review and end up did not write anything or I write my review in privates notes.. (._.)
Congrats for have 10.000 followers on instagram & being 1# reviewers Australia 😀
Aww, thank you, Hana! YOU ALWAYS SAY SUCH NICE THINGS!💕😊
And yes my Goodreads reviews are different from my blog ones right?!😂 I do hope my blog ones are a little more sensible. hehe And I totally get being nervous about people’s reactions to your reviews! But eh, it’s our opinions right?! We can just own them!
And omg thankyou again! YOU ARE SO NICE!
I used to think Sean really was pronounced as Seen! I still think of the name that way when I first see it. Good to know I’m not the only one. 😉 As for character names…I recognize them. Who’s expecting me to say them out loud? My brother will read some of the same books I do, and then we’ll talk about the characters like ‘you know, the one who started with a N…I really liked him.’ 😀
I don’t keep track of my progress, but I do have a spreadsheet of how many fiction vs. how many nonfiction books I read, who they are by, etc. And Goodreads, of course.
Ohhh yay that I’m not the only one mangling name pronunciations.😂 *hi fives* I think it SHOULD be said like “Seen” anyway. We have Bean?! It’s not “Bawn”. WHERE IS THE LOGIC HERE. Ahem.
So much of this is me. I too am obsessed with bookstagram (though I do not have a separate instagram for books [yet] and I have only just ventured into it). I too procrastinate good books (Illuminae has literally been in front of me for days but have I opened it? NOPE.). I too review books REALLY QUICKLY (I usually take down notes on my phone as I read or I livetweet because WHY NOT RIGHT?!) but I don’t always POST them quickly.
Also I wasn’t sure if I was your Goodreads friend (I am), so I opened the link and then was reminded that I am. LMAO.
Illuminae is QUITE daunting though, right?!?😂 IT’S LIKE HUGE OMG. I really loved it though and cannot wait for Gemina to mangle my heart. (AKA = I will definitely procrastinate Gemina.)
Ohhh you take notes?! I BOW TO YOUR DEDICATION. I’m too lazy for that.😂
Yayyy goodreads friend! *hi fives*
I can’t DNF book either! I just keep pushing myself to continue reading, because what if it still gets better? And then once I’m over halfway, I just might as well keep reading because I’m already over halfway there! And if for some reason I still DNF’ed it, then I feel super guilty and spend the rest of my life convincing myself that ‘I just put it on hold for a while, I will read more later’. …just to be able to cope with my massive failure!!
I only use Goodreads to keep track of my reading progress, but now that I see you Excel file I’m thinking maybe I should do more! For research and analysis purposes of course 🙂
Us bookworms should be proud of our peculiar book reading habits! It’s what makes us the best 🙂
Saaaaame. Plus I just want the closure! If I don’t finish it then I obsess over it and END UP THINKING ABOUT THE STUPID BOOK MORE AND OMG SLAY ME.😂
And the spreadsheets are so. much. fun. when it comes to end of year calculations! I can’t wait to add up the names and see if there’s patterns. I LOVE PATTERNS.😂 AHem.
I just sent you a friend request on Goodreads because your blog basically commanded me to. Also, I totally agree about predictable plots. Nothing makes me sadder than figuring out the end of a book long before I get there. Then I finish the book and say, “Why did I bother reading that? I knew what was going to happen!”
And one MUST listen to this commanding blog if they value life, of course *nods sagely* (Also thanks for the request. <3)
Predictable plots should be illegal omg. SO ANNOYING SOMETIMES.😂
I also can’t DNF books. It doesn’t happen to often, but sometimes I really, really hate a book. Weirdly enough, I make myself finish because I don’t like not finishing things.
I also like to pronounce things the way they are spelled…….this is a problem, especially when the character in question is very popular. I will save myself from embarrassment and not provide examples.
Unfortunately I don’t update my reading process very much. I tend to do at the most three updates.
My most peculiar book worm trait is that I like to sit and stare at my bookshelf and sometimes pet the books.
I hate not finishing things!! I NEED CLOSURE. I NEED THE CALMNESS. Even if the book sucks…but bah, then I skim the particularly boring bits and just get to that ending.😂
And omg I pronounce things the way they’re spelled too: hence Sean = seen. It does get embarrassing because I DO IT FOR A LOT OF THINGS. And I also read names backwards at times so IDEK WHAT’S GOING ON WITH MY BRAIN. PROBABLY NOTHING GOOD.
Staring at bookshelves and petting books is a wonderful hobby. I LIKE IT TOO.
I can’t stand DNF either! I also utterly despise spoilers (I will never forgive anyone that spoils a book for me. You know who you are!!!!!), and I have to read the books on my to-read pile/list in perfect order to stay sane. It’s just how my brain works. I’m not that weird, am I?*blinks innocently*
Omg I hate spoilers too *wails* I mean, unless I WANT the spoilers. I hate it when people just talk about a book like everyone’s read it. NO WE HAVEN’T ALL READ IT OMG BE CAREFUL WITH YOUR SPOILERS *sobs*
I think all we bookworms are definitely officially weird, right?!?😂
Awesome post and that photo is simply beautiful.I am trying to take more pics now because I just learned about copyright and how people get sued for using google images. I was ignorant about that and assumed that it was okay as long as I acknowledged the source. I hope to be as good as you though. I can’t look away from the pic, the creativity, the colored pens and the flower things, I wish I can take a pic that good. I also read names wrong and I struggle with DNFing anything so I have endured some not so good reads along the way.
My bookish confession:I rely on reviews so much that I avoid books that have mixed/low reviews. I always end up going for the books that have many positive reviews although they can be disappointing at times.
Awww, thank you, Diana! I APPRECIATE THAT. And omg don’t feel bad about the copyright thing because I did that too. Okay, maybe feel bad, but I WILL COME FEEL BAD WITH YOU. I thought source acknowledging was okay too, but apparently you can get super mega fined right?!? Gah. Not worth it. That’s actually a big part of the reason I got into book photography.😂
I rely on reviews a lot too!! *HI FIVES* It’s helpful though, right?!? I mean, not always fullproof but still helpful!
I ALSO USE GOODREADS RELIGIOUSLY. It’s the best things after books and food. I can’t believe some people could try it and don’t use it EVERYDAY. And while I don’t review books after I finished it on goodreads, my phone’s notes is full with mad rambling about the book xD I usually made them more coherent before posting it to goodreads xD And I also have a really hard time dnf ing a book, because I know as much as I hate it the author must have put a lot of work and soul into the book, so the least I could do is to read it! 🙂
OMG I KNOW RIGHT!??!??!? I am on there at LEAST once a day if not like 398398 times.😂 And no regrets. I just wish they had more things you could log…and the ability to make it more obvious when one is re-reading hahah. AHEM.
And like I don’t feel bad for the author when DNF’ing…(I’m horrible) I just want the closure of finishing!!
LOL, Cait, you always make me start my day w/a smile.
Haha, yes, I refuse to pronounce characters names the way they are “supposed” to. Like this girl called Cati is pronounced Katie? Um, no. It’s Cat-e, obviously, there’s is cat in there.
I also must confess that if I read the book first, I cannot listen to the audio later, b/c I already have imagined how everyone’s voices sound.
And if I listened to the audio, I don’t like the movie b/c I have heard how the REAL characters sound and these people sound different SO OBVIOUSLY THERE’RE ALL FAKES.
And last and not least, if I read a book and am disappointed in it, I will rant for at least 15 minutes, b/c obviously outraged feelings must express themselves!
Omg really?! *flails* I AM SO GLAD, HANNAH, EEEEP!
I would’ve said “Cati” as “cate-e” too hahaha.😂
I am a huge audio-re-reader but omg the names get SO CONFUSING.😂 Right now I’m listening to Six of Crows, but I read it for myself last year…and THE PRONOUNCIATIONS ARE REALLY THROWING ME. Like even down to them saying “Greesha” instead of “grisha”. HELP.😂
Ew. Fluffy books. -gags- No way. (Which is funny since I can watch fluffy anime just fine…kinda.)
And DNFing! I hate it. I truly do. It’s all ‘what if it’s better at the end?’ Even if it probably won’t be.
I love this list!
Fluffy books need dragons and a bit o’ murder. THAT WOULD FIX THEM. (And…kind of…ruin their attempts to be Fluffy BUT I WOULD STILL BE OKAY WITH THAT MWAHAHAH) 😂
Naw. The dragon and hero could hook up. Totally. And make cute baby hybrids. Fun.
She caresses my cheek with a single claw. “Roar roar,” she says softly as I gaze into her wide eyes.
“Roar roar,” I agree.
Yup. Basically.
I can’t DNF books either. I can probably count my dnf’s on one hand and they are mostly books I had to return to the library before I finished them and I still plan on reading them someday. And I totally agree on the fluff reads. I can’t do it. Every time I try, I find myself bored out of my mind. I need dragons and maiming, too. 🙂
Every book would be MUCH better with dragons, honestly. It’d fix all that “fluffiness” in some books, because omg who has time for happiness? TRULY. SHEEESH.
I am the worst at pronouncing names and I literally need to speak them out loud to reinforce the correct pronunciation in my head. Though most of the time the wrong way sticks with me (this is especially bad if it’s the protagonist… or a character in a series) *cough* fantasy authors these days. Why make me suffer? Is the stabbiness not enough? OMG the spreadsheet Cait – making stats is something I would totally do. GOODREADS IS THE BEST *high five*!!! I procrastinate on sooo many books “points at goodreads* not my fault, it’s an addiction. My refusal to DNF books is probably why I don’t read as many books as I can. People are like “if you don’t enjoy it then stop, no one’s forcing you to continue”… but. I. can’t. I actually find it easily to write reviews on books I dislike and I know it’s kind of mean *whispers* but it’s so fun sometimes shhh ;D Great post!!!
FANTASY AUTHORS JUST LIVE TO TORTURE US OMG. I’ve given up on fantasy names completely.😂 And when I write fantasy, no joke, they get named things like Oscar. BECAUSE I AM KIND. 😉 (Well, I’m kind in the naming respect. Everyone still dies. ahem.)
SAME THOUGH WITH THE DNF’ING. I mean it’s probably sensible/logical to quit? But but but CLOSURE. I’d rather be finished and done and not keep thinking about the book honestly.😂
OMG I CAN’T DNF BOOKS EITHER. It just feels… wrong. It also feels like a bit of an insult to the author because I mean even if it isn’t a great book and it doesn’t agree with me, it was still written to be read.
But yeah procrastinating potentially amazing books is like the story of my life… I just want to savour the awesomeness by making it last as long as possible, includinga long build up to actually reading it?! That makes no sense but yeah!
Your spreadsheet looks brilliant, that is such a genious idea! Very organised, I like it.
Also congratulations on 10k followers on Instagram! <3
WE NEED THE CLOSURE, AMIRITE?!? But I don’t think it insults the author…I mean, books are subjective right?!? Not everyone is ever going to ALL like the same book. It’s actually kind of a relief.😂
Omg thankyou Rebekah you kind bean. <3
I don’t DNF books either, I might put them on hold for a (long) while. But in the end the goal is to finish, no matter how bad it gets I want to know how it ends. I have it with series as well, can’t really decide to not continue a series haha. Although it usually takes me forever to finish them and I forget all the details which sometimes makes the next book a bit confusing!
We need our closure, right?!? And FINISHING THE BOOK BRINGS THE CLOSURe. *nods* Although honestly I abandon series a lot.😂 Not intentionally though?!? I just realise I read that first book 76 years ago and never went on. GAH.
I hate when I can’t pronounce a name. I have actually written to the author and asked them… HOW DO YOU SAY this person’s name?! If I don’t know, I stumble over the name every time I read it and if it’s the main character’s name, it makes me angry.
Omg that’s such a good idea asking the author though!! I actually find if I google, sometimes they have tumblr posts or something with explanations, right?! IT’S HANDY. Except I just go ahead and pronounce them wrong anyway so IDEK why I bother sometimes.😂
Ugh! I wish I could do that! For some reason I always wait to do my reviews…I guess I just get lazy, or I’m too excited to read the next book so I just procrastinate, and do the reviews at a later time! I need to fix that!!! 🙂
I have to review straight away or I just lose what the book was even about. MY BRAIN = SWISS CHEESE. 😂
Hahah, this was a fantastic read 🙂 I found myself totally nodding my head in agreement with just about every single one of these! I am as “dedicated” as you are with your spreadsheets, though mine are about Korean Dramas. Who doesn’t want to be able to compare the writers of their favorite shows and see how many times they overlap? Or if there is a correlation between episode length and personal rating? Crazy people, that’s who.
The name thing is one that severely gets to me, too! Elena from Kelley Armstrong’s Women of the Otherworld series is one that will never cease to annoy me. Even the author says it wrong! She pronounces it like Elaina, when it is so clearly el-in-ah. OK, maybe the author is right, since she is the one who wrote the dang thing, but still, I will never call her Elaina. EVER.
Thanks for stopping by JUBB earlier 🙂
AHHHHHH SPREADSHEET LOVE!! I just want to track all the things honestly.😂 And pfft, we’re not crazy, we’re total geniuses. *flips hair majestically* At least…that’s what I tell myself to cover up the crazy. AHEM. MOVING FORWARD.
Hahaha, yes, maaaaybe the author is right.😂 BUT WHO CAN TELL REALLY.
Then I’m not the only one who forget names. I knew it! I couldn’t be alone. *cry tears of joy*
And I also read a horrible book until the end. I feel like it’s my duty to finish it… my masochistic duty.
WE ARE PRACTICALLY TWINS NOW, AMELIA. *shares identical cake with you* Honestly names are just finnicky beasts. Who has time to remember them? Pfft. Not me.
Oh my sweet glory I totally relate with names. Even with my favorite books, the ones that I shriek about for eternity until everyone around me backs away in terror, I FORGET THE HUMANS’ NAMES AND IT’S RATHER MORTIFYING. Because then someone is going to read the book and rant about it to me and think I still know everything about it when really noooooo I’ve forgotten the names, the plot, the death scenes, and who got married to who. So then I have to pretend like I know what they’re talking about and it’s quite troublesome. SO THANK YOU. I’m so glad I’m not alone with this. XD
Also, I don’t pronounce names right either. Especially if it’s in a different language….I usually read it as “Aghlkhsgh” because I am lazy. Then when the time comes to actually speak it with my mouth, I suddenly realize maybe I should have looked up how to pronounce this character’s name because now we all have different pronunciations and glaring at each other is not going to solve that problem. (Well sometimes it does. You know.)
We can be name forgetful twins *HI FIVES* 😂 And omg it is actually embarrassing, especially if you’re trying to tell someone about a book and you end up going “and the character…person..thing” and everyone wonders if you’ve even read the book. #fail I JUST HAVE SUCH A BAD MEMORY OMG.
And yes! I do that too with pronunciations.😂 Basically I can recognise the name, but please oh please don’t make me say it out loud.
Your post is hilarious Cait! HAHAHAHA! You’re way too adorable and I finished reading it whopps. One question, how do you manage to read so fast, at the same time update your Goodreads, be active on Bookstagram and even managed to write such a long post on your blog?
AMAZING.
HHHAHHAHAH THANK YOU, CLARA. THIS MAKES ME VERY HAPPY TRULY. And the secret behind my speediness is that I actually have dragon secretaries. So this probably isn’t even ME replying. It’s probably a scaly dragonish secretary who is being bribed by cake to type and not eat my laptop. JUST SAYIN’. THAT COULD BE THE ANSWER.
I’m guilty of pretty much all of these confessions if you can even say that they’re something to feel guilty about. I don’t, tbh. I genuinely don’t get how people can wait more than a week to review books, I seriously forget everyhting after 0.2 seconds, too, I usually even make lots of notes WHILE reading because there’s a high chance I might still forget something even if I literally just read the last page and then opened up a blog post to write the review with.
That spreadsheet thing is so impressive and makes me a bit self-conscious, I’m so bad at organizing things with spreadsheets, I could never ever try to catalog all my reading beyond Goodreads. Even though I really would LIKE TO, I just don’t knoW HOW TO SPREADSHEET. Would love a tutorial on that, if you ever run out of blog post ideas!
Hahah, yes it’s true.😂 They’re not really “confessions” in a bad sense at all. I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHY I CALLED IT A CONFESSIONS POST BUT WHATEVER. IT IS WHAT IT IS. (or isn’t…) Okay now I’m officially confusing myself and shall shut up. And I’m SO GLAD you are an instant-reviewer too *hi fives* I’m far too lazy for note taking, but I DO mentally compose my review as I read. Because #obsessed
Aww, I don’t mean to make you self-conscious! I actually don’t know how to spreadsheet either. Another blogger has this EPIC spreadsheet available for tracking book process but all I do is make boxes of pretty colours and fill them in.😂
bookstagram is something that I am so woefully behind and not talented in – I am in awe of you bookstagram masters! My TTT
Aww, thanks, Carrie!! It’s actually quite easy and VERY FUN.😂 I’m going to do a post on it this weekend!
I have a spreadsheet as well (though I’ve gotten a bit behind on that… because I’m organised like that). Goodreads is a great tool, but it doesn’t keep track of everything, and it’s nice to have another record. Also, I just really like spreadsheets.
SPREADSHEET HI FIVE! HUZZAH! I update mine as soon as I finished reading because I’m…obsessed like that.😂 And yes I do wish goodreads had more tracking options?! And like a re-read option. Gah. I hate how rereads will be taken off previous years challenges if I update the date-read setting! GODREADS. FIX YOURSELF.
Oh, the rereads… Would it be that hard to integrate into their system? (Asks the person who can’t code to save her life, so really doesn’t know- but they must have some smart person who could make it work…)
OKAY I DO PRONOUNCE SEAN’S NAME CORRECTLY, BUT I FEEL YOUR PAIN SO BAD GIRL. Also I have a track record ten miles long of pronouncing everything //wrong//. Character names, book titles, made-up-important words of doom. I even mispronounce names //I make up myself// because my spelling is the worst thing of ever. I never realized that no one pronounces ‘Regillion’ right because of the spelling. It’s a hard ‘g’, not a soft ‘g’. But almost everyone I know pronounces it all soft and sweet and I’m like “um. no. hard consonants are life. That’s a hard G there.”
I listened to a 12 hour audio book of them saying SHAWN KENDRICK SHAWN SHAWN SHAWN…and yet here I am. Seen. SEEEEEEN. *cries* And haha, I definitely don’t pronounce my own characters right.😂 I had this fantasy world that I *thought* was pretty easy to say AND LITERALLY NOBODY SAID IT RIGHT I WAS SO FRUSTRATED. Ahem.
OH OH I was saying Regillion right!! Because just saying “Reggie” is a hard G right?!? So that makes perfect sense to me. *nods*
actually
ACTUALLY
‘REGGIE’ IS WITH A SOFT ‘G’ *headdesk* i’m so sorry i honestly am
oops #mybad 😂 So I literally have no idea how you’d say it now.😂😂
SEE. my point is proven XD I’m the worstat even spelling or pronouncing my own made up names XD
I’m with you on not DNFing books! I’ve only DNFed maaaaaybe three books in my entire life. (One was because it was creepy and weird and seemed like it was going to go nasty-sexual pretty fast. And one was because it seemed the most cliche thing of ever and nastily creepy besides and there were other books that I wanted to read . . . so that was more like “Ok, I”ll come back to you later maybe” than “DNF”.) And I tend to procrastinate good books too because I’m so scared of “WHAT IF THEY’RE NOT AS GOOD AS I THINK THEY WILL BE?” And don’t even get me started on character names. (I pronounce Sean the same way you do, for the record.)
I can’t think of any bookish confessions, though, other than the ones we share.
I do the whole “oh I’ll come back to that later” sometimes! I’ve actually DNF’d 5 books (out of like 700 hahah) and ZOMG IT’S REALLY HARD AND TORTUROUS. Most of them I do plan to come back to. Like, when I read the other 938 nicer looking books on my TBR.😂 And procrastinating good books is my life. *sobs* I really need to break this habit because I read SO MANY blah books and am ignoring the probably good ones! WHAT IS MY LIFE. WHAT ARE MY DECISIONS.
I WILL ADMIT, I’m terrible with character names in books. I swear, I’ll be writing a review a day after I finish a book and then I’ll sit there like, “wait… what’s the main character’s name again?” Sometimes I remember, most times I do not. It’s so strange.
HOW DO YOU BOOKSTAGRAM??? I keep trying and kind of failing. It’s hard to find the right time, or lighting in my case, to catch great photos that capture the books so well. That and props can be so expensive oh jeez. I’m going to still try but goodness, it’s really hard hahaha. I really want to be able to utilize it though.
Saaame. We’re twins with our name-remembering-failings here, Alexa.😂 Sometimes the secondary characters’ are easier to remember, too, especially if the protagonist is always an “I”. GAH. IT’S A TRIAL.
Omgggg, I’m actually doing a bookstagram post on the weekend! SO WATCH OUT FOR IT! IT WILL BE GLORIOUS. (Also I’m talking about cheap and easy props to use.😂)
Omg yes photos of books are obviously way better.
Sometimes I (*lowers voice to frightened hush*) bend the spines of paperback books. *shrieks and shields self from rotten tomatoes* I also was once so engrossed in my book I didn’t hear the fire alarm go off, and I have an unhealthy affinity for bookmarks. (Unhealthy for my wallet, that is. You think bookmarks wouldn’t be so expensive – but they add up, man.)
Ellie | On the Other Side of Reality
I bend book spines all the time.😂 NO JUDGEMENT HERE. I actually can’t even read some books unless I can wrangle them open after all, right?!? AND OMG BOOKMARKS ARE GREAT. My dog has an unhealthy affinity for eating mine, so actually locating a bookmark when I need it is somewhat of an art.
AAAHH CAIT I LOVE THIS!
So, reviewing books right afterward… I do this sometimes for random books I read, and it does result in shrieking/fangirling/crab-apple-ness. Which is fascinating. If it’s a book for review though, I normally wait a few days so I simmer down and can be a bit more objective? IDEK if that’s a good idea or not but it means I’m less obsessive. …Which is probably bad. WHO KNOWS. But I love how you do it right away because that shows your IMMEDIATE reaction, which is fun. Also sometimes I do forget a book by the time I review it and that makes it awkward. >.>
AAAAHHH YOU KEEP A SPREADSHEET TOO??? That is so awesome! 😀 I LOVE my spreadsheet and keep all sorts of things on it, on top of Goodreads, and it’s so FUUUUUN. Spreadsheets are life.
GOODREADS!!!!! THAT IS ALL.
I can often predict plots too, and sometimes I actually love it if I’m predicting a thing that I REALLY REALLY want to happen and then it does. That makes me super happy. But I also really love being surprised, which is one of the reasons I love Diana Wynne Jones’s books because they are like plot-twist parties. It’s glorious. 😀 I can NEVER predict those and they’re always so strange and brilliant and I love it! ^_^
I PROCRASTINATE GOOD BOOKS/SERIES/LARGE BOOKS TOO. Why would I read a 500 page book when I could read a 250 page one? o.o And why would I read a book THAT I JUST KNOW I WOULD LOVE instead of that okay-looking one WHEN IT MIGHT LET ME DOWN HORRIBLY AND MAKE ME NOT LOVE IT. Like, no. I want to live in my delusions of loving the book-I-haven’t-read-that-I-want-to-love instead of actually reading it. XD We are strange bookbeings, my friend. 😉
I’ve DNF-ed… 2 books. Of ever. And that was because I didn’t like them and skimmed the end and decided I would hate it and didn’t want to have to GO THROUGH THAT. So I DNF-ed. But I always-always finish things too, so I UNDERSTAND. Unfinished business is the worst. (Also, this point of yours is THE most hilariously-written part in the post. I think I laughed like a dozen times reading that paragraph alone. XD OOPS YOUR EVIL OVERLORD IS SHOWING. XD
*faints because of your beautiful rainbow book pic* <3333
BASICALLY I ADORE THIS POST AND IT WAS SO FUN AND I LOVE OUR SIMILARITIES.
Also I did this TTT and PAIRED it with a glorious tag you tagged me with a century ago in November, the 25 Bookish Facts About Me one, as an excuse to do more. Bwahaha. IT WAS FUN. Linky: https://thepagedreamer.wordpress.com/2016/07/12/25-bookish-facts-about-me/
There are soooo many good ways to review, right?!?😂 Like I admire people who can put together a more sensible analytical review. But I’m here all “AJFDKLSAD” and ALL CAPS FOR EVERYTHING. And I’ll probably regret it someday but for now I’m having fun. ;D
ZOMG SPREADSHEET TWINS!! *hi fives* I’ve come to realise we are in the very very small minority with our book tracking. heh. People are missing out!!
And dude, YES. 250 is just so much more manageable than trying to eat a titantic beast of a book. Although my brain honestly doesn’t make sense because I’d read two small books in one day and avoid the big one. WHY, BRAIN, WHY!??!😂
Closure = needed. I just hate having to overthink a book I hated! I want it DONE AND DUSTED so I can move on to rage over other things. hhaha.v
Aww, thankyou!! :’) YOU ARE SO KIND. And zomg! That old old tag.😂 HAHHA. I CAN’T WAIT TO READ THIS.
My my Cait, who knew? And I found the truest statement in the history of ever.
“We are fantastic little creatures that love books and darkness and warm hobbit holes and crumpets and WiFi and howling fervently over characters who don’t exist.” THIS IS LITERALLY ME. Also, fun fact: It is my lifelong dream to become a Hobbit. YES I KNOW I’M A NERD, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. #andproudofit XD
WE ARE DARKNESS AND CRUMPET LOVING BOOKWORM HOBBIT TWINS, CLEARLY. *hi fives* It is a glorious description. I need it on a tee shirt basically.
Great post! I totally relate to having to finish books! I mean, I started it, so I have to finish it. I don’t like leaving books half read – I need to find out what happens!!
Yes! I mispronounce character’s names all the time. It’s tough to figure out exactly how they should sound when you’ve never heard them said aloud. I used to say “Seen” instead of “Sean”. Then I learned it’s a Gaelic name, so the S is soft, like a “SH” sound, because it’s followed by a vowel, and the A is usually pronounced AH in Gaelic, so THAT”S why it’s sounds like Shawn, I would never say it correctly though, if I hadn’t read that stuff about Gaelic in a book somewhere. Kind of nerdy, but knowing nerdy facts what reading is about – right? : )
We need the closure, right?!? *hi fives* I admire those who can DNF but I AM NOT ONE OF THEM AT ALL. 😂
And yes those darn Gaelic names.😂 Like I know it’s Shawn…but I just…I just can’t. AND I EVEN LISTENED TO THE AUDIOBOOK AND HAD 12 HOURS OF SOMEONE SAYING SHAWN TO ME. But what do I call him? Seen seen seen. *cries* My life is terrible. (Nerdy facts are awesome though!! THEY ARE)
Lol, I do DNF all the time. I used to not be able to, but I trained myself to just stop when I’ve lost interest. I read to have a good time really, so I justify by reasoning that there’s no point in reading if I’m not enjoying it.
Totally there with the name thing. Everytime I start writing a review, I actually have to Google the character names that I read literally moments ago…
Bookstagram… I so wish I knew how to photograph books in a way that actually looks good, you know… I’m hopeful though. I’ve been practicing, so… you know…
To add: I hate lending my books to others. Forget lending, I hate when people even so much as TOUCH my books!
I also frequently start reading a new book even before finishing one… more often than not you’ll find 4-6 books on my Goodreads”currently reading” shelf…
Well…. being odd isn’t that bad of a thing I think.
DNF’ing is actually a really good skill!! You save a lot of time, right?!? I honestly wish I could do it because it’d probably help immensely hahahha. *glares at ginormous TBR* 😂 Names are just…omg, they’re hopeless things. Even with my name spreadsheet I honestly have no idea what the characters’ names are in the book I’m currently reading. BOB? TOM? WHO CAN KNOW.
Ugh to lending. I never lend. Not even to my sister.😂
And I read multiple books too *hi fives* I generally only have 2 or 3 going (like physical and an ebook and an audio) but I’ve been known to have 5. ;D
I get you on character names!! I’m honestly so bad at pronouncing them that I worry about having to ever talk about that book irl, because I’d be pronouncing all the names wrong! Fantasy books are the bane of my existence for this reason. Take for example the Throne of Glass series: how ON EARTH do you pronounce Chaol? Kale? Ch-ah-ole? WHO KNOWS. I am 100% a Goodreads addict too. It’s just so helpful, and I love how literally every book ever is on there. Like how?
Denise | The Bibliolater
Saaaame. Basically I’m sure if I ever had to discuss books out loud I WOULD DIE OF SHAME.😂 And fantasy?!? Fantasy just is unkind to us in general. Omg it doesn’t even try to be polite.
I always said “Chay-al” but I think it’s “kale”?? WHO WOULD CALL THEIR CHARACTER AFTER A HORRID VEGETABLE??! I don’t even know with “Celeana”. Plus I can’t spell it.😂
Oh gosh, don’t I know whatcha mean.
Me and my siblings call Sean Bean (among other things he plays Borimir in Lord of the Rings) Seen Bean.. or Shawn Bawn. It’s hysterical. *laughs crazily*
When I’m reading to myself I just skip over names I can’t read well and when I read aloud I just say Bobby, Joe, or Fred. Or sometimes Larry, Curly, or Moe. It’s so much easier. Also, when I do that I don’t get into an argument about how a name is pronounced. (That happens a lot)
As soon as I finish a book I go somewhere quiet and think about it for five to ten minutes. Then I write a review. Always. Unless I get distracted.
I have recently discovered I am very morbid when it comes to books. I usually end up like
“WHAAAT? No one DIED?!?!” *looks with disgust* “Seriously couldn’t you have killed off that main character? They were so good. They NEEDED to die!” Then after a while I’m FINE with the book… but they still should have killed someone.
Hehehe. I am going to be a very killy author. All the main characters? Meh. DEAD. Well, most of them anyway.
I get a particular thrill from crushing readers hearts. Mwahahahahahahahaha.
Because of this, Steven Moffat has my undying respect. (He writes for Doctor Who)
Why such respect? *wink* Spoilers!
I CALL HIM SEEN BEAN. It has to rhyme!! It’s like the world WANTS HIS NAME TO RHYME OMG.😂 And my brain kind of just skips over weird names too…like it’s okay on page, because you recognise them. But woah if you want to talk about the name out loud. ALWAYS A FAIL FOR ME.
Hahhahahah…*whispers* I’m the same when no one dies. I feel like most books SHOULD have a good character death. Not just little minor characters either. HIT US WITH THE BIG FEELS. Everyone dies in my books I write. No regrets. :’)
Got to be honest, I am a law unto myself when it comes to pronouncing character names. You know Gabriel from Half Bad? Throughout Half Bad, I pronounced it Gabriel, and only moved to calling him Gabrielle (because he’s FRENCH so the name should be pronounced the FRENCH way and I was too stupid to realise this and therefore all the references to him having a girls name went right over my head) when Nesbitt pointed it out in Half Wild. By Half Lost, I had forgotten. I read Half Lost switching between the two pronounciations.
I also have lists of names I like – I’m a bit of geek about names and their meanings…bit of a geek about language in general, actually.
Omg you mean there’s even a difference between Gabriel vs Gabrielle pronunciations??? LET ME DIE, I DON’T EVEN KNOW. *cries* I absolutely love Gabriel tho…like the name and the characters. I WILL NAME MY FIRSTBORN GABRIEL AND THEN CRY FOREVER.
I NEVER NEVER EVER remember character names. I feel like such an idiot and it looks like I didn’t even read the book in the first place!
The whole reviews books right away also means that a few months later I totally regret every single word or my feelings changed to much I don’t even know if I should keep the review up *sigh*
*hi fives* We are TWINNING HERE, MICA. 😂 And omg the embarrassment it causes = the struggle is real. At least we’re not alone, right?!? hehh.
I”m in habit of reviewing right after, because if I try to do it the next day pretty much all I can come up with is: It was good… Also I freaking suck with names, I will forgot even the mc name while I’m reading the book!
Ahhh, me too.😂 Plus I generally start new books pretty soon after finishing the last one so I need to review ASAP or I get the books all mixed up! AND I FORGET NAMES WHILE READING TOO. omg.
I always thought I was one of the odd ones who can’t DNF books. I still don’t think a lot of people have difficulty doing it, but me, I just can’t. I always end up thinking, well, maybe it will get better, or maybe I didn’t give it enough of a chance and since I’m doing that, I might as well finish the darn thing. Seriously, I think my DNF shelf on Goodreads has 1 – maybe 2 books (why did I even create one????)
Saaaame. WE’RE TWINNING ON THIS MATTER, BARB. I just obsess over the book MORE if I don’t finish it! which sucks if I really hated the book hahaah.😂 And then I always wonder if it got better. Zomg. But I have DNF’d about 5 books out of the 700 I’ve read. But I want to go back and finish some because closure.
I hope I pronounce characters’ names right. I used to say “Seen” in my head, too… but then I ended up with a cousin named Sean, so that fixed the problem. (Kind of a funny story: I went to school with a girl named Shawn. Not Shawna, but Shawn. She always got called Shawna, though. I guess people figured her parents made a mistake or something.)
HAhahha, at least you did learn how to get Seen/Sean right!😂 I was really shocked when realised that the actor “Sean Bean” DIDN’T RHYME. I MEAN, I THOUGHT IT WAS “SEEN BEAN” AND IT WASN’T AND I AM SO BETRAYED. I’d name my kid Seen though. If I had a kid. Which I don’t. Which is probably saving the world a lot of confusion.😂
LOVE bookstagram too! It’s so fun and as a creative person, it’s one outlet I continually enjoy. I’ll confess to loving fluffy books though. They’re one of my favorites because HAPPY! 😉 Great fact sheet, Cait.
IT IS SO GOOD. Blessings on whoever thought of doing bookstagram. They are genius and I love them. <33😂 I shall leave all the fluffy books to you and I shall abscond with the dark dreary ones.😂
Really? You finish all books? I cpuldn´t do that! I mean, I don´t often stop reading but sometimes I´m just 0% interested in how it all ends and then I just don´t finish that book… Thus that happens like 3 times a year ^^
And OMG did I ever tell you that I just love your pictures? I mean I really much enjoy #bookstagram aswell (and might at times become jealous at the awesomeness of some photos ^^) but your´s are unique. Cause their colorful, wild and a little crazy 😀
Btw, I´m so happy now and no longer feel lonely about forgetting character names even while reading xD
Mary <3
I ADMIRE YOU FOR BEING ABLE TO QUIT ON BOOKS!! Seriously I wish I could.😂 It’d spare me so much pain of pushing through annoyingly awful books, heh.
Awwww, THAT IS SO NICE OF YOU TO SAY THOUGH. <33 Colourful and crazy are like the best descriptions. I LOVE THAT.😂
I try to pronounce character names right. I hear some people though pronounce some of the easiest names, and I think they want the name to be harder to pronounce. One name that has always given me problems is Chaol from Throne of Glass. I also procrastinate good books. I am almost done with Blue Lily, Lily Blue, and I am trying to start A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab.
I’m glad you know how to pronounce names right then!😂 I JUST DIE AT THEM. The entire of the Throen of Glass killed me. I thought Chaol was “Chay-ol” but I think it’s “Kale”? and heaven help me I have no idea how to say Aelin. ROWAN IS GOOD THO. I GOT ROWAN JUST FINE.😂 (I think….)
Zomg ADSOM is excellent but I put it off for a year.😂
I pronounce Chaol the same way! Chaol is really the only name that annoys me in that series. I think Aelin is pronounced “A-lin”.
I struggle with DNFing too. I have done on occasion but I generally do finish everything I read.
It’s so much more calming to write an indignant rant over a book you’ve finished, right?!😂
YES!!!! I can’t read ‘Sean’ as ‘Shawn’ either! I don’t care what the world says, S-e-a-n does not spell or sound like ‘Shawn’ in any other context, my brain can’t handle it!
I always, *always* had to finish books. So I feel your pain – the way I eventually trained myself out of reading a trainwreck was committing the ultimate sin of reading…and skipping to the end. I couldn’t not know how it eventually ended, even if it was a rubbish book.
Great post!
YAYYYY I’M GLAD YOU ARE WITH ME ON THIS!!😂 I mean we say “Bean” right?? Not “bawn”. *nods* this is logic and I shall stick to it. SEEN SEEN SEEN.
ohh skipping to the end does sound like a good idea. I sometimes skim if it’s SUPER horrible.😂
CRUMPETS. HELL YES CRUMPETS.
Hot buttered crumpets.
No wait, I came here to say I loved your post, and you lo-jacked me before I even started.
Also yes to mispronunciation of names, and sticking to head canon on names. I mean, some authors clearly have no idea – I had all the names clear and beautiful in my head before I made the mistake of reading the pronunciation guide at the back of the Wheel of Time books (waaaaay back in the day, when ‘I’m from Grimsby. Don’t hate me’ made no sense as a chat-up line). What was Jordan thinking?? No wonder I never finished that series. Stick to Seen. Embrace the name that feels right. And have a good laugh when authors troll you (yes, I’m looking at you, Myfanwy in the Checquy books).
BUT TALKING ABOUT HOT BUTTERED CRUMPETS IS DELICIOUS AND A PLEASANT WAY TO PASS THE TIME. *drools all over laptop*
And yes yes, sometimes authors don’t know anything. I mean, pfft. They gave us the characters right? NOW WE CAN CALL THEM ALL BOB IF WE WANT. #sensible I just am so absolutely horrible at names that when I listen to audiobooks I always get confused/shocked at the real pronunciations. 😂
I absolutely adore your reading status updates, they’re so hilarious and make my day. I too write review immediately after reading the book otherwise I’ll forget what I wanted to say. My head is my worst enemy sometimes. That applies to me forgetting the names of characters… especially the main ones. Oh and I used to say names wrongly when I was younger and had little knowledge of english and had no idea how to pronounce some of them. 😀
Omg thank you, Simona!😂 I really love writing them….ahh, blessed are we who continually amuse ourselves amirite?!?😂 And AGH, my brain is my worst enemy too. We are twins on this. *nods* I just remember NOTHING. It’s amazing I’m even still a bookworm and haven’t forgotten why I started hahah. Ahem.
Haha I’m the complete opposite. I can almost never write a review right after finishing a book. I usually end up waiting days or even weeks… which does make the reviewing process much more difficult, but I started writing notes on my phone while I read to help! And I’m also the worst at remembering names. It’s the worst! And unbelievably embarrassing, but I’m not good with names in real life so I’m not sure what I was expecting. lol Instead of procrastinating good books, I always procrastinate the last book in a series! I don’t want it to end and maybe if I just hold off from finishing I can lie to myself into believing it’s not over!
Oohhh you take notes?! BUT SEE THAT IS AMAZING! I’m way too lazy to take notes.😂 So it’s probably a good thing I review so fast or else I just LOSE ALL THOUGHTS COMPLETELY. (Which, admittedly, doesn’t take much because my memory is cactus.) I’m not good with names in real life either, no surprise. hahha. Why are names so hard though??!? GAH.
I have to admit, I thought I was the only one that pronounced characters’ names COMPLETELY wrong. I literally don’t know how you’re supposed to say any name from The Raven Cycle series. Except for Blue, of course.
I also have the terrible habit of picturing characters COMPLETELY wrong. I mean, I know the author and all the fanarts out there say that this character is blonde, but I can’t help picturing him as a redhead. That’s why I don’t mind much when, in movie adaptations, the characters have a different hair or eye color.
And congrats for being so good at predicting plots! I actually suck at this and I never understand when people are like “ohhh, that was SO much going to happen”, because I’m literally surprised 24/7.
We are TWINS basically, Lais. *nods sagely* And omg the Welsh names in The Raven Cycle? HAHAHHAHAH. #dead I listened to the audiobooks when I was re-reading them and so when I went to write the reviews I’m basically like “Gwaufiuifsjdkj” and hoped people figured out what I meant. They probably didn’t. But pfft. Who has time for spelling and pronounciations? *flips hair and runs away howling*
I CAN’T PICTURE CHARACTERS AT ALL. I absolutely cannot. My brain is full of much loved characters who are entirely faceless.😂
Welsh is really a special case for which you can’t be blamed! We don’t use exactly the same alphabet; we have extra vowels and sounds that English doesn’t have.
(The vowels of Welsh, if you’re curious: a, e, i, o, u, w, y. Then there’s ‘dd’ which is a ‘th’ sound, ‘f’ is ‘v’ and ‘ff’ is ‘f’, there’s the ‘ll’ sound which doesn’t really have an equivalent in English…)
I do that too! I mean write reviews as soon as I finish reading a book and yup I’m terrible at remembering names and coming up with new ones as well! I don’t like predicting plots as well, I mean my brain is exercising so much when I’m reading, I don’t need to trouble it further! XD Though occasionally I enjoy fluffy books! LOVE the list!
Writing reviews as soon as finishing the book is awesome. WE ARE AWESOME, CLEARLY. *hi fives* Plus I usually start a new book two seconds after I finish an old one, so I need to get that review written so I don’t mix up the plots.😂
Hahaha yes I’m so bad with names too! And bookstagram is the best!
YESSSSS TO BOOKSTAGRAM. Omg it is so glorious. Whoever started it is a genius and I love them.
First of all, HELL YES YOU ARE MY FAVORITE BOOKBLOGGER EVER. Because I feel like if I knew you IRL we’d be best buddies or something. YOUR CRAZY TALK TO MINE PERFECTLY. 😀
I can’t remember names either, it’s infuriating!! So glad to know I’m not the only one around here.
And WOW, Australia. Are you really living there? If so, I AM FUCKING JEALOUS IS WHAT I AM. How is it? Is it as awesome as I imagine it is? When I was a child my mother wanted to go and move there, but she sucks at English and generally making decisions ^^ I am SO going there someday. Preferably before I’m old and not able to move from my bed. Europe sucks, bookishly speaking. I mean, can you believe that, the closest English bookstore is FORTY kilometers away from my house?! and I live ear the capital, by France standards ^^ I know amazon is there for taht very reason, but come on, the chase is at least 40% of the pleasure.
Anyway, “c’est la vie”, as we say here. but still. we need more English bookstores.
I can’t deal with unfinished books too. A few years ago I started Dreamcatcher (by S. King) and I had no time to read so when time came to take it back to the library I was like, halfway through. IT HAUTS ME EVER SINCE and for the love of everything that’s bookish I can’t make myself pick it up again.
Anyway, you’re the best. All the love and cake and dragons of this world and every other worlds to you. <3
AHHHH, CYRIELLE. LET US SHARE FRIENDSHIP CAKE OF THE CRAZY BOOKWORMS! *hi fives* 😂
And omg you make me laugh. I’ve always lived in Australia! What is it like to live anywhere else?!?! I LIKE IT. And I hear ya on the dodgy bookstore front though….I have ONE bookstore in my town and it’s overpriced and gets in the weirdest books and gah. I never ever buy there. I’d rather buy online and get good prices and actually the books I want.😂
UNFINISHED BOOKS HAUNT ME SO BAD. I have like 5 in my whole life that I haven’t finished. And two I plan to go back and finish eventually just…just because they bother me so much.😂
AWww, THIS COMMENT MADE MY DAY. <3
Well, now you know : France sucks for bookish people! One day we’ll all join you in Australia 😀
Have an amazing day 😀
THIS POST IS ACE. I’m a curious bean so I love all these confessions! #notcreepy. Your spreadsheet reminds me of the fact that I had a spreadsheet once. Back in the day (like, last year – or maybe even earlier this year). Maybe I should update with more cool categories like the diversity one you have – that’s really interesting to keep track of 😀
You also make me want to review books on Goodreads right away… I once had the good intention to post all my reviews to Goodreads but that didn’t happen… Plus, if I DO review them on there straight away, maybe it’ll be easier to write my blog reviews once I finally get around to them… Hmm, things to consider!
Also can I just say (for the umpteenth time) that I love love LOVE your bookstagram photos? They’re great. I love them.
AHHH YOU’RE WONDERFUL ANNE. 😂 And omg spreadsheets are just my favourite. Last year mine was really simple, but this year I’ve expanded to the names/diversity and it’s just super interesting! I mean, obviously it’s going to be a limited list because I read a lot of weird/obscure books. BUT STILL!! It’ll be so interesting to calculate the popular diversity additions and which names are used a lot!!
AJFDLKSAFD THANK YOU ABOUT MY PHOTOS. <3
I also have a spreadsheet for tracking the books I’ve read. I like having something extra that tells me how many books I’ve read in a month, how many pages I’ve read each month, average pages per book, etc etc etc. I like having all of this (possibly) unnecessary information so I can track my habits and books. Names have a tendency to elude me while I’m writing reviews. Wait, what was the name of her best friend/lost interest/arch enemy/acquaintance? Then I sometimes have to flip back through to figure it out. I physically can’t make myself quit a book. My OCD-ness prevents me from unfinished business. I don’t care if I want to set the book on fire, I must finish it!
Yayyy SPREADSHEET USERS FTW! *hi fives* It’s awesome to track all the stats right?!? I’m going to do a big stat-recap at the end of the year and I’m already so looking forward to it.😂 And I’m so with you on the OCD/unfinished-business matter. It’s just…gah. It bothers me too much not to have completed that last page! Even if I have to skim a bit, fine. BUT IT MUST BE FINISHED.
Your post cracked me up. And. Omg. I’ve got crumpets for breakfast.
OMG CAN I COME OVER FOR BREAKFAST????
I really admire people who are able to review books right after they finish them. It takes me forever to even start reviewing a book because I have to find a way to transfer my feelings into (hopefully?) coherent sentences. And OMG your spreadsheet is amazing! I wish I had the time / motivation to make something like that. And I agree about predictable plots – they’re the worst. I want to be surprised and wowed, and if I’m able to predict a twist 100 pages in advance it just lessens the thrill, you know? Thanks for sharing and, as always, fabulous post! <3
*twirls majestically* YES ADMIRE ME ZOE. I AM GREAT.😂 I don’t even worry about coherent sentences anymore. Bah. But I’m honestly surprised people even like my reviews sometimes….they’re such messes! XD And omg predictable thrillers are just about the worst thing in the universe. HOW CAN I BE THRILLED IF I FIGURED IT OUT AT THE BEGINNING!?? Plus Dangerous Girls really ruined me for all thrillers.😂 It was too good. GAH!
I guess I am a strange little bookish creature, because I like lettuce (I know, who ever would have thought) and hiking…but the sun? ha. I burn so easily I might as well be a vampire. I mean, you never know, right? I am so with you on not remembering character names/pronouncing them. Sarah J. Maas’ books are practically torture. I HAD NO IDEA HOW CHAOL WAS PRONOUNCED UNTIL LIKE TWO DAYS AGO. And fluffy books are the death of me, which is why I often refrain from contemporaries and romance. I’ve been thinking about joining bookstagram lately…maybe I should just stop thinking about it and just DO IT. Fabulous as usual, Cait!
Maybe you are a vampire, Erin. *nods* Don’t discount these things. Just see if you live for 9398 years and then get back to me on it.
omg did you say Kale or Chay-ol? Because I was the “Chay-ol” sort of pronouncer but I don’t think it’s like that is it?! 😂 WHY MUST FANTASY NAMES TORTURE US SO?????
I’m not a fan of FLUFF either. I’m not sure what it says about me that nearly all of my favorite books are angsty, dark, and often tragic, but that is definitely my reading sweet spot.
You and me both my friend. ALL MY FAVOURITE BOOKS ARE FEELS STABBING TERRORS and I love them. <3
I cannot pronounce characters names…. and it drives my siblings crazy. It is it at all difficult or I don’t like the name I change it. and i don’t change back! I also have to review books straight away but often come back a few days alter and add more to the review after thinking about the book…. and I correct some of the spelling I then find.
We are TWINS IN THIS, Clare. Thank goodness that I’m not alone hahah.😂 And plus it’s really hard to try and pronounce something properly after you’ve done it wrong for so long right?!?
Yes exactly! The names sound so wrong if I try to pronounce them right!
Why am not surprise that you also use spreadsheets hehe? Congrats on being #1 reviewer in Oz. I’m almost there for Macedonai too. Though that’s a much smaller country haha 😀 I literally reduce my rating 1 star lower if I can predict the plot twist. Endings are a different story. Once you’ve read so many books you start feeling like an expert on how the book is gonna end haha. I need to read some more good thrillers. Those are usually the unpredictable ones in my experience 😀 Happy reading!
http://www.curious-daisy.com/top-ten-tuesday/top-ten-facts-about-yours-truly/
Aww, thankyou!😂 And yes NO SURPRISEd. I’m totally obsessed with numbers and organisation and goals and lists…it is a bit wild. AHH BUT WE ARE BOTH #1! WE WILL TAKE OVER THE WORLD ONE BOOK AT A TIME! *hi fives*
And omg I do that too with reducing-star ratings.😂 I want to be surprised! Or at least, like, intrigued? And if a thriller is predictable. BLEH. THAT’S THE WORST.
I’m the opposite with character names: I always remember them really well, unless I’m reading a third person book with a lot of characters then my brain goes “names? what are names? who are these people?” And I love bookstagram too! I’m not the greatest at it and I don’t post all the time (I’m not selling my feed very well, oops ^^;), but it is something that I enjoy. I especially love your photos, they’re so well-done, I’m jealous 🙂
I officially envy your name remembering abilities.😂 BOOKSTAGRAM IS JUST LIFE, RIGHT?!?! I’m always thinking and planning my photoshoots. And I probably spend waaaay too much time arranging books, but pfft, no regrets.😂
I effing LOVE THIS! You are too funny! I try to review books on Goodreads right after I read them otherwise I’ll forget everything lol! I also forget names of characters five seconds after I finish a book! I try not to DNF books, but a few times I had to because they just suuuuuuuuuuucked.
~Sara
OMG THANK YOU, SARA. YOU MAKE MY DAY.😂 And character names are just…sheesh. So not worth it. Why can’t they all be named Bob? I WOULD REMEMBER BETTER THEN.
Omg you are so organised and all my goals. I maybe review 50% of the books I read if I am lucky these days. The words, they are just not coming to me. Is this a slump?!
I am glad to hear that I am not the only one who can’t remember names, especially for those side characters XD I always have to look up other people’s reviews and hope they mention names lmao,
OMG congrats on being Oz’s number one reviewer though, you totes deserve it, every time I look up a book I see your review.
Yes yes I am the organisation queen. *twirls* Let’s just not talk about how FAR BEHIND I AM WITH READING HAHAHAHH. Oh dear. I feel like I read 39489 books and still am behind on ARCs.😂 Ahem. I hope you’re not slumping!! Just write something random! THAT IS WHAT I DO. Wait, shh, maybe I shouldn’t admit to this.
And I totally look up other reviews for the names too sometimes.😂 ESPECIALLY SPELLING. Omg I love audiobooks but then I die at the spelling time.
Awwww, thankyou! *blushes*
Ahhhhhhhhhhh, yes, bookworm confessions . . .
Haha, I also write reviews pretty quickly after I finish a book . . . OOHHHHHHHHHHHH YES MISPRONOUNCING NAMES. I love doing that. I don’t even TRY, it just happens. Like, I will forever pronounce Koschei as “Ko-shee,” not “Ko-shay,” even though “Ko-shay” is probably more correct. It just LOOKS like it should say “Ko-shee” to me, so that’s how I read it 🙂 And you know Jaime Lannister in GoT? Well, I always say his name “Hi-may”–you know, like the Spanish would pronounce it–not “Jay-mee.” It’s ridiculous. Also hilarious.
Goodreads is the best website ever. The end.
The only reason I survived the Game of Thrones names is because I listened to the audiobooks to start with.😂 OTHERWISE I WOULD BE SO SO DEAD OMG. I can’t spell any of them though. Let’s not even talk about Danyryryrys Targryryryryn. I’m like 99% that is her name, definitely. 😂
Wow, you’re the #1 Goodreads reviewer in Australia? That is awesome!
Haha, I don’t know of any weird book/reading quirks of mine. When I was younger, I wouldn’t stop at chapters or use bookmarks. Instead I’d just stop whenever wherever I felt like it and would just flip through the book searching for my place later. I don’t do that anymore though. I also like seeing old, well-worn, well-loved copies of books, but I don’t like to harm or wear on my books in any way. I like to keep them looking brand new.
Yesss I AM QUEEN. *twirls fabulously*
Ohh that is cool that you didn’t use bookmarks though! I never could do that.😂 I’d always get super angry if someone moved my book and lost the bookmark. haha. And people who remember the page numbers?! THEY ARE JUST GENIUS. And I really really like my books to look brand new and pretty too. :’)
I like to get reviews written as soon as I can or I feel I will forget things. That doesn’t mean I get them posted, but I like to have them written.
I love list. You couldn’t tell by my goodreads profile, bc I don’t have “lists” that wasn’t already there, but I do have charts I made myself and keep track of those things. We are kindred spirits.
Same! Like the review goes up on Goodreads straight away, but sometimes it takes months to get to my blog. IF it even does get there.😂 I’m terrible hahhah. Ahem. YAYYYYY FOR LISTS AND CHARTS! THE GOOD THINGS IN LIFE. :’)
I live on goodreads…and I also do a spreadsheet, because I like goodreads for tracking some things, but a spreadsheet for other things. And sometimes I get lazy with doing reviews right away, but I try to do them as soon as I can after finishing a book for the same reasons you mentioned.
YAY FOR SPREADSHEET FANS. *hi fives* I wish goodreads actually had more tracking options, because that would be fabulous. But until then I shall love my spreadsheets.😂
I do really love bookstagram; I’m trying to do it more, but I don’t really have super creative ideas a lot. Alas, I tend to keep things sort of simple!! Fun post!
-Lauren
Simple is good! The minimalistic look is GREAT. I’ve just gone for the crazy-throw-everything-of-ever-into-one-photo sort of style and am seeing how that goes for me hahahah.😂
Hilarious post! Loved it! I also have trouble DNFing books. I think I’ve only put down 2-3 in the past five years, and that’s because they were horrid, boring, or I was busier reading better books. My obsession with covers is crazy. It’s the first thing that grabs my attention. When I’m on other blogs, I constantly add books to my TBR or buy if the deal is good when the cover is great. Mostly, because if I’m interested I won’t read the review. In fact, I hardly read other bloggers book reviews unless I’ve already read the book. Shush! And I’m a huge fan of maiming, betrayal, and political intrigue. Even in my romances. LOL! If I liked fluffy, I’d watch the Hallmark channel.
I haaaate reading horrid books but I somehow choose to suffer through them over DNF’ing?! I KNOW IT MAKES NO SENSE. I AM SUCH A WEIRD BEAN. And zomg covers though….covers are the death of me. THEY CAN JUST BE SO GORGEOUS. I was full on about to buy a book the other day for the cover alone and I had to tell myself to be sensible.😂
Cait….
You. Are. Hilarious. I mean that in the best way – no really! I have enjoyed every single post of yours that I have ever read. They read like your sitting down and talking to me. With a natural flow, do you edit anything? It doesn’t seem like you do and to me that is the appeal. Confessions: I wait too long to review. Sometimes I don’t know how to put all my feels into words, good or bad, and I wish I could like draw a picture instead. By the time I force myself to sit down and do it I worry I have forgotten little important details. I am also awful at remembering names AND say them wrong in my head. Chaol from TOG will always be Coal to me. Who is Kale? Really? I have a very hard time DNFing I think I have done so less than a half dozen times. I always wonder, what if?? I think I am surprised more than 4% of the time but I do find myself very often thinkging – Wow, you really didn’t see that coming? I could have given you the heads up back on page thirty that he was shady. (I am now speaking to the MC who is completely shocked) Your Bookstagram is lovely. I try but it;s hard to find time, good photos take a lot of it, and make a lot of mess. But they are so much fun. I love hunting around the house for odd-ball items. I admit that I don’t use Goodreads as much as I wish I did. However I will be following yours daily from now on. Those progress updates all hilarious.
ZOMG THANK YOU, JESSICA. *flails wildly* And yes.😂 I edit my posts copiously hahahha. Ahem. Which maybe I shouldn’t admit to and pretend the avocado poodle metaphor was a typo…*whistles innocently*
AGH I do not say Chaol for Kale either!! Although I went “Chay-al”.😂 But still…Kale?! REALLY?!? That entire series is full of horrible names. My favourite character was Sam. SAM = SENSIBLE NAME I CAN DEAL WITH THIS.
Awww, thank you for the compliment to my bookstagram! I AM SO FLAILY RIGHT NOW. 😀
“I need dragons. AND STABBING.” This is my favorite thing ever. This is so true for me EXCEPT #s 1 + 3. I am terrible at reviewing books in a timely manner (or, most of the time, at all). I also have a memory like Swiss cheese, so I use post-its to mark all the places in a book I wan too comment on in my review. That helps (some).
As organized as I am, I do not track my reading as thoroughly as you. I use + 2 Evernote checklists–1 for audiobooks + 1 for diversity (so I stick to my goal for the year).
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who can’t just set a book aside because I don’t like it. I compulsively read books cover-to-cover, although I am getting better at not reading every single footnote. I read a lot of nonfiction and that can get seriously tedious, especially with more academic books.
SWISS CHEESE MEMORY FOR THE WIN MY NEW FRIEND. *hi fives* I mean, we’ll probably forget we’ve talked tomorrow with our Swiss Cheese brains BUT IN THIS MOMENT WE ARE LIKE TWINS. *nods sagely* (I admire you taking notes though!😂 I’m way too lazy for that. I just fudge everything in my reviews and hope no one notices.)
UGH to DNF’ing. It’s just like unfinished business and it haunts me. I’d rather suffer through and skip the haunting.😂
Some of these things we have in common! Others… well, some of the others make the alternate title of this post “Cait and Shannon: A study in opposites”. Now. I don’t like lettuce or anything crazy like that, so deep breaths, it’ll be okay. But I am the most woefully unorganized human in… ever? Yes, ever. I review books… whenever. Sometimes things go well and they get reviewed within a week. If things are crazy lucky, I end up having an open spot in a mini-review and it can get done within a DAY. Most likely, it’s a few weeks, though there have been some extra ridiculous spans of more than half a year between reading and reviewing. It’s not great. Also, no spreadsheets. I barely have time to like, read the book, forget worrying about the aftermath 😉
And I LIKE bookstagram… but I am awful at it. Like, I have no good spaces to take said pictures, nor do I have the props or the time…. and even when I DO make time, it turns out I don’t have the talent either. Oopsie?
As for character names, I am bad at remembering them too. Pronunciation… I think it’s hit or miss for me. I am usually decent, but when I am off, I am REALLY off, and then it is hard for me to ever change. It’s like “no no, I dubbed her Mary in Book 1, I don’t care if her name is really Gloria, you shut it.” And that is helpful to no one. Also, pretty sure I shared the devious stuff above in the “crap, I am an unorganized wildebeest” section of the program.
Well at least you don’t like lettuce. I mean, my faith would be shaken then, I admit. (What even is the point of lettuce??? I just don’t understand vegetables in general tbh. If it’s not cake then why does it exist?)
I find it funny that you’re so unorganised because YOU ALWAYS HAVE SO MANY REVIEWS AND THEY SEEM SO PUNCTUAL AND I AM IN AWE OF THESE SKILLS OF YOURS, SHANNON.😂 I’m always finding books to read from your blog that I’ve never even heard of yet. Honestly, either I’m 100% up to date with releases or I have no idea what is coming out. NO IN BETWEEN CLEARLY. Ahem.
Why can’t fantasy names be kinder though??? I mean, why can’t everyone be Tom or Jim. Why is it all Aiefhteytyty Tyululu’wuwl? WHY TORTURE US SO.
Yup. I also review every book I read, on Goodreads. Every. Single. One.
I also find it REALLY difficult to not finish a book. I can probably count on one hand the number of books I’ve started in the past five years, that I didn’t finish. That’s why I take such great care in deciding what to read in the first place. And why I tend not to buy box-sets: it’s too risky. What if I don’t like the first book in the set? Then I’m compelled to finish all the others anyway. 😛
Yayyyyy *hi fives* I’m glad I’m not alone in my GR reviewing obsession!!😂 I even review history books if they’re on there and i happen to be reading them. MY GOODREADS LOVE KNOWS NO BOUNDS. And I’m the same with DNF’ing! I think I’ve not-finished 5 books??? But 2 I plan to go back to eventually. And zomg I never buy boxsets. 0_0 I’m very very cautious with what I choose to spend on too, hehe.
Haha, I agree with you on so many of these points . Though not all; I am obsessed with saying the character names correctly, I even google how they’re pronounced if I have to 🙂 Like Kvothe in The Name of the Wind (if you’ve read that one? I kept saying “Kwothee”, but I figured that couldn’t be right, so I googled it. The same with a loot of the characters in the Game of Thrones books.
I’m glad at least you are good with character names.😂 I’m kind of ashamed at how bad I am…but not ashamed enough to stop apparently. HAHAHA #dead And omg I would’ve been so sunk in Game of Thrones except I listened to the audio! So I can say Danareyus but not spell it. (YES I KNOW I JUST MANGLED THAT. If I say “Danaryrryyrs Targeryereyery” you’ll know what I mean, right?😂)
I think it’s so important to write reviews right after I’ve finished a book! It’s all fresh in my mind and the feelings are still there!
I also keep a spreadsheet for books, but it’s to have a list of books I’d like to request for review, just so that I don’t forget :3
And I love Goodreads as well, whenever people ask me about my favorite social media and talk about Facebook or Twitter I’m all like… uhm Goodreads?? Haha 🙂
Yayyyy we are TWINS in our review methods! *hi fives* I usually start a new book straight after, too, so I need to review so I don’t confuse/get the mixed up.😂 And LISTS OF BOOKS ARE GLORIOUS. I have a list of books I really want to read, eeeeep. Because, I mean, Goodreads to-read shelves clearly aren’t enough…mwhahahhahaa.
OMG! Hiiiiii CAIT! 🙂 —I am overly excited to talk about your top 10 this week!
First, I can literally imagine you doing the same face as Chloe Moretz from the gif you posted! LOL. 😀
Second, I will add you on Goodreads! I’m already following your reviews but I don’t know why I never thought of adding youuu! Fun thing about this is, I can answer “Because you’re everywhere, Cait” for your Goodreads question! LOL. Kidding.
Third, I MUST FOLLOW YOUR INSTAGRAM immediately!
Fourth, I love fluffy books BUT I do love love love books that deal with hard/dark topics. 🙂
Awesome post, as always! 🙂 Hope to read from you more soon!
BAHAH. YES. I totally would pull that Chloe Moretz face. I WOULD. (Also that’s the best gif of ever, amirite?!?😂) And thank you for the goodreads/instagram follow, my loyal minion. CAKE FOR YOU. ALL THE CAKE. And you can have all the fluffy books and I’ll just stick to devouring the scary ones. WE MAKE A FABULOUS TEAM.
You’re officially my favorite book blogger of the world. (Or, using your words, of forever!)
I really love your posts. I also suck at anything art related, but your book pictures make me want to buy a camera and letting my inner creative self on the loose – I may have to issue a warning to civil protection protocols first.
Anyway.. My TTT has a confession that it may result into you issuing a restriction order to keep me from stalking anything paper fury related.. so yeah.. I’m scared to share it… *whistles*
WELL THIS IS GLORIOUS NEWS THAT I HIGHLY LIKE.😇 *twirls happily* And I’m so glad you like my photos.😂 BUT ZOMG WHAT DID YOU WRITE IN YOUR TTT??? I MUST GO READ MWHAHHA.
*runs off to set a bunch of mattress to allow for a fluffy landing when fainting over the TTT reading*
Loved the post, especially agree with the procrastination of good books! XD
I recently got an app that I felt you might enjoy, it’s called li.st and it’s basically social media for lists. I got it and kept thinking, omg Cait would love this.
Ooh, I shall have to check out this list app immediately because MY LOVE OF LISTS KNOWS NO BOUNDS!! (Seriously, I have lists of sticky notes all over my walls.😂) Thankyou!
You pronounce Sean as Seen? Are you NigaHiga? *side eye* I don’t like the spelling of Shawn as much.
I am bad at predicting plots and would HATe to start to do that *shovers* I just wanna enjoy a good book, man :))
Also cannot DNF books because it just feels weird….
I have no idea what/who NigaHiga is sorry. 🙁 I’m just super bad at not saying things as they’re spelt! But YES enjoying books is the ultimate aim of reading, right!? Why would we want to predict all the plots!? IT IS NOT FUN.
DNF is not a thing. IT IS NOT. Say, All the Bright Places. No. Did I finish it? Yes. Why? You curious little thing, you. Because I feel if you don’t finish a book then it isn’t right to review it. YOU HAVE NOT SEEN ALL THE THINGS IT MIGHT OFFER YOU. Even though, there isn’t much to find. Also, COVERS. When I nabbed Red Queen, I was happy with the cover. (Spare me, how would this innocent mind know there were more beauties out there?) As I was taking my usual book store stroll, (as one does) I discovered ANOTHER RED QUEEN. *Sighs* Yes, I nabbed that too. BUT MY OUTRAGE WHEN I DISCOVERED THERE WAS YET A MORE GORGEOUS COVER. I had to buy that one as well. *Sweats nervously* I might be in a financial crisis now. LET US PAY IT WITH BOOKS. Not our books, of course. Thank you for listening to my totally-not-rambly story. But now, let’s get chatty! (I am VERY chatty, since it wasn’t at all obvious).
How was your day, Cait? (Or morning, noon, night, underworld. Whatever you fancy). I live in Dubai so it’s currently 4:00 pm.
Happy reading! 🙂
Toodles! 😀
I totally get what you mean about “not having the right to review” DNF books…although, like, I feel that way a bit myself?? But I still DO think we have the “right” to do whatever we want.😂 haha. I review my DNF’s….all FIVE OF THEM. Omg. Like I’ve reviewed 700 books on Goodreads and 5 have been DNF’s.
So when you posted your comment it was 10:40pm in Australia for me! So a very nice night, thankyou. 😉 I hope your day was good!! HAPPY READING TO YOU TOO!!
Ooh you use a spreadsheet? That is a pretty smart idea, actually! It makes things a lot more easier, plus a lot more organised. Same here, I prefer books with action and betrayal and basically cool stuff. Fluff is okay at times, but I’d prefer not to read a whole book based on it. 🙂 Haha, I try my best not to DNF books, since wouldn’t that be a waste?
It definitely does make things easier for those end of year recaps!! When I’m like “omg what books did I even enjoy”.😂 But yes, we must have a bit of stabbing and betrayal and cookies from the darkside. The occasional fluffy scene in amongst those is fine…but whole books of fluff never go down well with me hahha.😂
I procrastinate reading good books too. Part of me seems to think I need to savor them, but then I wind up not reading half of them..
Omg, it’s a bookworm’s curse, amirite?!? I have SO many books I’m “dying to read” on my shelves…have I read them? NOPE. Sometimes the anticipation is more fun than the reading.😂
Love this post! What I’m about to say is probably gonna make you super pleased so try not to let it go to your head too much 😛 I alwaysss enjoy your posts regardless of what they are about. They’re just so funny and awesome and funny (did I say it twice?) but you’re really good at making me laugh. You also have great points and opinions and I always find myself nod in agreement. I warned you not to let it go to your head too much didn’t I? Lol.
Speaking of the confessions… I also write my reviews right after I finish reading. I never take notes except writing down some of my favorite quotes so if I take my sweet time I would just forget everything and end up not writing my reviews at all so… 🙁 I also procrastinate the very emotional books because I feel like I need all the time and space in the world for those kind of books. There was the time when I read Me Before You, I specifically prepare all the time and place and tissues (of course) and it went really well. One of the best reading experience ever! Also, that spreadsheet idea is genius!! I’m trying to branch out and read more diverse books but I have trouble keeping tracks of it. I tried using goodreads shelves but I ended up with too much shelves… your idea is kind of inspiring and I might steal that later 😛
Here’s the link to my TTT : https://goo.gl/CU04KV
Meeee? Let it get to my head? NEVER. *struts about very pleased with self* 😂 OMG BUT SERIOUSLY THANK YOU PUPUT THIS IS REALLY NICE AND MAKES MY DAY. <3
I never take notes while reaidng either! *hi fives* Although I'm the same with the quote. But actually I take a photo of the page with my iPod because I'm too lazy to even write down numbers. hahaah. oh dear. It sort of works??
Spreadsheets are SO FUN. And also quite addictive.😂 Especially when you make them colourful and have all these categories and fajdskald I LOVE MY SPREADSHEET. <3 I organise my Goodreads shelves just be genre! And star rating. 😛
Ughhh I know this is gonna happen but YOUR WELCOME! <3
Taking photo with ipod is actually a smart idea!! I only did it with library textbooks whenever I'm doing my assignments but pfffftttt this would make reviewing so much easier! Lazy girl unites!!
I also review books straight after I read them because that’s when my thoughts and feelings are overwhelming and emotional and cue the fangirling, failing and “Urgh!” moments.
I also find it really difficult to DNF books. Whenever I’m not enjoying a book and I want to pt it down, my brain betrays me by saying, “What if this book is going to wow you at the end?” or “What if the nonsense that you are reading is going to make sense?” and the worst one, “What if this book could be your favourite book of all time?”
I also do this weird thing where I purchase the last book of a series as soon as it comes out and then months later, it sits on my shelf unread. This happened with City of Heavenly Fire and The Blood of Olympus and I don’t even know why… So scary!
I would probably marry Goodreads, if I could! No shame!
But names, Cait. Maybe it’s because you have so many other amazing taking-over-the-world plans in your head that names don’t even matter.
Awesome and relatable post… (And I’m really sorry for the super long comment)
THAT IS EXACTLY ME TOO!! Gotta capture those fangirling squeaks and wails, right?!? Or else if I wait too long I can’t remember any of the points I wanted to make!😂
And ugh the struggle of DNF’ing is real! I have all of those thoughts too…added on I feel guilty reviewing a book if I haven’t finished it! And I HAVE to review everything so omg it just becomes a painful thing, right?! Plus some endings have changed my opinion on the beginning, which is nice.😂
Unread book finales on your shelves? MY LIFE EXACTLY.😂
And also I Accept your theory on why I don’t remember names. And I mean, why do I need to remember the peasants names? THEY CAN ALL HAVE NUMBERS. *flips hair fabulously*
(But omg why are you sorry for such an epic awesome comment?! I LOVED IT, ZARA! THANKYOU!!)
OMG Character names! I ALWAYS end up so confused because names are HARD. If it’s not a super common name (where I live, because there are common names in places that I’m not familiar with) then there is a %1000 chance I’m pronouncing it wrong. But oh well. I really on do so in my head, so NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW. Except now they do. I really wanna give instagram a try (like posting stuff, I already made an account to follow people) but photography takes skill. That I don’t have. Maybe one day…GREAT POST! 🙂
At least no one will ever know how badly we mangle names.😂 BUT IT’S JUST SO HARD!! And in real life people get very defensive/offended at mispronounced names so omg I can only imagine the hordes of angry characters shaking their fists at me for forgetting all the names. #awkward
Haha. I also can’t DNF books. I get the same feeling that it could get better. I hold out that shred of hope. I’ve rarely ever DNFed books. I can only think of two, because they were A.) Horribly written B. Too much swearing. XD
I’ve DNF’d 5 I think…in 700 books. HAHHAH.😂 So yes, I find DNF’ing very very hard. *hi fives* It could get better, right!??? WE LIVE IN HOPE.
I review books right after finishing them too, (or I at least get a ton of bullet points and let my brain explode all over the page, then I organize it the next day). I will generally pronounce a name wrong in my head for the majority of a book or just go ADfklansdofdhg in my head when I have no idea, and when I find out I’m WRONG? (pff I’m NEVER wrong) I decide that I was correct in the way I pronounce it because there is no changing it *now. I’ve gone on like this for too long. I use a google doc with a table and goodreads, but am far less detailed than you. Dang, Cait. When a book is predictable, it will generally drop how much I like it by a significant amount, which is HARD since so many books are predictable, but BE ORIGINAL and we won’t have a problem (laughs deviously in background… harder said than done, right?) If you would like to go ask me a question for my TTT please do: https://aubreysbooknook.wordpress.com/2016/07/12/ask-me-all-of-the-questions-that-have-been-melting-away-at-your-soul/
Bullet point reviews are THE BEST. Like 90% of my reviews are lists these days hahah.😂 And zomg why are names so hard though, right?!? Especially fantasy books (which I read a lot of) and my brain just about explodes pretending to know how to say them. This is probably why it’s a good thing all my book friends are online so we don’t have to mangle name pronunciations to each other hahah.
” this is to stop me overchieving with my reading” I wish I had your problems LOL
Are you going to publish your stats on character names at the end of the year because I would really like to know! I need to add that to my own spreadsheet next year!
NO TO FLUFFY BOOKS! Just give me all the pain and suffering! That’s so much more fun to read!
I always feel bad for people who don’t DNF LOL SO MUCH PRECIOUS TIME WASTED! But my super power is telling whether I like a book or not in the first 5% of it which makes it really easy to DNF. Even my curious self doesn’t stand a chance to protest to keep on reading just so I know what happens the rest of the book.
Omg, Crini, IT’S SUCH A PROBLEM I TELL YOU.😂 Last year I read 300 books and frazzled myself halfway to Jupiter and back. I’m only on restricted reading hahahah. And YES. I will definitely do a post recap on the name calculations at the end of the year.😂 So far Kate and Sam are definite winners in repetitiveness.
And yes please and thank you to dark sufferable books. Who has time for the fluff? I DO NOT.
And I admire your DNF’ing skills! I DO.😂 I just obsess over the book wayyyyy too much if I don’t finish it bahhaaha.
This was perfect, I agree so muchly so. WHY ARE CHARACTER NAMES SO HARD TO REMEMBER? All of my reviews are exactly 100% of me scouring other people’s reviews/the internet/the universe to find the name of that one character (jks, more like all of the characters) because dangflabbit. It’s hard. I really appreciate that bit in the info for the books on Goodreads when it lists the characters in the book (I hope you know what I’m talking about because that was a very vague description).
Also, how is Goodreads not an official religion yet? I love it (except for the fact that you have to search for Harry Potter and the “Sorcerer’s Stone” (which is INCORRECT YE AMERICANS) if you want to find the first HP book *breathes into a bag*). And pfffft, number one reviewer, you, look at you go. I can only dream – but until I find reading superpowers like you I don’t think I’ll be claiming a title like that any time soon
ever.I have also been trying desperately to coach myself into selective DNFing. Because otherwise I just sit here scowling at a book I don’t like (like, seriously don’t like). LIKE COME ON, KIRSTIE. #LifeIsShort. I also used to review books after finishing them but I managed to fall behind and now it’s a dangerous game of catchy-up (I swear, I am trying). And URGH. I don’t understand how people predict plots, I actually can’t do it. I am surprised with every single Agatha Christie book (and basically any and all plots) because my brain turns into a parsnip when it comes to educated guesses about plots. Which, to be fair, makes everything jolly good fun.
SAME. I was honestly trying to write a post once about couples in books…could I remember the boyfriend’s name in some book? NO I COULD NOT. *cries* I had to actually abandon adding them into the post because I couldn’t remember his darn name. hahhahaah. DUDE. Wait. Does Goodreads list character names?!? WHERE IS THIS INFORMATION I NEED IT IMMEDIATELY. *dashes for goodreads*
And yes, if GR was a religion, I would sign up. *nods sagely*
LIFE IS SHORT!!! I WISH I COULD DNF!! But I find I obsess more over the books I abandon then the ones I stick to.😂 I just want to finish it and get over it.
I love your spreadsheet. Now sometimes you have to do a post that talks about the frequency of names in the books you read! I have the same problem you do about always predicting what’s going to happen. Luckily, I usually still enjoy the ride! Oh, and I can’t DNF books either – I think I’ve DNF’d like three or four books ever.
I will!! For sure!! At the end of the year I will do a massive post about all the stats.😂 I loooove stats basically and calculating things. omg. IT’S SO MUCH FUN. Ahem. But yay mutual non-DNFing-hi-five! I honestly admire people who can manage it…but me? NOPE.😂
I can’t DNF books either. Although I actually did DNF my first ever recently because I just thought that a book on choosing happiness really shouldn’t be making me so incredibly angry at the author, but I digress. I want to be good at bookstagram and am starting to experiment a bit, but have a long way to go. Right now my instagram account is half book pictures and half cat pictures.
I totally get that!!😂 And I’ve DNF’d like 5 books in my 5 years of blogging, so probably not too bad, eh?! But omg, sometimes it’s just so insufferable to be plodding through a book that is making you super unhappy. I admire people who can DNF! They must lead calmer reading lives.😂
I love this! I have a spreadsheet as well and I am OBSESSED with it! I track my reading and I even try to plan ahead of time what books I will be reading. I have title, author, gender of author, genre, page number and several other random facts. I don’t track diversity though. #makementalnotetoaddanothercolumn
And okay, I read so fast and I sometimes don’t review books for days after I read them, which means I can’t remember ANY names. Recently, I was trying to verify the name of a love interest in a book and I was reading through Goodreads reviews hoping someone had mentioned the name and NO ONE DID! Argh! I hate when that happens.
AHHH SPREADSHEET TWINS!! *hi fives* Honestly it’s SO FUN. And I should track pages too, omg, why wasn’t I doing that??! Then I could add up how many pages I’ve read in a year.😂 NEXT YEAR. Tracking diversity is quite fun and will be epic to calculate at the end of the year!
AND I HEAR YA WITH THE FAST READING. We’re basically twins here, Cynthia, omg. I’ve actually been trying to write a post about a couple before and COULD NOT REMEMBER THE BOYFRIEND’S NAME so I ended up having to change my post.😂 #fail
Okay, now who’s John. First Bob, now John. Should I be concerned about this? Do I need to tell mum Fury that you are hiding boys with horribly plain names in your room? Does John know about Bob? This are questions that we need answering. And does John and Bob know about what happened to Stick? DO THEY?
I’ve never noticed the numbers before, but WOOOOOOO! All the book eating and shrieking has totally paid off!
To be honest, I’m not anywhere near as organised. I only use Goodreads. If I receive a book in the mail, I stick a sticky tab with the publishing date on the spine and put it on my TBR shelf and that’s about the extent of my superb skills. I don’t review every book I read. I have a shelf I call pleasure reads, and those are strictly for me to enjoy without having to use sticky tabs or highlight on my Kindle. I don’t read fast enough to have that many reviews to dump on Goodreads. Ahhh.
That’s where John and Bob clearly come in.
I’m onto you 😀
OH CALM DOWN, KELLY. Bob has no competition. John is a reference to Sherlock. You know John Watson? I PROMISE IT’S JUST A REFERENCE. MY NERDOM IS SHOWING. Bob is the only one for me. (Actually Bob is totally not the only one for me, omg…I call all my followers Bob. I’M NOT MARRYING ALL OF YOU.)
And it’s nice that my deranged bookish enthusiasm has earned me that nice little #1 on goodreads. :’) SEE MY FANGIRLING PAYS OFF.
I think putting sticky-notes on your ARCs is pretty good! I should do that.😂 The other day I was reading a book I thought released in July and it was actually May….ahhh hahahahh. HELP. I’m sure publicists somewhat hate me at times (okay, pfft, I lie. The aussie publicists are SO WONDERFULLY NICE. <33)
I love your spreadsheet (and dedication to it). Predicting plots is so eh. It is why I just can’t read too many mystery/detective books, because I end up guessing who it is by the halfway point at the latest and then the book just becomes boring. 🙁 And I feel you on dnfing books. I do so rarely but often they remain on my shelves because I might give them another chance in the future. Far away future, so I get having them stay in your brain.
Oh I’m the same with thrillers. I basically don’t even bother with thrillers anymore because after a while, you’ve seen it all, right?!? WAH. And I’ve DNF’d like 5 books in my life and I’m planning on on going back to some of them…someday.😂I NEED THE CLOSURE.
Kay, so, you have like the best photos on the planet, but YOU ARE ALSO THE MOST ORGANIZED. THIS ISN’T EVEN FAIR ANYMORE, CAIT. I *wish* I reviewed as soon as I finished reading. I should have learned my lesson by now, but I haven’t, and IT IS A PROBLEM.
AHHHHHH YES ORGANISATION IS MY FRIEND. Okay for books though. Tell me to organise my time better and I’ll just cry.😂
Oooh, my confessions, let me spill them!
1. I don’t always review a book straight after I’ve finished reading it. sometimes I need like a week to *digest*
2. I keep an excel spreadsheet to keep track of ARCs
3. I SUCK AT BOOK PHOTOGRAPHS 🙁
4. I found it so difficult to bring myself to DNF something. I hate leaving things incomplete! I’ve maybe DNFd like 7 books in total in 5 years on Goodreads
Digesting books is quite logical and smart though.😂 At least you can sort out your thoughts before just blurting out a tangle of things in a review, right? LIKE SOMEONE WE COULD NAME (Spoiler: it’s me)
Dnfing is soooo haaaard. *sobs* I just need closure. I’ve DNF’d 5 books in the last 700 I’ve read.
I have definitely been known to mispronounce names in books, probably even more than I think I do because there’s no one to tell me otherwise. I haven’t read the Scorpio races (yet) but I have seen the name Sean before and I never would have guessed until I saw this post that its pronounced Shawn! Also, when I was younger, I actually learned a lot of new words from reading but would pronounce them wrong in my head for a long time until I heard someone pronounce them correctly in real life- for a long time I thought that inevitable was pronounced with a long e as in e-mail or evite.
Also, I find it pretty impressive that you don’t DNF books, for me, if a book is bad enough, I really just don’t care how it ends, the only reason I don’t have any books on my DNF shelf on goodreads is because I can’t figure out how to put them there without marking them as read which would feel like lying, so I just delete them instead…
Omg I have SO many words that I’ve badly pronounced all my life.😂 And names. And just general backwardsness. Like my sister named her daughter Juniper, but I though IT WAS JUPITER. I’ve been calling her “Jupey” instead of “Juney” for like a year now and I cannot stop.😂 I think my family despairs of me, quite frankly.
Ahhh, I admire your ability to DNF! I TRULY DO. I wish I could, omg, it’d be less of a waste of time. BUT I NEED THE CLOSURE!
I’m envious of your commitment to GoodReads! I used to cross-post all my reviews there, but then I started doing stream of thought reviews, and reviews that were lists, and it felt like the format was too different to post there so I just leave them on the blog. I will do star ratings though. And I’m so with you on character names. Every time I write a review I inevitably have a to Google a character’s name. It’s just really hard to remember. On that note, I would LOVE to see some stats/reports from your spreadsheet in a post one day. If only to see the types of diversity in books and which names are popular, that would be so fun.
Fantastic post as usual!
I’m actually lucky if my reviews get from GR over to my blog!😂 Usually they just end up staying there and I review like…4 things on my blog per month, compared to the 20 I usually read. AH WELL. I do list reviews on GR though!! 😀 So I think it’s possible. And omg googling characters names? = my life.😂
AND I WILL DEFINITELY DO THE STATS ON THE SPREADSHEET!! Probably at the end of the year, I’ll do a massive recap. It’s really interesting seeing the patterns in the names and which diversities are represented the most. 🙂
Congrats on being the #1 reviewer in Australia! I never update my Goodreads as I’m reading. I fail at Goodreads. I don’t even keep when I start/finish a book correct. I’ll realize four days later, “Oh, yeah, I finished that book.” Or it could be “Oh, I haven’t started that…yet.” lol
AWw, thanks Charlie!😂 It’s nice for GR to reward me for my intense bookish obsessions ahhahahaha. *composes self*
“This one goes down like a poodle in a sea of avocado.” I haven’t laughed so hard in ages…this is why your pineapples love you, Cait. I must confess I never pronounce character names correctly, either, and I have a really hard time keeping them straight if two characters’ names start with the same letter. I am also quite intimidated to start reading series, just because of the commitment involved, and the cliffhangers! (Also…top bookworm confession…I always judge books by their cover.) 🙂
Ahhhh THIS MAKES ME VERY HAPPY THAT YOU ENJOYED IT.😂 *self five* Also I think names should just be EASIER on our brains. Like average names are bad enough, but then we go into fantasy?!? It’s a miracle to survive those names.😂 And omg one I read a contemporary with two secondary characters called Adrian and Alison. THAT IS WAY TOO CLOSE. I CONFUSED THEM ALL THE TIME. I actually thought there was this love triangle going on when there absolutely wasn’t. *facepalm*
(I cover judge books aLL THE TIME tOO. WE ARE TWINNING.)
I must stalk you on goodreads! I have a challenge question and some of the answers…hello, are we on the same planet? smh
The older I get (no, I’m not telling), the easier it is for me to DNF. Time is too precious to waste on a bad book. Have you SEEN my TBR pile of doom? 😀 Maybe if I steal all 9 lives of each of my cats, I *might* get them read. Maybe. If I give up eating and sleeping and adventuring with greedy dwarves.
*helps herself to Cait’s crumpets and curls up on the couch with a book*
Hahhaha, sometimes challenge questions are hard though.😂 Although I’ve had a ton of indie authors pitch me their books in the friend-request-section. I mean, really??? Gah! NOPE.
And omg the TBR Pile of Doom < -- most accurate statement for just about any bookworm ever amirite?! I'm after immortality myself. MIGHT AS WELL GO THE WHOLE WAY.😂
OH GOSH the name thing. I SO FEEL YOU CAIT. XD I beta-read a book last week and I was talking to the author of it and I couldn’t remember a name from in the book and I was like eeehhhhhhhhhhh….. that one guy there. Youknow. The main character. Whatshisname? *fail*
A SPREADSHEET FOR READING. Oh boy. I haven’t gone that far yet. 😛 Good on you if it works though. (Which it obviously does because omg look how many books you read)
YESS GOODREADS. It’s the best. Your account is my favorite and your updates are something I look for every day in my feed. FORREALZIES.
I procrastinated reading Six of Crows for that exact reason. THE HYPE. THE BRILLLIANCE. It was too overwhelming for poor little me.
Ohh I’ve done that for beta reading too! omg it’s so embarrassing.😂 It’s like “IT’S NOT YOU. IT’S JUST MY BAD BRAIN” ahhahaha #dead
And yes, I find tracking books very very very fun. 😉 But awww, I’m really flattered that you like my GR updates!😂 BUT OMG SIX OF CROWS IS REALLY RATHER FANTASTIC. I’m re-reading it (although you probably knew that, hhaah) and it is all the gloriousness omg.
I am an insta-reviewer on Goodreads most of the time, too. My good GR reviews are short because I am going to review them on the blog, but my bad reviews are sometimes looooooonnnnnnnmg because I only review 4 stars and above in my blog. I do dnf, but I hop-jump-skim to the last chapter just as a safety net that it didn’t get fab somewhere, and then I read the last chapter normally. I am old, I don’t have time for crap. Ha ha. I love your answers, as usual. 🙂
I skim if I REALLY hate the book too!😂 It makes me feel like I’m getting through it and not cheating too much hhahahh.
But omg all my reviews seem mega-long these days. 0_0 I JUST CAN’T STOP TALKING APPARENTLY. Books = my life. <3
Hi Cait! I need to start reviewing 3 seconds after I finished a book (I’ll still give you the head start of 2 seconds). I don’t do the spreadsheet thingy, but I do keep a book diary with all the relevant info. I imagine being a ghost in an attic on day and see how some or other offspring “discovers” my box of book diaries. Of course they will then know EVERYTHING about me. I mean – the books that we read are a reflection of ourselves. NOT?? Oh gosh…. Would eat an entire chocolate cake to know how you pronounce Hermione??? Your Bookstagram is gorgeous – do I follow you? Will go check now….. DNF – also very bad at that one. Books have feelings. Like puppies and bunnies. You can’t put them down. But I have. My dogs tend to frown upon them as I put the fluffy bunny down. NO FLUFFY BOOKS. The saddest thing is that fluffy books tend to breed like fluffy bunnies. Hate it. But here are ten things about me I do not hate: http://marelithalkink.blogspot.co.za/2016/07/the-ten-wonders-of-me.html
Ooh, I like your ghost story of discovering all your reading diaries! THAT IS KIND OF AWESOME HONESTLY.😂 And reading diary is basically a spreadsheet anyway right?!? heheh.
OMG. LET’S NOT EVEN TALK ABOUT HERMIONE.😂 I think originally (before I’d seen any movies) I was going “her-moy-nnn” (if that makes sense…probably doesn’t hahahhah). SO YEAH. But now I do know how to say that one properly. I THINK.
DNFING, HOW DO PEOPLE COPE? I have a hard enough time DNFing series. I just want to KNOW. Even if it’s only so when someone asks me about the book I can whip out my twenty-page essay on WHY it sucked, rather than just say “oh, uh, I stopped at p28 …”
WE NEED THE CLOSURE THAT’S WHAT.😂 And yes, I way prefer to be fully entitled to my 98398 page rant because I actually suffered through the while book so I’m entitled, right?! bahahh. I’M SO BAD.😂
Oh I really share with you the need to have blood and mayhem in my books. Just throw inside a fluffy romantical book all ice cream and kissing something a bit more spicy, like… MURDER.
Could the ice cream be poisonous? Even better… Can we have gryphons? I’m sure it will remain anyway a sweet romantical story. I’m sure.
I’m so interested about your research and statistic about names. I would like to do it, but I don’t read enough books… So all my hopes lie in you. Be strong and do not desist, please 🙂
YES POISON ALL THE ICE CREAM MWAHHAHAAH.
*tries to calm self*
Ahem, I mean, yes. That is a glorious idea. I don’t mind ice cream fluffy dates in books as long as there’s, like, murder afterwards. Or evil monsters attacking. OR SOMETHING.
I will be doing a recap post at the end of the year with what I’ve learned from the name researches!!😂
I’m so guilty with most of these too!! Especially the DNF thing. No matter how much I’m starting to feel “off” with the book, while others say it’s okay not to finish if you don’t feel like it, I always feel that it’s my responsibility to finish it.
I totally get that!! I mean, I do agree that we don’t HAVE to finish books…but I feel so much better when I do finish it. Even if I hated it! I NEED THE CLOSURE.😂
I never DNF books either! Well I didn’t until a couple months ago when I just couldn’t get through the book I was reading. But I’m pretty proud of my Goodreads DNF shelf of 2 books.
I love Goodreads too! It’s such a good way of keeping track of my reading and categorising all my books. And I used to review every single book on Goodreads too but I realised there are just some books that I have nothing to say about and would rather just move on from :D. I used to review all my books immediately after finishing them too (and post them straight after writing them) but now I’ve gotten kinda lazy and write them days later. I should really get back into reviewing straight away because I always had more to say when I did it immediately!
It’s so hard, right?!? Omg. I have 4 books on my DNF shelf, but two I kind of want to go back to…eventually. hahah. One is only on there because it was dumb and had to go back to the library, but I fully intend to get it out again. SOMEDAY. Just so I can stop wondering, omg.
GOODREADS IS LIFE BASICALLY. <3 I would be entirely lost without it.
CAIT OH MY GOSH YES YES YES THANK GOODNESS. I’m not the only one who has trouble remembering names!!! I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE! *clings to you tightly* Also, YAAAAAAS for the spreadsheet. Mine is a bit simpler than yours, but it os soooooo helpful! Go you! You’re amazing for being #1 reviewer in Australia!!! #Goals Also, yessssssss I procrastinate good books also!!!! I’m like I NEED TO READ THIS and then wait for a couple of months. It’s soooo weird.
WE ARE TWINS IN OUR NAMELESSNESS, NORI. *twinning hi five* I mean, why do they all even need names? Why not just everyone be called Bob? That would work, quite honestly, and save our poor delicate brains.
AFJDKLSAD THANK YOU.😂 It’s nice that goodreads awards me for being so utterly obsessed. :’)
I love this post! It made me smile enormously. 🙂
Your spreadsheet sounds so intense! That’s so cool that you track character names and which ones are overused. That is such dedication. I would always forget to update it if I had a spreadsheet (as I constantly forget to update Goodreads. . .). *bows to you*
I usually review good books long after I’ve read them. I need to fully process and thinking about EVERYTHING in the book. That and if I really liked it, I won’t be able to write intelligently about it until I get a little distance (and even then, it might just be a lot of fangirling). Like right now, I have no idea how to review Red Rising on the blog. I have 50 bajillion photos of the book, but my thoughts are more like, “THIS BOOK IS SUPER GOOD! JUST GO READ IT, OKAY?!” And I procrastinate good books too! Especially if they’re large. I went to the library the other day and saw how huge Golden Son is and was like, “I’m not sure I could finish that before the due date.” So instead of getting one long book that I know I will like, I borrowed three smaller books. And I’m nearly finished with them all. I could’ve read Golden Son by now, but, but I can’t! *headdesk*
I next to never pronounce characters’ names correctly unless it’s something easy like, “Jane.” Otherwise, why don’t we have glossaries for this stuff? It would be immensely helpful. Gosh, as a writer, a glossary would be immensely helpful!
Awesome post! Oh, and love the ‘O Brien gif. XD
ENORMOUS SMILING MAKES ME VERY HAPPY, ASHLEY. I AM PLEASED. *smiles enormously with you*
I wasn’t so good with my spreadsheet last year, but now it’s habit for me.😂 I finish a book, I go instantly review it and update my spreadsheet. heheh. It just amuses me greatly to update stats and things. I DON’T KNOW WHY BUT GOOD TIMES. And I think actually processing books before reviews is quite sensible. I wish I did that.😂 Half the time my reviews are just “fjadklajds FEEELEEINGS” and no one even knows what I’m on about.
And omg I DO THE SAME WITH BIG BOOKS. Like I’ll go “no that will take me too long, so I’ll read shorter books” and…I mean, it feels more productive? But at the same time, BIG BOOKS ARE OFTEN GOOD. Just terrifying.
Ugh, I really hate DNFing books for the same reasons. And I feel bad, because I honestly want to give the author a chance, since they wrote their book with all their blood, sweat, and tears, and I want to be supportive of them. But I have DNFed two or three books so far this year, and it is a bit freeing. But still remarkably stressful, omg.
I also procrastinate good books, and then I get my hopes up too much for them and I’m always so stressed out about my fear of not enjoying them that sometimes I make myself accidentally not enjoy them, so that’s frustrating.
I am extremely obsessed with lists when it comes to books. I have so many lists of my TBR books so I get to check off so many things when I finish a book, and it’s so exciting, and I need help. *nods* *sips eleventh cup of coffee* I’m fine, I promise.
Ahhh, I wish I could DNF.😂 I mean, it’s supposed to be freeing, right?!? But I just end up feeling guilty and obsessing over it hahaha. oh dear.😭 I NEED CLOSURE.
And omg it’s the expectations getting mega high while hyping a book that is tragic, right?!? So hard. And sometimes I get myself convinced that a book will be something IT’S NOT. So it’s probably not even the book’s fault, but — hopelessly disappointed sobbing commences.
Ticking things of lists is LIFE basically. :’)
I totally relate to fluffy books being your nemesis. I get sooo bored with books like that. I’m like WHERE IS THE DARKNESS AND PAIN? I NEED THIS IN MY LIFE.
Do we have a problem???
…
*considers it*
…
No.
THIS IS ME 1000%. WE ARE LIKE TWINS FOR THIS. *settles down in the dark side with all the cookies*
Mwahaha we are indeed. *bites down on what looks horrifyingly like a child’s hand* *is actually a cleverly-decorated cookie*
That Finnickin book sounds good!!! Sorry I think I may have spelled that wrong!
Finnikin IS SUPER GOOD I PROMISE IT IS. 😀
This is why you are my favorite book devouring fiend. You share your secrets.
Congrats on being the #1 reviewer from Australia on Goodreads. That is so cool. I am so far down the list, I don’t even rank, But you’re one step closer to world domination. XD
In addition to Goodreads, I have 5 spreadsheets for my bookish ways. So you are not alone with that one.
Actually, most of your things apply to me as well. Except the last one. I am the DNF queen. I own almost 300 unread books. I don’t have the time to read books I’m not enjoying. Seriously, my Wall of Shame may revolt one day if I leave those books unattended much longer.
Yay spreadsheets! I use endless numbers of spreadsheets to track all sorts of things related to books. Goodreads just doesn’t have sufficient aggregated info for my needs! I don’t track names though — that’s a brilliant idea! Especially because it DOES seem like certain names pop up an awful lot. Very curious to see if you find anything out from that!
Also … fluffy books are downright painful for me. Bring on the dark!
*SPREAD SHEET HI FIVE* 😂 And omg I entirely agree! Goodreads needs to up it’s game. I think it needs like more built in spreadsheet-like options and trackers and like just MORE WAYS TO CATEGORISE AND ANALYSE BOOKS. And I shall be doing a recap on the names at the end of the year!! It’s going to be interesting 😀
CAIT I HAVE A VERY SIMILAR SPREADSHEET! And I also need to review books ASAP otherwise things such as names, important events, characters and what book am I reading again? Will float out of my brain. CONGRATS ON THE 10K instagram followers, that is seriously amazing! And your photos are so freaking gorgeous, well deserved!
WE ARE BRAINLESS TWINS. *hi fives* 😂 Whyyyy is everything so hard to remember though?!? Like names. GAh. They just slip through my fingers like nothing else. Even when I’m reading a series and it’s like book 3 I STILL MESS UP THE NAMES.
Aw thankyou! <3
Wow, no DNFing? That’s kind of depressing to me just because that would make me sad to get through some of the books I have not enjoyed in the past. I also really love your spreadsheet! My spreadsheets for reading aren’t nearly so detailed, but it seems like it is a good system to help you keep your thoughts together. And I imagine that is especially important when you are a book blogger and might need to reference some of those things sometimes.
Yesss, spreadsheets are life. :’) I so enjoy filling it out and just calculating all the things at the end of the year! Although honestly the only time I use the info is when I do that end-of-year book survey and see how many bokos of what genre I’ve read and such ahhaah.😂 But it amuses me, so WHY NOT.
I seriously, literally, zomg adore the way you write. Like. It is THE MOST FUN THING TO READ EVER. And of course we share many similar obsessions hahaha. I looooove Goodreads, I am on Goodreads obsessively half the day every day. I’m constantly checking on my tbp-2016, tbp-2017 lists etc etc. And I also have to write reviews right away or I forget. Plus it’s fun to flail and rant and all that! I think I used to rate rather high because of it but nowadays I tend to write my review and think a bit longer on the rating bit. But yeah, I review EVERYTHING on GR and a handful of books on the blog. I usually copy paste my GR review, tweak, and add gifs. Voila! And I have a spreadsheet too but not as nice as yours! Last year it was to keep track of my reading challenges. This year, it’s to make sure I read a good mixture of arcs/library/books I own etc. Also I really really like making lists even if i tinker with it daily and don’t always stick to the plan. LISTS ARE NICE. I’ve gotten better at DNFing, some books are just horrendously awful and there is too much good stuff out there for me to feel guilty about it. I can always come back someday (hahah yeah right…) I don’t always say names right- it’s like I acknowledge that a Word is there but I don’t even pronounce it in my head, I gloss right over. Like Chaol. Ch-owl sounds awful and so does KALE so I call him nothing. He’s just there hahaha. Ahhhhh I know you hate the fluff but I loooooove the fluff! I like dark and tragic and stabby books too but I like to balance it with a nice diet of fluffy romantic cheesecakey goodness. Like watching a rom com.
Aww, thanks, Morgan! *blushes* That’s super nice to hear! AHHHHH.
But omg WE ARE THE SAME WITH GOODREADS?!? *hi fives* I actually am surprised by how many people don’t seem to use goodreads. But Im’ like “This site is my life.😂 I will review a textbook on there if I can find it. hahah. Ahem.
Oh but spreadsheets are LIFE. Although it makes me feel guilty about how I seem to just read ARCs and library books and books I’ve actually BOUGHT because I’m dYING TO READ THEM are the ones that get left to gather dust. *cries* I need to be more balanced about all of this but ah well.
We can just refer to Chaol as THE TRAGIC DARLING. < --- Perfect
I’m with you on mispronouncing names. Once I have an idea of how I think a name is said in my head, that’s it. There is no going back. And frankly I find it awkward when an author knows a name is confusing and has to build in a pronunciation guide in the story. “He said my name with an long ‘a.'” Um, ok.
I actually like it when the pronunciation is incorporated into the story! I am WAY more likely to actually say it right instead of fumbling around for pronunciation guides.😂
Yup, I totally agree with having to review books right after reading them. Otherwise I feel like I forget everything.
And totally agree about forgetting names. I always end up searching other people’s reviews or the blurb to remind me. Which makes no sense, b/c I review *right* after I read so I should remember.
And apparently I can’t write my full name…*rolls eyes*
Forgetting ALL THE THINGS is like the bane of my existence so HI FIVES my twinning friend.😂
You’re not alone on forgetting names; heck I even forget characters exist in the first place? Just a little while ago I read a post in which someone mentioned the sisters in The Rest of Us Just Live Here, which I had finished a week before, and I was like ‘what sisters??’ (I remembered them now and liked them, so why did my brain forget them??) Also congrats on being #1 Reviewer in Australia! 😱