Liebster Award!

Today I am very happy to announce that I have been nominated for a Liebster Award by Kelley over at Bibliophile Bliss and by Erin at Hardcover Lover! Thank you, Kelly! I've only been blogging for a month so this is a huge honor and has fueled my confidence as a book blogger.

Once you are nominated, you must follow these rules in order to get this award:

1. Link & Thank the blogger who nominated you
2. Answer the 11 questions your nominator gives you 
3. Tag 11 other bloggers who have 200 or less followers
4. Ask the 11 bloggers you nominated 11 questions and let them know you nominated them!

Kelly's Questions

Where do you buy your books?

Barnes and Noble

What are you currently reading?

A Game of Thrones

Last book you did not finish and why?

The Bell Jar because I got bored

If you could meet any one in the world (it can be fictional), who would you meet and why?

Throwing in that fictional aspect made this difficult. I would probably want to meet Molly Weasley because she is so caring and maybe she would knit me a sweater.

Favorite book to movie adaptation.

Either The Book Thief or The Help. I thought both were loyal to the book and really captured the themes of the book.

Most anticipated book for 2014.

I don't actually know because I don't pay attention to upcoming releases.

Love triangles. Hate or love them and why. 

Hate them. They get repetitive and add uncessecary drama. There are so many other ways to add a struggle to a story.

Who is your favorite book boyfriend and why?

Like a character in a book who is a boyfriend to a character or a character I would want as a boyfriend? I really like Park in Eleanor & Park as a boyfriend in that story but I would want Sirius Black as my boyfriend because he is my fictional crush.

If you were stranded on an island, what would be the three things you would choose to have with you?

I'm going to turn this into three books I would have with me: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, and The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

      

3 random facts about you.

I can say the alphabet backwards from memory

I have a dog named Stanley (he was named after the Stanley Cup)

I really like doing still life paintings

Lastly, which book is next on your TBR pile?

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire as a part of my reread.

Erin's Questions

Why did you decide to start blogging?

I have been watching a lot (I'm serious when I say a lot) of booktube videos and wanted to be able to share my love of books, but didn't want to do it on a video platform so I resorted to blogging instead! 

Are there any books set in your hometown? If so, what one(s)?

None that I know of. I would be very surprised if there are.

Who are some of your auto-buy authors?

Jonathan Safran Foer and JK Rowling

What is your favorite series?

Harry Potter hands down

Do you like fantasy or dystopia better? Why?

Usually dystopia because I find it easier to connect to.

Have you ever written a book?

I have written short stories, but none were very good. 

What are some of your favorite book blogs?

Just everyone I follow

What is your favorite book you had to read for school?

Crime and Punishment. One of my all time favorites actually.

What are you currently reading?

A Game of Thrones

Are there any books that you just know you won't read even though everyone tells you that they are great?

The only books I can think of at the moment are The Giver and The Host

What is your favorite thing about the book blog community? Why?

I just love how excited everyone is about books and how supportive everyone is of each other! This award is proof of that!

Who I nominate:

I actually don't follow many book blogs at the moment so there is no one eligible for me to nominate at the moment.

That is all for this post today. I want to thank Erin and Kelly again for nominating me and I'm sorry that I literally have no one to nominate for this award.
Also so sorry if the formatting is really strange and if some things just look funky. I can't seem to fix it at the moment.

Announcment: Top 5 Tuesday

Due to my lack of time to prepare a Top 5 Tuesday, I'm afraid this week will have to suffer and not have one. I might redeem myself by making next week a list of top ten instead of five, but I'll have to wait and make up my mind when it gets closer to next Tuesday. I am incredibly sorry that I haven't been posting. Once I get comfortable with college life, I will be posting more regularly. I already have several posts planned, I just need to find the time to write them.

Top 5 Tuesday: Comfort Books

Hey everyone! It's been an entire week since I last made a blog post and I'm sorry about that! I hope to be more active on this blog, but I just moved into college on Sunday and have been bust nonstop since. Since I moved into college, I'm looking for things to comfort me in this time of transition, so this week for my Top Five Tuesday I'm ranking books I go to for comfort.

5. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Perks made it to this list because although it isn't an exceptionally cheerful book, it is extremely easy to relate to in someway or another. I find it extremely relevant for my current situation because I'm thrown into a new environment and I'm just trying to fit it just like Charlie. I find comfort in this book by knowing that I'm not alone in this world by being different or not fitting in with the majority of others. 

4. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Although I only actually read (and finished) this book recently, I know it is one I will turn to whenever I need a pick-me-up. It is a timeless and classic tale of love; what could get better than that? If I ever need a good book that will just make me feel peaceful, then this would be the book I would pick up.

3. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis

This book takes me back to my childhood. I had already read this a few times by the time I was ten years old and I can still read it today and enjoy every moment of it. It takes me back to the days when I sat with my dad and read together with him and discussed the book. I can't help but smile when I read this book.

2. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

If you recall from my first Top Five Tuesday, Jonathan Safran Foer is my favorite author and this was the first book by him that I read and it changed the way I looked at reading. This book made me fall back in love with reading and the story touched me emotionally, so when I read it now, it expands those emotions even more. 

1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling

I'm sure this choice is obvious. This book also takes me back to my childhood and fills me with absolute joy. I can't read this book and not be happy. Reading this book is like getting a hug from someone you love. Nothing I could say would ever do this book any justice for how it makes me feel. I'm sure everyone who loves Harry Potter feels the same as I do. 

Top 5 Tuesday: TBR Shame

Another Tuesday, another Top 5 Tuesday. This week I have chosen "TBR Shame" as my topic, meaning that these five books have been sitting on my "to be read" list forever, but I have never gotten around to them. Not only that, but I am also ashamed to never have read these books. Let's get started!

5. The Giver by Lois Lowry

I am fairly certain that The Giver has been assigned reading for nearly everyone at some point during school, but not me. Because of this I feel like I'm the only one left who has never read this! I only found out recently that it is dystopian and the first novel of a series. I always assumed it was some dull book about an old man with a boring plot that was written purely to teach kids of some moral lesson (I think I got this impression just based on the cover). Since this book is commonly said to be a book everyone should read, I will definitely have to pick it up sometime, even if it's not in a classroom setting.

4. The Host by Stephenie Meyer

I would not normally be ashamed for not reading this, except for the fact that I've owned it for five years! When I was in middle school everyone read this book right after they finished Twilight, so naturally I had to get this book. My mom picked it up for me at a church rummage sale for $5 and I immediately started to read it. I got about 50 pages in a stopped and have not touched it since (I even still have the bookmark in there). For some reason I just could not get interested in this story. To make matters worse, I saw the movie and enjoyed it, but still do not want to read the book anymore.

3. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

City of Bones has been on my TBR list since I first heard about it back in 2012. At first I was not in any hurry to read it especially since I knew more books in the series would be released later. But lately no matter where I look in the book loving community, someone is raving about it. It seems like everyone has read this book and is in love. As much as I think I would like City of Bones, I don't think I will be picking it up anytime soon. It looks like it will just have to get comfy on my TBR for awhile.

2. Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, & The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis

Naturally I would not be ashamed to say I haven't read these books, but considering I have owned them for 8 years now, it's pretty disappointing. I read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in fourth grade right before the movie came out and fell in love with it. I then read The Magician's Nephew and only read The Horse and His Boy and Prince Caspian within the past few years. I don't know why I haven't just sat down and read these books yet since they are such short, enjoyable reads. I could easily read one of these in a single day, but every time I start one, I get distracted or disinterested. It always takes me a little while to get started with these books, which is probably my problem. I will make goal to read these either next summer or over Christmas break. Fingers crossed.

1. Lord of the Rings Trilogy/The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkein

The Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit are my most shameful books on my TBR list. I have seen the movies and love them (I'm not a huge, obsessive fan, but I just generally enjoy them) and have been wanting to read these books forever! I have only heard good things about these books and I genuinely think I would enjoy them. The only thing that is setting me back from reading these books is that I don't own them. I really hope to buy these books soon!

Those are my top five books this week, but this time I would like to include an honorable mention: Hoot by Karl Hiaasen. I've had this book ever since I was in third grade and it was the most popular book among my class at the time. Every time I look at my bookshelf and see this book, I remember how much of a loser I was for not liking this book. I started to read it maybe five times, but never liked it. Now I just keep it because it adds a pretty pop of color to my bookshelf.

Harry Potter Reread: Prisoner of Azkaban

I recently finished reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, so that means it's time for another Harry Potter Reread post! If you have not yet read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban yet, first of all you should definitely go do that, but also this post may contain spoilers from this book. I'll try to be as spoiler free as possible, but I know that there will be mild spoiling so I apologize in advance. Without further ado, here were my thoughts from the Prisoner of Azkaban:

• ❤SIRIUS BLACK❤ I should say that Sirius is my favorite character ever, so every time I read this book I get a huge influx of feelings about him and everyone's perception of him. Also, it is make super clear in this book that Sirius is the biggest drama queen ever.
• I loved the bits when the dementors go after Harry and he can hear his parents. It is bonechilling and depressing, as if a dementor is going after me as well.
• Snape needs to seriously let things that happened when he was 16 go. (♬♪Let it goooo, let it goooo♬♪)
• The pacing of this book is absolutely perfect. Although this book is shorter than the last four, it still manages to squeeze in a lot of excitement and drama. There is rarely a dull moment.
• Some people may disagree with me on this one, but this book includes the beginning of the tone shift among the books. Everything up until this book was generally cheerful. From the beginning of this book, everyone is terrified about Sirius. Even the muggles! That's when you know there is something serious (haha get it?) going on.
• Last thing: the time turner. I know many people do not like the time turner, but I love it! If you don't dig deep into the mechanics of it, it worked seamlessly in this book. It answered a reoccurring question and even helped solve the major problem in the end. 

That is all I have for this book! I hope you enjoy these posts because they are fun for me to write.