Introducing My New Commenting System: IntenseDebate what is it?

If you have your own blog run on blogger you’ll probably have noticed the amount of spam bloggers rubbish commenting system has been letting through recently. It’s something that’s been driving me nuts and so I’ve been on the lookout for a new commenting system for some time now. I’ve always liked the look of IntenseDebate but I didn’t realise you could install it on to blogger until recently so I decided to make the switch, mainly because of spam, but also because IntenseDebate is so much more user friendly and is a lot more advanced than what blogger has going on.

Some of you might be wondering what IntenseDebate is exactly? And why is it so much better? Basically it has a much stricter policy on spam and it lets the user have better control of what gets through. It also allows readers to leave a comment under the ‘Guest’ option where you post your name, email, and a link to your own website (if you have one) once and IntenseDebate will remember your information the next time you leave a comment on my blog. There is also the option of signing in with your IntenseDebate profile, Wordpress account, or Twitter. I really like how you can leave a comment through your Twitter account as that’s where most of my audience is based and comes in from. There is also the option of including CommentLuv which basically will link your comment with the most recent post from your own blog, so when you comment it’ll be much easier for me to find your blog and return the favour which is always something I like to do! There is also the option of putting a thumbs-up next to thoughtful comments therefore rewarding those people who take the time to give thoughtful feedback.

Basically Intensedebate is a lot more user friendly for both myself and you guys and I’m hoping it’ll encourage people to leave more comments. I LOVE getting comments from you guys; I really appreciate every one of them and reply to them all. I also try my hardest to stop by your blogs and return the favour. I’ve never been a particularly comment heavy blog which is a shame as I love discussing books with you guys and hearing your opinions too. The views are there but for some reason people just aren’t commenting. I’m hoping this new system might change that.

I’ve heard people who love IntenseDebate and people who haven’t gotten along with it at all so this is by no means permanent. It’s easy to uninstall at any time so I’m going to give it a fair run for a couple of months and then assess whether it has helped my comments or not in terms of how many I receive and how much spam gets let through. It’s easy enough to use so I really hope you guys like it! I’m going to leave it there but please feel free to test out the new system below. I optioned to start using IntenseDebate as of now so all of my old comments on older posts should still be there which is nice. If you’re looking to sign up and install IntenseDebate yourself it’s free and so far I’d really recommend it! I followed this tutorial here. It was fairly simple to install and the step by step guide was really helpful!

June Round-Up and Book of the Month!

June's Book of the Month is Crash by Nicole Williams

Choosing this month's Book of the Month was really difficult because I read some brilliant books that all deserved the title, to be honest. In the end I decided to go with Crash because I've been completely in love with this series this past month. It's not often that I read a series pretty much back to back but I was so in love with Luce and Jude that I *had* to know what was going to happen to them next! I loved this love story and Crash was my favourite of the series although I did enjoy all three books. Crash reads more like a Mature YA and then the books venture into New Adult as Lucy and Jude go to college. The Crash series has been my addiction this month and you can read my review for Crash here. Keep an eye out for reviews for Clash and Crush this month!

Read in June 
49.) My Soul to Save by Rachel Vincent (3*)
50.) Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo (4.5*)
51.) The Program by Suzanne Young (2*)
52.) Crash by Nicole Williams (4.5*)
53.) Clash by Nicole Williams (4*)
54.) The Night Itself by Zoe Marriott (no rating*)
55.) Crush by Nicole Williams (4*)
56.) Pivot Point by Kasie West (4*)
57.) If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch (4.5*)
58.) Altered by Jennifer Rush (3.5*)
59.) The Summer I Became a Nerd by Leigh Rae Miller (4*)

* I haven't given a rating for The Night Itself because I was reading it the day my grandad died and so my feelings were all over the place. I feel like I can't give it a fair/true rating or review because my thoughts and feelings were in overdrive at the time and I can't really remember too much of what happened. I did like it though and will be reading more from Zoe in the future.

June Book Awards
Best Plot: Pivot Point by Kasie West
Best Writing: If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch
Best Cover: Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
Best Characters: Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
Best Ending: Crush by Nicole Williams
Best Romance: Crash by Nicole Williams
Most un-put-down-able: Crash by Nicole Williams
Most Memorable: If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch
Best Moral: The Summer I Became a Nerd by Leigh Rae Miller

Top 3 Most Recommended Books: Crash, If You Find Me and Siege and Storm.

Books I’m Looking Forward to Reading/Being Released in July 
The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell
Truly, Madly, Deadly by Hannah Schwartz
OCD Love Story by Corey Ann Haydu
Severed Heads, Broken Hearts by Robyn Schneider

 How was your month in reading? Did you read any of the books I read? What are you looking forward to reading in July?

Debutathon Update Day 4 and Wrap Up!

The Debutathon is hosted by the wonderful Amber from Books of Amber. Check out my Day 1 Update here and Day's 2 and 3 here.

Day 4 Updates
What I Read: Altered by Jennifer Rush and The Summer I Became a Nerd by Leah Rae Miller
Number of Pages Read: 331
Pages Read Total: 1293
Books Read Total: 4
Challenge: No
Reading Snack: No snack today! Not after a big Sunday Roast!
Non Reading Activity: Watching The White Queen - anybody else addicted to that show?
Thoughts: Today was the last day of the readathon and I was determind to meet my goal of 3 books so I picked up and finished Altered pretty early. I was still in the mood to read and since it was still the Debutathon I decided to pick up The Summer I Became a Nerd and it was such a quick fun read that I ended up finishing that too!

Wrap Up! 
What I Read: 
Pivot Point by Kasie West
If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch
Altered by Jennifer Rush
The Summer I Became a Nerd by Leah Rae Miller
Total Pages Read: 1293
Challenges I Participated In: Unscramble That Debut and Poemify That Debut
Favourite Book Read: This is hard because I enjoyed all of the books I read! But If You Find Me was an outstanding debut so probably that one!
Final Thoughts: I'm so happy that I not only met but surpassed my goal for the Debutathon! And I'm really glad I picked the books I did because I enjoyed every one of them and they were perfect readathon material. The challenges were awesome and I had so much fun! I'm really happy I managed to knock four debut's off my TBR pile but I still have some more to go so I'm hoping for a Debutathon Round 2 later on this year! ;)

How did you do for the Debutathon? What was your favourite Debut?

Debutathon Updates: Day 2 and 3

The Debutathon is hosted by the wonderful Amber from Books of Amber. Check out my Day 1 Update here.

Day 2 Updates
What I Read: If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch
Number of Pages Read: 296
Pages Read Total: 639
Books Read Total: 2
Challenge: No
Reading Snack:

Today I tried the Graze healthy popcorn in slightly sweet. I tried their salted version a few weeks back and it was okay...it left me with a very dry mouth and tasted like cardboard after a while. But popcorn is my favourite go to snack especially for readathon's so I decided to try the sweet version and I'm so glad I did because it was perfection! I only really like cinema popcorn as other brands can be over sweet and sickly but this version by Graze was perfect, I think because it is only slightly sweet. I'll definitely be having this again!

Non Reading Activity: I watched an episode of The Big Bang Theory and another couple of Youtube video's but once again I was going pretty strong with my book so didn't want to dip out of it too often!

Thoughts: Another day, another book tackled, and it was another brilliant one! I'm going strong so my goal of reading 3 books should be reachable. I wasn't off to the best start today as I was having one of those days where nothing will go right and then my huge pile of books by my bed finally fell down (I saw it coming for a while) so I had to sort through them and make the hard decision of which books to get rid of and that took a couple of hours of my time up. But luckily I had another brilliant book on hand so that reading was a breeze and somehow I managed to finish it - hurray! BTW if any of you have If You Find Me on your TBR for this readathon you need to read it! It's one of the best debut's I have ever read! It's haunting, beautiful, heartbreaking...but if you pick it up be prepared to have your heart stomped all over! I'm still picking my feels up off the floor this morning.

Day 3 Updates 
What I Read: Altered by Jennifer Rush
Number of Pages Read: 250
Pages Read Total: 889
Books Read Total: 2
Challenge: Yes

Poemify That Debut!

I loved this challenge something fierce! I think I might be too late to enter the giveaway for this one but I wanted to join in anyway because this is the kind of thing I love! 

Reading Snack: 

Today's snack was a little disappointing. I had the sweet goan curry crackers from Graze but honestly they just tasted like a sweet cereal to me! I'm a big lover of spices the spicier the better! I was expecting an underlining kick with this one but they just tasted sweet to me. They were okay but not a favourite from Graze!

Non Reading Activity: I watched one of my favourite movies We Bought a Zoo, wrote today's challenge, and hung out with my family.

Thoughts: Today wasn't as productive a reading day as the last two days mostly because everyone was home so I kept getting distracted! I'm still on track for finishing three books though so I'm still on target and I'm enjoying Altered. I really hope I get some answers at the end of this book because I have so many questions! In other news I won one of the Debutathon giveaway's and have £10 to spend at The Book Depository! Now I just need to decide what to choose so I can get back to Amber...

Debutathon: Goals, TBR and Day 1 Update

I’m a ball of nerdy excitement because when the clock hits midnight tonight I’ll be starting my first readathon of this summer the Debutathon hosted by the wonderful Amber from Books of Amber! Over the past few days I’ve been running around getting all of my jobs done for this week so I’m free to read, ordering some healthy snacks in (more on that later) and searching through my TBR pile for 2013 Debuts. If you’d like to find out more about the Debutathon and what it entails I’d recommend having a read of Amber’s post here.

Things are a little intense at home right now, as some of you may know I’ve recently lost my grandad so this readathon will be a welcome distraction but at the same time I don’t want to give myself too many goals in case I feel like spending a night with my family or get a bit upset or something. Basically I want to keep this fun which is why I’m aiming to read 3 books. On average I’d read about 2 books in 4 days so this is boosting that number up but at the same time it’s manageable. I might read more - I guess we’ll see how I’m doing and how I’m feeling as the readathon goes on.

I’m still not entirely sure what I want to read but I have a list of all the debuts I own up on Goodreads here. I’m a mood reader and I have a mix of different books to read so I guess I’ll be choosing what seems most appealing at the time but if you have any recommendations from this list feel free to leave them in the comments!

During readathons I like to snack and share pictures with you guys. I signed up to Graze a few weeks ago as I’m trying to eat better and I am loving their snack boxes! They are healthy but so delicious as well with a lot of variety and different foods to try. I’m at that stage where I’m still going through different foods and trying them out so you guys will get to explore that with me. I also have a free code for anyone who wants to claim a free one off box to try them out which is pretty great. You’ll get a free box full of yummy snacks delivered to your door and there is no commitment if it’s not something you’d want to subscribe to regularly. If you’ve never heard of Graze before my friend Ellie has a wonderful post explaining what it is and how it works here. You can claim your free box with the code Y5N9T9N.

I already did a sign up post here so I’ll be using this post for Day 1’s updates so if you’re reading this before the readathon be sure to pop back to see how my first day went! I’ll probably stick to what I usually do and do a separate post each day so they don’t get too long.

Now there’s nothing left to do but get some dinner and pass the time until I can start reading!

Day 1 Updates 
What I Read: Pivot Point by Kasie West
Number of Pages Read: 343
Pages Read Total: 343
Books Read Total: 1
Challenge: Yes

Unscramble that Debut! 

Titles: 

1. IIDFEOFYUNM (4 words) 

2. TAREDEL (1 word) 

3. TPNPOOITIV (2 words) 

4. HCITAGRL (1 word) 

5. NPOSIO (1 word) 

6. TSIPDENLER (1 word) 

7. ITSEHTELE (2 words) 

My Answers 

Scroll over to highlight my answers! This is to avoid spoiling anybody who hasn't done today's challenge yet!

 1. If You Find Me 

2. Altered 

3. Pivot Point  

4. Arclight 

5. Poison 

6. Splintered 

7. The Elites  

 I had to search some debut lists on goodreads to help find 4 and 7! The rest were on my radar and I figured  them out after a lot of staring! This was a really fun challenge. 

Reading Snack:

Today's Graze snack was their Cookies and Cream mix which includes mini chocolate cookies, roasted hazelnuts, white chocolate buttons and sunflower seeds washed down with an ice cold coke. Ellie was telling me how good this was down in the comments and seems as I had one to try in this weeks box I thought I'd make it today's snack! They got the name spot on with this mixture - it was so yummy! What I love about Graze is it mixes a bit of a treat in with good for you foods so you still get the taste and it feels like a treat but at the same time you're eating a healthy snack. Every packet is portion controlled as well so scoffing a whole pack of cookies in one go is now a thing of the past!

Non Reading Activity: You know what? I enjoyed reading Pivot Point so much that I read pretty solidly! Other than doing today's challenge, chatting on Twitter and reading everyone else's updates I was too engrossed in my book to part with it!

Thoughts: I finished my first book of the Debutathon! I decided to make Pivot Point my first read mainly because - shamefully - I picked this as one of my most anticipated books of 2013, pre-ordered it, received it early from The Book Depository and then promptly...never read it. So yeah, this was a book I was determined to get to and I'm so glad that I did because it was amazing! The ending broke my heart a little bit and has left me desperate for the sequel! Overall today was a very successful first day (mainly because Pivot Point totally gripped me!) and now I'm going to see how everybody else is getting on and decide what I want to pick up next!

How was your first day of the Debutathon? What have you been reading?