Once Upon a Read-a-Thon: Wrap Up!

This Readathon is hosted by Angela and Loretta at Reading Angels, Candace at Candace’s Book Blog and Lori at Pure Imagination.

What I Read: 
A Cottage by the Sea by Carole Matthews
The Archived by Victoria Schwab
Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

Total Pages Read: 651

Challenges I Participated In: The Book BFF Challenge and The Genre Challenge

Favourite Book Read: Well The Archived is the only book I read from start to finish so probably that. The writing was beautiful blending grief and loss with a gothic and haunting paranormal story. The world building was excellent and I couldn't quite believe how original this "ghost story" was. Victoria Schwab took such an overused topic and made it completely unique and her own. I adored it. But then again I'm not quite finished with Eleanor and Park yet and that is wonderful in a totally different way. The characters are vibrant and bright and it feels like reading a real life account of a love story between two real people. I'm completely in love with it.

Final Thoughts: Well, I reached my goal of reading two books but this wasn't my best readathon. Simply because I know that I could have read more if it wasn't for the heat, my hayfever, my dog getting sick etc. Life kinda got in the way of this one but I'm still proud of what I accomplished in three days. I read some brilliant books and I'm looking forward to getting stuck back into Eleanor and Park later today.

 How did you do for the Readathon? What was your favourite read?

Once Upon a Read-a-Thon: Days 2 and 3

 

This Readathon is hosted by Angela and Loretta at Reading Angels, Candace at Candace’s Book Blog and Lori at Pure Imagination.

Day 2 Updates
What I Read: The Archived by Victoria Schwab
Number of Pages Read: 222
Pages Read Total: 447
Books Read Total: 2
Challenge: No
Reading Snack:

A bowl of fresh strawberries and a Graze favourite of mine - el picante which consists of jumbo salted corn, spicy chilli peanuts and mini paprika breadsticks.

Non Reading Activity: Finishing off Glee Season 3! I've been watching this show for the first time over the past few months and yesterday I finished Season 3 and was so upset and crying over the end. If it wasn't enough that the original cast were all saying goodbye and going off to reach for their dreams THAT unexpected ending happened and I was just a mess. Glee has quickly become an all time favourite show of mine and waiting for Season 4 to come out on DVD in September is going to be agony.

Thoughts: I hate hayfever! My hayfever meds are just not touching it this year. My eyes and nose were streaming and I had a headache so I couldn't concentrate on my book. I sat and passed a few hours watching the last few episodes of Glee. It was then night-time and my hayfever had settled down at that point so I got stuck back into my book. The Archived was incredible and had me completely gripped and before I knew it I had it finished just turned midnight! That means I've technically reached my goal of reading two books. It'd be nice to squeeze in another book today before the readathon is over but I guess we'll see!

Day 3 Updates 
What I Read: Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
Number of Pages Read: 204
Pages Read Total: 651
Books Read Total: 2
Challenge: Yes, hosted by Dizneeee's World of Books 

Favorite genre, favorite book within that genre, and your favorite character from the same genre.
This is a tough one! My favourite genre changes all the time! As of right now though I'd say YA Contemporary. I have so many favourite contemps but I'll go with one that always stands out in my mind and that is Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins. For favourite character I'll go with Cricket from the same book I absolutely love him! He's one of my favourite nerdy book guys!

Reading Snack: Graze's honeycomb and chocolate flapjack with a summer fruit smoothie.

Non Reading Activity: Catching up on the latest Skins episode and looking after my poorly dog. :(

Thoughts: Eleanor and Park is every bit as wonderful as you all have been telling me it is! I'm completely in love with it and I would have devoured it all today if life hadn't intervened. My dog Dylan was really sick today. He was shaking, panting, throwing up, wouldn't eat and I was such a worried Momma. We think he ate something he shouldn't have out on his walk and it upset his stomach, either that or the heat got to him (he's a black Labradoodle with a big fluffy black coat, weather like this must be horrible for him.) Thankfully he seems back to his normal self now but needless to say much of my reading time went to looking after him.

 Let me know which books you've been reading and how you've been doing! Follow my updates here, on Goodreads and Twitter!

Once Upon a Read-a-Thon: Goals, TBR and Day 1 Update

This Readathon is hosted by Angela and Loretta at Reading Angels, Candace at Candace’s Book Blog and Lori at Pure Imagination. I've just finished watching the Wimbledon men's final and I'm feeling all patriotic and proud of Andy Murray's win and now I'm getting ready to bust a gut at my own personal best sport - readathoning! :P For more information on this readathon check out my sign up post here.

 What I'll Be Reading

A Cottage by the Sea by Carole Matthews 

 Shipwrecked by Siobhan Curham 

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell 

The Archived by Victoria Schwab 

The weather is gorgeous right now in the UK and is set to continue over the week, so I've chosen two summer reads. A Cottage by the Sea which is my current read and a fun, beachy, chick-lit. And Shipwrecked which is a thriller set on an Island and is being pitched as Lost meets Gossip Girl. I've also chosen two books that I've been wanting to read all year but for some reason haven't gotten around to The Archived and Eleanor and Park - I've heard incredible things for both of these books and am looking forward to finally (hopefully!) getting to them! 

My Goal 

I want to definitely read at least two books but it would be amazing to read all of these! With the gorgeous weather it will go one of two ways: I'll either be soaking up the sun getting lots of reading done or I'll be too hot and hayfeverery fanning myself with a book rather than reading it! I guess we'll see! 

I'm going to be recording my day one updates here and will make a separate post for days two and three. Once Upon a Read-a-Thon was the first ever readathon that I took part in last year. I did really well and had so much fun so I'm looking forward to round two! Bring it on! *Flexes reading muscles.* 

Day 1 Updates 
What I Read: A Cottage by the Sea by Carole Matthews and The Archived by Victoria Schwab
Number of Pages Read: 225
Pages Read Total: 225
Books Read Total: 1
Challenge: Yes, The Book BFF Challenge.
Reading Snack: None! It's the day before my Graze box arrives so I'm all out of snacks - rubbish timing for a readathon! I'm looking forward to it arriving tomorrow so I can indulge in some yummy, healthy, goodies whilst reading.
Non Reading Activity: Falling asleep in the sunshine, reading everybody's goals and watching the first episode of The Legend of Korra. I'm so happy that it's finally showing in the UK! I'm a big anime fan and Avatar: The Last Airbender is my absolute favourite! Legend of Korra is the spin off show and so far, so good!
Thoughts: One day down, one book finished! Although I haven't done as well as it sounds as I only had 126 pages of my book left to read today. I think next I'm going to pick up The Archived I'm hoping to squeeze in a hundred pages before bed. I've been really looking forward to this one, I'm just hoping I can deal with it at the minute. I recently lost two family members and this book (from the sounds of it) is primarily about the dead. There is already a snippet of the poem from my Grandad's funeral at the start. I think it'll either be a massive hit and something I can really relate to right now, or it'll be too much for my emotions and I'll have to put it aside for another time. It shouldn't be too heavy going though so I'm hoping I'll be fine.

 How has your first day been? Follow my updates here, on Goodreads and Twitter!

Review for The Summer I Became a Nerd by Leah Rae Miller

The Summer I Became a Nerd by Leah Rae Miller
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Release: 30th May 2013
Genre: Young Adult, Summer, Contemporary, Coming of Age
Source: Bought

Goodreads Summary:

"On the outside, seventeen-year-old Madelyne Summers looks like your typical blond cheerleader—perky, popular, and dating the star quarterback. But inside, Maddie spends more time agonizing over what will happen in the next issue of her favorite comic book than planning pep rallies with her squad. That she’s a nerd hiding in a popular girl's body isn’t just unknown, it's anti-known. And she needs to keep it that way.

Summer is the only time Maddie lets her real self out to play, but when she slips up and the adorkable guy behind the local comic shop’s counter uncovers her secret, she’s busted. Before she can shake a pom-pom, Maddie’s whisked into Logan’s world of comic conventions, live-action role-playing, and first-person-shooter video games. And she loves it. But the more she denies who she really is, the deeper her lies become…and the more she risks losing Logan forever."

Review 
If you know me you’ll know that I love nerdy contemporary YA, so as soon as I heard about The Summer I Became a Nerd I freaked out and bought it straight away and I’m so glad that I did! This was such a ‘Jess book’ and I loved it so much that it’s now up there as one of my favourite contemporaries.

Like her favourite superhero’s Maddie has a secret identity - popular cheerleader by day, nerdy comic book lover by night. Summer is Maddie’s favourite time of year, she gets a break from school and from being the person everyone expects her to be, can catch up on her TBR list and chat on online fan forums to her hearts content. I loved Maddie from the moment I found out that she keeps a comic book journal to write down her thoughts and favourite quotes! I could understand her wanting to keep her nerdy side a secret – although my friends knew about my nerdy ways when I was at school I was teased for it and know first-hand that that’s no fun. I love this book for busting stereotypes and Leah Rae Miller for creating a heroine who’s a cheerleader but who also loves comic books with a passion. Basically I thought that Maddie was pretty freakin’ awesome and only wished that she had the confidence to share her awesomeness with the rest of the world.

During a secret mission to the local comic book store for the latest issue of her favourite comic - The Super Ones #400 – Maddie runs into Logan the cute nerdy guy from school who works there. Logan quickly sees through Maddie’s poor disguise and the two soon start regularly hanging out as Logan introduces Maddie to the world of nerd and teaches her to embrace her inner geek. Sweet, nerdy, boy next door types are my favourite, so I fell for Logan at Flash speed. Maddie and Logan’s romance was so adorbs and is full of super cute moments. A personal favourite of mine was when they showed each other their very best happy dance. You see! Isn’t that adorable!? This book was full of moments like this one that made my cheeks hurt from the big goofy grin I wore during every page of this book.

The Summer I Became a Nerd is full of nerdy references that are worked into the story that you’ll appreciate if you’re into the same things as Maddie. I also enjoyed learning more about LARPing (live action role play) which is something I didn’t know a whole lot about before reading this book. Now I definitely want to take part in something like it in the future because it sounded like so much fun!

Overall I pretty much loved everything about this book. It was a cute, fun, summer read packed full of awesome nerdy goodness and the important message of being true to who you are. The Summer I Became a Nerd is without a doubt one of my favourite reads of the summer so far!

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!