Book Blogger Hop: Do you feel the need to stop reading anything but Christmas....

The Question is:

If you celebrate Christmas, do you feel the need to stop reading anything but Christmas-themed romances as the holiday season starts?

My Answer:

No, why would I? 

That'd be as illogical as only eating turkey dinners with all the trimmings for the full month of December. 

Don't get me wrong, a lovely little book about eating ice-cream on a Cornish beach is unlikely to be high on my reading list at this time but there are plenty of books out there that don't trigger seasonal moods. 

For example, right now I'm binge reading paranormal and urban fantasy novels. They can be read any time and work particularly nicely when the night has drawn in and you're cosied up under a blanket. 

Book Blogger Hop: When reading a book, do you use a bookmark or...

The Question is:

When reading a book, do you use a bookmark to mark your place in the book, or do you just fold over the top corner of the page? 

My Answer:

I own a couple of nice bookmarks but I never use them. I can never find them when I want them and typically I use whatever is to hand to mark my page: scrap paper, receipts, post-it notes, candy wrapper, hair grips... I'm not fussy. If nothing 'suitable' is within easy reach then I'll fold down a corner.

Yep.

I said it and I do it. 

I'll fold down the corners of pages.

I deface books with self-inflicted creases to their precious pages.

Back in school, for English class, I'd take a highlighter pen and highlight favourite passages.

To the standards of most bookworms, I am a monster who doesn't deserve to own a precious pretty book.

 

I don't care if I crease the spine of a paperback to stripey hell.

I'll read and eat and have been known to accidentally drop pasta (with tomato based sauces) on a page and not care... Well care too much.

I carry them haphazardly in my bag and have more than a few books that have pen marks, or have the edges of their pages crinkled because of water, or stained with some random substance like blackcurrant juice that leaked out my son's drinks bottle...

I take a lot of care with other people's books. I take care of library books. However, if the book is mine I do as I please and that means that shit happens.

I don't buy many paper books anymore, I typically stick to kindle, but for me a book that looks like it's lived - creases, scuffs and imperfections - is gorgeous. I don't want a library full of books that look like they've never been read. What is the point in that? As long as a book is never damaged to a point where it has no cover, missing pages or pages that can't be read for one reason or another, then I don't care about things like folding the corners of my pages because life is too short to constantly hunt for a bookmark.

Book Blogger Hop: Off the book topic - What is your favorite scary movie?

The Week's Question is:

Off the book topic - What is your favourite scary movie? 

My Answer:

I don't like scary movies. I never have even though I've watched more than a fair few: It, Nightmare on Elm Street (1-3), Halloween, Friday 13th, Blair Witch, Scream, Saw, Pet Cemetery, Children of the Corn, The Exorcist, Child's Play... I just don't see the point in them. 

I get no enjoyment whatsoever from being terrified out of my wits. 

Maybe I just have an overactive imagination but I'm twitchy and disturbed for days after I watch something like that.

After I left my teens I decided I'd had enough and no matter what anyone said I wasn't watching them ever again. 

Thankfully my other half has no time for them either so I never have to 'take one for the team' on that score.

😊

The types of Halloween movies I like aren't horror scary, they're... Spooky. Atmospheric. Fun.

I LOVE Hocus Pocus at this time of year. 

Beetlejuice.

Casper.

The Nightmare Before Christmas. 

(Which is both a Halloween and a Christmas watch in this house.)

The Adams Family

Practical Magic

(Although I could watch this one all year round.)

🎃

What's your favourite Halloween movie?

Book Blogger Hop: Both Bram Stoker's Dracula and Marry Shelley's Frankenstein...

This Week's Question is:

"Both Bram Stoker's Dracula and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein are considered classics. Have you ever read either of them?"

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My Answer:

Yep, I've read Bram Stoker's Dracula back when I was in high school but I've never read Frankenstein.

Frankenstein is one of those books that's been on my TBR for years but I've never mustered the motivation to read it, even though I want to. It's the same for many classics: Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, Lady Chatterley's Lover, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Anna Karenina...

I want to read them but I never prioritise them over contemporary books. 

Lately, I've been toying with the idea of creating a reading challenge for 2018 in which I read one classic novel every month, throughout the year, in order to finally see what all the fuss is about and why these books have stood the test of time.

🎃

My fav Dracula quotes:

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"I shall tell you. My thesis is this, I want you to believe." 

"To believe what?" 

"To believe in things that you cannot." 

💬

"Yes! The flies like it, too, and I like the flies, therefore I like it." And there are people who know so little as to think that madmen do not argue.

Book Blogger Hop: In Regards to Banned Books Week...

Question:

In regards of Banned Books Week, what are your favourite books that has been banned or challenged?

My Answer:

I honestly wasn't aware of whether I'd read a banned book. 

From what I understand, the only prohibition with regards to books in the UK is books on child pornography but this is part of a general ban on child pornography so it makes sense... I guess individual establishments within the UK, schools and the like, may have different rules on what books they'll make available and promote but they're not legally enforceable like in some other countries.

In order to correct my general ignorance on the topic, I did some quick googling and what I found was that the following books, which I own and/or have read, were banned, at some point or another, somewhere in the world:

Catch-22, Joseph Heller

The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger

Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon

Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck

The House of Night series, P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast 

The Twilight Series, Stephanie Meyer

All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque

The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank

Black Beauty, Anna Sewell

The Harry Potter Series, J.K. Rowling

The DaVinci Code, Dan Brown

The Witches, Roald Dahl

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

I'm genuinely mystified as to the logic of banning these books but profoundly glad that I don't have to put up with it.

Book Blogger Hop: What is your go-to drink and/or snack while reading?

What is your go-to drink and/or snack while reading?

My answer to this is simple: Tea.

Tea is always the drink of choice when I'm reading. I make a cup before I sit down to read and I make a cup when I pause for a break. This means I can be making a cup of tea every hour or so, or it can mean I don't drink anything for four hours because I'm engrossed... Although sometimes my other half takes pity on me and makes me a nice cup of tea while I'm in the middle of a reading binge.

Luckily, I don't tend to snack while reading. If I'm going to eat while reading I take a break and actually eat something proper, like dinner or lunch, I don't absent mindedly pick nor am I a grazer. 

Sadly, the same cannot be said for when I'm on my computer. When I'm on my computer, I munch on anything but my food of choice is jelly sweets like Haribo or Wine Gums. *sigh*

🌻

Whats your drink / food of choice while reading? 

What are some of your reading habits, good and bad?

Here is the hot topic of the week:

What are some of your reading habits, good and bad?

I struggled to write a response to this week's question because I started trying to think of good reading habits and came up blank. 

I was all "I don't think I have any 'good' reading habits. I mean, what is a good reading habit?" But of course, I do! I realised that all the little things I do - but don't think about - are good reading habits. The 'bad' things just spring to mind faster because I feel guilty about them so are easier to write!

So here are some of my reading quirks...

Good Reading Habits

I post reviews for the books I read on sites like amazon.

It helps boost a book/author's visibility and therefore book sales for the author.

If I like a book, I'll tell people about it.

Word of mouth is a powerful tool! Share the book love people!

I always have a book with me.

Whether it's a paperback, my kindle or the reading app on my phone, I always have the ability to read wherever I go. It's a very good reading habit because you never know when you might get stuck for hours with nothing to do but read. (Oh, the horror! 😉)

Bad Reading Habits

I fold corners of pages to hold my place in a book. 

It doesn't happen often nowadays but that's because 95% of my books are now on kindle and I don't need to brutalise any for lack of scrap paper or receipts to hold my place. 

I break / heavily crease the spines of books. 

I don't do it deliberately but I like to hold a book open, nice and wide when I'm reading and this inevitably leads to creasing on the spine. 

I have a happy 1-click finger.

I've spoken about this before on the blog but I have a very bad habit of hitting buy on anything that sounds interesting - even if I don't have a burning desire to read it - if the book is free or 99p. 

It's ridiculous and because of 1-click my TBR is ridiculous.

I read multiple books at once.

Ok, I'm not sure that this one is a bad reading habit but it's not for everyone. 

I often do it when I'm reading a book I know that I'd ordinarily enjoy but, for whatever reason, I'm not feeling at any given point. Or when I'm reading a long book - often a heavier book - and want something shorter, and lighter, that I can blitz through in a day or two. 

🌻

At the end of the day though, I don't think reading habits matter much as long as someone reads. 

I even have forgiveness for people who use a book as a coaster as long as they've read it and, you know, it's not MY book... Oh, wait! I've been known to do that too. 😜

Book Blogger Hop: If you are at a really good point in a book and the phone rings...

This week's question is:

If you are at a really good point in a book and the phone rings or the door bell rings, do you stop reading or let the phone or door bell go unanswered?

My Answer:

Honestly? If my phone is sitting beside me, I'd check who was calling and then decide whether I was going to answer it. Some people really like to talk and I just don't, especially if I'm in the middle of a book!

If there is a knock at the door, I'd debate whether or not they knew I was in and would probably go to answer it so slowly they'd hopefully be gone by the time I got there! lol.

The only time I'd jump up to answer the door would be if I was expecting someone or something, like a parcel, but I wouldn't be happy about it.

🌻

What about you? What would you do?

Book Blogger Hop: Do Your Bookshelves Contain Books Only Or...

This week's question is:

Do your bookshelves have books ONLY or do you also have bookish items on the shelves? 

Answer:

It depends on what bookshelf we're talking about! The bookshelves in my front room and bedroom have both books and other nicknacks on them (not book related) whereas the bookshelves in the hallway only have books. 

I'm also weird on how I organise my bookshelves. The ones in the front room have my history books, factual books, books on myths and legends... That type of thing. 

The book shelves in my hallway have all my paranormal romance, fantasy, urban fantasy and YA books. 

The bookshelves in the bedroom have all my chick-lit, contemporary romance and smut. 😉

What about you? Be sure to let me know what you keep on your bookshelves in the comments. 

Why I'm starting Sunny Buzzy Books

Once upon a time, there was a bookworm, the most voracious of bookworms who read anything and everything but especially love stories for the bookworm was truly in love with love. 

The bookworms appetite knew no bounds. It would regularly inhale a full length novel in a single sitting and then immediately seek out the next.

Over time, however, the bookworms life changed. 

The bookworm graduated from university and got a job. The job limited the bookworm's reading hours but ultimately didn't put much of a dent in the reading schedule; It just kept it to one book a day on work days.

As life progressed, the bookworm had a child and this further reduced the bookworms capacity for reading but only temporarily for before long the bookworm was back at work and there was reading time available after the baby went to bed. Plus, having a child opened up a whole new realm of books for the bookworm to explore... A whole new section of the bookstore! 

Then, a few years ago, the bookworm switched into her current job. It was a great opportunity for the bookworm professionally but the pressures of the job took their toll on her, as did a chronic illness.

Overtime, the bookworm stopped reading. 

The bookworm never lost her love of books, nor did she lose her desire to read but she just... Couldn't. Nothing held the bookworms interest anymore. Long novels, short novels, romance novels, fantasy novels, factual books: The bookworm tired them all. 

Nothing brought back the happy absorption the bookworm used to feel. 

Overtime, the bookworm became very sad and gave up the things that mattered most to her. The bookworm deleted her book blog and she stopped trying to read for herself and the only reading the bookworm partook of was reading to her son before bed.

They say that nothing lasts forever and for the bookworm this proves true for the bookworm wants to read again. 

This blog is a place for the bookworm to find herself as a reader once more. The bookworm's list of unread, but purchased, books is long.

The bookworm is positive her TBR will grow even longer when she discovers all the treasures she's missed. 

The bookworm is, of course, me.