Hello and happy Friday! I hope that you are all having an amazing Valentines day so far! Today I’m going to be participating in Let’s Talk Bookish, a weekly discussion post created and hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books. This week’s topic is: What makes an engaging blog post?
Hello and happy Friday! Today I’m going to be participating in Let’s Talk Bookish, a weekly discussion post created and hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books. This week’s topic is How many POVs (point of views) is too many? (suggested by Heran @ Be Frisky)
I don’t really have a preference. I love books with multiple POVs; I think it’s a really cool way to show more about the characters, and I also love books with just one narrator, or from the 3rd person perspective! I love reading books from all points of view, but I do think that books with multiple POVs are really cool.
It really depends. There are some books where there I really think there should be more. For example, in Six of Crows, in my opinion, Wylan should have his own point of view! He is such a crucial character, and should really be added to the book. (He does have his own point of view in Crooked Kingdom, so that’s great).
I haven’t ever read a book were I wished there were less POVs. Thats probably because once you’ve read a book with multiple POVs, it’s hard to imagine an entire section of that book gone, or at least very different.
There are also some books where the multiple points of views are done perfectly. For example, in Every Soul a Star, by Wendy Mass, Ally, Bree and Jack rotate through the chapters, narrating their own parts. In The Candymakers, also by Wendy Mass, the way the different POVs are told is kind of different, but really cool. The first big chunk of the book is narrated by one person, then the next chunk is told be someone else, however the story doesn’t continue; it loops back to the start, so in the end you’ve gotten the same story four times told by different main characters. It seems confusing, but it actually works really well and is a really interesting way to read.
So now that I’ve talked a little about my opinion on multiple POVs in books, here’s my answer to the main question:
There is no such thing as too many POVs, at least in my opinion. Of course, if an author were to write a book with 50, or 30 or 20 POVs, that would be very overwhelming, however, I’ve never encountered a book with too many POVs.
I’ve read amazing books told from 3 POVs, 4, 5, and even a few more. Now that I think about it, I’ve read quite a few good books with multiple POVs!
So, how many POVs are too many, you ask. And I answer: there is no limit. Just don’t make a 5000 page book with 500 main characters who have their own POVs. That would only give them each ten pages, and that’s barely enough to explain their name, hair color, and favorite Disney movie. So, any number of POVs in a book is good, as long as each character with their own POV has enough room in the book and has a part in the story that makes sense, and is more or less essential!
How many POVs do you think is too many? What’s your favorite Disney movie? Have you read any of the books I mentioned? Chat with me in the comments below!
Happy reading!
Happy Friday, everybody! I’m very excited for this week’s Let’s Talk Bookish, which is about required reading. Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly discussion post hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books, where each week there is a topic or question, and the participants write about their opinions on the topic. I’m very excited for this weeks topic, so here we go!
Required Reading: A punishment or a blessing in disguise?
It really depends. Required reading can be a way to discover new books, and discussing them with other people who’ve read the same book can be pretty fun. However, when the book is boring, or you have to analyze it in a certain way, or you have to write an essay about it, it starts to get less fun.
I just recently read a book in school; Shabanu, by Suzanne Fisher Staples, and I really enjoyed the book. However, it wasn’t fun to make lists of the not so challenging vocabulary, and to write paragraphs of my fairly nonexistent personal connections to the book. Now, I’m going to have to write and essay on the book, and while I love writing reviews, essays comparing and contrasting two characters and stuff like that isn’t the most fun way to write about a book.
How do you feel about required reading?
I know that for some people, they would never read if they didn’t have to for school, but I do wish that we had much more choice in the books we read. Usually, the entire class reads the same book, and with the last book I read in school, there were four books to choose from, but the teacher actually chose which book each student read, and I only got to fill out a form, so a lot of people didn’t even get their first choice.
I’d actually read two of the four books, so that was cool, but our discussions about the book weren’t actually very engaging, and most people in my group didn’t really want to discuss; they just wanted to read the rest of the book. So, overall, I guess I have very mixed feelings about required reading.
Do you think it is unfair, outdated, and boring?
I do think that required reading can be unfair, as a lot of the time the books that teachers choose aren’t very fun or entertaining, and not even educational. It is definitely not outdated, however, I just think that the systems of how required reading is chosen and decided on and all that could be much improved on.
For whether or not it is boring really depends on the book (how interesting it is, how well it is written…) and mostly, how the teacher is having the students discuss the book, and what the students have to do surrounding the book.
Do you think it helps us become better readers?
It can. Again, it really really depends. If its a good book, with interesting content, good writing and more new/more challenging vocabulary and a well thought out plot and characters, it can.
If it’s a meh book with meh educational stuff and meh content and meh writing and meh vocabulary and meh plot and meh characters, then well, the books going to be pretty meh. And a meh book is definitely one hundred percent not going to help us become better readers.
Is it a good way of getting students to read old classics?
Yes. Definitely. Especially literary fiction with difficult wording, and confusing plots. And Shakespeare, although I’m only in seventh grade and haven’t gotten to that yet. But there are many great books that would be read quite a bit less if they weren’t consistently assigned in schools.
Is it a good way of getting students to enjoy old classics? No. While for some people, (like me!) reading classics like To Kill a Mockingbird (which all of the eighth graders at my school read) or Pride and Prejudice (which I assume is coming sometime in high school) would be really fun! However, there are many kids who will grumble about having to read books like A Wrinkle in Time (that was in 5th grade, and then we had a field trip to see the movie which was not good).
What do you think about required reading! Is it a punishment? Or a blessing in disguise? Chat with me in the comments below!
Happy reading!
Happy Friday, everybody! I’ve had a lot with school this week, but I’m very excited for this week’s Let’s Talk Bookish! Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly discussion post created and hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books, and this week’s topic is anxiety and book blogging!
No. This might be because I haven’t actually done any discussion posts that I’ve come up with, only LTBs like this one. But when I’m writing my opinion about books or anything, I’ve never felt like I’m going to be criticized for my opinion.
No. I know that there are people with different opinions than me on literally every topic, but I don’t censor myself and my writing, because I’m fine with having a different opinion than someone as long as they’re respectful of other people’s opinions.
A little bit. I’ve always been nervous about showing other people my writing, and when I’ve written stuff for school, it’s usually not my best work. So when I started this blog, I was truly terrified of the prospect that anyone anywhere could read my blog. Because of that, I guess I kind of censored what I wrote. Now, I think it’s really cool that anyone anywhere can read what I’ve written on this blog, and I want people to read it.
Its also easier that I don’t know the people who are reading my blog. My parents are the only people who read my blog that I know in real life, and everyone else is kind of mysterious.
I do have blogging friends who I’ve chatted with in comments, and whose blogs I follow, but that’s really really different from knowing someone in real life!
I guess Im kind of afraid to be truly myself, because there have been times where I write a sentence, or a paragraph, or even a whole post, and then I delete it, or change it.
However, I’ve definitely started to write a lot more confidently and have started to figure out how I want my posts to be, how the style of my writing is going to look like, and that sort of thing.
I do get nervous about getting posts done on time. I sometimes feel like I need to post 4 times a week, and although that would be great and I would love to be able to do that, I have the rest of my life to balance, and it just doesn’t work out.
When I recently took a short break, it was really nice because I was able to catch up on other things, and now I’m back to writing more consistently.
I do have some anxiety around book blogging, but I do find ways to deal with it, and to work past it. Not feeling guilty about not posting or not reading other blogs is definitely something I need to work on, but over I’m not to stressed about blogging.
What about you? Do you ever have anxiety related to book blogging? Chat with me in the comments below!
Happy reading!
Hello and welcome back to another Let’s Talk Bookish! Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme created and hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books, and this weeks question is: Does your love for an author make you biased towards their book and vice versa?
Yes. It does. Especially the vise versa part.
I guess, well, kind of! I’ve read a few books that I wouldn’t normally read because I recognize the author, but that doesn’t happen very often. I will most of the time continue to read a series IF I like the first book. However, if an author has written two books that aren’t part of a series, then I may or may not read both. I may or not even realize that those books exist! And, if I do, it’s very likely that that book will get lost in the depths of books I want to read but haven’t even bothered to put on my TBR (to be read).
If I do not like a book, though, I may or may not read another book by the same author. If I thought the writing was good, but didn’t really enjoy the plot, I would give another of the authors books a chance. The writing is what would definitely carry into the next book, but if it’s not part of a series, the plot would most likely be completely different, and I might like it better.
If I thought that the plot was good, and I enjoyed that, but I really didn’t like or understand the writing style, I will probably not read another of the authors books. That is what happened to me with The Pox Party, by M. T. Anderson. I got almost three hundred pages in, but I just couldn’t finish the book. The plot was ok, and has a few aspects that I actually found quite interesting, however not only did I extremely dislike the writing style, for the first hundred or so pages, I barely even understood what was happening. I wasn’t enjoying it very much from the start, but I really wanted to finish it. I couldn’t. I tried, and I just wasn’t able to understand or enjoy the writing style! I do not think that I will be reading another book by M. T. Anderson anytime soon. I was really disappointed by this book, and I guess it just wasn’t for me.
Anyways, of course, if I don’t enjoy the plot OR the writing style, then I will not want to read another book by the same author!
(also, I’m grouping the characters of a book in with plot in this post!)
Conclusion:
Well, I guess my love (or dislike) for an author does make me biased towards their other books. I think that before I wrote this post, it was kind of a subconscious part of my decision making process on how I pick what books to read, but just thinking about it, I was able to find quite a few examples!
What about you? Does your love for an author make you biased towards their book? Chat with me in the comments below!
Happy Reading!
Hello, and I hope that you are all having a wonderful start to the new year! I just got back from a trip, and I got to ski a bunch, part of the time with my puppy, so that was really fun, but now I’m glad to be back at home! Anyways, right now it’s time for Let’s Talk Bookish, a weekly discussion post hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books, and this week’s topic is: Audio-books: reading or not? (suggested by me!)
yes. YES. YES!!!!!!!!!!!!
Audio books, or audio stories, or whatever you call them totally and completely count as reading!
Before this summer, I never listened to audiobooks. I just spent all the time I could reading. Most of the time I read physical books, but I would go through phases where I would read like 15 e-books, the go to the library and get a bunch more physical books, then go back to reading those. I also reread a lot. Most of the books that I own I’ve read at least 5 times. I’m a really fast reader, and I love rereading books, so it had never occurred to me that I’d like audiobooks.
However, my sister always listens to audiobooks, and most of the time is doing something else, like art, for example, at the same time. So, I decided to try listening to a few audiobooks. And I did.
I listened to a crazy amount of audiobooks! It probably seems silly, but for the last few months, I have only listened to the 39 clues books. I don’t know why. I’d already read them, and the person who reads all the books is a really good reader, and there are a lot of them. There are four separate series, and all together, there’s more than twenty books, and they’re by a bunch of different authors. I did decide to listen to a few other books for now, but the books that I’ll listen to, well, it really depends on the reader!
(actually, now I’ve listened to two non-39 clues books, including the one I’m currently reading)
In conclusion, audiobooks count. Audiobooks can be another way, or the only way that people read books, and although audiobooks may not be for everyone, they can be really great. For me, listening to audiobooks is another way to cram even more books into the little time I have, and that just adds to the number of books I can read!
actually, one quick question before you stop reading: does anyone know how to change the font sizes within a paragraph without changing the font size of the entire paragraph in WordPress.com? I’ve been trying to figure it out, but it won’t let me, so if you know, please let me know in the comments!!!
Do you consider listening to audio-books as reading? How do you feel about audio-books? Is listening to an audio-book the same as reading a physical one? Chat with me in the comments below!
Happy Reading!
Hello! I hope you all have had a marvelous week! I finally finished the Book Thief, after taking almost the entire month to read it, but here I have this week’s Let’s Talk Bookish. Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly discussion post hosted by Rukky @Eternity Books, and this week’s question is: Who is qualified to write a book with diverse characters?
I feel like this question isn’t really about the people writing, but their willingness to research and take the time to make sure that everything in their books is correct and respectful to everybody. I would never say that some people just all together can’t write books with diverse characters, but that authors should be careful with how they represent those characters.
I’m part of a minority group where I live, (I’m Jewish) and its really disappointing to see when, especially in YA books, a Jewish character is represented in incorrect and misleading ways.
In most books I’ve read that have Jewish characters, the Jewish character is the main character, and being Jewish is their entire life. I’ve only read a few books where there is a secondary character who is Jewish, or another minority religion or race or ethnicity where they live where that is only one aspect of their character, not the only thing that defines them.
One example of that is the book It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel, by Firoozeh Dumas. In this book, Firoozeh Dumas does an incredible job with incorporating diverse characters in a fantastic way. Of course, one of the main parts of the book is that Zomorod is Iranian, but there is more to her than just that, and Firoozeh Dumas shows that in her writing.
Zomorod, the main character is Muslim, but her family is not super religious, and kindness is what’s valued.
“My dad always says that kindness is our religion and if we treat everybody the way we would like to be treated, the world would be a better place.”
Firoozeh Dumas includes characters of many different religions into her book, but in subtle enough ways that it’s not the main idea of the book, it just makes the story better! Zomorod is Muslim, Rachel is Jewish, and Carolyn is Christian, and they are all very good friends. As Zomorod puts it;
“… even though we belong to three different religions. We are alike in so many more ways than we are different.”
Firoozeh Dumas recognizes that religion isn’t everything, and that there is so much more to a person. I really appreciate that in a story.
This post got very off topic, but one, it gave an example of how of an amazing book with diverse characters can look like, not just what it shouldn’t look like, and two, now I have a huge chunk of writing that I can copy into my soon to be finished review of It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel. (so that’s of course an added plus…)
Conclusion:
If an author’s going to write a book with a bunch of diverse characters, it’s impossible for them to have personal experience with every aspect with every single one. Also, it’s really important for books to have diverse characters. The most important thing, in my opinion, is that authors really need to make sure that they are being respectful of everyones religions and cultures and everything. If they don’t have personal experience then they should do their own research and make sure that their representations of all the aspects of their characters is correct, appropriate and respectful. That is a great way to write about diverse characters!
What’s your opinion? Who do you think is qualified to write a book with diverse characters? Do you agree that a characters ‘different’ religion, culture or heritage will sometimes be the only thing shown about them? I’d love to hear your opinion, so chat with me in the comments below!
Happy Reading!
Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly discussion hosted by Rukky @Eternity Books where a bookish topic is discussed each week. This week’s topic is: Is there a time limit on spoilers? (suggested by Megan @ Megabunny Reads)
No. There should never be a time limit on spoilers. Whether or not the book was published last week or in the 17th century, there is always going to be someone who hasn’t read it.
I actually haven’t read any of the Harry Potter books except for the first one! Someday, I’ll probably read the series, but until then, I don’t want to know what happens! Obviously, I have read a few ( a lot) of spoilers of the books, but I still would like to keep the number of spoilers I read as little as possible.
Once, someone spoiled a big part of the 3rd Anne of Green Gables book, and I was only like halfway through the first on, and I was so sad, and even though I was I think 9 when it happened, I still remember it. It’s important to keep in mind that if you spoil a part of a book, the persons going to remember it.
I’m going to keep todays LTB fairly short so, here’s my overall opinion:
There should not be a time limit on spoilers, and that applies to books, movies, and anything else with a plot and characters. If someone hasn’t read a book, then you should not spoil any part of the story, even if it’s a tiny little detail that you think won’t matter UNLESS YOU ASK THEM.
Do you think there should be a time limit on spoilers? What’s your opinion? Chat with me in the comments below!
Happy Reading!
Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly discussion hosted by Rukky @Eternity Books where a bookish topic is discussed each week. This week’s topic is: How do you deal with problematic books?
I don’t really have a lot of experience with problematic books, but here’s how I’ve dealt with one in particular.
The Little House books, by Laura Ingalls Wilder are classics. So many people have read them, and they are considered to be really sweet stories. Until you look at them a little more closely…
For those of you who don’t know, the Little House books are the story of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family’s journey west. The books show what the journey west could be like for some people, and tells the story of a family of pioneers and homesteaders.
One problematic part: Ma is really racist! They all are, in some way. Laura realizes it, and through her writing shows that her family’s ideas on Native Americans were wrong and very racist, but it is still shown.
When I first read these books, I was really little and didn’t recognize this. I recently reread a few of the books, and was astonished at how awful some of their ideas of the time were.
I don’t hate these books now; they are still some of my all time favorites. However, now, I can see the problems, and move past them. Just because parts of them are seen as problematic, I’m not going to get rid of them, completely remove them from their place on my bookshelf!
Personally, I don’t have to agree with everything the author writes in a book to make it a good book, or even one of my favorites! I hope that you enjoyed reading about how I feel about problematic books, and I’d love to hear your opinions, so feel free to chat with me in the comments!
Happy Reading!
Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly discussion hosted by Rukky @Eternity Books where a bookish topic is discussed each week. This week’s topic is: How has reading shaped/changed your life?
1 The biggest way that reading has changed my life is this blog. I never really imagined having a blog where anyone could read my writing, and that I would feel comfortable with that. I have been always really private with my writing, never letting anyone else read it, and I would come up with ideas for stories, but never finish them. I guess in a way, blogging has also shaped my life for the last 3 months, (I can’t believe it’s been that long!) as well as changing it.
2 Reading is my go-to activity. If I’m bored, I’ll read a book. In that sense, I guess, reading isn’t a chore for me; it’s something I want to do, something fun. I’m really grateful that my parents made reading a ‘normal’ thing for me, and that I have access to so many books.
3 I love writing. Because I love writing so much, it makes me look at the books I read in different ways, and then understand them differently. Reading books about things happening in the world, or historical events is a really interesting and informative way to learn about some topics, and more fun than learning facts from a textbook.
4 Reading has improved my grammar, and my other writing skills. Reading gives me more exposure to the grammar, and that influences my writing, so it makes me a better writer.
5 Reading has made me more empathetic; reading books about all different types of people from all different types of view really shows what life can be like for other people.
So, that’s how reading has shaped and changed my life! Do you agree with these? Chat with me in the comments below!
Happy Reading!
Book Nook Bits 