Book Clubs, Yay or Nay?

I am currently on vacation this week and in lieu of my regular posting, this week will be a series of discussion posts by me as well as by a couple of guest bloggers.

Book Clubs, Yay or Nay?

Cindy from Oodles of Books was supposed to blog today, but she had some things come up and was unable to join us. Therefore, I decided to end this vacation week of discussion posts with a topic that always fascinates me and I love to hear opinions on, and that is: What do you think of Book Clubs? That could be a traditional group meet up style or a more technological online club or anything in between!

When I was a little kid I attended a summer book club sort of thing. All the kids would read a short picture book with their parents and in the middle of the week we would all gather together to talk about it and draw pictures….Well, that’s pretty much my only experience with book clubs. Pretty pathetic, huh?

It’s not that I never wanted to be in a book club, it’s just that the opportunity never seemed to present itself. For me, it was something that never worked out regardless of how interested I was. In High School, our book club was really cool! It was arranged like Harry Potter, complete with sorting hat, house points, and a yule ball. My issue with that was that I was more devoted to other clubs and never had the spare time to join. Apparently, my hometown even has quite a selection of book clubs that are hosted at the library these days.

But, alas, there just aren’t any book clubs around my college town that I could join and as for online book blogs, well that is completely uncharted territory for me. So, I fear that book clubs may just be something that I always want to experience, but will never have the chance. I suppose that is where the book blogging community fills in! Ha!

Have you ever been in a Book Club? Do you enjoy scheduled group reading? Does your town offer lots of opportunities for Book Clubs? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Divergent: What’s Your Faction?

I’m on vacation this week, so in lieu of regular posting I have asked some of my favorite bloggers to do a guest post. Today’s guest is Hilda from Catch the Lune! here to discuss Divergent factions. Thank you Hilda!

Which Faction Would You Be in Divergent?

Hi everyone! *waves excitedly* First of all, I want to thank Darlene for being so awesome! Thank you very much for having me! Darlene has such lovely blog, don’t you think so? Her blog suits the title very much! x) Naah, some of you might remember me from my own book blog, Catch the Lune. Hey there, minions! *blow kisses* LOL, you might have urge desire to throw me with rocks now. Sorry, I have tendency to blabber! x)

Today, I have the luxury to talk about one of my latest book obsessions… Divergent by Veronica Roth! Squealll! ♥ Divergent is such an amazing book and it’s one of my best read in 2012. I just love it so much! You can check out my blog and read my blabbering review there! I can talk about Divergent for hours, but for now, I’m just going to share my result of Factions quiz and what I think of it! :)

There are five factions in Divergent: Abnegation, Dauntless, Erudite, Amity, and Candor. The five factions represent five different virtues each of them held. Do you cogitate that peace is more important than important fighting? You might be Amity. Or maybe you think knowledge is the most important thing? Then, my friend, you might be an Erudite!

My paperback copy of Divergent has bonus material inside and there’s a part when Veronica Roth talks about the factions, along with personality quiz which faction you belong.

I tried the quiz and guess what I got?

*a little bit of drum roll please….*

Abnegation!

I wasn’t very surprised to find out that I’m Abnegation, although I’m not very sure that I can live up to their selfless standard. I think the reason why there are people from different factions who despise Abnegation is their reasoning that no one could be that good. No one could be that unselfish, living their life only to serve others. I think that’s a very bitter thing to believe, especially since we’ve seen amazing people like Mother Theresa, Aung San Suu Kyi, and Nelson Mandela in our life. I think these people would be perfect examples of Abnegation people. Maybe people who are truly selfless could really exist. Well, my ever-optimist view of life believes in kindness and bravery. ♥

I’m not very sure, but if I lived in Divergent world, I think I would choose Amity. I like the way they seem to put happiness and peace above everything. There are some issues I have with Amity’s too-carefree way of life, but no faction is perfect. I don’t think that I would be brave enough to choose Dauntless. Yes, the sorting hat from Harry Potter may put me in Gryffindor, but I’m not a thrill seeker at heart. If I could gather enough courage, then maybe Dauntless would be my choice. Candor is out of question. There’s a reason why we learn to paraphrase truth. :P Erudite… I don’t like the way they think. Although Erudite comes second after Abnegation in my result, I don’t think I would choose Erudite. It’s the way they seem to eliminate people who aren’t smart enough in their initiation. Remind me too much of Darwin’s natural selection theory (which makes me real sad!).

The awesome Miss Veronica Roth herself stated that no one can belong perfectly in one faction. Faction you belong and faction you choose are entirely two different things. I think what’s really important is what kind of person you want to be. x)

Gosh, I write such solemn post this time, right? Sorry, must be the side effect of post-exam hehe!

How about you, lovely people? Which faction do you think you would choose if you lived in Divergent world? Don’t be shy, share with me! :) ♥

E-Readers vs. Paper Books

I am currently on vacation, so in lieu of my regular posts, this week I will be doing book-related discussion posts everyday, as well as having some of my favorite bloggers do guest posts.

E-Readers vs. Paper Books

The more popular E-Readers have become in the most recent couple of years the more people have sort of taken sides on this strange sort of battle. There are people who swear by their E-Readers and never plan to buy another physical copy again. Then there are people who push away this technological advance as something to be avoided. My stance on this topic is: What does it matter as long as you’re reading?

I actually haven’t met anyone in the blogging community who is against one or the other format, but I do know a few people in my town who have taken a side. What I really was thinking about with this post was, what are some of the pros and cons with the two.

E-Readers

Pros:

-Reading in the dark! (YEA!)

-Reading while laying down is easier

-More Portable, less to carry around

-Instantly receive books 24/7

-No one else can see what you’re reading by the cover (I’m looking at you, Fifty Shades of Grey people)

-Overall Cheaper Prices

Cons:

-Batteries die

-If you don’t back up files, you can lose your books!

-E-Books don’t have the same “smell”

-More Fragile

-Expensive Device

-Bugs/Glitches happen

Paper Books

Pros:

-You can keep them forever!

-Support local bookstores by buying books from them

-Cute Bookmarks

-Admiring Covers in all their Glory

-In certain places, Electronics are Prohibited

-Reliable

-Lendable

-Can Read Indoors or Outdoors

Cons:

-Can get bent or torn when being carried in luggage/purses/backpacks

-Jackets can be irritating at times

-Take up a LOT of space

-More Expensive than alternative

-Library “Paper Books” have germs

This was really all I could come up with for both E-Reader and Paper Book Pros and Cons. I personally read both E-Books and Paper Books. My method is that if it is cheaper, I buy that version. Or if it is a book series that I have the first book in a paper copy, I will continue that pattern, and vice versa.

Do you have a preference of E-Reader or Paper Books? If you have an E-Reader, what brand is yours? Do you have any other pros and cons I could add to my list?

Youtube Book Bloggers

I’m on vacation this week, so in lieu of regular posting I have asked some of my favorite bloggers to do a guest post. Today’s guest is Elena from Novel Sounds here to discuss YouTube Vloggers. Thank you Hilda!

"Hi everyone! My name is Elena and I blog over at Novel Sounds. I was so flattered when Darlene asked me to guest post on her blog! The topic I'm going to be discussing today is youtube bloggers.

Now, I haven't been blogging that long so blogging is still a relatively new world to me. I don't even think I really even knew what book blogging really WAS last year. So it's sort of strange to me that not only is book blogging a new thing to me, on top of that there's book vloggers? Of course, I knew what vloggers were like the popular Charlie McDonnell and Community Channel but I wasn't aware that there was actually people who vlogged about books. I think it's interesting because there's in the book blogging community but using a new form of medium to express their views. I admire them because A) they're just OUT THERE for the world to see which can be a scary thing B) they have to talk about books in way that people would be engaged. I guess that's also true for book bloggers but in vlogging, you have to be ON POINT since you're on camera. At least, that's what it seems like to me!

I don't think I've watched many book vloggers even though they do have their own community. I've probably watched around three in total with one girl impressing me in particular. She was English and what I admired about her vlogs is she didn't go off topic at all! I tend to notice with vloggers, they go off topic and you have to fast forward to get to the actual video. I was also impressed with how eloquent she was, no "ums" or mumbling that I recall. That's hard to do! I tried vlogging once but it ended up being too quiet.

My question to you is: do you watch Youtube vloggers? How do you feel about them? Are you one yourself? Do you have any vlogger recs?"

Do You Listen to Audiobooks?

I am on vacation this week and in lieu of regular posting, all this week I will be featuring book-related discussion posts. I will also be featuring some awesome guest bloggers as well. 

Do You Listen to Audiobooks?

I like audiobooks.

Now that is a sentence I never thought I would have uttered. If you asked me a year ago what I thought about audiobooks I would have told you that it took too long to read them, the narrator never says things the right way, and that they were a nuisance, especially keeping up with all those discs!

So, what happened?

A lot of long days with myself and a paint brush. This summer I was able to get an internship, but it didn’t start until the middle of June and I was out of college by the first week of May. I had to make money to afford gas and other necessities, so my dad agreed to pay me for doing some painting projects. Painting walls, doors, EVERYTHING! I began downloading mp3 audiobooks from my library’s e-book site and my whole world was turned upside down.

Not only are audiobooks a great way for you to get in some reading time when your hands are tied, they are also now more than ever, available. To buy audiobooks, you can sometimes spend $30 on a book that in paper would cost $15. With those options, of course most people would pay half and get the paper copy, but now there are Library websites offering mp3 or wma formats so you can listen on your phone, iPod, or even your computer without keeping up with discs or paying.

Another perk I discovered about audiobooks is that they appeal to people who don’t read in the traditional sense. Have you ever really loved a book and you want a person to read it, but they hate reading?

Audiobooks are an option to try. Sometimes people who are better listeners or even musically inclined friends will enjoy an audiobook and it’s a great way for them to still get exposed to some of that great reading material we all love.

My question to you is, Do you like Audiobooks? If so, what are your reasons for being a fan of listening over reading? If not, what turns you away from listening to books? Let me know in the comments and I will try and check out your responses soon!

Reading Friends

I am on vacation this week and so in lieu of normal posting, I will be featuring some bookish related discussions, as well as having a few guests on the blog.

Reading Friends

For me, friends who are as passionate as I am about reading are hard to come by.

 My mother has always enjoyed reading as a past time, but nothing serious and we definitely don’t share common book interests. I pretty much kept my opinions to myself until I met a girl, Nicole, in high school. We met through the school’s drama club and we didn’t even discuss books seriously until about a year after we met. Then one day, I guess we just got on the subject and realized we love the same books! I don’t know if anyone else has ever experienced that moment, but I am pretty sure we talked for hours about characters and different genres. At the end of that night we swapped a couple of books the other had yet to read and several years later she is still one of my only bookish pals!

I’m also a big believer in converting non-readers. I was extremely successful during the whole Twilight craze that occurred when the first movie was coming out. I can’t tell you how many friends I had who borrowed my Twilight book…but I can tell you that once it had been returned for good, the spine was held together with tape. The sad thing is, none of them really stuck to reading after that series. I’ll tell you what series did convert someone who I never believed would be a reader: The Mortal Instruments. That is my favorite series ever and I actually got my Dad to read by giving him The Mortal Instruments while on a plane ride. He found his genre and now he even reads more than I do sometimes. That’s a big accomplishment from a man who used to hand me his Lawn Mower Instruction Manuals to read…. when I was like, 10.

I was so interested in this as a discussion post this week because I feel like several people in the blogging community have many friends in their everyday life who they can share books with (I won’t lie and say I’m not jealous!). Do you have a big group of friends who are real life readers? How many of your friends also read? Does anyone only have blogger friends who share your love for the written word?

Please feel free to share your thoughts with me in the comments below and I will try to read and respond to you when I can!