Revisting my old blog posts!

Hello friends!!!! I am back again revisiting a super old blog post of mine, this time it’s a book tag that I took part in way back in 2021, a lot has changed since then so I thought I’d redo it 🙂

Here is the original post link (the-ultimate-recommendations-book-tag), though I’ll be posting my old responses vs my new ones below too!

Recommend a book from your favourite genre.

OG answer – The Shining, Salem’s Lot, or Pet Sematary.

2023 recs – Anybody Home? by Michael J Seidlinger and Witch 13 by Patrick R Delaney are two of my FAVES from the last 18 months.

Recommend a short book.

OG answer – Psychosis by Matt Dymerski

2023 recs – not so much a short book but a book full of short stories… 13 Tales To Give You Night Terrors by multiple authors.

Recommend a book to screen adaptation.

OG answer – Gone Girl.

2023 recs – Ahh I’m not really one for watching TV or film adaptations of books because I usually just get frustrated when they miss bits out!

Recommend a book out of your comfort zone.

OG answer – The Scam List by Kurt Dinan.

2023 recs – The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji.

Recommend a book series.

OG answer – The Hannibal series.

2023 recs – The Hunger Games and Twilight series (I will reread these every year until I DIE).

Recommend a standalone.

OG answer – The Pastel Effect by Arly Carmack.

2023 recs – The Unbalanced Equation by H L Macfarlane.

Recommend a book you don’t talk enough about.

OG answer – The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas.

2023 recs – The House Fire by Rosie Walker, this absolutely rocked my world and I should rave about it more.

Recommend your staple book.

I don’t really have a staple book, if I like something then I’ll recommend it!

My OG and 2023 answer are still the same, sorry 😦

Recommend books that got you into reading.

OG answer – The Goosebumps series.

2023 answer – still the Goosebumps series, although I do credit Twilight for rekindling my love of reading as a teenager so.

And there you have my updated 2023 answers! I hope you enjoyed reading this post and keep your eye open for me judging and redoing more of my old posts!

Until next time, Em xxx

Revisiting my old blog posts!

Hello friends 🙂 it is me, back again revisiting an old blog post of mine because I am a SUCKER for embarrassing myself and seeing what utter shite content I used to put out there!

This time we are looking at The Finished Book Tag and you can see the OG post by clicking the link right back there and as before, I’ll be putting my OG answers first.

HERE WE GOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Do you keep a list of the books you’ve read?

OG answer – yes, since 2020 I have finally started to use GR properly to keep a track of everything.

2023 answer – yes and to an even bigger extent than before… I have a GR account and a StoryGraph account, plus a spreadsheet with my TBR and a spreadsheet of my read books and their ratings.

If you record statistics which ones do you record?

OG answer – I don’t record them atm, maybe next year.

2023 answer – I don’t specifically track them but I do use Storygraph and that tracks SO MUCH I love it.

Do you give star ratings for books and if so, what do you score books out of and how do you come about this score?

OG answer – Yes I do and I rate out of 5 stars.

2023 answer – Yes, I rate them out of 5 using the CAWPILE system and a very simple shreadsheet that has some formulas that calculate everything for me.

Do you review books?

OG answer – What else do you think this blog is for?!

2023 answer – see my OG answer!

Where do you put your finished books?

OG answer – On my bookshelf they go onto the relevant shelf in alphabetical order and on my Kindle they just go into my read folder.

2023 answer – On my shelf they go onto my read shelf and that’s a bit chaotic tbh, it has no organisation right now and my Kindle still maintains the same process.

Do you have a ritual for when you’ve finished reading?

OG answer – I’ll sit for a few minutes and digest the book, then quickly pop on my blog and type out a few notes ready for the review at a later date.

2023 answer – Pretty much the same as before, except now I use the CAWPILE rating system I like to make a note around each of the points so I can use this for my review. I then go onto Storygraph and Goodreads and update that I’ve finished the book and try and find space for it on my physical bookshelf.

There you go, another revisit to an old post – I hope you enjoyed it 🙂

Until next time, Em xxx

Revisiting my old blog posts!

Hi everyone, something different today from me as I thought I’d take a trip down memory lane and pull out some of my old blog posts to judge! The first one I’ve chosen is my unpopular bookish opinions post – which you can read here.

My original opinions were:

An ebook is just as good as a physical book | The Hunger Games series is overrated | “IT” is such a difficult book to get into | Harry Potter is the best book series ever written | None fiction books can be just as good as fiction.

OKAY so past me is a complete IDIOT. I literally am obsessed with the smell of physical books so no, an ebook is not as good as a physical book – sorry!

And no EMILY, the Hunger Games is not overrated are you a BLOODY IDIOT?! I did a reread in 2022 and honestly, it reignited my love for the series and if it wasn’t forever immortalised on the internet that I said it was overrated I would deny all knowledge of ever having said that…

IT is still a traumatising book to try and get into, I’m hoping to actually finish reading it this year but we shall see.

I also do not any longer think that HP is the best book series ever written. But don’t ask me whta I think is because I DO NOT KNOW!!!!!

I can’t really comment on the last one, I’ve not really read many nonfic books recently so I’d feel kinda bad judging that!

That was a fun trip down memory lane and judging past me! Stay tuned for more of me judging my idiotic opinions in later blog posts!

Until next time, Em xxx

Revisiting my old blog posts!

Hi friends, I’m so glad you’re here and reading this post 🙂 today I am revisiting an old post of mine and this just happens to be a Top Ten Tuesday from 2020, it was books I wanted to read… So let’s get into it and see if I actually managed to read these!

First up we have The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. This was completed on the 19th February 2020 and I rated it 5 stars.

Next we have The Green Mile by Stephen King. PLEASE do not judge me, this is still sitting on my shelf (where it has been for the last 10 odd years and will likely remain for another 10 years).

Then we have Death’s Door by Paul Finch. This was completed on the 20th September 2020 and I rated it 2 stars.

And next up was The Hunted by Rachel Blackledge. I did complete this, just not in 2020 it was actually 8th May 2021 and I rated it 3 stars.

Next is Last Gasp by Robert F Barker. I didn’t end up reading this one, in fact it didn’t even make it to my DNFR list I just took it off my TBR.

Then we’ve got Twilight: A Nursing Home Mystery by Greg Cornwell. This was one was an official DNFR, I just could not get into the story at all and I had to stop reading it.

Next up we have Third Child by Kate Mitchell. This, unfortunately, was another DNFR that just was a book not for me!

My eighth book was The Ghost Files by Apryl Baker. I did finish this one on the 19th February 2020 but I rated it 2 stars, it wasn’t for me and I found it to be quite problematic.

Another one for the year was Before You Wake by Adam Nevill. I did read this one, I didn’t add my dates on GR for some reason so I can’t give an exact date, but I can say I rated it 4 stars.

And my tenth book I wanted to read in 2020 was Insomnia by Stephen King. Now I haven’t read this one, but I did originally have an ebook copy and I now have a physical copy so I’m hoping to start that this year!

There you go, another revisit to an old post – I hope you enjoyed it 🙂

Until next time, Em xxx

Rating my 2019 TBR list…

Hi guys! I felt like doing something a bit different today and I decided what better than to revisit some of my old posts! The first one I came across was my 2019 TBR which you can read here before you read the rest of this post.

I also want to make it known that I am, in fact, high key embarrassed by that post🙈

Apparently 2019 me thought that “I had a lot of books to read” so let’s all take a second to lol at 2019 me…

2019 = 7 books on my TBR / 2021 = 118 books on my TBR + 36 books on my to buy shelf. Yes, 2019 Em, you had SO MANY BOOKS.

I actually feel a lot embarrassed by myself and how naïve I was thinking that 7 books was a lot! Ahhh, and to think I was overwhelmed by 7 books on my TBR and now I’m just like:

Whenever I look at my current TBR…

Be sure to check out my linked post above if you want to feel some second hand embarrassment and for the entirety of this post to make sense!

Until next time, Em xxx