I have been in a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad reading slump lately. So today I asked my best friend and pen pal Brooke to offer some of her best advice on how to break book slumps. I’ll be back Saturday with a monthly recap. Until then, here’s Brooke! – Emily

Hey guys! Today I thought I’d talk about something most bookworms face at some point… Book slumps.

I know, I know. The idea of a a book slump is horrifying. While I haven’t faced one this year (yet), I understand the struggle. So when I volunteered to do a guest post for the lovely Emily, I knew I needed to address this life threatening predicament. So without further ado, here are a few things to do when you’re in a book slump.

1. RE-READ SOME OF YOUR FAVORITES. Read a book(s) that you know you love. Revisiting some of your favorite characters and settings may help you get that reading itch again. And even if it doesn’t, at least you read a fabulous book. A few of my favorite books are Harry Potter, anything by Rick Riordan, The Lunar Chronicles, The Book Thief, and The Maze Runner.

2. MAKE SOME BOOKISH THINGS. By making something book themed, maybe you’ll get inspired to read. Even if you don’t you’ll be left with some gorgeous things. I usually make bookmarks or book necklaces. But you could make anything. A Ravenclaw scarf (Ravenclaw for the win!), fan art, a book clutch, ect. Play towards your strengths.

3. LISTEN TO AN AUDIO BOOK. The change from reading to listening to a book may be what you need. I like to listen to audio books when I’m too busy or distracted to read. That way I can listen to a book while doing whatever I need to get done.

4. TRY READING SOMETHING LIGHT. Being in a reading slump is the perfect time to pick up that fluffy contemporary you’ve been meaning to read for ages. I’m more of a fantasy person, but sometimes after a few of the same type of books they start dragging. So I like to change it up to make sure I don’t get bored. I recommend Morgan Matson, Amy Clipton, and Heather Vogel Frederick.

5. EMBRACE THE SLUMP! Now is the perfect time to do all of the things you’ve been meaning to do. Without the draw towards books, you’ll probably have some free time on your hands. Watch that show you’ve been eyeing on Netflix. Go to this mysterious place called “outside”. Start a business. Make a friend IRL. Even if you don’t have the motivation or time to get anything done, don’t feel guilty. You deserve a break! Eventually you’ll find yourself picking up a book and getting sucked back into the book life. But until then, enjoy yourself!

So there you have it! My tips for getting out of a book slump. I hope you enjoyed reading this. 🙂 What are some of your guy’s tips for breaking out of a reading slump? I’d love to hear them! Hopefully you’ll be seeing more of me around the blogosphere soon… *wink* *wink*

– Brooke

Hello, my dears!

I am so glad to back here after such a long period of time!  Today, the ever-lovely Emily has asked me to do a guest post concerning my favorite thing ever…

Autumn! 😀

I LOVE Fall!  All my favorite things run through September to November.  I mean, it is the PERFECT dressing weather because we get scarves and hats, but it is also warm enough to rock short sleeves and stuff if you wanted to.  All things pumpkin spice are just fabulous, and let’s not forget the most important thing…

Coffee & hot tea are great during the crisp golden days of Autumn which also means that it’s a perfect time to read!

*sighs at the thought of it all*

I LOVE FALL!

For some reason, I love to re-read books in Fall.  Books that I just adore need to be re-read, and Fall is when I like to do it.  But my TBR list is much too long to abandon for a whole season, so today I will be sharing with you all the books I plan to read and re-read this spectacular season!  (However, November approaches which means National Novel Writing Month is coming up, too.  I will be spending a lot of time on that as well.)

books i hope to be reading…

BLUE LIKE FRIDAY by Siobhan Parkinson

I can’t wait to get my hands on this one!  It has been on my TBR list FOREVER and I really need to buy it soon before I go crazy!  I wanted to buy this book about a year ago when I started writing my own novel.  The storyline was very inspiring and had similarities to my novel.  I wanted it for a sort of inspiration.  Well, now I’ve finished my novel and I still haven’t read this!

SO B. IT by Sarah Weeks

I don’t know where I heard about this one, but the cover is really cool!

HATTIE BIG SKY & HATTIE EVER AFTER by Kirby Larson

This one has also been on my TBR list for some time.  I really love the second cover, and the fact that the MC is a reporter, makes me wanna read this even more!  I love reporter stories for some strange reason…

THE MOTHER DAUGHTER BOOK CLUB by Heather Vogel Frederick

Every book-blogger on the block has recommended this one to me and I REALLY need to read it!  It seems to be favorited by everyone 🙂

STAY WHERE YOU ARE AND THEN LEAVE by John Boyne

I love John Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pajamas so I am super excited for this one!  Hopefully I won’t cry as much…

A CORNER OF THE UNIVERSE by Ann M. Martin

I LOVE THIS COVER.  I found this book through Emily’s blog here at For The Bookish.  I have a strange addiction to photos of ferris wheels.  The funny thing about it is that I have a fear of heights.  But they’re so romantically beautiful!

books i hope to re-read…

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee

Such a classic!  Such a story!

THE HEART MENDER by Andy Andrews

   Words can’t even describe how much I loved this book!  It’s based off a true story, and so… so… so… amazing!  Just read it!

WONDER by R.J. Palacio

I WILL name my future son August.  End of story.

THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS by John Boyne

Time to pull out the tissues again.  At least this time I know what to expect…

—

So the list is pretty long and I don’t know if I’ll be able to take (or afford!) all these books, but I’m going to try!  I begin most of my NaNoWriMo prep in October, so I have to read all that I can before then!  (Look out for a NaNo Prep post on The Measure of a Book!)

have you read any of these books?  what is on your fall reading list?

XOXO,

Audrey

Hi, everybody! Today, Daisy at A Bookish Flower is visiting with a great question for bloggers and blog visitors alike: does commenting back effect your blog-visiting experience? Enjoy, and be sure read my guest post on Daisy’s blog here. =)

Hey Loves! I’m Daisy @ A Bookish Flower, and I’m so happy that Miss Emily asked me to do a guest post over on her blog! I’ll be having a lovely chat with you all about something that’s on every blogger’s mind. Commenting back. If you have new readers reading your blog, and they take the time of day to say something about your post, don’t you think they should receive a “Hello” from the blogger of the blog they just love so much?

I love getting comments on my blog. I tend to post in the night time before going to bed, and when I wake up I’ve got a whole lot of lovely comments waiting for me to answer! These comments make me happy because some of you thought, “Imma comment.” And off you went and filled out the comment form and and expressed your feelings on the topic. Comments sometimes help me realize that I’m not the only one completely obsessed with a book, or not the only one who desperately wanted to throw the book out the window and slap the characters with their own book. I just have a lot of feelings, OK!? And it’s good to know that I’m not the only one.

SO, that said, when you loves realize that you’re not the only person who felt a certain way about that book review/discussion post, you happily put in your two cents. You wait patiently for the reply of your favorite blogger and… nothing.

There are various reasons why bloggers don’t comment back. Maybe they procrastinated; Procrastinators! Put your hands in the air, and wave em’ like you just- ….actually maybe later.

Sometimes they have a packed schedule and barely have enough time to post, or maybe they aren’t the commenting back type.

Whatever the reason may be, it can feel pretty lonely on the other end of the one-sided conversation.

Before becoming a blogger, I would comment lots on other book blogs, and never get a response back. Sometimes I would take it personally, which was before I knew how hard it was to respond to every single comment when you had 400 followers and have time to come up with new post ideas. I’d never check the little box that says Notify Me Of New Comments, which looking back, I’m not sure why. Instead I’d check back every day for a new comment, and after maybe a week I’d stop checking and I would gradually forget about that blog. Sometimes, I’d check back and leave a comment and afterwards, seeing that I was having a lovely conversation by myself I’d entirely forget about the blog.

When I have a conversation with a blogger in their comment section, I feel a connection with the blogger. And I swear on the heating keyboard of my laptop that I smile when I read the comments’ responses. So that keeps me coming back for more posts and chats with the bloggers. A comment back can really effect what I think about the blog and whether I should follow and keep coming back for posts.

how about you? does commenting back effect your blog visiting experience?

Thanks so much, Emily, for having me over at For The Bookish! I had a blast writing this up! Let’s talk in the comments! I’ll be commenting back! *Wink Wink*

XOXO

-Daisy @ A Bookish Flower

Hello, everyone! I have a very special guest visiting today with some tips (and pictures!) on how to organize your books. Miss Brooke is a wonderful commenter on For the Bookish and my pen pal! So without further ado… here’s Brooke!

Hi, everyone! Today I will be talking about different ways to organize your books. We all struggle with this at one point in our bookish lives. There are a ton of different ways to organize books. I prefer to mix it up and do all my shelves different ways. Anyways, here are a few of my favorite ways to organize my books.

Organizing by series and by author are two of my favorite ways. When you put them by series it looks very organized and it’s easy to find your books. I always feel bad if I take a book away from the rest of its series/family. And when you put them by author the height of the book and publishers symbol usually line up giving it a cool look.

Another cool way to organize books is by color. When you organize your books by color, it gives your shelves an artistic feel. I’ve always found this way to make your shelf look very pretty. The only downside is that if you organize all your books by color it may be hard to find your books at first.

Organizing your books by genre is another great way to shelf your books. It’s an easy way to arrange them. Plus, you could organize each genre a different way (by color, size, favorite, ect!) It could be hard to separate each genre, and it wouldn’t work well if you didn’t have a variety of different genres.

The last step in organizing your books is keeping them organized. It’s surprisingly hard! When I get new books, my bookshelves tend to get disorganized quickly. I like to keep books I haven’t read off my shelves; I put them in a stack on my desk or on the floor next to my desk. This way I can keep track of books I haven’t read and when I finish them I can put them where they belong on my shelves (this is especially helpful if you organize by genre.)

Another thing that helps me is to put my books away as soon as I finish them. That way, the book is fresh in my mind and it’s easier to decide where to put it. I also like to go through my books about once or twice a year, and see if there are any books I didn’t particularly like or that I have grown out of that I can get rid of (this also opens up spots on my shelves for new books!) Then, I either give them to people who I think will enjoy them or donate them to my library.

I hope you enjoyed reading this! How do you organize your shelves? What way is your favorite?

– Brooke

Hey, everyone! Today, Audrey at The Measure of a Book is joining us today with tips for bringing in blog followers! (Yes, I know, this is GOLD!)… in honor of For the Bookish’s FIRST BIRTHDAY (!!!!), she’s doing a post blog-related. Look out for some more cool posts coming your way! Here’s Audrey!

Hello there!

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Audrey! You can find me at my own blog, The Measure of a Book.

In honor of Miss Emily’s 1 year blogoversary … she has asked me to do a guest post, and I must say, I’m quite honored! So first, allow me to congratulate Emily!!!

Today, in order to keep with the blogging theme, I thought I’d share some blogging tips

I have had several people, new to blogging, ask me about gaining followers. That is definitely the most FAQ. How do I gain followers?

And so, in return, I have emailed them something very similar to what I’m about to share with you today.

Let me begin by saying, I don’t have like a million followers or anything. But I have a decent and steady amount of them, along with blog views. So I’ll tell you what I know works 🙂

The first thing I would say about gaining followers, is to be patient. You don’t gain 100 followers and subscribers in a day. It’s a very long process which includes trying to find out what your readers are looking for.

Before I move on, I will say this: DON’T give up what YOU want to blog about, JUST for followers! Find something your passionate about and blog about it! People like you will be your audience, but you do want to keep them on board.

So… how do you find out your audience? Blog about a subject and see which post everyone liked best! You can find out in several ways: 1.) At the end of each week, post a poll. List all the posts you did that week, and see which one was the favorite. You’ll know what your audience looks forward to. 2.) Which one got the most likes and comments? I always try to like or comment on posts I really loved. I know as a blogger that it’s encouraging, and that it helps us see what it is our readers want.

After you’ve found your audience, tie it in with your passion. I’m a book blogger, and say my audience is mostly parents wanting to find clean reads for their kids. I’m going to post a lot of reviews.

Let’s say my audience is a herd of fangirls wanting to gush about their favorite books–which just happen to be one of the ones I gave a good review on. I’m gonna post things like ’10 signs your a Lord of the Rings fan’ or ‘You know you’re a Anne of Green Gables gusher if…’

Let me pause to say, posts like that get me THE MOST likes and comments. I ALWAYS get at least 3 followers after posting book/movie themed posts like that.

So find your favorite books, and do some cool posts about them.

The next thing to do would be, comment on other blogs! ESPECIALLY ones like yours. Ones with similar audiences! Lots of my readers come from other blogs, and some of my FAVE blogs I found through comments on other websites.

Another small thing I recommend: Always put a ‘read more’ tag in your posts. That way, email subscribers have to come to your blog to read the rest of your post instead of viewing it all from their email. When you go to your stats page, you’ll see how many people were interested enough in a post, to visit your site.

Guest posts are a GREAT way to gain readers! If you ever want me to do a post for you, let me know! 😉 Guest posts REALLY draw people in. Just the idea of a new writer, sounds cool–especially if you have an intriguing name for the post.

One more tip: Blog button. Create a blog button (if you don’t already have one) for other bloggers to post on their blogs. But if you do create one, be sure to post other blogger’s buttons (or just their link) on your site, too. No one wants to post someone’s button who won’t even share other blogs’ link 😉 To do this, just Google ‘Blog button creator’. You will find sites that will walk you through it. Some are easier than others.

I hope this was helpful for you bloggers out there… new or old! Blogging is a blast, so don’t ever let the lack of followers get you down. It’s like a sport… do it for the fun, not the winning.

Congrats again to Emily and For the Bookish! And thank you so much for having me!

xoxo,
Audrey

Hey, everyone! Today, Samantha from Bookish Serendipity and I are doing a guest post exchange! Be sure to visit Samantha’s blog to read my guest post, but first read Samantha’s list of why she loves being a book blogger and reader below! =)

I’ve been running my book blog, Bookish Serendipity, for almost 2 years and it has been an absolutely awesome experience. I’ve been reading for much longer than that, of course, but blogging has allowed me to reach out and share my love for books with people I never would have met otherwise.

There are many reasons to love blogging and books. The amount of space that I would need to list ALL the reasons I love books and blogging would be a novel in itself, but today I’ve decided to highlight a few of the major reasons why reading and book blogging is amazing.

Reason #1—Finding New Books

Before blogging, I used to mostly read MG books. One of the biggest ways that blogging has influenced me is definitely the types of books I read, since I’ve started to read a lot more YA and teen fiction in the past two years that I’ve been running Bookish Serendipity.

Joining Goodreads, reading reviews on other blogs, being sent ARCs of books I would pick up on my own—these are all things that have helped me expand my horizons when it comes to my reading taste.

Reason #2—The Community

The book blogging community is made up of the nicest people! I’ve met some amazing people (like Emily) through blogging, and it has been great to find so many people who share interests with me. Being a bookworm in a world in which the vast majority of people don’t read 50+ books each year can be hard. That’s why having an online community of book bloggers who are willing to rave and rant and fangirl with you is so incredibly awesome!

Reason #3—Organization

One of the main things that blogging has forced me to improve is my organizational skills. Running a blog takes a lot of planning ahead of time—getting ready for blog events, or finding time to write posts, or scheduling blog tours, and more! I like to think that I’m a better planner and more organized person than I was before I started Bookish Serendipity.

Reason #4—Writing

I really enjoy writing and blogging forces me to write A LOT in order to keep the content on Bookish Serendipity fresh, and not just book reviews. I’ve written about plenty of topics—my thoughts on a book, spoilers, upcoming releases, gender equality in reading, social media, love triangles, DNF reviews, debut authors, feminism, book recommendations, etc—and it has allowed me to develop my writing skills more. I think I’ve definitely learned a lot!

Overall, Blogging is an amazing experience. It’s definitely taught me a lot and hopefully I’ll get to stick around in the blogging community for many more years to come!

Thank you so much for doing this with me, Samantha! It was a lot of fun and I love your post. 🙂 Be sure to check out my post on Bookish Serendipity!