Category: Reading

Reading

Switch Up Your TBR

by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger Books1 Comment on Switch Up Your TBR
Switch Up Your TBR

We all get slumpy from time to time. Whether it’s just because we’re too busy to read or we’re just not in the mood, it happens. Sometimes you’ll want to be reading, but it just doesn’t happen.

My general advice for when this happens is to just allow yourself to take a break. Watch TV, play a game, and do whatever else you’re in the mood to be doing. Then when you get back to reading, you won’t feel like you’ve turned it into some kind of chore. And I stand by that.

However, that doesn’t work for every slump or even every person. There are times we really want to read, but doing so is a struggle. In times like this, we need to change how we pick books.

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Challenge, Reading

Am I Using Scribd? A Challenge

by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger BooksLeave a Comment on Am I Using Scribd? A Challenge
Am I Using Scribd? A Challenge

I’ve been paying for Scribd for a while. I use it every month, and the selection of audiobooks is excellent. There are some issues with Scribd. You are limited with how many audiobooks you read per month, plus I have heard of people having some e-books limited too. That seems a lot less common though. I love Scribd and plan to keep using it for a long while yet. But I have to wonder…am I using it enough?

Technically, I am using it. As I said. I’m using it to listen to audiobooks, but many of them are books that I already own. That feels like a waste of money. It doesn’t hurt to do that every now and then, but when I’m using all three or four audiobooks I have available a month on books I could read without Scribd? Yeah…that’s a waste.

So I’m setting myself a challenge. A challenge that I’d be happy if a few of you joined in on me with.

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Reading

Do I Know My Reading Taste?

by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger BooksLeave a Comment on Do I Know My Reading Taste?
Do I Know My Reading Taste?

The answer to that question should obviously be yes. I buy books that interest me, and then I read them. I don’t always like them, but that’s normal. That’s just how reading works. But what if I’m DNFing a lot of books? What if I’m picking up a lot of books because they’re cheap, but by the time I get to them, I’m no longer interested? That’s when it gets to be a problem.

And that’s exactly the problem I’ve had for a few years now.

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Adult, book tag, books, Challenge, Reading, Young Adult

Top Ten Tuesday: New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2021

by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger Books12 Comments on Top Ten Tuesday: New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2021
Top Ten Tuesday: New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2021

On my blog this year, I want to do more tags and challenges. They’re great fun and can be a way to be a little bit more social. This week I’m starting myself off with a meme, and that’s Top Ten Tuesday which is run by That Artsy Reader Girl. I couldn’t resist doing this week’s challenge as I want to talk about some authors.

So this list is a list of authors who already had books out when I finally picked them up. I’ll mostly be talking about the books I read by them, but some of them I’m definitely going to read more of.

I spent plenty of time going over my spreadsheet from last year to narrow this down. Many of the authors I hadn’t read before were debuts, and I didn’t want to include them. Something interesting I noticed was that a lot of these are contemporary or romance authors. That makes sense, as I did really get into reading those genres in 2021. I do kinda wish there had been a little more fantasy, so hopefully, that’ll change in 2022.

For now, though, let’s get on with the list.

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Reading

What Makes A Good Retelling?

by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger BooksLeave a Comment on What Makes A Good Retelling?
What Makes A Good Retelling?

First things first, this post is obviously subjective. But I’ve been reading a few retellings recently, and I’ve had some thoughts. We all love retellings but some tend to work better than others. Comparing the retellings I’ve liked and those I haven’t, there is definitely an aspect that they all share.

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Adult, books, Reading, tbr, Young Adult

Books I Want To Read Before the End of 2021

by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger Books8 Comments on Books I Want To Read Before the End of 2021
Books I Want To Read Before the End of 2021

We’re in the final month of the year. I can’t believe we’re so close to the end of 2021! I’ve not yet completed my GoodReads challenge, and I’m not sure I’m going to, but that’s okay. I’ll just read what I can and see if I can manage it.

Today I want to list a few of the books that I plan on reading before the end of the year. I have another ARC to read, and I plan on reading a few Christmas books too, but I won’t be listing those today. These are just a few books from my physical TBR that I want to get to.

I’m not going to be listing them in any particular order. All of these books are in series. In fact, two of them are sequels, so I won’t be going into too much detail. But if anyone would be interested in a buddy read, let me know.

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Reading

Should I Request Every ARC I’m Interested In?

by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger Books2 Comments on Should I Request Every ARC I’m Interested In?
Should I Request Every ARC I’m Interested In?

I’ve been at this book blogging gig for a few years now. I’ve written a guide for new book bloggers looking for ARCs. I recommend checking it out if you haven’t already! But I also know that once you start requesting books…it can be very tempting to request every single one that looks good. Later, when people start contacting you offering you books to review? It becomes even more tempting to accept everything, especially if you’re offered a physical copy.

You can’t do that.

You shouldn’t even request every book you’re interested in.

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Reading

Light Novels and Translated Fiction

by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger BooksLeave a Comment on Light Novels and Translated Fiction
Light Novels and Translated Fiction

So, I wrote something on light novels a while back. I basically explained what they were and gave some examples. But I’ve been thinking a little more about it. I responded to a friend’s question about translated books and said the last thing I read was a manga book. At the time, it was, but I’ve since read a light novel.

Whenever I see people talking about translated fiction, I always wonder why light novels are never on people’s lists. We all already class manga, manhwa, manhua as translated books. We also talk about more literary translated fiction like Murakami. I see a lot of translated crime fiction too. I’d love to see more translated romances and fantasy from all countries. But I’m going to focus on Japanese and light novels today.
So, a light novel, as I’ve said before, is a small illustrated novel. They usually have a very manga style story. Sometimes they’re spin-offs of manga series. Sometimes they get manga or dramas based off of the novels. You’ll usually find them in the manga section of the book shop, but these are mostly text with the odd illustration.

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Reading

May 2021 Reading Recap

by Rosina @ Lace and Dagger Books7 Comments on May 2021 Reading Recap
May 2021 Reading Recap

Oh man, I can’t believe that it’s been another month. The end of month posts are a little late this month as I’ve had a couple of blog tours, but I’ve finally gotten time to schedule them in. My reading this month has been terrible. I’ve had a lot going on, and I’ve been super distracted. I still read plenty of books, and I’m not disappointed in myself. Like hell, I can’t help not being able to read properly. But it’s definitely a lot less than other months.

So let’s get into those numbers!

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