Twelve Posts of Christmas (and New Year): Ten - Blog Plans for 2014

It's the fourth day of Christmas, and we're moving on to New Yearish themes! Today I'm going to be sharing my hopes and plans for this blog in 2014.

Reviews

I didn't read very many books this year, which really helped me make sure I reviewed everything I liked! I want to read a lot more next year, but I'm hoping to stay on track and post my reviews as soon as possible after I read the book.

Memes

I want to get back into the Top Ten Tuesday habit in 2014, but I might experiment with some other memes too. I don't think haul post are my thing but there are some other question-and-answer theme posts that I like reading on other people's blogs.

Personal/discussion posts

These are my favourite kind of posts to read on other people's blogs, but I've always been shy about writing my own. I definitely resolve to try to write more of these in 2014! 

Vlogging

Of course I'll continue to be part of the Bookish Brits channel, but I'd like to post a video once in a while on my own channel, Better Than Dreams (because books are...). When I first started making videos, it took me hours to film and edit them - I think my first video took over five hours to produce! I'm pleased to say that I've gotten a lot faster - depending on the length of the original recording, it can take me as little as an hour and a half to film and edit now. So hopefully, now that the process is getting faster, I'll be able to make more videos.

What are your plans for your blog in 2014? Are you going to keep going with your favourite topics and tried-and-tested memes? Do you want to try something new?

Top Ten Tuesday: Things That Make My Life as a Reader/Blogger Easier

This is my twenty-fifth Top Ten Tuesday. As always, Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by its creators at The Broke and the Bookish.

This topic is a great idea but it took me a while to come up with a full list! Some of my choices are small things, others much bigger, but they're all extremely useful.

Top Ten Things That Make My Life as a Reader/Blogger Easier

1. Bookmarks - Imagine life without bookmarks. Struggling to remember page numbers or having to bend over the corners of pages. It'd be pretty horrible, right? And what about the other kind of bookmarks? I rely on web browser bookmarks to keep track of all the books I want to read.

2. Gimbles - I used to struggle to eat or do anything else while reading, but my Gimbles changed all that. I even use them now when I'm reading on my bed or the sofa, to give my hands and wrists a break.

3. Online library renewals and reservations - I can renew my library books and reserve future reads without leaving my house. It's amazing. Which brings me to...

4. My smartphone - When I'm in a charity shop and I find a interesting book, I use my phone to check that it's not in stock at the library.

5. Wikipedia and Fantastic Fiction - Both really useful resources for checking series orders and finding out the titles of other books by an author.

6. My Nook - It's unlikely that it'll replace paper books, but it is easier to fit in my handbag sometimes.

7. Goodreads - Being able to catalogue all my books on Goodreads is brilliant. It helps so much when I'm writing book list posts to be able to scroll through all the books I've read and jog my memory.

8. Twitter - For 'networking' with other bloggers. If I wasn't on Twitter I'd miss out on all the great blogs and posts than get retweeted and otherwise shared around.

9. My diary - I make notes about the books I'm reading, post ideas, and I even use it to draft my Top Ten Tuesday lists. I write the next topic on each week's note page, to help me to come up with ideas in advance.

10. My reading journal - Where I write all my thoughts about the books I've read. These notes form the basis for my reviews, though I usually don't include everything that I've written in the journal.

Are any of these on your list? 

BlogINK Competition Entry: On Not Reading Before Bed: A Manifesto

Hello all! Interrupting my usual service to let you know that I have entered the MIRAInk BlogINK competition to win a contract to be the MiraINK paid blogger for a year.

Please check out my entry and leave a comment:

On Not Reading Before Bed: A Manifesto

Or, ‘I Just Can’t Read Before Bed and Continue to Function in the Real World’

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Want to Reread

This is my second Top Ten Tuesday post, you can read the first here. Top Ten Tuesday was created and is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week's topic is...

Top Ten Books I Want To Reread

(links go to my reviews or to Amazon pages for the editions I own, where possible)

1. The Boy Book, by E. Lockhart
I have already reread The Boyfriend List so that I could review it, and I'm planning to reread this fairly soon so that I can write my review and then move on to the next two books in the Ruby Oliver series with it fresh in my mind.
2. The Magic Toyshop, by Angela Carter
I originally read a bashed up copy from my university library, and a couple of Christmasses ago I got this lovely hardback edition and I haven't read it yet! I love The Magic Toyshop, it's probably the best piece of literary fiction with a teenage protagonist that I've read.
3. The Cheap Date Guide To Style
This isn't a fiction book, this is a style inspiration book. I got it out of the library years ago, and got my own copy because it became clear that I needed it in my life permanently! Every time I read it I feel reinspired to dress up and have fun with clothes.
4. The Harry Potter series
I can race through a Harry Potter book like nothing else, but I've never actually reread the whole series. I've read the first book a couple of times, and read at least half of The Order of the Phoenix more than once. But I was never one of those people who had to reread all the previous books before the new one or the new film came out, because I usually had too many other books on the go already. I'd like to re-read them all in sequence though, and I'd quite like to listen to the audiobooks.
5. The Diary of a Crush trilogy
I need to review these, plus, I need to read them whilst listening to Belle and Sebastian as is suggested at the front of each book. A few years back I decided that first I was going to geek out shamelessly and watch all of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, alternating episodes as they would have originally been shown on US TV, and then I was going to reread Diary of a Crush whilst listening to Belle and Sebastian. I finished The Great Buffy Rewatch (as I termed it) earlier this year but I have yet to move on to DoaC.
6. Ghostwritten, by David Mitchell
For a long time this was my favourite book but I haven't reread it in years because my copy went MIA. It was a really nice copy that I got for 10p in a library sale, too. Best 10p I've ever spent.
7. Saving Francesca, by Melina Marchetta
I remember that I absolutely loved this book and possibly even referenced it in my MA portfolio but I can only vaguely recall what it's about.
8. Notes From The Teenage Underground, by Simmone Howell
I've got a weird craving to reread this. Possibly because I reread Everything Beautiful for Body Image and Self-Perception month last summer, so the quality of Simmone's writing is still quite fresh in my mind.
9. Boy Meets Boy, by David Levithan
Ditto for the weird craving, I don't know, it was a really sweet book (not a pun referencing the cover...oh okay yes it is) and I'm just in the mood!
10. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll
I have this cute little hardback edition that I've had since I was a kid and traditionally reread every year, I don't think I have done it this year yet. It doesn't take very long so hopefully I'll squeeze it in soon.

plus bonus point 11 for the list because I just thought of another:

11. The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
If I was to write a list of most reread books, I think this would be number one. I have reread the Diary of a Crush books, and bits of the books (seriously, sometimes I just find myself picking one up, opening it at a random page, and reading on from there) so many times I've lost count, and Alice gets done almost every year. But I adored The Secret Garden when I was a child, and when I was a teenager. Out of all the books that I've owned since they were new, it's the most damaged, purely because it's been read so much. I haven't reread it in quite a few years though, and I should.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Feel As Though Everyone Has Read But Me

Okay. It's Wednesday. But I feel as if I need to participate in some book blog memes! I can't do In My Mailbox, at least at the moment, as I don't get that many books through my letterbox. Or letter flap. Do that many people in the UK have actual boxes for their mail? Anyway, I digress.

Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by The Broke and the Bookish) struck me as being perfect, because lists I can do. Lists I can definitely do. I love lists. They provide the perfect framework for rambling on about one topic without spending too long on it. Unfortunately I didn't check the book blogs section of Google Reader yesterday, so I'm doing it today. Late. Shh. This week's topic is:

Top Ten Books I Feel As Though Everyone Has Read But Me

I'm going to mostly interpret 'everyone' as 'every other (YA) book blogger' because I know plenty of people who have read none of these books, coming from an unbookish family as I do. I'm the black sheep. Or the purple sheep, to be more accurate.

1. The Hunger Games
I know, what have I been doing? I really want to read this but probably won't get around to it this year as I still have so many books to read to complete my reading challenges.
2. Actually, anything from the recent wave of YA dystopia fiction
I want to read quite a few of these, especially Divergent, but again, reading challenge reading is the priority. On that note, are there any British YA dystopias? I need more books for the British Book Challenge.
3. New Moon
No desire to read this at all. To get myself to finish Twilight, I counted the number of chapters left and was like 'Right. If I read three every day, then in x number of days, it'll be over and I can read something good'.
4. The Confessions of Georgia Nicolson books
This series started just before my teens but it passed me by. After devouring several Jacqueline Wilson books and all the Ros Asquiths I could get my hands on, I went through a long phase of being convinced that I was too intellectually mature for teen comedy books.
5. The Princess Diaries
Another series which passed me by when it was new. I've read Nicola and the Viscount, also by Meg Cabot, which was quite fun, and Avalon High, and I watched the first film years ago. I want to give it a go, but it's really low priority at the moment.
6. The Morganville Vampires series
I have heard increasingly good things about this series and I want to try it, but I've been delayed by a couple of years because my library only stocked book 6. I may have to give in and buy a copy!
7. The Southern Vampire Mysteries
I've known about the existence of Charlaine Harris' mind-reading heroine Sookie Stackhouse since before Ottakar's was taken over by Waterstone's! Ottakar's used to produce a science fiction and fantasy newsletter booklet with reviews and author interviews, it was called Outland and I used to pick up copies in my local branch. Anyway, one issue they reviewed Dead Until Dark and I thought, 'I'd quite like to read that', being a big Buffy fan. Still haven't picked up a copy!
8. Angel by L.A. Weatherly
For some reason, I feel like this book has had a particularly large number of reviews. Perhaps it just feels like it's had more than most books because I actually own a copy and it's on my TBR.
9. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
I've heard good things, and bad things, and I watched the film, and the film was enough for me. I don't think I could stomach the book.
10. Nineteen Eighty-Four
I know, 'How can you have a Master's degree and not have read Nineteen Eighty-Four?' Dude, I didn't read To Kill A Mockingbird until 2009! I have read Brave New World though. And Animal Farm. And most of Keep the Aspidistra Flying - I got bored fairly close to the end, decided I'd got the point, and scan read the rest of the book.

There we are! I do plan to do future Top Ten Tuesdays actually on Tuesday. Do you think I should make any of these a higher priority? No promises, but I'm always open to persuasion - New Moon excepted.