Sunshine Blogger Award

I’ve been nominated by the awesome Angelica over at The Book Cover Girls !  You really should check out their blog!  There are a lot of great posts to read on their site!

Rules:

1. Thank the person who nominated you in a blog post and link back to their blog.
2. Answer the 11 questions sent by the person who nominated you.
3. Nominate 11 new blogs to receive the award and write them 11 new questions.
4. List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award logo in your post and/or on your blog.

Angelica’s Questions:

What is your favorite book cover on a book you own?

I would have to say the book cover on Paint the Wind.  I just love it.

What book gets you out of reading slumps?

I don’t re-read books much at all so… IDK.

How many books do you own?  Of those, how many have you not read yet?

Not including my ebooks, I own 69 books.  Out of that 69, I haven’t read 22 of them.

What is a book that is considered “bad” that you really like?

Some people don’t like the Twilight series, but I love it.  I actually really like Stephanie Meyer’s writing style.

What is a book considered “good” that you don’t like?

Divergent.  That series was all over the place.  It needed more planning and a much better conclusion.

If you could have any book character’s powers or abilities, which would it be?

I would love to have the ability to manipulate fire.  So I guess Cal’s power, from The Red Queen.

If you could bring any fictional object (weapon, clothing, food, etc.) into the read world, what would it be?

Riptide from The Percy Jackson Series.  How cool would it be to have a magical pen that transforms into a sword?

What author have you read the most from?

Rick Riordan.  I have basically read any book that he has ever written.

Pretend you can only read one book for the rest of your life.  Which book would you choose?  It can be from a book, TV show, or movie.

THE BIBLE.

If you could recommend one book to everyone you know, which would it be?

Can I say my own?  I want everyone to read my novels so that I can get some much needed feedback.

MY NOMINEES:

Shadow Summit

Akaluv

Tiana

My Questions:

1. Do you have a favorite book?  If so, what is it?
2. What is your favorite past time besides reading?
3. Who is your favorite author?
4. Do you like to re-read books?
5. Is there an author that you don’t like?
6. Is there a movie adaptation of a book that you liked better than the novel itself?
7. If you could bring any character to our world, who would it be?
8. What is your most hated “Bookish Pet Peeve”?
9. Who is a character that you wish was still alive?
10. What is a series that you wish had more books?
11. Are you an animal person?

That’s it for this tag!  If anyone is reading this and wants to participate, consider yourself tagged!

~Nightsong

 

Friday Quote (10)

“Be an unstoppable force.  Write with an imaginary machete strapped to your thigh.  This is not wishy-washy, polite, drinking-tea-with-your-pinkie-sticking-out stuff.  It’s who you want to be, your most powerful self.  Write your books.  Finish them, then make them better.  Find the way.  No one will make this dream come true but you.”                                         -Laini Taylor

~Nightsong

 

Friday Quote (9)

“I write to give myself strength.  I write to be the characters that I am not.  I write to explore all the things I’m afraid of.”     -Joss Whedon

~Nightsong

Friday Quote (8)

~Nightsong

The Liebster Award

Hey, fellow bloggers!  I have been nominated by the wonderful Angelica@TheBookCoverGirls !! They have a really awesome blog filled with book reviews, book tags, and great posts!  You should totally check out their blog!

Now, for the rules:

The Rules:

• Thank the person who nominated you and answer the 11 questions they’ve written for you.
• Nominate 11 people and give them 11 different questions to answer.

Angelica’s Questions:

What is the best book you have read in the past year?  What made it so great?

I’d have to say Cinder from The Lunar Chronicles.  I read this book in like one sitting because I loved it so much.  I guess what made it so great was the author’s writing and the world that she created.  I really enjoyed the story line and character development.

What is the worst book you have read in the past year?  What made it so bad?

Hands down H2O!  Like okay, I picked it up because I thought that the cover was cool and the premise sounded promising.  Girl struggles to survive in apocalyptic world ravaged by acid rain.  Sounds interesting right?  NO!  Just no!  I swear the main character was the most annoying and idiotic main character ever written in a YA novel!  Seriously, she was so rude to everyone and so self-centered.  And you know, when she is just wandering around town (when she should be searching for… I don’t know, FOOD or CLEAN WATER) She decides to go into a beauty salon and take things from there.  Like, “Oh, I need hair dye because my parents aren’t here and I need to look good in the apocalypse.”  Like, what the heck?  Anyway, this was definitely the worst book that I read in the past year.  And this was mostly due to the terrible MC.

If you could live in a fictional world, which would it be?  Why?

Narnia!  Because that world is just so beautiful, and I just loved the books so much!  Plus, you get to hang out with talking animals, centaurs, unicorns, fawns, and best of all…  ASLAN!  Oh, it would be so amazing to just find some wardrobe and enter the world of Narnia!

What book has sat the longest in your TBR without you reading it?

That would be The Shifter.  I picked the book up from the Hastings when they were having a going-out-of-business sale, and I have just never gotten around to it.  I keep getting new books!

If you could only read one book for the rest of eternity, what would it be?

The Bible, because THE BIBLE!  It’s the most important book, and I would pick it without a second thought.

Do you prefer long books or short books?

If it is a standalone, I would want it to be long for sure.  I sometimes feel as if standalones are rushed so the longer, the better.

Are you a fast or slow reader?

Fast!!  I can read a 600 page novel in a day, no problem.

What was the first book you remember reading?

That would be Paint the Wind.  I got this book in a book exchange at school when I was in third grade, and I love it.  I’ve read it like five times, and it has such a beautiful cover!

Who is your favorite book character of all time?

Uh, can I pick a character of my own creation… Haha!  My favorite character has to be the character that I created for my YA novel.  (I haven’t decided on an official name for the novel yet)  But Skylar is just my favorite character!  She is confident in who she is, she puts others before herself, and she is just awesome.  Lol, I created her, so I better think so.

But if I had to pick a character from a published novel, it would be Percy Jackson.  I love the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.  It’s one of my favorites!

What time of day do you usually get your reading done?

Any time of the day.  Whenever I get the chance to pick up a novel, I take it.

If you could trade places with a fictional character, who would it be?

Lucy from The Chronicles of Narnia.  I would just love to be a part of that world.

MY NOMINEES:

Shadow Summit

Tiana

Rmcalzada

Kat Impossible

Akaluv

Turning The Page

Ann

Icebreaker

Books ‘n’ Reviews

I honestly can’t think of eleven people so this will have to do!

My Questions:

1. Do you judge books based on their book covers?
2. How many books do you have in your TBR?
3. What is your favorite book of all time?  Why?
4. Is there a book coming out this year that you can’t wait to read?
5. Do you prefer long or short chapter in books?
6. Was there a book that you read due to the hype surrounding it that you didn’t enjoy?  Why?
7. Do you have a favorite author?  If so, why is she/he your favorite author?
8. What is your favorite book cover of all time?  Why is it your favorite?
9. Do you prefer standalone novels or series?
10. What is your favorite fictional world?
11. Do you prefer hardcover novels or paperback novels?

Well, that’s it for the questions!

~Nightsong

Friday Quote (7)

“Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.”

-Cyril Connolly
~Nightsong

Are Authors Focusing on Quantity Over Quality?

A recent trend in the publishing industry is publishing as many books as possible.  (Or so I have noticed)  Authors seem to want a lot of books to show up under their name, even if that means sacrificing quality.  Such as good editing, story line, character development… the list goes on.

I know that this creates more profit in some cases, but other times, it may give the author a bad name.

One novel that I recently read for free (thanks to BookBub) had a disclaimer stating that the book contained many editing errors and that the author had been notified.  Now, I am not sure if this was because the author was focusing too much on publishing a multitude of books, or if they just didn’t have a good editor.  Either way, the novel was okay, but it lacked quality.

It makes me wonder if self-publishing is allowing books with little development and meaning to be published.  I don’t know if it is just me, but I have noticed that books that lack depth are more popular than the well-written novels that are over looked.  (This also seems to be the trend on writing sites such as WattPad and Radish according to Akaluv )

Is that the trend?  I’m just not sure.

What are your thoughts on this subject?

~Nightsong