Why do you DNF?

Hello all! Since I'm in a soul crushing reading slump while starting classes for next semester, starting a new job and getting far into some dramas, I find myself not being able to post as much. So I'm posing a question to anybody that still reads this blog despite my ridiculous absence.

What is the kiss of death for a book for you?

I've always tried my best to finish all the books that I start. I was very proud of myself last semester for finishing a text book cover to cover which I have never done before. Sure, I've gone through most of the chapters before but I've never just read everything, including the Appendix which had the Constitution and other things in it. But anyways, I'm in the middle of another book at the moment and I'm really thinking about not finishing it. And I asked myself why.

What makes a book so difficult or annoying or whatever to the point where you can't read a single more page?

For this one book, it's the main character. She's weak and has no real personality besides complaining. I understand her situation but in most other books, the main character has some backbone or something that drives her to be something. This girl has nothing. She's a limp noodle and so far has basically done what she has been told to do.

Oh well...fate accepted.

Another difficult thing for me to read is terrible dialogue. When authors try to do vernacular or their language is too stiff, it makes the book arduous and boring. I just want to scream that nobody really talks like that!

I'm struggling to remember other reasons why I quit reading books. Sometimes the main character or the supporting characters drive me crazy. I've quit a book before because it depicted abuse in a way that glorified it or there was excessive slut shaming, body shaming, or other types of ingrained behavior that denigrates women (or anybody for that matter. I hate bullies).

But I'm turning to y'all now. Is there anything that makes you want to hurl books across the room? I'm curious because everybody has different taste and different opinions about this.

Discussion Post: Why We Love the Bad Boys

A good villain is hard to find. 

Sometimes we want them so terrifically bad that we want their defeat to be over the top and glorious. We want them to go down in a spectacular way with dramatic ending lines and walking away from the explosion. Then there are the villains that you know, that you can relate to. They are the horrible bosses that make you work overtime on the holidays. They are the ones that torment you at school and love the fact that they have some sort of power over you and you can't do a damn thing about it. Those are the ones that you hope live a long miserable life just so they can remember that they could have been nice and this never would have happened.

And finally, there are the ones that we are attracted to. The bad boys with the sad past. The ones that act so cold and distant but are really just extraordinarily warped or broken. Their pain and anger isn't natural but developed. Their hatred is learned and we can all connect to it.

This is not going to be a Harry Potter post, I promise.

But I have always personally felt that the villains are often more compelling than the heroes. Heroes have one job and that's usually to save the world. Their "goodness" is based off of them being compassionate or brave, not based off of their past. Their history can either be rosy or horrible but they have hope and they want something better than the world that they are existing in. And while we have to have the good guy in the end, there has to be the bad guy to balance them out.

But characters are rarely evil for the sake of being evil. It's hard to hate that much without reason and I am obsessed with characters that play the villain role that slowly transform into something else. I think we all have a favorite bad boy. It started young for me, with Beauty and the Beast where the character that is supposed to be evil and terrifying turns out to be gentle and compassionate. Obviously, my favorite bad gone good character of all time is Draco Malfoy (and Dramione is my eternal OTP) because we get to see what he goes through.

That's the important thing about creating a bad character. You have to understand his pain because otherwise you just have a sociopath. There has to be a cause, whether it be physical or mental. And they have to be able to redeem themselves which doesn't necessarily mean that they will. This character must be capable of it when he/she is given the choice and they have to make that decision and it has to be believable. There's no redeeming quality to someone who has killed hundreds or thousands and won't repent but there is hope for those who carry the guilt around like a blanket draped over them. Compassion must be developed at some point.

As I stated earlier, I love me some Malfoy but I also really love Morpheus from Shattered and Warner from the Shatter Me series. I love it when characters can redeem themselves.

So, the entire point of this post, is who is your favorite bad boy/girl? Do you have one and why do you like them as a character?

In other news, I have finally made it into graduate school so my posts may drop for a few weeks while I get used to my new schedule. I promise, I'll keep reading and I will catch up soon!

Everybody have a happy weekend!

Discussion Post: Books about Sports

First of all, I'd like to apologize for the lack of posts recently. As some of you know, I recently underwent my 6th or 7th back procedure and I've been sort of laying low for a few days. It takes a while to bounce back from them occasionally and I'm not recovering as well as I would have hoped. So, hopefully now that I'm feeling a bit better, I can get back to regularly posting and chatting with y'all!

Today, I'm going with another discussion post. I recently received a Netgalley book about soccer and I was beyond pumped. I grew up playing the game and even played in college so I'm a big fan. Soccer is somewhat a black horse in America still and every time I can get my hands on something that positively portrays the beautiful game, I'm on it. I don't discriminate. I love lots of sports and I'm just as eager to read something about basketball or hockey as I am about soccer. 

But this one was a disappointment to say the least. The game writing was awkward and forced and it was boring in the style. I get that soccer is a back and forth game but this sort of killed it. "And they ran up the pitch, and back down, passing and crossing the ball." Congratulations, you've just described every game of soccer ever. 

Not every sports book is like that though and I do have some that I really enjoyed. Tangerine has always been one of my favorites, mostly because it deals with some pretty messed up stuff and a goalkeeper. 

We're pretty interesting players and you think more would be written about goalies. We spend a lot of time standing in goal thinking and then we're asked to do stupidly crazy stuff for the sake of a game. I think it would be a good story. But we don't get any respect to begin with so maybe I'm deluding myself thinking that someone besides a keeper would want to write about a keeper.

The Secretary of Defense, ladies and gentlemen

Anyways, does anybody else read sports books? Do you know any good ones? 

I find that a lot of them are filled with cliches and unrealistic expectations of what certain age groups are able to do. I hate it when I read a book about sports where nobody is trying to improve since they are already the best at what they do. I want to find the gems though. So if you have any recommendations, send them my way!

Until next time...

Discussion Post: Bookstores and the Temptation Problem

I love bookstores. I absolutely do. The feeling you get when you walk in and you get the sensory overload of the smell of the books, the look of the cover designs, and the feel of new pristine books in your hands. I could spend hundreds of dollars in one trip, given the opportunity.

Which is why I don't go that often. I can't. I would have absolutely no money left. I am already out of room on the bookshelves. I have kept most of my school books with all of my notes in them from 5th grade on and people love to give me books as presents. Not that I'm complaining in any way.

I'm an impulse buyer and I can't be trusted with my own debit card. If it has a pretty cover, an interesting blurb and especially, if it is discounted, it is mine. This leads to a big problem though...

Last weekend, my fiance came to town and he wanted to go to the bookstore for some investing books. Knowing myself, I didn't even bring my purse. But there I was, browsing the discounted section and I found something with a pretty cover and a thick binding. Taylor bought it for me (what a good man) and it is now sitting on my bedside table waiting for me to tackle it.

Here's the problem: It's the fifth book in a series. So now I'm going to read all of the others just so I can read the one he bought me. Once again, not complaining.

But does anybody else have this problem of low impulse control in bookstores? This isn't the first time it has happened for me. I have so many second and third books in a series because I was drawn in by a cover. This has been at least partially mitigated for me by having a kindle and planning out my purchases in advance. 

But I can't be trusted in bookstores. I'm not a responsible adult. I'm a little kid in a candy store with no real supervision.

I'm sure a lot of you guys have this problem but what is your strategy for book stores? Do you have a plan and go in for one or two books or is it a free for all for what catches your eye?