Mittwoch, 23. September 2015

8 tips on how to read more during school/college



I know that when we students go back to school, we usually do not have a lot of time for reading anymore, but today I have a few tips for you, which could help you to change that and increase your reading during school time! :)


o   Don’t force yourself to read
If you do not feel like reading, it won’t make sense to force yourself to do it. Your mind will always slip off to another topic. You will read 5 pages, and you won’t have any clue what it was about, because you were so distracted. The most important thing is to take your time. If you want to play some video games, or watch some Netflix, then do it. Your excitement for reading will come back eventually, I promise.

o   Bring a book everywhere you go & use your “in between” moments
This is a tip that really worked well for me. If you have a book in your bag, ready to be read, you are more likely to pick it up. If you have a short 10 minute break, use the time and read these 10 minutes. Even if you only read a few pages, it still will make a change at the end of the month. You can also use the spare time when you’re on the bus going to school, or go home from school. These “in between” moments, where you have nothing else to do, are perfect for reading.

o   Use ear plugs
A lot of people tell me that they find it hard to read when other people are around because they can't concentrate, and I can totally understand that, but I got your back: Use ear plugs. You can get them at any pharmacy store, or even at some libraries, and they are extremely helpful. They help you to concentrate more on the book than the other people around you. Another possibility would be to use your headphones instead of ear plugs. You can even play some music, if that doesn’t distract you from reading.

o   Set a specific time to read (before bed e.g.)
It always helped me a lot when I set a specific time to read when I was in school. You can do your schoolwork and studying during the day, and when you are finished you can look forward to reading. (Another small tip: It is always better to do the work first, so that you can read as long as you want afterwards.) I would especially recommend that you try to read everyday before bed. I personally do not have a specific time when I go to bed. I can be from 9pm to 11 pm, and I can get a lot of reading done in these two hours. When you read before bed it helps your mind and eyes to relax, because we are on our phone/laptop/TV a lot during the day, and usually right before bed too, watching some YouTube and whatnot. The "blue" light from these devices however is very bad for our eyes. But when you read before bed it helps your eyes to relax and you will probably sleep better. So only benefits, right?

o   Try to lower your procrastination time
I know it from myself: We use far too much time for social networks nowadays. But this is important time that we could use for reading. So next time you are tempted to spend 2 hours on Tumblr, shorten the time to 30 minutes and use the rest of your time for reading. You will be able to read a lot more if you shorten your time on the internet, trust me. I know that it’s really hard, but just try it!

o   Read shorter and more light hearted books
If you don’t have a lot of time for reading it’s very exhausting to read long books with heavy topics. Try to read 250 – 300 page books, and you will see that the excitement for books and reading will increase, because you can read the books faster, and your monthly wrap-ups get bigger and bigger, which is always an amazing feeling, right? Light hearted books will probably also make you happier than sad and serious books, and thats helpful because it gives you more motivation to pick the book up again, than a book which makes you sad or even tired because of the topic. After a hard school day a light hearted read is much better.

o   Try out graphic novels or audio books
Maybe your aren’t going to school by bus or train, but by car, so in this case you can’t read, but you can listen to audiobooks instead while driving. You can get a lot of "reading" done whilst driving that way. Another possibility, when you have a short amount of time for reading, is that you try out graphic novels. These aren’t as exhausting and time consuming to read as normal books, but a lot of fun as well. So when you are trying to relax, and don’t have a lot of time, I would highly recommend that you try out some graphic novels, also if it’s out of your comfort zone.

o   Participate in Reathons or Readalongs or join Bookclubs
It is always much more fun to read when other people are reading with you, so bookclubs can be an amazing opportunity to read and discuss books with friends. A Readathon however can push you to read more in your free time, because you want to complete the challenges as best as you can. These Readathons always give me more motivation to pick up a book, because I know that other people are reading with me at the same time.



I really hope that at least some of these tips were useful for you! Please let me know which one of these tips is your favourite, and also comment some of your best tips on how to read more during school.
Thank you all so much for reading this and checking out my blog! I will hopefully see you next time. Bye!

Donnerstag, 17. September 2015

Review: The Wrath and the Dawn by Rene Ahdieh

“Some things exist in our lives for but a brief moment. And we must let them go on to light another sky.” 


Content:

In a land ruled by a murderous boy-king, each dawn brings heartache to a new family. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, is a monster. Each night he takes a new bride only to have a silk cord wrapped around her throat come morning. When sixteen-year-old Shahrzad's dearest friend falls victim to Khalid, Shahrzad vows vengeance and volunteers to be his next bride. Shahrzad is determined not only to stay alive, but to end the caliph's reign of terror once and for all.

Cover:

This cover is my most favorite cover of all time. It beautifully designed, and it really captivates the whole feeling of a fairytale. Honestly, I wouldn’t know how to make this cover any better.

My opinion:

This book was amazing. Breathtaking. Perfect. I do not have words. But let’s start from the beginning. I will structure my review into three parts now: Writing, Plot and Characters. So let’s start off with the first one.
Writing:
The writing was absolutely beautiful, and very poetic. It honestly felt like I was reading a fairytale, and not a YA book, because the writing was so amazing. There were a lot of Arabian words, which were explained in the Glossary on the back. A lot of people felt disturbed by that, but these words didn't disturb me at all. In fact I was rather pleased to learn new words in that language.
Plot:
The second I heared what this book was about I knew that I was going to love it. I love all things related to the fairytales of 1001 nights, and I knew that I was going to adore this retelling, BUT I would have never thought that I would love this book as much as I did. The main plot was probably the romance between Khalid and Shazi. A lot of people complained that it was Insta-love between them, but I do not think so; Insta-affection maybe, but not love. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a slow-burning romance, but the way their relationship develops is at a perfect speed in my opinion. I ship them all the way. There was another aspect of this book, and that was the fantasy/magic aspect. I was rather confused by these parts, and I felt like it was only briefly mentioned, as the romance was in the main focus. I hope that we see more of this magic in the next book. The ending however was just so heartbreaking. How could the author do this to me? I need the second book right now!
Characters:
The characters were amazing, and all so authentic. Especially Khalid, who was my favorite; his character is just so interesting and complex. I loved how we discovered that he is not the monster everyone thought he was, and that he in fact has a dark secret. I just love such characters. But also Shazi was really great. I wish I was as eloquent as she is. I think she even is one of my favorite female characters ever. But also the side-characters were great. Jalal brought some funny moments into the story, and Despina’s friendship with Shazi was just great. I even felt like Tariq played an important role in the book, and I am interested to see how things will develop.

Conclusion:

This is definitely my favorite book of 2015 so far; A beautiful tale with great writing, awesome characters and an amazing story. I cannot, and I repeat, CANNOT wait for the next book! Please give it to me!

Rating:

5 | 5 stars
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Dienstag, 8. September 2015

Review: Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

"Another secret of the universe: Sometimes pain was like a storm that came out of nowhere. The clearest summer morning could end in a downpour. Could end in lightning and thunder."


Content:

Aristotle is an angry teen with a brother in prison. Dante is a know-it-all who has an unusual way of looking at the world. When the two meet at the swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as the loners start spending time together, they discover that they share a special friendship—the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime. And it is through this friendship that Ari and Dante will learn the most important truths about themselves and the kind of people they want to be.

Cover:

The cover is absolutely gorgeous. The way it is designed fits the story really well, and of course the best thing about it is Ari’s red truck, which plays an important role in the whole book.

My opinion:

I mainly picked this book because it got a lot of hype in the booktube community, and it seemed like I was the only one who hasn’t read it yet. But I am so glad that I finally was able to pick this book up, because it was fantastic.

Let me start off with Benjamin’s writing. Whilst at some points a lot of sentences look pretty “basic” (if I may say so), at other points the style, how Benjamin puts words together takes your breath away. There are so many beautiful and deep quotes all around in this book, that sometimes I just had to read a certain sentence many times in order to understand it properly and I just had to take a minute to let some quotes sink in. The writing-style was very poetic, and I absolutely loved it!

You could say that this book doesn’t really have a “plot” in that sense, because it definitely focuses more on characters and their development, but in this case that was completely fine with me. I loved ALL of the characters (except some side-characters, but they don’t really contribute anything great to the story, so I will ignore them). Let’s start with the family aspect of this book. I have never seen such a great, honest and detailed description about family and parents in any YA novel as in this one. Usually parents are some kind of “trouble-makers” in YA novels, or just side-characters, or not even really there at all. But in this novel the importance of family and parents is really great depicted. Ari’s and Dante’s parents were all so honest that they felt like real people. This book teaches us, that even adult make mistakes, that they aren’t flawless, and that even they can admit that they have done things wrong in the past. Whilst Ari’s parents were really closed up and quiet at the beginning of the book, you see the relationship between them grow over the course of the book, and in the end they just all grew closer together even more. 
But now let’s continue with Ari and Dante. Their friendship is something really special. I have never seen such a great friendship (development) in any book I’ve ever read. It almost feels like, that hadn’t even lived until they met each other. It was beautiful to see them connect and grow a special bond between each other which can’t be really torn apart by anyone.
The ending is my absolute favorite part of the whole book. It makes you sit there and just smile and cry tears of happiness. It is honestly one of my favorite endings ever. It couldn't have been better. 

Conclusion:

This book teaches us to be true to ourselves, and even if we think we didn’t find our personality or ourselves yet, the answer may just lay ahead. Always be open for new things, and love yourself. Even if it looks like it’s useless, after rain there is always sunshine! A beautiful read which I recommend to everyone.

Rating:

5 | 5 stars
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Montag, 7. September 2015

Review: The Iron Fey by Julie Kagawa (Series Review)

Before we start this review I have to warn you: this is a series review, which means that I will review all books in the series (excluding the companion novels). So, of course, there will be SPOILERS ahead. I will write my thoughts on each book separately, so if you have just read one book in the series, check out that section. Otherwise, if you don’t want to be spoiled and just want to hear my overall thoughts, please skip to „Conclusion“.


Content:

(I will only show you the content for the first part because of spoiler-reasons)

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school or at home.
When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change.


Cover:

All the covers of the English versions are beautiful (especially the cover of the last part). I think they are so much more beautiful than my versions, which are the German ones. I think the models really fit the characters perfectly.

My opinion:

The Iron King:
I would have never thought that I like this book as much as I did in the end.
Whilst there were a lot of scenes which I have already seen in almost every YA book ever, it didn't disturb me at all when reading this book. At some points I knew what was going to happen, but I nevertheless really enjoyed the story and the characters. Although I didn't connect to any of the characters immediately, I really grew to love some of them by the end of this book. Usually I do not read books about fairies, just because they are my least favorite type of paranormal creatures, but I really enjoyed this book and I can't wait to check out the rest of the series!
5 / 5

The Iron Daughter:
I am still surprised how much I actually enjoy this series. The first part was really great and refreshing, but I didn't feel that quite as much when reading the second book. The plot itself was great, but it kind of annoyed me that it got more into detail on the insta-love and the love triangle. I absolutely hate such topics, and it made me mad at some points in this book, but I tend to ignore that when I write reviews, because literally almost every single YA book follows this pattern. As I said, the plot was great, and some characters really stick to my heart now. I can't wait to read the third book.
4 / 5

The Iron Queen:
This series definitely got so much better with each book. This one was fantastic. Now that I think about it, I actually do not have anything bad to say about it whatsoever. The plot was great and interesting, the characters were too, I am seriously in love with this series now. I can't wait to start the next (and final) book to see what Julie still has in stall for me!
5 / 5

The Iron Knight:
This book was FANTASTIC!
First of all, this was already my favourite book in the series when I saw, that it was written in Ash's POV. He is easily one of my fav characters in the whole series, and being able to finally look into his mind was great and it made me like him even more. Another thing I really enjoyed about this book was that we got to know Ash so much better. In this book all of his secrets were uncovered, his whole past was presented to us, and I loved it. It was amazing to see his character development from this cold-hearted winter prince, to this man, who would sacrifice everything for his love. It was beautiful. The next thing I loved was, of course, Puck. Yes, his quotes were hilarious in the first three books too, but in this book I enjoyed him even more and found him even more funny. In general I loved all the characters, also the newly introduced ones, and so this I enkoyed this book very much. All in all I would say that this was a perfect conclusion to this series!
5 / 5
 

Conclusion:

All in all I can say: I LOVE this series! It definitely is one of my favourite series of all time now. I love all of the characters, I love the plot in every single book, I love the writing, I love EVERYTHING about this series. Thanks to my friends who recommended this series to me and made me obsessed :-*

Rating:

5 | 5 stars for the whole series in general
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Donnerstag, 3. September 2015

Bookish September

This month a few BookTubers are hosting a month long Readathon, and I am so excited to participate, as September is the last holiday-month for me. All the hosts of the Readathon as well as all information is linked here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foYG0rwVMg4

MONTH LONG READATHON CHALLENGES  September 1st - 30th

1. Reread a favorite


I kind of have to cheat for this one. It is a re-read, but not a favorite, because I just want to get as many books done as I can in my last weeks of holidays. So I will be re-reading Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters, because I have absolutely no memory of this book whatsoever. I tried to read it twice, but it never happened, so I will try again.

2. Read a recently purchased book


For this one I will be reading Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe. I am really excited about this book and I just can’t wait to read it!

3. Read a book from your favorite genre


My favorite genre is YA-Fantasy, so I will be reading The Raven Boys for this challenge. So many people on Booktube have been raving about this series, and I can’t believe that I am not on the hype train already, so let me get on it real quick!

4. Read a book with a beautiful cover


The most beautiful cover on my bookshelf right now is the cover of The Wrath and the Dawn. I am so excited about this book, because I love all fairytales of 1001 nights. I really hope this book lives up to my high expectations.

5. Read a book you know nothing about


For this one I chose Ready Player One. I know that it’s about video-games, but that’s basically all I know. I am very excited anyway!


6. Read a book with a darker theme

I chose Hush, Hush for this challenge. This book is about fallen angels, and that’s the darkest of themes I could find on my unread shelf currently, plus I started it but never finished it, so this is the perfect opportunity!

7. Read a book you want to read



For this challenge I chose two books. The first one being The Iron Knight (forth book in the Iron Fey series), because I really can’t get enough of this series and I just HAVE TO continue with it. The second book is I’ll give you the sun. This has been sitting on my shelf for a while now, and I can’t wait to read it!



Mittwoch, 2. September 2015

Wrap-Up: August 2015

Books I read in August:




◇ Stolen - Lucy Christopher {224 pages read in August}
◇ FOUR - Veronica Roth {317 pages}
◇ Fairytales of 1001 nights {237 pages}
◇ Remember the time {125 pages}
◇ It's kind of a funny story - Ned Vizzini {444 pages}
◇ The Iron King - Julie Kagawa {501 pages}
◇ The Iron Daughter - Julie Kagawa {495 pages}
◇ The Iron Queen - Julie Kagawa {507 pages}
◇ The Iron Knight - Julie Kagawa {30 pages read in August}

All in all: 8 books completed, 1 started
Total pages: 2880