How My Reading Habits Have Changed Since I Started Blogging

Hey guys! So recently, I started thinking about how blogging about books in particular and joining Goodreads has changed the way I read and the way I feel about books. Because honestly, there has been a major change ever since I started blogging about what I was reading. I have gone from loving books, to obsessing over books.

I have gone from being a casual reader to someone who is in a fast paced and snappy community (that I adore). I've gone from being a lonely reader to bouncing thoughts with my book club mates. And I thought you guys might like to hear about this because a lot of you may be new to the community or just may be curious about it.

So let's start with some background. I first blogged about a book last year in June when I posted my review of The Fault In Our Stars. After that all I did was lifestyle. And then in October, I decided that I wanted to do more book reviews so I did one on Gone Girl. It was also about that time when I joined Goodreads. And from that point, everything changed.

1) I Read More

It's not a big surprise to anyone that ever since I joined Goodreads and started blogging, I've read so much more. In fact, I read a total of 36 books last year but this year, I've already read 49 books and it's only June.

 So that's a huge jump. I guess it has to do a lot with the pressure I face externally. I used to just read whatever and whenever but now I have friends in the book community and new books are coming in every day and there is so much discussion going on that you feel left out if you haven't read the latest Sarah J Maas book or heard about the publishing date of the final book in a series. There's a lot of pressure to keep up but it's the good kind of pressure. The kind that pushes you to keep wanting to do better and to read more. I personally love it. It just drives me and makes me feel amazing.

2) I Know What and Who I'm Reading

In the past, I used to walk into a book store and not know a thing. I wouldn't know any author except one or two that I found particularly notable. I wouldn't know a thing about any of the books on the shelves until I read the blurbs. But now, when I walk into a book store, immediately everything is familiar. I know what I like and what I don't. I roughly know when books were published. I know about the author and if I've read books by them in the past. I can confidently say that I recognise about 70% of what is in a bookstore now. I'm still learning but it's quite a leap from knowing absolutely nothing.

3) I Feel Less Alone

I never really had friends who were super crazy about reading. I had a couple of friends who liked reading but usually never as much as I did. Reading to me was a lonely hobby. That is, until Goodreads and book blogs and booktubers popped up. Now, I no longer feel like I'm in this bubble of sorts. I feel like I'm part of a group of people. I can freely talk to people about what I'm reading and it's not like I'm talking to a wall anymore. I feel like I can finally share my passion for something with other people and form friendships through that. It's just a lot of fun.

Well I think that about sums it all up. It was just a short little post but I wanted to let you guys know how blessed I am to be part of this wonderful community of people. Honestly I don't know what I would do without some of the friends I've made here. I just feel like I have a place here which is something that I have never felt in most aspects of my life.

Okay I have no idea how to end this without it being awkward so...bye haha.

The Girl On The Train By Paula Hawkins

Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She’s even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. ‘Jess and Jason’, she calls them. Their life – as she sees it – is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy.

And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Now Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she’s only watched from afar. Now they’ll see; she’s much more than just the girl on the train… -Goodreads

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I love people-watching. There's just something so captivating about making up this whole life for someone else based only upon what you see in front of you. 

I decided to read this little thriller mainly because pretty much everyone was reading it and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I'm pleased to say that all the fuss is correct. This is one damn good book. I loved the grittiness of it. I loved how raw it was and how it stole your breath away when you least expected it.

Paula Hawkins basically makes you hate all the characters. She makes everyone a suspect. Every one including the baby.

"But where was the baby?"

I'm just kidding.

It was such a refreshing change to see characters that were so messed up and unlovable. I guess that's why it has been compared to Gillian Flynn's 'Gone Girl' a lot. I absolutely hated every character with a vengeance. I would find myself standing in the shower sometimes and I would be thinking of the characters and having this huge ranting session in my head about why they are douchebags. Then I would leave the shower, pulsing with fury only to pick up book again because I had to know what happened.

This story is told from the point of view of three highly unreliable and unstable narraters. You never know who is telling the truth, who is lying and who simply cannot for the life of her remember what happened. 

Rachel is the forgetful alcoholic, Anne is the lying second wife and Megan is the neurotic cheat. They have all been robbed of the fullness of life and they are all grieving for what could have been. Together they work to bring three lives together into the big mystery of what happened on Saturday night. Everyone keeps secrets. Everyone.

The reason why this book didn't get the full 5 stars from me was because I felt like the conclusion was weak. I didn't like how the book ended. I felt like it was overly dramatic. But that's the only flaw I could find. 

Now go out there and get your hands on this book because it is one hell of a good story.

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My Rating: 4/5
*The publisher sent me a copy of this book to review*
Purchase the books at The Book Depositary using my special link Here. 

Book Review: Gone Girl By Gillian Flynn

I finished reading Gone Girl this week and can I just say firstly that it was amazing! I initially read a review of it on Amzon when I was getting a whole lot of books into my Kindle at once. That was a pretty big mistake because I ended up reading only a few of the books I got that day. Anyway, Gone Girl was in that pile and I kept saying that I was going to read it but then I would get distracted with another book.

So after the whole fiasco when my Kindle broke down and I got a new one sent from Amazon, I had to start fresh and basically the first thing I got was Gone Girl and I made sure I read it first because Tanya Burr had just released a video recommending it. Also the book was number 1 basically everywhere and the movie was coming out soon. So I started reading the book and I literally couldn't put it down.

So Gone Girl is a psychological thriller and I loved it from start to finish. It's going to be hard to write this without giving away too much but basically there are a lot of twists in the book. When it starts out, the ending simply seems obvious. Gillian Flynn basically makes you hate the main character. Then, the whole story makes a 360 degree turn and you find yourself loving and hating all the opposite people.

I rarely read thrillers or mystery books so to me, I found the story extremely unique. I guess that was what made it so popular in the first place. Now, a lot of people are talking about how Gone Girl ended. Quite a number of people felt that after all the excitement in the book itself, the ending was kind of anti-climatic and a quite a let-down. Personally I felt like the ending was a bit unrealistic. I thought it was quite strange and I personally wasn't happy with the way it ended. Yet if I look at it from the literature point of view, I do see how it makes sense in some way. I feel like there's some underlying message in the ending that I'm not catching on to. So I guess if I dig deeper, I might actually love the ending.

When the book starts, the language is pretty decent and everything is pretty innocent and all. Then at about the second half of the book, when you've firmly dug your claws into the story, the language becomes pretty vulgar. Usually vulgarities and excessive talk of sex are my immediate turn offs when it comes to books, films or TV shows (I don't care how popular they are. That's why I stopped watching Game Of Thrones and Orange Is The New Black) however, I was at the point where you couldn't put down the book anyway so I just continued. So certainly I wouldn't read the book if you aren't old enough to be reading it. Simply put, this isn't a teenage/young adult novel. Make of that what you will.

So go check out the book and read it. It's honestly one of the more amazing things you will read this year. If you finish it in time, the movie is currently out in cinemas. In Singapore it's rated R21 though and as I mentioned in my last post, I am really upset about that because I desperately want to see if they did the book justice. I am 3 years below the legal age and I'm not about sneaking into movies. So  yes. I'm annoyed by that. I think in some other countries the age limit is M18 though so it really depends on where you live.

If you want to get the book, you can get it at pretty much every book store or you could get the ebook version here.

*P.S. I'm currently reading the Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella. I'm on book 3 and I'm most likely going to review it. If you want me to review any other books, just comment it down below and I'll read it and review it here. I love to read so give me some good titles :)

Sunday Summary: Shopaholic Overdose and New Things

Hello readers! If you follow me on Twitter, you would know that last night I had a bit of a meltdown. So I wrote a full post, complete with perfectly edited photos and then realised at the end that I couldn't post it because it was such a personal thing and while I'm usually pretty open about the things that upset me, this particular episode was not appropriate to share. So I promised to write something today.

I've seen some people do weekly summaries of their entire week. I thought that would be a fun thing to do so lets get to my week.

♥ I went to Yankee Candle for the first time. It was the best thing ever. You can check out what I got here. I also did my first haul post which was this very one that I just linked to.

♥ I finished reading Gone Girl and I loved it so much! I totally recommend it. The movie is also currently in the cinemas and I was so excited to see it because I saw online that it was M18 and since I'm 18 in 2 months anyway, I thought I should be able to get in. However, that must have been the American rating or something. In Singapore, its rated R21. I was so disappointed. I guess I'll have to wait till it's out online or something. (I don't sneak into movies. I'm not that kind of person) 

♥ I started reading the Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella. I'm a little late for the Shopaholic series but I really felt like I was missing out on something great. So I got the books on my kindle. I just finished the first one. I'm on the second and I'm simply loving it! It's so real and funny and I see so much of myself in Becky because she's a writer too who can think so far ahead, no matter how unrealistic, which is really cute and exactly like me. In fact when I read her thought process, I realise that I think almost exactly the same. It's weird but also really awesome.

♥ I watched the Shopaholic movie on impulse. It was nothing like the books (Suze is blond!) but I'll give an allowance for the fact that the movie was made during a time when following a book to the T was not the most important thing in the world. (I guess fangirls  and Tumblr didn't exist then). Anyway it was the most hilarious thing EVER and it's one of my new favourites for sure. You should check it out.

♥ The album that I have been listening to on repeat this week is 'Take Me When You Go' by Betty Who. It was recommended initially by Tyler Oakley. While I pretty much love the entire album, my favourite song is 'Better'.

♥ I played pool for the first time with my friends and I now know how to hold the pool stick and I pretty much understand how the game works (thanks Haowei).

We also might have accidentally
played the whole game using the
wrong type of stick...hmm...

That's about it for my weekly summary. School is starting tomorrow so I imagine next week's summary will be very interesting. At least I hope. I'm just hoping that I fit in with my new class and that people like me and want to be my friends. But I guess everyone's worried about that. Now I need to go and figure out what the heck I'm going to wear for my first day of school. Times like this, I really miss my uniform days...Actually not really. I hated my uniform days.