Book Cover Categories

In honor of March being National Reading Month, I wanted to write a blog post about books because of how much of an impact they have in my life. However, I decided to have some fun with the subject and browse through my personal bookshelf and reward them with superlatives based on their covers.

Prettiest Cover:

This was tough because I think many book covers are pretty, but I think that this is a worthy choice:

NOT A DROP TO DRINK by Mindy McGinnis wins this title. Of course, the sequel to this book is just as pretty. I love how the cover is broken up into two different color schemes. The storm clouds brewing gives an ominous feel (as if the black-and-white landscape didn't do it for you). Also, I like how the book title integrates itself in the landscape as opposed to overlapping everything.

The writing inside is beautiful, by the way.

Coolest Cover

Sometimes you choose a book simply because something about the cover drew you in (job well done to those book cover artists). This was one of those books for me:

H2O by Virginia Bergin (It goes by a different title in Britian, though). It's sort of hard to understand why on a computer screen, but if you see the physical book in your hand, you'd see why. See those three acid-looking dots? Those are actually holes on the cover. They begged me to touch the book and run my fingers over the raised bumps. And then I had to take the jacket off to see the words hiding beneath (where I found a paragraph in the form of a raindrop).

H2O is written in the viewpoint of fifteen year old Ruby and she actually sounds like a typical fifteen year old. She has such a humorous and candor voice.

Most Badass Cover

I have a thing for dystopian/adventure/action books (and movies) and I was pretty much sold when I saw this cover (heck, even the title of the book is pretty badass).

The walking stance! Those eyes! That gun on her belt! The destruction that is raining down on her.

A.C.I.D. by Emma Pass was certainly a thriller and the action just kept on coming. She even had to change identities multiple times. And was thrown in jail once (sort of twice).

Creepiest Cover

Okay, I'm going to cheat here. I kept going back and forth between three books and I managed to narrow it down to two and couldn't choose from there. And since this is my blog, I can bend my own rules.

Book #1 of the tie:

First of all, it was hard picking just one book cover from the Unwind series by Neal Shusterman because they all have a creep factor. However, in the end, I chose UNSOULED (book 3 out of 4 total) because of all the faces. And, yes, those are faces that line a wall. What ups the ante on the "creep" factor is the fact that only one of those faces has eyeballs.

Book #2 of the tie:

THE FALL by Bethany Griffin is a retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher". As if that information and the cover doesn't give you goosebumps, then perhaps I should tell you that the story opens up with the main character, Madeline, inside a coffin.


...And just in case you were curious, book #3 runner-up was HOLLOW CITY by Ransom Riggs. The only reason why I didn't include it was because I already had one monochrome cover. (Also, I feel like this is a pretty popular book and I wanted to give the more obscure ones some love.)


And there you have it! I bet you don't need me to tell you that you should go out and read all of the books, right??

P.S. Which creepy book cover do you think should win?

This Past Week in Entertainment...

For the past week, I feel like I've indulged a lot of my free time in watching some form of entertainment and I decided to share that with you guys. (Head’s up: I've included spoilers.)

For tv:

Last Sunday evening was great tv time for me. I watched the mid-season premiere of The Walking Dead. Spoilers! They totally tricked you. I thought the episode was opening up with Beth’s dead, but nope. They decided to kill off Tyreese in the opener.

I actually liked the episode. In the Talking Dead segment afterwards, Chad Coleman (the actor who plays Tyreese) said something like the episode reminded him of an art film and how this was the first time that we – the viewers – got to experience the subconscious of a character dying on the show. (At least, I’m pretty sure Coleman was the one who said this. I apologize if I’m misquoting.)

It’ll be interesting to see the dynamics of the group now. Two siblings are gone in back-to-back episodes. Beth was more of the upbeat one of the group and Tyreese was like the moral compass. Now they’re gone.

But immediately after that, Better Call Saul premiered, so guess who watched that too?

Of course, there have only been two episodes so far, but I’m liking it.

Spoilers! My mouth dropped when Tuco appeared in the last scene of the first episode. I definitely was not expecting him to make a presence. (I’m still loving Mike and the way he irritates Saul. He was always one of my favorite characters in Breaking Bad.)

My favorite line in episode two:

     Skateboarder: You’re the worst lawyer ever!

     Jimmy McGill: I just talked you down from a death sentence to six months’ probation. I’m the best lawyer ever.

For Youtube:

Yes, I watch all kinds of channels/webseries on youtube. And last week, I decided that I was going to re-watch The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (a modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice).

I subscribed to this series back when they were only 10 episodes in. One hundred episodes later plus multiple spin-offs on the LBD timeline, I haven’t watched it in almost the two years since it ended.

It took me six days, much longer than I anticipated (then again, I also watched the 33 Lydia Bennet videos and Gigi’s Pemberley demos), but I finished.

And it’s still just as wonderful.

The acting! The story! The drama! The fashion! It’s. So. Good.

I’m still amazed how the Bennet sisters and Darcy siblings look like they could pass for actual siblings.

And New Jane’s hard questions to Lizzie were some things that I needed to hear in my own life.

Although now I kinda want to re-watch the Emma Approved series…

Another video I watched was The Trail to Oregon! musical. It got released last night so I sat down to watch it. (Not like I had any plans for Valentine’s Day. Can’t go wrong with Starkid.)

It was hilarious. I loved all the little nods toward the actual game.

I’m still trying to decide which character death ending I liked the most. The daughter’s? Maybe the son’s?

For books:

Okay, so you can’t really watch a book, but I figured that it totally counts as a form of entertainment.

I just started reading Polaris by Mindee Arnett (the sequel to Avalon).

I’m only on page 75, so I can’t say too much about it.

However, Spoilers! I can’t believe that a character died in the second chapter. What!? I was not expecting that to happen so soon.



…Yeah, I need a life.

New Year

So I’m thirty days late, but as you can clearly tell, it’s a new year.

Also, in case you couldn't tell from previous posts of mine, but I have this thing about getting fresh starts. Entering a new year is like the ultimate fresh start. And this year, for the first time ever, I was staring at 2015 with a blank slate for my life.

During the final days of December, I created a list of five resolutions/goals that I had in mind for 2015. Unfortunately for you, I’m not going to go into detail about them because they’re kinda personal. However, I’m making progress on all of them, so I think that’s some good news considering that January isn't even over yet.

Despite the fact that I choose not to explain these 2015 goals because they’re personal, one of them reminded me of the very first post that I have on this blog. The part where I explained that I created this blog in order for me to be brave and publicly talk about myself.

And I realized that I needed to get better at that. I also need to get better at posting more often on here instead of once a month or every other month.

(And not have too many serious posts. I’m not saying that it’s bad to have them, but my intention was never to have such a dismal blog.)

So be prepared for me to be more active on here. I’m going to try and balance silliness with seriousness, randomness with…structure-ness? (Okay, that fell apart.)

Of course, this is the internet after all, so there are certain topics of my life that I’m not going to share. But! I’m trying to get the incredibly private person inside of myself to open up a little more.

To help remind myself that things will be different around here on this blog, I even changed the layout.

Cheers to the new year and for embracing change and fresh starts. Mainly, I just hope to grow and become a better person.

(Does anyone else have 2015 goals they hope to accomplish?)

Challenge Complete

So. Yeah.

By the end of my last blog post, I basically persuaded myself to participate in NaNoWriMo. Going into it, I only had three rules for myself:

1.) I was going to write various short stories.
2.) I was going to try and write every day.
3.) I was going to aim at beating last year’s NaNo word count.

I wrote a total of ten short stories. (Isn’t that a nice number? I didn’t even plan it.) I was happy to finally write three of them because I’ve been meaning to write them for years, but I never got the motivation to actually write it. The idea was recorded in a notebook, but it tampered off so I never touched it. One of them was something that I thought of way back in ninth grade, so the fourteen-year-old in me was relieved that I finally got it to work.

Story #2 was inspired by a song. Stories #5 + 6 were drawn from plots that were put up for adoption from the NaNo forums. Story #7 was inspired by a dream I had back in January. Stories #8 + 9 were thought of on the spot when I was typing way while simultaneously watching a MSU football game (even though the stories had nothing to do with football). Story #10 kept me going for twelve days and I managed to crank out 19,000 words for it, which was inspired by the tv series by sister was binge-watching on Netflix (thank, sis). The best part of the last story is that it’s not completed and I can go back to it whenever I want because there is no ending in mind, only the end of certain characters.

Want to take a guess what my final word count was once the month was over?

Answer: 52, 119 words.

I won.

I. Won. NaNoWriMo.

I won!!!!

I finally did it. I finally won NaNoWriMo. It only took me four years, but I did it.

I never skipped a day of writing. I was very strict with myself on trying to obtain at least 1,667 words each day. I even found time on Thanksgiving to hit the daily word count. I was always exceeding the word count for the day that by the time it was November 20, I was officially a full day ahead of schedule. Therefore, I managed to reach the 50k mark a day early, but I still went ahead and wrote on the 30th simply because of rule #2 and because I wanted to keep my bar graph consistent.

As you can tell, I’m quite proud of myself. Not bad for someone who went into it at last minute without much of a plan.

Now I can finally say what to expect in terms of winner goodies. I finally got a fancy ‘winner’ ribbon for my account.

I didn’t think that I could do it. However, I do have to thank my August/September writing project for teaching me that I could crank out that many words in a day if I keep to a schedule (even if I didn’t feel like writing on a particular day).

And the fact that I hardly leave the house. In years past, I always had other commitments that I needed to focus on instead. But we’re not going to talk about my hermit lifestyle.

Because at the end of the day, it’s nice to complete goals. Goals that surprise you. Goals that you didn’t think that you had it in you. Goals that display your determination.

Now onto a new goal.

That is the face of surprise and excitement. Sorry about the horrible quality of the picture.

(Can we just get an applause for me for being able to figure out how to incorporate pictures on this post?)

NaNoWriMo '14

To NaNo or not to NaNo? That is the question.

It’s that time of the year again when NaNoWriMo starts up. This year, for the first time, I’m uncertain whether I want to participate.

The main reason is that I already did a large writing project a couple of months ago. I started it on August first and I wrote every day that month (there was only one day that I skipped). By the end of the month, I was quite proud of myself to reach around the 46,000 mark (so that made it my best ‘NaNo’ word count yet).

But because the story wasn’t quite done, I kept going into September. After a total of 48 days of writing from start to finish, I completed the project at around 74,500 words.

So basically, I did a belated Camp NaNo. Or an early official NaNo.

But now November is arriving and I don’t have any idea what I could write about.

I mean, I have more time to write than in the past years because I don’t have classes or homework interfering.

Part of me is playing around with the idea of simply writing short stories throughout the month instead of just one big project (which is what I did in 2012). It’s less of a commitment since I dedicated a lot of time on my other project.

And then there’s another part of me that says maybe I should settle for a much smaller word count goal for November so I don’t feel too pressured to try and beat my amount from last year. Like maybe try to just hit 15,000 words for the month or something so I don’t feel too bad if I don’t write something every day.

But if I’m being totally honest with myself, I become competitive when it comes to my writing (I’m not usually a competitive person). Even if I say that I’m going to have a low-key NaNo, I’m not going to do it.

I’m going to want to surpass whatever word count goal I have established and try to beat last year’s (so it’d have to be over 36,000). And I’m going to force myself to write daily because of that stupid chart that tracks how much I write. I love seeing those bars of the graph grow.

But if I succumb to that temptation, that’s going to be a lot of short stories. And I don’t know what I can possibly write that will carry that large of a story arc.

Sigh.

Decisions, decisions.

…What if I freestyle and focus on just one story? I mean, I used to make up short stories on the spot for NaNo ’12. What if I did it on a larger scale, no matter if it makes sense or if it has plot holes? It could just be a story for my own eyes.

Even though I’m more of an outline person. I like to have an idea of where my story is going. Otherwise, once I hit a roadblock, I don’t know how to overcome it.

It’d be quite the challenge for me, though.

Hm. I guess I have a few options before me to choose from.

Teacher Appreciation

While it’s quite early (or late, depending on how you look at it) for teacher appreciation week, I just wanted to write a post thanking a particular teacher that I had back in high school. Because I think we sometimes forget how influential teachers are in a student’s life.

My favorite teacher was my English teacher in tenth grade. Her name was Mrs. Schubert. She was short and small in stature, pixie-cut brown hair, and magenta glasses.

She was one of those rare teachers where she cared about her students, but still genuinely taught them. She handed out blankets that she kept in her metal cabinet for students because the room was always sub-zero in temperature (she even kept a heater under her desk). If she realized that no one was paying attention to her, she would make her way to the back of the class and dance. If you weren’t watching her, then too bad, you didn’t get to see her hilarious dance moves.

During the first semester of that year, my lunch fell during her period. After sitting by myself at lunch, I would race back to her room to get away from the cafeteria. Usually because of this, I would be the first to arrive back to class and she would always talk to me, asking me how I was doing. Every Friday, she would ask what I have planned for the weekend. This became our tradition.

She was also the first to believe in my writing abilities. From time to time, she would assign journal entries for us. For extra credit, I would write stories. She was impressed with them and was thinking about entering a couple of them in contests. She was also worried that I worked too hard and was not getting enough sleep.

As the year was drawing to a close, she pushed me to consider taking AP English next year. I had never taken an AP class before, and I was afraid that the course load would be too much for me. But I registered anyway, mainly because she also taught one AP English class and I was hoping to get her for another year.

Much to my disappointment, when I got my class schedule for eleventh grade, I did not get Mrs. Schubert. So I went to visit her after school on the first day and she told me that I was welcome to visit her before school starts. (Turns out, everything worked out in regards to me not having her as a teacher because I befriended a girl in my AP class and I still talk to her to this day.)

So I did visit her in the mornings. I would arrive about 5-10 minutes before the first bell would ring. There were a few other students that would come and go, as well. Sometimes she even put me to work, decorating her room for the holidays.

When the next semester rolled around and it was time to switch teachers, I was surprised that I actually got Mrs. Schubert for English. But this time, I wasn’t pleased. I started to view her more as a friend and I was unsure whether I could handle her as my teacher again. So I cut the days I spent visiting her in the mornings, usually only going twice a week (I wasn’t going to give up my Fridays for anything. I wanted her to ask me what I was going to do this weekend.) I figured that I see her every day for class, anyway.

It didn’t take me long for me to regret not seeing her more often.

By early April, during our Spring Break, she was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. She left to get chemo, so we had a sub for the rest of the school year.

She never returned.

Today marks exactly five years since she died.

After all this time, I still think about her and wonder how things could have been different if she were still around. Would I stop by my high school, pull up the metal stool to her desk, and tell her how college life is treating me? What kind of advice would she dole out?

I don’t think I ever thanked for all that she did for me. But just in case she wasn’t fully aware:

Thanks for being there. Thanks for talking to me when I had no one. Thanks for challenging me academically. Thanks for encouraging me as a writer. Thanks for building my confidence.

Thank you.

Advice for College Freshmen

For many people out there, the time to head back to school has begun (and for those unfortunate ones, you could already be back). Some of you will be heading off to college for the first time.

This blog post is dedicated to you.

Considering that I just graduated from college in May, I like to think that I have some advice for you incoming freshman. After all, it’s still fresh in my memory. (Plus, my brother will be heading off to college in nine days.)

And because I like lists, that’s exactly what you will get.

1.) For those of you who will be living in a dorm and rooming with a person that you were assigned to: Relax. You should go in with an open mind and work on at least tolerating the person. There is a chance that you won’t become best friends like some people. I went in blind four times and only once did it not work out (and she was my first roommate; she moved out by the end of the semester, so it all worked out). You will be living with this person for a school year. If things become sour and you need to move out, you always have that option.

2.) It will be strange adjusting to how your classes go about homework. They give you a schedule of when things are due and when tests will occur. Stay on top of this. I purposely did most of my homework during the weekends so that I didn’t have to do so much during the weekdays. I’m weird like that.

3.) Get involved! You don’t have to go crazy with it, but it’s the easiest way to make friends. A lot of people like to join organizations that revolve around their major because it gives them a leg up. And that’s totally fine. Plus, club activities force you to get out of your dorm and not solely focus on schoolwork.

4.) Don’t freak out about your major. People average to changing their major twice while at college (or something like that). I switched once and thought about changing it again. You’ll be fine. Take a variety of classes and see which ones not only interest you, but you do well in.

5.) Extra advice (because five is a good number to stop at): Strike up a balance. Don’t overload yourself with work. Take time for yourself, whether that means going to the campus movie theatre or taking a walk. For me, I spent it reading books between classes or typing out a story in the evening after homework was completed. 

Bottom line: Have fun! But remember to also make time for schoolwork because that’s the whole reason why you are there in the first place.

It goes by quick. Trust me.