Addicted to Netflix AND Featured Blogger? Feature and Follow Friday (8)

What is your favorite tv series that you can watch over and over again on Netflix?

Feature and Follow Friday is a weekly blog hop hosted by the two lovely lades Alison @ Alison Can Read and Rachel @ Parajunkee. The goal is to have to participants gain more followers and friends by "hopping" around to different blogs and following them, in turn they would follow you back. Every week, two featured bloggers are chosen, and this week, I am featured on Alison Can Read! *throws confetti*

OR

When did you start blogging?

I started blogging a little less than eight months ago on December 8, 2013. When I found out that I could ramble about what I love most to random people on the internet and interact with just as crazy (or more in some cases) fangirls, I immediately jumped on the chance and posted a review (which wasn't very good). 

What is your favorite part of book blogging?

I literally love every moment of book blogging, but my favorite part is when people comment or tweet me about a post. It proves that I'm not just sending random pixels out into cyberspace, and that people are actually reading what I spent time rambling writing. Through seemingly insignificant interaction, I have gained some amazing friends and fellow fangirls who actually understand my obsession with books.  

What type of books do you mainly blog about?

Ninety-five percent of the time, I blog about Young Adult books mostly because those are the books I enjoy reading, and therefore want to tell people about. My two favorite sub-genres are science fiction/dystopian and what could be considered "depressing" contemporary fiction.

What is your favorite book(s)?

I'm lucky this question has the parenthesis because I would have listed more than one anyways. My favorites are The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins, The Legend Trilogy by Marie Lu (you know I had to include it), The Ascendence Trilogy by Jennifer A. Nielsen, and nearly anything written by Laurie Halse Anderson, David Levithan, Andrew Smith, and Ellen Hopkins.

What has been the best thing that has happened to you because of book blogging?

In order not to repeat myself (otherwise this question would just be a rephrasing of #2), I will say the chance to discover all of these new and old books and authors I would never have even heard about otherwise. I also adore the opportunity to go to book signings and see these amazing creators of some of my favorite characters and worlds in person. 

A few times a year, my mom and I will find a television show on Netflix, and then proceed to rapidly binge watch. I think our record has been five episodes in one sitting, and we can finish a whole season in less than two weeks. I know in terms of binge-watching that isn't too much to brag about. I've heard about people who binge watch an ENTIRE season in one day, and that is just mind-blowing. But the question isn't about how fast we can binge-watch, the question is about our favorites. 

Merlin was one of the very first shows in our binge-watching careers, and we sped through the first four season in around 3 months. Then, we bit our nails in anticipation until Season 5 was uploaded onto Netflix. So obviously, I re-watched a lot of my favorite episodes from season 1-4 while waiting for the fifth season.

White Collar HAS to be my favorite Netflix show of all time. Neal Caffrey is a vision of swoons, and the premise -art thief/forger must help FBI in order to serve his time- of the show is perfect. It is also perfect for re-watching episodes because while there is an underlying story throughout the series, each episode is its own crime. 

Now I can't list Netflix shows without listing Sherlock as one of them. Even though I was pretty late to jump on the bandwagon, I finally saw the show and was hooked. The only problem is that the "Seasons" are extremely short. You know what that means.... more re-watching! I simply adore the dynamics between John and Sherlock, and the way their peculiar relationship works.

What are some of your favorite Netflix shows you can watch over and over again? I'm always on the lookout for more shows to watch so I can continue being an introverted fangirl. Tell me in the comments below or link to your own post. I would love to hear from you and don't forget to follow :)

Funny YouTube Videos X) : Feature and Follow Friday ()

What are some funny YouTube Videos?

Feature and Follow Friday -hosted by Alison @ Alison Can Read and Rachel @ Parajunkee- is a blog hop that's goal is to have to participants gain more followers and friends. So if I were to follow you, and leave a comment telling you that, it would be considered polite to follow me back and comment as well.

Recently, I have been binge-watching a TON of BookTubers, and let me tell you - there are some insanely hilarious ones out there. My favorite of all time has to be Christine Riccio, one of the most popular BookTubers. Her Book Lover TomFoolery playlist cracks me up and I have watched some of those videos 5-6 times.

How to Read in the Shower: I honestly don't know if Christine was joking on this one or not, but it is an amusing video just the same.

Book Scoffers: Just watch it and the laughs will unfold

Pronunciation Problems: This is so darn accurate and I don't think you should hate on her (I'm not saying anyone did) because there are some very real pronunciation issues when one is just reading text and not hearing it. The Carsile thing and Hermione is 100% understandable.

The Mourning Period: You would think this is video is unrealistic, but for a booklover.... it's not. This video paints an accurate representation of a book hangover.

eBooks VS Real Books: This is actually semi-informational, but Christine's personality just makes everything into this huge bucket of sunshine and giggles.

Literal Book Titles: I love some of her literal book titles, especially for Goodnight Moon, Percy Jackson, and Unravel Me because they sound so stupid, but make perfect sense to anyone who has read the books.

What are some videos that you think are funny? Tell me in the comments or link up to your own post, I would love to hear from you, and don't forget to follow! :)

*GASPS* I'm going on a Mini-Hiatus? : The Sunday Post (9) + Stacking the Shelves (1)

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer where one talks about what they did this week, what books they obtained, general blog news.

Loving the Language of Literacy Lookback:

• The Only Boy: Jordan Locke
• 101 Things I Hate: Life of a Blogger (2)
• Light Up the Night ~ Jess Moskaluke: Media Mondays (2)
• {Blog Tour+Giveaway+Review} Only With You: Celia Gray
• 101 Things I Love: Life of a Blogger (1)

Loving the Language of Literacy Lookout:

• School is out this week! I cannot explain to you how freaking excited I am for this fact. What this also means is more time for reading, blogging, and fun in general. Joyce gave me a ton of awesome post ideas and there are going to be a ton of new series coming up on the blog.
• Eli @ Reality Lapse and Jessica @ Fly to Fiction are doing this amazing program called Book Bloggers and the Fandom Wars #BBFandomWars which is such a fun idea, and you should definitely sign up. I know the two ladies have worked extremely hard for this, and I also know they will make it as fun as possible.
• A lot of people have done blog posts about this, but SYNC is offering a TWO free audiobooks every week until August 20th, so take advantage of these great deals. Side note: I downloaded this week's book "Cruel Beauty" by Rosamond Hodge and am already IN LOVE with the story and will be posting my review very soon.
• Yesterday, you were given a glimpse of my four post series called "The Journey to Fortitude" which is super exciting. Everything, including the appearance, background info, and (of course) the backstory can be found in this post. 

• Oh my freaking god, Armchair BEA is this week. Since I can't make it to BEA itself, Armchair sounds like such a fun way to take part in the festivities, so there will be 5 days worth of craziness from yours truly. I hope to take advantage of this, and make some more friends, discover some awesome blogs, and so forth.

• I'm sure you are all wondering what I mean about the "*GASPS* I'm going on a Mini-Hiatus?" part of this post's title. Well I'm here to confirm the statement, I am going on a mini hiatus, but I will still be active on the blog. I will be on vacation from the 29th of May to the 11th of June. I don't know exactly how much time I will have for blogging during that time, which is why I have posts scheduled. I also asked the amazing (seriously, she's a lifesaver) Tina @ The Book Landers to (this is actually how I put it in my email) "babysit " my blog for me just to see if all the posts go up on the right days, and not incomplete, because I do have a tendency to do that.
• Also, because I will be gone for that time, and I don't want to schedule THAT many posts, I have a few guest posts scheduled from a few weirdos I actually want to call my friends. These are their short bios I asked them to write.
• This is my friend Aurora's bio. She is not only providing guest posts for while I'm on vacation, but she will also have one post a week on Loving the Language of Literacy because she wanted to see what it would be like blogging without having the make the full time commitment or work with somebody that she does't know (although I'm not that much better). 
• Hi guys! You can call me Aura. :)
• I guess you can call me a reader, despite the fact that I'm quite picky with just about everything, including food, activities, and yes, even books. Anyhow, some of you may know my Instagram fandom account, and I'll let you keep guessing until the end of this bio.
• My absolute favorite book series is the Lorien Legacies. If you haven't heard of that, I won't blame you...but you should know about it. And read it.
• So I'm going to conclude with all my book fandoms, from first to most recent: Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Divergent, Legend, Lorien Legacies, Mortal Instruments, The Fault in Our Stars, The Fifth Wave, Fangirl, Infernal Devices, and Looking For Alaska. (As of writing this bio, I'm currently reading Unsouled--the third book of the Unwind Dystology).
• My links include the following:
• http://instagram.com/lorictribute78 (Yep! Some of you may know me as lorictribute78!)
• http://lorics-and-legacies.tumblr.com/ (I'm on IG more often btw)
• This is my friend Joyce's bio and she's just doing this for while I'm gone and may contribute posts in the future for occasions like this if I bat my puppy dog eyes.
• Hey, this is Joyce, and I'll be writing some posts for Sofia whenever she's out or when she doesn't like you guys anymore (jk). I was born on Valentine's Day in SoCal, and I love bite marks and strawberry smoothies (THEY ARE TO DIE FOR). I love anime (i will not talk to you if you don't, jk), books, and good music (LISTEN TO MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS PLEASE). i'm fairly nice most of the time, but if you take my food, i can't guarantee that you'll walk out unscathed. And by that, I mean that you will find yourself with some bite marks and a black eye. :) That's it for now.
• Peace out,
• Joyce

Books Read This Week:

I didn't have the most successful reading week ever because I am still suffering from a MAJOR book hangover because of the book Tricks by Ellen Hopkins. This book.... the quote review is going live sometime next week, and I can't begin to describe it. It has a very morbid concept, but captured me with its unique writing style and received 5 Ink Jars. I also read Curses and Smoke: A Novel of Pompeii by Vicky Alvear Shectar which is being published on the 27th of May. This was a 2 Ink Jar book for many reasons, mainly because it frustrated me to death. I also just finished reading Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King. This book started out really strong for me, the narrator amazing, vivid, and honest but eventually was just "eh" and is being rated 3 Ink Jars. 

Language of Literacy Loves:

If you've been reading my blog for a while now, you may know that I am TERRIBLE with names, but basically, this is a new feature where I will feature some of my favorite posts around the blogosphere this week. 

Jessica @ Fly to Fiction ~ Fiction Friction (9): Reading Books Outside Your Comfort Zone

April & Jen @ The Starry Eyed Revue ~ Our Love/Hate Relationship With Love Triangles

Alison @ Alison Can Read ~ BEA and Jealousy

Jamie @ The Perpetual Page Turner ~ 10 Things I Think My Husband is Sick of This Bookworm Saying

The YA Nightstand ~ Blogger's Pick #1

Quote of the Week:

This is also a new mini feature included in The Sundau Post where I will mention one of my favorite quotes from a book I read this week. And yes, you guessed it, this week's quote is from Tricks by Ellen Hopkins. This is just one of the many quotes I will be using for next week's quote review (sample here) that I am dying to write.

Album of the Week

Another new mini feature where I feature my favorite album I have been listening to that week. This week, Kina Grannis's original album -Elements- was released, and I was pleasantly surprised. Her voice is extremely unique, and her sound alternative and almost tribal in some songs. In two weeks a Media Mondays review is going live for it.

Random Story of the Week:

This mini feature is exactly what the title is called.... a random story.... from my week. This week's random story is how I came up with this feature. So my friend had invited me to visit her church's youth group, and one of the opening ice breakers was to introduce everyone, but before that, the head counselor HAD to tell us his random story of the week. My memory is bad, but I do remember just standing there, mouth agape, wondering what the heck he was talking about. It was about his mom wanting bananas, and a ladder. It was crazy and random. So that is how I came up with this feature.

"Stacking the Shelves" is a meme when you list the books you've added to your shelves, virtual, physical, or whatever shape or form you get them. I am now combining "Stacking the Shelves" with the "Sunday Post" because it is so much a personal preference about when and what you post "Stacking the Shelves" with. As people may know, “Stacking the Shelves” posts are hosted by “Tynga's Reviews”  

{Disclaimer: I am in no means trying to brag about what I got, and merely shared this post for the benefit of my followers seeing what I purchased, and as a favor to the lovely people that sent me things. My haul is also rather large this particular week because it is cumulative from the past month or so}

Some of you that live in the Long Beach area of SoCal might know about the $1 used bookstore. Otherwise known as one of the best book stores ever. It's tucked away behind the ferris wheel and was a completely random find the last time I went to Long Beach. It's the amazingly chaotic place where there is row upon row of books and every single on of them is a dollar. There are even hardcover books that look to be almost new for a dollar. Of course nothing is organized, and books are on every random surface, but that's what makes this place so fun. You never know what you're going to find. In a few minutes, I picked up five books, four which I have not read previously.

My friend Catherine also lent me the book Slated by Terry and I am very excited to sink my teeth into it.

I also obtained Cruel Beauty by Rosamond Hodge as well as Oedipus the King from SYNC Audiobooks and my first audiobook review is going live soon.

101 Things I Hate: Life of a Blogger (2)

101 Things I Hate

Welcome. Welcome. Welcome to my second time ever doing the weekly feature -Life of a Blogger, hosted by Jessi @ Novel Heartbeat. Each week she has a subject and to talk about that is about my oh so fabulous life. They are non-bookish so that you can get to know me on a more personal level! The list of future topics is here. By the way, this week's topic is particularly large, like last week's so I'm just going to jump right into it in a completely random order. I could have been deep with this, but I needed 101. Some of them are obvious, some are general, some are specific, some are weird, some are just really random, and a lot is food. If I tried to justify them, we would be here all day.

1. Annoying, Immature Boys

2. Taking Tests

3. Homework

4. Anything Being Cliche

5. Rap Music

6. Cleaning My Room

7. Slow Internet 

8. No Internet Access

9. Getting Up for School 

10. Sunny Weather Above 80 degrees -this porcelain skin doesn't get this way on its own accord (totally joking, I'm actually very tan)

11. People trying to push their religions on me -religion is wonderful, pushy people aren't

12. Petty Girls

13. B***hes

14. Being Jealous

15. People being mean

16. People being arrogant

17. Losing arguments with myself -Am I the only one?

18. Blood & Gore

19. Wet Socks

20. Losing -arguments, competition, you name it

21. Drama

22. Immaturity in General -the boys needed their own category

23. People that are fake

24. People I can't have a real conversation with

25. Exclusion

26. Over/Under cooked Pasta

27. Vegetables 

28. Fruit -yes, I am the only human being that doesn't like fruit and/or vegetables #dontjudge

29. My parents not understanding me -the cliche teenage hate

30. Injustice

31. Expensive things I want but can't afford

32. Nuts of all variety -except pistachios 

33. Taxes

34. Caution

35. Overbearing control-freak teachers that don't let you express individuality

36. People that don't like books

37. Negativity

38. Slow People

39. Syringes

40. Being blamed

41. Losing 

42. Deadlines

43. Set TBRs -mood reader here

44. Being late

45. Annoying people that ask obvious questions 

46. Repeating myself

47. Being called bossy

48. Bad DJs -long story

49. Rejection

50. Humiliation

51. Doritos

52. Pop Quizzes

53. Angry People

54. "Unlucky" things

55. Being surprised, even for parties (not that has ever happened), I always HAVE to know

56. Irresponsibility

57. People that don't pull their own weight

58. Complaining/Whining People

59. Misunderstandings

60. The absence of "ME" time

61. Lack of time management

62. Procrastination

63. Long school days

64. #2 Pencils -Led pencils & inky pens ALL the way

65. Bad teachers

66. Disney Channel Sitcoms

67. Chaos/Feeling overwhelmed

68. Lack of leadership

69. Being forced to do things

70. Disappointment

71. Working with partners for school projects

72. Things without allignment -it affects my OCD tendencies

73. Dead time

74. Pointless questions

75. Doubt

76. Unhappiness

77. Contempt

78. Tenses

79. Mud 

80. Annoying pop songs that get stuck in my head

81. Insta love

82. Cheesy Love Triangles

83. How I can't buy one single, and how I HAVE to buy the WHOLE album

84. Being Nervous

85. Being in pain -I really don't know who would like this

86. Weak, submissive girls that can't seem to think for themselves -in real life and literature

87. Being confined to guidelines -I am divergent, I cannot be controlled *cough* *cough* teachers

88. People that think they're superior

89. The end of the school year when I'm burnt out from all the work -*checks watch* right about now

90. Losing things -friends, schools supplies, you name it

91. Being unorganized

92. Others being cryptic 

93. Hypocritical perpetrators -a post going up in the next few weeks will make sense

94. When an activity stops being fun

95. Boredom -I don't know who likes it

96. Romance driven plots -most of the time, because I need more substance

97. When classrooms/rooms in general are 20 degrees colder/hotter than outside 

98. Slow people that get in my way -usually walkers while I'm running in the park

99. Talking to people at the pharmacy -there's a story attached to this

100. Waiting for things -"I am many things, patient is not one of them", a quote I said when I was eight years old, and this hasn't changed eve now

101. Not reaching my goal/beating my record -usually having to do with academics or running

101 Things I Love: Life of a Blogger (1)

101 Things I Love

Welcome. Welcome. Welcome to my first time ever doing the weekly feature -Life of a Blogger, hosted by Jessi @ Novel Heartbeat. Each week she has a subject and to talk about that is about my oh so fabulous life. They are non-bookish so that you can get to know me on a more personal level! The list of future topics is here. By the way, this week's topic is particularly large, so I'm just going to jump right into it in a completely random order. I could have been deep with this, but I needed 101. Some of them are obvious, some are general, some are specific, some are weird, some are just really random, and a lot is food. If I tried to justify them, we would be here all day.

1. My Family 

2. My Friends

3. Books -If I named them, it would be all 101

4. Reading

5. Lazy Days

6. Libraries/Library Books 

7. Books

8. My Sports -Running, Tennis, Cycling, Swimming

9. Being Accepted

10. Being Included

11. Going to the Gym

12. Cloudy Days

13. Water -long story

14. The Blogging Community

15. Twitter

16. The Internet

17. My iPod & iPad

18. Swoonworthy male characters 

19. Bloglovin

20. Blue Ink

21. Inky Pens

22. 0.9 Led Pencils

23. Checklists

24. Poetry

25. Money

26. My two ladybug pillow pets, Bugsy and Spudsy which I did name, thank you very much

27. Authors

28. Powells Books

29. Portland

30. Paris

31. Venice

32. Winter

33. Goodreads

34. Finishing a Book

35. New York -all areas

36. Snow

37. Coffee -although everyone keeps it away from me

38. Restaurants -Panda Express, Mama's Brick Oven Pizza Kitchen, McDonalds -I have NO shame

39. Going to bed Late

40. Sleeping in Late

41. Cookies & Cream, Coffee & Cookies, Mint N' Chip, Cookie Dough ice cream 

42. Potatoes -fried, baked, mashed, chips

43. Every single freaking song from the show Nashville

44. The Beach

45. Happiness

46. Love

47. Compassion

48. Empathy

49. Nashville -the tv show

50. Bookish Mail

51. A+s

52. Chicken -fried & orange, but NEVER lemon

53. Sales

54. Macaroni & Cheese

55. Warm Hugs

56. Netflix

57. White Collar

58. Neal Caffrey -he deserves his own number

59. Honesty

60. Compliments

61. Defeating my TBR Pile

62. Singing Along with Songs -I can't sing

63. Readathons -Bout of Books 

64. Advanced Readers Copies

65. eBooks

66. Amazon Kindle Daily Deals

67. Hard Copies

68. Laughing 

69. Saltly Food -bacon, pistacios 

70. Sweet Food -Candy, Macrons

71. Sleep

72. Getting Up Early Because I Want To

73. Debating -a nice way of saying, being right

74. YouTube Beauty Gurus -I have no shame- Stilababe09, juicystar07, ellefowler, amarixe, zoella

75. iTunes

76. Spotify

77. Milk

78. Female Country Artists -Carrie Underwood, Kacey Musgraves, Miranda Lambert

79. Alternative Music -Imagine Dragons, One Republic, Of Monsters and Men

80. Male Country Artists -Blake Shelton, Luke Bryan  

81. Country Bands -Florida Georgia Line, The Band Perry, Lady Antebellum

82. Being Approved on Netgalley

83. Upping my Netgalley Approval Ratio

84. Cover Artists -Jess Moskaluke, Corey Gray, Madilyn Bailey, Alexi Blue

85. Notebooks

86. Truth or Dare

87. Independence

88. Freedom 

89. Being Loud

90. Ramen Noodles -beef or pork- the shame is nonexistent

91. Eye Makeup -liner, pencil, shadow, cream

92. Popcorn

93. Giftcards

94. THE FEELS

95. High Pony Tails

96 June Iparis

97. Knotts Berry Farm

98. People underestimating me, then me gaining their respect

99. Spreadsheets

100. Pinterest

101. Quotes

Books I Almost Put Down But Didn't: Top Ten Tuesday (10)

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme and weekly event posted every week on (OMG) Tuesdays by The Broke and Bookish. Some of these books were nearly DNFs, others were ones I almost put down because I had other books, and a few are ones I don't want to put down now, but have been distracted by others.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone: Laini Taylor ~ I started this book in the middle of April, got around 100 pages through, and it's now sitting on my bookshelf, waiting to be picked up again. I was really enjoying Karou and her love interest, but other books just took its space.

Fangirl: Rainbow Rowell ~ This is another book I started somewhere in April, it might be a DNF, because the plot seemed plain confusing to me. Although I do want to see what everybody is talking about when they say the Rainbow Rowell. It has won awards and stellar reviews, but I think it was just plain confusing that Cath was so hung up on Simon Snow, and there was her room mate's boyfriend that she falls in love with.

Breaking Glass: Lisa Amowitz ~ This book seems so similar to the book I had ditched this one to read. Every You, Every Me had the exact same romantic dynamic which was pretty annoying. I was also around 100 pages in where all the MC was doing was lying in bed moaning about his amputated leg. Yes, I should have felt sorry for him, but I didn't have a good connection with him.

Every Day: David Levithan ~ Frankly, the romance was a little annoying. The premise was astounding, but the execution in the plot was something I believe needed a lot of work. Nevertheless, I finished it because it was a book for last month's LGBT+ event. 

Me Since You: Laura Wiess ~ I literally got around 40% of this book, read two other books (one of them included Allegiant), and on a whim, because I only had my iPod, started reading again and in about five percent, it picked up again and received four stars from me.

The Sky is Everywhere: Jandy Nelson ~ To be honest, I don't know why I stuck with this book. I didn't like it, the romance was too conflicting, it felt wrong, but something told me to stuck with it....and I did. I don't know why I did, but I finished the book when I really shouldn't have.

Crank: Ellen Hopkins ~ I fell in love with Ellen Hopkin's writing when I read Identical, and thought Crank would be the same. Personally, the way Hopkins wrote it was too grim and dark for me.

The Eye of Minds: James Dashner ~ The concept/premise of this book was simply astounding intriguing, but I would have to say I strongly disliked the execution of it, and that it could have been done a lot differently

The Kill Order: James Dashner ~ I'm really sorry to say this, but I outright hated this book. It took me over five weeks to finish, was unneeded for the rest of the story, had a ton of potential, but ended up disappointing me big time

Delirium: Lauren Oliver ~ I didn't enjoy the concept of this book very much, and it ended with the MC running away into the wild. The whole story sounded waaay too much like Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, and I personally didn't like the romantic aspects either.