Bookish Musings: Thoughts on the Portrayal of Supernatural Creatures

Bookish Musings: Thoughts on the Portrayal of Supernatural Creatures

I read a lot of books about supernatural/paranormal/mythological creatures, and seeing the different ways that authors portray different creatures is one of my favorite things about the fantasy genre! And yet, I sometimes see authors get bashed or picked on for not portraying supernatural creatures the "right" way. So here are my thoughts on why different portrayals of supernatural creatures are...
 
Bookish Musings: Why I Almost Never Give 1-Star Ratings

Bookish Musings: Why I Almost Never Give 1-Star Ratings

Somewhere amidst the various rating crises I've had since I started blogging, I realized that I rarely give 1-star ratings to books. Seriously, out of the 550+ books I've read since I starting rating books, I've only given a 1-star rating to 12 of them. That really doesn't seem like a lot. Then again, maybe that's normal and everyone gives very few 1-star ratings. What do I know? But I thought...
 
Bookish Musings: What Exactly is Mood Reading?

Bookish Musings: What Exactly is Mood Reading?

We in the bookish community talk about mood reading a lot, but what exactly does that term mean? It's one of those things that doesn't really have one specific definition, and sometimes I wonder how different or similar all our individual definitions are, and maybe there are some readers out there who keep seeing the term but have no clue what it means and need some clarification, so let's talk...
 
Bookish Musings: Why I Love Graphic Novels & Comics (Sometimes Even More than Regular Books)

Bookish Musings: Why I Love Graphic Novels & Comics (Sometimes Even More than Regular Books)

When I first started book blogging in 2015, reading a story in comic form never even crossed my mind as a thing to do. This is probably going to sound horribly judgmental or maybe just ignorant, but when I thought of comics, I thought of superheroes and Sunday newspapers, and that was about it. That was all I knew of. But then I started hearing the term graphic novel, which somehow sounded a lot...
 
Bookish Musings: Thoughts on the Harry Potter Series (Part 2)

Bookish Musings: Thoughts on the Harry Potter Series (Part 2)

I recently reread the Harry Potter series and decided to do some discussion posts about my thoughts on it! There was too much for one post, so I split it into two parts. Part 1 was about general things and the younger/student characters. Part 2 (this post) is about the adults! *Note: I haven't seen the movies, so this is based entirely on the books. I have no idea what differences the movies...
 
Bookish Musings: Thoughts on the Harry Potter Series (Part 1)

Bookish Musings: Thoughts on the Harry Potter Series (Part 1)

I recently reread the Harry Potter series and shared a lot of thoughts on Goodreads and Twitter as I was reading, but those were mostly ponderings about how the HP world works, and I wanted to talk about some other things, and talk a little more in-depth, here. Especially since I have a massive book hangover and all I want to do right now is read and/or think about Harry Potter. This isn't a...
 
Bookish Musings: I’m Trying Audiobooks… and It’s Not Going Well

Bookish Musings: I’m Trying Audiobooks… and It’s Not Going Well

I posted a discussion some time ago in which I talked about why I don't like audiobooks, but I've started listening to them lately. Listening to books is a great way for me to rest my eyes (eye strain) and my arms (tennis elbow). I've also found that I enjoy listening while eating and while lying in bed at night before going to sleep. However. I'm having A LOT of issues, some of which I didn't...
 
Bookish Musings: Why Readers Like Characters Who Have Done Awful Things (+ Some Thoughts on The Vampire Chronicles)

Bookish Musings: Why Readers Like Characters Who Have Done Awful Things (+ Some Thoughts on The Vampire Chronicles)

The creation of this post has been a curvy path. The original idea came about because of something in The Vampire Chronicles. It got me thinking, so I ended up writing a post about whether rape in books can ever be forgivable. But then I ended up on this whole tangent of why readers might still like a character who has done something bad or seemingly unforgivable. So I decided, instead of...
 
Bookish Musings: Top 5 Strangest Book Reviews I’ve Written

Bookish Musings: Top 5 Strangest Book Reviews I’ve Written

I like to think of this post as proof that a) you really don't need to write "professional" reviews to have a book blog, and b) positive reviews can in fact be fun! I also like finding ways to continue talking about great books that I totally recommend and think people should read, since oftentimes books just get forgotten after the review is posted, and this seemed like a good way to do...