Top Ten Tuesday- Blogging Life Easier

Top Ten Things That Will Make Blogging Easier!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted at The Broke and the Bookish in which book bloggers are given a topic and asked to make a corresponding list of their top ten books.  I don't always participate in Top Ten Tuesday but this week is a topic I love to find out more about!

1.  Goodreads! This is an amazing resource for all of us readers.  I love goodreads.  I run two groups on there and discover new books that way. I use goodreads for the book description in all my reviews and the picture I use for the book cover.  Thank you goodreads!

2. Rafflecopter I have only held two giveaways on my blog (I don't do giveaways to get followers) and both times I used Rafllecopter.  I saw it used on other blogs and it is so easy for giveaways and it's FREE!  

3.  inlinkz I recently am hosting my first giveaway hop Off to OZ (sign up if you are interested in joining the hop).  I looked around and tried to use Mr. Linky like I see a lot of blogs use but it turns out you need a paying membership. inlinkz is FREE and easy to use!!

4.  Bloglovin.. I like Feedly.  But I really like Bloglovin.  Since I am used to GFC on blogger, Bloglovin helps me to know how many people are following me.  I know some bloggers say the number of followers you have is just that .. a number.  But I like to know how many people are actually interested in my blog.  Bloglovin gives me that number. 

5.  Pixlr has made blogging easier for me.  It helps me make pictures better.  I do have photoshop but am a little lazy to go and learn it.  My husband uses it all the time though and I got tired of asking him to always help me out.  I used it to make my banner for my Off to Oz giveaway and other buttons for my OZ month here.  

6.  Other blogs have helped me out along the way.  I have a section on my blog that links up to links from other blogs that have shown me how to do things.  I have these links on my blog to help you guys out.. I take NO credit for the stuff listed so I hope those blogs don't mind that I link them up.  Find help here

7. Library honestly I couldn't be a book blogger without my library.  I could never afford everything I read so therefore I am there at least once a week.  Plus I don't feel bad if I don't get a book read since it is free (do you see a theme with my list??? FREE???).  Seriously.. use your library.

8. Amazon Prime.  If I do order a book.. this is how I do it.  It's cheap and free two day shipping.  When I had my giveaway my winner was so happy to get the book so fast and I was happy because it was FREE shipping.  FREE!   Of course there is also Media Mail from the US Post Office so always remember to ask for that shipping rate if you are mailing a book. 

9. Memes and networking... a lot of people might not like this but memes I think really help bloggers find bloggers.  I have found several blogs to follow through this meme here.  Participate in them but don't participate in only memes.  Only do the ones you really care about too.  Comment on other blogs and really get to visiting their blogs. 

10.  no Captcha! Please!  This makes blogging so much easier when you don't have it turned on.  Really it isn't that necessary.  There is even a challenge for this that you can check out:

Hope these help all bloggers out there. Now I am going to check out your blogs to find out some tips for myself!

Top Ten Tuesday- Words/Topics that will make me NOT pick up a book!

Top Ten Words/Topics That Will Make You NOT pick up a book!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted at The Broke and the Bookish in which book bloggers are given a topic and asked to make a corresponding list of their top ten books.

1.  Romance -  I am sorry but I just don't love romance novels.  It has to have something else going on in the book along with romance for me to read it.  

2.  nonFiction - I just am not a nonFiction reader.  I have tried a few and never really enjoy them.  I did enjoy Let's Pretend this Never Happened by the Bloggess though.

3. Sadness - I read to be happy and to enjoy myself.  So if I find out a book is going to make me cry and be upset then I am skipping it.

4.  Western - OK confession, I have never actually read a Western so I don't really know if I would enjoy it.  But I don't love Western movies so I don't think I would love Western books.

5.  Military/War - I have attempted to read novels that have a lot of Military lingo and War tactics in it and I just did really enjoy reading about it. 

6. Sparks - Nicolas Sparks that is.  Movies are too much romance and sadness (see above).

7.  Biography - This must be the same as me not liking nonFiction.  I just don't love to read facts.. I want to read about make-believe.

8.  Tabloids - I was having a little trouble thinking of words so hey I picked tabloids.  Like those oddball stories with the funny pictures that go with them?  Yea not for me.

9. Love Triangle - I try to avoid love triangle books. Most books seem to have them but I do try to avoid them. 

Top Ten Books I Read Before I was a Blogger

For future topics/more info click here

The Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and Bookish.   This weeks Top Ten Tuesday is the Top Ten Books I read before I was a Blogger.  Wow.. I have to go back and look at my goodreads list for this.  I have been blogging for two years now .. actually this week is my bloggerversary now that I think about it.  So here is my top ten:

1. The 39 Clues by Rick Riordan I love love this series.  Each book in the series is written by a new author who continues the story from the last author!
2.Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury  I only gave this book 2 stars... which surprises me now because I have such fond memories of it.  All about an evil carnival!
3. Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson
I love this book.. I used to read a lot more science fiction before I started to moderate the Young Adult Book Club on goodreads.
4. A Tree Grows in Brooklynn by Betty Smith I also read this book for a book club and it is amazing... everyone should read it!
5. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin  I never made time to finish this series.  I am still bothered to this day that the TV series didn't use African Americans for the rolls.
6. The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart I love this fantasy series... anything with Merlin is a winner to me!
7. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alex Dumas A long book but oh so good.  Take the time to read this... NOW.
8. Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn -This is a book about a town that bans the use of some of the letters of the alphabet being used.  Really clever!
9. Fahreheit 451 by Ray Bradbury Don't burn books!
10. Little Women by Louisa Mary Alcott Such a wonderful classic tale! 
11.  Yeah there is a number 11 for me... countless Stephen King Books!!

Top Ten Tuesday-Books I Bought But Have Never Read

The Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and Bookish.  This week's Top Ten is ten book I bought but still haven't read. Honestly... I really don't have too many of these because I mainly use the library to get my books.  But there are some books that I have bought or have been given to me as gifts that I haven't had a chance to read yet.




1. Insomnia by Stephen King

2. The Passage by Jusin Cornin

3. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

4. Inheritance by Christopher Paolini

5. From a Buick 8 by Stephen King

6. Watchers by Dean Koontz

7. The Witching Hour by Anne Rice

8. The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

9. The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

10. American Gods by Neil Gaiman

What's on your list that you need to get to?

Top Ten Tuesday (#1)

Top Ten Bookish Confessions
Everyone has at least one bookish confession (and in my case I have six). Join us in spilling our deepest held secrets around one of our most beloved pastimes. Everyone has a bookish confession. What's yours? If you have one feel free to share it, if not feel free to commiserate with ours -Julia

This is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish 

Ok so here goes.... my first Top Ten Tuesday!


1.   A big confession that some of my readers may not know is that 98% of my books come from the library.  I hardly EVER buy a book anymore.  I just can't afford it.

2.  I love my ereader!  I never thought I would say that but my mom bought me one for my birthday and I didn't think I would like it. Of course since mom and dad got it for me I gave it a shot and just love it.  I get quite a few Net Galley books on it too!

3.  I moderate two big groups on goodreads.  The Stephen King Fan group which now has almost 4000 members and the YA Book Club which almost has 5000 members!!  I work really hard on these groups.  I have had quite a few author Q&A's in the YA Book Club so stop by for this month's with Courtney Summers.

4.  I get mad when I go to the library and someone is parked in one of the two spots set aside for people who are supposed to park and just go up to the building and return their books and then go back to their car.  Instead they park in those spots and go inside and do whatever.  THE SIGN IS IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE!

5.  I didn't read all through high school.  I just didn't have time.  I read all through middle school (Fear Street) and then I didn't read again until college!!

6.  I don't cry when reading books normally.  Maybe it's that I stay away from books that make me cry.  Just not interested in being sad when I am reading.  I want to be happy and get away from normal life.

7.  I do NOT loan out books that are signed.  I just refuse to even give someone the possibility to lose it or ruin it.  I'm sure it would be an accident if they did that but I just don't want to deal with it.

8.  I hate people loaning me books and saying it is the best book ever.  I think feel like I have to read it and then push it up in front of everything else on my TBR pile!!

9.  I am NOT a write and am tired of people thinking that because I read that automatically makes me a writer.  And then when I tell them I only read they look at me all weird.

10. I do NOT bend corners of books to save my spot.  That annoys me and that ruins the book.  I mean how would you like to read a library book is someone has bent it all to hell????


Well that is all... I really enjoyed doing the Top Ten Tuesday and plan to participate again!!