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Bookish Tay

Good Books + Good Living

Categories: Books

The 2020 Gift Guide for Bookworms

Hey friends! It’s time to share my gift guides with you this year. This one is for all of you book lovers!

In 2020 I’ve been trying to shop small more and use Amazon less. So, most of the items below come from smaller shops (and then a few things from Target) but I hope that you’ll join me this season in shopping small and shopping local if you can!

This post contains affiliate links, please read my disclaimer for more details.


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Gift Guide for Bookworms

  1. Libro.fm subscription (get the first month free) – Audiobook subscription for the same price as audible, but you support an indie bookstore instead.

  2. A HappyGoLovelySleeve – These book sleeves are MY FAVE!

  3. Anything from Alchemy + Ink – Every candle I’ve ever had from Alchemy + Ink smells amazing, and just looks great on your bookshelf + they’ve got clothes and bags!

  4. A Page 1 subscription – a subscription box that comes from an indie bookstore

  5. Always Fully Booked Planner from Little Inklings Design – I grabbed one of these for 2021 and I can’t wait to track my reading with it!

  6. Bookmarks from Lauren Naylor Design Co – I’ve loved every bookmark I’ve purchased from Lauren!

  7. Fablebands headband – I love my Night Circus on and need to grab some more

  8. Bookshop.org – if you’re buying your loved one (or yourself) books, order them from Bookshop.org instead of Amazon. True, the prices may not be as low as Amazon, but you can support small bookstores instead!

  9. A Tee from Bookshelf Tee’s – I love a good tee (or sweatshirt) and these ones are all bookish!

What bookish things are you buying this year?

Happy Shopping!

Categories: Books

Booktube + Gilmore-A-Thon TBR

Heya friends! Exciting news, after years of wanting to do this, I finally made a YouTube (Booktube) channel! I’ll share some similar content that I’ve shared on my blog, but I may be blogging a little less (more on that next week).

I’ll be sharing new videos each Friday, and I’ll share them here on my blog so you don’t miss them, but head on over to Youtube and subscribe so you never miss a video! I’ve got a lot of fun content planned and I’m just excited about this fun journey!

In today’s video, I’m sharing my TBR (to be read) for the GilmoreAThon which is taking place next week. I’ll share all the details for the read-a-thon below if you want to join in as well!

More about the GilmoreAThon

This is a readathon hosted by 4 bookstagrammers, paying tribute to a show that is so many of our favorites. I’m currently in the middle of a re-watch and this readathon just sounded like so much fun!

You can check out all the prompts and details over on their Instagram @gilmoreathon or you can check out Liv’s video to see all the prompts (which I do talk about in my video as well!)

Are you joining this readathon? What’s on your TBR?

If you have a TBR video or post, share it in the comments cause I’d love to check it out!

Categories: Books

My Book Buying Habits Need to Change

This post may contain affiliate links, see site disclaimer for full details.

Hi my name is Taylor and I’m a book buying addict.

It feels appropriate to start this post off with those words because, as of right now, buying books is my vice of choice.

The other day, I was going down memory lane (something that happens often-ish as I’m an enneagram 4 and sometimes I just need all the nostalgia). Anyway, I started thinking about when I started my Bookstagram, 4.5 years ago. 2 weeks before I started my account before I’d even discovered bookstagram existed on Insta, I had my first full-blown panic attack.

Are these two things related? We’ll get to that in a moment.

So, I started a bookstagram account because I love reading and I wanted to share what I was reading with people and I just loved looking at pictures of books (I still do tbh). That first year on Booksta was so much fun. There was no pressure (from myself or anyone) cause I was just doing what I wanted to do.

Then, somewhere along the line, I became obsessed with the idea of being a huge Instagrammer and a full-time blogger. Cause, I do love blogging, so why not make it a career? But then IG became a more stressful place. I needed it to look good and have a real schedule and all these expectations I put on myself because that’s what I thought I needed.

I took courses on how to grow your business/blog on Instagram. I learned a lot about Instagram marketing, but the more I learned, the less I wanted to do it.

And now you’re probably thinking, what does this have to do with the very first line in this post?? Getting to that, it’s all related, I promise.


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At some point, I started feeling like I was behind, like my home library wasn’t as big or expansive as others.

I didn’t have all the books that everyone was talking about and sure, I could get it from the library, but what if I just bought it? And was I really a “real” bookstagrammer or book blogger if I didn’t own the books I was talking about?

Some of these thoughts lead me to the other day, sitting in my office, staring at my shelves and not feeling peace and joy like I usually do, but feeling stressed.

I counted all the books I have + all the books I haven’t read. Nearly 1/3 of my current collection is unread. Maybe that’s normal for some people. I’m not sharing the exact number because it does stress me out slightly, and I don’t feel like we need to compare and contrast how many unread books we actually have.

I used to be the person who went to the library weekly (sometimes more) and come home with a stack of books. (okay, let’s be real, this is still me, which is why my unread shelf feels so daunting).

I’d read them and return them. Sometimes I’d check those books out again, or add them to a wishlist that I’d circulate at Christmas or my birthday or that I’d buy myself when I wanted to treat myself to a book.

I’m not saying that book buying is bad, cause I don’t think it is, but my book buying habits are what need to change.

I buy books when I’m anxious.
When I’m sad.
When I’ve had a hard day.
When I’ve had a good day.

Retail therapy, in book form, has become one of my biggest coping skills to my anxiety (and also just a way to treat myself when it’s been a good day). I don’t think this is healthy for me anymore if it ever was.

I used to have so much FOMO that if I didn’t buy a book, I’d miss out on all it’s greatness, even though I live 5 minutes from a very well-stocked library. But things are changing, I realized they had to as I sat there looking at my bookshelf and feeling panic at just how many books I’d purchased but haven’t read yet.


Book Stack

My new book buying rules

Cause let’s be real, I’m not going to stop buying books, but I am going to change how I buy them and what I buy.

1) I can’t buy a book unless I’ve read it already

2) The only exception to the first rule is if an author is on my auto-buy list and they release a book, those I can buy. Authors on my list (as of today 11/9/2020):

  • VE Schwab

  • Jeff Zentner

  • Katherine Center

  • Christine Riccio

  • Leah Johnson

  • Phil Stamper

  • Nadine Brandes

3) When I buy a book I’ll use my local indie or purchase from Bookshop.org. I’d love to cut Amazon out of my life as much as possible, it’s cheaper true, but I don’t love some of their values and buying books from other places just feels a little better for me (and I know that this is a privilege to buy books from Indie stores at a higher cost, but I can afford it right now*)

4) *If I only buy 1-3 books a month.

5) Go through my shelves quarterly to donate, give away, or toss unread/unwanted books.

These are my personal rules/boundaries/limits I’ve given myself. I want to curate a library full of books that I love, that have taught me important things and that I want to read with my daughter. In order to curb my spending habits a bit, and not have so many unread books on my shelves, this is what will work for me.

And, in a few months, if it isn’t working, I’ll re-evaluate and find a solution that works. Until then, my library just became my new best friend and I’m gonna try to read at least 2 books from my unread shelf each month (more if possible, cause it’ll be years if I only read 2 a month for me to finish).

Do you have a book buying system? What works for you?

Categories: Books

Review: The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones


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This post contains affiliate links, please see site disclaimer for more details.

With Halloween right around the corner, I knew I wanted to pick up some spooky reads. Unfortunately, time got the better of me and I didn’t pick up as many as I would have liked. But I did pick up The Bone Houses, which I really, really enjoyed.

I’m not one who likes horror or anything really creepy or spooky. There were a few parts in The Bone Houses that made me squirm (mostly because I don’t really like dead things, and well, this was a book all about dead people walking around). So even though this one was kind of creepy, it was perfect for this time of year and I’d definitely recommend it (even if you can’t read it before Halloween ?

What I liked:

  • I loved how fast-paced The Bone Houses was. I always wanted to keep reading (even though I did put it down at night because I would not have been able to sleep after reading some parts). The story moved and I was never bored.

  • I loved how soft Ellis is, and how difficult Ryn is. This is my favorite combo. A girl that is a little rough around the edges and then a soft cinnamon roll boy ?I loved both of them, and I loved their stories. I thought their voices blended well together and I enjoyed we got both POVs

  • I also liked the creepiness. I’m a ball of anxiety most of the time, so reading creepy things is well… not good ?? but this wasn’t so much scary, as it had a zombie feel, as the Bone Houses (people coming back from the dead) and trying to hurt people was done in a different way and I thought Emily did a really good job.

  • The overall story of adventure. Both Ryn and Ellis have questions. They’re both seeking things and then they get to go on a mini adventure to find it. It was everything I love in a story.

What didn’t work:

  • Honestly… nothing. Really, I enjoyed the story and had a fun time reading it. At times it did feel a little simple (maybe cause it felt so short) but I feel like it was actually the perfect length.

CW/TW:

  • Death/loss of a parent, old injuries, zombie-like creatures.

Steam rating: Some mild kissing | Overall rating: 4 stars

About The Bone Houses

Seventeen-year-old Aderyn (“Ryn”) only cares about two things: her family, and her family’s graveyard. And right now, both are in dire straits. Since the death of their parents, Ryn and her siblings have been scraping together a meager existence as gravediggers in the remote village of Colbren, which sits at the foot of a harsh and deadly mountain range that was once home to the fae. The problem with being a gravedigger in Colbren, though, is that the dead don’t always stay dead.

The risen corpses are known as “bone houses,” and legend says that they’re the result of a decades-old curse. When Ellis, an apprentice mapmaker with a mysterious past, arrives in town, the bone houses attack with new ferocity. What is it that draws them near? And more importantly, how can they be stopped for good?

Together, Ellis and Ryn embark on a journey that will take them deep into the heart of the mountains, where they will have to face both the curse and the long-hidden truths about themselves.

Grab a copy from Amazon | Bookshop.org

Categories: Books

My Book Review Process

As I plan to share more book reviews here on my blog, I wanted to give you a little inside scoop on my process and what you’ll be able to find in my reviews going forward.

To see a list of all of the books I’ve reviewed here on Bookish Tay, you can click here. If you are an author or want to suggest a book for me to review, check out my review policy!


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What I look for in a good book:

For me, to make a book good (and great!) it needs to have a few things. These are what I look for when going into a book, and things I’ll often talk about in my reviews.

Story

I’ll mention this in a second, but the books I read need to have a good story, cause who has time for boring books? I love it when books draw me in. Whether it’s because of the plot or the characters, I need a good story.

Life-like Characters

Characters are big for me, even over plot. I need good, real-life characters that have great growth. I want the things they experience to be believable (for the most part, I am okay with a stretch) and I love when characters aren’t just one dimensional.

Writing

The prose and how the book is written can also be a deal-breaker for me. I need to want to come back to the book, and writing plays a big part in that. If the writing is weird or clunky, I’ll definitely let you know. And likewise, if the writing draws me in and captures my attention, I’ll share that too.

Own Voices

Diversifying myself and reading more #OwnVoices has become increasingly important to me. While I may not always “relate” to the main character, I’ll share my views about the book but I will no longer share a star rating for these books. But rather, I’ll point out that they are #OwnVoices and continue to share books that include everyone.

Can I (or will I) re-read this?

I love reading books again and again. I can almost always tell in the first 100 pages of a book if it’s going to be one I’ll read again. In my reviews, I’m planning to start sharing if I plan to re-read books in the future or not.

Trigger Warnings and Content Warnings

As someone with anxiety and PTSD TW and CW are very helpful. For me, I know I can read books that include sexual assault and emotional abuse, but I need to be in the right frame of mind. I don’t like to read something that someone raved about, only to be sent into a PTSD episode. I’ll include content warnings and trigger warnings (as much as possible) in my reviews. Trigger warnings are not spoilers.

What I’ll share in my reviews

Along with the things I’ve listed above, in my book reviews, I try to share things that I liked and that worked well, as well as things that maybe didn’t go over as well.

I believe in sharing honest reviews, so I’ll never ‘bump’ up a rating or rave about a book that I didn’t enjoy, even if I received a copy from the author or publisher.

I also generally share star ratings, and this is my rating scale:

5 Stars – Absolutely loved, will read again, have to have my own copy
4 Stars – Truly enjoyed, would recommend, might read again
3 Stars – This is a solid novel, would most likely recommend
2 Stars – Didn’t do it for me, had some issues (pacing, plot, problematic)
1 Star – Did not like, would not recommend, generally has blaring issues, problematic, bad writing.

I also want to point out that even though I may rate a book low, you may love it. Reading is all subjective, and if a book sounds like something you’d enjoy, I’ll always recommend you pick it up! The beauty of reading is that we can all find different books that we love. I share reviews on my blog because I know that as a reader, I love reading reviews before I pick up a book, and because reviews are helpful in knowing more about the content of a book. And I have a few friends who, when they share books, I pick them up right away because we have similar taste.

Truly, I want to help you find great books to read, which is why I’ll be reviewing more books in the coming year!

What does your review process look like? What do you look for when reading?


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    Hi there! I'm Taylor! Welcome to Bookish Tay, a book and lifestyle blog. Looking for a good book or way to make life better? You're in the right place.

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