I was writing a review for a mystery novel and suddenly had a question that I wanted to ask everyone: do you (or how often do you) talk about spoilers in books and in what way? While I am generally okay with spoilers and sometimes quite desperately want to discuss something that would be a… Read More Discussion Post: How do you talk about spoilers?
Over time, I’ve built up an eclectic collection of podcasts (okay, not so eclectic, there’s a history & economics focus). But anyway, I was going through my podcast playlist and I started listening to an episode on how to build a welcoming and engaged community and that had me thinking about the topic itself. I’ve… Read More Who Builds a Community & Should We Pay For It?
I just saw the news that Elizabeth Gilbert has cancelled the publication of her latest novel because it’s set in Russia, a move that was criticised by Ukrainians as being insensitive to them. That immediately got me thinking: Can we read books with “bad” themes? Or to put it a different way: “is it acceptable… Read More Discussion Post: Can We Read Books With ‘Bad’ Themes?
I’ve been thinking a lot about burning out lately, mostly because I’m going through a stressful period at work and it’s making me conscious about how I’m physically and mentally handling it (answer: not as good as I could). As I’ve gotten busier at work and have had less time and energy outside of work… Read More Let’s talk about burning out and creativity
When I saw that The Orangutan Librarian wrote a post on The Magic of Rereading Children’s Books, I knew that I was going to love it. If you’ve followed me or if you’ve searched the term “rereading” in my blog, you should know that I’m a huge fan of rereading. I try to set aside… Read More The Case for Rereading Books
After writing about Hachette vs the Internet Archive and talking a bit about how much publishers are charging libraries of ebooks, the news broke that Book Depository will be shutting down on April 26th. Because of this, I’ve been having a very interesting conversation with a friend who works in publishing about cheap books. It’s… Read More Discussion Post: Should We Be Paying More For Books?
First, The Straits Times declared that 2023 is the year of the side hustle. A few days later, ChannelNewsAsia profiled 4 teenagers who used social media to launch their projects (okay, not side hustle but related). And now, I see that the BBC posted an article on the rise of the Gen Z side hustle.… Read More What Happens If Your Side Hustle Isn’t Profitable?
I was reading Krysta’s post on letting readers be readers and you know, not free un-paid marketing tools (this is mostly for those of us active on bookish internet/social media) and that reminded me of a different post by The Verge on bringing back personal blogging. The argument for personal blogging is that we need… Read More It’s Time to Make Book Blogging (more) Personal
I was looking at Longreads when I came across this post titled: “Reading Doesn’t Have to Mean Keeping Your Books Forever“. As someone with issues getting rid of books, this title intrigued me. The article, however, was more of an introduction to Freya Howarth’s long-form article: “How to Nurture a Personal Article“. The first part,… Read More Discussion Post: How Curated is Your Personal Library?
One thing I quickly noticed when I started my new job was that my tea drinking habits had to change. When I was working on my thesis full time (and when I was working from home), I used to drink my tea in the morning over the course of two to three hours. I’d normally… Read More Tea Discussion Post: Do You Have a Tea Routine at Work?