I’ve never really been someone that has a sweet tooth.

I don’t really crave candy or sweets on a regular basis. I mean, I have a bunch of candy bars just sitting in the fridge waiting to be eaten.

It’s just not something we had in the house often as a kid, and it’s a habit I have continued as an adult.

Until recently. Lately, Twix have just been hitting the spot. I’ve never quite been a fan of them before.

But there’s something about them now that’s just… divine.

I’m going to chalk it up to finally watching the newest season of the Great British Bake Off.

If you know, you know.

Nerding Out Over Romance Books

I’ve mentioned before that my favorite genre of books is paranormal romance.

There’s just something about a werewolf or a vampire or a shifter falling in love with a witch or a human or a… well, you get the idea.

But lately, I’ve found myself getting more into contemporary romance as well (and I’m trying out historical romance again).

The last time I really read a romance novel outside of paranormal (before starting this contemporary kick in the last year) was probably back in the sixth grade.

My mom let me read one of her romance books because I liked the cover.

It was long and I found it absolutely boring. So it swore me off all other kinds of romance except the fantastical creatures kind.

But this past year I dabbled into contemporary romance with Olivia Dade’s Spoiler Alert since it was nerdy and featured a fat woman as the main character.

And I was not disappointed. But I thought it may have been an outlier of enjoyment. Until I picked up Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur.

It was a group read pick for a reading challenge I was participating in. But I was more open to giving it a try since it was a sapphic relationship.

I enjoyed it immensely. And it started opening my eyes to a world of romance books that weren’t actually like the romance book I’d read back in the sixth grade.

This year, I have a lot of romance books I want to read. And I think it’s because it’s a great way to escape the current environment of the world.

So I’m looking forward to nerding out over more romance novels and hopefully starting to share a review here or there for the ones I enjoyed.

Nerding Out Over a Spring Reading Challenge

Creating & Co. has just released their newest reading challenge for Spring!

One of my favorite things to do when I find a new reading challenge is to plan out the books I would like to read based on the prompts.

I love reading challenges because they give me ideas for which books to pick next out of my collection that I haven’t yet read.

Every so often they also let me pick off of my (even larger) “want to read but do not own” list of books.

I thought since I had fun nerding out over planning out my list yesterday that I’d share it today!

You’ll also see these titles pop up in my TBR Stack posts the next few months.

Explanations for why I picked the books will also be in those TBR Stack posts.

• Prompt #1: Published in Mar/Apr/May – A Lady of Rooksgrave Manor by Kathryn Moon.
• Prompt #2: Floral Cover – Deceived by the Gargoyles by Lillian Lark.
• Prompt #3: Clocks/Time Travel – Spin Me Right Round by David Valdes
• Prompt #4: Save the Earth – Heroine Complex by Sarah Kuhn
• Prompt #5: Yellow Cover – She Who Became the Sun by Shelly Parker-Chan
• Prompt #6: New (to me) Genre – The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn
• Prompt #7: Spring Into Action – Rat Queens: Sass & Sorcery (Vol 1) by Wiebe & Upchurch
• Prompt #8: Siblings – Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
• Prompt #9: Small Town – Teach Me by Olivia Dade
• Prompt #10: Title Starts with T – These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong
• Prompt #11: Secret Club – The Ravens by Kass Morgan & Danielle Paige
• Prompt #12: Group Read – I don’t know what this one is, yet.

For the first time in my life, I have a TBR list. When I was younger and reading voraciously, I would just pick up books that I enjoyed the cover of, and worked my way through the public library that way. I didn’t particularly have a list, per se, unless it was the “summer reading list” that seems to be a common thing for US-based schools.

It is strange, in a way, to have a reading list for the first time in my life. I mean, I’d have piles of books that I “wanted to read”, but I never seemed to make my way through them as I lost my enjoyment and ability to read as I once had as a child. Which is a topic I have covered before, albeit briefly. There’s a lot of reasons I lost my passion for reading, though I don’t know that I want to drag them up, as I’m trying to heal and move forward. Regardless, it feels more right, now (than it has at any other point in my life) to have a list than just a pile of books.

I finally made myself a Goodreads account that I’ve been keeping up with (I had one or two others, but I can’t find the login information, plus I have folks I don’t converse with anymore on those and just didn’t want to deal with that possible drama) for the first time, and I’m enjoying myself. That’s where I’ve been keeping my TBR list, and it’s quite handy. But as folks (family, mainly) have heard I’ve been reading more, they’ve been suggesting books I “should” be reading. You know, all those classics and the like. My thoughts on that are summed up quite well by this image.

Starting with a favorite book and working my way through the sequels has helped tremendously with getting back into reading, and I’m glad to know I’m not the only one doing this. Tessa has mentioned using this method as a way to read more. She also mentions reading before bed, which is a habit I’m trying to get into as well. If I can get off the computer between 11-1130 at night, it only takes me 10-15 minutes to complete my bedtime routine (depending how long the dog takes to pee before I tuck her in), and I can read for at least a solid half hour, if not a full hour every night. Of course, some nights I don’t succeed and just fall into bed, but the point is that I’m making an effort each night.

To Kindle or Not to Kindle

As I begin to look at my TBR, and the number of books I don’t own, I wonder if I should start using my Kindle Fire 8 more. I’ve never been a big ebook person. Reading, to me, is much more enjoyable when I can feel the weight of the book, hear the sounds it makes as I turn pages, smell the pages… Yes, I may be a bit of a tactile reader and bibliophile. I recently Marie Kondo’d my books, though I didn’t fully follow her directions. While I was able to part with a significant number of books (specifically cook books, holy moly!), I kept some books that are on my TBR list. Marie Kondo’s method espouses getting rid of these books, because, in the end, will you ever truly read them?

That remains to be seen for me, but now that I’m getting back into reading, I highly believe I will. However, even after saying goodbye to many a book, I still don’t have all that much space for more in my apartment. Which is a problem when I have a list as long as I do to read.

Paranormal Romance

I think once I finish my current series (I’m a quarter through the final book), I’m going to start picking up some of the paranormal romance on my TBR list, starting with some I have sitting on my shelf that I never completely read. I was actually inspired to this thought by Shadowz. She wrote a post about how she’s been reading more paranormal romance books, and it reminded me how many I have sitting on my bookshelf that are unread. It’s honestly one of my favorite genres. I can’t get into your typical harlequin romance books, but I love a good paranormal romance. I even enjoy a not-so-good paranormal romance. Her post also gave me a list of authors to add to my collection/TBR.

I’ve narrowed it down to three different series to start. The Shadow series by Erin Kellison, the Demonica series by Larissa Ione, or the Amoveo Legend series by Sara Humphreys. I’m thinking I’ll start with the Shadow series, as I’ve already read the first book in the series, and have the others readily available, sitting on my shelf. Waiting. Using more of the “I’ve read some of this so it’s comfortable and easier to get back into” method, as it were. It’s a toss up whether I’ll move into Demonica or Amoveo next, or move into a different series/genre altogether. That’s the beauty of the TBR, I guess.