Book Blogger Love-a-Thon: High Fives

For the “High Five” Challenge as part of the Book Blogger Love-a-Thon hosted by Alexa Loves Books we’re meant to share our current favorites (what is currently making us happy) for each of the five categories below.

Book – This is a toss up between My Heart & Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga (my review) and A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab (my review). I love both of these books for completely different reasons, but I would HIGHLY recommend both of them. I already know they’ll be two of my favorite reads of the year.

     

Genre – This is so hard as I don’t really read only one genre at any given time. I’m too much of a mood reader for that. I just finished reading a contemporary (The Duff), am working through a fantasy (The Assassin’s Blade), and will start a sci-fi, post-apocalyptic (??), crazy something (It’s the End of the World as We Know It). So really, I love all the genres.

Author – Current favorite? Oh, man. Ummm. I’m going to have to go with Matt Haig. He’s always one of my favorites, but I just read another of his books (To Be a Cat), so he’s currently relevant with me. Always relevant. Love his books.

Blogger – Seriously? I have to pick just ONE? No, I can’t. Here’s four. That’s not too bad, right? Rachel @ Confessions of a Book Geek, Brandie at Brandie is a Book Junkie, April at Bookishly Speaking, and Amy at Read What I Like. I’ve got awesome things going with all of them (buddy reads, book clubs, and a really fun upcoming challenge)! But honestly, you are all my favorite. Anyone who’s ever commented on my blog or tweeted me or emailed me. I love every single one of you and I appreciate you so much. ❤

Bookish Merchandise / Book-related site – Is it lazy to say Goodreads? I’m on there every single day and that is where I find most of the books I add to my TBR (the rest of the books are found through all of you on your blogs!). Add me on Goodreads! ❤

What are your “high fives”?

Book Blogger Love-a-Thon: Snapshots

Today’s first challenge of the Book Blogger Love-a-Thon hosted by Alexa Loves Books is called “Snapshots” in which we are to share some fun pictures of our books! I’ve taken a few. I hope you enjoy them!

Just some of my signed books! I’ve been lucky enough to meet almost all of these authors. 🙂

I started reading comics in July of last year. My collection is coming along quite nicely if you ask me.

What I currently have checked out from the library. Can you tell I work in one? I also have WAY too many audiobooks checked out, but I like a selection!

Any finally, these are the next four books I plan to read. Loki is keeping them company.

Show me some shelfies! Link me up to your bookish photos. 

Book Blogger Love-a-Thon: One Can Only Quote

The fourth and final post for the Book Blogger Love-a-Thon hosted by Alexa Loves Books today is called “One Can Only Quote”. We’re sharing some of our favorite quotes about love and friendship! I could list a TON of favorite quotes from books about these topics, but here are three quotes about each!

LOVE

“You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.” – Dr. Seuss

So this hasn’t happened to me yet, but I have hope it will one day.

“Let our scars fall in love.” – Galway Kinnell

Yeah, can you say “SWOOOON”? I told you that I loved Cricket.

FRIENDSHIP

“Friendship is born at that moment when one man says to another: ‘What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . .’” ― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

“Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.” ― Albert Camus

“Being a nerd, which is to say going too far and caring too much about a subject, is the best way to make friends I know.” – Sarah Vowell, The Partly Cloudy Patriot

What are some of your favorite quotes about love and friendship?

Book Blogger Love-a-Thon: Book Valentines

The third post for the Book Blogger Love-a-Thon hosted by Alexa Loves Books is a Book Valentine. We were to “Create a valentine for your favorite book guy or gal. You can write a letter, share a playlist, draw something, shop for gifts – whatever way you feel like expressing your love, go for it!”

So I’ve decided to go with Cricket Bell. I know you are all shocked. I never talk about how much I am in love with him or the fact that he’s my dream guy. Oh wait. Yes, I do. All the time. Whatever. 🙂 He’s sweet, awkward, charming, smart, funny, and I would totally have to find a way to get Lola out of the picture if he was real. I wasn’t sure how to go about this challenge though. So I’m sharing two songs that I think are super romantic and sweet. These are “our songs” – because, you know, Cricket actually is my boyfriend and we have songs that we call “ours”. Haha.

The first is Eric Hutchinson’s “Love Like You” – I LOVE the chorus:

I’ve been waiting for a love like you
I’ve been waiting for a love like you
I’ve been waiting for a love like you tonight

So let me catch fire and blow off steam
This is a crash landing, we’re living the dream
We can freak out if you know what I mean
We can go where we go where the love’s supreme
I said ooo baby, it’s Russian roulette
I said ooo baby, I’ll never forget
What you did for me now, how you’re making me feel
And I’ve been waiting for a love that is finally real

Swoon.

The next song is Ed Sheeran’s Thinking Out Loud. I don’t know if you guys have seen the video, but it’s beautiful and super romantic. I don’t even like Ed Sheeran, and I like this song.

But, baby, now
Take me into your loving arms
Kiss me under the light of a thousand stars
Place your head on my beating heart
Thinking out loud
That maybe we found love right where we are

In other words, I LOVE YOU, CRICKET BELL.

Who’s your bookish valentine?

Book Blogger Love-a-Thon: Book Spine Poetry

Hello, there! It’s time for Book Spine Poetry as part of the Book Blogger Love-a-Thon hosted by Alexa Loves Books! I’m going to make this post super simple and just share what I’ve come up with. I would LOVE to see what you came up with too, so make sure you link me up in the comments.

I have made friends from all over the world because of book blogging (and because of my time in Scotland pursuing my Master’s degree), and I constantly wish I was closer to them so we could hang out and fangirl and such. I miss the friends I’ve met in person and I wish I could meet those I haven’t. So I’ve done my book spine poetry as a reaction to that. 🙂

Maybe Someday
The Distance Between Us
(Will) Shift
Forever
I’ll Meet You There

What’s your book spine poem? 

Book Blogger Love-a-Thon: Questionnaire

Hi lovelies! The Book Blogger Love-a-Thon hosted by Alexa Loves Books has started. This is the first post, a questionnaire designed to help you get to know me a little better. To anyone who’s never been to my blog before, HI! Welcome to Caught Read Handed. To anyone who’s been here before, it’s good to see you again. ❤ Let’s get started, shall we?

1. What’s your name? Stefani! 🙂
2. Where in the world are you blogging from? I blog from the Middle of Nowhere, Mississippi. Usually on the couch, sometimes in bed.
3. How did you get into blogging in the first place? I’ve always LOVED talking about books and spreading the love for books, authors, and reading. I should’ve gotten into book blogging a long time ago, but I finally did in March of last year. Haven’t looked back since.
4. How did you come up with your blog name? It’s really hard to come up with something unique for a book blog name because there are already so many lovely ones out there, but I tried to think of something different.
5. What genre do you read and review the most on your blog? YA. (I also review comics at least twice a week on WatchPlayRead.com)
6. What other types of posts do you do on your blog, apart from reviews? Top Ten Tuesday, Waiting on Wednesday, book to movie posts, random bookish talk posts.
7. Best blogging experience so far? Having people tell me they read a book based on my recommendation and loved it. Or interacting with authors on Twitter who’ve loved my reviews or been appreciative of my WoW posts.
8. Favorite thing about the blogging community? The people. I even wrote a post about this on Thursday.
9. Name the 5 books you’re most excited for this 2015! THIS IS SO HARD. I am looking forward to way more than these five, but these were the first five that came to mind.
   1. Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig
   2. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
   3. We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach
   4. The Prom Goer’s Interstellar Excursion by Chris McCoy
   5. More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera
10. What’s an underrated book or series that you think everyone should read? I honestly think everyone should read The Humans by Matt Haig. It makes you appreciate what it means to be human and to be alive. It’s a beautiful, amazing, funny, sad, wonderful book.
11. Which book boy or girl would be your book BFF? Pretty sure Lola (from Lola and the Boy Next Door) and I would be BFF. But that might be a problem because Cricket (her love interest) is my boyfriend.
12. Apart from reading, what are your other hobbies or interests? Crafting, going to the movies, painting.
13. Apart from book shopping, what else do you like shopping for? Music.
14. At a party, the DJ suddenly changes the song – and it’s your song. What song would be playing? Oh, man. This is hard. Current favorite: AWOLNATION’s “Hollow Moon (Bad Wolf)”. I even did a post about how much I love it.
15. Pick out either a book you want turned into a film/TV show, or a film/TV show you want turned into a book.  I had to think for a while on this, but I think The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion would make a really cool movie – The Big Bang Theory is super popular, and Don, the main character in The Rosie Project, is really similar. It could translate well to the screen.

Are you participating in the Love-a-Thon? Let me know so I can come check out your questionnaire! ❤

Thursday Thoughts: Blogging Community Love (and Love-a-Thon)

My favorite thing about book blogging is the community. I love being able to talk to people from all over the world who are just as passionate about books and reading as I am. We get to talk about the books we’ve read and loved (or…not loved) and no matter how excited we get over something, there are people in this community who get you. Almost everyone I’ve “met” through book blogging has been super supportive and nice and positive, and I love that.

Sometimes things get stressful or too much or you have a bad experience that gets you down. But those things are far outweighed by the times we get to connect over a shared experienced with a book or we get to interact with a favorite author on Twitter or we are shown generous amounts of support on those horrible days. I recently tweeted and said this:

Blogging is the only thing that truly, truly makes me happy these days. Thankful for my blog on this not-so-great (mentally) day.

— Stefani Sloma (@StefaniSloma) February 16, 2015

And it’s true. But as much as I enjoy just being able to freely discuss what I felt about a book, it wouldn’t really be the same without all of you wonderful people. All of my followers and the people I follow. I appreciate all of you so much for supporting my blog and talking to me about books and reading and life.

This post was going to be about positivity and how a lot of the time people are really negative and create drama when it is not needed nor wanted, but then I wrote that first line and realized I didn’t want to be negative too. I don’t give in to that negativity on Twitter. You will probably never see me subtweet about something or fuel new drama about something that’s happened in the book blogging world. And I do that on purpose. There is no point to it. I would much rather push that negativity to the side and be positive, even when that negativity threatens to drown me.

This post is also a short little plug for the Book Blogger Love-a-Thon hosted by Alexa Loves Books that’s happening this weekend. Basically, it’s a weekend long event in which we all tell each other how much we love and support them. It’s dedicated to doing exactly what I said I like to do: spreading the love for blogs and bloggers. How awesome is that? It’s happening February 21 & 22, so you’ll be seeing a few posts and probably a lot of love from me this weekend. I might get a little mushy. Get over it. :p If you are interested, you can still sign up HERE on Alexa’s blog!

How do you feel about the book blogging community? Let’s try to stay positive in the comments, but I don’t mind if you want to discuss the things that get you down! I’m here for you. ❤

ALSO, while I’m spreading the love, I’m doing a giveaway for a copy of Jennifer E. Smith’s The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight over on Twitter if you want to enter!