In Ratings And Changing One's Mind

Hey there everyone! I hope you enjoyed a lot of what's happened on the blog this past few weeks! I'm so happy that the blog is so busy this month. I'm pretty sure I'll flop in the next coming months. WEEEE!!! Lol kidding. Anyway, a thought suddenly popped into my head for no reason as I was riding on my way home to school. How does one really rate a book, like correctly? I mean, we have rating systems and all that. Like, in a way that it feels final and you won't change your mind about it. My brain hurts.

Over the years, I have found myself quite easily pleased with books (in high school mostly) and would rate them so high that I think now that I got wrinklier and somehow the sun has given my mind some light, my love for them has, I dunno, diminished?

Book Blogging 101: It's Okay To Say It's BAD

I have been a book blogger for almost 2 years (and quite crap at it) and with the start of my "career" it felt as though what I needed to do was really get in there and involve myself with bloggers and of course, the authors. You could say in the earliest stages, I was desperate for ARCs, contacting authors and some publishers and would really stay up till 4am to take care of my new baby. Now that I think about it, I made pretty awful decisions. LOL

And with all that hard "work", I ended up getting a few authors who sympathized with me, helped me along the way, asked if it's okay to review their books so forth and so forth. These authors, end up becoming good friends. But like what the title suggested, as much as you've established a really solid relationship with the author, it doesn't necessarily mean it's the same with their book/s.

This whole issue came into my radar when a bunch of bloggers ended up talking on my Twitter timeline about ARCs, which isn't really that new in the book blogging community. Anything new that comes with the discussion would usually be about "How to request ARCs from publishers", "Blogging is not just about the ARCs" and so forth and so forth. And then the issue about if you're being honest with a review when you receive ARCs came into the spotlight and I think every single book blogger I know has been there.

I got inspired to write this post when I read Aentee of Read at Midnight's The Integrity of Book Blogging. One thing that was key about her post was HONESTY.

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Top 10 Blogging Confessions

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish where, each week, a Top Ten list is posted based on a particular topic.

Hi there! So I haven't been around for a while for the meme and I kind of feel bad because this is one of my favorite memes on the blog. Anyway, let's get started with my top 10 blogging confessions! Lezz go!

1. Stats mean something.

I always check my stats, like who reads and from where. I sometimes think I'm obsessed with seeing from what country most of my audiences are. I'd sometimes freak out when I actually have people react to my posts too! It's such a nice thing!

2. TBR's take up my life.

I have so many books on my TBR pile, it's insane. I don't even know if I can read all of them and sometimes I have some e-ARCs from Netgalley or Edelweiss and I'm not even sure if I can read them all and review them.. #BookBloggerDilemmas

3. Blog Beauty

LIFE OF A BLOGGER: Siblings

Life Of A Blogger is hosted by Jessi from Novel Heartbeat where we let people know more about our lives outside of blogging so they can get to know us better!

Well, hello there, my name is Jenivieve De Castro and this week, we will talk about my family, particularly my siblings. Let’s get started. (WOW! I JUST DID A TYLER OAKLEY THERE. LOL)