Alright friends, you know the drill… what’s a recent complaint (no matter how big, small, silly, dramatic, serious, etc) that you need to shout to the void?!🗣️

What do you value in a book the most based on Nancy Pearl’s Four Doors of Reading? Link here if you want to learn more, including TED Talk at the end: https://teralynnchilds.com/nancy-pearls-four-doors-reading/ (I tried to embed link but I forgot how)

Excerpt from above link:

🚪 The Four Doors 🚪 📖 Story — Plot. Action. The sequence of events that the character(s) go through to reach the end. These are page turners, the books you can’t put down, and that keep you needing to find out what happens next.

🙂 Character — People. Protagonists. Villains. Heroes. The cast of characters who embark on the story. Books in which the characters feel real and you miss them when the book is over.

🌆 Setting — Worldbuilding. This is what makes you feel like you’re in another place or time (or even this exact place and time). Makes the world feel familiar, and makes you want to live in or visit that place.

✍️ Language — Words. Grammar. Style. These books make you want to savor every word, to the point where you’re not sure you even know or care what the book is about.

Every book contains all four of these elements to varying degrees. You can’t write a story without character, plot, setting, and words. But often (usually) one or more doorways are bigger than others. The blockbuster books, the ones that become huge bestsellers across audiences and age groups, have four really big doors.

🚪 Find Your Door 🚪 Discovering your door to reading! Which doorway is yours? Or what order would you rank the four doors from most to least important? Think about your favorite book. Usually the first thing you describe is a clue.

My Doors Ranked: 🌆 📖 🙂 ✍️ I would rank world building as most important for me. Closely followed by plot. I need a great setting and often magic system to keep me hooked. I also need plot throughout. Character driven books don’t work for me as well as plot driven books or a mix. I enjoy character arcs but I value setting and plot more. I also don’t need good writing to enjoy a story so that one is very much last for me.

I look forward to hearing about yours 🥰

Hey y’all!!! How was everyone’s July reading wise? I’m actually so happy because I was able to read 11 books this month!! I have been in such a reading slump for most of the first half of this year and I haven’t had that much motivation to finish books that I’ve started. But this month something just clicked for me and have been flying through books week by week this month. What were some of y’all’s favorite reads this month?

What are your plans and goals for the next month? I have 39 books on my plan 🫠 Mostly netgalley ARCs I'm way behind on. I also want to finish the Miles Franklin shortlist before the winner is announced this week. And get started on the Booker longlist.

Good afternoon Bookaholics!!

How is everyone doing?

My question today is... 🥁

What is your opinion on 'Blind Dates with a Book'? 🤔

What's your most diabolical reading flex?

Mine has to be reading spicy audiobooks without headphones.

Now hear me out, it's only in the comfort of my own home. In public, headphones all the way (obviously 🤣)

It ain’t much, but it’s honest work.