Book Events & Blog Events, Challenges

Love-a-Thon 2016 Kick-Off!

The Love-a-Thon is an event where we can share our love for our fellow book bloggers! The event is hosted by Alexa at Alexa Loves Books, Cee at The Novel Hermit, Hazel at Stay Bookish, and Mel at The Daily Prophecy.

Hi everyone! I’m so excited to be participating in the Love-A-Thon this year! I had to sit out last year because I was about to have a baby, and I was sad that I missed it, because I had participated the two years prior. 

Anyway, I’m glad to be here again, and let’s get started! In this first post, we’re all supposed to introduce ourselves by answering a questionnaire, so here are my answers:

1. What’s your name?  Andrea

2. Where in the world are you blogging from?  Washington state, USA.

3. How did you get into blogging in the first place? I had a personal blog and a couple of friends had book blogs, and I saw on their blogs that they were doing reading challenges. So I joined a tbr-type of challenge and I wrote little mini reviews for each of the books I read for that challenge on my personal blog. And at the end of the year I thought that maybe I should start a blog devoted just to books. Jessie from Jessie Marie Reads (my book blogging BFF) encouraged me to start one, and the rest is history!

4. How did you come up with your blog name?  Honestly, my husband and I just thought of bookish names and then looked them up to see if they were taken. I wish I had been a bit more thorough, though, because my blog name isn’t exactly unique.

5. What genre do you read and review the most on your blog?  I read all kinds of YA. I love YA Sci-Fi and YA Fantasy the most, so that’s a huge part of my blog. I also read a lot of other YA.

6. What other types of posts do you do on your blog, apart from reviews?  I write discussion posts here and there, and I have a few features (one is called Blind Reads where I read a book without knowing anything about it, and another is called Kiddo’s Corner Reviews, where my 6-year-old son reviews kids books). I also do a meme or two every week. I’d like to do even more different kinds of posts but it’s hard for me to keep up with my schedule right now as it is, but maybe in a year or two I can kick it up a notch.

7. Best blogging experience so far?  Meeting blogging friends IRL. The community is seriously the best part about blogging and I LOVE getting to meet other bloggers. Meeting Jessie was probably the best.

8. Favorite thing about the blogging community?  As I said above, my favorite thing is the community itself. It’s so nice to interact on a regular basis (whether through blogs, comments, Twitter, etc.) with other crazy book lovers. I have a few bookish friends IRL but with many of them, it’s just not the same.

9. Name the 5 books you’re most excited for this 2016! One I have already read is Revenge and the Wild. It was fantastic! The other ones would be Gemina (The Illuminae Files #2), Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Beyond the Red, and Of Fire and Stars.

10. Name the 5 books you want to read this 2016 that you didn’t get to in previous years!  I’m participating in the A Series A Month reading challenge this year, so I’m mostly excited to finish some series, like the Starbound series, the Anna and the French Kiss series, the Song of the Lioness series (which I’m reading now), the Raven Cycle series, and the Sky Chasers series.

11. What’s an underrated book or series that you think everyone should read?  The Sky Chasers series by Amy Kathleen Ryan. I haven’t read the last book in the series, but I really love it. I think people who like Across the Universe, These Broken Stars, and Illuminae would really like this series.

12. Which book boy or girl would be your book BFF?  Boy: Simon from Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda. Girl: Zuzana from the Daughter of Smoke & Bone series.

13. Which book boy or girl would be your book boyfriend/girlfriend?  I actually don’t have any book girlfriends (although I should since I’m bi) but my book boyfriends are Hale from the Heist Society series, Cricket from Lola and the Boy Next Door, and Dev from Just Visiting.

14. Who would you recruit for your apocalypse squad (5 characters max)  This is such a hard question! I really don’t know! The only characters that come to mind are smart ones, like Sherlock Holmes and Hermione Granger. And then we could throw in the Doctor and we’d be able to escape the apocalypse, or even go back and stop it from happening. So I think I just need those 3. :)

15. Apart from reading, what are your other hobbies or interests?  I love to write, and hope to one day publish a novel. I also love to draw but I’ve gotten out of the habit of it, but I’d like to start sketching every day. I play pool on 2 teams, and it’s a lot of fun. I also like logic problems and variety puzzles. And my husband and I enjoy watching a lot of TV shows.

16. Apart from book shopping, what else do you like shopping for? Stuff for my kids, I guess. I really only shop for books for myself! Although it is fun to shop for pens and other office supplies, and I also like looking at geeky stuff like fandom shirts/games/toys etc.

17. At a party, the DJ suddenly changes the song – and it’s your song. What song would be playing?  OMG right now I am in LOVE with Love Yourself by Justin Bieber. I have never been a huge Bieber fan but I LOVE THAT SONG. It’s not exactly the best party song, so I don’t know if that DJ is really a good DJ if he’s playing that song, though… I also really like this video!








18. 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 would love The Lunar Chronicles to be made into a movie. Or a TV show. And if not live-action, I think it would be pretty cool as anime! Which goes right along with the two Lunar Chronicle graphic novels that were announced recently!

19. What would your dream library look like?  My initial thought was the library in Beauty and the Beast, but then I thought, “Nah, not big enough!” I’d like the planet that’s an entire library in Doctor Who. Without the Vashta Nerada, of course.

20. Author you want to meet and sit down to tea with?  J.K. Rowling, hands down. I’d probably embarrass myself beyond recognition but it would be worth it.


So those are my answers to the questionnaire! I’m looking forward to the rest of the Love-A-Thon! I’m not sure I’ll be able to participate in all the events but I plan on doing as much as I can, and I may also participate in the Bookstagram events if I can.

Are you participating in the Love-A-Thon? Let me know and I’ll try to stop by your blog!

11 Comments

  1. Cee L

    February 20, 2016 at 8:32 am

    Hello, Andrea! So glad you can participate this year!

    Can we talk about the gorgeous typography on Revenge and the Wild + Of Fire and Stars? HarperCollins knows how to get me with it.

    CRICKET IS ONE OF MY FAVORITES EVERRRR. I swoon every time I reread Lola and the Boy Next Door. That boy is so endearing. Like, I want a Cricket of my own. ;)

    HA. What a loophole bringing on the Doctor. He really would take you farrrrr away from that. Probs into another dimension where the apocalypse didn't happen. ;D

  2. Kate Midnight Book Girl

    February 20, 2016 at 3:51 pm

    We are so going office supply shopping together someday! I have a huge weakness for pens, highlighters, notebooks, journals, post its, index cards, organizational thingamajigs to house all my stuff, and I like to laminate bookmarks. Back in the day when I was in high school, we use to go to Price Club and I'd buy a huge pack of pens and pencils every Fall. I miss it so much.

  3. Micheline D

    February 20, 2016 at 5:10 pm

    Oh man, I agree with you on JKR, the new HP, Gemina and THAT Library from Doctor Who – without the Vashta Nerada but including the Tenth Doctor for me please :D I can't wait to see how you do with The Raven Cycle ♥

  4. booksntea

    February 20, 2016 at 6:31 pm

    Oh gosh. I had no idea Justin Bieber sang that song. I've heard it on the radio a couple of times and it's pretty dang catchy. I had no idea that in my lifetime, I would have to admit to actually liking a Bieber song. *humbled*

    I've seen many blogs mention they would love the library from Beauty and the Beast, but you're definitely the first to mention the library in Doctor Who. Why didn't I think of that?!

  5. Carlisa

    February 20, 2016 at 7:30 pm

    Ahhh I LOVE Zuzana. I'd love to have her be my real-life BFF. Also, The Lunar Chronicles is what I said I'd love to see as a TV show or movie, too! It'd be wonderful.

  6. Krystianna Straley

    February 20, 2016 at 7:43 pm

    I hadn't even thought of the library from Doctor Who!! Great pick. I'm totally jealous now. :b I don't really like Bieber much either, but I really like Love Yourself too. I also found Sorry to be really catchy.
    Krystianna @ Downright Dystopian

    1. Hills of Books

      February 20, 2016 at 10:09 pm

      Completely forgot about the Doctor Who library too, although that episode was one of the more creepy ones if I remember correctly – maybe that's why I forgot about it *internal psychological analysis begins*

  7. Alexa S.

    February 20, 2016 at 10:35 pm

    I totally picked The Lunar Chronicles as well! I think it would be really interesting to see this come to life in a different medium :) And the Doctor Who library is pretty cool. (I'm so happy I understand this reference now!) So glad you've joined in! Hope you're enjoying Song of the Lioness ;)

  8. Kay

    February 21, 2016 at 3:58 am

    Hello Andrea! I too pretty much picked my blog name by doing the same exact thing. lol Simon would make a great BFF! I too would love to see The Lunar Chronicles into a tv show or movie. :D I hope you are enjoying the Love-A-Thon!

  9. Aditi Nichani

    February 21, 2016 at 6:08 am

    JK Rowling! YAY! Mee too! I love your lists.

    I haven't read Illuminae yet, so Gemina isn't on my list yet, mostly because it isn't available in India and I have to pay a whole lot of money to import it!

    New Follower

    Aditi @ http://athousandwordsamillionbooks.blogspot.in/

  10. Geraldine

    February 21, 2016 at 11:58 am

    I think your blog name represents what we do perfectly though – read lots of books, and consequently have no room on our bookshelves!
    Whilst Love Yourself on its own isn't a great party song, you should definitely listen to some remixes of it – they're really partyish!! :)
    HAHA I would cry if I had a library filled with Vashta Nerada omg :')
    Hope your LoveAThon is going by swimmingly!
    Geraldine @ Corralling Books

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