Top 4 Sites to Keep Up With Your Hobbies!

Here's something you probably don't know about me: I love keeping everything organized. I love lists. I love managing lists... and I love doing so easily. I'm a busy woman; I see TV shows, anime, manga, foreign drama and read books in my spare time. And I don't have the ability to keep everything sorted out on my own.

There are a few sites I use in order to easily keep track of my different hobbies, making it possible to effortlessly and seamlessly switch back and forth between them, even after taking long breaks. Took a three years break from anime? Pssssh, don't worry, you can slide right back into it with minimum hassle and bustle!

So without farther ado, here are four sites I would lost my mind without!!

Goodreads - Keeping Up With Books

So, this probably comes as no surprise at all because this is a bookish blog and Goodreads is the site for keeping up with your reading, but I figure I ought to include it in here in case someone is not in the know.

Although Goodreads has some issues that I can discuss very passionately, it's still the best site that I've been able to find for book lovers to keep up with their reading. It allows you to mark what you've read (even down to the precise edition), what you want to read, what you're currently reading, what you dropped, as well as write reviews, create shelves, update where you are precisely in a book, vote on lists, take quizzes, interact with other book lovers, and more!

This is one of the largest databases for books out there, and it's constantly updating.

Without this site, I'd be absolutely lost, and it's what opened my eyes to the reading community on the internet.

My Anime List - Keeping Up With Anime & Manga 

More often known as just "MAL", My Anime List is a site that literally defined my life. As a young girl, I watched Inuyasha, Digimon and some other anime on TV, but I was not exposed to the large and incredible industry of anime and manga until I found this site.

This is basically Goodreads for anime and manga - you can mark anime as "watching", "completed", "on hold", "dropped" and "plan to watch". The site constantly updated with the newest anime news, allows you to interact with other reader/watchers through reviews, groups, recommendation and community posts, and it's just generally a great place to keep up with what you're reading and watching.

It literally saved my life as I just returned to anime after a couple of years of hiatus, and I'm picking up exactly where I left off instead of fumbling and trying to figure out where the heck I was.

Sidereel - Keeping Up with TV Shows

Sidereel is not as developed as Goodreads or MAL and doesn't allow you to categorize shows into "watched", "to watch" and the likes, but instead allows you to "track" shows, thus showing you when new episodes come out and enabling you to mark episodes as "seen".

You can also start lists (thus creating a "to watch" list instead of tracking the shows), write reviews, comment on news and the likes.

Sidereel is also a great database, covering the upcoming shows and telling you when a show you're tracking has been renewed... or worse, cancelled! I'm kind of uneven when it comes to watching TV shows (I can watch 10 episodes of a show in a single night, then watch nothing for the next two months), so Sidereel is a great tool for me to keep up with what I'm watching.

My Drama List - Keeping up With Foreign Drama

Life Sidereel, MDL is also slightly less developed than MAL or Goodreads.

The site allows you to keep track of foreign shows and movies by marking them as "Currently Watching", "Completed", "On Hold", "Dropped" and "Plan to Watch" but not much else. Like Sidereel, you can create lists, read articles, find recommendations, see the top shows/movies and even participate in forums.

My main issues with this site is that it's a bit clumsy when it come to the shows; you can't mark new episodes seen from the shows page easily, and on a personal level it's just not as comfortable as Goodreads or MAL, but this is honestly very subjective.

This is a good place to keep track of your dramas and find new stuff to see!!

Did I Introduce You to a Good New Site To Keep Up With Your Hobbies? Do You Know of a Similar Site for Movies?? I've Been Looking!

How to Make the Most of An Unplanned Hiatus

Hello, it's me... I was wondering if after all these months you'd like to meet to go over everything....

For the past couple of months I've been pretty inactive on the blog front, doing only the occasional bargain post as, while I wasn't blogging, I was still reading. In fact, the only thing I wasn't doing for the past couple of months is blog. Aside for that, I've been surprisingly... prolific. 

As everyone who loves blogging knows, sometimes... you just don't feel like doing it. At all. You sit in front of the computer, and you think to yourself "ahhh, I really need to write a post today. I'm falling behind". And then you click on a new tab and drown yourself in another 4 hours of watching anime instead. Because, why not?

I doesn't start because of some big event. There doesn't need to be some internet troll to take the blogging fun out of things and push you into a place where you don't love blogging anymore. It's like a reading slump, or a watching slump, it something that happens.

Well, you know what? I believe in taking that slump all the way. If I already don't feel like blogging, no point in worrying and trying to force the mojo to come back. It will do so on it's own, in it's own time. In the meantime, why not spend that time you're not blogging doing other things you love? 

You love reading? Then read. Don't think about reviewing those books, don't let yourself feel guilty. Just read. That's how you find yourself two months later with 16 books read and having one of the most prolific reading month of the last year ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

You love watching anime? Then go crazy and watch all the anime your free time allows. An episode is normally around 20 minutes long, so you can jam in 3 episodes in an hour, and four hours later you have finished a 12 episode season! Banazi! And if you feel like tackling longer anime, there are some great ones out there too. Personally, in this hiatus I focused on short anime and I've had the time of my life with 13 anime that were a ton of fun to watch, and felt like they took zero time out of me! \(^_^)/

You love foreign drama? Then find one that doesn't make you crazy with just how dramatic those dramas can be and immerse yourself in 16 hours of it because dear god their episodes are soooooooo long it feels like you're watching three seasons instead of one series but they can also be soooooo good. o(^o^)o 

You like knitting? knit. You like drawing? draw! Rid yourself of the ridiculous sense of guilt and do what you love until you feel like you can return to the love of blogging! 

I'm not sure I'm there yet, but I have reached a point where I want to talk to you guys about the things and shows that occupied my time in the last two months, so this is what I'll do. That's the plan. The whole plan. Does it suck? Maybe. But am I having fun with it? Heck yes! 

April Round Up! | Doing Things a Little Differently

My Life in April

April has been pretty swell, if I were honest. I briefly mentioned I've been interviewing for a job in my last round up, and I have been accepted! So far, I've been the equivalent of a secretary in my "company", but my next position will actually handle the money and budgeting of a branch of the "company".

It's a big step up and I have absolutely no background in it which means I am terrified. This is also the upside of this whole situation; my "company" allows to gain experience without studying for a degree in the subject beforehand. If this fits me, I'll know what I want to study (and could start studying while I'm working) and I'll have experience further on. If it's not a fit, at least I would've saved some money and could start working towards making my dreams come true.

If I were honest, I didn't think I'd get this job. My first interview didn't go too well, or at least I didn't think it did (the person that is going to be my immediate boss has a killer poker face) so the callback shocked me. I was a bit nervous because they asked me to come with a presentation (on any subject) into the second interview, so they could test my presenting skills. I chose to talk about Donald Trump and why such a controversial candidate is also so well loved. It was very interesting to learn on the subject, and that interview went fantastically.

Now it's just a matter of when my current working space will let me move unto the next. Hopefully soon because I need to start learning this!!

April is also a month of holidays - Passover just ended! That was fun and gave me lots of time to read and be with the fam! ;)

My Reading Month

I'm back on my reading wave, having read eleven novels this month, and I took off some of the short stories from my kindle (I don't mark those as read due to their low page count). I have dropped many other novels as well, helping dilute my kindle sea a little which is great.

My favorite reading of this month were definitely:

All were 4.5 stars reads!  I'm glad to say I haven't read any book that I felt was less than a 3 stars this month (aside for the ones I dropped which I don't count!) so I don't have a "least favorite" section for this time :) Best on the Blog  In the past months, I pretty much listed every single thing that happened on that month in the round up. And you know what? I think I'm going to stop with that and highlight my favorite bits that happened on the blog.  Though I'll have to admit, this month has been really slow. I have received maybe a total of five comments throughout the month and while this won't stop me from making content, it's a bit disheartening. I have to keep reminding myself I'm doing this for me ;))  Favorite reviews of the month

I really love this review! I tried really hard to make it Be-OOO-tiful and I love this story so damned much! I tried making this a bit different than usually which is why I love it so much I guess.   

Bromance is a Taiwanese drama about a girl masquerading as a man and her love story with a (nice) triad boss. It's a lot of fun and I enjoyed writing this review almost as much as I did watching the show! 

This is a link to the second part of the review. The first part is a spoiler free one star review, and the second is a gifed up summary of the fucked up romance in the story (forgive my language). I know it's mean of me to enjoy these rants, but I really do and I feel it's super funny and one of my better reviews this month! 

I love Dylan O'brian. I semi enjoyed The Maze Runner, so of course I had to watch and review this! This review details a lot of the changes made from the source material and whether I liked them or didn't. In the end of the day, this is more about how not liking changes does not equal not enjoying the movie (cause I did) more than anything.

Once again, this is the link to the second part in a rant review. The second parts are always the juicer! In this one, I pointed out every ridiculous plot hole (and there were plenty). If you've read this series and loved it - feel free to come tell me what I got wrong and if you hate it (like me)... feel free to drop by and discuss with me!

Favorite Discussions/Other posts: 

Well, there weren't many this month lol 

This post talks about my paralyzing fear of the second books in a trilogy due to the structure of it. It's not the regular second book syndrome problem where the second book is just filler, but something else completely... 

Err. Pretty self explanatory lol What's your stance on Sex in YA?

One Last Thing

I'm going to slow things down on the blog. So far, I have tried to have six to seven posts a week. I have been pretty good about that, actually. BUT, I can't keep up on social media with it. I am not sharing my posts on time, and then barely no one sees them and I feel depressed. I feel like maintaining a 4 posts week will help me out with that, letting me have two days for each post for the days I'm too busy to social media. 

Also: how pretty are the review banners??? *-*

Happy May everybody! 

March Round Up!

General Stuff

Oh boy, March was exhausting, and pretty low on reading. Instead, I watched some shows, read some manga and generally let myself relax because work was so hard y'all. My supervisor is off touring India (she comes back next week. Yay!) and that... put me in charge. Of a bunch of kids who don't want to work. Of making sure everything was working properly.

Lord have mercy.

Do you know how many late night phone calls I got? How many fires I had to put out? How many moments of silent panic? And between all that, interviewing for my next position!

I needed a lot of rest and a lot of not thinking when I was home (which wasn't much!) which is what I did.

And... I'm perfectly okay with it.

BTW - I got the new job! :D

MY READING MONTH

Reading? What is this reading you talk of? Haha, kidding. I read exactly three books this month and three manga (but two of them were under 16 chapters so I didn't count them really). This might sound as very little reading. That's because it is. But, I enjoyed everything else I did this month which was seeing two foreign drama and immersing myself in the YouTube and the Tumblr and going out with friends.

I still intend to bring up my count in April, just because it's been a long time since I had such a weak month. I don't plan to bring it back up to 14 a month minimum (yes, that's how it used to be lol) but five a month sounds doable :)

POSTS

REVIEWS

 Wow I forgot how many reviews I had up this month :O

Thank you so much for sticking with me in March, and here's to hoping you'll come again in April :)

#StoryTime: Transformation to DNFer

This is a story of a young girl, and how she came to acquire and embrace the title of "DNFer".

Once upon a time, in a little country, there was an even little-er girl. The name of the girl is insignificant, for she was just a girl and at the same time many girls, and they all had different names and all lived in different places, but they were one and the same nonetheless.

The girl was considered somewhat of a bookworm among her peers, and she was immensely proud of her title. She considered herself a champion of stories and worlds. She was determined that no story, nor series will ever best her.

She will reign supreme against all that she read, no matter how long the battle, how tenacious the fighters, how tedious her opponents, or how boring the war was.

She. Will. Succeed.

And she did, for many years, not knowing that the world--and all it had to offer--was much wider than her little country and its meager selection. That beyond the horizon waited many places for her to open the covers.

She was sixteen, going on seventeen, when her eyes opened. The Imperious Court of Goodreads made itself known to her, and offered its services. Suddenly, the gates have opened, and traffic and travel between the countries were allowed.

On one of those travels, she stumbled upon the lands of Kindle and The Book Depository, where books and stories poured like rain, and she tried to take them all, until she could not fit them in any longer. Until she had to build new shelves and shackle herself with the curse of the horrifying Book Buying Ban.

She discovered many new worlds. She fought many new wars.

And some of them were... hard. Harder than anything she's ever experienced before. Harder still for different worlds were calling her name, urging her to come to them. Soon, she'd chant in her head. Hoping she will reach the end of the war already and be free to pursue other places.

Until one day... she couldn't ignore the call. She couldn't ignore the urging voice. She only paused the fight, she told herself. She would take a break, refuel herself, take over some other worlds, rejuvenate herself, and come back to finish this one. It wasn't going anywhere.

And it didn't go anywhere. Anywhere at all. The fight ended without a conclusion, and while she was wrecked with guilt over that unfinished battle, she did not regret the worlds she discovered in it's stead. She was quite... relieved, actually, to be rid of that burden.

And indeed, who wants to control a land that bores them? That angers them? That frustrates them? It was much better to be queen over worlds she liked, over people she respected and was awed by.

But she did not realize it then. She was still forging through unwanted battles, through landscapes she'd rather not see. Until a rather tough stretch of road began, with her conquering places she never wanted to set foot in again.

She was exhausting resources and man power for countries that meant nothing to her. And for what? She was sure someone else would love to be the Queen of Shadowhunters, it just wasn't her. And someone else could have the man-tiger, she just wasn't that into him. And those weird pixies would probably be better appreciated by another girl.

And there were so many worlds out there, so much to see and so many people to meet, that she realized there was no meaning in fighting for things she didn't really want. And really, why force on those worlds her reign, anyways?

The burden was lifted off her shoulders. An easy smile stretched on her face. And from that moment on, she would occasionally retreat and surrender, she would admit defeat. And she wasn't a lesser person, a leaser leader, for it.

She discovered many wonderful worlds. She left behind many that weren't the right fit for her. She accepted the mental of a DNFer, knowing it wasn't for everyone, and vowed to use it wisely for lost causes only.

And she was a happier bookworm for it.

THE END

DID YOU LIKE THIS QUIRKY LITTLE WAY OF TELLING A BOOKISH STORY? LET ME KNOW IF YOU'D LIKE FOR ME TO DO MORE LIKE THIS :)