I Judge Books By Their Cover - and I Don't Think It's A Bad Thing

You always hear that idiom of 'don't judge a book by it's cover,' right? Well, I'm here to tell you why I do judge books by their cover - just not like that!

One of my favorite things to do when I have extra time is to go through my Goodreads recommendations. Yeah, more often than not, I don't find much. But it's something that I enjoy doing and I have found some great books that way.

Also, I love seeing what the bloggers I follow are reviewing - so it's great when they have the book cover as the little post thumbnail in bloglovin.

A lot of times I can tell, just by looking at a book cover, if it's something I would personally like. It does get confusing sometimes - and I can guess that I've missed out on a book I would have loved because it looked like something else - but this sort of 'scanning' of book covers is also super helpful.

Books of different genres have different style covers. It's usually pretty easy to tell the difference between a light-hearted fantasy and a gritty contemporary.

For example…

One of these probably catches your interest more than the other. And that's great! (And that doesn't mean you wouldn't want to read both of them, but there's a time and place, right?) But, if you look into one of the books and not the other, or neither of them or, even, both of them, you've already judged a book by its cover.

Just by looking at the cover, I get an idea about what the book is, so then I have a jumping off point to know if I want to know more about the book.

Imagine if all book covers looked the same - simple white letters on a solid black background. Besides being unexciting - and quite uninviting - it would also make the process of pick out a book more difficult.

So, I totally don't see anything wrong with judging a book by it's cover, and I totally do this every time I get interested in a new book. Do you?

Book Courtship Tag

A shout out to Jessie over at Spines & Covers because that's where I found this. (Many, many moons ago.)

Initial Attraction: A book that you bought because of the cover?

So, it wasn't just because of the cover, but without that totally epic cyberpunk cover, I probably would have never given this book a second look.

First Impressions: A book that you got because of the summary?

A book that has magicians working with different materials? You can be a paper magician - called a Folder - or a metal magician - called a Smelter - or dozens of different magicians? Seriously, if that doesn't sound awesome, tell me what does.

Sweet Talk: A book with great writing?

I'm not usually one to think about good writing - even if I make my opinion on bad writing known - although I remember thinking that the writing in this book was thick. I can't describe it, but imagine a milkshake. That's what the writing in this book reminded me of.

First Date: A first book of a series which made you want to pursue the rest of the series?

This was one of those slow building love affairs, but when it hit me, it hit me and I wanted the rest of the series - and, in truth, everything else by Martha Wells - in my hands, now.

Late Night Phone Calls: A book that kept you up all night long?

I don't often stay up late to read - I have to get up early to work the next day, after all. But I am pretty sure I gave up some sleep to finish this book.

Always on my mind: A book you could not stop thinking about?

Even to this day, this book kind of baffles me. Yes, it was awesome, but it was also so rollercoaster of emotions and feelings and twisty turny and genre defying that I really don't know what to say about it.

Getting Physical: A book which you love the way it feels?

My copy of this book is gorgeous. It has a velvety feel to the dust jacket and the writing and design is raised and embossed. Not to mention the fact that the gold actually glitters when it catches the light. Love it.

Meeting the parents: A book which you would recommend to your family and friends?

That all really depends on who, exactly, I'm recommending the book to. However, the only one that actually borrows books from me any more is my mom. And I really think she would like this book.

Thinking about the future: A book or series you know you will re-read many times in the future?

Okay, so it's an understatement to say I love this book. I am already planning to reread it before the February 2016 release of the sequel. I can't wait!


Psst! Hey, you! Yeah, you. I tag you. C'mon. You know you want to.

Seriously though, this was really fun and got me thinking about books a little differently.

Review: Prophecy by Ellen Oh

Prophecy by Ellen Oh

Series: The Dragon King Chronicles #1
Genre: Fantasy
Add on Goodreads

Kira’s the only female in the king’s army, and the prince’s bodyguard. She’s a demon slayer and an outcast, hated by nearly everyone in her home city of Hansong. And, she’s their only hope...

Murdered kings and discovered traitors point to a demon invasion, sending Kira on the run with the young prince. He may be the savior predicted in the Dragon King Prophecy, but the missing treasure of myth may be the true key. With only the guidance of the cryptic prophecy, Kira must battle demon soldiers, evil shaman, and the Demon Lord himself to find what was once lost and raise a prince into a king.

Top Ten Favorite Books Of 2015

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish.

These type of posts are always so much fun for me! I love looking back over the year and picking out favorite books and just looking at all the things I've read. Sadly, my opinion cannot remain uncolored. By that I mean, if I loved the first book but hated the second (or third, or fourth) it won't be on this list because, even though I loved the first book, later things in the series colored my thoughts too much. Of course, these lists are also so difficult because what do I include? What do I leave off? Decisions, decisions.

Emperor Fuzwarts Magic

I had really hoped that by now I'd have some actual writing to show you - but I failed miserably at getting anything written last month. However, I did get some brainstorming done, so now I get to share with you my magic system. Originally, this story wasn't even going to have magic, but once one of my main characters became a magic user, I had to. ;)

WIP Codename: Emperor Fuzwarts
Progress: First Draft
I'm very early in the first draft of this story. Working on world building and trying to get my characters to point B quicker. (That is, get them out of the city and on their mission/quest/thingy.)

In this world, there are Four Ancient Dragons, existing from the beginning of time, since the world was created out of chaos. Each dragon represents one of the four elements, Earth, Air, Fire or Water.

All magic ability is directly linked to each of the four elements and to access it, you must form a 'contract' with the dragon that represents it.

Usually wizards can only contract to one dragon and that's a lifetime contract. But, occasionally, a human might be able to contract to two or three of the dragons. Twice in recorded history, a human contracted to all four.

To use a magic skill, you have to 'pay' for it to the dragon. The payment varies between dragons and the amount of magic used. For example, Frozen Rain (a Water Dragon spell) might cost you a bowl of water at a temple, but Landslide (an Earth Dragon spell) might cost three drops of blood.

Sadly, the cost also varies with the dragon's mood and how much it likes the spellcaster. (Try using a spell for a dragon you haven't contracted to and chances are great, nothing will happen. Occasionally, something might, but not necessarily anything good.)

Now, when I say dragons, I mean it. These are actual living, breathing, mortal dragons. Yes, these same dragons have been alive tens of thousands of years. Yes, they can die. (As a plot in a later story shows.) And, yes, they can take on human appearance. But they are dragons. Not exactly normal dragons from the world - because we have a few of those too - but these are the Four Ancient Dragons.

As I mentioned earlier, these dragons can take on human form - though they often don't, preferring the solitude that their power affords them.

They do have minions, though!

There we have a quick look at my magic system. Really, after all this, I'd love to write a story about these dragons.

I do plan to make up a whole slew of magic spells for each element - and a few that combine elements - as well as a whole personality sketch-up for each of the Ancient Dragons. I might post it whenever I get there, so let me know if you're interested.

Pictures From

Here

Here

Here

Here

How Much Of A Chance Is Too Little For Books?

You know, it seems crazy that, earlier this year I made another post on DNFing books and claimed that I didn't do it much. That's the truth. Up until this year, I would hardly ever DNF a book - it had to be really awful for me to give up on it.

Now though, I can DNF a book and never look back.

I think the biggest thing that has changed is that I have a huge stack of books that I own and haven't read yet (not even talking about all I want to get a hold of) and I look at all those books and think to myself 'I'm only ten pages into this book and I already don't like it, I'm sure one of these other books will be better' and that leaves me bailing on the books sooner.

If there's something that catches my interest in the book, I'll still push through it. But sometimes, I can tell right away that I won't like the book. For example, I just recently sat down with a book that sounded great. Within 10 pages, I already knew I would hate the main character, so why subject myself to another 300+ pages when I can tell that I'll hate him? (And I flipped through the book and caught a couple snippets of his conversations and, yes, I would still hate him.)

Although, sometimes I do feel a little guilty.

What if the next chapter turns everything around? What if I'm jumping a bit prematurely?

Eventually I have to just push those thoughts aside. After all, I'd rather give this book over here - that starts off awesomely - a chance to wow me, as opposed to a book I'm just not feeling.

I have recently put down a couple of books that I just wasn't feeling with the intent to return to them sometime - because I could see myself really liking them under different circumstances.

How about you? DNF or not? Do you think I shouldn't have such an early reaction to books? Give them more of a chance, maybe to page 50? (But I am one of those people that the further I get in a book, the less likely I am to DNF it.)

I'd love to hear how you DNF (or not) a book and if you have any rules that you follow.

Fall TBR Update

So, I failed. Totally. I made such a big deal out of my Fall TBR - and how awesome I did with  my Summer on - and I got three books read off of it. Three! And these were all books that I wanted to read 'so badly' - or so I thought, apparently.

The books I read were:

The Comet's Curse by Dom Testa - which I gave 4 stars to and was pretty awesome. (Here's my review.)
Ring of Secrets by Roseanna M. White - which got 2 stars and was disappointing with the spy-ness and the romance.
The Girl with the Windup Heart by Kady Cross - which got a very generous 2 stars and was disappointing and a horrible end to a great series. (My review.)

The ones I didn't read were:
Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling (okay, this one I might still make this fall)
Frostbite by Richelle Mead
The Screaming Staircase by Jonathoan Stroud
Earth Girl by Janet Edwards
The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski


Honestly, this is kind of bad. Yeah, I still want to read all of them...apparently though, just not enough to actually read them when I thought I originally wanted to. I do, however, have until the 21st to get through a few more of these before Winter starts. (Yeah, really!)

So, which one/s would you recommend?