Exploring My Goodreads Page (after 2 Years)

It’s been two years since Mandy and I announced Book Princess Reviews was closing down. TWO YEARS, people.

❝ I think we all knew this one was coming. I’m a “never say never” person. I do want to start off by saying there will always be a chance Mandy or I return with a post or even decide to revive the blog. But as it stands, we don’t see that in the near future. For now, we can say with certainty: Book Princess Reviews is closing down. ❞ — December 31, 2020

I said in that post that I couldn’t know for certainty if I would ever come back, and now here I am. Back. (Tentatively?) Life has definitely changed a lot. I won’t bore you with the tedious details (at least not in this post) but I will say that my reading has suffered. I might have read a total of five books? Part of that was by choice. I didn’t have the drive I used to to pick up a book and power through. But a large part of that was just exhaustion. I was usually working two jobs and by the time I got home there was no energy left in me. Which is sAD! We need a passion, a hobby that brings us joy.

Now I’ve gotten more structure to my life. I’m only working one job. I’ve gone back to school, which certainly takes up time, but somehow it has driven me towards reading for passion. Of course, I could just start reading for pleasure (which is what Mandy is doing these days, way more than I am). But I have always loved having a project. Sharing my passions. Which is why I’m here, back to the blog.

ANYWAY. I did say that I wouldn’t bore you with details. Maybe in another post I’ll share where life has taken me (or I’ll just slide it in post by post and you can complete my missing two years like a puzzle). Today is all about returning to my past! Which will still be interesting for you, I promise! I’m going to be revisiting my favourites on goodreads, as well as my not-so-biggest hits. My to-reads I forgot about and some of the compilations I put together.

I’m shocked that I’ve left 164 ratings. I didn’t realize I’d reviewed that many books in my time. I’m also surprised that my rating average is so high. I remember very clearly how hard I could be on books. I wonder if now that I’ve had time away from reading, if I will be harsher on books (because I expect more) or if I will truly just want to read for pleasure.

✨ How many books have you reviewed on Goodreads?

✨ What’s your review average? Are you happy with it?

WANT TO READ

My To-Read list consists of 15 books, which actually is not that intimidating. Then again, I’m veeeerrryyy slow to add books to this list for the very reason I don’t want to become overwhelmed. Even just fifteen feels like a lot to me. But looking at this list has me excited to dive back into reading already! I remember I found a lot of these through Netgalleys searches (and rejections, but I won’t hold that against anyone) and a few compilation lists around the blogosphere. I actually own Girl, Serpent, Thorn thanks to Mandy (and I haven’t read it.*ahem*). And if you can believe it, I just went to the library and hauled The Fountains of Silence. I’m a huge Ruta Sepetys fan, so I’m v v excited for this one.

✨ How many books are on your To-Read list? (Should I dare to ask?)

✨ Have you heard of/read any of the books on my list? Which one should I start with?

The Categories

When I read books, I like to break them into as many categories as possible. This way when people ask for recommendations, or I need to make a list later on, I can just go to my Goodreads page. It also helps me be a more active reader. I can look over the types of books I read and see biases in my own reading–then I can ensure to keep myself reading diverse.

From the start, I really cared about mental illness in literature, so I always had that category. I love a badass female MC, so anytime a lead character stood out to me, I would add a book to that category. Books that were humorous, even if the main genre wasn’t humour, were added to my humour category. Later on in my reading I started to seek out books that didn’t have romance in them, so that become an important category for me. (I get tired of every book having a romance plot. It doesn’t have to be necessary.)

Some categories I’m missing are for POC, Asian-rep, and own-voices. Oh, and indigenous-rep! I started a personal list towards the end of my time on Goodreads and the blog, but that never transferred over. I definitely want to work on dividing my past reads into that list!

✨ How do you categorize your books on Goodreads?

DNF or 1 Star

I’m surprised I don’t have more 1-star reviews. I just always pegged myself as such a tough reviewed, and to find out I only have four is a bit of a shock to me. Beast was an e-Arc I received. Two of my issues with the book were that it moved too quickly and that information was given in loads of exposition, not slowly and well-thought out. My primary problem, however, does a include a spoiler for the book so you can read my full review if you wish to see. Dare You to Lie was also an e-Arc, probably one of the first I ever received. It was just poorly written with a lot of stereotypical behaviour from the men and mean girl behaviour from the women–nothing I like to endorse in a book. Rule apparently really got to me, because I wrote a whole breakdown on why it deserved one star, mostly hinging on the fact that it was predictable and the characters seriously lacked dimension. Lastly, Evil Queen. Ugh, how a heart breaks here at BPR when a retelling goes wrong. The book is a massive amount of narrative exposition, with increasing amounts of romance, and then a dash of plot. I actually saw it at the library the other day, forgot I had read it for a second, picked it up, then remembered how much of a mess it was, and hurriedly put it down.

But that’s life, a few one stars and DNFs. As long as the five stars outweigh, I think we’re winning!

✨ How many one star reviews do you have? Does that surprise you?

✨ Would you ever give a one star review a second chance?

Five Stars

There’s more than this! I just picked my favourites from my favourites. It’s exciting to look back at books that made you feel some type of way. Especially knowing that more will come. A lot of these were books with great mental health rep and helped me understand myself in tough times. Because I can see myself in those books, it’s easy to give them high ratings. Other books are just pure enjoyment.

✨ Have you read any of these books? Were they five stars for you too?

✨ What makes you give a high rating?

That’s going to be it for my Goodreads tour. If you don’t already follow me there, I invite you to here. I’ll definitely be posting more now (and I follow back). Um, follow is the right word for Goodreads, right? Wow, it really has been a long time. If I don’t follow back right away, it’s because I’m playing the fool and can’t figure out where the button is.