My Current Journals

Hey guys  :) Today I'd like to blog about something that isn't really book related, but for me still belongs to the bookish/literary world: journaling. I have been journaling for years and recently I have discovered a ton of youtubers that dedicate their channels to this topic. Many of them have inspired me in my journaling. It is one of my favourite hobbies and I love the idea of being able to look back at the journals I am currently keeping in 20 years. There are so many things to write about! It doesn't have to be a diary-type were you write down your feelings you can journal about anything and everything. The picture on top shows all the journals that I am currently using. I am going to go into more detail about each of them and hopefully give you some ideas for your journals :)

The first one that I'd like to show you is a journal that I use quite frequently. In there, I write down everything to do with books. I jot down TBRs, log the books that I have read and if I liked them or not, create wish lists, keep track of my reading challenges and so on and so forth. I also take notes for new blog post ideas. I don't really aim for this journal to be pretty, it's just a documentation of my reading life and I love working on it. It's pretty much constantly in use. The journal itself is just a very cheap one from Primark, but I love the hotpink with the turquoise ribbon. 

This next journal is the one that I use the most. It's from Paperchase and has a Scotland theme. And that is exactly what it is about. As you might know, I am currently spending a year in Scotland and I use this journal to document my time here. I do not add to this journal every day, but I do it regularly. I write about what I have gotten up to, glue in miscellaneous bits and bobs and try out some artwork. I have filled a lot of this journal already, but most of it is quite personal so I'd rather just show you the outside ;)

Same goes for this one. It's a journal from Typo, my favourite stationery store and out of my current projects this one comes closest to a traditional diary. It's basically just pages and pages of writing. I like to turn to this one with everything that I feel like doesn't belong in any of the other ones. 

For my birthday, my parents gave me a TripBook by the brand Remember. Basically, this book has lots of plastic pouches in different sizes and some space to write in. The idea is, that you can stick all the little pieces that you pick up while traveling, like tickets, wrappers, bottle caps etc in those pouches and keep them together. I love the idea of this, as I always pick up stuff like that, as it reminds me of the places I visited. And it's so sad when they get lost or just end up at the bottom of your junk drawer. I haven't put that much in the book, but I really appreciate the thought behind it. 

This IKEA notebook, is my music journal. I have only started this recently and got inspired to do it by a good friend. In here, I write down the lyrics to some of my favourite songs. Usually not all of it, just the parts that speak to me the most. This journal I keep for emotional and aesthetic reasons. I want it to look nice and decorating the pages is so fun and relaxing. On the bottom picture, you can see one of the pages I have done :) 

Last but not least, my gratitude journal. Every evening, I try to write down at least three things that I have been thankful for that day. It really works as a reminder to appreciate the little things in life. Appreciate the little things in life, for one day you might look back and realise they were the big ones. 

It's not the happy that are grateful, it's the grateful that are happy. 

These are my current journals. I hope you enjoyed this post and maybe got inspired to do a bit of journaling yourself. How many/if any journals do you keep? Let me know in the comments. Have an awesome day. 

Tabea 

Huge April Book Haul

Hello dear fellow book readers and welcome to another episode of "The Secret Life Of A Book Hoarder", for real though, this is my April book haul and I have a problem. 

So far this month I have bought 11 books. In words, eleven, in numbers 11. Adding to a pile that I could easily stack to the ceiling if I wanted to. Gosh, don't you love impulse control? 

Anyway, the heart wants what it wants, right? But, I have acquired some real gems this month that I'd like to share with you. 

If you have read my "25 Bookish Facts About Me" post you might know that I generally don't believe in having more than one copy of a book. I should probably take that back and rephrase it. "I don't believe in having more than one copy of a book UNLESS it's Harry Potter." I saw these while casually browsing through ASDA's book aisle and oh my days, how amazingly gorgeous is this cover art? My little heart just had to have it and justify the fact that I now own three copies of Harry Potter And The Deadly Hallows.

My next gem is a charity shop find. I have heard amazing things about Wonder by R.J. Palacio and have been contemplating to get it for a while, so when I saw it for very cheap I simply could not resist. Really excited to read this.  

This gorgeous copy of The Perks Of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky came in a box-set with The Year Of The Rat by Clare Furniss, The Age Of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker and Infinte Sky by C.J. Flood. I do own and have read The Perks Of Being A Wallflower, but it's only the movie edition and lets be honest, this one is infinitely more beautiful so I will give my other copy away. I haven't really heard anything about the other three books, but I think they will be nice when I get into a contemporary mood this summer. Have you read any of these books? What did you think? 

I also went out and got another box-set, this time a series. I have heard mixed things about the Legend series by Marie Lu, but I was quite intrigued by the premise and the set came quite cheap, so I decided to give it a go. The series includes Legend, Prodigy and Champion. I just hope I haven't yet tired out my interest in dystopian novels. 

The last book I bought was another second-hand find: The Knife Of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness, the first book in the Chaos Walking Trilogy. I have heard amazing things about this series and I can't wait to start it. 

If you want reviews for any of these books once I've read them, do let me know and I will try to make that possible. 

Have a wonderful day <3
Tabea 

25 Bookish Facts About Me

Hello beautiful people :) 

Today, I wanted to participate in tag that has been very popular in the booktube community and that I find really entertaining: The 25 Bookish Facts. Since you are currently reading a book blog, it might be interesting to know the bookish habits of the person running this blog: ME! So, without further ado, here are 25 book related facts about yours truly. 

1) The Harry Potter series sparked my love for reading. I was very young when the books first came out and I remember my dad reading the first and second book to me and my brother. And thus began a never ending love story. 

2) One of my life goals is to have read 5000 books. I don't know why exactly 5000, I'd just like to make that number. Fun fact, apparently Winston Churchill read around 5000 books in his life, so there we go. 

3) I don't particularly like listening to audio books. I feel like I can follow the plot so much better and connect with the characters if I am actually reading the words. I get distracted much easier listening to something rather than reading it. Also, it feels like I haven't actually "read" the book. 

4) I am also not a big fan of e-readers. I do have a kindle, but I've had it for years and haven't used it much. I get that it is very convenient and often books are cheaper if you get them for your e-reader, but for me, nothing beats a physical copy. But, I am trying to use my kindle sometimes, as I still have quite a few books on there that I'd like to read. 

5) I read books in German and English, since I am fluent in both languages. Lately, it has been mostly English though. I have read books in French, but that was only for class and something I'd like to challenge myself with more. 

6) I don't like reading more than one book at a time, unless one of them is non-fiction. I just like to invest myself in only one story and one set of characters at a time. 

7) I prefer paperbacks to hardbacks. Not only are they cheaper, I also prefer how they feel while reading (lighter ect.) and I get really annoyed by dust jackets :D

8) I love slightly worn books; dents, broken-in spines, you name it. Of course the book shouldn't be completely destroyed, but I love when you can see that someone's read the book, maybe even multiple times. To me, a book well worn is a book well loved. 

9) Generally speaking,I don't really see the point in having more than one copy of the same book. I'd rather just invest the money in books that I haven't read yet. With that being said though, I do own three copies of Looking For Alaska (German, American and Tenth Anniversary Special Edition) and the Harry Potter series both in German hardback and UK paperback, with three copies of the first and the seventh book each. So, yeah :D

10) I usually carry a book with me wherever I go. I read on the bus, during my breaks at work ect. It can really help you to read more. 

11) A genre I'd like to explore more is poetry. I own a copy of "Ariel", Sylvia Plath's collected poems and I love it. Any other poetry recommendations? 

12) I am not interested in Graphic Novels. I know those are hugely popular at the moment, and I am not really sure what is putting me off about them, but its not a genre I'd like to venture into.

13) I don't like borrowing books. The book hoarder in me wants to have a copy I can keep forever, even if I only read it once. 

14) I tend to buy way too many books while I am on holidays and then have trouble getting them all back home, because, well, books are heavy and airlines have weight limits. For some reason this concept always escapes me. 

15) I have trouble DNFing books. Even when I dislike the book, there's usually something that keeps me reading, like a little sub-plot that I want to know the ending of. Sometimes the book does pick up and sometimes I am just left with regret and disappointment. 

16) The bargain section always gets me. If I see a book there that even vaguely interests me, I will buy it, because "It's only xxx". Again, that's a book hoarder problem. 

17) Fact 13 and 16 are the main reason why my TBR pile resembles Mt. Everest. 

18) I know that movie adaptions will disappoint me. Yet, I always go and see them anyway. And 99,9 % of the time I get disappointed (duh).

19) If you tell me that you don't like reading I will (silently) judge you a little.

20) I really want to get a book related/book inspired tattoo. 

21) I would say my reading speed is average to slow. I really, really would like to be one of those people that can read like 500 books a year, but it's just never going to happen for me.

22) I love to read about WWII. I have read a lot of non-fiction as well as fiction on it and there's just so many sides to all of those stories and events. 

23) I get really unhappy when I don't have time to read. A good day needs to contain some reading. That's why reading slumps are the worst. 

24) I have not yet read the Mortal Instruments series. I know this is a hugely popular book in the bookish community, but I have read City Of Bones and it was a "meh" book for me, didn't hate it but also didn't love it. So I haven't picked up the second book yet, even though I own the next four. Maybe I am just not the target age for this series anymore?

25) A book needs to be either really good, or really close to my heart to make me cry. There are books that make me teary or really emotional but one of the only books that actually ever made me cry was Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows. I cried like five times when I was reading that book. 

Okay, so these were 25 more or less interesting bookish facts about me. What are your bookish facts? Do we share the same? Let me know in the comments and have an awesome day. 

Tabea 

Overly Ambitious April TBR

Hey guys, 

April has arrived and a new month also means new books, yay :) 

I usually don't plan out TBRs, as I just like to read whatever I feel like reading during the time, but this month I have some books that I need/want to tackle. 

The first three books that I'd like to read are part of the Henderson's Boys series. They are Grey Wolves, The Prisoner and One Shot Kill book 4,5 and 6 in the series. The reason why I want to read them this month is that I borrowed them from a friend and had them for a while, so I feel like I need to give them back. But, I am also looking forward to them, as they are really fun and fast paced reads. 

A similar thing goes for the next three books, which are part of the Mazerunner trilogy. I do own the first book but The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure are borrowed from my local bookswap and I'd like to read them and put them back so that others can enjoy them too. 

The next two books are books that I've been interested in for a long time, so I picked them out when I had a look through my bookshelf. Twelve Years A Slave by Solomon Northup, the story of a free man who, through unfortunate circumstances, gets enslaved for 12 years. As well as The 100 by Kass Morgan, which is a recent purchase. I have heard many good things about this book and I am intrigued by the premise. Humanity has abandoned earth after a nuclear war and lives in spaceships. 100 juvenile delinquents are send to earth's surface to re-colonize the planet. I am really looking forward to this one. 

This seems to be the month of series. I'd also like to read Outcast the fourth book in the "Chronicles Of Ancient Darkness" series by Michelle Paver. I still have to get my hands on Oathbreaker, the fifth book so I am trying to pace myself, but it's hard. These books are just way too addicting!

The last book I am mentioning is also the one I am going to read first, as it's my current read. I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson. I have seen very good reviews for this book and I read Nelson's first novel The Sky Is Everywhere a couple of years ago and adored it. I love her writing style and I am enjoying the story so far. 

So, these are the books I am hoping to read in April. It's a pretty ambitious goal, but some of these are pretty fast reads, so I am hoping to manage. I will keep you updated on my progress ;) What is on your April TBR? 

Tabea 

March Wrap Up (aka: reviving this blog)

Hey guys, guess what? I'm back. For 2016 I made some bookish resolutions. One of them was to keep this blog up and post once a week. And man, did I fail that one, badly. There's a lot of reasons, but they'll all just sound like excuses so let's just file these past three (oh man) months away under "Trial and Error". But, spring has come, I am sitting outside in the sunshine and I am highly motivated to do this. Because while I failed miserably at keeping up a book blog, I nailed bookish resolution number two: read more books. 

March is over and so far I have read 20 books out of my goal of 60. That's right, I am currently at 33% done. I am not an overly fast reader so I am a little bit proud of this statistic. I know that this reading challenge is only for fun and not a competition that one needs to win, but it's still satisfying to be on schedule. What's even better, I've had an amazing reading year so far and loved the majority of these 20 books. I am planning a "Reading Challenge Update" in which I will tell you about my favourite books so far :) 

But, back to March. I've read 7 books this month. As always, if you are interested in an in depth review, just let me know.  

The first book I read was a modern classic: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. This book is set in a dystopian future in which books have been banned and firefighters, instead of putting out fires, burn down houses that contain books. Life is centered around mindless entertainment and human interaction has become emotionless and corrupted. This was a dark read, but a brilliant one. It made me feel extremely uncomfortable at times, because this future that Bradbury describes seems so plausible. It's not some far fetched dystopia, I really believe this could potentially happen to us if we're not careful. "Coloured people don't like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don't feel good about Uncle Tom's Cabin. Burn it. Someone's written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping? Burn the book. Serenity, Montag. Peace, Montag. Take your fight outside. Better yet, into the incinerator." In today's society, we're people are offended by everything we are heading in this direction and I feel like this book should be read more in schools.

After that, I moved on to lighter themes and finally got to read The Martian by Andy Weir. I've heard brilliant things about this book and was really happy to find it in a local charity shop. The Martian follows Mark Watney, an astronaut, who gets left behind during a mission on Mars and mistakenly declared dead. Alone on Mars, Watney needs to find a way to get back to Earth, or die trying. I was highly entertained throughout this whole book, mainly because the main character has a brilliant sense of humour. The point of view of this book switches between Watney on Mars and NASA officials on Earth so that a majority of times the reader knows more than Watney, which adds a lot of suspense to the story. I really felt with Mark Watney and rooted for him throughout the entire book. Unfortunately I was spoiled for the ending when I was about halfway through and maybe that's also why the ending is my least favorite part of the book, but still, a very good read. 

The next three books I read, Wolf Brother, Spirit Walker, and Soul Eater where all part of a series by Michelle Paver. It's called "Chronicles Of Ancient Darkness" and I've never heard of it, before I found the first two books on our bookshelf at work. I started flipping through them and was pretty much hooked straight away. I had a look online and all the books in the series (there are six) actually have really high ratings and I can totally understand why.  It's set in the Neolithic Age and follows the main character Torak and his friends on their adventures. There's magic and mystery and friendship and it shows how people lived back then, which I find really interesting. I love Pavers writing style and all in all I am just so glad that I discovered her books. The series is apparently aimed at kids age 9-12 (oops) but especially the first book had so many moments that had my heart pumping so I think you can definitely read it even when you're older. Also, the audio book is narrated by Ian McKellen, if you're not sold yet. 

I don't read non-fiction books a lot, but this month I read Greek Mythology by Sofia Souli (It was a library book and I had to give it back before I could take the photo). This was a summary of the most well known stories of Greek Mythology and it was really interesting. I read the Percy Jackson series last year and I recognised so many stories and characters from the book, but it was nice to read about the original myth. The thing that really annoyed me though was the sloppy translation. There were so many typos and misspelled words. I hope they can fix that for future editions.

I then went on reading Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin. I am considering writing a full review on this one, so let me know if you would be interested in that. This is an alternate historical fiction book set in 1956. Alternate because in this story, the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, Japan) have won World War II. The main character Yael, is a seventeen year old death-camp survivor and has joined the resistance. Her mission is to compete in the Axis Tour, a motorcycle race from Germania (formerly Berlin) to Tokyo and win it in order to meet Adolf Hitler and kill him. This book was amazing. It plays with so many "What if's" and "Could have been's" that are uncomfortable to think about, yet fascinating. It was filled to the brim with action, love, hate and betrayal. The part during the race gave me strong "The Hunger Games" vibes as well, because while killing other contestants isn't encouraged it also isn't exactly forbidden. For me, this is an important book. To look at this possible outcome while all over Europe right wing parties are gaining power and followers again. History is prone to repeating itself and we shouldn't forget. "The world within these pages could have been our own. For a time and a place, it was..."

All in all, I had a pretty good reading month and can't wait for next months books. I hope you all have a wonderful day :)

Tabea 

December 2015 Wrap Up

Hello beautiful people and happy, happy new year! 

I hope you had a wonderful New Year's Eve and welcomed 2016 in style. 

Today, I have my very first wrap up for you and I am so excited to talk about the books I read and what I thought of them. December has been a brilliant reading month for me, the best one I've had this year I believe. I read 7 books this month, which is not enough to finish my Reading Challenge, but at least I am not such an embarrassingly high amount behind anymore. I pledged 50 books and ended up reading 37. But that's alright for me, since I discovered the challenge pretty late in the year and 2015 has been a very busy year for me. I'm excited to try and hopefully achieve my goal of 60 books in 2016. If you are interested in a more in depth review of any of the books I am mentioning, just let me know in the comments :)

The first book I read this month is a re-read. Or more like a re-re-re-re-read. I honestly lost count of how many times I've read this book. It's Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling. I don't think there's much to say about this one, other than that the two of us have a never ending love story. I love reliving all the feels every time I pick this up and for me the Harry Potter books are just the perfect holiday read. They always leave me feeling warm and fuzzy inside. I was lucky enough to receive the illustrated version for Christmas and it's absolutely gorgeous. I can't wait to read it yet again in that version. 5 stars any day. 

The next book I read was A Thousand Nights by E.K Johnston. It's a YA book and a rough re-telling of A 1001 Arabian nights. I didn't really dig this one, but I have a full review up on here, in case you are interested. 3 stars.

This month I also finally started reading The Chronicles Of Narnia by C.S Lewis. I've been meaning to for years and after finding all the books except two at my local book swap I decided that the time has finally come. I started off with The Magician's Nephew which doesn't follow the Pevensie siblings, but explains how Narnia was founded, how the Witch came to Narnia and where the Wardrobe came from. I found it pretty interesting to read about where the whole story started. A quick and sweet read, also perfect for the holiday season. 4 stars.  

I then continued the series with The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. I've seen the movie multiple times so I knew the general plot, but I loved reading the original story. There were also some quirky little details that didn't make it into the movie, which I adored. I like reading the stories as little stand alone books, rather than compressed in one big collection, because they just feel so short and easy like that. I remember borrowing a huge collection of the Narnia books from the library a couple of years ago and I think the sheer size of it put me off back then. 4 stars. 

After that, I took a break from Narnia and continued with one of my second-hand bookstore purchases. I was lucky enough to find All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr for only a couple of pounds and I am so glad I did! I absolutely loved this book, it's one of the best I have read in 2015. The story is set in the late years of WWII and follows three main characters through the siege of Saint-Malo, France and the years beforehand. I love historical fiction and this is such a unique turn on WWII events. I willingly lost sleep for this book, I cried over this book, I adored this book. I'll probably post a review about it soon, so stay tuned. 5 stars!


As much as I loved All The Light We Cannot See I definitely needed something light-hearted afterward. I read Die Känguru Chroniken (The Kangaroo Chronicles) by Mark-Uwe Kling. I don't really know what to say about this book, because it's written by a German comedian and hasn't been translated to English yet. But basically it's a collection of anecdotes of a guy who lives with a kangaroo. The kangaroo is a communist and loves Nirvana. It's silly and witty and most of the time satirical. If you can speak German, I'd recommend you give it a try. 4 stars.

I got many laughs out of that book, but then moved on to something serious again. I finally finished All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven. I had read about a third in summer but put it down because I couldn't really get into it. This time I pushed through and while I felt like the book did improve in the second half, I wasn't really a fan. I bought this book when I traveled Australia earlier this year and at the time, wasn't aware of the huge hype this book is experiencing. Now that I've read it, I still don't get the hype. To me, it just felt like so many contemporary novels I've read before, down to some of the phrases and scenes. There wasn't anything particularly special about it, nothing that wowed me. It's described as a mix of The Fault In Our Stars and Eleanor&Park which is a pretty good description, but sadly for me this book lacked any originality beyond this mix. I am hovering between 2 and 3 stars for this one.

These were the books I read in December 2015. Now, 2016 is upon us and with it a lot of new books and hopefully new favourites. Do you have any bookish resolutions? Mine is to keep this blog running and post at least once a week :) 

Love, 

Tabea 

2016 Reading Challenges

Good evening guys, 

2016 is almost upon us and it's time for New Year's resolutions. One of my resolutions for 2016 is to tackle my gigantic TBR pile. To help me achieve that I am going to participate in a few different Reading Challenges. I picked out three Reading Challenges for this year. The first one is the 2016 Popsugar Reading Challenge (http://www.popsugar.com/love/Reading-Challenge-2016-39126431). I plan on reading 22 out of 40 books on the list and I am probably going to update you on my progress on this challenge quarterly. 

The second challenge I am going to participate in is the 2016 Mount TBR challenge, that Bev over on My Reader's Block is hosting. Since this is my first time participating in challenges like that, I will start with the lowest challenge level Pike's Peak. This requires me to read 12 books from my TBR pile. I may end up raising this number later in the year, but for now, this seems a good place to start. 

Last but not least, I will of course also participate in the Goodreads Reading Challenge. I will set my reading goal to 60 books this year and I really hope with all these challenges combined I can reach this goal. 

Are you participating in any challenges in the new year? How was 2015 for you reading-wise? Let me know in the comments. 

I will probably post my December Wrap Up in the new year, so have an amazing New Year's Eve and I'll see ya'll in 2016 :)