Reading without a mind's eye (aphantasia)

A couple days ago I learned something that has got me totally shook - most people can see images in their mind. Not like actual photographs, but they can imagine things visually. More importantly, I found out that I'm one of 2% of people who can't do this. It would seem I have aphantasia, which means that I'm unable to create visual images in my mind's eye. I don't have daydreams, I can't visualize a picture Pennywise even though I've seen the movie multiple times. I've been doing guided meditation for years and always thought "picture yourself on a beach" was metaphorical so imagine how absolutely blown my mind has been! Since I found...

Audiobook Review: Sadie by Courtney Summers

Title: Sadie Author: Courtney Summers Publication Date: September 4, 2018 Publisher: Wednesday Books Pages: 308 Add to Goodreads A missing girl on a journey of revenge. A Serial―like podcast following the clues she's left behind. And an ending you won't be able to stop talking about. Sadie hasn't had an easy life. Growing up on her own, she's been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated small town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water. But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie's entire world crumbles. After a somewhat botched police investigation, Sadie is determined to bring her sister's killer to justice...

Pondathon sign-up post and TBR

Pondathon is here! I had no idea what this was until I saw AJ mention it over at Read All the Things! and I immediately needed to know more. It turns out that this read-a-thon is unlike any I've ever seen before and it's AWESOME! The Pondathon is a co-operative and narrative-driven readathon that sounds so freaking cool! It runs from January 24th - March 7th. You can find the first post with all the details and the beginning of the story here! In the Pondathon there are teams and each team has a unique ability and can do different things to earn points to save the pond. I joined Team Xiaolong because I am the worst mood reader I...

Top Ten Tuesday #270: Misleading covers

Today's Topic:  Five Misleading Covers Happy Tuesday! This week is all about deceptive covers. It always irks me when I pick up a book expecting something that seems obvious from the cover but find something totally different inside. It's definitely preferable when a book's image matches what's inside, but you know what they say about judging by covers! I almost didn't even pick up Grace Year at all because of the pretty, pink cover. I assumed this was a contemporary romance and totally not my kind of read. Looking at the cover I never would have guessed that it's an absolutely brutal feminist dystopia novel that would...

Weekly Recap: 1/19 - 1/25

HAPPENINGS OFF THE BLOG Hi everyone! This week has thankfully been pretty calm compared to the last several. I spent the entire week dreading my upcoming wisdom teeth removal. Honestly, can someone just come make me soup every day and listen to me whine? I cannot express how much I do not want to go through with this awful procedure. Who even invented wisdom teeth, anyway? On Friday I went outside to run because the weather was nice and the weather app said zero percent chance of rain. Guess what happened when I was a mile away from home? :) Aside from those things, the last several days have been relatively nice. I caught up...

Spine-tingling Saturday #11: Something Walks Whistling

Happy Saturday, bookworms! Today I'm bringing back a (revamped) feature for my fellow horror lovers. If you've spent some time around the blog you may know that, despite the fact that I mostly review fantasy, I also have a deep love of horror. In the past, Spine-tingling Saturdays were all about Reddit's NoSleep stories that I found to be particularly amazing and that's what you'll find in today's post. In the future, though, I plan to use this feature to discuss other stories from around the internet, as well as novellas, short stories, movies, and more. All things horror will live here! I haven't quite decided yet how often this feature...

Audiobook Review: The Toll by Neal Shusterman

Title: The Toll (Arc of a Scythe #3)  Author: Neal Shusterman Publication Date: November 5, 2019Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers Pages: 625Add to Goodreads Reviews for book 1 & book 2 It’s been three years since Rowan and Citra disappeared; since Scythe Goddard came into power; since the Thunderhead closed itself off to everyone but Grayson Tolliver. In this pulse-pounding conclusion to New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman’s Arc of a Scythe trilogy, constitutions are tested and old friends are brought back from the dead. When I jumped back into the Arc of a Scythe series a few weeks ago...

Top Ten Tuesday #269: Recent additions

Today's Topic:  The Ten Most Recent Additions to My Bookshelf Happy Tuesday! This topic was a super easy one since all I had to do was take a glance back through my weekly recap posts! Recently I've added a lot more adult fantasy to my shelves. Although I haven't actually read many of these yet, I can't WAIT to get to Prince of Fools and Master of Sorrows! Have you read any of them?  Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. ...

Weekly Recap: 1/12 - 1/18

HAPPENINGS OFF THE BLOG Hi everyone! This week has surprisingly been less busy for me. This year I've decided to make a work schedule and actually stick to it, which can be really difficult when you work from home. So far I've totally stuck to it and it has left me with weekends WIDE OPEN! What even do people do with so much free time?? I've been filling my time reading weird horror novellas and short stories. Is anyone, ANYONE into weird fiction? Do you have any weird horror recs? Because I NEED them! The Events at Poroth Farm was recommended to me but I didn't find it spooky enough to fit the brief.  The strangest thing...

The great audiobook debate - Do they count?

I see this discussion come up on Twitter and Facebook every so often and it seems to be making a comeback. Certain people believe that audiobooks don't "count," especially towards reading goals like the Goodreads Challenge. The argument I see most often is that listening is fundamentally different from reading words on a page - but is it really? To answer this question I took to the interwebs, searching for opinions and studies on this topic. By and large it seems like actual research points to physical copies and audiobooks being the same to our brains. Meanwhile, readers on social media constantly bicker over whether listening to audiobooks...

Audiobook Review: Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman

Title: Thunderhead (Arc of a Scythe #2) Author: Neal Shusterman Publication Date: January 9, 2018Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young ReadersPages: 504Add to Goodreads Review for book 1 Rowan has gone rogue, and has taken it upon himself to put the Scythedom through a trial by fire. Literally. In the year since Winter Conclave, he has gone off-grid, and has been striking out against corrupt scythes—not only in MidMerica, but across the entire continent. He is a dark folk hero now—“Scythe Lucifer”—a vigilante taking down corrupt scythes in flames. Citra, now a junior scythe under Scythe Curie, sees the corruption and wants...

Top Ten Tuesday #268: Bookish Discoveries

Today's Topic:  Bookish Discoveries I Made In 2019 Happy Tuesday! This is definitely one of those open ended topics I dread every year, but hurray for me! I actually came up with things I discovered last year! Well, not so much discovered as discovered that I liked them because none of these are secrets. XD  BOOKSLEEVES - Seriously, I had NEVER used a booksleeve before 2019. Like, I knew they existed, I just never thought I needed one. It turns out they are super useful! ADULT FANTASY - Okay yes, I knew this existed too, but I discovered that I LIKE it! I haven't really reviewed many because I haven't gotten to them,...

Weekly Recap: 1/6 - 1/11

HAPPENINGS OFF THE BLOG Hi everyone! This has been a weird week but I did accomplish to read a few books! Getting back into the swing of things after the holiday season is always a bit wonky. I finally hit the treadmill after another week off and now I'm starting to get nervous about that upcoming 10k next month... Whoops! Hopefully I'll be able to prepare fully for it. Unfortunately I'm now finding myself in a bit of a reading slump with no ideas about how to get out of it. Yay, me! NEW BOOKS THIS WEEK THIS WEEK I READ     IN CASE YOU MISSED IT The topic was anticipated 2020 reads...