I was looking for some time away for Twitter at the end of July. Does social media have that effect on you too when you are tired of all the drama and yourself just scrolling through feeds you don’t like? I was tired and defected and wanted to do something more creative. Fortunately, one of the Armed with A Bingo readers shared the BookstaSwiftiesfolklore challenge and I decided to take part for two reasons:
- It is inspired by Taylor Swift and I love her work. I had already been looking for ways to link songs to books so here was my opportunity to try!
- Like I said, I was craving some creative time without the deadlines and stress. I have touched on the blogging aspect of this stress in my mid-year reflection, and that inspired me to try my hand at a medium I had ignored to give more time to my blog.
In this post you will find the prompts for the challenge, my response to (most of) the prompts as well as some lessons learned with regards to my enjoyment in this, focus on the blog through August and Instagram.
The Prompts of BookstaSwiftiesfolklore challenge
Though the challenge came about due to Taylor Swift’s latest album, Folklore, some of the songs are from her earlier albums. I don’t think I would have heard the lakes if I had not seen it on the prompt graphic as an anticipated release. Though I could not answer all the prompts, here’s what I did for each.
Day 1 – We begin with 🎶august 🎶 from folklore, and sure enough at the end of the month we will say “August sipped away”. I had 4 books in mind for this month.
Day 2 – First book in a series
I’m choosing BLOOD OF ELVES from The Witcher novels. I think the chorus of the song speaks to the relationship between Geralt and Yennefer. I read this before I learned about THE LAST WISH or watched the amazing Netflix series and hope to go back to it at some point after reading the short story collection. ⠀
Day 3 – Fictional outfit you wished you owned
There is something about ancient dresses from Egypt, Rome and other ancient empires. I love this one from CLEOPATRA’S MOON! If you have not picked up this #HistoricFiction, I highly recommend it. This was a wonderful story about Cleopatra’s daughter and though was young, the decisions she makes show that she has strong and knew what she was doing. Hence, the relation to this song :)⠀
Day 4 – The One True Pairing
Lazlo and Sarai from Strange the Dreamer series. I read this series with Erynn couple months back and it was such a good feeling to be glued to books, reading about destinies of another world. Lazlo and Sarai were meant to meet and be together and I think the story does a phenomenal job of making that possible. Check out the discussions for Strange the Dreamer and Muse of Nightmares.
Day 5 – Fierce females
Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series and spinoffs have the most memorable cast of females in my mind.
Kahlan, the Mother Confessor, has the power to touch someone and make them hers. They are overwhelmed with an infatuation and need to please her and will kill themselves if she asks them to. She is the only one left of her kind, the last Confessor who can continue the line of Confessors. She might wear a long white dress, but she is a fighter, a diplomat, a leader. She understands and reads Richard in a way no one else can. She is one of the strongest female protagonists I have met in Fiction.
Nikki is a sorceress who is originally an enemy to Richard, but he succeeds in winning her friendship.
The Mord Sith are women warriors, who wear red or white leather depending on whether there is a threat or not and protect the Lord Rahl with their lives.
They are all indeed fearless and I love each and every one of them.
Day 6 – Summer or beach read
Love, Rosie is one of my favorite books by Cecelia Ahern and the movie was quite fantastic too. I love going back to both productions of the story.
Written in the form of messages, emails, notes and letters between two friends and their kids, this is a lovely story that always rugs at my heart strings. Will these two best friends end up together? A journey over decades of correspondences.
Day 7 – Finally going to read soon
I got a digital review copy for Crossings through NetGalley but I couldn’t not buy the book. It can be read in a linear form, one page to the next, or I can hop between sections and traverse the story another way. It seemed to easy to do it on kindle so went ahead and bought the book! I’ve heard excellent things about it and hope to pick it up this month!
Day 8 – Female villain
The #IlluminaeFiles was my buddy read with Ariel this year and it has a fierce female villain! We enjoyed the setting in the future and in space. The diverse set of characters was good though Kady and Ezra from the first book were our favorite pair.
Looking for a book with lots of action, a different format consisting of conversations on secure channels and an AI that thinks? Try out this series. Book 1 Illuminae in particular is very good!
Day 9 – Rainy day reads – it’s nice to read poetry on rainy days and this collection The Truth about Magic by Atticus has a special place in my heart because of some of the phrases in it. This book has lots of images to go with the words and it’s a nice read.
Day 10 – Based on a Myth
One of my current reads is CIRCE by Mandeline Miller. I am taking it slow with the book and enjoying the writing and the world. Learning about Greek mythology in this way is quite fun! The map is gorgeous, like the rest of the book design!
Oh about the cat – That’s Milo, my parents’ cat.
Day 11 – Forever re-reading
The sign of a well loved book is a binding done at a later time and yellowing pages. FRIDAY’s CHILD by Georgette Heyer is a book I go back to, if not once a year then once ever couple years. There is innocence and humour in this book that tugs at my heart strings and never grows old.
Day 12 – Series Cover changes
I love both versions of The Lunar Chronicles. I have the set on the left and maybe one day, will collect the ones on the right. Which one do you have?
Day 13 – Book finale
Between Starfalls by my friend SK had one of the best finales I have ever read for book 1 of a series! I really enjoyed this book and was engrossed in it for day and even had a favourite page! Fiona gave me lots of company while reading this book.
Day 14 – Book you still think about
A LITTLE PRINCESS is one of my favorite stories. I loved the Japanese #anime Princess Sarah growing up and it added details to the characters and setting in its unique manner. I plan to revisit this book sometimes soon!
Day 15 – Surprised you
I am #currentlyreading SARA SEAGER’s The Smallest Lights in the Universe – A Memoir. I had my friend Lauren @lauren.sigggy choose a book from my options last night and this was the one she picked up. I love memoirs and wasn’t expecting to love this one so much. I relate to Sara’s personal and professional journey at so many levels. Her connection with her father and her research to find exoplanets is seamlessly integrated into the narrative. I also love how her thoughts about astronomy and planets relate to everyday life situations. I am about 30% done and I can’t seem to put it down! I have already shed tears and taken so many notes and lessons! Out August 18th, so far this is one of my favorite books of this year, and yes, I haven’t even completed it.
Day 16 – Anticipated release – I am excited to dive into THE MIDNIGHT BARGAIN by Canadian author C. L. Polk, out October 2020! Thanks to Erewhon Books, I have an #advancedreaderscopy via #netgalley!
Day 17 – Book you want signed
I read JANE EYRE a number of times during junior high. It is one of those texts that returned to me in school at least twice and I loved the story so much that I own multiple copies of it. The one of the right is from 2006, gifted to me by my aunt. I got the one on the left last year. I would love for this one to be signed but as we know, Jane Eyre is a very old book so I can only hope for it to be signed by my friends and family if anyone gifts me another edition!
“I would always rather be happy than dignified.” – Because having someone write in my books makes me happy and people who don’t mark their books would likely call it undignified.
Day 20 – We are talking debut author today on day twenty of #bookstaswiftiesfolklore challenge and I wanted to share my friend Erynn’s books. We became friends after I reviewed her first book and it is a pleasure to watch her grow as a writer and to be her friend. 💕
Day 23 – Autumn Reads
As summer is coming to an end here, I’m looking forward to reading THE POPPY WAR with @inkandplasma ☺️
Day 24 – Book to movie
Have you watched Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of #littlewoman? I recently watched #littlewomenmovie and that got me interested in rereading the book. It’s been fun to compare the parts that the screen adaptation did not cover! Nothing major but tweaks here and there!
I was also thinking about the similarities between Little Women and Pride and Prejudice. Both have strong female leads who are the second oldest. Maybe it was jus the time in which they were set that the oldest was focused on marrying and the youngest did all the blunders?
Day 29 – Number in Title
This one is also a prompt on our bingo board! Though this is an earlier post, I thought I would add it here. Check out Station Eleven review and discussion when you have a chance!
Day 31 – Wrap Up
I read only 2 of the 4 books I set out to read at the beginning but I did read a whole bunch others. 🙂 A page from my bullet journal.
Takeaways
Related to Instagram
There were days when I did post as part of the challenge but I still felt like posting something else! It was nice to see the creative juices flowing and I enjoyed the ideas I came up with and implemented for the book staging. A trip to the craft store found me some wonderful accessories – I gravitate towards the flowers and the angels. And Fiona!
There was a day when I wondered about following and numbers. Unlike my blog which has been tainted by these thoughts and metrics before, Instagram has been purely for pleasure. Keeping that in mind helped me combat that those thoughts. Ultimately, I am no influencer. I have been book blogging for a year and bookstagraming for a month – that isn’t much at all! I read for fun and numbers should not mess with that! I am going to continue to work with that mindset!
Related to Armed with A Book
I told myself this month that I was not going to stress about the blog and posting everyday. I scheduled ideas as I got them. I did not organize my book list for the month. I ended up posting 22 days out of 31, all without the stress! 🙂
It is fun to try new things and push ourselves. Sometimes its as easy as reading about a new topic while other times, we have to follow a schedule that someone else set up for us.
The BookstaSwiftiesfolklore challenge was a wonderful palette cleanser for me. I was surrounded by beautiful book staging on Instagram and looking at my books with new eyes. Putting this little props together in a photo helped dissipate worries and focus on what I wanted to show. I am still learning the platform and trying to come up with creative ways to post there, short reviews and more. I am also looking to collaborate with other readers and writers on Instagram. So if you are one, reach out to me in the comments or connect with me on Instagram. Ideas are more than welcome. 🙂
Banner image from Unsplash.
I didn’t know about this challenge! I may use it as a blogging prompt, as you did in this post! I can think of a bunch of great books that would fit the categories…
That’s a great idea! Looking forward to seeing your selection for the prompts. Tag me or DM me the link when it’s live. 🙂