[2019 in Books for Book lovers] Evelina's Books

13 min read

I connected with Evelina from Avalinah Books when I first started book blogging. We both love tracking and making charts of our reading data! She has been a book reviewer for about 3 years now and I am still learning the tricks of the trade from her. It’s an absolute pleasure to call her a friend. 🙂

Like all posts in the 2019 in books series, remember that Evelina’s words are in italics and since this is a bookish discussion, all book links open in a new tab so that you can refer to them afterwards.

Evelina

Welcome to Armed with A Book, Evelina. 🙂 Tell me a little bit about your love for books.

So very nice to be here! Thank you, Kriti, for inviting me to collab on this post. First of all, let me tell you a little bit about how I know her – I was having a really tough time with blogging for many, many reasons back when we met, and was almost about to quit blogging – in fact, she first wrote me right before I took quite a long hiatus.

At that time, I felt lonely in the blogosphere and out of tune with everyone else, so Kriti’s friendly and very upbeat attitude was such a lovely surprise for me. I may have not mentioned this before, but I was smiling every time she wrote me a message! She was always full of post ideas which motivated me a lot, but at the time, I couldn’t come back to blogging – and what I found the sweetest is that Kriti never gave up on me, even when I’d disappear (I suck at DMing these days!!) And here I am, finally doing a post with her 🙂

I did not realize my little messages meant so much, Evelina. I am glad that you are here! 🙂

Anyway, my love of books has morphed into new forms many times during my time blogging! I remember when I first started out, I was quite picky about my genres, and even judgemental (shame!!) about some of the genres or tropes I didn’t tend to read. Blogging has taught me to branch out, understand more and try new things, and mostly, to not judge – and during my time in this community, I have found many new things I thought I wouldn’t care about that I can’t live without now! The funny thing is that I also used to scratch my head at people who read 200-300 books a year and totally didn’t understand HOW they’d do it. It used to make me annoyed that I can’t do the same! The most I’d been able to achieve up to that point was a little bit over 100. Now… Well, the year isn’t over, but I’m at around 180. And it didn’t even really take effort. Go figure!

Reading for me is a favorite pastime, it’s something I like doing more than anything else! It quiets my mind when I can’t sleep, it helps me learn new things, it makes my time here so much more interesting. I read a lot of different things – mostly general fiction, scifi and nonfiction. But I don’t like saying which genres I love best, cause I’ve loved books in almost any genre! Although currently, I’m on a huge nonfiction binge – it’s just that nonfiction keeps you interested without dragging your emotions all over the place – even if it’s about problematic things, I find nonfiction easier to read these days because it helps me stay more calm than when I read fiction. You know what I mean, fantasy lovers – worrying about favorite characters is great, but also very exhausting!

And as this has been your first year book blogging, even if maybe not the full year yet – I would like to ask you what you have learned in 2019, when it comes to reading and blogging?

I have been blogging for a long time. Before writing about books, as a compliment to my education, I used to write about teaching and learning and computing science – all my fields of studies. But I chose not to go into teaching when I finished school in April and had to find something else to focus on. Being an avid reader, trying out bookblogging seemed like a great fit. Originally, I wasn;t even sure if I could write a review! My friends who are also avid readers were quite supportive and encouraged me to approach bookblogging the way I wanted to, rather than how other people were doing it. Create my own norm instead of follow the trend.

During my degree, I had loved the boom analysis I did as part of my Comparative literature courses. I enjoyed reading, picking out themes in the book and marking quotes I could use. Our professors used to provide the themes list but when I started reviewing, I had to find the themes that mattered to me, and I think I have gotten better at it.

I have learned the importance of routine in reading and writing everyday through bookblogging on Armed with A Book. I love collaborating and I am happy to have become part of a community where everyone wants to talk about books. Most importantly though, I have learned to be myself… to write and read because I want to. I don’t worry about who reads my stuff. I just read and write and be happy. And enjoy talking to authors! 🙂

What are some things you have learned from the bookblogging community?

Oh, a lot of things. It’s incredibly hard to sum it up when it’s been three years! But perhaps one of the biggest things I’ve learned, and this is going to be a serious sounding one, but it is that you don’t always know who your true friends are – that’s both in a negative and positive way. To stay focused on the positive, what I mean is that sometimes your truest friends are the people who sit in the corner quietly and don’t get your attention too many times, but when you need support, they’ll suddenly pop out of nowhere and be there for you, even show you a lot of kindness you may not think you deserve. It’s truly a wonderful thing. I mean, this isn’t just a book blogging thing – it’s a general “life-people” thing, but I guess I’ve only learned it through book blogging, because we don’t tend to know so many people in real life, as opposed to our online communities. There are countless people in the book blogging community whom I’ve only “noticed” because of challenges that I was going through, when they were suddenly there for me and supported me when I needed help. And this doesn’t only mean in terms of book blogging or community related things – so many of them have been there for me through personal crisis, I can’t even tell you!

Do you participate in the Goodreads Reading Challenge or set reading goals for yourself? If yes, how do you usually choose this goal and what was your goal for this year?

Yes! In fact, this comes back to the part where I said I’m now at roughly 180 books. The funny thing about it is… That during my first year blogging, I tried tried tried to read 100 and.. Barely managed. Trying sucked SO BAD and stressed me out so much that I said, to hell with it! Not gonna do this to myself next year. So in my second year of blogging… I set my goal to 52 (roughly a book a week), and… lo and behold, chilled out from the low goal, I somehow read more than during that first stressful year!!

I was baffled, so I set my third year to be at 52 as well. You’ve already heard the rest of the story 😂 so now I’m not sure what I’ll do about the next year. Perhaps setting it at 100 can be my new “low”? 😂

Have you made plans about your goal yet?

180 is such a big number! I have not even made it to a 100 yet. I’m at 83 at the time of writing this and will not make it to 100 I know. As much as my reading goal is a motivator in reading more, I honestly don’t think I need it the same way anymore. With writing about books and doing author interviews, bookblogging has become a part of my life these past six months. The goal was important when I had school and so many things could take me away from reading. It isn;t the case anymore. Will I still set up a goal? I’m sure I will! I haven’t decided for next year yet. Have you?

I’ve been thinking about it… Actually, setting it to the same 52 seems silly now, so maybe I’ll just go with a nice round 100 again, and see where it goes from there.

How do you choose your books to read?

Complicated question! It’s sort of a mixture between:

Books ~~that find me~~ that I find on NetGalley or Edelweiss (these days I only grab read-nows so I don’t feel guilty about being late with the review or only reviewing on Goodreads / Amazon)
Books that I’ve bought or downloaded before (after 3 years of blogging? It’s quite enough 😂)
Books some bloggers recommend and I can’t help buying straight away
Books I’ve marked as want-to-read as long as five years ago, and they come up on sale (I usually find out through eReaderIQ.com alerts or some newsletter, which, let me tell you, I am certainly subbed to too many 😂)

Let me know about how you choose your books 🙂

Since you mentioned the Read-Nows to me on NetGalley couple weeks back, I’ve been browsing them more and more. My books come from all the sources you mention above along with family, publishers (I am on a couple of publishers’ bookblogger programs) and authors and their agents who contact me. I use the synopsis usually to decide if I am going to read the book.

About the books this year

Did you read any books this year that got you thinking about your writing style? How did these books inspire you?

Hmm.. Actually, no. I don’t tend to think about my writing style! My blog is made up of just my thoughts, and I don’t actually think too much about it! It’s, honestly, just my honest opinion! Apart from that, there’s no other writing I do. I have never seen myself as a writer – only as a blogger. You can actually read more about it here!

I totally agree with you said in the post. I came to a similar conclusion during my first three months (Who is a writer?). I have written stories before but I don’t know if I will write one again. Part of me knows that I will have to give up time I spend reading and writing – all my free time – towards writing a book and I don’t want that right now. I enjoy this all too much 🙂

Were there any books this year that challenged your thinking or you learned a lot from?

Oh yeah, definitely. In part, that’s why I read, after all! The most mind-blowing series that I read this year has got to be Lilith’s Brood (also known as the Xenogenesis series) by Octavia E. Butler – a series I didn’t review on the blog, cause for some books, you just want to keep your thoughts to yourself, especially if you don’t feel like you’d be able to sum it up in a post. I really enjoyed that series – it’s about the most imaginative and philosophically challenging thing I have read, EVER.

It looks so good!!

Did you read any books that had practical strategies to apply to life?

Yes, and it would be an unusual candidate, cause it’s a book that’s centered on being kinder to others – not a thing practiced or cherished too much in modern society. It’s called A Year of Living Kindly: Choices That Will Change Your Life and the World Around You – and you can read my review of it here. It’s also a book I could recommend to a lot of people, as it’s very easy to read, the advice is bite sized and it will probably help you become a better person, or at least see why you would want to be.

I know it is hard to give recommendations, especially when we read so many books in a year! If you had to choose, tell me about four books that I should check out and why.

Oh my god, yes… After nearly 180 books, it’s pretty hard to choose. Well, I’ve already recommended some above – so I’m going to assume you know you need to read those! And I’m going to use the chance to recommend some more.

Books that Evelina recommends from her 2019 reading list

So first of all… I want to recommend EVERYTHING by author Ruthanne Reid. I’ve read three of her books since that first one that I’m going to mainly mention here – and I’ll be reviewing those soon too – but the one that’s still my favorite is The Sundered (review). Wow, that book is wild. Kind of totally blew my mind, and I couldn’t unglue myself from it. That story is bigger than life!

But it’s not just that. The Sundered is sort of an off-shoot to her main series, Among the Mythos, I mean – it’s part of the series, but it’s not about the same people. But the thing is, the Mythos world that Ruthanne Reid builds.. Is just WOW. I’ve really enjoyed every book in it and I can’t wait to read more. There is just something magical about authors making up a world of their own and basing all their books strictly in that world. It’s just so real then!

I totally agree! By the way, I just got The Sundered which you had recommended. 😀

Another book I should recommend is Stay and Fight, and it’s also very special. It’s about people who are different, who choose to live a rebellious, sort of hippie life and just want to be left alone, but society won’t let them be. The book was amazing, and I won’t go into too much detail – you can just read my review. The book is so worth it!

Speaking of people who are different, Have You Seen Luis Velez also qualifies. It’s just such a touching, warm, beautiful book! And it has ace rep, and so much diversity. And it’s just a wonderful and painfully beautiful story. One of the best books of the year for me! Also, I totally read it because I read a blogger’s review. That’s for those who say we don’t have reach. See review here.

And the last recommendation… Well, I’m torn between two, so have both! The Girl Who Drank The Moon (review link) is great for all fantasy lovers – even those who don’t really go out of their way to read middle grade – it’s an amazing book that somehow manages to fit a full, living and almost breathing world onto its pages. And the other one would be a book everyone already knows about and knows why they should read – it made me both laugh and cry. And of course, it’s Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine (review link).

Among the ones I mentioned, do you think there’s one or two you’ll consider reading next year?

Like I mentioned, I just recently (like half an hour ago of writing this) got The Sundered so that’s on my list for 2020. Stay and Fight sounds really good too. I think I’m going all the ones you mentioned to my TBR and as they come on sale, buy them and read them!

The Year Ahead

Would you change anything, whether it is your reading habits, review routine or reading goal, for 2020?

That’s a hard question to answer… I don’t think so. In essence, I guess that’s because during this year I did change it! I still read about the same amount as I used to, but now I’m much more free about reviewing the books. I used to get super stressed about writing all the reviews and publishing them on my blog – now, I’ve decided that only books that specifically moved me will be reviewed on the blog. The rest can go on Goodreads and Amazon, because there’s no reason for me to spend three hours writing up a post on every book I read. Imagine how many hours that would be, at 180 books a year! A big old nope is what it is. So now I’m trying to read more stress-free, and so far, it’s really been working out for me! That’s something I could wish for every blogger, as I know we are incredibly prone to overstressing ourselves with our hobby!

This has been so much fun, Evelina! Thank you so much for spending some time with me talking books. I hope we can collaborate again in 2020.