Where have I been?

     As you all may have noticed, I have been gone from YouTube and my blogs for a LONG time. This post is going to explain why. 
     I hope you will take time to read this post and hopefully it answers any questions you may have, for starters, my family and I moved into our own house!! We are now home owners, this process took up a lot of my time with packing, and cleaning, I didn't have time for videos or posts. Another thing is I started school, I started a Community College program, but because of moving, and my next obstacle, I had to quit school because it was too much to juggle. The reason I had to leave my school program is also because I was working. I work at Wal-Mart as a cashier, and my hours would fluctuate all of the time, I had no time for reading, or writing or anything except for work. 
     Now that we've hit 2016 and my family and I are all settled in and I'm not working as much, I have a goal to keep this blog updated and my channel is going to start back up soon as well. I miss doing it, I have fun doing both, and I've met some great people who make Booktube videos and who have blogs. I have various goals for this year, most of which are book related goals, so I am going to try my hardest to keep those goals, and meet those goals. 

Maybe this post wasn't as long as I expected it to be, I have mentioned everything I needed to and I feel like this explains everything. Here's to a new year, and here's to reaching your goals, whatever they are. 

Book Review: This Star Won't Go Out

Title: This Star Won't Go Out
Author:  Esther Earl, Lori Earl and Wayne Earl

Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers

Publication Date: January 28, 2014

Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir, Biography

My Star Rating: 5/5 Stars!

Summary:

A collection of the journals, fiction, letters, and sketches of the late Esther Grace Earl, who passed away in 2010 at the age of 16. Photographs and essays by family and friends will help to tell Esther’s story along with an introduction by award-winning author John Green who dedicated his #1 bestselling novel The Fault in Our Stars to her. 

     My thoughts on this book are as follows, when I first heard of this book I thought I knew what it was about and I knew what to expect, but when I actually bought my copy and read it, I realized it was more than I imagined. 

     Esther Earl is a girl you can relate to, yes she has cancer but you never realize it, you never realize how much she's really hurting and fighting as you read her funny journal entries. She is a character you grow attached to, I definitely see some similarities between Esther and Hazel from TFIOS. As the summary states, TFIOS was dedicated to her by John Green. In this book you see photos and an entry from John himself when he met with Esther. She was the inspiration/creator of Nerdfighters, a fan base dedicated to Harry Potter, and other things.
     In this book you learn about Esther and her family, it's not a boring biography in any way. You feel like you become part of her family, you grow attached to Esther and her family, when I read the part where she was in the hospital for the last time and she took her last breathe, I started crying like someone died in my life. That's the kind of connection you feel, this book makes you feel every emotion, Sadness, Happiness, Envy (how she can be so strong), Sorrow etc. Every kind of emotion came out whilst I read this book, I was envious of her because she has the strength I wish I had, she had no care in the world, she was full of joy, and laughter, she was, as her name states, A Star.  

                                                                  ~Rest In Awesome Esther!~

       

How to Enjoy Reading.

 

     This post is going to be focusing on a question that I'm sure lots of you would like to know, but are afraid to ask.This is going to be talking about, how to enjoy reading. I wanted to do a post on this because of Elle Fowler a.k.a Ellesglittergossip or Allthatglitters21 on youtube, she did a video on this and I though that it would be a great topic to post about.

     Here are some of my personal thoughts on how to enjoy reading, as well as some thoughts that Elle talked about. 

     First off, I think that it helps to have a natural desire to read. I get my love for reading from my grandmother, she always has a stack of books next to her recliner, and her bed. I think that it comes naturally to people, but not always, you could also develop a desire as you grow older as well. I always loved reading books when I was younger, I read ZooBooks, Junie B Jones books, and so many others as well. But sometimes, people who have always despised reading, can develop a love.

     The next thing I'm going to suggest is find out what you enjoy reading. Don't think that you need to read what everyone else is reading because you want to look cool, read what YOU want to. What I suggest is to go into a library or a bookstore and just walk all over, check out every section, and if something interests you in the Non-Fiction section, GRAB IT. Don't feel like you have to read what everyone else reads, you don't. If you have an interest in books on interior decorating, get them, if you have an interest in horror, grab the book! I have a BUNCH of different genres that range from poetry, to a history book about the Titanic, and some young adult as well. So branch out and grab whatever interests you, if you don't like the book you checked out (if you went to a library) you can always bring it back. 

      Another thing, Reading in School!! Ugh, I know a lot of you probably made that noise. I did not like reading in english class, we read certain books in class that I didn't end up enjoying or remembering details of because I couldn't focus on the book. Reading in school could be a major bummer for those of us who dislike reading to begin with.A lot of kids in my class, when they found out that we had to read a certain book would purposly miss class so they didn't have to read the book. (I know that is a little extreme, but hey it's their choice) Being forced to read is one of the worst feelings in the world, especially when you dislike the topic you're reading about. In my class,one year, we read a book called Night by Ellie Wiesel, which is a book that talks about WWII. I don't like to learn about the Holocost at all, so having to read about it, from a Jewish person's perspective, really made me upset. 

     Another way to help you enjoy reading is to develop a routine to make your reading experience fun. So tonight, or whenever you have free time, try this method, grab the book you bought from the bookstore, or took out from the library, and read for 15 minutes. What I do sometimes, to make it more pleasureable for me, is I'll make sure I'm all cozy in my bed, turn the T.V off, and I'll sometimes make a hot drink, like tea, and I'll sit in my bed all covered up, nice and comfy, and just read. This is a great thing because if you're in a cozy, safe place, and you're reading you have no distractions and you could even finish your book. If you do all of this, and start reading but aren't enjoying the book, put the book down. Don't force yourself to read the book, it'll only make you upset. 

     I'm almost done, I have one more thing to discuss. find a book version of your favorite movie! There are a lot of book to movie adaptations, and nine times out of ten, the book is a lot better than the movie. The most common adaptation is Harry Potter! This is the most common book to movie adaptation, I made the mistake and watched the movies before reading the books. (Little secret, I haven't read all of the Harry Potter books) There are so many others that are newer adaptations, like Divergent, The Fault in Our Stars, and even The Hunger Games! All of these movies, I read the books first and I LOVED them. Anyways, my point is, if you enjoy a movie a lot but never read the book, read the book, and maybe you'll enjoy it as much, if not more than the movie!

     That's what I have for advice on How to Enjoy Reading, I hope you guys enjoyed this and I hope you try at least one of these methods. Hopefully these methods will help you to develop a love for reading, or increase your desire. Thank you so much for reading this! Hope you all have an awesome day.

I'm baaaack!!!

     Hey everyone! Where have I been, you may be wondering. I will tell you, I went through a terrible break up on December 15th. I found out that my boyfriend of 3 years, found another girl I found this out because I needed answers as to why he said he didn't feel the spark between us anymore,and I needed them right THEN so, since he was going to make me wait 3 days, I went on his facebook (I knew his password) and I found out that he was in a relationship with another girl! I was kind of upset as you could probably imagine, so the last thing on my mind was blogging, or reading or even making YouTube videos.

     But now, that its January 2015, a new year I'm going to say the cliche thing, new year, new me! This couldn't be more true, I'm going to be posting on this blog and my new horror blog, BournToScream, as much as possible!! I have SO many ideas to write about, I've also been starting to get back into making videos and even reading. It is a gradual process, but I know I can do it. I've also been taking counseling sessions, and because of that I've been diagnosed with depression and anxiety,which is another factor to why I haven't been active, I can not stay focused long enough. But I am chaging that as fast as I can.

     My posts that I have lined up for you guys are:

• 'How To Enjoy Reading?'
• End of December Book Haul
• New ideas for my channel

     Those and SO many more things are upcoming!! I hope you are all as excited as I am! 
I'm also working on a contemporary novel which is SUPER exciting. I used to write all of the time when I was younger, but I never finished anything I started. I'd write a little of something, say to myself "This is crappy, who'd want to read this?" and start something else. But this one, I'm going to stick to and edit it once I've completed it!
     Anyways, that is where I have been! But now I'm back and here to stay! I love blogging, it helps me to relax and it gets my mind working. Aside from a crazy kitten who steps on my laptop every 2 minutes causing things to pop up left and right, I'm happy with this post, and I hope you all enjoyed a little update and look forward to my 'End of December book haul' as my next post!!

Discussion: eReaders vs. Books!

     This was another thing I became inspired from by LittleBookOwl on YouTube. She had this discussion where she was listing the pros and cons for both eReaders and actual books, and also which one she prefers in various situations. That is kind of what I'm going to be talking about in this post. 

     Okay first off, I have a Kindle Fire and I love it. I love how it's synced with my Amazon account. I also love getting e-mails every day showing me my Kindle Daily Deals, which lists a bunch of apps, books, etc on clearance.But there are also some flaws about it. 

• You can't read it in the bath tub
• You lose the experience of going to a book store
• You lose the feeling of the book 
• You have to charge it when the battery dies
• You can't drop them in a puddle and still read them

    Okay, those are only a few flaws. Now there are a lot more good things about eReaders.
They vary anywhere from being able to eat with one hand and flip pages with the other, something you can't really do with an actual book. You can also, take a bunch of books with you at once! If, for example, you're going on a trip and you want to take some books with you, but don't want to wear down your luggage, you can download as many as you'd like on your eReader and take that with you instead. Another good thing about eReaders compared to books is the expense. For eBooks you'll pay a lot less on one book than you would if you went to a book store. 

     Now we're on to regular books:





          I do have pros and cons for physical books believe it or not. I do pick up actual books more than my Kindle Fire. Actual books, I feel are more "useful" at times than eBooks.


                                                                                                                                                                                                              The Cons of regular books are:

• When you eat, crumbs and other parts of your food can fall between your pages 

     That's really the only flaw I can think of with physical books. As you can probably tell, I prefer physical books over eBooks. I've aquired more physical books than eBooks, and I just love the feel, smell, and look of physical books. eBooks you don't get the greatness of feeling the cover of the book, or smelling the smell of some older books, (I hope I'm not too strange for saying I smell my books), and, they don't really have eBooks at the library. 

     So that is my opinion on eBooks vs. Physical books! I hope I share some of the same thoughts as you. Let me know! Thank you for reading this post, I hope you enjoyed it. 

Birthday Book Haul!

This is a post that is long over due! I'm so sorry! This is my birthday book haul!! I bought ten books with my birthday money! I will show photos of what I got below! I will also post my video talking about each book so that you know the descriptions of each one!

 

I'm so excited to read the books I bought! I'm currently reading, 'Boy Meets Boy' from this pile, I love it so far. Thank you for being patient with my lack of posting, I've been busy with work and such.
Here is my video so you can find out what the books are about:
http://youtu.be/9jZ6qGwLHTE

101 Things I Love.

     Hi! I know I've been MIA a lot, but I've been working a lot and haven't had time to blog. But that is all going to be fixed TODAY with this post. It is the '101 Things I Love Tag' made by Amber from TheMileLongBookShelf. Basically, there is a list, 1-101 that you fill out with things you love! Simple right? Here I goes!

1. Rice
2. Rainy Days
3. Daydreaming
4. YouTube
5. Reading
6. Video Games (mostly the SIMS 2 and Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing for WII)
7. Pretty stationery. 
8. Chex Mix BOLD flavor
9. Spongebob
10. Sarcasm.
11. FOOD
12. Blogging
13. People who say "please" and "thank you."
14. Cats (I love all animals too btw)
15. Coffee!!
16. Writing.
17. Twitter.
18. Being Alone
19. Pizza
20. Make Up.
21. Taking photos
22. Doritos, Spicy Nacho flavor
23. Nail Polish
24. People with a British Accent
25. School Supplies, I'm weird I know
26. Coloring with Crayons
27. Doodling
28. Crafting and Making Jewelry
29. The sofa.
30. Miniature things, (soda cans, trial sized items, pens, notebooks, wallets etc.)
31. London.
32. Jennifer Lawrence.
33. Ellen Degeneres
34. My penpal!!
35. Peanut Butter
36. Autumn
37. The SIMS 2 for Wii
38. Making YouTube Videos talking about Books
39. I love people who are charitable, they donate to the poor, toys for tots, give homeless people money 
40. Everything to do with music.
41. Quotes
42. Tattoos!
43. Singing, no I'm not good
44. Parfaits
45. Pies! (Cherry, Pumpkin, Chocolate)
46. Riding somewhere
47. Christmas!!
48. Free Samples
49. Sleep.
50. Facebook
51. Agendas
52. My Grandparents
53. Claire's
54. Costco
55. Tea
56. Patience
57. Amazon
58. Selena Gomez
59. Putting Collars on my animals
60. Pampering Myself
61. My room
62. Looking at my memory box
63. Chinese Food
64. Hello Kitty
65. Sushi!
66. Red, Purple, Blue
67. When I sneak food into the movie theaters!
68. Christmas lights, all year round.
69. Getting Mail.
70. Saying "I love You"
71. Walmart
72. Stickers.
73. My long hair
74. Hearing my nieces, 7 and 2 Laugh
75. People who can make me laugh.
76. Funny movies.
77. Halloween!.
78. Positivity
79. Nickelodeon
80. Slippers.
81. VW Beetles
82. Vintage Things
83. Polaroids.
84. Finding cute new DIY projects on Pinterest. 
85. John Green
86. Honesty. 
87. When people are nice to animals
88. Candles
89. When I know all of the lyrics to certain songs
90. Roadtrips,
91. My bed
92. Getting comments from YouTubers that you love, on your videos
93. Paintings
94. Minions
95. Wearing Boots in the Autumn
96. Getting good news!
97. Dark Chocolate
98. Putting exclamation marks after everything!!
99. Journals
100. Pasta
101. watching beauty videos and booktube videos on YouTube

There you have it! More into my life! If you want to do this tag, I tag you!