Characteristic house in Carouge, Switzerland
In My Life
Travels upon Travels
If you follow @life.revel on Instagram, you’ll know that I still am travelling. Yes, over four weeks have passed since I left home, which I will be returning to this coming week. My trip can be broken down into four main parts: Bonn & Cologne, Frankfurt Book Fair (FBM), Canton of Valais in Switzerland and Canton of Geneva in Switzerland. I’ll definitely be sharing about FBM here on the blog complete with photos. Everything else will be up on Life Revel, so be sure to subscribe if you’re interested in my travel updates.
Meeting Lovely Bloggers
An exciting part of my trip to Europe was being able to meet a bunch of bloggers. I first met Sandy in Cologne. She responded to my tweet when I asked for tips, then one tweet led to another and we agreed to a fairly impromptu meet-up for the following day. We talked and walked around town and had a pretty good time.
Of course, in tandem with FBM, I got to meet a few more bloggers. Most excitingly, Crini, Sebastian and Ellie! My plan was to not have a plan at the fair and to just go with the flow. Well, besides getting my illustrated Harry Potter signed. Turns out they had the same disposition as me, so that was fun. Going with our moods rather than chasing a fixed schedule left a lot of time for exploring whatever struck our fancy.
Book Haul
Naturally, I couldn’t in good conscience leave the FBM without a selection of books. It did take a wee bit of self-control though not to acquire more than I was allowed to check in on my flights. At the cap of one suitcase of 23kg check-in limit, I had to be careful not to pack overweight luggage. Amazingly, I managed to add 8 books (I also bought the illustrated Harry Potter in Cologne) and got through on my flight from Germany to Switzerland with 23.6kg. That was a close shave!
Of this stack, I bought 2 books:
- Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
- Naked Cakes by Lyndel Miller
The rest I received for free:
- Drama Raina Telgemeier
- Sara, Lost and Found by Virginia Castleman (ARC)
- Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys (ARC)
- Burning Midnight by Will McIntosh (ARC)
- Escaping Perfect by Emma Harrison (ARC)
Throughout October books that I had previously ordered arrived back home as well. I’ll feature them collectively in my October Overview sometime soon.
Elsewhere
Guest Blogging
For the Month of Diversity hosted at Read. Sleep. Repeat. I contributed a guest post on religious diversity in YA. Culture as a whole has always fascinated me, including religion. Amidst the calls for ethnic and cultural diversity and greater inclusion of LGBTQ themes, religion tends to be rather sidelined. That’s why I felt the need to speak up in favour of religion.
Featured
A group of bloggers came together for the BB Creativity Project and the read team has come up with a Hogwarts lesson plan incorporating book blogging and books. This week Shannelle @ The Art of Escapism hosted the Potions Class in which they sought to feature multi-skilled bloggers and mixed genre books. I’m so grateful that not one but two bloggers thought of me as Claire and Joey both thought of me. Be sure to visit Shannelle’s blog to discover new bloggers and books!
On the Blog
Blog Posts
Very few posts went live over the past few weeks. A lot more happened on Instagram, where I’ve been way more active than here on the blog. For the most part, I was diligent with contributing to Mise-en-scène: Food and Darkness. I’ll be back with other content when I’m more settled down to write again.
Book Review
Somehow I did manage to put together one book review. I reviewed Trouble is a Friend of Mine by Stephanie Tromly. It’s such a humorous mystery novel, I recommend it for anyone looking for a laugh while following a twisty plot.
Around the Blogosphere
- Mishima @ Chasing Fairytales pondered if we are going through the great blogging depression. While I wouldn’t specifically call it the, I did notice that too. More than half of my favourite bloggers are on a hiatus of sorts and I fear that more than a few won’t return to blogging. However, this phenomenon seems to be pretty cyclical. New bloggers join the community while others leave. It’s just more evident when a disproportionate number of bloggers who step back come form the circle you follow.
- Josephine @ Josie’s Book Corner ardently supports series over standalone, especially when it comes to fantasy. Me? I like to mix things up. Although, I do appreciate it when I come across fantasy novels that wrap it up in a standalone. It can get very exhausting to keep up and wait for sequels to be published.
- Kayla @The Thousand Lives declared that reading isn’t her #1 priority anymore. That’s okay. Loving something doesn’t mean it has to come first and there’s not right way to enjoy the hobby of reading. Take it as it pleases you without unnecessary pressure. Kayla proves this can be done. Life doesn’t have to depend on books.
- Abeer @ Turn to page 394 concocted non-alcoholic Butterbeer and shared her recipe. If you’re looking to “brew” your own perfect Wizard drink, you might wanna give it a try.
- Joey @ Thoughts and Afterthoughts outlined the importance of supporting characters, noting that in their own right, they’re protagonists too. Too often they exist as a matter of convenience, generally to save the protagonist. Joey decided to put this into question. Rightly so.
- Crini @ All About Books very generously published her 2016 reading spreadsheet. If you’re a bookworm who loves to track all sorts of statistics, you’ll want to download your copy. Just remember to check back for updates leading up to the new year.
- Alexandra @ Twirling Pages collated a list on how to read when you’re a busy bee. I’ve pretty much been doing everything on that list, save for reducing my time on the Internet. This means I can vouch for the effectiveness of this list! This goes particularly for listening to audiobooks — they’re great for multitasking.
Can’t wait to see your photos from FBM! :) And I’m looking forward to your thoughts about Illuminae – I’ve heard many good things (and a few bad things) about it…
I’m excited about sharing them soon too! :D Oh no! Bad things about Illuminae? Well, I’ve basically avoided all commentary about the book whatsoever, so I’ll be going into it completely blind. Haha.
Oh my goodness, either the paperback for Illuminae is itty bitty or all of your other books are huge — HOW IS IT THAT TINY COMPARED TO THE HC? This hurts my head. I can’t. What?
I couldn’t believe it either. It’s the standard paperback height of 198mm. Had it been the HC, there would’ve been no way of fitting it into my suitcase. That’s why I grabbed the PB in a heartbeat at the publisher’s stand.
It’s great to see that you’ve been enjoying your vacation and I love the photos you’ve been posting on Instagram. I had no idea you were going to post about the book fair so now I’m looking forward to it. Also, it seems so much better to go with the flow than a strict schedule!
It makes sense that you got only a few books because baggage limit but that’s some restraint right there, ha ha.
Definitely going to check out your post on religious diversity!
Thank you, Sana! Of course I’ll post about the book fair! Haha. A few people asked me to and I took lots of photos, so I just need to throw everything together. I just don’t know how yet without overwhelming everyone. Lol. Going with the flow is so much less stressful! Haha.
Your photos look amazing! Can’t wait for the bookfair and travel posts!
Thank you, Tasya! :)
I’m impatiently waiting for the book fair post and am also a little bit afraid of unflattering pictures xD
And thanks for telling everyone that we didn’t have a plan, now we look like completely unprofessional bloggers ;P
Post coming up this week when I’m back home! :) Will email you the high res group photos when I email Crini & Ellie too.
Alternatively, we’re very open and spontaneous people who live in the moment! Haha. Besides, our schedule was fully packed, remember? ;)
Open and spontaneous, but also very depressive :P
And oh yes, I’m still recovering from the busy Friday schedule, 2 appointments on one day was definitely tough xD
I’m looking forward to hearing more about the book fair! And seeing your travel photos, of course. I’m still impressed that you escaped the fair with only one cookbook. I hope it’s a good one. :)
Well, I noted down the titles that I might want to acquire. I talked myself out of buying a lot of others since I’d only have saved 10–20% compared to ordering from TBD. Not worth the overweight luggage charges. Lol. Although, I did whine a lot to Crini and Sebastian about leaving cookbooks behind xD