My Favourite Reading Tropes | Bookending Spring

When we think ‘book tropes’, we often think boring or over done clichés that no one wants to see. But they can also be easy categories that help you find more books you like. Below are six of my favourite tropes.

Three Fictional Pets Who Help Their Owner Grieve

This may be an oddly specific collection of books: stories in which a loved one dies and the protagonist is aided in dealing with their grief by an animal, but somehow I read three of them in a short space of time.

What To Read This Valentine’s If You Don’t Want To Read Romance

It’s valentines day! I’ve seen some good lists of romance novels float around the bloggosphere, and thought I would supplement them with a list of books that are cosy but not romantic. Sometimes, you’re just not in the mood for romance. It may not be your cup of tea, you may want to focus on pampering yourself instead this weekend, or you may be going though a horrible break-up and want to read ANYTHING BUT.

10 Books About Books & Book Lovers

For the last couple of months the book blogging world has been enthralled by The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. I’m only 1/3 in so I can’t say much about it yet, but one of the reasons why everyone seems to love it (and rightly so!) is that it pays homage to reading, readers and the books we all love.

If you have already read The Starless Sea and are wondering what to do with yourself, or would simply like to read more books on this theme, here are 10 books to keep you going:

The 10 Prettiest Books I Own | BE Winter Day 17

Today’s Bookending Winter prompt is “Decorate Your Christmas Tree: Take photographs and show off the prettiest books you own.” Honestly, if I had a massive Christmas tree and someone would invent a way to hang books in it without damaging them that would be absolutely perfect. For the moment, though, I have gone for more of a cosy-reading-nook kind of approach.

Here are the 10 prettiest books I own (in no particular order). Small warning: I’m going to ask you which one you like best at the end of this post.

You may not be able to tell from this picture, but the turquoise trees, birds and text are made from a shimmery foil which makes the cover super pretty. I also love this colour combination.

3 Books I Want To Re-read Soon-ish

I recently re-read One Hundred Years Of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. The previous and only other time I read it was in July 2014; I know this because I reviewed it in one of my very first blog posts. (The review is actually surprisingly good: it uses smart words like ‘corporate hegemony’ and only has one spelling mistake.)

One of the main things I discovered while re-reading the book was how little of the story I actually remembered. Most of my memories were linked to the feeling of the book, the epic writing style, the elements of magical realism etc. I had forgotten most of the characters and events.