April 2015
April 30 was the 2 Year Anniversary of my blog (you can read all about it here!) so that was really exciting! I hope everyone likes the new theme and the new review format I will be unveiling over the next few weeks 🙂
I also finished exams a week ago so I have been basking in the glory of guilt-free reading. I can’t wait to tackle my TBR list and use the jar I made a month ago for the first time!
I’ve shortened this inventory post considerably from what I used to do because it’s just so much work and I don’t think a lot of what I put in it interested people. So I’m going to try this format and see how it goes…
- 23 Books Read + 2 novellas
- 0 nonfiction novels
- 7 standalones
- Started 9 new series
- Finished 1 series from start to end
- Finished 1 previously started series
- Read sequels for 7 previously started series
| Favourite Reads | Least Favourite Read |
  ★★★★★ |
★★ |
*Note: just because I read a series/book this month doesn’t mean that the review was also published. Due to the nature of my blog (ie I review whole series) it often takes me a few weeks to publish a full review (pending book availability) so look forward to seeing some of these reviews in the upcoming weeks/months!
| Most Viewed Post |
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“Characters I’d Like to Check in With” |
With the new site theme, I’ve changed my home page. I will now be posting what reviews have been updated on my side bar by their covers instead of a sticky post. Hopefully this makes things easier for everyone and of course you can still find these updated reviews using the “Updated Reviews” category.
Previously posted reviews I updated this past month:
I thought this was a bit of overkill considering I have pages that I update on a regular basis (plus the tables didn’t format well when reading on an app). You can view my specific progress by visiting my dedicated Reading Challenge Page here.
Because I am finished school, I decided to try a Spring Bingo Challenge and signed up for Great Imagination’s Ready for Spring 2015 Bingo. I also decided to sign up for Bookmark to Blog’s Monthly Word Challenge and added a Canadian Bingo Card (from Retreat by Random House) for the rest of the year!
Book Bingo–Canadian: 0 books added
Bookish Bingo–Ready for Spring: 4 books added
Everything YA Challenge: ✔ Mini Challenge + ✔ 2 YA reads
Goodreads Challenge: 25 books added
Monthly Key Word Challenge: ✔ “The” & “Prince”
Prequel & Sequel Challenge: +13 points added
SERIESous’ Personal Classics Challenge: 0 books added
SERIESous’ Personal Nonfiction Challenge: 0 books added
The idea behind the feature is to pit two books (or other themes) that are always compared to each other in a battle of three rounds to see who the winner is. Of course it is completely subjective to my own opinions so I added a poll feature to get your take on everything. Thanks to those who participated!
This month’s final poll results:
Twilight Saga 4 | Vampire Diaries Series 2
Next Battle: Vampire Diaries Books vs Vampire Diaries TV Show
- NEW DOMAIN! seriesousbookreviews.com can now be used; however, seriesousbookreviews.wordpress.com still works!
- New homepage now features the intro to the blog and has a separate blog feed page
- Updated Series Reviews are now a sidebar widget!
- New Theme and colour scheme added!
- Changed the main menu options at the top
- Moved sidebar options around (have footer menus now!)
- Also added headers to reviews (subheadings will launch next month)
- changed the features of my monthly review
- added social media links
- Joined Riffle (it’s a book cataloguing system like GoodReads but allows you to create individual lists and generally recommend books). I mostly use it for lists.
- Also joined Bloglovin’!
- Signed up for Netgalley!
- Review subheadings will make an appearance
- I had already written some of the reviews for May before I decided to add Subheadings and didn’t feel the need to change all of them. So some posts will have them but not all will
- Update the following:
- review directories
- Series Recaps for G-L (I swear I am going to get around to this!)
- A new SEASONAL feature
- I am also going to cut down on the number of non-review posts to one a week
- This May I’m going a Purchase Purge where I’m only reading books that I’ve bought (ie no books from the library) and I hope to do a review blitz sometime this summer with those reviews
- I’m also going to do a Trilogy Termination Blitz sometime this summer where I finish some trilogies I started years ago but never got around to finishing.
- I also want to try and NOT put any more books on hold at the library.
At the start of the month I was rotating through Lady Gaga, Maroon 5 (saw them in concert in March!) and the 50 Shades of Grey Soundtrack (say what you will about the movie, the music is FANTASTIC!). Exams are always a tricky time and I normally find my new music obsession. This time around it was Rixton, specifically Hotel Ceiling (watch the crazy video!) and Ed Sheeran (who I’m seeing in June!). But my study jam (I can’t have music playing with words or else I do karaoke by myself) is Tchaikovsky 😉
What were your biggest reading or personal accomplishments of the past month?
Leave a comment below!
