Lady Lovestead

Good morning sweet friends, <Cozy Intro> The Twilight series by Stephanie is not without controversy. I have posted a review of this series from a more analytical position, but today, I want to use this as a starting place to discuss the importance of reader experience. Reader experience is a factor I so often see left out of book reviews, booktube, and book club discussions.  I originally read the Twilight  series because someone close to me loved the books and I was trying to understand why. I was also going through a bad break-up with someone I was engaged to. It was around Thanksgiving 2011 and I coped with the break-up by immersing myself in this series. I used it as an escape and I powered through all xxxx pages of the series in less than week. I remember literally spending all my time outside of work and basic self-maintenance (food, showers, etc.) reading. I needed to stay out of my own head. It is safe to say that the Twilight series saved me from a...

( Photo by  Dollar Gill  on  Unsplash ) Good morning sweet friends, I come to you on this January morning, snuggled up with Dinah, a book, and a hot cup of coffee.  The past year was a strange year of reading. It was a year of putting down books halfway through. There were a lot of duds on my reading list. I tried to explore outside my usual reading preferences by trying new genres and new writers. This lead me to disliking a lot of what I read! I guess we read what we read for a reason, huh?  ↠↞ I don't think exploring new writers or genres is a bad thing AT ALL and it is something I'll continue doing. It is important that we push ourselves to read books that challenge us in different ways. That's when you discover them gem--the book that changes your life. I just don't plan to dedicate an entire year to exploration. There have to be some tried-and-trues in the mix as well. It's all about balance! ↠↞ Without further ado, my favori...