So… Blogtober begins!

Blogtober vector Book Dust Magic Halloween

Hi Guys!
Few days ago I have been thinking how irregular my posts have been this year, and how, this year, it has been more days without anything new written on Book Dust Magic then days when I had something to say.
One of the results of me being absent from the blogosphere is my English started to deteriorate and, in all honesty, I hate it.

Therefore, I decided to host Blogtober this month. That means, there will be new posts almost every single day during October. My goal is to keep up with all the book reviews I am behind with (so I can have a clean start in November) and to also improve my English at least a bit. I also want to participate in blogging community now when I finally think I have more time for myself, now when my son is two and a half years old.

So… What can you expect on Book Dust Magic for Blogtober?
At least one movie review per week, 2-3 book reviews every week, Sunday Posts every single Sunday and my two cents for at least few shows.

The only thing that will make this not so Halloweenish Blogtober is that I won’t focus on horrors, but on every genre I tend to like. However, there will be some spooky, witchy and gory content for sure.

I am looking forward to share my thoughts with you and am glad to have you here.
These next few days I will go through all of the lovely comments that you left me in the last few weeks and will visit all of your blogs too. The new chapter for Book Dust Magic starts now!

Image by Freepik

Why I Disappeared and Getting Back to Blogging #blogging #books #MentalHealth

girl in nature, thinking

It feels like it has been ages since the last time I posted anything here on Book Dust Magic. It was never my intention to disappear. I guess life had other plans for me, and as much as I wanted to keep up with the same lifestyle I had before 2020, I couldn’t.

As I feel like I am ready to at least try to get back to blogging, before I do, I feel like I need to explain why I disappeared over night from the blogosphere.

Some of you may know that in 2020 I became a mother for the first time. I was really looking forward to a new chapter of my life. I had so much plans, including telling you about my experience as a first time mother here on my blog too.
However, each day after giving a birth was harder and harder, I fell into postpartum depression when I felt like I had no right to be in that state of mind, because I had no one except my fiance to help me with the baby. I felt like I had no luxury to have some rest, to be sad, or to just be myself, when all I had to do was taking care of my son. I really wished for my mother to help me, or to have a friend who would just look after him for couple of hours, just so I could sleep or rest, but wishes don’t always get granted.

I missed reading so much, but I didn’t have time or energy to do it, and I honestly felt like the old me was slipping away, until her final disappearance.

I was already in a bad shape, and then to make more room for the baby I had to give up on so many (un)read books. I sent them to my parents with plan to get them back when we move to a bigger apartment that we plan to purchase in next 10 years (we want to buy an apartment without mortgage), and then my father placed them in my late granny’s house and guess what? Dump ruined them.

And then I had to say goodbye to my cat GiGi (my father took him) because of his aggressive side, so our baby wouldn’t be in danger while he was newborn, and to be honest, saying goodbye to GiGi was a nail to a coffin of a person I used to be.
From then on, I felt like I was trapped in someone else’s body, living someone else’s life and not being able to live a life that was mine.

And then the earthquake happened (and another one), and cut the strings I still held onto with tips of my fingers.
I still have ptsd and I don’t think it will ever go away.

Anyway, I wanted to let you know why I wasn’t around, I practically stopped being part of this community not only because I simply didn’t have time, but because it was hard for me to look at everyone reading more books then ever. If I’m being honest, I was envy, and it was healthier for me to stay away from twitter and blogs.

Now when my son is 13 months old, I feel better and more rested as he started to sleep during night, and I started reading again.
It is still not as much as I would like to, and I will probably have to make piece with the fact that maybe I won’t read as many books as I’d like to for next few years.

My English suffered too, I find it hard to express myself as good as I used to, but I am working on it.

So… I decided to try to get back to blogging. One post at time. I won’t have a schedule because I can’t obligate myself to one.
I will cross post some reviews I have already written on Goodreads, and write new ones as I read, with hope that with time I will be able to write discussions and touch other subjects too.
And I hope someone will read them.

Winter photo created by jcomp – www.freepik.com

Sunday post (Weekly Wrap Up Dec. 5th – 11th)

765

Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

This meme was created for bloggers to spotlight posts they published in the week, as well as to talk about what they plan to write in the week that’s coming.

Sunday post is also great opportunity to showcase books we got in the week behind us.

spoiler vrpca

This is my first time participating in this meme, and the reason why I decided to join is to better organize myself when it comes to blogging.

It will also be easier to keep track with my book hauls.

 

Last week on Book Dust Magic:

Monday: I talked about movies I watched lately, in my Movie Monday post
Tuesday: I reviewed Roseblood by A. G. Howard
Wednesday: I talked about My Sweet Revenge in my WoW post  and participated in Winter is Coming Giveaway Hop 
Thursday: I reviewed There Is Always More To Say by Lynda Young Spiro
Friday: I talked about women’s fiction in This is My Genre, Tell Me Yours book tag 
Saturday: I reviewed Miracle on 5th Avenue by Sarah Morgan

 

Next week on Book Dust Magic:

Upcoming reviews:

movies: nine-lives

books: cruel-beautiful-world the-empire-state

I also plan to post Waiting on Wednesday post and What Makes Me Happy tag.

spoiler vrpca

Book Haul:

This week I downloaded these two freebeis:

blame-the-mistletoe the-making-of-minty-malone

spoiler vrpca

Current giveaways on Book Dust Magic

There are two giveaways going on right now, so make sure to enter, if you haven’t already:

Winter is Coming giveaway hop

Books That Need More Attention giveaway hop 

spoiler vrpca

Currently Reading:

chocolate-lovers-christmas

 

That is it!
Let me know what’s been going on with you, what you’ve been reading or watching this week and feel free to leave your links so I can visit you.
Have a lovely Sunday!

 

Romance is in the Air Giveaway Hop

romance is in the air hop 2016

Welcome to the Romance is in the Air Giveaway Hop, hosted by BookHounds.

In this giveaway I am giving you a chance to win a YA romance book or Clean Adult Romance book, up to 17 dollars.

The giveaway is international as long as long as TBD ships to your country.

Here are some romance books I enjoyed reading:

15790873 23343303 25070878 15283043 18660447 18298225 6936382 5664985 12294652 13561164 7075687 1479967

After you Enter this giveaway, make sure to hop around for more giveaways.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

DISCLAIMER:

  • This giveaway is international as long as The Book Depository ships to your country.
  • You must be 18+ old to enter or have your parent’s permission to enter (because I’ll need to ask you to give me your adress so I could send the book to you).
  • I am not responsible for the shipment, but am responsible to order a book on time (The Book Depository is responsible to deliver you a book on time and in a good condition).
  • Once chosen, winner will be emailed and will have 48 hours to reply, otherwise another person will be chosen as a winner
  • NO CHEATING! Cheaters will be disqualified

 

Good Luck! 🙂

 

Powered by Linky Tools

Click here to hop around…


https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js

My first blog post in which I am discussing how I started reading in English and my 2016 bookish resolution

Once upon a time, there was a girl who liked to read. Although reading was her favorite hobby, there were still things she liked to do as well: going out with her friends, watching movies and tv, listening to music, knowing everything that happens in the celebrity culture, traveling  and just being alive.

Then, the year 2013 came. The girl stummbled upona  website called Goodreads, where she learned about books she never heard of. They all looked so appealing to her, but there was just one problem: most of them weren’t translated into Croatian, the girl’s native language.

The girl figured out that, in order to read them, she has to learn English. She already knew some basics from school, but she was never good enough when it came to using them.

That didn’t discourage her. The girl went to a bookstore, bought herself a copy of the spin-off of her favorite series (it was a Bloodlines by Richelle Mead and no, it is still not translated to Croatian L ), took a dictionary and a pen , and started reading.

It took her almost a month to finish that book and after she was done with it, she bought herself a copy of The Golden Lily.

It took her around two weeks to finish that one and, when she was finally done with it, she grabed herself a copy of The Fault in our Stars.

Then came Anna and the French Kiss which made her fall in love with books in a whole new level, and after that, more and more books she read, faster and faster of a reader she became, more and more hungry for a great fiction she was.

As you probably figured out by now, the girl was me and, although I still enjoy all of the mundane things, reading is what I love the most and feel a great passion about.

These days I am not only reading in English (although I still do enjoy reading in my native language) but writing reviews and discussing books in it as well.

Although I am a pretty active user on Goodreads , I decided to start my own blog and to be a part of a bookish community (I also got a twitter account for that purpose).

 

These are my 2016 bookish resolutions:

  • To be a part of bookish community
  • Not to set up myself a Goodreads challenge (because this year I don’t want to stress myself whether I would reach it or not, but just want to relax and enjoy reading as I once did)
  • To participate in Read-a-Thons
  • To read more classics
  • To re-read more (once upon a time re-reading was what I loved the most. To me, it was even better then first-time-reading. Since discovering Goodreads and so many new books, I kind of lost the habit of re-reading and I started to miss it)
  • To read books I still haven’t from authors I consider as my favorite (Richelle Mead, Julie Kagawa, Katie McGarry, Jane Costello, Lindsey Kelk, J. A. Templeton, Cynthia Hand, Madeleine Wichkam (aka Sophie Kinsella)

When it comes to my blog, I am still in process of learning everything but I hope I will manage to handle everything pretty soon.

In the next few days I will post some of my old reviews that I am obligated to publishers, some of my old reviews because I want them to be here on my web-space, as well as new ones that I still have to write.

Anyway, I hope to be here a long time, to be able to call myself a blogger, and to get on well with other book bloggers.

Thank you for reading this.

potpis za blog