Top Ten Books To Pull You Out of a Slump

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme begun by Broke and Bookish and now continued by That Artsy Reader Girl.

For this TTT, I’ve decided to share 5 series and 5 standalone novels, depending on what you’d like! When I’m in a reading slump, sometimes I choose to pick up series to get me going again, and sometimes I want a really stunning standalone, so if you’re stuck in an unfortunate slump, try some of these. I can highly recommend all of them!

Series

1. Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
   How much do I really need to say about this series?! Let’s be real.
2. Rebel of the Sands trilogy by Alwyn Hamilton
   I flew through this series and thoroughly enjoyed it. The entire series was a really quick read (I read like 230 pages in an hour and a half!!) so I’d definitely recommend if it you’re feeling a bit low on reading.
3. Murder Most Unladylike series by Robin Stevens
   I looooove this murderous series, and almost always read them all in one go, so it’s great if you’re stuck in a slump and want something wholly gripping.
4. Stalking Jack the Ripper series by Kerri Maniscalco
   This. series. is. amazing. Only two (out of four) are out right now, but it has so many amazing ratings!
5. Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan
   See: Harry Potter. I LOVE this series, and the books are short enough (to begin with…) to read in one go, so it’s great for slumps!

Standalones

1. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
   This book may put you into a reading slump because it will break your heart… but you’ll be really wrapped up in reading!
2. Heartless by Marissa Meyer
   See above. This gave me such a “I want to read YA” boost that I recommend it for that!
3. A Skinful of Shadows by Francis Hardinge
   This one is great if you like magical realism, because it’s really inventive and new. All Hardinge’s novels are fantastic!
4. Remix by Non Pratt
   This novel wasn’t a particular favourite of mine, but it’s really easy and quick to read – and nice and summery!
5. The Girl of Ink and Stars by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
   See: The Song of Achilles. Millwood Hargrave is a fantastic author, and I can almost guarantee that you’ll fly through this novel and then want ALL THE MAGICAL REALISM AND MAPS AND CHILDREN’S BOOKS!

I hope you guys enjoyed some of my choices here! I loved all of these books and they definitely made sure that I picked up another book right after I closed their end covers. What are some recommendations you’d add to my lists? Leave them in comments – I’m always looking for more recs!

Happy reading!

When I Stop Blogging

I don’t mean to, and I didn’t mean to. I won’t mean to and I shouldn’t mean to… but I do.

Occasionally, I stop blogging.

Last week, not one post went up. I took a hiatus over my A-Level exams. I am very familiar with the whole not-blogging thing. 

How To Promote Yourself On WordPress (Well, in my opinion, anyway)

I’ve been on WordPress for nearly two years now (doesn’t time fly…) and quite a lot of you awesome people follow me. Sure, not a groundbreaking amount, but I must have been doing something right, mustn’t I?

Admittedly, the title may be a bit misleading, aside from the part in parenthesis: you may have come here looking for some quick, confident way to gain likes, followers, commenters etc. Unfortunately, it’s not that easy, and I still struggle to completely gain the attention of my audience. But I’m going to share what I’ve done to try and get there!

1. Use the tags and categories to your advantage. Do you know where these babies are? Have a look at the pictures below and find out which article writing site you have (I don’t really know what to call it) and then fill in the tags as much as you can. They’re used in search engines and on WordPress itself. If you’re not using them, then your blog views are likely to drop. The categories are mainly for your blog itself, but are equally as useful – if someone likes what they read, they’re likely to try and find more, and you want to make their life a bit easier to they stay!
   

   

   

2. Engage with interesting stuff people want to see. WordPress generally plays host to writing, so if you’re looking to promote your music, unless it’s through writing, you might want to head to Twitter or Tumblr instead. You can write about anything – well, almost anything – though. Your posts can be as long or as short as you like, but unless they’re stories, I wouldn’t make them extensively long!
3. Post regularly. Yeah, I should probably practice what I preach, I’m terrible at getting this Friday post done. But I do try! As long as your readers know that, and you post about once a week at the least, then they should be content.
4. Pictures! They break up large chunks of text, and give you something to post on websites such as Pinterest and even Twitter.
5. Do lists and bullet points and stuff. It breaks up the text which is easy on the eye, and it makes it easier for you to think up content (like me, can you tell?) because once you’ve done, say, 3 or 4, it’s quite easy to get up to 5 in the “Top Five…” etc.

Basically, be yourself. Well, as yourself as you can be online. People will (hopefully) like your voice and they’ll like your posts for the (equally hopefully) friendly tone.

Just have fun on WordPress, or any blog for that matter. Whilst people noticing you is nice, writing for yourself and writing what you love is basically what matters.

Oh and one last tip: read and follow other people! If you’re lucky, they’ll check out your blog too!