Armchair BEA 2015 | Social Media & Character Chatter

Hi there! I didn’t get the chance to post yesterday’s ABEA topic (Visual Expressions/Social Media) so I’m going to be mixing that in along with today’s (Character Chatter/Blogging 101).

Social Media
How do you use social media to expand your blogging/writing horizons?  Social Media is all about networking and connections, and utilizing today’s technology to the fullest.  Make sure you mention your own social media pages. Do you have another blog, maybe a Tumblr? Have a Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook? Or maybe there’s an underrated social media program that you like.

I don’t know whether this counts (I’m pretty sure it does though) but I use Goodreads for adding books to my TBR and making friends with other readers. I also use Goodreads for my reviews (book information like publisher, genre, page count, ISBN, and official synopsis of a book). Other than that I cross-post my reviews on Goodreads as well, and I love using it to interact with other readers and seeing what books are trending, interesting, etc.

As far as other social media platforms are concerned, I actually made a Twitter account only a couple of days ago. I didn’t have one before, but seeing so many bloggers having an account and utilizing it for blogging and connecting with people, I decided to make an account as well. As I just started using it I can’t really say if it’s good or not, but I’m liking it so far! 🙂 I can connect with so many authors, and other bloggers, and it’s lots of fun. ❤

I don’t have Tumblr, Instagram or Facebook, but I might make an account depending on how useful they are! This is where your thoughts come in handy: what are your opinions on these social media platforms (if you use them)? Let me know in the comments below, your opinions really help!

 Add me on: Goodreads | Twitter

Your opinion matters! What social media do you like to use?

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Character Chatter

It’s time to give your favorite characters some love! Characters are essential to a story, and they can make or break a book for some readers. Now’s your chance to shine the spotlight on your favorite characters, or maybe your least favorite. Who’s your favorite couple? What are the components of a well written character? What are you favorite or least favorite cliches associated with characters?

Characters are one of the most important factors for me when judging and reading a book. After all, they are the story tellers, the people we get connected to throughout the book. If I didn’t like them, chances are I didn’t like the book, since if I don’t like the people we spend the most time with, I won’t like the overall story.

Anyway, I’m happy to say that throughout my reading years, I haven’t come across many characters that I genuinely hate or extremely dislike. However, there were characters whose POVs I did not enjoy, such as Amy from Flash Point by Nancy Kress. (You can check out my review on that here.) Then there are POVs I did enjoy, like Warner from Destroy Me by Tahereh Mafi (You can check out my review on that here.) Specifically, I LOVED his POV. Other POVs I enjoyed were Percy from the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan, Tessa from The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare, Penryn from Penryn & the End of Days trilogy by Susan Ee, etc.

What these POVs have in common is that they all are relatable in some way, or, in the case of Warner, tug on the heartstrings. Percy keeps me smiling throughout the story, and is just simply so relatable that I can’t help but enjoy him. Tessa loves to read, and her personality reminds me of myself sometimes. Penryn is just so witty and interesting that I also enjoyed her POV. So I guess what I’m trying to say here is that well-written characters should be relatable and interesting, or else I end up not really caring about the character or finding him/her boring. Oh, and an honourable mention: Hermione Granger from Harry Potter. A no-brainer! She’s loyal, smart and witty, not to mention she loves books! We’d be besties.

Because I want to go curl up with a book right now, I’m going to finish this off with a quick list of my favorite book couples:

• Raffryn (Penryn & Raffe) from Penryn & the End of Days trilogy by Susan Ee
• June & Day from Legend trilogy by Marie Lu
• Percabeth (Percy & Annabeth) from Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan
• Juliette & Warner from Shatter Me trilogy by Tahereh Mafi
• Lara Jean & Peter from To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

So there you have it, bookworms! Day 2 & 3 of ABEA.

Happy reading!

-A