Book Challenge Challenge

I've been trying to push myself to read more and expand what I read. So far though, I've been swamped with school and I tend to just grab one I know I'll like. So for inspiration I started googling around for a book challenge to complete throughout the next half of the year, and found lots!
So here for inspiration is a list of challenges.


Classics:
https://karensbooksandchocolate.blogspot.com/2018/12/back-to-classics-2019_9.html

Books 'N' Tunes:
http://delightedreader.com/books-n-tunes-challenge-sign-up-for-2019/

Color coded:
https://myreadersblock.blogspot.com/2018/10/color-coded-read-it-again-sam-2019-sign.html

I Spy:
https://faithhopecherrytea.blogspot.com/2018/11/i-spy-reading-challenge-2019-begins-now.html

Monthly Key Word:
http://jannghi.blogspot.com/2018/10/monthly-key-word-challenge-2019.html

Retellings:
http://www.cornerfolds.com/2018/12/2019-retellings-reading-challenge.html

TBR challenge:
http://wendythesuperlibrarian.blogspot.com/2018/12/announcing-2019-tbrchallenge.html



If none of these sparked your interest, this is a compiled list of tons more:
http://www.girlxoxo.com/the-master-list-of-2019-reading-challenges/

Read on lovelies,

S

Social Media

[Something Different]


Social media is a big part of our lives but at times I feel like there are way too many. Each one prizes themselves to be unique and different, yet lots of the same stuff go around all the sites.
>So which ones do I use and for what?

>We can't really say what will stick and what will disappear (like Vine).
Whether you just want to talk to people you know, find new people to talk to, talk about certain subjects, see pictures of other people's lives, see pictures of certain subjects, see videos about this or that, live stream a video, see business profiles or simply see memes about silly animals - there are so many to choose from.

In this society we feel pressure to have an account in certain places so that we can be kept "in the loop" of things. It may be Facebook, Instagram or Twitter depending on your age, country and friends but many of us want to have another account somewhere else to feel apart of the whole world.
>For example this blog: most of you readers are people whom I don't know - and I love that. It makes me feel like I'm actually accomplishing something.

A question to ask yourself before choosing your social media outlet of choise is what do you want it for. People, pictures, certain subjects (dancing, painting, huomour etc.), videos, or just a way to spend time when you are stuck in line.

The most used ones are (in order):
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, Pinterest & Instagram

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>I feel like it all started with Facebook. A way to communicate and find people, and for that I still sometimes use it.

>Then there is YouTube, which I love for watching videos, but I don't know where it's headed with the YouTube RED subscription.

>Then I went right into Tumblr, which I loved for seeing pictures by following different hashtags and subjects.
   I don't use it anymore since I switched to Pinterest for finding those same things, but I'm not too acting here either.

>Goodreads is my go to book catalogue app where you have a page and you can meet people, find new books, see lists, quotes and authors and vote in polls.

>Then there is Instagram which I have grown to love. I made one solely based around books (@booksonal).

Read on lovelies,

Sally

Things We Don't Know We Know?

Language

Many of you probably saw Matthew Anderson's Twitter post circling around bbc, twitter, tumblr, pinterest - anything and everything. If not though, here is the BBC article regarding it - link.

“Adjectives in English absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun. So you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that word order in the slightest you’ll sound like a maniac. It’s an odd thing that every English speaker uses that list, but almost none of us could write it out.”

He raised multiple good points on things that native english speakers know, but don't know they know. I for one was tought this rule - I'm not a native speaker - but still when I came across this post I was amazed at how I haven't thought of it in years! While writing I don't think of this rule since when getting the order wrong, it just sounds horrible.

Green great dragons? Nope.

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Then he raises another rule with a bridge from the previous one.
There are some exceptions to the previous order rule like: Big Bad Wolf. But apparently not, since it follows another rule: the rule of reduplications.

Reduplication in linguistics is when you repeat a word, sometimes with an altered consonant (lovey-dovey, fuddy-duddy, nitty-gritty), and sometimes with an altered vowel: bish-bash-bosh, ding-dang-dong. If there are three words then the order has to go I, A, O.

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Then he goes to the tenses. Daunting to starters, natural to natives. To start of do you know what the future present is? Exactly. Daunting.

There are so many tenses you can use without even thinking about it, and almost certainly without being able to name them. It depends how you count them, but there are about 20 that you deploy faultlessly. The pluperfect progressive passive for an extended state of action that happened to you prior to another action in the past is, when you put it like that, rather daunting. But then you’d happily say “I realised I’d been being watched” without breaking sweat or blinking.

Another thing the author mentions is the rules of stress... I'll let you read more on that from the article.

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I remember two poems we read in class five years back and thought they would be a great addition to this post - on the daunting prospect of english as a language.

Hints on Pronunciation for Foreigners

By TSW

&

De Chaos
by Gerard Nolst Trenité

(both can be found here)

So try reading them outloud. There are also videos on YouTube to check how you did.

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Also to get a grasp on the fascination of intuition in regards to the english language check out this link I was sent: http://english.printexpress.co.uk/  to test out how well you can do with the order of adjectives.

Read on lovelies,

Sally

Bookish websites

/things you should check out

1. Recovering the Classics has all kinds of new covers for classics, and let me tell you: they are so well done! One of my faves is Dracula by Steve St. Pierre.
The website works by showing fan made covers for classics in an attempt to spread the joy of them.

2. From Cover to Cover is an ongoing project where the maker designs new covers for books they've read.
One of my faves is the Book Thief.

3. For great bookish ideas to buy and see RedBubble & Bookishly are the ways to go

4. For keeping up with all my readings/new releases & other fun stuff I use Goodreads (link to my page).

5. For finding free & cheap eBooks I use BookBub, where you sign up (for free), pick the genres you read and your preference on what platform you read on (kindle, kobo, etc.), and they send you lists of ebooks you might be interested every so often you want.

6. If you are a writer and/or just simply love writing, NaNoWriMo is for you. During November you have 30 days to write a 50 000 word novel. They boost you up and though it might not be for you, you should still check it out.

7. And lastly the place I go to for bookish pictures, text posts & randomness is Tumblr (link to my page).


BONUS:
Nothing to do with books BUT it is just amazing:
27 Incredible Views You'd Only See If You Were A Bird link
&
giant hyperrealistic scluptures of everyday objects by Rmulo Celdrn link

Read on lovelies,

Sally