AvidBards
Reflections

Why I Don’t Use A Rating System Anymore

Something I see frequently in the world of book bloggers and media bloggers is the use of a rating system, ranging from stars, teacups and even dragons. When starting off this blog last year I thought it was such a great idea! It was a concise form of giving people a snapshot of how you felt about the work in question (which in our case could be book, film, TV show, or album). However, while this remains true, in recent months I have felt a resistance to rating my books. One reason for which is simply because I do not…

View Post
Books

Reading When Feeling Low

How to read when you don’t feel like it For many, reading is one of those activities that acts as an escape from the stress and difficulties of their lives, giving them the ability to fall into a world far from their own and their own problems. It can be a wonderful tool in promoting self-thought, but also a most efficient distraction from the never-ending stream of consciousness we all experience. But undoubtedly, there are those days (or in my case, weeks) when you struggle to find the joy in reading. Maybe because you are too busy, occupied with a…

View Post
Books

Stories about Women to Discover this International Women’s Day

Happy International Women’s Day! This blog is run by two women and for us, it is very important to constantly remember and shine the light on the amazing women artists who have been writing, directing, acting, singing, creating incredibly works of storytelling. Particularly when those stories have to do with other women. Women’s history has not always been the kindest, in fact for most of history, women found themselves in positions of want in comparison to the other sex. Strides have been made in the last century that work to alter that position, but there is still so much to…

View Post
Books

A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab Book Review

Have you ever had that moment when you’ve looked around you and asked yourself, “what if that didn’t exist?” or “what if things worked differently?” and you fall down the rabbit hole of imagining a whole different kind of world? Well, that is exactly what reading V. E. Schwab’s novel A Darker Shade of Magic did for me. A Darker Shade of Magic takes place in a world that holds multiple universes, four to be precise, and only those with magic can cross over into the other worlds. While so many things are different in each of the worlds, one…

View Post
Reflections

“Harry Potter” and Each Volume Ranked

Recently, I’ve been on a nostalgia kick with the Harry Potter series. Though I do enjoy the movies, the books are so loaded with information that’s left out in the films that I always crave reading the books. Before I continue, I must warn: heavy spoilers below! If you grew up with the Harry Potter books, you’ll have had this debate with many of your friends: which ones are your favourites? Even though the series is all inherently linked together, the plotlines of each book are so distinctly different that it hearkens many different rankings amongst readers. So today, I…

View Post
Books

D. I. Jackman & D. S. Evans Audiobook Series Mini-Review

When it comes to thrillers and detective novels, I have always struggled to find ones that I enjoy. Particularly when it comes to thriller series. So much seems to become formulaic and eventually, incredibly predictable to the point that there is very little of interest left. And usually, this is completely separate from the way that the novel is written. It could be the best writing I’ve ever read and I will still find it difficult to enjoy. So when I first saw adverts for Joy Ellis’ D. I. Jackman & D. S. Evans series on audible, I was highly…

View Post

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Where to next?