Top Ten Tuesday: Things That Make Your Life As A Reader/Book Blogger Easier

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish.

Hey Book Nerds! :3 How are you all doing today? I'm doing well; in case any of you were curious. ;) I've been doing a lot of reading lately; I started reading and finished reading Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater the other day and I absolutely adored it - it made me cry. I gave it 5/5 stars! The same evening I finished reading Shiver, i picked up Teacher's Pest by Charles Gilman, which is the third book in the Tales from Lovecraft Middle School series and I finished it that night. It was definitely my favourite of the series so far, I gave it 4/5 stars and my review will be posted either tomorrow or on Thursday - so keep an eye out for that. :) Lastly, I’d like to say that very soon my new layout for my blog will be up - sorry it's taken so long, I’ve just been so distracted lately. I hope you all have a great week! :D

Top Ten Things That Make Your Life As A Reader/Book Blogger Easier

1. Good Reads.
I'm pretty sure that everyone will be putting this down on their TTT post, but for me it's been so helpful! I love how I can find a synopsis of a book so quickly, read reviews by people (and my friends) and post my own reviews, too. I also love being able to just add books to my TBR list, and go back later on and look them all over. And finally, I love how Good Reads will tell you what number a book is in a series - so I'll never accidentally buy the second or third book in a series again!

2. Amazon.
I'm constantly finding so many great deals on Amazon, and I nearly always buy my books used! I can buy books for under £3 a piece and now I refuse to pay full price for books - the retail prices just seem so expensive in comparison. It's also a great thing for me too, because I can navigate the site and choose the American editions of books if I want too! Or just a different cover if there's one available. I love Amazon!

3. Book-Tubers.
I'm also a book-tuber myself, but I find watching other book-tubers videos so helpful! I love watching book hauls - I always seem to come away from watching the video with at least one of their books that I want to read added to my TBR list. It's not just the hauls though, usually hearing about their opinions on books (particularly ones I don't know if I want to read) will always help sway my opinion to the yes or no pile.

4. Meme's.
If you're like me, and find it hard to come up with posts for your blog - then you'll know it's kind of stressful! Sometimes I have lots of ideas, and other weeks and I have zero. Nada. Nothing! So I find meme's really great and fun to participate in! They give you a topic to focus on for that day/week and give your viewers content that you might not have posted otherwise. They're also great for helping build up traffic to your blog, because you can comment/and/or leave your link to your blog post on the original creator’s post where others can see it! Good old meme's, you've yet of fail me...

5. Microsoft Word.
This one is aimed at the book blogger part of me. Overall, I'm a really good speller and I can be a bit of a Grammar Nazi at times - I just don't like deliberately illiterate people. However, when I'm blogging or writing my reviews, I’m typing away furiously, trying to get all my thoughts, opinions and other useful things down before I forget them all. It's not until I copy and paste what I've written into word, or re-read what I've written that I find that there's usually a least a few spelling mistakes and poor grammar. Thank god for Microsoft word, which easily picks up on all these little faults and I can go back over it and redo them. I don't know where I'd be without it.

6. NetGalley.
NetGalley is an awesome website where book reviewers can get their hands on soon-to-be-released books. I know a lot of people use Edelweiss, but because I live in the United Kingdom, a lot of publishers can't send me eGalleys for copyright reasons. It's also great because, if you're like me, I get very impatient waiting for books to be released. You can share your feedback with the publisher who allowed you to read the copy as well - so it's all great fun!

7. Corel Paintshop Pro & Photoshop.
I use a mixture of Corel's Paintshop Pro X3 and Photoshop for all sorts of things to do with my blog, from the layout to any banners for posts. I've been using both these programs for over 9 years and they never fail to amaze me with how much can be done with them!

8. Charity Shops
I'm always buying books from charity shops, not only does the money go towards a good cause, but they also sell books for really cheap! I love searching the shops and coming across great bargains for books I really want to read. Who could possibly turn down a book for £1.50 or £2.00? I know I can't! :D

9. Blogger.
As much as I like the look of Wordpress, at how sleek and smart everything looks - I just don't think it's the blogging platform for me at the moment. I love to customise everything about my blog, and write my own coding and CSS - and unfortunately, you can't do that on blogger unless you pay for a yearly package. In the future, I will be buying my own domain name (I've done it lots of times in the past) and will probably move to Wordpress, until then; blogger provides everything I need, especially the ability to code everything myself - which is a must for me!

10. You Guys!
I wouldn't be where I am today with my blog if it weren't for all of you! I love hearing all of your feedback and opinions, and it makes my life as a book reader AND book blogger so much easier. So, thank you so much guys. You are my inspiration! (Wow, that sounds cheesy...)

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What are your Top Ten Things That Make Your Life As A Reader/Book Blogger Easier? Leave me a comment or a link to your blog post and I'll be sure to check it out! ^.^ Happy reading! (: