Hello you!

I have mentioned before that I am an avid book reader. I love books way too much, they are a great part of my life. I have read more than 30 books this year, that's how much I devour books. The library has always been one of my favorite places but now that I've moved to a new city, I do not have easy access to a library, even though I'm sure there's a library around here...somewhere. So how do I get my books?

I visited a dainty little bookshop couple of months back and bought two books with my first salary; Paulo Coehlo's Like a Flowing River and Shakespeare's play, Hamlet. (Between me and you, I'm writing this here so I won't ever forget when someone asks me what was the first thing I bought with my first cheque since I seem to be very forgetful lately haha). It's also the same bookshop were I found JK Rowling's signed first edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and I may or may have not jumped up and down, silently screaming in excitement and happiness, haha. It feels good knowing I got to contribute to my own personal library even though I am reluctant to reread books and I much loved the idea of a library; you borrow a book, read it and return it instead of having books you are most probably not going to read again take up space in your room. Now I know that whichever book I buy, I can lend it to a friend or family member and if I have my own library my future kids can also read the books I read in my youth! I would love to have a huge library in my future home so why not begin the collection now?

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However, since the bookshop is a little out of my way and I don't have much disposable income (goodness gracious, things are so expensive these days!), I get most of my reading from an app called Wattpad. Wattpad is an eBook reader that I've been using for 6 years now after a friend introduced it to me. It's like on online library, you search for books you would like to read and sometimes Wattpad features books or recommends a couple for you to read. You then add all the books to your virtual library to read at any time and anywhere (except the shower, but perhaps it can be done) on your phone or tablet.

Let me bring up the old debate between physical books and eBooks. Which do I prefer? Well, it's no secret that in the advent of technology eBooks are much more popular than printed copies of books. on Wattpad, I can read books on my small phone which I can carry everywhere. Whether I'm commuting on a train or standing in a queue somewhere and I want something to do, I just whip out my phone and go on Wattpad. It's also convenient for me to use at night because I can read under the blankets with the lights off as long as I want which means I save on electricity, yay!

On the other hand, printed physical copies of books. The smell of books man, it's irreplaceable. I grew up surrounded by the smell of books and I don't think I could ever replace that with eBooks. I also love the page turning (Kindles, Kobos and some other eBook readers on the market come with a page turning effect but let me tell you, it is not the same!), and the mild panic I feel when I can see that I am nearing the end of a great book. Some books also come written in a non conventional way, others are written like an email conversation, others have pages of text dialogue between characters...well you get my drift. This brings me to the cons of eBooks- Wattpad to be more precise because that's the only eBook reader I know and use (other than pdf versions of books that I can only read on my PC because my old Blackberry doesn't support pdfs. Pft!)

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On Wattpad you have access to over 1 million free eBooks. What!? Heaven for bookworms! Simmer down there. That doesn't mean you will find  book you badly want to read, more often than not, finding a book you want to read is like winning the lottery. This is because other than being an online library, it is also a community for amateur authors which means the majority of eBooks you find there are written by people wannabe authors who want to get published. Rarely you'll ever find good books written by Wattpad readers and some are so horrid and horribly written that you'll wonder why the terrible short story you wrote on a whim in Grade 9 isn't a contender on Wattpad's What's Hot list. Some of them though, are really good. Original, good storyline and excellent character development. *green-eyed monster* Do not let this deter you from using Wattpad, you can find a lot of real published books here and bestselling authors use Wattpad to feature their books for free. Cory Doctorow featured his book Homeland (which is so freakin' awesome and I suggest implore you to read it together with its prequel, Little Brother), and right now I'm currently reading New York Times bestselling author Maureen Johnson's book, The Boy in the Smoke, which is excellent!

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Let me stop here, because I'll go on and on about every good book I've read on Wattpad and there are so many. However, if you want me to review books of my favorites, both by published authors and unpublished authors alike, I'll be more than happy to! To conclude this post, let me say that I'll take printed copies of books over eBooks any day! You don't get a first edition of an eBook, print copies are great when you want to quickly go back to the first page and let me just say, dedication pages. Enough said. This doesn't always have to be exclusive for me of course. Both are beneficial in different situations so I'll say, it's good to have a choice of the two!

Let me know in the comments whether you prefer eBooks to printed copies or vice versa, or even both! If you want me to recommend a book for you, do not be afraid to ask, I'd love to hear from you!

More little things!

Hellooo!!

Hi! Do any of you get excited about the little things that happen in your life? Because I do! I get so uncontrollably excited that sometimes I'm afraid that I will pass out from sheer excitement. And you know what, it's quite refreshing and it is a welcome blessing!

After the year I had I'm glad I'm able to get excited about life again, and believe me- it took me a while to get to this point. So what do I get excited about? A lot of things! For example, I get excited when I dance and nail a dance move that I'll do it over and over again with a huge smile on my face. Right now I'm excited to be going home in a couple of weeks to see my family. The thought of seeing my parents again, my nephews who make me really happy (yes, I know I may be biased here but they are seriously the coolest kids around and they never fail to make me laugh. Do you know how hard it is to make me laugh easily? Not easy, it'll tell you that haha) and my dog, Yorkie! My furry best friend, who I had since I was 14. I'm so excited to be able to see the stars again. I love the city but these tall buildings block the stars and the moon and some days I really want to just gaze up and see Orion.

Lately I've been working on a couple of projects (which is why I haven't been blogging regularly!) which are getting me excited for the future. I'm actually doing something that I love and it's liberating. I'm illustrating and it's like therapy to me. I actually hurry straight from work so I can complete an illustration and it just makes me so happy. It's an unexplainable feeling and I feel quite blessed that I am able to do this. It's so exciting haha!

I do know that sometimes being excited for things may lead to disappointment (which I also wrote about in my Carry On Dreaming post here) and it's totally fun. I'd rather live my life getting excited and being hopeful than just expecting disappointment at every corner. It makes me appreciate life more, and it gives me something to look forward to, and let's be honest; everyone needs something to look forward to. It makes getting out of bed easier. You know I'm right!

So I urge you to get excited over as many little things as you'd like. Put that smile on your face, let it shine bright and let your eyes sparkle. Be excited about facing a new day, be excited about the people you are going to see, the things you are going to do (even if it means eating your favorite cereal!), the future- everything! And above all these, do not forget to dance.

Now, now, now. Please allow me to show off my dog. I know this makes me most likely to be like those mothers who show strangers pictures of their babies and talk about them all the time but this is warranted. I mean, look at her! I know she's not technically a Yorkie (she came with the name) but that is a story for another day. Everyone who knows me probably knows this little dog who's been around for ages. Aww! Can't wait to see her.

My furry ickle lovely Yorkiedums

Here's to excitement!

-Bella

It's the little things

Hello reader,

Hiii! I know I've been really scarce lately (what!? More than a week without blogging!? Really Bella!?) but that doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about blogging. Trust me, I thought about what I could post but sometimes when you do something other people will see, you start asking yourself questions like, "what if they don't like it?" "what if they think it's boring?" and so on. I want people to read my blog (duh!), but I also want to provide them with something they'll find interesting. I want to give you, my readers, something to look forward to when you click on my blog. Unfortunately, I do not have much of an interesting life (haha) but I'll try my best to update you on what's going on in my life or anything interesting I've seen.

Since the beginning of August, I embarked on what I call my self-help therapy journey which involves me trying to live better, eat better and just generally have a positive outlook on life. I changed my diet, I'm now on a Paleo diet but not so I could lose weight. The main incentive is to increase the amount of fresh fruit and vegetables in my diet and it works! I now consume more fruit and vegetables than I used to before going on the diet and I actually love it.

Another thing is I've started working out regularly *cue gasps all around*. Yes. Me. Working out. Regularly. Haha, it's no secret that I detest working out. The whole 50 squats, lunges, push-ups...well you get my drift- is exhausting and not enjoyable for me at all. I can handle running, I don't mind it but since I'm living in the city, I don't go out and run. Why? Well, because of the air, when running you have to take deep breathes of air and the city air is not that great. Also there's a lot of cars around. I much prefer running back at home in the country, lot of fresh, clean air that really feel like a gift to my struggling lungs. I also get to run with my dogs for company which is a double bonus! Oh home, how I miss you. So since I do not like running in the city or working out, what am I doing? Well, I've started yoga and I also dance as a form of working out. Yoga is  great! It's relaxing for me because I get to concentrate on my timed breathing (as opposed to focusing on not dying out of sheer exertion) and that relaxes my often over-active mind. It's also toning my body and increasing my flexibility. As for dancing, I've always loved dancing. I play fast-paced hip-hop music and just dance. I make sure to use all parts of my body and it gets my heart racing. Hip-hop dancing is great for a cardio work-out. So in all, I work out twice a day (dancing in the morning and yoga in the evening), 5 days a week. Has there been an improvement since? You bet! My mood greatly improves after dancing and I get excited to face the day. In the evenings all the tension is released during Yoga, which results in a good night's sleep.

That's not all I've been doing to improve my life. I have also been writing a lot (yeah, hard to believe with not blogging haha). Writing helps me deal with a lot of not-so-good emotions. Instead of keeping them inside, I let them all out in a form of a short story or a poem. I have even written my first ever short script and it was quite a delight! I think I'll do more of those. On of my dreams is to publish a book and the more I write, the more I improve on writing and the closer to my dream I get :).  I've also been reading a lot of books (will write about them soon!) and also reading more of the Bible. In addition to all these I'm spending more time talking to people; talking to my family and visiting my friends. The hermit life isn't all it's cracked up to be so I was really glad to get to talk and talk with other people!

So far it's been great. I hope I can keep this up. What little things have you done to improve your life either recently or in the past? I'd love to know so feel free to comment! <3

-'til next time!