Giveaway Extravaganza (OPEN INT)

I've been blogging for three months now as of today, January 1, 2012, and Cupid(He's right there, watching you and flying around) and I are very much grateful for all of you for welcoming us. I've met a lot of fantabulous people that made blogging this year really fun and meaningful. And to celebrate my 3rd Month Blogoversary and for reaching 100 followers (I made it! Oh yeah!) I'm going to host my very first giveaway.

What's up for grabs?

Pack 1: My favorite books last year.

Finnikin of the Rock / Unearthly / Where She Went / Daughter of Smoke and Bone / Feed

Pack 2: Already published books that I'm dying to read.

Divergent / Anna Dressed In Blood / A Monster Calls / Chasing Brooklyn / Lola and the Boy Next Door / Flat-Out Love / Liesl & Po / Shatter Me

Pack 3: Upcoming January releases

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight / Under the Never Sky / Cinder / Everneath / The Fault in Our Stars / Incarnate / Hallowed / A Million Suns 

Giveaway Terms and Condition

To enter, you have to be at least 13 years old and a follower of Smitten over Books via GFC. There are also extra entries to increased your chances of winning. Two (2) winners will get to choose one (1) book from the Pack of their choice. You can enter as long as The Book Depository ships to your country for free. To see whether TBD ships to your country, you can check here.

This giveaway will start from January 1, 2012 and will end on February 1, 2012 at 12:01 AM EST. Winners will be notified via e-mail and has 48 hours to claim their prizes. If the winner has not responded within the time allotted, a new winner will be picked. 

Note: I am not responsible for any damaged or lost books in the mail. Also, please do not leave any contact information i.e., email address in the comment section. 

***Remember to verify your email subscription for your entry to be valid. And I'd like to reiterate that the prize is 1 book in your Pack of choice. Not the whole pack. As much as I love you guys, I can't start the year broke. :))

Enter below and Good Luck! :)

Click Read More to see the Rafflecopter form.

2011 Year-End Reflection: My Resolutions and Accomplishments

Note: There's an awesome announcement at the end of this post. 

Look at how tired I was.

2011 has been an eventful year for me. I'm on my 3rd year in college which means more exposure to clinical settings and tons of additional workloads. Then I started blogging last November 2011 and now I’m entering another year and celebrating 3-months in the blogging world.

Although I just started, I’m not unfamiliar to reviewing and blogging. I have been reviewing since 2009(my first reviews were horrible, Ack!) on Goodreads and I have been following and reading blogs far, far back. Making my own blog held my interest for a time but I felt like I was not yet ready to start one.

Then out of the blue while visiting a blog, I thought of Smitten over Books. I was so excited because I think it was the sign for me to go build my blog. Thinking it would be easy, I made an account on Blogger.  I could never be more mistaken.  

**HTML-induced
Pulling Hair Syndrome

Signing up was easy but creating your own blog from scratch was one heck of a job. It requires a lot of time and effort, tears and a few loose hair just to get one running. But what a blast it was. It’s fun to have your own little corner in the big world of fiction, where you can say everything you want and share your love for books.  Meeting new bloggers and talking with my long-loved bloggers is enough payment for the hardships I’ve encountered.

Hardships. Too strong a word for a 2-month old blogger. But I kid you not when I say I struggled. A lot. What with all the workloads in school, paper works to be submitted, reports to be done, I just couldn’t squeeze enough time to read and review books and then post them here. Plus, I have to figure out HTML by myself. My mortal nemesis since High School.

**Lady Gaga cat version

But here I am now nearing 100 followers(I'm actually 1 person away from reaching it, major cliffhanger of the year!) with 106 followers on GFC, with 128/5 subscribers on RSS/email and feeling much like Lady Gaga. I squealed with delight every time somebody comments on my post or share it with others. I almost killed myself by holding my breath too long when my favorite bloggers visited my blog. And that my friend, I realized is the joy in blogging. You meet new friends, talk with other fellow readers and bloggers and share your passion. That’s more than a humbly blogger like me could ask.

I also discovered that the blogging world is a very welcoming and supportive community. They would help without you even asking and I've never felt so accepted in my life. As cliched as this may sound, I feel like I really belong here. Yes, I have wonderful friends at school but I never had that one friend that I could really talk incessantly about my latest read. But now I have so many friends who share the same passion as mine. I could never be more happy.

So what better way to keep blogging as fun this coming year than to make a blogging resolution. Here's mine:

**

Kidding! Even these kittehs have their own resolutions:

**Hear, hear!

**She should go for Option B,
don't you think?

Now here are my 2012 blogging resolutions. For realz:

1. I will try to post at least thrice a week. (I hope!)
2. I will read more books.(I hope 2x)
3. I will write a review right after I finish a book. (Heh)
4. I will connect more with other bloggers. (Win!)
5. I will not procrastinate. (*silence*)

I still have a lot to learn. But knowing that someone out there is watching my progress and cheering me on just makes the process so worth it. Now it’s time to hear your blogging story. What's your blogging resolutions for 2012? Feel free to share a link of your post about your own Year-End Reflections in the comment section below. Happy New Year and may we have another fun blogging year ahead! :)

Now for the announcement: Watch out for a very fabulous giveaway dedicated to all my awesome followers. Oh, that's you! Yeah, you! :D

**Pictures are taken from the world wide web.

Follow Friday # 1

Follow Friday is a weekly blog hop hosted by Alison Can Read and Parajunkee that expands your blog following by a joint effort between bloggers. This week's featured bloggers are Kristin Can Read and Ex Libris.

Question of the Week:  
The New Year is here -- and everyone wants to know your New Years Blogging Resolution! What are you going to try to revise, revamp and redo for 2012 on your blog?

I think this is a very nice question for my first ever Follow Friday post. Personally, I don't do a New Year's resolution list because I just tend to break them and look the other way when I did. :)

But here's my New Year's blogging resolutions:

1. I'm trying to add a post slider/feature slider on my blog but it's really hard. Everytime I try to do one, it looks like a giant box of nothingness. So I'd really try to make it work this 2012.

2. I'll comment more. I make it a point that when someone visited my blog and leave a comment, I'd reply as fast as I can. I'll keep doing this and visit more blogs.

And I think that's all. I'm proud of my blog the way it is and I'll keep it that way. :)

Thanks for stopping by! Happy New Year!

Faves of TwentyEleven Book Awards: The Covers

For the last day of this fabulous 5-day long recap by Inkcrush, the theme is: Top 10 Fave covers picked from my 2011 book read.

Faves of TwentyEleven Book Awards
created by Inkcrush

Without further ado, these are My Top Ten Best Covers:

10. Fractured Light

9. Daughter of Smoke and Bone

8. The Son of Neptune

7. Hallowed

6. Across The Universe

5. Wither 

4. A Certain Slant of Light

3. Unearthly

2. Everneath

1. Incarnate

And that's it for this 5-day long Faves of TwentyEleven Book Awards courtesy of Nomes from Inkcrush. If you made your own list, feel free to share it and leave a link below the comment section. Happy New Year! :)

Just in case you missed the previous posts:
-Faves of TwentyEleven Book Awards: The Books
-Faves of TwentyEleven Book Awards: The Characters
-Faves of TwentyEleven Book Awards: The Scenes
-Faves of TwentyEleven Book Awards: The Random

Faves of TwentyEleven Book Awards: The Random

We're on Day 4 and today's theme is:

Faves of TwentyEleven Book Awards
created by Inkcrush

1. Fave first sentence: "It was too soon."  from Everneath by Brodi Ashton

For some reason, that first sentence resounded the most too me this year.

2. Fave book title: Wither by Lauren DeStefano

I think the title perfectly describes the book.

3. Fave reading experience: Fractured Light by Rachel McClellan

I was all in when I read this. I find myself laughing, swooning and getting scared all at the same time.

4. Book with the most sensual weather (made you shiver/sweat): Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Especially the part wherein Katsa was in the mountains and there's snow everywhere. 

5. Most embarrassing book cover: Enchanted Ivy by Sarah Beth Durst

This book deserves a gorgeous cover. I mean, look at that gargoyle. Ugh.

6. Can’t believe you waited this long to read the book: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Yes, I've been living under the rock all these years.

7. Book you'd give your mum to read: Just Listen by Sarah Dessen

My mom loved to read when she was younger, and Just Listen would definitely get her back on the reading track.

8. Book you'd give your dad to read: The Missing by Chris Mooney

I've never seen my Dad read but if I'll give him a book, I think he will go for the thriller type.

9. Book you'd like to give your past-self to read: Angus Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison

This book was extremely hilarious. I can see my past self worshiping Georgia and mirroring her craziness.

10. Book that lived up to or superseded the hype: Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

Everything about this book is excellent so it's no surprise many have fallen in love with this book.

11. Book you stayed the latest to finish: Graceling by Kristin Cashore

This book was addicting. It started slowly at first and then went full blast on the later half.

12. Book you were dying to get your hands on the most: Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta

From the moment I read the synopsis of this book, I was sold. Plus, Melina Marchetta is one of my favorite authors.

13. Fattest brick of a book you read (by page count): Feed by Mira Grant

Page Count: 583 pages. Every page was worth it.

14. Killer cliffhanger award: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Best cliffhanger ever although the ending did killed me a bit.

***

Your turn! :) Share your own list and leave a link down below. And stay tuned tomorrow for the Faves of TwentyEleven Book Awards: The Covers.


Just in case you missed the previous posts, you can see them again here:
-Faves of TwentyEleven Book Awards: The Books
-Faves of TwentyEleven Book Awards: The Characters
-Faves of TwentyEleven Book Awards: The Scenes