Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
2019 was a year of books! Where to start, where to start. Hmmmmmmm…
Book Discoveries
I’m not sure where to begin! I generally read a lot of debuts in a year, but I did “discover” (lol ok not really at all—I found them through Goodreads) some authors that I love. This was a year of reading diversely, from authors of color to queer authors to authors with disabilities to Muslim authors, and their diverse characters. I also rekindled my love for adult science fiction and fantasy, and realized that why yes, I do enjoy reading romance.
These are my favorite new (to me) authors of 2019:
Blogging Discoveries
This one is super easy, because I took the plunge and created a blog last May, and met all of you!
The past seven months has been a lot of fun, and I look forward to a full year of making connections and sending my rambling reviews into the world.
Goodreads
2019 was a year of stepping up a little bit on Goodreads, and getting out of my comfort zone. I joined (another) book club, and liked it so much that I asked to be a moderator—and I’ve been the Games and Challenges mod for almost a year now!
So if you’re into fun solo and team games, hop on down to The Procrastinators Book Club, where we try to make a dent in our TBRs and realize that it’s okay to never catch up.
We just hit 1300 members! And our January Readathon is now, so if you want to try out a no-pressure Readathon, maybe join us and give it a whirl?
How to Get Free Books
Lol JK. I’m a frugal cheapskate and I hate buying books unless I absolutely love them. Which means I need to read them first.
I already knew about NetGalley and used it frequently before to request ARCs, but I started becoming more successful in getting approved on Edelweiss too.
And I’m a super library user. I’ve still got some past library subscriptions that are still current, and I use OverDrive frequently to find the books I want to listen to or read on my Kindle. A long commute=listening at 1.5x=more audiobooks consumed.
Some library apps that are 100% worth it (that aren’t OverDrive or Libby): Hoopla and RBDigital. Hoopla has a pretty solid comics collection, along with decent movies and a surprisingly awesome selection of ebooks and eaudiobooks that are all automatically available. No holds list! RBDigital is good too, and just like OverDrive/Libby you can add multiple accounts.
Also, if you’re in North Carolina and have a library card (and a participating library), NC Live is a pretty awesome resource that’s totally free. From scholarly articles to authoritative news sources to lots of ebooks and eaudiobooks to resume help to test prep to reference assistance to so much more, it has a lot to offer.
What were your favorite bookish discoveries of 2019?
The Suspected Bibliophile 
Elizabeth Acevedo is also a new to me author of 2019, I’m so happy I read her work!
(www.evelynreads.com)
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She’s amazing!
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I’ve had a book blog for a little while now. But I haven’t much idea about how to spruce it up. All I have so far are some reviews on books that I read. I’ve also read a lot more books than shown on the site. I’d like to make it interesting and keep it up to date.
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Same! I feel like my blog is bland, basic and has book reviews and a half-assed attempt at doing book tags. I’m still floundering in connecting/networking and feeling disconnected with the Book Community at large.
Wanna maybe collaborate on some ideas to make things interesting?
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Same here, im still trying to work my way around WordPress (and I’ve had it for like 2 years). And getting to know people and follow blogs.
And wow, that would be a fab idea actually, maybr get to know what our similarities are and stuff. Maybe have a look at my book blog first? To see what ya in for lol
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I can’t see your book blog…unless I’m clicking on a wrong link?
I generally talk about SFF, adult and YA, and contemporary books. And some nonfiction. Lol I read all over the place.
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Ah it’s no biggy, I think the link to my second blog is on my website? I like adult and YA , and contemporary too. I’m also into erotic romance too (and this is what I’m doing my Masters research in, erotic fan fiction/ books and romance) 😛
It’ll be great to collaborate with eachother and write something splendid. Maybe we can converse another way and I can give you my social media info or email?
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My twitter stuff is up on my site. DM me!
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