Bookobsessed

My goal this year is to read 50 books. So far I have read 35 books. My reading goals are to read books that have been on my shelf for a long time and to start some new series. So far I am doing pretty good. I realize that I need the final book in some series to complete them. I want to finish The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices series this year. I have the last two books in both series to read. Right now I am reading the Pretty Little Liars series and I am really enjoying them!

For this month, I am going to try and finish some series that I have started. These are Sookie Stackhouse, Evernight, Wicked Lovely, Vampire Academy, Infernal Devices and Mortal Instruments. I will read Gossip Girl later on in the year. It will be 11 books in all.

I saw this tag on Booktube and decided I will do it too.

Twitter - Favourite shortest book  The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer

Facebook - A book you were pressured to read.  City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Tumblr - A book you read before it was cool.  Gossip Girl by Cecily Von Ziegesar

Myspace - A book you don't remember if you liked. Awakened by P.C and Kristin Cast

Youtube - A book you wished would be turned into a movie. Evernight by Claudia Gray

Goodreads - A book you recommend to everyone. Any one of my favourite books.

Christina Makes the Bookish Rounds is a feature that will let you know about recent MG/YA/NA book related news. I'll post about articles from the publishing industry, cover reveals, discussions from fellow bloggers, the latest tv/movie news, and giveaways that you're hosting. If you would like to follow along with cover reveals during the week, see my Pinterest.

A lot of BookLikes members have been asking about the affiliate programs. And here we are, launching them! Now you can earn by doing what you love: reading books and sharing reviews.  

Your Affiliate Programs

If you are already cooperating with bookstores, like Amazon or Book Depository (more bookstores to come) you can connect your affiliate IDs with your BookLikes account. Getting started is easy and requires only several clicks. Simply add your IDs in Settings/Affiliate Programs and start shelving and reviewing. 

When you connect your affiliate IDs with your BookLikes account in Settings, all books that you put on your shelf, and add to your texts and reviews on your BookLikes webpage will use your affiliate ID. This means that whenever someone clicks the book from your virtual bookshelf or a book review and buys it, you get 100% of the commission set by a particular bookstore.

You don’t have to stick to one program, you can choose several to increase your profit rate.  

Affiliate programs selected by you are highlighted with your avatar in the book windows on your blog and your virtual bookshelf.

If you've been using your Affiliate Programs IDs on BookLikes previously, your affiliate preferences should be saved in Settings/Affiliate Programs. 

Bookstores on Book Pages and in Book Windows

The book pages on BookLikes and the book windows has also received information where they can be purchased.

If you'd like to acquire the title, click the link and you'll be moved to a given bookstore. 

There are some authors whose books I would buy automatically without reading the back of the book. These are Jackie Collins, Cecily Von Ziegesar, Stephenie Meyer, Richelle Mead, Lynsay Sands and Kerrelyn Sparks. I love reading all of their books. Lucky Santangelo is my favourite character from some of Jackie Collins novels. I haven't finished reading them all but I enjoy reading the Gossip Girl, It Girl and The Carlyles series from Cecily Von Ziegesar. I have also picked up Cum Laude by the same author. I loved the Twilight series and also read the Eclipse novella and The Host. Vampire Academy is really great by Richelle Mead. I still have to read the last two books in that series and also the final book in the Georgina Kincaid series. I love reading the Love at Stake series by Kerrelyn Sparks and the Argeneau series by Lynsay Sands. Both series are about vampires and have a lot of humour in them.

We’ve polished up your Reading Challenge, now you can compare your annual goals, check which book was a page turner, and keep track of your reading history week by week. More reading stats are coming soon. 

You can find your Reading Challenge Page by click the headline of the reading challenge timeline visible on your Dashboard.

If you haven’t set up your goal for 2014 yet, there's still time. Go to Reading Challenge tab in Goodies, set your reading goal, and be prepared for the intensive 4 months of the reading pleasure.

Your new Reading Challenge page presents

several reading information:

1. Fast read & page count - you’ll always know how many pages have you read so far, and which book was a real page turner.

2. Your challenge books list presents your reading history with re-read dates, your rating stars, and links to the reviews. 

The list is updated according to the read dates, remember to fill up the Dates to make the book count to your challenge. You can easily update the dates on the Reading Challenge page. 

3. Reading chart allows you to keep track of your reading achievements per months and per weeks.

4. Reading Challenges Year by Year compares your goals and achievements in the particular years.

You can easily switch between the years - your reading challenge years are visible on the top of the page, at the bottom, and on the right.

Discover Reading Challenges of Other Bloggers

You can also check how other BookLikers are doing. There are several ways to check what others are reading in their Reading Challenges. 

1. Go to Reading Challenge tab in Goodies to view the most recent challenges and their reading history. Press view challenge books to go to Reading Challenge page. 

2. To view other's challenged books click the Reading Challenge widget on the blog.

Then you'll view the blogger's reading history:

Add Reading Challenge Widget to Your Blog

If you haven't added the widget to your blog yet, it's high time. It's a great way to show your reading goals, and share your reading history with your blog guests. 

To add widget to your BookLikes blog follow the steps:

1. go to Widget tab (in Goodies)

2. copy code for the Reading Challenge Widget

3. go to the customization tab (the link to the tab is right under the widget code)

4. paste the code in the Widget Area

5. save

The Reading Challenge Widget will be added to your blog. If you want to add other widgets (Shelf, Profile etc...) follow the same steps. You can add as many widgets in the Widget Area as you wish. 

If you wish to add the widget to your other webpage, copy/paste the HTML into your other website code. 

P.S. We love the idea of the book bricks. Click here to see more lovely DIY bookends and bookshelf accessories. 

A new profile widget can be your calling card, business card, and an invitation. Let your readers hear you, let them see you, let them read you. Show you blog info in a nutshell.

A new widget has been added to Widgets Page (Goodies). First decide which information would you like to reveal, just tick the boxes and the details will pop up on the preview widget on the right.

Once your widget is ready, copy the code and paste it into the Widget Area in a customization tab on BookLikes (Settings/Blog->Customize), or copy/paste the HTML into your other website code.

What's even more cooler is the fact that your readers can explore your BookLikes blog, and your activity. By clicking the details on the widget, your guests will be moved to your BookLikes places, e.g.

- by clicking the Reading Challenge Note, your guests will be moved to your Reading Challenge Page,

- by clicking the number of shelves, they will visit your BookLikes Shelf page,

- by clicking the number of your Discussion, they will see your Discussion stats.

Each data/number is a link that reveals something about you, your books, and your book blog on BookLikes.  

Update

We're added a report button to BookLikes' author pages.

If you notice that the information on the page should be added or corrected, let us know by using the form. Thank you. 

My reading goals for this year is to read more books than I did last year. My goodreads challenge is to read 100 books. I have never completed a goodreads challenge before but I hope I complete this one. So far I have only read 27 books so I have a lot of reading to do. My reading goal is to finish series that I have started but never finished. These series are Gossip Girl, Vampire Academy, Infernal Devices, Wicked Lovely, Evernight and Sookie Stackhouse. My other reading goal is to read other genres like dystopia, science fiction, historical romance, contemporary and inspirational.