My Top Ten Blogging Confessions

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

Hey, friends! It's time for another Top Ten Tuesday. This week's theme is actually really interesting and I've been excited for it ever since I first saw it on the list. It's your "Top Ten Blogging Confessions." Since I'm a new-ish blogger (this blog was started in early February) I think I might have a little bit of trouble with this since I haven't had all that much time to do crazy secret things, but I do think it's a really creative idea and I can't wait to try and list some of my shameful blogger confessions! Also, Jamie linked her post that was on this same topic from two years ago, so I may steal some of the things she listed there. Without further ado, let's just get right into things!

1. I RARELY go to the library. I understand being an advocate for libraries. And, I fully support that cause. Libraries are amazing and fantastic and wonderful. But, the fact remains that libraries and me just don't click. I love going to libraries and being in them, but whenever I borrow library books I just don't read them! I think it has something to do with only having a limited amount of time to read them. I've always been a slow reader, so I think the daunting due dates deter me from reading library books. The only books I do borrow from the library anymore are the occasional graphic novels. And, even those are sometimes a struggle for me.

2. I hated Twilight. And, I'm not sorry about it. Twilight started getting popular (and had probably just come out?) when I was in 5th or 6th grade. My best friend at the time had read it and said it was phenomenal. Everyone I knew was raving about it and so I decided-- after much pestering from my friends-- to give in and read it. And, what happened? I just.. didn't get it. I thought it was one of the most over-hyped books ever in the history of the world. And, because of that, sassy-middle-school-Ashley went on a rampage. For about 7 years of my life, every time someone even mentioned Twilight or any of the books in the series I would make a barfing noise and rant about how much I hate it. I never read anything, but the first one and have no intentions of doing so. Same goes for the movies. I just have never liked Twilight and I never will. The bad taste will never ever be washed from my mouth.

3. My owned-books TBR pile keeps on growing WAY faster than my read owned books. I think everyone in the book blogging or BookTube community says this, but I really have a book buying problem. Get me in a bookstore and you will see me turn into a savage beast right before your eyes. I just need all the books! I need them! And, when you're in a community (or TWO communities) where you're constantly hearing about amazing new releases or people raving about the best books of the year.. it just adds up. My name is Ashley and I am a bookaholic.

4. I'm ridiculously OCD about my books, bookshelves and book organization in general. If you know me at all, this won't be a surprise. In most aspects of my life I'm an extremely neat and tidy person. I just cannot deal with things being unorganized or out of place. Because of this, I'm VERY careful and organized with my books. I'm really bad at letting friends borrow my books to read because I FEAR what condition they'll be in when they come back to me. If I'm buying a book, I always have to find the most perfect copy in the store. It the bottom of the spine is a little bent? That's probably a deal breaker. It's not perfect enough!! Whenever I get my new bookshelves (hopefully around my birthday in September) I will do a blog post/video on them and you will be able to see just how insanely organized they're going to be. It'll be like a library shelf in my bedroom. Guh, I dream of putting all my books in a beautiful, perfect order.

5. I NEVER read with the dust-jacket on. I don't know if this is just me or not, but whenever I try to read with the dust-jacket on a hardcover book it lasts about 2 minutes before I pull it off out of frustration. I just feel like it's so annoying! It slips and slides while you're reading and it's just a big pain in the ass to be honest. But, that doesn't mean I don't LOVE the idea of dust-jackets. I also love the satisfaction you can get from looking under a dust-jacket and finding something really amazing. I just hate reading the book with it on.

6. I never actually read the last one or two Harry Potter books. I'm sorry, I'm sorry!! When I was younger, my mom would listen to the audio-books of the whole series with us. I remember listening to them in my living room instead of watching TV. But, for some reason I really feel like I never read the last one or two. That or I just didn't pay enough attention/fell asleep while listening to them. I also haven't seen either half of the last movie in their entirety. I know what happens and I've seen the important/ funny bits.. but, I haven't watched it full through. I'm a fraud! I'm sorry!

7. I embellish my wrap-ups just a little bit sometimes. Only on occasion do I do this.. but it's a confession, so I figured I would throw it out there. This isn't something I do all that much. In fact, I only think I've really done this this month. Basically, I lied and said I finished Saga, Vol. 2 in June when I really finished it two days ago. BUT, I came clean about it in my wrap-up video. So, that counts for something. I've also put a lot of fluff in my wrap-ups before to try and hide how little I actually read. I know, I know, I shouldn't try to hide how much/how slow I read, but I've done it before. So, shh. I'm sorry.

8. I didn't hate 50 Shades of Grey. When this book was blowing up, I was finishing up my senior year of high school. What was really weird was that a ton of girls in my grade were reading it in school and weren't the least bit ashamed. So, I joined their ranks. In fact, my friend Jess and I used to openly discuss it almost every day in our Government class while we were both reading it. I'm not going to lie and say I didn't like this book. Sure, it's not the best book ever and I didn't continue the series, but I'm not ashamed to confess that I really, really enjoyed 50 Shades of Grey and I can't wait for the movie.

9. I've never read The Hunger Games OR seen the movies. You may or may not know that I haven't always read as much as I do now. Having a blog and and a BookTube channel have really pushed me to read WAY more than I used to. That being said, I didn't have all of this when The Hunger Games books were at their peak of popularity. So, I just never read them. I would like to at some point, but I don't own any of them and they aren't a high priority of mine. I haven't seen the movies either and I'm not in any rush to do that. I know I'll like them and I know I'll probably go through a mild obsessive phase.. and that's a commitment I want to save for a bit later date.

10. I have a tendency to fall in love with authors before reading any of their books. This is probably super weird, but knowing my personality it's something I would expect from myself. What I mean by this confession is that, for example; I've never read anything my Patrick Ness. I own A Monster Calls, The Knife of Never Letting Go and More Than This, but I haven't read them yet. However, I'm ALWAYS interested in news of his writing and consider myself a fan. I just KNOW I'm going to like his books so I can say without having read them that I'm a fan. I also feel this way about Neil Gaiman. GUH! I don't know what it is, guys. I just don't know.

And, there you have it. It's all out in the open now.. I hope you don't think less of me now that you know all my crazy, embarrassing blogging and book-related secrets. If you want to make me feel better about all these little things, let me know in the comments what some of your confessions are or link me to you Top Ten Tuesday posts for this week! Thanks for stopping by!