2015 Challenges Wrap-ups

22:25 Cilla 17 Comments

One way to determine my goals for the next year is to reflect on this year's progress. I kind of skipped this process and went straight to signing up for more challenges next year.

So, let's take a step back. As 2015 draws to a close, here is where I stand with the challenges I joined this year.

1. Goodreads Reading Challenge

3. Discussion Challenge

I discovered and signed up for this challenge - hosted by Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight and Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction - in September. Considering I signed up so late, I aimed to write 1-12 posts - the Discussion Dabbler level. Dabbler, I definitely have been! In that three months, I've written 6 discussion posts, and 1 have been sitting in my draft for the last month. December has been rough on this front, but I've enjoyed reading everyone else's entries.

Also, I won the Halloween link-up giveaway, which was so exciting because I've never won things like that before!

If you would like to read those 6 discussions I've written this year, you can find them +here.


Overall, my 2015 in terms of challenges has been about small, achievable goals. I'm happy with that though! Still, for 2016, I'd like to aim a little higher, but that's for a whole other post. :)

New Year Resolutions

16:43 Cilla 7 Comments

First of all, a belated Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays, everyone! I hope you had a holiday filled with laughter, people you love, and delicious food. :D

I'm big on setting resolutions - I like having goals to work toward - and for the last two years I have been (surprisingly) pretty good at sticking with them! So now that we are approaching 2016, I'm setting myself some goals for this blog. Some of them might be a bit ambitious considering I'm starting graduate school next year, but I figured I might as well dream big, right?

So! Here are my bookish and blogging resolutions for 2016:

1. Keep plowing through my family's unread shelves. I'm making a list of the unread books my parents and I own (the ones that I'm interested in reading anyway), which I will use as part of my #RockMyTBR challenge entry. I posted a spreadsheet already the other day, but upon closer inspection of my parents' collection, that was very incomplete.

2.Post two times a week. I have been quite all over the place with my posting schedules as I find my footing with this blog, so hopefully now that I'm more settled in , I can be more consistent.

3. Comment on blog posts. I started this blog in order to meet others who love books as much as I do, and I can't really do that if I lurk 80% of the time. In 2016, I want to comment on every blog post I read, or at least 85% of the posts I read.

4. Spend only $100 on books for the entire year. I told my mum about this and she immediately laughed. I have to admit, this seems almost impossible. However, I'll have access to good libraries again next year when I move, so I imagine that will help!

5. Work on aesthetics. I started a bookstagram recently mostly because I wanted to try my hand at book photography without flooding my unbookish friends' feed with them. I'm experimenting with that, just as I am learning and experimenting with tweaking the design of this blog. Hopefully next year I'll be better at both!

6. Read more diverse books. Books set in other parts of the world, books starring POC - bring them on.

End of Year Survey {2015}

18:20 Cilla 6 Comments

I'm always keen for a little reflection, especially at this time of the year. So I can't resist this survey created by Jamie @ The Perpetual Page Turner. I answered every question, so get comfy if you want to read the whole thing!



Number Of Books You Read: 43 as of today. It's not a lot at all compared to many readers out there, but this is double my reading goal for the year, so I'm happy with it!
Number of Re-Reads: 7 - 6 of which are from the Princess Diaries series.
Genre You Read The Most From: I haven't kept track, but just by looking over my Goodreads Year in Books, I would say the answer to this is Fantasy.

Photo taken from my instagram. Just look at those colours. *__*

Top Ten Books I Wish Santa Would Bring Me This Year

14:59 Cilla 14 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is an original meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. Click here for information.

Santa baby, slip all these books under the tree, for me...





1. A Great and Terrible Beauty: I read this agesss ago, but I read it in such a hurry (it was borrowed from the library) that I don't remember the story anymore. I actually own the second and third books in the series, thanks to a sale when Borders closed down, so it would be nice to have the whole collection!

2. Everything I Never Told You: This has been on my TBR since the start of this year, and I keep hearing good things about it.

3. Under A Painted Sky: Yet another book that has been on my TBR all year. I haven't managed to spot it in my local bookshops, so it would be awesome if Santa could bring this to me!

4. Modern Romance: Confession: I actually have never watched Aziz Ansari on TV. I've heard about him though, and I read an excerpt of this book online. Sounds like the kind of book I would really enjoy!

5. A Madness So Discreet: I talked about why this book is on my wishlist before here. Simply put: I. Need. This. Book.



6. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? I know more about Mindy than I do Aziz, and I'm really curious to read what she has to say in this book!
7. Vicious: Morally-gray superheroes? Count me in.
8. Princesses Behaving Badly: All I know about this book is what it says on the covers, really, but that's enough to make me curious.
9. The Intern: This looks similar to The Devil Wears Prada, which I enjoyed, and since it won Inky Awards, it must be pretty good!
10. Crazy Rich Asians: I've been putting off buying this book because I'm both excited about a book that portrays modern Asians and also a bit wary about the glamorous aspects of it. (I'm usually not sold on books that feature excessively rich and bitchy people, like Gossip Girls.) If I could get it from Santa, that would solve my dilemma!

My List for The #RockMyTBR Challenge

17:42 Cilla 2 Comments

I keep seeing all these fabulous reading and blogging challenges cropping up on my feed lately, and I kind of want to join them all! I won't, though, and instead I will try to be realistic about the number of challenges I can handle next year. This one by Sarah @ The YA Book Traveler, however, is perfect for me. My pile of TBR is still very much mountainous, and I'm hoping I'll be better at tackling it in 2016 than I have this year.

The following is a list of the books I own and haven't read, whether it is a physical or electronic one. This list is a work in progress, as I will be moving in two months and some of these books will have to stay behind, but I'm hoping I'll be able to find them in a local library. Anyway, if any of these books is also on your TBR, hit me up and we can buddy read them. :D

Title	Author
Animorphs 43-53	K.A. Applegate
Princess Diaries 7-11	Meg Cabot
Queen of the Tearling	Erika Johansen
Lone Wolf	Jodi Picoult
Afterworlds	Scott Westerfields
The Spectacular Now	Tim Tharp
Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 1-4	Ann Brashares
The Diviners	Libba Bray
The Gemma Doyle Trilogy	Libba Bray
A Thousand Pieces of You	Claudia Gray
The Great Gatsby	F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd	Agatha Christie
The Sky's Dark Labyrinth	Stuart Clarke
Prisoner of Night and Fog	Anne Blankman
Girls of Riyadh	Rajaa Alsanea
Puppy Love	Frauke Scheunemann
Reckless	Cornelia Funke

BPC: Recap

20:51 Cilla 6 Comments

If you're new around here, you can find my previous posts for BPC 2015 +here. :)  

Onto the recap!

Five things I learned through this campaign.
1. Reach out and talk to people. Blogging is so much more fun when you get to share your love of books with others.
2. Spread some positivity. Life can be stressful for all of us, but it doesn't take much more than a thoughtful comment to really lift someone's spirit!
3. A love of books can unite people. The bloggers I met through this campaign reside in various corners of the world, but I could always find something in common with them. That's pretty awesome.
4. Don't compare. We're still individuals, and our blogging journeys are each unique. Envy is pointless.
5. Have fun! 

Four things I enjoyed about the campaign
1. Writing the posts. The prompts Jillian provided were a lot of fun to respond to, and it was good for me to focus on positive topics rather than on purely critical things!

BPC: 5 Bloggers Who Have Inspired Me

18:28 Cilla 10 Comments

In my introduction post, I listed five of my favourite bloggers. There are many more blogs that I follow and love though, so for today's portion of BPC, I'm going to introduce you to five more! In particular, these are the bloggers who, by means of their awesomeness, have inspired me to blog and to write better reviews and contents in general.

This post is about two days late, ack D: Life kind of ate me, but here it is!



I'd heard of Jillian before while browsing the blogosphere, but it wasn't until I caught wind of this campaign that I visited her blog. I'm so glad I did. She's very lovely and full of positivity (as you can tell by the fact that she's started this campaign!), and her blog is so fun to read! Through this campaign, she has inspired me to reach out to other bloggers more and spread some sunshine around. :)



Girl in the Pages was one of the first blogs I stumbled upon when I first started blogging. I read Cristina's posts and was immediately hooked. I love her reviews; she observes books and topics around books critically and invites her readers to have thoughtful discussions about them. 





If you haven't read Amanda's 'Fairytales Can Be Feminists Too' series, I strongly suggest checking it out now. It's an insightful look into fairytale retellings and their main ladies. Her reviews are so well-written as well; she's got that writing voice that can be fairly serious with moments of funny that I really enjoy. I kind of wish I could be as insightful about books as she is!



As a socially awkward introvert, I felt instantly like I was in the right place when I clicked onto The Quiet People for the first time. It helps that Beth writes like she's talking to a friend. She comes up with great posts, especially lately for Blogmas, and they always make me smile.



I can't not mention the blogger that inspired me to dip my toes into the world of book-blogging. Cam has always been kind to me, even though I've been a clueless newbie twice in the whole time she's known me (first on another website and then in blogging). I've been in awe of her writing for a long time and really respect her opinions of books. She isn't actively blogging at the moment, but you should keep an eye on her blog anyway. :)

Review: Winter

23:10 Cilla 2 Comments

Title: Winter
Author: Marissa Meyer
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Source: Periplus Online
Synopsis: Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana.

Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won’t approve of her feelings for her childhood friend—the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn’t as weak as Levana believes her to be and she’s been undermining her stepmother’s wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that’s been raging for far too long.

Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever afters?

Review: ⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆

She’s our lost princess. And she’s coming home.

I was so SO excited to finally have this book in my hands. The Lunar Chronicles have stolen my heart from the get-go, so my expectations were ridiculously high for its final installment. I wanted Winter to be another heroine who was fierce in her own rights. I wanted to see my ships sail into the sunset. I wanted Meyer's usual fabulous world-building with Luna. I wanted the revolution we were promised in Cress.

Luckily, Winter does not disappoint.

As our band of rebels inch closer toward making their plan for Luna takeover a reality, we are introduced to Winter, a princess who is 'more beautiful than a bouquet of roses and crazier than a headless chicken'. She has chosen to not use her Lunar gift and, as a result, is suffering from Lunar sickness. Seeing the world from her eyes is really fascinating, especially since she isn't always as off-balance as others would believe. While the sickness is clearly a burden for her, there are times when she manages to turn it to her advantage. Once again, Meyer has created a heroine who is flawed and fragile but has a streak of steel within her.

(Also, Winter's hallucinations made think of the scene in the Disney version of Snow White, where the princess ran through the woods and thought the trees were trying to kill her. I don't know if Meyer intended that, but that's still pretty cool.)

There is plenty of romance to keep this shipper happy. (Confession: I did a lot of unintelligible squealing particularly around the progress of Thorne and Cress' relationship.) While we know who will end up with who, and even when characters find their happy endings, it isn't perfect nor smooth, and I like it that way.

The world-building is once again terrific. The pacing is a little inconsistent at times as the book shifts between times of anxious planning to moments of action and back again, but I anticipated that with 800+ pages and so much to cover. Also, while some of the darker themes regarding Lunar mind-control and glamour, as well as the violence of a revolution, weren't entirely spelled out, they were definitely present in the pages. It is a revolution in a dystopia, after all; things cannot progress cleanly.

I leave this series satisfied and a little sad that I'm not going to go on another adventure on the Rampion. Of course, there will be Stars Above, but it won't be the same. Nevertheless, this is the first series since Harry Potter that has managed to immerse me in its worlds so completely. For that, I am grateful.

Top Ten 2016 Novels I Am Looking Forward To

22:57 Cilla 8 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is an original meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. Click here for information.

November 2015 Rewind

23:38 Cilla 4 Comments

• Megamorphs #4 - Back to Before by K.A. Applegate // ⋆⋆⋆⋆
• Ruin and Rising (The Grisha #3) by Leigh Bardugo // ⋆⋆⋆⋆
• Project Princess and Princess in Pink by Meg Cabot // ⋆⋆
• Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare  // ⋆⋆⋆⋆
• 3 Agatha Christie Audiobooks // ⋆⋆⋆

• Makeover! I changed the theme, tinkered with the layout and added social media buttons (add me on Twitter if you haven't!), and added a gorgeous new header courtesy of Bear&Fox from TheDarkArts.net. I'm thinking of tweaking more of the little things, but for now I'm content with this.
• I wondered how personal is too personal when it comes to talking about ourselves while blogging.
• These are the seven book adaptations I need in my life ASAP. (I can now cross Mockingjay Part 2 off this list!)
• Let's discuss how aging changes your perspective of a book. Also, if you no longer enjoy a book after a re-read, was it worth ever reading in the first place?
• Let's talk quotes. These are my top five from the books I've read in the past year.
• The Blogger Positivity Campaign has started! We're in Week 3 now and there are still two more weeks to go, so stay tuned for that.

• One of my more difficult classes at work wrapped up this week. I'm SO relieved, especially because - if test scores are anything to go by - most of them seemed to actually have retained what I taught in class. One kid who had previously failed the class managed to pull through this time - by the skin of his teeth, but his relief was quite touching. 
• Ten million years late, but I finally caught Marvel's Agent Carter on TV (yay morning re-runs) and I'm so hooked.
• Jess Glynne's Don't Be So Hard on Yourself was my soundtrack of the month. Her voice is just gorgeous, and the lyric of that song is spot-on. I also listened to Justin Bieber's Love Yourself, and it is now stuck in my head. I'm not a Belieber, but I definitely do not mind his current music.
• I stressed out about grad school applications. It sucks to not have so little control over such a big aspect of my future.
• I hunted for Winter in three bookshops, gave up and ordered it online, only to find it three days later in the first bookshop that told me I had to order online. -.-
• I also went around the mall with a colleague to hunt for the Harry Potter adult colouring book. She was planning on giving it as a birthday present, but she so excited when we found it, she ended up buying two. If I had that kind of artistic inclination in me, I would have bought one too!
• Did anyone else fall in love with this little James Bond expert on Ellen? And Daniel Craig in the process?

• I added locations from Clockwork Princess to my Around the World Challenge. My map is still very much centred on the European and American settings, unfortunately.
• Posted one discussion for the 2015 Book Blog Discussion Challenge. Or two, if we counted one of the posts I did for BPC.
• So far, I have read 39 books out of my goal of 25 for the Goodreads reading challenge. It's a small amount compared to what some other readers have, but I'm still quite pleased about it.

• A review of Winter. I finished this recently and just haven't gathered the energy to write a review, choosing to catch up on sleep I lost while reading it. (It was well worth it) 
• More posts to spread the love with BPC! 
• Definitely at least one discussion post. 

BPC: Dear J.K. Rowling

22:49 Cilla 8 Comments

3-in-1 Review, or, That Time I Became Obsessed with Agatha Christie Audiobooks

15:29 Cilla 4 Comments

A couple of weeks ago, I discovered that I could borrow e-books and audiobooks from one of the Melbourne libraries I am a member of. Cue joy and excitement, and about an hour spent browsing the catalogue. I stumbled upon several Agatha Christie's full cast dramatisation in the audiobook section. Curious, I decided to borrow one, and that kind of resulted in an obsession. I didn't stop to write down my thoughts between books, so I've decided to post them all in one!
Title: One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
Author: Agatha Christie
Publisher: BBC Audio
Source: Borrowed from the library
Synopsis: What reason would an amiable dentist like Dr. Morely have for committing suicide? He didn't have emotional difficulties, money problems, or love trouble. What he did have was an appointment with Hercule Poirot, who is not persuaded by the suicide story and has therefore taken it upon himself to questions the good doctor's patients, partners, and friends. All he's come up with is the numbing fear that Dr. Morely wasn't an unlikely victim at all. Nor the first.


Review: ⋆⋆⋆
One, Two, Buckle My Shoe was only my second audiobook experience, and my first with a full-cast dramatisation, so I really wasn't sure what to expect. I ended up loving the production. The sound effects did a great job at setting up the mood and surroundings, and the actors are excellent. That's probably not surprising to anyone since it is BBC, but still.

As for the story itself, I kept losing track of who's who, but that's partly because I'd listened to a portion of the story in a dentist's waiting room where I kept getting sidetracked. I love the way the story followed the nursery rhyme though. Overall, It was a fun read, particularly since the format was so new to me, but for me it didn't quite blow my mind.


Title: A Pocket Full of Rye
Author: Agatha Christie
Publisher: BBC Audio
Source: Borrowed from the library
Synopsis: A handful of grain is found in the pocket of a murdered businessman! Rex Fortescue, king of a financial empire, was sipping tea in his 'counting house' when he suffered an agonising and sudden death. On later inspection, the pockets of the deceased were found to contain traces of cereals. Yet, it was the incident in the parlour which confirmed Jane Marple's suspicion that here she was looking at a case of crime by rhyme!


Review: ⋆⋆⋆
I enjoyed A Pocket Full of Rye more than I did One, Two, Buckle My Shoes, but I confess I'm quite partial to Miss Marple. Has anyone else noticed the way she praised whichever policeman she was working with and downplayed her own intelligence so the man kind of felt like he arrived at the solution himself? Poirot never did that. He never had to.

Other than that, I love that this one opens up with the full rhyme; not having been brought up with Western nursery rhymes, I was totally unfamiliar with this one and would not have seen the brilliance of the story. This one is a little more predictable for me though; the revelation of the murderer didn't shock me.


Title: And Then There Were None
Author: Agatha Christie
Publisher: BBC Audio
Source: Borrowed from the library
Synopsis: First, there were ten - a curious assortment of strangers summoned as weekend guests to a private island off the coast of Devon. Their host, an eccentric millionaire unknown to all of them, is nowhere to be found. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they're unwilling to reveal - and a secret that will seal their fate. For each has been marked for murder. One by one they fall prey. Before the weekend is out, there will be none. And only the dead are above suspicion


Review: ⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆
And Then There Were None is on a whole other level. I see now why this is Christie's most popular work! It's clever in the puzzle-building of the story, and chilling in the way the murders unfolded. The audiobook really highlighted the madness of the whole thing. We follow Vera Claythorne for the most part of the story, a woman haunted by a decision she's made in the past. We get flashbacks and hear her talking to herself, and that adds to the creepiness and suspense. I really tried to guess who the murderer was, but I couldn't at all!

This is my favourite Christie story so far, and the audiobook does such a good job at bringing it to life. If you're easily creeped out like I am though, do not listen to this at night with your lights off.

Things I Have Learned From The Book Blogging Community

09:42 Cilla 12 Comments

Welcome to my first post - or second really, with the introduction - of the Blogger Positivity Campaign! I started out thinking I'd write things that I have learned about the community. Then I realised that I have picked up quite a bit of new knowledge about blogging itself in the short time I've been here. So I'm going to run with that idea now. :D

Here are some of the things I have learned from the book blogging community:

How to make things look pretty

I'll be the first to admit that I don't have a natural talent for aesthetics. I know when something is unpleasant to my eyes, but I won't ever be able to come up with a gorgeous layout and theme all on my own. So when I gave this blog its' first makeover, I read a lot of tips about what a well-designed blog should have. I didn't take all of the advice, because not everything works for me, but still they all really helped. I like to think the current theme is an improvement on the previous one, even if it is still not perfect!

What those mysterious words mean

DNF, NA, ARC, pub date, link-ups - these are some of the phrases I had never heard of until I started reading book blogs. The first time I read the phrase 'pub date', I thought that person was talking about an actual date in a pub.

How to talk to strangers online

That sounds kind of dodgy, but it isn't really when it's applied to book bloggers. I'm pretty shy, and talking to people I don't know - even when it's just a matter of leaving a comment on someone's post - doesn't come naturally to me. Most bloggers are so lovely when they respond though. Plus, there are plenty of discussions about the importance of meaningful comments around and how bloggers love getting those (I'm starting to experience that myself). Now, I don't feel like what I'm saying would be seen as superfluous, and I do try to talk to other bloggers more!

The tricks to managing social media

I'd had Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads long before I started blogging, but I had only known the basics. I had never heard of Tweetdeck, for example, let alone the fact that you can schedule tweets! (I still don't schedule tweets, but that has more to do with my organisation skills.) So I keep saving blog posts related to social media for reference, and I find that I learn something new every time.

How to be an organised blogger

I like to think I'm a fairly organised person in life, but I've been struggling to get my blogging schedule in order. Thankfully, there are dozens of organisation posts out there by book bloggers. I have gotten myself a Google calendar and a blogging notebook, and started planning my posts weekly. I'm still not quite on top of things, but I'm learning!

Now I kind of feel like an intern running around eagerly, hoping to learn the masters' ways to greatness. I like the learning process though. Thank you to every book blogger who has taken the time to write a tutorial or share tips on tackling a certain aspect of blogging!

Blogger Positivity Campaign: Introduction Post

09:12 Cilla 14 Comments

I couldn't resist signing up for this campaign when I came across it. Jillian at Jillian's Books came up with this idea to spread love and confidence among the blogging community. I haven't been blogging for long, but I wanted to be a part of something so positive and hopefully help uplift other bloggers out there!

Anyway, to kick things off, let's start with an intro!


I am Cilla, a Pisces, Potterhead, writer, and book hoarder. Paved With Books was born about six months ago, when I looked up at my family's ridiculous amount of owned books and thought that perhaps reading the books they love is one way to understanding them - and myself - better. While the reading is all about my family, I hope this blog will help me connect with other bookish people around the world. Plus, I love reading, I love writing, so it makes sense to start writing about reading!

I'm making an effort to pick through my unread pile rather than buying new books, so I end up with a little bit of everything. When I get books for myself, I gravitate toward YA and fantasy, but I also like a good mystery and contemporary.

Fun fact about that picture above: the author of the book is a professor of mine, and I got him to sign it for me. It's all about the psychological benefits of the seven deadly sins, backed up by dozens of research - a pretty cool read all around, though it did get me some weird looks when I was reading it at the airport!






At the moment, I blog from Surabaya, Indonesia. It is not the touristy part of Indonesia with the beaches and gorgeous views; it is the metropolitan part where it is too hot and there are too many motorbikes. That said, I get to complain about it because it's my home. A visitor does it and I tend to go 'rawr' on them. xD



A friend on Goodreads, Cam, started posting her reviews, and I loved reading them. That was the first lure. By following her link, I started reading her blog, and the term 'ARC' popped up somewhere there. I asked her about it, and she told me about NetGalley. The idea that you could get free books in exchange for giving it your honest opinion was the second lure. I couldn't shake the idea after that, but it took me about six months before I actually took the leap.



I'm still a baby to the blogosphere, but everyone I've interacted with has been really kind.

• Disney animated movies make me happy, especially the classics. Beauty and the Beast is my favourite, but I also have a soft spot for Tangled and Tarzan.
• I currently teach English as a Second Language. It's challenging, but it also makes me more protective of people who struggle with English. You don't realise how difficult a language is until you see people trying to learn it from scratch.
• I have been a member of a play-by-post Harry Potter RPG site for six years.
• Hugh Jackman is my ultimate celebrity crush. 
• I love Nancy Drew video games. I'm absolutely terrible at them and always need help, but I LOVE them. 

• Erika @ Books, Stars, Writing, and Everything in Between. Erika is super sweet, and her reviews are so much fun to read!
• Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction. I love Nicole's thoughtful discussion posts, and she's really one of the kindest bloggers around.
• Jamie @ The Perpetual Page-Turner. Jamie's is one of the first blogs I read when I first started, and I love the way she writes her posts as if she's talking to a friend.
• Alyson @ Harry, Jane, and John. Alyson reads a lot of interesting books, and I love her reviews.
• Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight. Shannon's blog is so fun to read, and she's also a really friendly person!