A Creature of Habit? Maybe, Maybe Not!

It's been a long, long time since I last crafted a post that wasn't a review or a blog tour post, but here I am, ready to conquer le world blogging habits. What I have discovered this past year is how much my reading and blogging habits have changed throughout time and it's quite fascinating to look back and compare the past and present. I'll share some of my blogging and reading quirks below, but, if you have any as well, feel free to leave your reading and blogging habits that have changed throughout time in the comments! (✿◠‿◠)

On Making a TBR Jar

Hey, lovelies! Today I wanted to talk about our ever-growing to-be-read lists and how some books, while once very much anticipated, never make it to our hands to be read. I have a ton of unread books on my shelf and even more on my Kindle. You can calle me a "mood reader", because I almost always pick a book based on my mood. Any of you like that? Or do you just read strictly by a schedule you've created for yourselves? What happens when you're in the mood to read something, but cannot choose your next read? That's where a tbr jar comes in to save the day.

On Villain POV's

Today’s topic is something that deeply interests me and I’d love to hear your take on this. Who doesn’t love a good villain, right? For instance, Tom Riddle is the prime example of a twisted, intriguing and malicious villain in my opinion. I would looooove to know what goes on inside that head of his (then again, perhaps not; it’d probably be too evil to handle lol). I was wondering, what makes a good villain POV?

On Finishing Series

Last year I followed Mel [The Daily Prophecy] and Lauren [Love is Not a Triangle] when they were finishing series and posting about them. This year I want to finish some of the ones I'm in the middle of. There are many reasons for not finishing them, but in addition to describing some of mine and listing some of the series I hope to finish this year, I can't wait to see what you think of this topic so be sure to let me know in the comments :) Okay, so...

3 in 1: On Valentine's Day, Estonian Sweets and a Celebration Giveaway

Hey you all! Since this month is all about Estonian Fridays on Little Pieces of Imagination, I was planning on talking about how Valentine's Day is celebrated here and what it means etc. Also, since Mel asked about sweets and stuff, I could perhaps include this into the post. Because Valentine's Day and sweets go together like salt and pepper. Ok, yes, I couldn't come up with a better example, but still. Anyhow, moving on...

Valentine's Day

While Valentine's Day is usually known as a romantic holiday and lovers all across the world declare their undying love and care for each other, gift flowers and make romantic gestures etc. Do we have it? Yes, absolutely! If you're dating someone, live together or are married--whichever it is, you will most likely be spending the evening with them. As you can imagine, there are lots of um, romance packets like a romantic weekend at a spa (this was actually offered as a winning prize on one of the radio channels' Valentine's Day game this year) or a luxuriuos dinner somewhere etc.

However, for us, single people (and even the ones who aren't single), Valentine's Day here means the celebration of any kind of love not just romance wise. Whether it's your parents or siblings or friends, especially friends, you let them know how much you care. I used to start a week early with all the card making and baked all kinds of cakes, cupcakes, sweets for my friends and brought them to school and to swimming practice (if you didn't know, I went swimming for 8 years until the end of HS and was on the team for many years) etc. I still do that, but not so excessively. I just let people know that I care and think about them via text, phone call, face to face conversations etc. I still own a big card collection that I have collected over the years and it's so awesome to read these years later. Here are some of them:

This year I'm spending my Valentine's Day evening at work and then I have no plans whatsoever. We'll see how it rolls after I get off from work.

Sweets

So, sweets? I went a little crazy yesterday after my lecture was done at uni by going to the supermarket and finding all sorts of Estonian sweets for you to look at. My favorite Estonian sweets are definitely by Kalev. It's a huge sweets factory that makes all kinds of chocolate, candy and other sweets. I think it's also the oldest here as well. Every time I go somewhere abroad where I know that people will have to host me, I always bring something by Kalev. And people eat them like it's the last food left on Earth lol, because it's so good. You can check out their home page here. They have all their products listed there and even recipes to try at home etc. Anyhow, pictures, right? (Lol! I went to the mall yesterday and took pictures, people looked at me like I was nuts, but whatever! What I wouldn't do for blogging and you guys, right? ;))

There are lots of cakes in the big (and small, if you're lucky) supermarkets and depending on the supermarket, they can be extremely delicious! Some of them are made in the supermarket while some are bought in. One bakery Pagaripoisid (in English meaning Bakery Boys) makes some of the best cakes I have ever tasted and you can never go wrong with theirs. BTW! They have their own shop in the Old Town and when you're a tourist, you'll most likely be visiting the Old Town so be sure to look for their little shop. You won't regret going there!

On the right you can see some of Kalev's sweets. There were just so many that I couldn't have put them to one picture to save my life lol, plus there were so many people in that aisle and I didn't want to bother them, so yes. Imagine it being about 5-6 times bigger just for this brand.

So I made pictures of my favorites. The left one--that's my current favorite. Almond in mint flavoured milk chocolate. They just melt in your mouth and are so so so good! On the right I took a picture of my childhood favorite--the chocolate buttons. They're covered with these sweet little pearls and that's one of the things my grandma used to get me for my birthdays.

Then there is the legendary Maiuspala (which in translation means Sweet Piece). It's a praline candy covered with Indian nuts that have been coloured green with natural food colours. It's one of the most loved sweets here and if you're expecting an Estonian to visit you, you can almost always be certain that this will be one of the sweets that one's going to bring you ;) The picture with the back of the box on it has a story about the product. I hope you can read it when you click on it.

Then there are these--a bit more expensive candies than the ones showcased above. There were lots of others, but far too many to take pictures of and usually there's a wide selection of them so you can choose one to your liking. The Vana Tallinn one is um, with liquor. It's like this, um.. legendary liquor that is put into ice creams and candies in addition to just, you know.. drinking it lol.

Then I took two pictures above. These are the kids' favorites. Draakoni (Dragon) and Mesikäpp (Honey Paw) are extremely popular among kids. The Dragon one is this.. I'm not sure how you call it. Like a mix between a candy and a gum, but you can swallow it, so it's not really a gum.. It's weird, but they're tasty and I loved them when I was a kid. If you know how to call them, tell me below in the comments lol. Then the Honey Paw line includes waffles, candies, chocolate and even oreo-alike cookies with chocolate and vanilla fillings.

And LOL. I took a picture of two of my favorite ice creams. The upper one is vanilla flavour with maple syrup and Greek nuts and the one below as you can guess is chocolate-mint flavoured ice cream with chocolate filling. Yummm!!!! Also, since I bought some bread I took a picture of the black bread. I know that people in UK/US (and elswhere) think that they know what black bread is, but oh, no! You do not, trust me :D There are so many types of bread here--white, brown, black, in all forms and sizes and flavours. Like, when you come here, you must try the black bread because it's most likely not like anything you have tasted before. If you're from Skandinavia or the Baltic region, yes, that's basically the same here and there, but if you're from anywhere else? Try it! :)

Giveaway

So since today, for me, is a celebration of friendship among other things, I wanted to thank you all for making blogging amazing and just being plain awesome in general and what better way to celebrate than offering books, right? ;) Right! Here are some of the sweetest romances I have ever read and which also feature some other important topics not just an adorable romance. I'll be offering a paperback to one lucky winner who will get to choose a book to one's liking. International as long as The Book Depository ships to you.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

On My Home Country. Welcome to Estonia!

Since February is the month of love AND it’s also Estonia’s birthday month (February 24th), I thought I’d share something about my home country with you on each Friday this month. Most of you know it’s in Europe, but I’m pretty sure that except for Jenny, who visited Tallinn last summer [her recap post], none of you have ever visited Estonia before.

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It’s one of the smallest countries in Europe as well in the world. We have only 1.3 million people, but there’s a saying that there’s an Estonian in every port in the world. Why? LOL. When you’re travelling and thinking that no one will understand what you’re saying and you can say whatever you want? Haha. That’s not exactly true, because there’s always an Estonian next to you asking: “Tere! Kas te olete Eestist?” which in translation means “Hello! Are you from Estonia?” Oh, no, I’m just practicing for an Estonian test I’m about to take tomorrow. Well, obviously we’re from Estonia lol. Oh, that reminds me, when you go to Egypt or even Gran Canaria aka Spain (true stories) then in every store you go to, the shopkeeper tells you “Tere, tere, vanakere” which means “Hello, hello, old body/person”. It’s an old saying in Estonian to greet one another like that though people rarely use it. The last time I did was when I was in kindergarten because I found the word vanakere to be extremely funny. *eyeroll*

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Estonian flag has 3 colours on it: blue (the sky, lakes and the sea), black (the soil) and white (symbol of trying to achieve happiness and all things made of light). I'm under that flag, btw! It was captured last year during the play-offs of European Championships 2015 in basketball (the um.. where you fight for a place on the ECs.) We got the place and it was literally one of the most incredible things I have ever witnessed. The way the people sang and cheered, it was pretty much amazing and being in the fan sector with my family was the best thing ever. (Our family is big on sports.)

Supposedly Estonian is the second most beautiful language in the world after Italian (based on some survey, but I don't remember where, it was years ago when I read the results). Estonian is very similar to Finnish. If you want to listen to it, you can listen to the song below which talks about how important it is to listen to wind, darkness, light, rainbows, silence, the earth, shadows, your heart and everything that is in the simple moments and tiny details. The guy singing is one of the most loved Estonian singers and he has a voice that really makes you listen. He also won the third (I think) season of Estonian Idol lol.

Estonians are considered to be very cold and reserved. I remember when we I spent 3 weeks with a host family in Torquay, England, there were 5 more girls with me: Austrian (2), Swedish (2) and one girl from Spain. When it was time to say goodbye and ride back to London, the Spanish girl cried like a baby. I basically didn't even know her, I spent my time with other people and she hugged me and sobbed like I was dying while I just stood there and gave an awkward hug back. It was plenty of weird for me. I didn't cry a single tear, but I was still sad. Though, you should see me when I'm reading Point of Retreat or watching Marley & Me, for instance. When we went to see M&M in a theatre with my friends, I laughed over the whole room, because I cried so much it was funny. I couldn't even see the screen lol. Cold and reserved? You betcha! Since I'm adding pictures to illustrate the post, here's me (at 16) that summer with two other Estonian girls and two of our teachers (it was a language camp basically) Phil and Phillip. (I'm the middle one. In case you didn't know.)

Um, what else? We have 4 seasons: spring, summer, fall and winter. Most of us aren’t religious at all. I think there was a survey carried out where Estonians were declares as the most pagan or atheistic people in the entire world. I’m not sure if that holds any water, but there are very few people I know who are even the tiniest bit religious. We do celebrate Christmas though—it’s more like a holiday to celebrate friends, family, love, closeness. Me and my family always spend it with our extended family: we are either at our house (like this year) or at my aunt’s house or my uncle’s place. I know that many countries have 3 Christmas holiday days, but we only have 2. Which reminds me that some say that Estonians are work people—we are supposedly always working. During Chrismas the Old Town looks like this:

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I happened to watch this um.. interview or something with people who had just came off a cruise ship, people from Canada, the States, UK, Denmark, Japan—everywhere actually, and they were asked different questions about Estonia. LOL. People thought that we lived in huts and basically didn’t have any technology whatsoever and were surprised by how modern Tallinn looks like. Well, you know, among the guys who invented/founded Skype were two Estonians and we did have the first e-elections in the world, so. LOL, one of my best friends was a tutor to foreign exchange students in her college last year and people e-mailed her asking if they should bring their own pillows because they didn’t know if we sold these here or not. You have no idea how hard I laughed when my friend told me that.

Ok, that’s it for now, because this post is getting very, very long. If you have any topics you want me to tackle or talk about, just leave them in the comments. I have something planned for Feb 14th, but not for the rest of the month, so anything you want to read about or ask or whatever, I’m basically down with everything. I may talk about local cuisines and people, some you might know or discover (like music artists etc), the Song- and Danceparties etc. I need to think about it, but yes, if you have any ideas, let me know! :)

On Organizing My Reading Material

Since I've seen a lot of spreadsheets and stuff like that lately around blogosphere (like Debby's [Snuggly Oranges]), I thought I'd make one of my own as well and it's actually been really helpful. I have some books that I read last year (like Stealing Parker, Throne of Glass etc.) that I'd love to share my thoughts on, but it's getting harder and harder to rate all of the books I have read. I usually compare books on the scale of how much I enjoyed it, but it's even more subjective than it should be, especially depending on what I have read right before/after and very dependent on my mood. How exactly should I solve this problem?

I decided to do this:

1. I'm writing down every book I have read (in Excel, but you can do it anywhere you please--in Word, Google document etc.), starting with the year 2014 (with the addition of the books I have yet to review on the blog in a separate spreadsheet)
2. I write down everything I need to know about them, for instance, title, author, publisher, number of pages and such
3. Then, since I find myself swooning quite a lot while reading, I decided to go borrow something from Lauren [Love is Not a Triangle] and put the love triangle scale there along with the name of my book boyfriend. Why? Well, by the end of the year I want to see how many books I read that included a love triangle, because, seriously, I hate them with passion. At the end of the year I can see whether or not a love triangle made a difference in how much I enjoyed the book and how many books I actually read that included one.
4. Last, but not least, I wanted to realllllllly solve the rating problem I have. What I like on Nick's [Nick's Book Blog] blog is that she has this system where she rates things in a separate category and the average is what gives the overall rating. That's what I'm doing. Turns out, some ratings like the one I'm going to give for Stir Me Up will remain the same, but some like Throne of Glass will either go up or down. 

All of this put together looks something like this

Of course, it would look different for everyone depending on what they feel like is important to them, but this is what mine looks like for now. This should also help me carry out the end of the year survey since the one I did about last year--yeah, not gonna lie, it was tough. The system I'm trying to develop sounds extremely easy and right now I'm super excited about it. I'm sure it'll be tough to follow this all year through, but I'm going to work hard and try to get more organized when it comes to my reading. I have some questions for you though..

Do you have any way except for Goodreads to keep your reading organized? If so, what do you do? Would you want to be more organized?

Also, would you guys be interested in more posts like this where I talk about myself and how I read, blog, organize stuff etc? I love to read other people's discussion and otherwise helpful posts, but I never seem to get around writing some of my own.

Anyhow, I hope you all have a fantastic weekend and I'll do my best to get a book haul post up this weekend, because I have lots of goodies to show you :) *hugs*

Discussion: Vampire Academy Movie

Okay, so I'm a huge fan of the Vampire Academy series. I have done my fair share of re-reading, but never have I ever re-read books so many times as these six. I love them with all my heart and soul! Rose is one of the best female leads there has ever been (in my eyes, of course) and Lissa, Christian, Adrian, Eddie - they're all so fantastic that writing this and thinking about them makes me want to pick these books up from my shelf and devour the heck out of them. I cannot tell you how much I adore our sexy Russian Dimitri. He is .. yeah. Out of this world! Last night I was quietly minding my own business by reading and just hanging out on my bed when I updated my reading status on GR and felt the need to check out what's going on in the real world when I stumbled upon this HUGE news! I literally did a happy dance, squealed like a lunatic and had a 100 W smile on my face. Today, about an hour ago, I spilled the beans to my mom who was almost as excited as I was. Okay, that's a lie, but she was happy about it. And come on! She hates paranormal stuff, but she loves Vampire Academy. That must count for something, right? Anyway.. If by any chance you haven't heard from millions and millions of fans all over the world yet then let me tell you that the filming starts this summer AND WE HAVE ROSE, LISSA AND DIMITRI *dies of excitement*

Zoey Deutch as Rose

Let's start with Zoey. I love the casting and even though I don't know anything about the actors playing Lissa and Dimitri, Zoe was freaking awesome in Ringer. I can't wait to see her in Beautiful Creatures bringing her A-game in being the queen bee and trying to destroy Lena's life as Emily Asher. She is just plain awesome and I'm soooooo excited *clapps hands and laughs like a lunatic*

She can laugh and be the life of the party like Rose. If you watch any of her live interviews for Beautiful Creatures on youtube, for instance, she is always bubbly and fun. And she's got a great laugh:)

After watching Ringer (why was that show cancelled? Just when it got interesting... -.-) I know she can be sarcastic and snarky - the very definition of Rose Hathaway.

 

Zoey is versitile and can portray the depth of Rose's growth on the big screen, I know she can. 

 Oh, and this little scene in Ringer reminds me of a little someting in Vampire Academy. Just look at her face and the emotion on it. She will rock the socks off our feet, I am sure of it!!

You know.. I didn't know who to pick as my choice for Rose, but Zoey is fantastic. If you're a doubter, give her a chance. She is amazing and I can't wait to see her in this role:)

Lucy Fry as Lissa

I don't know much about her, but I know that this mermaid show she was on was pretty big in Australia and I think she has it all in the looks department to play Lissa, let's just hope she is as beautiful in her performance:) 

 

Danila Kozlovsky as Dimitri

Okay, so I know nothing about Danila, but I don't need to. If the casting crew thought he was great, then he must be, right? Plus, we can't have Ben Barnes,who I believe is the most wanted actor for this role like A. Pettyfer was for Jace Wayland. I think this choice is better though. I like Ben, but an American actor playing Russian guy isn't that believable, I'm sorry. 

The fact that they chose a Russian guy to play Dimitri is so fabulous that I could die of excitement right at this very moment. As Richelle said in her post that she couldn't tell the difference, yeah. I bet a lot of you won't, but even though I'm Estonian and my Russian is almost non-existant, then I can tell the difference. I'm sure not only Russian fans, but many others from Europe can and if it were an American trying to do an English/Scottish accent e.g., like A. Hathaway did in One Day, many of us would be disappointed. It sounds just too cheesy. Like.. I almost winced when S. Johansson did a Russian accent in The Avengers. It was too awful. Also, it doesn't hurt that he has dimples *sigh* So yeah, you can say that I'm glad;)

The only thing that bothers me a bit is the new title - Vampire Academy: Blood Sisters - but I can live with that as long as there's gonna be six movies, lol. I hope there will be, at least.

If you want to read about what Richelle had to say about all of this, you can do so here. This year is already gonna rock with Beautiful Creatures, The Host, Warm Bodies, City of freaking Bones, Catching Fire, Thor 2 and Iron Man 3 coming out on the big screen, The Selection and Delirium being pursued as TV shows, Teen Wolf being half as long as usual and now I can finally say that it's gonna be the most wonderful year of movies ever!!! Yay! =))))))))

PS. Sorry if there're more errors than usual, I didn't read it through, because I have to go study biochemistry, but I just wanted to gush and share this excitement with you, guys. Hopefully you are as glad as I am that things are finally moving forward.