Hate Comments + Taking a True Hiatus (Sort Of) + Dragon’s Loyalty Award

Hi, everyone!

Lately I’ve sort of been feeling really uninspired to blog hence all the scheduled book reviews. Since the end of the semester is slowly creeping to an end anyway and I know that I’ll soon be swamped with end of the course assignments and final exams, I will go ahead and say I’m taking a break. But then again I’ve already been saying I’ve been on a “hiatus” for a while now according to my blog’s sidebar disclaimer, I guess. As other bloggers have pointed out, my breaks are never true ones anyway. But I think this time I’ll be even more absent then usual even for me. I’ll still continue to schedule the usual posts and remain present on my Instagram and Goodreads accounts, but I won’t be replying to comments on my blog until May-ish. And I’ll do the best of my ability to still check in with the blogosphere and leave mini Summer bombs here and there. But those will be sparse, too.

Along with my semester coming to an end soon and the fact that I think I’ve fallen into a true blogging slump, I also got my first hate comment back in February. I created several drafts titled as “Hate” but I never could bear to actually publish them. February was actually a pretty rotten month for me because I wasn’t doing as well as I thought I would in one of my classes (Organic Chem II is just ugh), my speech class gave me so much anxiety, and I had a bunch of family (that I didn’t really like) living with me and my dad. So when my first hate comment showed up on Xingsings it just felt like everything was so wrong.

(I knew it was going to happen sometime along my blogging journey… and it was only one comment… but it was still unpleasant to read all the same. I understand that people will have different views and opinions. But why do they have to word things so harshly? Also, the comment that I got wasn’t even an opinion about my post or the books I talked about in it, but it was about me as an individual. Anyway, enough ranting. Have any you guys received any negativity on your posts?)

Edit: I saw some of the comments you guys have already been leaving. And I just wanted to let you guys know I’m definitely okay!! I don’t want you guys to think I quit blogging for a bit because of that. I love blogging and I’m actually extremely proud of the place I’ve created with Xingsings. So you don’t have to worry or anything. The hate comment was back in February and it wasn’t a big of a deal when I got over it. Thank you all for staying so dependable and supportive. Thanks, as always. – Summer

But, of course, I soon got over all of that. I started doing better in Speech and studying harder in Organic; my family members (there were 4 of them) finally moved out; and I just deleted that hate comment from my blog so I wouldn’t have to see it. But after all this, I think it’s about time I recharged for real. So, in short, I’m taking a true hiatus for a bit (still posting, not replying to comments on my blog, still dropping Summer bombs on other blogs, etc).

Time to recharge! (All credits to the original owner.)

But anyways…

Today I’m sharing The Dragon’s Loyalty Award. (This one was actually completed in early January. I can’t believe I was that productive-in terms of blogging that is-my last week of winter break.) I have Kristi at Hidden Staircase, Matt at MatthewSean Reviews, and Megan at Fun Facts for Writing to thank for that. I’m not sure how this award is different from any other blogger award other than the title… but here’s a little piece about me and dragons:

Though dragons are such majestic, mythological creatures… I seldom enjoy their presence in books. Well apart from Harry Potter because they only really showed up briefly in that series. For some reason most books that feature them are usually too tediously dry for me. A handful of my friends, like many other kids at the time, loved The Inheritance Cycle series, but I really couldn’t get into Eragon. It was very slow paced, in my opinion. Although I did end up watching the movie years later, haha.

I’m actually starting to think that high fantasy-a genre that dragons seem to appear in often-does not appeal to me as it did when I was a kid. I used to really love it before though. But, of course, this hasn’t stop me from buying them if they’re ever on sale. I have Seraphina and Talon. I have my fingers crossed that Seraphina will be just as epic for me as other readers have expressed in their reviews. As for Talon, I have this heavy feeling I’m not going to enjoy that one despite liking Kagawa’s other work. I bought it and the second installment, Rogue, purely because the covers were pretty (and they were signed). Shame on me, I know.

Anyhow, that was just some random bookish background information about my experience with reading about dragons in literature. Basically, we don’t seem to mix well. However, I’m gladly going to accept this nomination. Thank you to the folks that thought about my blog and nominated me! I really appreciate it.

Note: This is a 2015 award, meaning I was first nominated in 2015. I’m just trying to go through all the awards and tags from my 2015 queue. But I am an tag/award free blog in that I won’t be doing any more tags/awards after I go through the 2015 drafts.

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The Rules –

1. Visit and thank the blogger who nominated you.
2. Acknowledge that blogger on your blog and a link back.
3. You must share seven things other bloggers may not know about you.
4. Nominate up to fifteen bloggers for Dragon’s Loyalty Award, provide a link to their blogs in your post, and notify them on their blogs.
5. Copy and paste the award somewhere on your blog.

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7 Facts About Me –

Again, similar to my Beautiful Blogger Award post, instead of giving random facts, I’ll be shooting out random favorites and in different degrees since I really am running out of things to share about myself on the top of my head.

asdfghjkl; I love this so much > general favorite > I really like a lot

1. Favorite season: autumn > winter > summer (spring has too much pollen where I live for me to like it.)
2. Favorite YA author: Cassandra Clare > Sarah Dessen > Richelle Mead (I’ve read almost every single book these women have written. And all their work are always must buys for me.)
3. Favorite classic: East of Eden > Pride and Prejudice > Jane Eyre
4. Favorite book to movie adaptation: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban > Catching Fire > Pride and Prejudice (I also love the BBC series!)
5. Favorite music artist (non K-Pop): We the Kings > All Time Low > Paramore
6. Favorite artist (Asian): Exo > Lunafly > Beast
7. Favorite composer: Chopin > Joe Hisaishi > Liszt

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I Nominate –

I think some of these bloggers don’t do awards/tags… but I wanted to recognize them anyway! A couple in here are bloggers I haven’t talked to in a while. And, of course, if you’re nominated please don’t feel pressured in accepting this award or doing this post unless you want to!

• Anne at Anne-thology of Books
• Cátia at The Girl Who Reads Too Much
• Evi at Adventuring Through Pages
• Josie at Josie’s Book Corner
• Liam at Liam’s Library
• Nirvana at Quenching the Quill
• Pearl at Pearl’s Book Journey

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Thank you all for reading, as always! I’m sure some of my bookish favorites sounded familiar, but maybe you learned something new about me in terms of my music preferences. 😉 Anyway, until new time!