New Features: Make it a Gift and Song Picks!

In order to make the blog better, I’m always trying to think of new ways to jazz up the old and even come up with new ideas for you all to enjoy. Alicia and I have been discussing a few things we want to try and do more or try out these past couple days…so you’re sure to start seeing some of that soon.

However, there are a couple things that I want to do more often when it comes to book reviews. I’ve included these things in the past but I’d like to make it more regular. I know how annoying it can be to see the same books featured over and over, with nothing that new attached. It’s not the blogs fault! We often do read the same books around the same time. But for my blog, I want to try and be a bit different whenever I can and hopefully that will entice you to come back more.

And remember…if you comment on our blog, we’ll comment on yours!

Now…back to my main point. Here are two “features” I hope to implement more. I’d love to hear your thoughts!!

1. Make it a Gift Reviews, hence the picture above. What this means is that with a book review, I will include a product or two that I feel fits the book somehow. It’s called Make it a Gift because these are items I feel you could gift to someone with the book and it would make a really fun gift “basket” or “box.” It may just be one item or it may be more. We all love to read though and one way I can think of making the purchase of a book more enticing for ourselves or to give to someone else is to find ways to spruce that book up, so it’s not JUST a book, but a complete GIFT.

Past Example: John Belushi is Dead by Kathy Charles + Two Products

2. Song Picks, which is when I read a book and think of a song that seems to fit it. A lot of authors these days include playlists for their books; songs that fit the themes, the plot, the characters, etc. I love this! I often listen to songs and realize they fit a favorite book of mine, and so I want to include more of this when I review books. Therefore, if I have a song in mind that I think somehow fits the book, I will include that in the review. I know other blogs do this too sometimes and that’s awesome. I love music, and it’s great to see what songs people come up with for various books.

Past Example: If I Stay by Gayle Forman + Song Pick

I’m going to try and put Make it a Gift or Song Pick somewhere in the title of the post as well. This way, if you are scrolling through a bunch of blogs, it’s easier to see that something ELSE is attached to this post than just the book review.

Now, again, I’d love to hear your thoughts, so please feel free to comment. I’ll comment back on your blog whenever you do!

Keep an eye out for more to come. We really hope to make Shooting Stars Mag bigger and better than ever this year!