Christian Shelves

One of the reasons why I've been spending more and more time offline has been due to seeing so much generative AI infiltrate the creative space. I won't necessarily repeat my previous Thoughts on AI blog post where much of what I shared in 2023 still holds true today regarding ethics, discipline, and discernment. Little has changed for me as I continue to refrain from utilizing these tools and instead rely on my own visual and written abilities, flaws and all. However, the difference between its emergence a few years ago and now is astounding where over half of what we see online is generated by artificial intelligence (source:  Over 50 Percent of the Internet Is Now AI Slop, New Data Finds ). I'm not one for fear-mongering or sensationalism; however, I am concerned for the effects this may have on my short-term enjoyment of the Internet and my long-term walk as a disciple of Christ and my cognitive skills. First, I have found it difficult to enjoy being online when a lot ...

It's interesting to discover what people should be and shouldn't be doing when they share about books online. More and more, I feel like there can be a backlash against anything now, to the point where anyone with a passion for books can feel paralyzed in offering their own bookish content. For the large part, I try to tune out these things because it's ever-changing, and if it's not one thing, it'll be another. I'm sad when people feel stifled due to these capricious "rules" that half (if not more of) the time seem to keep people from excitedly engaging in what they love most. I'm thankful that I've received immense support from the reading community when I first started out, so I want to encourage anyone who is thinking of jumping in with their personal approach to books by sharing how I practically break the following ten rules covering things from content generation to materials access: I'm not supposed to use Canva for my book posts.  ...

I listened to an audiobook recently that brought up an interesting discourse on the nature of modesty for Christians, which went beyond the concept of dress or appearance. Rather, it was about how we engage with others and the extent to which we expose ourselves on a more philosophical level.  This was great timing for me as I've been thinking about the concept of people who participate in offering "opinions about opinions," which could serve to be another form of exposure, and in this case, made me wonder if overexposing my thoughts could be construed as a form of immodesty. I won't be offering a full book review here as there were some issues I had with the book (despite agreeing with some of the content in theory), but  Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age by Rosaria Butterfield does offer a lot to think through, especially for Christian women. The last lie that she covered was actually the one that affected me most. With apologies to the punctuation and formatting...

I've been terribly remiss in keeping up on this blog over the past month and hope that you have had a wonderful Christmas with loved ones! Thanks for stopping by this tiny corner of the Internet and for blessing me with your presence. I am honoured and pray that you will have an encouraging start to the new year!

This is a topic I've been grappling with since being online again, especially as a fairly anonymous blogger and Bookstagrammer. While I don't share many personal details about myself, I am more open to sharing my thoughts and convictions on matters around faith and reading. At the same time, there are also many other thoughts and convictions that I hold privately that I wouldn't feel comfortable sharing on virtual platforms. All of this has made me wonder about the responsibilities and concerns of being a private person in what would be considered a public space. First, I am aware of the conundrum of people following people, not just a brand or concept. When people connect, they want to know who is behind the identity. And I don't blame that notion at all considering that I feel the same way. I'm not surprised at online accounts that have a large following, simply because people have the opportunity to get to know another person. Personally, these are some of the ac...

I was thinking about my journey back into blogging and realized I've gone through a lot of changes in my life in everything from family to employment to church during this time. Thus, in a strange way, blogging and being on Instagram have been some of the few constants this past year alone. Through all the ups and downs, it's been a fun journey and also an educational one. I thought I'd share a few of the things that have changed for me in case anyone else who enjoys reading and reviewing books may be interested, especially if capacity becomes an increasing factor. I've joined one official launch team, but think it'll be the only one I join. Honestly, launch teams or hype teams are both new to me. Being in Canada has limited me from joining these in the past, and now that I've had a glimpse, I think I'm fine with just requesting ARCs in the future. As exciting as being part of a team can be, I'm realizing that I have a hard enough time keeping up with m...

After juggling a very full month of family commitments, added work commitments, and other good things filling my time such as relationships, church, and volunteering, I am taking a brief break from posting reviews. Not to fear; I do have some coming soon! However, I need a little bit of a breather as it's been simultaneously discouraging to see some of the changes on Instagram  that are making it rather challenging for those creating content and also tiring to keep up with getting reviews out in a timely manner. I still think that three a week has been fairly manageable this past year, but with some personal transitions taking place, I need to catch up first 😅 Additionally, I've received a number of new ARCs in the past few weeks, bringing me back to double-digit numbers of titles to review. I want to make time for these and enjoy the stories without rushing through them. I'm extremely excited about a number of titles that will be releasing soon! If you're looking for ...

In the spirit of university students taking a Reading Week this week, I'll be taking a short break from blogging and posting content. Not only do I have my own reading to do for work, I also want to catch up on some ARCs and books that have patiently been waiting for me. Here's a fun fact I learnt when I looked into Reading Week a bit more: "For post-secondary institutions in anglophone Canada, it is common to have "reading week" or "mid-term break" during the third week of February, coinciding with Family Day." Source: Revision Week I'm happy that I can have my own Reading Week! I'd love to do this more often, although it might lose its meaning if I turned every week into one 😂

This week has looked a little different for me as I haven't been sharing reviews here or on Instagram . They'll be coming, but I am also welcoming the break from the pressure to finish books in time for me to post about them. While I still love reading and reviewing books, I want to go at a slower pace this year. What I thought was sustainable last year has now left me feeling a little like I've had to meet work deadlines on top of work outside of this. That's the last thing that I want to go through, as I want to keep having the capacity to blog 😀 I admit that it's been a nice reprieve from creating creative content where I can just read or write instead. I'm hopeful that February will be a nice month to recover from the busyness of January and to enjoy being in God's presence. Happy February!

Prompted by artificial intelligence becoming much more commonplace, I thought I'd jump in and share my thoughts from the perspective of someone who briefly worked at a technology company, and who has chosen not to knowingly employ AI tools as of yet. Artificial intelligence doesn't seem to be leaving anytime soon. In fact, even the most mundane applications are now incorporating this feature into its functionality. It is no longer limited to creative industries or technical industries; even banks are making this available to their customers to use in the name of "budget management." Its reach is unlimited, and its potential likely unparalleled. All we can do is wait and see what advances will be forthcoming and the risks it may have around privacy and data breaches. I'm not the type to get caught up in conspiracy theories or end-of-the-world doom. As a Christian, I hope that I live each day filled with the hope of the Lord and His Holy Spirit to discern what is ha...

A number of years ago, I took a time management course from Dave Crenshaw on LinkedIn Learning . He mentioned that one of the real impediments to getting things done is that we simply have too many gathering points . Being bombarded with email inboxes, voicemail, messaging applications, and more is overwhelming and doesn't allow us to process the information we have captured. David Allen also mentions this in Getting Things Done as corralling your "stuff." If you're looking for a good breakdown of this point, Thanh Pham at Asian Efficiency summarizes how this looks in life. In relating this concept to books, I have been thinking about all the online accounts I have and how best to manage them. For instance, my oldest library inventory lives on LibraryThing where in a few years, I'll get a twenty-year badge (yikes!). This is my most comprehensive list in that it tracks every single book I own, along with all of my book ratings and reviews. It's also my favo...

I've been giving some thought as to how I want to approach reviews, knowing that so many readers are already doing a wonderful job in critiquing books. In perusing various websites for books, it amazes me how thorough some reviewers are and the amount of time they dedicate to ensuring that other readers know what they are getting into. While I would love to aspire to that level in a sense, I'm also aware that I won't have time to engage with books in such depth. Thus, my reviews will likely be much shorter as a result. This means that I probably won't get into the following: Any counting or tracking of potentially offensive material à la Plugged In reviews . I do care about profanity but I won't list the words out and rack up how many instances it is used throughout the book. Since I'm mostly reviewing Christian books, I might express surprise at God's name being used in vain or point to how curse words were used to convey a particular emotion, but I won...

Having worked in communications and being aware of copyright issues, I am doing my best to set up my blog and social media in a way that does not infringe on anyone's rights. While I am starting to introduce some of my own pictures, I am also reliant on royalty-free stock images, such as Pixabay.  Reading and adhering to their content license summary means that I am trying to be extra careful in what I select and how I use it, regardless of my limited scope and reach. If you hover over any of the images I have used on here, you will see the attribution information 🙂 Right now, I am researching fair usage of book covers for book reviews, one of the things that I am eager to embark on. In wanting to do this right, I have found some interesting articles that speak to this matter: Do Book Covers Fall Under Fair Use? Can You Use Book Cover Images on Your Blog? Can You Post Book Covers on Instagram? Copyright for Writers: Using Images in Blog Posts How To Use Copyright Protected Images...

Thank you for taking the time to stop by this little corner of the Internet! Though I started blogging over 20 years ago, I will confess that I have not usually keep up my blogs for longer than several years at a time. For this blog, I have instead decided to focus on a topic that actually consumes a lot of my spare time so that I can combine my interests (and test my longevity and commitment). This topic is of course, Christian books! Through casually browsing Bookstagram over the past few years to glean recommendations for new reads, I see that there is a place where people can share about books, and it is celebrated. How refreshing to see a reading culture remain strong amidst many other distractions, several of which have kept me scrolling non-stop to learn about books rather than simply reading them. Since I fall into this camp, this blog can help me to get through my TBR (to be read) pile in order to actually make a semblance of a dent into it. I recognize that it is such a bless...