Tag Archives: Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge

January 1, 2020 · 1:00 am

The 2020 Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge Topics Have Been Released

List of Writing Prompts for the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge.

Happy New Year! Long and Short Reviews has released the list of topics for their second year of Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge posts. There isn’t a topic for today, but I will be participating in it again beginning next week.

If you can’t read the graphic above, here is the list of prompts and the dates they’ve been scheduled for. Everyone is welcome to join in!

January

8 – My Goals for 2020

15 –  Books I Can’t Wait to Read in 2020

22 – New Hobby I’m Trying (or would like to try)

29 – Best Book/Movie/TV Couples

 

February

5 – My Celebrity Crushes

12 – Books I Reread or Want to Reread

19 –  Types of Exercise I Enjoy

26 – My Favourite Memory and Why

 

March

4 –  Characters Who Remind Me of Myself and Why

11 – One Skill I Wish I Had But Don’t 

18 –  The Weirdest Thing I Learned Reading Fiction 

25 – Favourite Things to Do in the Spring

 

April

1 –  Favourite Book Series and Why

8 – Topic(s) I Could Give an Impromptu Speech On

15 –  Characters I’d Invite to a Dinner Party

22 –  My Silliest Pet Peeve

29 – Reasons Why I stopped Reading a Series I Loved

 

May

6 – Favourite Holiday of the Year and Why

13 – A Villain That I Wish Could Be Redeemed and Why

20 – How I’d Fare in a Zombie Apocalypse

27 – Books Set in My City or State

 

June 

3 – Things I Wish I Were Better At

10 –  Favourite Poems, Short Stories, or Novellas

17 – My Life in Photos or Gifs

24 – My “go to” Book or Movie for a Pick-Me-Up

 

July

1 – The Last Place I Traveled to and Why

8 –  A Project or Hobby of Mine Inspired By a Book

15 – Things I Collect

22 –  Character Names in a Book I Can’t Pronounce

29 – Stuff on My Bucket List

 

August

5 – My Favourite Tropes of X Genre

12 – What I Wanted to Do When I Grew Up vs. What I Do

19 – Favourite Book or Movies Quotes (and Why)

26 – The Strangest Thing(s) I’ve Eaten

 

September

2 – Topics That Make Me Stop Reading a Book

9 – Topics I Never Get Tired of Talking About

16 – Books with the Most Words I Had to Look Up

23 – Favourite Things to Do in the Autumn

30 –  The Non-Fiction Book Everyone Should Read and Why

 

October

7 – Recipes From My City/State/Country

14 – Re-reading Books: Why or Why Not? 

21 – My Earliest Memory 

28 – How I Decide What to Read Next

 

November

4 – Favourite Songs or Musicians

11 – Movies That Were Better Than the Books

18 –  Funniest Things That Have Happened To Me

25 – Recipes from Fiction Books That I Want to Try

 

December

2 – An Average Day in My Life

9 – A Profession From a Book I’d Love to Try

16 – Books That Would Make Great Gifts

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December 18, 2019 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: 10 Gifts for People Who Love Minimalism

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Last week I had trouble commenting on some of the WWBC participants whose sites are hosted on Blogger. I will try to comment on your posts again this week! Here’s hoping that issue was solved.

So what do you buy for someone who already has everything they need and isn’t interested in collecting more gadgets? I’m writing this post from the perspective of someone who fits this description. While I’m always appreciative of the gifts people give to me, the truth of the matter is that there aren’t too many physical possessions out there that I need but haven’t already acquired somehow.

Here’s a list of things you could buy, make, or otherwise give to folks like me depending on their tastes. I mostly stuck to food-based stock photos to illustrate my point because apparently there isn’t a lot of demand out there for stock photos about slippery emotions like compliments. Ha!

1. Baked Goods

I’m an average baker, but I certainly wouldn’t know how to make anything that looks like it was made by a professional. It’s always a thrill when someone surprises me with some nicely decorated cupcakes or other treats.

2. Tickets to Artsy Stuff

To give an expensive example, the Hamilton musical is coming to Toronto next year. The tickets for it are far too rich for my tastes, but this would be the sort of thing I’d squeal over if I had a fabulously wealthy fairy godparent.

On a much more economical note, I’d also be thrilled with a general admission ticket to a museum, art gallery, comedy set, concert, or other similar event. I love the feeling of seeing or hearing things that I don’t normally experience in my daily life.

3. A Massage

My parents bought me a one-hour full body massage once or twice when I was in college. It was the nicest thing they could have given me. There’s nothing like the relief of having tense, sore muscles gently relaxed after all of those long months of studying.

It could be a massage from someone I’m really close to or a gift certificate for a professional masseuse. Either one is wonderful in my opinion.

4. Stories, Photos, and Memories

Obviously, this one depends on how well you know the person, but I love it when the older generations in my family pass down new information they’ve discovered about our ancestors or pieces of their childhoods that they haven’t shared yet. There are relatives who died before I was born that I feel like I’ve met because of how much of their lives has been recorded in our oral histories.

It’s also cool when friends randomly share an old photo or funny story from our past.

5. A Personalized Book Recommendation

It always makes me happy when someone tailors their recommendations. That’s not an easy thing to do, but it sure is lovely to receive.

Assorted chocolate and fruit pralines6. Vegan Chocolates

I’m always on the lookout for new types of vegan chocolates or pralines, especially if they’re flavoured with mint, fruit, nuts, or other mix-ins.

7. Herbal Tea

Is it possible to have too much herbal tea or even tea in general? I doubt it.

8. Random, Genuine Compliments

Being surprised with something someone honestly appreciates about you almost feels like the emotional version of a massage. They both make me feel incredibly happy and appreciated.

In order to make this more gift-like, the compliments could be compiled in an email or written on little scraps of paper and put into a fancy jar. Yes, I somehow came up with a physical item that I couldn’t eat but would still enjoy owning. I’d probably use it to store chocolate and other treats in after I’d savoured all of the compliments.

9. Shopping Advice and Support

Fashion isn’t one of those things I spend much time thinking about, but I do admire people who know how to put together an eye-catching wardrobe. It would be super cool to spend a day going through my clothes and shopping with someone who genuinely enjoyed putting nice outfits together.

10. Stargazing

I love astronomy.

This past autumn, I had the chance to do a little stargazing at a local university. The event was put on by faculty and students there, so we got to hear some interesting facts about the stuff we were looking at.

I would be so excited to do this occasionally with someone who was really knowledgable on this topic.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question. The image below is the list of upcoming prompts for this blog hop.

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December 11, 2019 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: My Earliest Memory

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

apple growing on an apple treeMy earliest memory involves an apple tree.

My family lived in a farmhouse on the edge of a small town in Ohio for the first four or five years of my life. An apple tree was growing in our front yard.

As soon as the apples on it grew large enough for me to recognize them, I decided I wanted to taste them.

The problem was, I wasn’t strong enough to pick the apple first no matter how much I tugged on it. (In retrospect, I wonder if the apple also wasn’t fully ripe yet).

After accepting the fact that the apple wasn’t going into the house with me after all, I decided to have a bite right then and there. I don’t remember what happened after that, but years later my parents told me they found that apple with a tiny little bite in it and laughed.

And, yes, I still love apples to this day

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question. The image below is the list of upcoming prompts for this blog hop.

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December 4, 2019 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Book Boyfriends or Girlfriends

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Clouds photoshopped to create an outline of a heart in the skySince I’m bisexual, I’m going to be talking about book boyfriends and book girlfriends today.

Allie Nelson from Nicholas Sparks’ The Notebook. 

I didn’t like Noah (the male love interest) at all in this story because of how unwilling he was to respect Allie’s boundaries when they first met, but I thought she was a sweet and lovely person. She deserved a partner who listened to her the first time she spoke her mind.

Westley from William Goldman’s The Princess Bride.

Westley was so earnest and kind. I loved him from the very first time he appeared in this plot.

Henry and Clare from Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Travellers Wife.

I would have dated either of these characters in a heartbeat if they were real people! Clare’s artistic occupation would have given us a lot to talk about on dates. Henry seemed like the sort of person who would have tons of interesting stories on date night…assuming he didn’t zap back to a different timeline in the middle of it.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question. The image below is the list of upcoming prompts for this blog hop.

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November 20, 2019 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Things I’m Thankful For

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

There are so many things I’m thankful for. For the sake of brevity, these are just a few of them.

A Soft Bed

My husband and I bought a new bed about a year ago. Before then, we slept on a mattress that was lumpy, sagging, and filled with springs that had started wandering around a little. Sometimes I’d wake up with a sore hip or back because of how a spring had poked into me. It was such a relief to have a more comfortable place to sleep again.

Tomatoes, green peppers, carrots, cauliflower, and other vegetables sitting on a tableA Kitchen Filled with Food

Too many people don’t know where their next meal is coming from. I consider myself very lucky to always have something to eat.

Clean Clothes 

Not everyone has access to this either. I’m grateful for the opportunity to change my clothes regularly and always have enough money to wash them when they get dirty.

Internet Access

I use the Internet to keep in touch with family and friends, volunteer, update my blog, borrow library books, stay current on world events, and so much more.

The WWBC Community 

You’re all wonderful.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question. The image below is the list of upcoming prompts for this blog hop.

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November 13, 2019 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: A Strange or Useless Talent I Have

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Two orange cats standing and sitting on pavement surrounded by fallen leavesMy strangest talent by far is how attracted cats are to me.

Why is this strange? Well, I’m horribly allergic to them. Even hugging someone who has cat dander on their clothing will make me start wheezing and coughing. The more time I spend inhaling that dander, the worse my breathing becomes.

Therefore, I do everything I possibly can do to stay away from cats.

Yet I’ve had multiple experiences with cats who avoid the people who actually want to interact with them and move towards the one person who wants to stay as far away from them as possible.

I’ve actually started staring at cats on purpose on the rare occasion I meet them to see if a little eye contact will gently encourage them to pick someone else as their new best friend.

They’re beautiful creatures, and I’d pet them if I could. But being able to breathe is more important to me for reasons I’m sure you all can understand.

If only there were a way to somehow cash in on this strange superpower of mine!

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question. The image below is the list of upcoming prompts for this blog hop.

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November 6, 2019 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Books I’ve Recommended & Why

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

man peering at statue of other man who is reading a newspaper.As I mentioned in an earlier response to a Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge, I’m hesitant to give or take book recommendations unless I’m sure that they’re actually tailored to the person who is receiving them.

That is, I think recommending a book is sort of like setting a friend or loved one up on a blind date. I wouldn’t tell them to go out for a cup of coffee with so-and-so just because both people are single, like the same genre of music, and have compatible sexual orientations. You need to dig deeper into what someone is looking for before telling them to read a certain book or date a specific person.

Due to that, this list will be short and sweet.

Green Eggs & Ham by Dr. Seuss.

Dr. Seuss was one of those children’s authors who knew how to talk to adults just as well as he did preschoolers.

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein.

No one is ever too old for lighthearted poetry.

The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff.

I adored Winnie the Pooh’s stories when I was a kid. It made me really happy read an adult interpretation of his adventures.

 

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question. The image below is the list of upcoming prompts for this blog hop.

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October 30, 2019 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Things That Scare Me

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

What an open-ended prompt this week!  Was it supposed to be used for for lighthearted, Halloween-friendly fears or more serious topics? I’m assuming it’s the former, but I’ll include one darker fear in case that is what Long and Short Reviews was actually hoping we’d do.

Only time will tell if everyone else interpreted it the same way. Here are some of the things that make me shudder.

Looking in the Mirror in a Dark Room

I blame the Bloody Mary game and all of the spooky ghost stories I’ve read for this one. During the day, I’m a logical person who knows there’s nothing inside of a mirror that could ever hurt me. This is much less true in the middle of the night when I stumble into the washroom half-asleep and can only see the dimmest reflection of what is in the mirror.

Antique doll wearing a bonnet and dress.

Antique Dolls

I chose the least creepy photo of an antique doll I could find online. The ones that have chipped or broken faces frighten me even more, especially if their eyes look lifelike.

Unexplained Noises, Especially at Night

Yes, many buildings will sometimes creak or make other little noises at night. Knowing the scientific explanation for why this happens doesn’t make it less eerie when it happens at midnight and you’re supposed to be alone in your house.

Absolute Silence

For example, I suffer from insomnia if I try to fall asleep in a perfectly silent room. I need the sound of a fan blowing or, even better, someone breathing gently next to me in order to sleep well.

Perfectly silent outdoor places are scary, too. If I don’t hear bugs buzzing, birds chirping, or some other friendly little noise in a forest, I get too creeped out to stay. It just doesn’t feel right to me at all. As an aside, has anyone else noticed fewer bugs in the summer these days? I could have sworn there were more of them flying and crawling around even a few years ago.

Foggy Days

I love sitting inside my warm, dry apartment and looking at the fog roll in. I do not like going out into the fog, especially in the morning or evening when there isn’t much light out there. There’s something a little scary about not being able to see as far into the distance as you normally can.

The clammy feeling in the air on foggy days is also unnerving to me. It almost feel like being touch by someone’s else wet hands without being able to see who that person is. Scary!

Phone Calls

This last one might need a little explaining. Texting and email are how I’ve kept in touch with my loved ones for many years now. Phone calls are reserved for horrible, urgent news like someone dying or being sent to the hospital with a life-threatening illness. This makes me nervous when my phone does ring and there’s anyone other than my dentist or family doctor on call display because I know that chances are high I’m about to hear heartbreaking news.

Do phone calls mean the same thing to you? How many fears do we share in common?

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question. The image below is the list of upcoming prompts for this blog hop.

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October 23, 2019 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Books I Read on Someone’s Recommendation

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Three people sitting at a booth and laughing. The topics for this week’s post and the one on November 6 are going to be a little tricky for me because I don’t request or give out a ton of personalized book recommendations.

Taste is such a subjective thing that I feel a bit shy about these sorts of conversations unless I’m 100% sure the other person will love that book (or that what I’ve been recommended is actually my sort of read).

So I’m going to be reaching way back into my reading history to answer this prompt.

C.S. Lewis’ Narnia series.

My uncle gave me all seven books of this series as a gift when I was a kid. I quickly became a huge fan of that universe and read them over and over again.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series. 

That same uncle also gave me copies of The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy a couple of years later. The former was a fun right read away, and I pushed myself to become ready for the sequels a year or so later.

Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth

Someone I used to babysit for recommended this series to me when I was in my late high school or early college years. The books in it were long, but they told such engrossing stories about life in the middle ages and what it was like to build Gothic cathedral without any of the high-tech tools we’d have for such a project today.

Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time series.

I no longer recall who recommended this to me, but I’m glad they did. The narrator’s descriptions of what it feels like to have autism were so detailed. The mystery was great, too.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question. The image below is the list of upcoming prompts for this blog hop.

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October 16, 2019 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Famous Books I Don’t Plan to Read

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

The pages of a book have been bent into a circle. A person's face is staring at you from the other end of that circle.The assumption I made this week was that most participants would be talking about books they are not interested in reading that were published in the last twenty years or so.

It will be interesting to see if everyone else answered this from the same perspective.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium, #1) by Stieg Larsson

Why: I do enjoy the occasional mystery, but I’ve heard this is more of an action/adventure novel. Generally, I’m not interested in mixing those two genres together.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Why: This book includes some disturbing content that I refuse to read about.

No Country for Old Men  by Cormac McCarthy

Why: After finishing The Road, I decided not to read anything else from this author. He’s a talented writer, but his imagination is too dark for my tastes.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

Why: I’m burned out on World War II novels, especially if they’re about all of the inhumane things that happened in concentration camps. Of course it’s important that we never forget what happened to the victims of the Holocaust, but this reader needs a long break from stories set in that time and place.

Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1) by Ernest Cline

Why: I’ve read too many books similar to it. If that wasn’t the case, this would be the sort of thing that would grab my attention. 

A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1)
by Sarah J. Maas

Why: Romance is a genre I’m generally not that interested in. While there are definitely aspects of this story that appeal to me, I’d much rather read fantasy that doesn’t include plots about falling into or out of love.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question. The image below is the list of upcoming prompts for this blog hop.

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