I don't really discriminate against reading certain types of books in certain types of weather, but there are definitely some titles (and authors) that scream summer fun.

In all honesty, I don't get books recommended to me in the way that this topic probably refers to. In other words, I don't have a lot of bookish friends "in real life" that I discuss books with and get recommendations from (apart from my sister) and, in the same vein, I don't really get recommendations from friends online, either. Really, I'm a reading lone wolf (read: I'm too awkward to approach other bookish minds and strike up a conversation). Anyways, for this topic, I'm going to be discussing books that I found out about more indirectly; these titles weren't mentioned to me, specifically, but it is possible I wouldn't have found out about them or read them otherwise. On with the list.

As always, I'm throwing a twist on this topic. My list is composed of 4 books that have beautiful covers and not-so-beautiful insides and one series that is absolutely lovely but has covers that are, eh, disappointing (because I couldn't really come up with five legitimate answers).

Yeah, yeah, Top 5 Wednesday was created in the book community and probably mostly meant for bookish things but I just can't put up a list of my top 5 fandoms if I don't include non-book-related ones. Sorry 'bout it!

There are a lot of tropes in books. Character tropes, plot tropes, you name it. Sometimes, even if a trope is extremely overdone, I can still enjoy books that use it if they are done well and keep me excited (see: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard). Other times, tropes that I see a lot of other readers getting tired of (the main character as the Chosen One, for example) don't really register as a problem for me. More often, however, overused tropes drive me up a wall. Here are my top 5 hated tropes in young adult books (and, yes, I do realize a lot of them have to do with how female characters are written):

Hi, I'm Allison and welcome to my blog. Books and Balks isn't a new idea. I've been trying to maintain a book (and otherwise) blog for quite some time but, no matter how hard I put my mind to it, I always seem to abandon it within a few weeks. This time, I will hopefully be able to stick to it (as I type those words for the third time).

First, I'll direct you to where I was posting previously, Tumblr. You can find the beginnings of Books and Balks right here. Originally, that Tumblr was simply Allison Reads but I found that incorporating something else I really enjoy, baseball, was a way to keep me interested in writing and posting (yeah, okay, I still ended up forgetting about it). In this revamping, I decided that Tumblr probably wasn't the best choice if I wanted to get serious page views and come across as a blogger who cares (not to say that those on Tumblr do not care, of course). I just think that the .blogspot.com attribute is a little more appealing when coming across a blog. Better capability for comments and discussion only further this appeal.

I will be trying to stick to some sort of schedule. I hope to post at least one book post and one balk post each week - a Top 5 Wednesday or a tag or a State of the Tigers, something like that. I can't make any promises about this regularity but, man, I'm going to try.

A little bit more about me, if you are interested: I'm 23 years old and I live in Michigan. I graduated from college with a degree in sociology in May of 2015. I like baseball, reading, writing, playing the Sims, and drinking iced tea. I'm funny and smart (I think) and am always up for conversation.

Thanks for reading and coming along for the ride.