Another weekend … another update!

In my life: 

Where did the past week go? It seems like just yesterday, Anne and I were talking about me coming down to visit her in Ohio and now it’s coming up SO FAST! I feel like I’m finally prepared, but mainly because I made myself get prepared these last few days (instead of watching Lost reruns), so this week can happen and then I am off!

Grace in stealth mode. If she can’t see you, you can’t see her.

I worked a LOT this past week, which was awesome. I’m loving the new library facility and can’t wait for the renovations on the other 60% of it to be finished. It does kind of suck working during the day in the week because all you can hear is construction. It can get LOUD! But I mostly work evenings or weekends, so that’s rare.

I got my car back! FINALLY! I hadn’t driven it for eleven days and for ten of those days it was in the shop. I got so used to driving my husband’s very big truck that I forgot where my gear shift was in my car. But that’s okay because today I drove it ALL THE PLACES and was happy to have my car and my music back — as well as a vehicle where I didn’t have to hoist myself up real high to get in.

Ahh … nothing says Alberta like a vaguely threatening sky.

I finally visited the new Target! I think we got 5 of them in the city and it’s alright. I think the ones in the states are better — at least the ones that I’ve visited in the past (last one was in Florida). It’s kind of like Wal-Mart, though I found that Target has more clothes (I scored two awesome dresses!), but less of a food section. I’m torn on if I like it or not.

In reading (& blogging): 

*twiddles thumbs*

SO you know how this week was Bout of Books? Well, I kind of sucked at it. I did finish reading Wedding Night, by Sophie Kinsella, which was awesome, and I’m still working on finishing my second book, Chasing Perfect, by Susan Mallery. I’m loving it and only have a few pages left to go, so I do plan to finish it by the end of today! Although, my initial goal was to read 5 books this week and I only read two, but that’s okay. I still had fun! I missed the chats because I was spending time with hubs, but I guess that’s why I left myself lots of moving room for the week and the read-a-thon. Since I’ll be airplane-bound soon, I plan to get some reading done then ALTHOUGH I did buy a few game books because I like those.

I was hoping to get more deck reading done this week but the mosquitos have come back with a VENGEANCE and it’s hard to go outside without getting swarmed. So, we’ve been housebound. I guess that’s okay, but I wish I could be outside in the sunshine!

How was your week? Have you read anything good lately?

Another weekend … another update!

In my life (and, thus, blog): 

This past week has been pretty nice! The sun FINALLY came out. It’s funny because a week ago from this past Monday we had a blizzard, like, a HUGE blizzard that made it impossible for me to go to work and now this past Monday it was 30 degrees outside. Talk about a 360 turnaround! Of course, it’s still Canada, so that means that the weather dropped down to 14 the next day and was cold. Typical.

On Tuesday I went to run some errands and my back tire was dragging out of the garage — not turning. So, hubs took it in and it’s been in the shop since Wednesday. This makes me sad because my only other mode of transportation is the husband’s truck and I’m really not a truck driver. They’re too big and awkward. BUT that just meant that I could hibernate watching Lost or reading on the deck with the dogs. Nothing wrong with that!

I read on the deck. Grace tried to decide between two balls.

Later in the week I got called into work for this weekend which is good because I like work, but bad because the weather is sooooo beautiful outside! The grass is turning green and the trees are starting to bloom. And today it’s supposed to be about 28 degrees, which would be PERFECT for some deck reading, but I’ll chat with people about books at the library instead. At least we’re only open for a few hours.

The blooming trees … so pretty!

As far as the blog goes, I spent some time moving around my blog schedule and moving posts around. Including the Sunday post, I’ll be posting 4x a week, which isn’t bad at all. I’m going to be scheduling way ahead, but that’s totally fine with me.

In books (& reading): 

I actually had a pretty good reading week this week! I’m still in the chick-lit, romancy area of reading and LOVING it. I do have plans to get through my review books so I can mark them all as done, but I’m not quite there yet. I’ve also been reading a lot on my Kobo, which is great. I used it quite a bit, but once I got my iPad, it kind of fell on the back burner. I love using it now! It’s so small and light and perfect for reading when the sun is shining.

This week I finished reading When In Doubt, Add Butter by Beth Harbison (so good – I love any book that talks about food!). I also read Rainshadow Road by Lisa Kleypas, the second one in the Friday Harbor series (I have the first one out from the library … and the third one on hold!). I love this series! It’s so fun to read! Oh, and I read Lauren Graham’s new book Someday, Someday, Maybe, which I really loved. I *may* be biased since I’m a huge fan of Gilmore Girls and Parenthood, but I really hope she writes something else. Soon. AND I read my last Book Hoarder’s book, Ten Things We Did (And Probably Shouldn’t Have), by Sarah Mlynowski. Kind of far-fetched, but still a fun read!

I’m currently reading Chasing Perfect by Susan Mallery, the first book in her Fool’s Gold series — so far, very light, but it’s just what I’m looking for. AND I finagled a copy of Sophie Kinsella’s new book Wedding Night from the library (not yet on the shelves there yet!) and hope to start it today.

Bout of Books is this week! I may actually participate, but not how I used to … I kind of like Anne’s idea of doing a final update at the end so it’s less stressful. I may not even pick out what books I’m going to read, but just wing it. We’ll see … hopefully I can get a post up later today!

How was your week? Have you read anything good lately?

*tap tap tap*

Is this thing on? Clearly, I’ve been a terrible blogger as of late, but I have answers. ANSWERS!

In my life (and, thus, blog): 

I think it’s been three weeks since I last provided my readers with an update. Truth be told, I haven’t been feeling well and decided to take some time for myself. It felt really nice to just sit back and watch Lost all day when I wanted to, or to pick up a random book to read without feeling any obligations. I feel like that’s what the blog has become to me: an obligation.

Don’t get me wrong, I love book blogging and the book blogging community, but when I read through my last discussion on how much we do as book bloggers, I felt overwhelmed. At that point, I decided I needed to cut back — drastically.

Blogging is still so much fun for me and a great hobby to have, but I feel like I’ve been stretching myself too thin, escaping to read my books when I could be spending time with my husband or my dogs, or just taking time for myself withOUT a book. Now, I love to read and will ALWAYS read, but the book blog has turned me into one of those monsters. I look at my desk now and see piles of ARCs and review books I need to get to (and will — in time) and decided that I will NO LONGER be accepting or requesting review books.

I miss the days before I restarted the blog in 2011 where I would spend days reading (mostly books from the library) and then spend days doing other things. I didn’t feel it necessary to read 300 books in a year. I would also pick up whatever suited my fancy. So, I feel like it’s time to rethink about what I do on the blog and cut back so it’s easier for me to maintain and more fun for me as a reader.

I know that my page views have gone down in the past days and I’m okay with that. I love everyone who takes the time to read my blog and will try to provide content at least 3x a week. I’m going to rework my schedule a bit and hopefully I’ll still have some devoted followers.

Right now, this means:

• I won’t be on Twitter all the time. I have set times where I like to go on, but it’s a HUGE time suck where I could be doing other things. I always check my favourite people on Twitter, so hopefully we can connect sometime!
• Discussions will now be once a month.
• I will only post 2 reviews a week.
• Book Hoarder’s Selection will still be every other week, at least, for the next little while.
• Weekend Library Read’s will happen off and on.
• I would love to be able to fill all the gaps with content for you all, but it’s just not possible.

So, I am still here, but things are definitely changing. I hope that’s okay with you all!

(In other life news, I was in the newspaper the other day, talking about blogging and the Edmonton Book Bloggers — go have a read!)

In books (& reading): 

You might be wondering why I decided to flip back to Sunday Reads, since I’ve been doing Clock Rewinders for the last long while. I decided to do this earlier in the week when I realized I haven’t been binging on books, and I haven’t been BUYING books. Instead, I’ve been flying by the seat of my pants. I felt like I had to have books coming in constantly, and maintaining my Goodreads was becoming kind of a hassle. Also, seeing that number of books that I owned and had to read was very intimidating. I also feel like this way of updating is a lot easier for me — I would love to share lots of links from my blog and yours, but I just haven’t had the time. I’m sorry for that!

So I’ve decided to STOP buying books — at least, go back to how it used to be, where I’d read books in my collection, take advantage of my library and only buy a book once in a while. I’m a terrible person when it comes to saving money, so I need to start exercising some control. I do love supporting my favourite authors, but will continue to do so by either buying their book (when it’s something I desperately need — like Neil Gaiman’s newest) or getting my library to buy their book. I am going to be a lot more pickier when it comes to opening my wallet!

Anyway, in the past three weeks I have been reading some. I fell in love with Beth Harbison’s writing and read Hope in a Jar, and am currently reading When In Doubt, Add Butter. I also fell in love with Lisa Kleypas and read Crystal Cove, the fourth book in her Friday Harbor series. I can’t wait to read more by her! Last month (which seems like forever ago!), I read Half-Blood Blues by Canadian author Esi Edugyan in preparation for the 2013 Henry Kreisel Memorial Lecture, which book blogger Laura and I attended. It was a wonderful read! I also listened to Escape from Camp 14 by Blaine Harden, which was a very informative and disturbing read — and recommended to me by John Green! Well, not personally, but sometimes I feel like he’s only talking to me in his vlogs.

Like I mentioned above, I do have a ton of review books to go through and I will get to them, hopefully sooner rather than later. The world is out there waiting to be discovered and spring has finally touched down in our city, so I plan to take it easy and just do what strikes my fancy.

How was your week? Have you read anything good lately?