Time Flies When You're Having Fun ...

So stuff happened.  I got a job.  I quit the job after working it for two years.  Stayed home doing not much of anything for a year and then went job hunting again.  I have a new job now that I'm loving.

I am trying really hard to cut down on my book buying and I've done well this year.  So far I've only purchased three new books which will be arriving sometime in April.  On the other hand, I've picked up a colouring habit so the money I've saved has been going to colouring books and pencil crayons etc.

I'm still reading.  My latest finished books are in the sidebar via the goodreads widget.  I don't review things as much as I used to, but maybe that might change if I ever manage to get myself into a decent routine of actually keeping up with this blog.  We all can see how well that has gone in the past *ahem*.

I'm a Netflix addict now and have spent many hours binge watching a variety of series.  Got caught up on Supernatural.  Got hooked on The 100.  Chewed through Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt with the hubby; we both giggled our faces off over that one and are eagerly awaiting the second season.  Watched a whole bunch of movies and documentaries as well as a bunch of kid stuff.

That about covers things for now.

Slimming down for 2013

I've decided that having three blogs turned out to be a lot more work than I had anticipated and it made me avoid blogging completely last year. This year, I'm going to post everything in one place and this is it. No separate blog for my book thoughts or my mail from Postcrossing or Swap-bot. Everything will be posted here, including idle ramblings and daily life type posts. Since this is now an all purpose blog, I'll be doing some re-working on the layout and such, but hopefully in the end it will all work out for the best.

I have a new favorite website

I realize it has been ages since I made a post on here and for that I apologize.  I got married over the summer and it was a lot of work to get everything put together in the timeframe I had.

Anyhow, enough of that.  I'm back and hope to be posting more regularly, especially now that I am off the book buying ban!!!  To celebrate I splurged over at Bookcloseouts.ca and snapped up some books that I've been wanting to read for a while now.

Great prices and fast delivery have made this my new favorite book buying website.  I'm betting you'd rather just see what I got instead, so here we go:



Looking forward to getting into those. Now, over the summer I did read. I went through a bunch of my ebooks, but only managed to read a few of my physical books so I'd have to say the ban wasn't a major success in getting my huge piles of books read. It did make me realize just how many books I was buying in a year, so cutting back certainly won't hurt anything except my ego.

Update on Book Buying Ban

It has been 20 days since I put myself on a self-imposed book buying ban and dug out a stack of ten books to read.

I have to admit that, now that I have the stack staring me in the face, I'm really not inclined to actually read the books I picked out.  I suppose it is the whole 'being forced' feel to it and I should just shelf them all and pull them out one at a time in random order so they don't look so ... intimidating.

However, I have managed to read two of my ebooks and one from my stack of ten, so that's three books down and a billion more to go (or so it feels like anyway).

I was tempted to buy new books.  I went shopping with my mom and found a couple of books that I'd been thinking about reading and they were on sale for $3!!!  It was /so/ hard not to walk out of the store with them in my arms *sighs*.  But all is not lost!  I have a new book in the house; Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson.  I did not buy it!  I actually won it in a Twitter contest from Chapters/Indigo.  So, I suppose I'll make do with that, though I think it may get offended at how often I open the cover to smell that new book scent.

How're your summer reading plans going?

Self-imposed Book Buying Ban

I've been watching videos on YouTube lately (and making my own as well) and one fellow that I watch put himself on a book buying ban.  I thought about it for a little while and then decided it was actually a good idea.

So, I have put myself on a book buying ban for the summer.  I have over 50 books on my e-reader and a ton more on bookshelves and tables all over my house so it isn't like I am lacking in reading material around here.  I decided to set up a stack of ten books to try and read over the summer.  Normally I just grab something and read whatever I'm in the mood for so this is going to be an interesting experiment for me.

My stack of ten:

The Guernsey Literary and Potatoe Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annier Barrows
Ghost Road Blues by Jonathan Maberry
The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
Objects of Worship by Claude LaLumiere
People Live Still in Cashtown Corners by Tony Burgess
A Book of Tongues by Gemma Files
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

I'll come back and update this post as I finish them.  Here's hoping that I'll get them done this summer so I can go back to buying new books :D

Things I Got Today

I was going to make this one of those In My Mailbox posts, but realized that I'm not sure what day that is supposed to happen on, so instead just some things that I got today.

First, hand delivered by the UPS man, I give you the most exciting thing I've received in the mail this month:

Stick by Andrew Smith: Now, I knew this was coming in my mailbox. Andrew Smith is, in my opinion, an amazing person and a talented author. He was kind enough to send my eldest a signed copy of The Marbury Lens and, after hearing that said kid loved it, offered to put us on the short list for an ARC of Stick. I've already started reading it and I'm already in love with the way it is written and laid out on the page.


Despite my latest post decrying the library, I ended up with another set of library books in my house.  In my defense, however, it wasn't the usual six or seven.  I only brought home two this time.

Red Snow by Michael Slade: Another installment of the Special X stories. I started reading Slade waaaaay back in the beginning with Headhunter and then I fell off the wagon. I saw this on the library rack and went 'ooooooh, haven't read a Slade in a while' and snatched it up. Hopefully I'll be able to fall back into the world of the psycho hunters of the RCMP. Crossing my fingers that not too much has changed.

Baltimore (or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire) by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden: I thought this was a graphic novel when I first spotted it on Goodreads, so I put it on reserve at the library thinking it would be a quick read. Turns out it is actually a novel with some illustrations. Still, looks like a worthwhile read about vampires during WW1. I generally like Golden's work, so this should be quite the tale.

That sums up the things I got today.  Although we had an absolutely gorgeous day here so I got a sunburn too.

Ixnay on the Ibarylay

So, out of the last library haul I posted I am only going to finish one book.  I took the others back because, to be honest, I just wasn't in the mood to read them.  I find that I get into these reading slumps after I've powered through a bunch of books.  Once I finish the last library book I have here, Soulless by Christopher Golden, I'll probably put the library on hold and concentrate on working my way through the books I have here at home.

I do have another review coming, but I'm still working out how I want to say the things I want to say about the book.  Perhaps I'll try vloging it instead of writing about it.

In other news, Andrew Smith had a cover reveal for his new novel, Stick.  You can check it out on the blogs listed in his post here.  I think it looks pretty cool and I can't wait to read it.  I did pick up In the Path of Falling Objects for the kid to read, but if he doesn't start it soon I may end up getting into it before he does.