Week in Review (3)

Random Thoughts

One of the things I have been concentrating on lately is reading books off my own piles. That is not to say that I don't want to read books from the library and support them, but I also don't want to overdo it either. I was very surprised when I was adding my two most recent reads to my Reads in 2012 list that they were the first two books I have read from the library so far this year. I also have one on the go. That's it. Now, I have only read 13 books to begin with, but still, I am very happy with those numbers. If I keep that up for the rest of the year my TBR pile will go back to fitting on one bookshelf. Obviously there are some e-books in there which don't really change anything in the physical world, but I wouldn't want to neglect my eReader either. 

I have been messing around with pages along the top of my blog and then deciding what to put on my sidebar. It is a work-in-progress at the moment. I am currently working on my Blog Roll. It was insanely outdated and I thought it took up too much space on the sidebar, so I made it a page and I have been working on it for the last couple days. It is no where near complete, but if you are curious you can see it up there with my other pages or by clicking this link. I will probably work on it a bit more today. 

Another thing I wanted to share was the pretty button that Alex made me for my blog. I had never had a The Written World button before and I decided now was the perfect time. Isn't it pretty?

Lastly, don't forget that on January 31st you should post about poetry as part of the monthly event Lu and I are hosting to get poetry to be read and blogged about more. You can read the post with all the details by clicking here and I will probably add something about it to either by sidebar or the pages above. It will be a few days before my new template is entirely organized.

Challenge News

I read A Midsummer's Night Dream as the first selection for Reading Shakespeare.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline will count for the Science-Fiction Experience.

Then, I watched Horrible Bosses and Valkyrie for the 2012 Movie Madness Challenge.

Weekly Reads

I am so happy that I finally read this play. I have wanted to for ages! I was a bit worried when I started it because I don't think I was reading it all that well and sort of lost track of what was going on. As a result I restarted it and read it in one-sitting. That worked a lot better. The only distraction was a cat running by occasionally. This is Shakespeare's play that includes fairies and I have seen several movie representations, but this is the first time I have read the actual play. I think it could easily become my favourite by him simply for the elements that are used. I will talk about it in more detail soon. (Personal Copy)

I have heard about this book all over the blogosphere and then I was lucky enough to get a copy for Christmas from the guy. I had other books on the go, but I really just wanted something a bit different and on the shorter side to feel accomplished. I really enjoyed her approach to the written world and the women that make it up. It looked at not just the characters themselves by the women behind them. It makes me think I would like to reread the ones that I have read and read for the first time the ones that I have not. (Personal Copy)

I am getting a bit tired of young adult books, but I was curious about this book in 2011. I was very lucky to receive a copy from Cat at Beyond Books. She's so great! I wanted to read it since it arrived, but my reading was so bad I didn't want to ruin the experience. I ended up picking the book up to just glance at it and I was quickly caught up in the experience. I read book almost all in one-sitting, which really doesn't happen that often any more. I just really enjoyed that this was a book with a female character that has some self-confidence issues, but grows at the book progresses. And, she doesn't need men in order to do so. There is a bit of a love triangle, though. It isn't handled like some of the other books out there, so it isn't as bad as it could be. I am looking forward to the sequel. (Personal Copy)

I was listening to this on audio, but my mp3 player was borrowed. I was enjoying the audio experience, though, and when I switched from listening to it to actually reading it I had a hard time getting my head around it. It worked out in the end, though, and I wound up sitting down with the rest of the book and reading it in one sitting. I loved this book! It was so much fun and suited my tastes to a tee. I think when there was a whole chapter dedicated to the Canadian band Rush, though, I knew it was going to make my best of list for the year. There is so much to gush about this book and I look forward to reviewing it soon with Melissa from Book Nut. (Library Copy)

So, my library has the first two volumes in this series and then stopped buying them. I didn't really feel like I had to own them, so I hadn't decided what I was going to do yet. Then, the library bought volumes 3, 4, and 5. I think they missed volume 6 or I missed adding it to my holds. Anyway, I don't love this series like other people do. I enjoy it, but it doesn't blow my world or anything along those lines. If the library never bought the rest of the series I wouldn't have been devastated. Also, I am thinking I need to get all 6 books at the same time and read them one right after another because it took me a bit to remember what the heck was going on. (Library Copy)

Currently Reading:

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

Noisy Outlaws, Unfriendly Blobs, And Some Other Things by Various Authors

Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer

Naked by David Sedaris

Weekly Posts

Week in Review (2)

Foundation by Isaac Asimov (Foundation Trilogy, Book 1) - A Group Discussion Part 2

Review: Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

What Are You Listening to Wednesday - Week 9

Tuning in on Thursday - Week 10 and Friday Reads 3rd Edition

New Additions

Borrowed:

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness by Bryan Lee O'Malley 

Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together by Bryan Lee O'Malley

Mister Creecher by Chris Priestley

Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante