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 I had fully intended to participate in this weekend’s Bloggiesta, because there are definitely things that need to get done around here. I need to make sure I’ve visited everyone participating in my challenge, set up a link page for reviews, and consolidate the info on a tab, I have an opinion post I’ve been meaning to write, and I have 3 reviews that need to get done. And I’m sure there are plenty of other tasks that I could do, like fix the images from when I lost my blog awhile ago, but to be honest, Friday rolled around and I just wasn’t feeling it. My husband got into an accident on Thursday and while he’s perfectly fine, repairs are frustratingly expensive in a month where money is very tight due to his job switch. As in, we have two months to get through on about half of a month’s pay. So, it’s either cut deeply into savings we need, or go back to the credit card we just paid off. It’s so frustrating; if he could have crashed two months from now, we could have shrugged it off fairly easily, that’s how much more he’ll be making, but now we just have to get by somehow. The road wouldn’t have been icy in March anyway. Needless to say, I won’t be getting those books I mentioned in the last post until March, and my birthday on Tuesday is looking a whole lot less exciting. The fact that my job prospects are horrid to say the least has not really been helping.
So, what have I been doing besides fretting? Reading a ton of comfort reads. I’ve read a book a day so far this month, which is downright strange after I declared I wanted to read less. I went straight for the comfort reads and have been completely indulging myself, although I did start A Suitable Boy, my target challenge read for the month, and I’m enjoying it so far. 100 pages a day will get it read in a couple of weeks. It is nice to see my TBR numbers shoot down for once, especially considering I was anticipating a shoot upwards with my birthday and Christmas so close together. Since I haven’t actually received any books – I haven’t even received my Holiday Swap gift – it’s going to go down even further, although I think my parents have some books for me at home, where I’ll be in a couple of weeks.
Those comfort reads have actually got the wheels in my brain turning though. Yesterday I finished an older medieval romance, The Lily and the Leopard by Susan Wiggs, and it really had me thinking how much had changed, and how it’s pretty easy to see why others can disdain romance novels. I really didn’t like it. Too much physical activity and purposeful misunderstandings had me both failing to believe in the romance and wanting to slap the characters. Sure, there are some modern books like this, but the few I’ve read this year have proven far more worthy. It’s set right before and during the Battle of Agincourt and the author’s research is surprisingly decent, but I just have so many things to say about this. When I feel better about life, expect a post!
Anyway, apologies for the depressing nature of this post! I hope to be back to my cheerful nature sometime soon, just wanted to let everyone know what was going on. I’m planning a visit to Massachusetts in 3 weeks to see some of my college friends and I can’t wait. I haven’t seen one of them in over a year because I haven’t been home for long enough and the train is expensive, but I’ve been lucky this time and I’m heading up at a fraction of the cost, albeit only for about a day. As long as the weather doesn’t prevent it, all I have to do is suffer through the flight, since I abhor flying more than anything else, and hopefully when I return to the UK I will have an interview or two to attend. Fingers most definitely crossed.
I hope everyone else is having a much brighter start to their 2010! See you next week!
Over the past few weeks, I’ve taken a step back from blogging and focused more on my other interests. I had a fairly quiet Christmas with hubby’s mother and brother, and though I didn’t receive any books as gifts, I did receive some cash and I am deliberating over my potential acquisitions. It’s also almost my birthday, so I have more potential for bookish gifts. These days I try to only buy what I can’t get from the library as I really don’t have space for all the books I’d like to own and I’m finding that I actually don’t want to reread all that many books. So I’ve been spending time comparing lists and contemplating! My mother-in-law also gifted me with a knitting project, so I’ve been learning to knit. Although I’m not very good yet, I am excited by all the projects I can now contemplate, and it’s really not as hard as I remembered from when I was a little kid.
That, and my newly revived interest in video games (perhaps not the most worthwhile of hobbies, but I’ve been feeling low lately and it really helps), has shown me that I’ve maybe been spending a little too much time reading and blogging this year. I’ve enjoyed diversifying my activities and it’s much easier to spend time with someone doing something that isn’t sticking my nose in a book. I have no intentions to stop reading, but I think I want to read less, and to read more specific books. I mentioned some of this in my 2009 wrap-up post, but here is an outline of my goals:
- Read more classics. I love classics and I’m finding them so much easier to read these days, I think because I have 4 years of literary theory behind me. I want to get to more of the ones I own in particular.
- Read more non-fiction. I feel such a lack of learning in my life right now, and while I’m still unemployed and have the mental concentration, I should seize this opportunity to learn about other subjects, cultures, and people.
- Stick to a reading plan. I want to read 1/3 of my own books, 1/3 review copies until I can cut that number down, and 1/3 library books, so that I can diminish my TBR pile but also feel like I’m reading something new with the library and review books.
- Read one longer and/or more difficult book per month. I saw this on another blog and I love this idea. I want to read one huge chunkster or longer classic a month. I’ve had A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth sitting at me from the top of my immediate TBR pile for at least a month now. It’s my January project and I want to start it as soon as I’ve finished my current read.
- Don’t feel guilty. This is my most important goal. I don’t want to feel guilty for not reading every day, for not blogging every day, for doing something else with my time. I don’t want to beat 2009’s total of 283 books.
If I don’t achieve these goals, that’s okay too. They’re just outlines. And if all I want to do is read in my free time, that’s okay too, especially after I get a job and my time is more limited. I’ve seen a lot of similar posts to mine this week, and I wish everyone success with their 2010 goals.
Well, after all my worrying, my visa application process was almost ridiculously simple. My new passport arrived two days before the appointment (nothing like the last minute!) and the officials didn’t even look at most of the paperwork they’d requested on the application. I’m halfway between annoyed at all the unnecessary stress and worrying I went through and relieved that it was so easy! Anyway, that’s all done now, and all I have to do is wait for a card in the mail that contains my actual visa.
I have been meaning to launch my Medieval Challenge this month, but I haven’t done it yet. I do have a list of book recommendations and I’m working on a button, so hopefully I’ll have that up this week. I hope no one is challenged out for 2010 yet!
I’m not participating in Bethany’s Read.Read.Readathon, which I believe has now ended, but I did manage to finish The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone this morning. At 758 pages in my edition, this was no small undertaking. I read it in four days, which is great considering I barely read at all on Friday, too busy spending four and a half hours at the UKBA office and then wandering around in a daze. What a book it was, too, so full of art and life that I’m still reeling a little bit. I found it slow in parts, given that it covers virtually all of Michelangelo’s life and the writing was not the greatest, but now I have this need to go visit his sculptures and paintings. I’ll save the rest of my reaction for my review.
As for the remainder of today, I’m planning on continuing The First Crusade by Thomas Asbridge. This was sent to me by Simon & Schuster UK and so far I’m really enjoying it. The crusades are fascinating and I’m always eager to read a new historian’s viewpoint. I’m not sure if I’ll finish it before I start the next fiction book on my massive TBR stack, which is Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I’m not sure what else I’m going to read the rest of this week either; my hubby is off from work and while we have nothing planned right now, we will probably end up occupying ourselves somehow.
Did you do the Read.Read.Readathon yesterday and today? How did you do? Anything exciting coming up soon on your TBR pile?
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After a few phone calls on Tuesday evening, I managed to get my internet back up and running. I can’t say I appreciated it until it was gone! But now I am very glad to be back and able to see what’s happening. I have to say that I still haven’t managed to comment much, just because I had so many posts to read. It was overwhelming. I managed to clear out the Google Reader, though, so I should be appearing a bit more around the blogosphere now that I feel like I can take time to comment and work through every day.
On Friday, I finally received the results for my MA, and I have very proudly passed, and done quite well considering how the year began. I received what was possibly the worst grade of my life on my first essay, due to a combination of one professor somewhat misleading me about the quality of my essay and my own misunderstandings, and my confidence took a hit. But I received a Distinction on my dissertation, which is the equivalent of an A, and I’m thrilled that all my hard work paid off and I can once again feel like the possibilities of academia are open to me should I choose to pursue them.
This Friday is meant to be my visa appointment, but I’m not sure we’re going to make it, and I might have to mail my documents in instead. You see, I wanted to change my name on my passport after I got married, but before I got my visa, to avoid the extra hassle of carrying a marriage license every time I travel for the next two years. This turns out to have been a mistake. Rather than returning my new passport in the promised 15 working days, it’s now been over 20, and I’m worried. I know they received it and charged me for the renewal, so I’ll be calling the US Embassy if it doesn’t get here tomorrow, and I hope they know what’s happened to it.
Finally, amusingly similar to my last Salon post, I am reading Sookie Stackhouse again. I was excited to find the last three books in the series at the library yesterday and I’ve read two since then (I’ll have more library loot later this week!). I’m still really enjoying these books and they are definitely taking my mind off my worries. I had to leave book 9 at the library because I was at my limit, but I’ll be picking it up next week I hope. I’m also reading Wild Swans by Jung Chang, which I’m absolutely loving. This is a memoir I’m reading for the Women Unbound challenge about three generations of women in China. It’s a wonderful combination of history and family relationships, which I particularly enjoy. My last read is Angels of Destruction by Keith Donoghue. I’m not really enjoying this as much as I thought I was going to, which is a disappointment at 100 pages in, but it’s a review copy I was supposed to review a long time ago, so I’ve got to get on with it.
What are you reading this Sunday?
Even though I have dozens of books I’d love to read right now, somehow I still have issues when staring at the many books I have to read. I just can’t decide which to choose and nothing is calling to me particularly strongly. I solved this issue in part when I found the sixth Sookie Stackhouse book in the library yesterday, but very shortly I’m going to be confronted by my indecision again. I reinstated my policy of rotating my oldest TBR books, review books, and then library books, just making a pile now, but it’s too dark for a picture. I’ll try to compare next week and see how far I get. My next book is The Foundling by Georgette Heyer, though, and I’m looking forward to it very much. Do you ever suffer from TBR indecision?
My Nanowrimo novel is still going very well. At last count I had around 31,000 words. I haven’t been working on it today, but this is only my second day off all month. At this rate, I will be nearly finished by next Sunday, especially because I made an essential discovery this week. The way I now write is vastly different from the way I used to write. I was a seat-of-the-pants writer, letting the story unfold as it would and as I went along. I can’t do this any more. I found it hard to just write without knowing where I was going and I found it stressful to try and put my characters into situations that would allow them to interact the way they wanted. So I sat down for a few minutes and plotted out the second half of my story. Suddenly the joy is back and it’s just as fun as it was in the beginning, when I did have a plan for how it was going to start. I’m not sure why this change has happened, but I do know I’m going to plot out all my writing from now on. I’m not sure if academics caused this or if I just like to have a plan these days, but I have a lot more confidence in finishing this thing now.
That’s about all that’s new from me this week; not much is going on in my life so nothing more interesting to report! I do hope everyone has a great week, though, with a wonderful book or two to read.
Apparently, my recent burnout only applies to historical fiction, not history. I’ve no idea why this is. Perhaps I’m just craving some truth! In any case, I definitely needed an escape from the Tudors. My nanowrimo novel is set in the late Victorian period in England, so I was thrilled to discover a biography of Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick in the library yesterday. When my parents were visiting, we went up to Warwick Castle, and they have a large exhibit based on one of her house parties, complete with wax figures of all the guests from Madame Tussauds in the rooms that they stayed in. The brief explanations of the personalities were not enough for me, so I thought it would be exciting to learn about this woman who was simultaneously a political figure and the mistress of many of the period’s important men, and I was right. It seems like a life in contradictions, but she straddles a fascinating divide between an ignorant aristocracy and an aristocracy campaigning for the rights of ordinary working people.
That novel is going fairly well. I’m ahead of the curve at 17,603 words. I haven’t written anything today yet, but I hope to a bit later on. We had Sky TV installed today and we’ve been busy playing with it rather than getting anything else accomplished. I’m a little less involved with the novel than I was a week ago, but I’m still finding my daily quota easy to meet, and I hope that continues.
One bookish thing I’m very excited about participating in this holiday season is the Book Blogger Holiday Swap. I can’t wait to find out who I’m buying a gift for. If you want to sign up, you have until November 12th, so don’t wait!
Finally, I’d better get back to my novel, but have a wedding picture:
The rest can be found here. Have a good week everyone!
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Yesterday, I said I was starting my participation in NaNoWriMo today. And I have officially begun. I wrote 2000 words this morning, so I’m off to a good start. If anyone would like to add me as a buddy over there, please do – my username is medievalbookworm. I’m writing a historical romance novel for two reasons; I always thought I could, and I know how it will end, which has always stymied me in the past when writing longer works of fiction. If I know the ending, surely I will be able to somehow get the novel there. I just want to see how it goes and that involves choosing the easiest genre (for me) to write. Although to be honest I wouldn’t be surprised if mine was the tamest romance ever – I prefer the ones without explicit scenes, believe it or not. I don’t particularly want anyone to read it, but I’m happy that it’s moving along nicely and I found it fairly easy to write. In fact, I might even write more later, as the feeling is surprisingly exhilarating.
In other bookish news, I have plenty to read these days. I have a library loot post coming up this week with several weeks’ worth of loot, but my most exciting find was Kazuo Ishiguro’s new short story collection, Nocturnes. How can I resist Ishiguro? He’s one of my favorite authors and I had a moment of absolute glee when I saw it in the new book section. I don’t think these stories are going to stay unread for very long. I also finished Ash by Malinda Lo last night and I unexpectedly adored it, so I’m for once looking forward to writing a review. I was feeling frustrated with my reading last week, but I think all I needed was a change of pace, reading what I want to read rather than what I need to review. I think if I intersperse reading that I choose with the review copies, things will go much more smoothly. In all honesty I don’t have very many books for review – I’ve stopped requesting at all and only accept if I think a book will be very good – so this should not be a challenge. So, today I’m going to be reading Nocturnes and Heart’s Blood by Juliet Marillier, and after I’m finished with them I will try and go back to read a review copy.
I’m not sure which books will be ahead this week; I’m just going to see how I feel. What are you planning on reading this week?
 Here’s how I did – I’m assuming that I’m going to spend the next few minutes on this blog post, so it’s updated from 1 pm yesterday to 12 pm today:
| Number of Books |
6 |
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Books Read |
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| Pages Read |
1870 |
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Hunting Ground |
The Queen of Attolia |
| Time Spent Reading |
14:03 |
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The Lightning Thief |
Me Talk Pretty One Day |
| Time Spent Blogging |
3:19 |
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Dead as a Doornail |
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The Thief |
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Keith got up shortly after my last post and played a couple of levels in the second Tomb Raider, but then he realized he couldn’t finish another in the time remaining and stopped.
And the end of event survey!
1. Which hour was most daunting for you?
The one in which I fell asleep! I think it was somewhere between 12 and 14. I finally went to bed around the second 2 am (we put the clocks back), which I think would be hour 14, but I had really been zoning and sleeping on the couch for a while. I got up a little after 7 and have been fine since.
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
I think all the books I read were surprisingly great choices. I didn’t have trouble focusing on any of them and there were no duds at all.
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
Nope! I think the whole thing is great.
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
I really liked how many people were involved in the Read-a-Thon and I think the organization has been fantastic. I also liked the way the cheerleading was split – I felt I was getting a lot of comments and not only from people who’d visited my blog before.
5. How many books did you read?
Six!
6. What were the names of the books you read?
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris, The Thief and The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner, Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris, The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, and Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs.
7. Which book did you enjoy most?
It’s hard to say – I enjoyed them all in their own way. I think the two by Megan Whalen Turner would have to win.
8. Which did you enjoy least?
The Lightning Thief. It’s definitely written for a younger audience and usually I don’t notice that in YA, but I did here. It was still funny and I plan on reading the rest of the series, though. More details when I write a review, sometime. LOL.
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
Wasn’t one!
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
I’m extremely likely to participate as long as I can keep the weekend open. I’m thinking next time I’d like a greater variety of roles. I would like to spend more time visiting other blogs and cheering the participants on even if not as an official cheerleader, although I might give that a try if I can commit to only a few hours like I think we could this time.
And now I am showering (at noon, hah!) and going out. For some crazy reason, Keith thinks we should go out and do things after sitting/lying for 24 hours. What an idea! I’ll probably be reading more later – I’m a glutton for punishment and have to finish The Queen’s Mistake by Diane Haeger, which I put off in favor of lighter books – and trying to write all of the reviews I suddenly have to do. Thank you for commenting here, congrats to everyone on all the reading and cheering, and I look forward to the next Read-a-Thon in the spring!
Well, I haven’t been reading at all, but thought I would thank everyone for their congratulations and show just one of the pictures; we mostly left the pictures to the photographer, but we don’t get those for a while, so here’s one of our own, even if my bangs are in my face:
The day was just perfect. Everything was on time and exactly how I wanted; we are still astonished! We’ve been extremely busy since my parents arrived on Thursday and expect to be until Tuesday when they go home; I have a few reviews left, but will be working hard to catch up afterwards. I haven’t read a word in a few days, but I’m sure I’ll be back to it soon and then my blog will resume its bookish nature. I hope everyone has a great week!
At some point, after I started reading more books than I ever expected I could, it seemed like I was falling in love with fewer books. They rarely grab me from the first page and usually I have to get at least 50 pages in before I feel compelled to keep reading. I like almost everything I read, but I rarely truly love a book. That said, I am now reading three amazing books, and am hard pressed to decide which one to continue at any given point!
 The first is The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer, a book I’m reviewing for The Book Bag. This non-fiction book is essentially billed as a handbook for people traveling to the 14th century (as it is basically a foreign country), but really provides an entertaining overview of every detail of medieval life. So far he’s explained what I might encounter in a town, a city, or the countryside, levels of society, and even gone into detail about coinage and dates and medieval attire. I know some of this information, but the little details like how the invention of the button changed men’s and women’s clothing? Or the slight differences in behavior? I had no idea, and it’s utterly fascinating. It’s also very funny in a dry sort of way, which makes even the facts I know enjoyable to learn again. I won’t be reviewing this book here for a while, but I am just loving it.
 The next is Emma by Jane Austen. It’s no secret that I really enjoy Austen’s work, but Emma has been the last on my list of unread Austens for years. I have two versions of it but I have never managed to get into it. I was in high school and I found it boring, and later I wanted to save one because I know there aren’t any others. I’m inspired today by the BBC’s new miniseries, which begins tonight at 9 pm. There was no way I wanted to spoil my last Austen with a miniseries and not with the book! And of course I don’t want to miss the mini-series because I love the BBC’s adaptations. I am even making Keith watch with me. So I started reading it, even though I was already reading two other books, and I’m adoring it this time through. I just love Austen’s sly humor, her deft touch with characterization, her turn of phrase, and that’s not to mention the snottiness of Emma and the fascinating world she lives in. I want to know where this story is going next! I know who the hero is and I can already see the light touches that are slowly developing that angle even as Emma goes about in ignorance. This book makes me want to reread every last Jane Austen novel, so I’m already planning on starting with Pride and Prejudice, the only one I actually have here. (Emma is a library copy since my two versions are in the US).
 The last is The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. I have progressed the least in this because I started it before I realized I had to read Emma. There is so much blogger buzz about this book that I couldn’t resist starting it alongside the non-fiction, although I normally don’t read more than one book at a time (hah!). This was one of my last bought books before my ban started, as neither of my libraries have it, although both of them have the sequel. No idea why libraries do that. I’m only 100 pages in, but it is very good so far. I wasn’t convinced at first, but it’s growing on me. I plan on zipping through the whole thing tomorrow when I’m on my own again, as men, mine in particular, are extremely distracting, and I hope I fall in love with it like so many others have!
What was the last book you fell in love with?
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