Reasons, Excuses, Changes, and Why.

So I’ve been missing on here and social media for a while now. And this is the story of WHY. 

In July I joined in on a Debut-A-Thon read a thon. I got through a few books, more than I normally would. Then I kind of stopped. Reading that is. I would start a book, read a bit then stop. Start another, and so on and so forth. I'm not joking. I currently have 6 books that I have started but not finished. I have read complete books in the mean time, books that I finished within a day or two (see below*). The thing was - I lost interest. I lost interest in reading. I lost interest in trying to keep up with blogging. 

Then I had uni assignments, so I did them and stayed away from reading. I still tried to post on the blog, but if you look over my posts, you'll see I went from 40 odd posts per month prior to August to 16 in August and 12 in September. 

I joined another read a thon thinking it might motivate me back to read. ..... No. It didn't. That ended on the 22 Sept. My last post was a promo on the 23 Sept. I haven't posted in 2 weeks. 

Add to all this the kerfuffle with negative reviews, authors/reviewers, and now Goodreads. All this negativity was getting me down. I don't need that kind of stress over something that was meant to be a positive, fun hobby.  

I still like reading. I still visit goodreads. I just stopped reading and book blogging when I realised it was consuming my life and that it had become my life. I was starting to not have time for anything else. I was always worried about getting reviews up in time, getting books read, helping out with promo posts and what not. It was consuming my time. So I stopped. 

I'm still not in the mood to read. I'm still trying to finish those books - and yes some of them are review books so I apologise to the publishers that are waiting on these reviews. They will come, but it will be when I'm ready. 

This brings me to the changes. I'm not going to be posting on here all the time any more. I wont be doing a pile of promo posts. I wont be doing memes every week. 

So what will I do. That's easy. 

I will post reviews.

I will post discussions.

I will post promos and cover reveals of books I am actually interested in. Not just promos for the sake of promos. 

But I will be posting these when I want to. I'm not reviewing books any more - unless I specially want to read a particular book (Look out for my Countdown review which will be up soon). I don't want to read to a schedule. I don't want to have to read a book by a certain time. I want to read what is on my shelf. I want to read at my own pace. I most of all, I want to enjoy reading again. 

I have a life outside of books, blogging and the internet. I don't want books to define me. I have other interests and I'd like to take the time to pursue them too. To do that, something has to give, and that something is posting frequently on the blog and spending all my time reading to do so.

So that's it. I'm still around. I'll still chat - Twitter is probably better to get me on as I get notified on my phone. But I wont be posting as often.

Another thing - I mentioned a while back that I was going to do a giveaway to celebrate my 1 year blogoversary but I never got around to doing it. I will probably be doing a giveaway in the near future as I have a couple of double up books I'd like to get off my shelf (for Aus peeps only - sorry, postage is too expensive) so keep an eye out for that. I'll also do an international one around the same time too. 

Well, now you know the why's and I hope you all understand. 

I'll see you all around the place at one time or another. Have a great week! :D

The books I read lately (and loved) 

Stung 

Countdown

Thirteen Reasons Why

Why did I read them - I don't know but I loved them from the first page so maybe they held my interest better!?!?

Bookish Talk #4 - Your Favourite Series

 If you want to join in you can either do your own post on your blog (but please link back to here) and leave a link in the comments, or let us know what you think in the comments.

I have been in a bit of a reading slump - simply I haven't wanted to read. I decided to join in on the Tackle your TBR Read-a-thon being held by Laura @ Colorimetry and Tressa @ Tressa's Wishful Endings (my signup post can be found here) in the hope I would want to read more. So far that hasn't worked. I haven't been posting much either which kind of brings me to this post. I'm curious to see your favourite series and why you love it. I think if I'm involved in some decisions I'll be more inclined to get back into it. :)

To start off, a couple of my favourite series are:

In no particular order -

Elemental Series by Brigid Kemmerer

I enjoy this series immensely. I love Brigids writing and the characters. 

Luna Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer

A cyborg, a wicked Queen, a handsome prince and retellings - what's not to like! 

Glitch trilogy by Heather Anastasiu

 I'll be honest, the first book wasn't my favourite although I still liked it. It took a bit to get into the story but what the first book lacked, the second and third made up for. 

Blood of Eden series by Julie Kagawa

The story of a girl who become what she hated and refuses to submit to the vampire urge. The Eternity Cure (book #2) was just as good as book one. I loved them both and can't wait for #3. 

So, have you read any of these? and what are your favourite series?

Bookish Talk #3 - Longest read - Is it a content or length problem?

I have been wanting to do more discussion posts on here and I'm hoping to make this either a weekly or fortnightly thing. If you want to join in you can either do your own post on your blog (but please link back to here) and leave a link in the comments, or let us know what you think in the comments.



First off, I'm sorry I'm not around a lot lately. You'll notice I haven't done a Top Ten Tuesday post in a while, and I didn't do a Waiting on Wednesday post yesterday either. I nearly didn't do a discussion this week, but I really wanted to as I haven't been able to do much reading or blogging lately and I miss it and you as well! So I've taken a few minutes (ok, its takes me longer than that really) to do this post. Yay!

Secondly, life and uni are getting in the way. I don't know why this semester is such a pain, but I'm struggling to get through my uni work (time wise) because I'm so caught up with my son's sports, his friends, and my friends and family. I can't seem to find a balance between everything this semester. I'm trying to at least get a review and one other post (top ten, WoW or discussion) up each week until I get the major assessment pieces out of the way. I haven't been buying books lately (which considering I can't get around to reading right now, its probably a good thing!) so I won't have a Stacking The Shelves post for a while. 



As I said, I'm not getting much reading done, yet I have started a few books, and that plus the last Bookish Talk post talking about forcing yourself to read, it's made me think how long has it been since I've read some of the books I've started. Therefore this weeks topic is: 

What book took the longest for you read and do you think it was the content or the length that made it so?

For me I think it's more the content. Not that the content is difficult to understand or anything, more that if I'm not completely absorbed into the story, if it's not fascinating to me and doesn't hold my interest, then I'll tend to take longer to read it. I'll normally read a little at a time and read something else in between. 

At the moment the book I'm reading Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion is definitely the longest time I've taken to read a book. I started it on the 27th February and I'm only at 45%. I don't hate the book, and I do want to finish it. It's just not that interesting that I want to finish in NOW or in this case when I started it! lol. It only has 240 pages!

On the other hand, I started My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick when I borrowed it from the library and I really enjoyed it. I've since bought my own copy but I haven't picked it back up again. Not because I'm not enjoying it, it's that I have assessments to do and if I start it again I won't put it down. 

Length does not interfere with the time it takes me to read a book. The most recent books that come to mind are Insurgent at 525 pages, and The Darkest Minds at 496 pages. Both were read under 7 days (which is fairly average for me when I have uni work to do). 


So content is what holds me back on finishing books at a normal rate, not the length. What about you? If it's a long book do you take longer to read it or is it the content that holds you back? 

Bookish Talk #2 - Forcing Yourself to Read

I have been wanting to do more discussion posts on here and I'm hoping to make this either a weekly or fortnightly thing. If you want to join in you can either do your own post on your blog (if you have one) and leave a link in the comments, or let us know what you think in the comments.

I was looking at the mountain of books that I own (physical books, not ebooks), actually I was planning on talking about the book that has been on my shelf the longest when I came to the realisation that I have many books that got added to my bookshelf a year ago when I started blogging but I haven't read yet. This got me thinking of why I haven't gotten around to reading these yet. ... Let me also mention that this isn't all that was added to my shelf, there were many adult fiction/fantasy books that I got but I haven't included. 

So, this weeks topic is: Do you force yourself to read, or just read what and when you want? 

Personally, I don't force myself to read a book if I'm not "feeling it" at the time. However I do have certain books that must be read by a certain time, namely review books, and I have a calender with the date the review is due to be posted. Of course these books then get priority over the books I buy, leaving them to pile up unread. As I'm not the fastest reader, and I'm studying Law and Business at University, on top of normal living and family commitments,  I have limited reading time, normally an hour or so before I go to sleep if it's not too late (I don't function well on small amounts of sleep). This normally means I read review books first, and if I get some time I'll read something off my shelves. 

Books I bought last year but still haven't read :(

Considering the amount of amazing books on my shelf (there are a lot more than this, one's that I've added this year. When I get another bookshelf and have some order to my books I'll take a photo of them all) it makes me wonder if I should stop requesting review books and focus on what I own. 
I was originally going to do that this year, but clearly I didn't as I have several review books I need to read, which are: 
Crown of Midnight by Sarah J Maas
Banish by Nicola Marsh
Not A Drop To Drink by Mindy McGinnis (I've read this, but I'll post my review closer to the release date - I loved it though!)
Parasite by Mira Grant
Scent of Magic by Maria Snyder
Blackout by Robison Wells
Tumble & Fall by Alexandra Coutts
This Song will Save Your Life by Leila Sales
Save The Enemy by Arin Greenwood
Needless to say these review books will probably see me reading through to October. 

I am a mood reader. I can't force myself to read anything as I'll get bored with it or I'll hate it. On top of that I see all the books I own and really want to read and I feel torn. I have currently started reading 6 books: 2 review books, 2 books that have been on my shelf for awhile and 2 books I just wanted to read at the time. None of them really took me away to a point that I didn't want to read anything else. In fact I had to stop myself from starting several others because I wanted to read them too. I want to read them all..... now... right now.... Lets face it, that's not really possible. :(

I want to read what I feel like, when I feel like it, but with review books I'm finding that it isn't really possible due to the time restraints and with uni study and assessments interfering with my reading time. haha. There are times when I really do need to force myself to read a book just because it is due for review soon. 


What about you? Do you get stuck with time limits and only reading things for review? Do you read as you want and don't worry about deadlines?  

Bookish Talk #1 - TBR pile

I have been wanting to do more discussion posts on here and since I don't have anything to usually post on Thursdays it seemed fitting to start today. I'm hoping to make this either a weekly or fortnightly thing. If you want to join in you can either do your own post on your blog (if you have one) and leave a link in the comments, or let us know what you think in the comments.


I should be working on the uni assignment due tomorrow but I keep seeing my started pile of books and wanting to read them instead. So in honour of the TBR pile I have, today's topic is:


What books are you either currently 'in the middle of' reading, and/or have on hand to read soon. 

Well I have start a few recently. I wasn't really getting into any of them (not in the mood for them) so I just kept starting new ones. 

Right now I'm currently reading: 

Paperbacks:

Living Dead in Dallas -  page 20 

Warm Bodies - page 117

Banish - page 28

Vampire Academy - page 78

My Life Next Door - page 36 

Kindle:

Wait For You - 25%

Crown of Midnight - 3%

Under The Dome is one I wish to start soon. Preferably after I finish a few of the others!

I was reading My Life Next Door before I started 3 of these but it was a library book that I had to return. I have since ordered it and now I'm waiting for it to arrive so I can finish it. 

Crown of Midnight I started while my husband drove us out to dinner last night! 

Admittedly uni is taking up more of my time and I'm finding it harder to find time to read. I also feel like I'm forcing myself to read some books (namely ARC's) because they need to be read by a certain time....... but that's another topic, maybe. 

So, is anyone else as bad as this, or is it just me? Come on guys join in, I'd love to hear your answers! Also if you want to suggest topics you can send me an email or leave it in the comments. :)