Grrrrrrrrr

I'm kind of unhappy with myself right now. LOL I get things in my head and get so impatient. It's a stupid thing. While setting up my new bookshelf, I broke my one small bookshelf. It's fine and still works but I didn't want it broken. So I hurried up and bought myself a new, small bookshelf. I finally set it up last night and I don't like it. It's nice and it looks fine, but it doesn't fit the books like my other one did. And now I realize that I could have gotten a smaller bookshelf that exactly matches my big ones in exactly the sizes that I wanted. I'm making myself be patient and go home and re-measure everything again before I make any more decisions that cost me more money. But I'm probably going to get other new bookshelves and give the currents ones to family. My library is one room where I make it exactly how I want, down to the blanket I use. 

I guess in other book news, I'm doing a pretty good job with my reading goals so far this year. I have read  books in every category except childhood favorites. Already, I've read some fun and interesting things and I feel like it's going to be a much better reading year than last year was. I'm excited to keep going. 

Birthday Month

Wow, this month has flown. Hard to believe it's almost over. I spent a week of it in Charlotte, NC for work. It was a nice trip and Charlotte was in the 60's so it felt like spring. Then I came home to cold and snow storms. Oh well... it is technically still winter. 

I took some time off work around my birthday which was nice. I made it to SL to go to a few book stores. This year I let myself buy anything that even sounded interesting so a few of the books I bought I had never even heard of. 

Then on President's day I was looking at my library and didn't know where to put the new books, and decided I could fit one more of the thin Billy bookshelves from Ikea in there. So my nephew and I made a quick trip to Ikea and I picked it up. I'm very happy with that purchase and now I have empty bookshelf space! Let's see how long it takes me to fill it up.

And the other morning I woke up to have a very pretty view out my window. Fresh fallen snow is really beautiful. Of course, now the wind has blown and its all crusty and gross. But soon to be covered again with fresh snow, if the weather reports are correct. 

I'm planning on a relaxing weekend. I have a few projects I wanted to finish in February so I better get started on them. I'm still not in the mood to spend much money so I don't feel like shopping. I am very happy with my books and impulse bookshelf and I think I'll just stick with that. 

Hello February

Birthday shopping month is here! And since I’m still trying to keep my goal of not buying stuff just to have more “stuff” (books, excepted) I don’t really have much I want to buy myself. I do plan on going on a book buying trip to local-ish indie booksellers but I know I won’t buy that many books. I need a new black skirt, but in that case the old one will go. It’s possible I will get myself a new phone. I’m into year 3 with my current and the battery has really started to die quickly. Still undecided on that one. One of my favorite things to buy is bath/body/perfumes but I’m not even in the mood for that right now. My shelves are full and I just don’t want to add more to it.

I have gotten a little bit of my home clutter picked up and took some things (old office chair being one of the things) to be donated. I’d like to keep the momentum going. There are spots that I’ve cleaned up and look so nice right now. I’ve noticed other piles of things that are either out of the way or technically “put up” and I think I’d like to tackle those as well. It’s funny how much lighter I feel with even a little bit of mess gone. So yeah, if I can keep this going for even half the year I’ll save myself some money and be much more in control of the clutter. I’m kind of liking the idea. 

2023 Reading Challenge

I don’t usually set actual reading goals for the year. I set a number of books on the Goodreads reading challenge only because it’s an easy way to see my books at a glance. This year I put 78 for 1.5 books a week. I truly don’t care if I hit that number or not, but generally reading 78 books in a year is not much of a challenge for me. Although, it is more than I read last year…

Some years I have done reading bingo cards and those are always kind of fun and mix things up a bit. This year I created my own challenge just by thinking about what I like to read, getting out of my comfort zone, and also looking at my bookshelves. So here’s my reading challenge: 

7 Nonfiction: This is because I read 5 last year and wanted to increase that. Plus, I’ve found that there are so many truly interesting nonfiction books to choose from. 

3 Classics: LOL not sure about reading 3 but it’s supposed to be a challenge. I am allowing short stories in this section and I use a very loose definition about what I consider a classic.  

10 Books I already own - Paper copies: Because I can easily count double that sitting on my shelf. I really need to get to some of them.

6 Books I already own - Kindle version: Again because I have so many that I’ve purchased and never read. 

5 Diverse Authors: This one is authors of different color, nationality, or LBGTQ because I feel like I need to branch out more here and this is a reading challenge, after all.

5 Non-Romance: Meaning there is no romance in them, not even a small side story. I added this because romance or romance-ish is always my top genre and I’m trying to read outside that. I’d like these to be mostly fiction (as opposed to non-fiction, which seems too easy) again, just to get out of my comfort zone.

5 Childhood favorites: I’ve got 3 shelves completely full of childhood books. Looking at them, I can see some that had such a huge influence on my life. Some are the same old, battered copies I used to read and others I bought later, but I used to check out from the library over and over again. I thought maybe I could revisit a few of them. 

No book can be in more than one category so this will take up half of the 78 books and still leaves lots of room for falling back on favorite genres and comfort reading. I’m hoping this helps get me out of my reading slump. It’s already been kind of fun to think about books that fit each category. Plus, the first book I finished this year will fit for a kindle book I already own. I had been meaning to read it for quite a while and I finally did!

Happy New Year 2023 Style

Happy New Year indeed. I was only up at midnight last night because of fireworks going off in the street behind my house. I’ve been sick again and while I didn’t feel too terrible, I stayed home and tried to go to bed before midnight. Today is a lazy Sunday while I try to rest and get completely better. It’s raining/sleeting/snowing anyway so a nice day to be home. I’m actually sitting in my library with a blanket, hot drink, and stack of books which = rainy day perfection.

I’m not much of a goal setter and I never make new year’s resolutions but I do like feeling that a new year is a fresh start. I like the idea of Janus, the 2 faced god, looking both backwards and into the future, endings and beginnings. I also like making lists and crossing things off my lists. So here’s a (guilt-free) list of things I would like to do this year. 

• Get rid of the clutter piles; make a place for everything or donate/recycle/throw it out
• Finish the rag wreaths and tied blankets
• Take some trips and do things with my vacation days rather than stay home - I have ideas!!
• Get out of my book slump; try reading in genres I don’t normally to shake things up
• Play the piano more often
• Listen to podcasts on my drive home; there are so many I want to try
• Pay off my car loan
• Change my direct deposit so I’m saving a little more each month

 

Best Books 2022

This year’s reading feels a little underwhelming. Still, I did read some good stuff which is listed here, but overall it isn’t the best year for books. Hopefully, I can read more books next year that I really love. I’m wanting that book hangover feeling.  

I read 64 new to me books in 2022. I tried tracking my re-reading and it just didn’t happen. I re-read way too often and rarely a full book. As for stats… My top 5 genres are: Sci-fi romance, Other (which is where I put the Emma Lion books as they didn’t seem to fit my normal genres), Fantasy/Sci-Fi, Historical Romance, and Historical Fiction. A lot of books cross over genres so this is the best I could do to categorize. Mystery, both historical and contemporary (usually a genre I love), was way down this year. I read 5 non-fiction books as well. That’s not bad at all for me.

 

If you combine library and KU to count as borrowed, I borrowed 43 books and purchased 21. That’s a major switch up for me. I did purchase more than 21 books this year; just haven’t read them. And no surprise but I read 27 paper books and 37 ebooks.

 

My Favorites:

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Volumes 1-6 -  Beth Brower. Hands down this is the best thing I read all year and I’m a huge fan. I’ve read them all twice and can’t wait for more.

 

The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy – Megan Bannen. A You’ve Got Mail type of book which just really hit the spot for me.

 

A Swift and Savage Tide – Chloe Neill. The first book made the list last year. Just a super entertaining story. Can’t wait for more.

Other Birds – Sarah Addison Allen – this one snuck in at the end. I read it in one day and it fit my mood exactly.

 

Half a Soul – Olivia Atwater – this one also snuck in at the end but it was a nice mix of fantasy/regency romance which seemed lighted hearted on the surface but also had depth.

 

So it seems like a short list, although there are series listed. I do have some notable mentions though.

 

Last Light – Claire Kent - This post-apocalyptic romance hit the spot and I read it twice this year.

 

Crow Bones – Anne Bishop - I really loved being back in the world of the Others. Fun, fun book.

 

The Hollow Places – T. Kingfisher - This was creepy and what she created is really creative. It even inspired me to read The Willows (which was interesting but not one I really can say I liked) to see where her inspiration came from.

 

Hunt the Stars and Eclipse the Moon – Jesse Mihalik - She writes SFR just the way I like it. Light on the science.

 

The Spare Man – Mary Robinette Knowal - This was inspired by The Thin Man and while I had some issues with the FMC, it has really stuck with me as a fun read.

 

 

As for web comics, I’ve really scaled back on what I’m reading. I still love a lot of them but just decided I didn’t want to spend an hour every day catching up with all the new episodes. I let a lot of them on Webtoons go back to the free, regular release (saves me money!) and dropped a few on Tapas as well. Part of the scaling back is because my all time favorite has been on hiatus for half of the year for personal reasons. Other favorites have also recently gone on hiatus. I’m totally fine with that but the excitement of new episodes is just missing right now. I’m still avidly following my other all time favorite and periodically, I do catch up on some series. I actually enjoy reading multiple episodes at a time so it feels like a more complete story. Here are some I’m still having a great time with:

 

Webtoon

The Gentle Way – I support the artist on Patreon and absolutely love this one. It gets regular re-reads.

Lore Olympus

Daytime Star

Long After the Ending

The Runway

 

Tapas

The Stormy Inn

My Boss is My Biggest Fan

Beatrice

The Tyrant’s Secret Secretary

I’m the Tyrant’s Secretary

I Confessed to the Boss

Ha ha lot’s of boss/office romance at Tapas. I have no idea what 2023 will bring. I’ve got shelves full of books and have started my annual list of books I’m planning on buying when they are released. It’s not too big yet. Hopefully, that will change. So happy new year and let’s see what 2023 brings. 

Merry Christmas

Just a nice relaxing day for me. Going to church with my mom and sister and the twins and then hanging out at mom’s house.