Happy Reading Everybody!

Hola Readers.  I have come to a difficult decision.  Between work, school, clinical's and studying I just do not have the time to do this blog justice.  I am finding that the few moments I do get to myself I just want to read :-)   Unfortunately I am going to have to put the blog on hiatus.  I hate it because this is one of my few creative outlets and I love writing it, but I always promised myself if I couldn't keep up and it started stressing me out more then giving me a release I would stop.  I will probably keep my reading list and TBR list updated and if I just find and or read something to awesome not to share a spontaneous post may appear on occasion.  Hopefully someday sooner rather then later I can get back to it.  Until then, as always HAPPY READING EVERYBODY!

Inspired And Accomplished

Hola Readers...did you all think I had finally been buried by my books with no hope of escape?
 Nope, I was just on a whirlwind Las Vegas trip for Hubbins birthday.  The trip was awesome, like so awesome, like so so so awesome.  We purposely designed the trip with very few time crunches so that we could maximize relaxation time, which is what we both really needed.  This environment seriously got my creative juices flowing and I not only came up with several brand spanking new post ideas, but I also finished two books, both of which were amazing in their own ways.  The new post ideas really excite me because I have been feeling drained of all creativity lately and feel like I am either repeating myself, or that I am just throwing up generic random posts.  These new ideas are ones that, to me at least, really make me feel happy, creative and the reason I got into writing this blog in the first place.  The books I finished made me happy.  One was a book I have been trying to finish for a couple weeks.  I finished it on the plane on the way there and then just sat there, inspired to write and write and write.  The second book was one that fit the environment so well I swear it was written just for this trip.  The whole feel of the trip also inspired my poor over worked brain.  We got to see the Cirque du Soleil aquatic show "O" and it was sheer magic.  After the show, all I wanted to do was dive into my magical books and continue the dream.  The bath tub in our room was another great bit.
 These tubs are so deep and so long I actually float when I'm in them.  Combine that with a glass or three of wine, a good book and some great music and my brain is just happy happy happy.  To finish of this trip of inspiration my brother flew us over the Grand Canyon in his helicopter.  We got the total VIP experience, complete with champagne at the bottom of the canyon.  Aside from a little desperately needing to pee incident, it was just the coolest thing ever.  Got to finish off my trip by going straight to my fire station and working and chilling with my other family, which just cemented the great brain space.  So all of this to say you will hopefully be seeing some high quality posts and some in depth ramblings in the near future.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Insert Real Post Here

Hi Guys...this is supposed to be a real post or a rambling or something coherent and interesting.  Seriously I have a zillion posts in my brain, some about life, some cool holiday stuff, a few ramblings...but my brain won't let any of them out until I've had some sleep...so...I'll see you all tomorrow.  Happy Reading Everybody!

New House!

Hi Folks, sorry for the lack of posting.  Unfortunately this will probably continue for the rest of the week as I am trying to unpack while spending 72 hours on an ambulance...doesn't leave a lot of time for posting.  I did however want everybody to know that me and my 20+ boxes of books have arrived safely and are eagerly awaiting completion of the fabled Book Nook.

Pretty sure this is what my movers felt like!

I already love it here and have found at least 13 different awesome places to read, including TWO different reading trees.  I am totally excited to have this week over with so I can get in some solid reading time, book nook creation time and serious rambling time in.   I will try and get some pics up soon, but in the mean time please have some patience until this insane week is over and then it will be rambling city I promise.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Pack, Clean, Work Repeat

Hi All,  Just gonna make this quick 'cause this is moving week!  If I don't get a whole lot up this week it's probably because I have already accidentally packed my computer more then once.

There will however in the next couple of weeks be ramblings galore, pictures of my boxes of books, endless speculation on my new nook book and the occasional side post about what ever.  Anyways I will see you all next week in my new book nook of awesome, ready to blog about books until I fall over.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Reading In Progress

Happy Reading Everybody!

New Rambling Guide

Hola Readers!  Here is a quick guide to how I'm gonna attempt to do my ramblings from now on to try and make them a bit more coherent...if that is even possible :-)

Intro - This will be similar to before, with me kind of introducing the book and the reason I read it.

Synopsis - Again not to different from before.  It will still be full of spoilers and spelling/grammer errors, but I am going to attempt to keep them shorter and more concise.

The next section will be my thoughts on various subjects related to the book.  A few I will always have, the rest will be utilized on a book by book basis.

World Building - This is where I will evaluate the setting and world that the author tried to create.  I will talk about what the setting is and how much impact it had on the story...this is also where I will rant about implausibilities.

Story - This category is where I talk about the story, if I liked it, if I felt it was well written or original or a piece of smelly doodoo.  I have yet to figure out how to put into words the importance of the story, or how I evaluate a story, so bear with me while I try and find my big girl words.

Character - This is the place I give a general impression of the characters, were they awesome, were they stock, did they contribute to the story, did I feel like I was introduced to a character, or were they crammed down my throat?  I might mention a favorite here, or one that drove me particularly crazy, but if I really feel strongly they will probably get their own category.

Editing - The more I read, the more important this category becomes.  In a world with self-published books becoming ever more present, the presence or lack of good editing becomes very apparent.  I feel a good story can be ruined by bad editing, and an ok book made great by an editor who understands how to do their job.  Over all this category will be how I feel about the format, pacing and how well it feels the editor and author worked together...or if self published how well the author edited themselves.

Misc. - I can have as many or as few of these as I need to try and get my usually varied and conflicting feeling about any particular tome across.  These categories will be where I ramble about something that struck me in a way either good or bad, a side note, a character or situation that stuck with me, or pretty much anything I want.

Overall Impression - This is where I will try and give a quick and succinct summation of my impression of the book and recommendations to those who may like it.

Score- Again pretty basic, just my 1-10 score of my overall like of the book, but here is a quick breakdown of numbers

  0- Did not finish 'cause I just couldn't deal with it...this one is super rare and the only reason I would even ramble about a book I didn't finish is if I felt like there was something so horrific about it that I would have to share.

 1-5 These are books I did not enjoy for various reasons.  The variance in the score will come on the amount of qualities of the book I did not hate, or had potential.  Any book with a score this low will never be read again and probably be mocked.

6-7 Books with this score are good solid books, not my favorite books, but good solid books.  These are the books I'm glad I read, but may or may not read again, or they are just not my particular cup of tea or they had one major problem area in an otherwise good book.

8-9 These are great books.  These books will be reread and probably have some sort of gushing in the rambling.  They are not perfect, but they are awesome and are going to be my favorites.  These books usually score high in all of my special categories and the things that annoy me usually do not overshadow the book as a whole.

10 - My absolute favoritst books in the whole wide universe!  These books do not have to follow any of the above rules and usually just stick with me regardless.  I have very few 10 books, even most of my favorites don't attain 10's but every once in a while, a book just burrows into my head and heart and becomes family.

This for the moment is my quick guide to my ever changing ramblings.  Hopefully this will force me to order my thoughts in a bit more cohesive manner and really get across what I like, don't like or intrigues me about a book.  We shall see if this experiment works and I reserve the right to make any and all changes I think I need to.  However I would most defiantly appreciate feed back on what works and what doesn't work, what you like about the new vs old and old vs new.
Happy Reading Everybody!

Seriously Useless...(Not Really)

So I just asked my Mamma for a post topic and she had nothing...so you get this instead.

Because that is just the mood I'm in.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Highly Inappropriate

If you guys knew how many times I had to stop myself from writing a highly inappropriate post...well you would probably never read this blog again :-)  Seriously though, some day's I have to completely rewrite my post, or at least have somebody with some sort of social decorum read it through.  I am a very candid person and my thoughts and views tend to just pour out with very little filter.  I am sure you have seen this come out a bit in some of my posts, especially my ramblings where I am not shy about talking about...well just about anything.

This sever lack of appropriateness is not at all helped by the sheer variety of books I read and the people I discuss them with (most of my friends are part of the firehouse and have even less of a filter then I do).  All that being said, I am quit proud of myself for keeping the majority of the these posts at a PG-13 or better level and will try to keep the really insane stuff to myself (or at least just share with those who won't have me committed).  Please let me know if I ever go to far...or if you want to see just how crazy I can be.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Sleeplessness

Sooo...I didn't sleep again last night...or the night before...or...well you get the idea.  I have no idea where this insomnia comes from, other then the fact my Mamma and both my sissy's have the same issue.  The plus side to this is a little extra reading, the down side is that my life is so chaotic right now that I need every second of sleep I can get.  Sigh.  That being said, you may have noticed my posting is a wee bit spotty.  Instead of apologizing every couple weeks (though I am sorry) I thought I would make one explanation/apology post to let you know what was up.  I am now a full time EMT (WOOHOO!) and this makes me very happy...tired...but happy.  Before I had a big girl desk job and was able to pretty much post everyday before 9am without fail, now I have to plan ahead and try and get a bunch of posts up in a scheduled format.  This makes it a bit less spontaneous (sad face), but still allows me to run this blog, which I dearly love doing.

Lali (Super Cool Site, go check it out!)

 Essentially it comes down to this, my schedule is not set and some weeks between work and volunteering I can put it 80-90 hours in a 7 day period.  These shifts vary in times and length, sometimes I work a 10 hour day shift, some days a 24 hour shift and sometimes, like next weekend they go for 45 hours.  I will try and be as consistent as possible as I love love love writing this blog, but if I miss a couple days here and there, this is why.  I am continuing to upgrade the pages, and Hubbin is working on some super cool ideas on how to make this blog super easy, super informative, super book buying, super linky, and just super cool, so I am excited about that.  I also changed the appearance of the blog for winter, you know 'cause I have so much time on my hands :-)  Ok I'm gonna try and snag a couple hours of sleep before I head back to the station...or maybe I'll read a couple of chapters instead :-)  Happy Reading Everybody!

Ummm...Hmmm....I've Got Nothing

Not sure if it's 'cause I've got a bit of a cold, or that I'm tired, or I'm just blah, but I can't think of a post today.

Hopefully I'll get my groove back next week and be able to dazzle you all with my brilliance :-)  Until then HAPPY READING EVERYBODY!

ARGH! (Insert Colorful Swear Words Here)

I have a zillion cool posts, but after fighting with my stupid computer for three hours I am about ready to SCREAM.  So instead of smashing this stupid thing to bits with a sledge hammer I am going to go read a real book!

Hopefully I can get this issue resolved and get out some great posts. Until then HAPPY READING EVERYBODY!

Confession

Ok folks, I have a confession to make.  Sometimes when I've have a really long shift and I am just to tired to move...I steal post idea's from my Mamma. Like this super awesome cool picture.

Yep, any time I'm stuck I go running to my Mamma, who has a whole stash of perfect SBWG idea's that totally sum up me.  On the plus side she knows I do this and she is a willing accomplice, I just thought it was time to come clean and share the credit...except for the really cool posts, those are all me :-)  Ok time for bed.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Fall Is Busy

Hello all, sorry about the lack of/late posting these last couple of days.  I came off of duty with a migrane and then got called into to work and didn't get home until...what time is it now.  To make it up to you here is a pretty picture to look at.

Ok, I' gonna go get some sleep now and try to figure out how to put a coherent sentence together.  I will resume normal posting next week I promise.  Happy Reading and Apple Cider Drinking Everybody!!!!

Technology Woes

I love technology, I really do.  It's what enables me to write this blog, to get almost any book I want cheaply and instantly. It makes it possible to find literary events, and research fun tidbits.  All kinds of great things are made possible by technology.

Of course then there are the days like today when NOTHING wants to work, where your books disappear from your device, your computer refuses to cooperate, and your phone battery just laughs and laughs and laughs at you.  That my friends is the kind of day I am having.  I had a great rambling all set for today, but alas instead you get my ranting and raving, my apologies.  Tomorrow I will hopefully have this techno-monster under control and have the most amazing posts to make up for this one.  Thanks for understanding.  Happy Reading Everybody!

A Mess

Hi All,
As you have probably noticed posting has been non-exsistant the last couple days, sorry about that.  At the moment everything is a bit of a mess.

Roads are a mess, computer is a mess, house is a mess, books are a mess, my brain is a wee bit of a mess.  But I promise tomorrow will be a brand new only semi-messy day complete with a brand new rambling of recently finished books.  Thanks for hanging in there and Happy Reading Everybody!