Category: Miscellaneous Ramblings

Miscellaneous Ramblings

Random Tuesday Ramblings

Tara

So this week instead of participating in the Top Ten Tuesday (because this is the second week in a row where the topic just didn’t speak to me), I want to line out some things that I hope to accomplish on this blog in the next couple of weeks. I was unable to participate in the Bloggiesta this year because I was out of town (very disappointing to me). But I really do need to clean some stuff up on this blog and get it back into tip-top shape. So the next few weeks I’m going to be working on some things around here that will help me make the most out of my blog.

  1. Find a new theme! I’m sick of this layout. I prefer the three-column set-up, but I kind of feel as if a two-column layout would be neater. This is definitely a priority, but not an immediate one. COMPLETED 1/24/11
  2. Clean up my blog roll. I don’t think it’s necessarily out-of-date, but it’s definitely not as extensive as it should be. I’m contemplating getting rid of the sidebar blog roll, and instead making a whole new page for it. Haven’t decided yet. (Also need to go through my Google Reader.)
  3. Clean up my book series pages. I have them separated into three different pages, one for ones I’m working on, one for ones I’m unsure about, and one for ones that I want to try. I need to try and condense more and make it neater. I’m not sure where I want to go with this just yet, but I need a new direction for it. COMPLETED 1/26/11
  4. Clean up my past reading challenges pages. I’ve got them separated by year, and I like the way that I’ve done that, but I don’t really like the format that I’ve used, I need to tweak that a little bit. COMPLETED 1/25/11
  5. Find out how to get buttons. For Facebook, Twitter, PBS, you get the point. Right now I’ve just got links, I want the cute buttons everyone has!
  6. Tackle the TBR list. Oh my. I need to re-organize my shelves anyway, so I’m going to take an inventory as I go and then re-do my list on the blog.
  7. I want to tweak my past year’s reading logs. I’ve evolved it over the past couple of years, but I need something new. I love seeing other people’s blogs with all the book covers included in their reading lists. I need to figure out something new.

Well there it is, I have 7 things that I really want to work on in the next couple of weeks to make my blog not only more user-friendly for others to navigate, but also nicer to look at. I have no idea where this will take me, but I’m definitely looking forward to spending some time with my blog and really getting it set up more the way that’s in my head than what’s on the site 🙂

Miscellaneous Ramblings, Random Book Discussions

Looking Forward to 2011

Tara

2010 is almost over. Unbelievable! Either way, this time of year is always fun for book bloggers. We get to look at the new challenges. We get to think about what we want to accomplish in the coming year. We get to look back at what we have accomplished over the past year. Can you tell that I LOVE this time of year when it comes to my reading? I’m a planner. I’m a list maker. I just eat up this kind of stuff 🙂

Anyways, I have already over-extended myself on the challenge front. I took a step back from challenges in 2010; I still participated, but I really only chose those challenges that were open ended. By that I mean there was no set lists, there was no categories to find books to fit into. I thought that that would open up my reading and really let me get back to what I enjoyed. And it did. I have had a great reading year this year, even though my quantity of not where I would like it to be, my quality has been over the moon this year.

I have already been signing up for challenges for 2011. I had made myself swear that I would only sign up for 5. Well, I’ve already failed on that. This morning I signed up for my 6th (and last!) challenge. Looking over the challenges that I have signed up for 2011, I noticed that I have gotten back into the kind that require you to find books that fit into certain categories. That’s what I wanted to get away from in 2010. But I’ve gone right back to it. I don’t care, I enjoy the hunt of finding the perfect books. It seems to me that I am going to have to step out of my comfort zone (crime fiction) quite a bit in 2011. I like that, I want to challenge myself in that manner.

I still hope to work on the book series that I have going. I always have to resist signing up for the First in a Series Challenge because I already have SO MANY series that I am very far behind in! In 2010, I have really taken a look at the book series that I had been working on. Some of them I still love and will NEVER give up on. However, I didn’t feel so guilty when I decided to step away from a few (Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone; Harlan Coben’s Myron Bolitar; Janet Evanvoich’s Stephanie Plum) I don’t feel bad whatsoever. In fact, I felt a little bit relieved when I made the decision. I also decided that I would read Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt series, but not necessarily every book in the entire series – just those that sounded good to me. I have come to the realization that life is way too short to read books that I don’t like just because they are part of a series that I want to finish. It’s simply not worth the effort.

In 2010 I have had 7 DNF books. This is something that I never would have done a few years ago. But when a book is taking me 2-3 weeks and I’m still under the 150 page mark – it’s time to put it aside. And I feel absolutely no guilt about doing this whatsoever. As stated above, life is too short to read books I don’t like! Although I did have two books on my DNF list that really disappointed me (Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol and Steig Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – I wanted to enjoy those books SO MUCH and I just didn’t….).

In 2010, I became a lot more selective about which review books I would take on. I decided that it wasn’t doing me any good to accept books for review that I would end up not liking for one reason or another. I have become a lot more selective, I have done a lot more research when I’m first pitched a book. And because of that, I have read some really great books that I NEVER would have found otherwise. I’m very pleased with that.

I’m not very well-known throughout the blog-o-sphere. I want to change that in 2011. I want to come out of my shell and start commenting more on people’s blogs. I want people to become aware of me. I want to hold more giveaways (and have more than 4 people sign up….). I’m considering participation in the Bloggiesta coming up in January (although, I have to double check on the dates and make sure that it’s not scheduled for when I have to go to the World of Concrete in Vegas for work.) ETA: Yep, it is indeed scheduled for the weekend I will be gone…GRRR, oh well, maybe next time.

Anyways, I don’t know where my reading will take me in 2011. I don’t want to plan it out too much. I just want to let it take me where it takes me. I hope 2011 is a great year for us; we have some big plans for 2011. And I don’t want to feel too tied down to my reading. I hope to just be able to read what I want, when I want to. And most of all – I want to have FUN!

Miscellaneous Ramblings

Tagging Fun!

Tara

So, I saw this at Random Ramblings and since she tagged everyone, I thought I would join in 🙂

The Rules

1) Accept the tag and link to the tagger at the beginning of your post.
2) Answer the questions honestly in your post by listing four things.
3) Pass on the love by picking four other people to tag and listing them at the bottom of your post. Notify them that you tagged them.

4 random things that are in my handbag
1. ink pens – lots of them, I’m like obsessed!
2. chapstick
3. gift cards that I still have from my birthday … in July…
4. chewing gum – i never leave home without my orbit!
 
 4 favorite things in my bedroom
1. my book shelf
2. my bed – we got new bedroom furniture last year for my birthday and I still love it!
3. my alarm clock with a GREAT snooze button 🙂
4. the mini light that i use to read a book while my husband sleeps
 
4 Things on My Desk
1. my husband’s old computer that doesn’t work anymore
2. dust
3. post-it notes
4. nail polish, for some odd reason
 
4 Things I’ve Always Wanted To Do (but haven’t yet)
1. go to Egypt
2. go zip lining …. going to be doing this in Alaska next May though!
3. go to a U of I basketball game (and I’m not even a huge Illini fan, just would love to go once)
4. sky dive … but not sure if I’ll ever come up with the guts to do it
  
4 Things I Enjoy Very Much At The Moment
1. buster the westie 🙂
2. reading
3. college basketball
4. spending time with my husband
 
4 Things You Don’t Know About Me
1. I have OCD about certain things.
2. I prefer quiet nights in
3. I am not a creative person …
4. I watch too much TV
 
4 Bloggers I am Tagging
Anyone who wants to join in 🙂
Miscellaneous Ramblings

Keeping?

Tara

Hello, my name is Tara and I’m a hoarder. I hoard everything from little scraps of paper that I have no idea why I feel the need to keep to books that I have read and know for a fact that I will never read again. Although I could go on for days about my pack-rat mentality, I just want to discuss keeping books.

I love books. I love to browse books at the library or bookstore. I love to buy books. I love to swap books on PBS for new books. I just love to own books. Period. End of story. But there comes a time when you just have too many. I have countless books on my shelves that I look at and scratch my head asking myself what I was thinking when I picked that particular book up. Books that I know for a fact I will never in this lifetime read for whatever reason, I have lost complete interest in. Do I swap them on PBS or even trade them in at my favorite used bookstore? Nope. They still sit on my shelves.

I am a major fan of reading books that belong to a series. I like to get as many of the books in a particular series as I can before I start the series. And then when I read them I hate to part with them. It’s like pulling teeth. Seriously, it’s that bad. Although I’m getting better at reading books and then clearing them off my shelves, I am having trouble parting with some of my books. For example, I have read the first four books in the Kinsey Millhone series by Sue Grafton. It’s not a favorite series, but I have most of the books and I’m determined to get through them – eventually. So, have I gotten rid of the first four books that I’ve already read? Nope. There they sit, taking up room in my already overflowing shelves. Is this a series that I will ever re-read? Doubtful. So what’s my problem? Who knows. I’m doing the same with the Kay Scarpetta series by Patricia Cornwell. I’ve really been reading those books here lately and am really enjoying them – but seriously, will I ever re-read them? Probably not. The only books that I really WANT to keep because I have a pretty decent feeling I would re-read at some point in the future are the Alex Cross books by James Patterson. That is my absolute favorite series.

But in all honesty, I’m not a re-reader. So why do I feel the need to keep books? I mean, I’m obviously always going to keep my Harry Potter hardback books. That’s a given. But, really, why do I feel the need to continue to hoard these books? Isn’t it supposed to be like anything else – out with the old, in with the new? Think of all the new books I could make room for if I could just stand to part with some of the ones I already have!

Does anyone else have this hoarding books mentality?

Miscellaneous Ramblings

Quitting?

Tara

My husband and I were out of town this weekend on a quick trip to St. Louis to see some friends and catch a couple Cardinals games. Since it was a three hour drive (each way!) I got a lot of reading done in the car.  I had a little bit of trouble getting into a new book this morning, so it made me start to think about quitting books – you know, setting them aside to either pick up again some other time or just to give up on them completely.

Three or four years ago I would have never quit reading a book in the middle of it. It just wasn’t me. I couldn’t hardly stand to do it, it made me feel like a failure. It made me feel like a bad person. A few years and a few hundred books on my personal shelves later, I realized that I was being silly. Now I have somewhat of a personal “policy” where if a book doesn’t catch my attention by 50-100 pages I’ll set it aside. Sometimes I’ll just set it aside for another day, other books I won’t return to.

This brings me to my current read .  I’ve got Ted Dekker’s The Bride Collector from the library. I waited on a wait list for a few months for it. And I’m at page 96 and I don’t like it. It’s times like these that frustrate me. Last year I read BoneMan’s Daughter. A few months ago, I read Burn (that he wrote with Erin Healy). I enjoyed both of those books. So I was really looking forward to this one when I saw it was coming out. I waited patiently for it. And now I’m frustrated with it. So what do I do? Do I suffer through it because I want to like it, or do I set it aside? A few years ago I would have stuck with it and finished it (even if it took me a month to do so). Now, I’m not sure it’s worth it. Without thinking about the fact that this book has to be returned to the library by June 2nd, is it really worth my time to suffer through a book I don’t like before the 100 page mark in order to finish it and potentially be really disappointed by it and write a possibly negative review?

Could this book turn out good? – Possibly.

Is it worth taking the time and risk not liking it? – Probably not.

So my question to you, dear readers – how do you handle “bad” books? [I hate to say bad, because my opinion of a book is not necessarily everyone’s opinion]. What do you do when you encounter a book you want to enjoy soooooo much and yet you just can’t stand to read it? Do you suffer through something or do you give it up?

My opinion? …. Life is way to short to read books that don’t appeal to you! So I’ll take The Bride Collector back to the library. Do I feel guilty? Maybe a little bit. Will I worry about it? Probably not. Might I try this book again sometime in the future? Possibly. But for whatever reason, this book is not working out for me. I’m quitting it.