This blog is moving!

Groupon had an offer on a WordPress training course recently, which I decided to buy.

Blogger/Blogspot is fine, but I can't really get it to look the way I would like, and despite what my family seems to think, just because I work with a particular software package doesn't mean I am particularly tech savvy.

So I have decided to do the course and work on a new WordPress blog.

You can reach it here: https://biblioaddicted.wordpress.com/

Bookish Sacrifices

Sorry for the long absence, new job, new city, new home etc etc… all take their toll and blogging has had to take a back seat for a long old time.

Things are beginning to settle down now, I started my new job a few weeks ago, and I have now completed my relocation to Cambridge and moved into my new home. I forgot how many books I have, and will need to have a serious clear out as the new flat is a fair bit smaller than the house I was in before. When you have to sacrifice some of your precious books how do you dispose of them? I’m considering various options (it will be almost completely paperback fiction)…

1. Donate to the local library
2. Donate to a charity shop
3. Sell online (ebay? Gumtree? Green Metropolis?)
4. Give to friends?
5. Any other options, please add suggestions below...

Option 4 above would be lovely, but I've moved 90+ miles from most of my friends, and I have no local friends here yet.

Absences and Excuses

I just looked back on the last few weeks and realised how lax I've been at keeping this blog up to date.  Lately I've been ill, and also had some bad news in my personal life which has seriously impacted my reading...  I don't seem to have been able to read much, or concentrate on a book for long, so I haven't had much to blog about.

I half read Dissolution by CJ Sansom for the book club.  I gave up half way through as I didn't care about the victims, the investigator, the suspects or anything else.  Others thought it was OK, but it just wasn't for me.

I did read The Greenwitch (book 3 in the Dark is Rising sequence), and do plan to post a review for it soon.  Also the great and wise and far-better-read-than-I Helen from Fennell Books and are still discussing our joint blog post about Harold Fry (featured in todays TTT) and I hope to have that for you sometime soon.

On the plus side I have one of my favourite books of all time as this month's book club read... The book that got me interested in Science Fiction, Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverbergs collaboration on Asimov's short story 'Nightfall'.  I'm hoping this book is as great as I remember and inspires me to read again.

My Agatha Christie moment

I had another Agatha Christie moment, a mysterious temporary disappearance.  The only differences being that my friends and family knew exactly where I was, and I don't expect anyone in the online community really noticed.

Anyway, I'm ba-aack!  I won't bore you about why I was away, suffice to say I'm ready to get blogging again.  In the time away I did manage to catch up on some reading, so I have plenty to write about.

I have made a few decisions though about what I want to do with this blog.

I'm not good at living to a schedule.  My mother loves a schedule, she finds it gives her a sense of order and control and she knows what's going to happen and when.  I feel totally the opposite.  Knowing that there's something I have to do on certain days makes me feel like I have no control, that my strings are being pulled for me.  So, I am dropping the schedule of posting certain things on certain days.  I might still put out a 'First Paragraph's' now and then when I find a great one, but it won't be a regular thing.  The only meme I plan to keep up is the Top Ten Tuesday, as it's fun, and I know what's coming up, so I can write them ahead of time when I feel up to it.

The other decision was around ARC's.  Advanced Reader/Review Copy, books sent to types like me who will review it and post about it ahead of the publication date.  Getting the word out there I guess.  I was given an ARC a little while ago.  But I found I don't like the pressure of having to read a book I'm not necessarily in the mood for, so I can review it and get more ARC's.  So other than reading my current ARC next week while camping in Weymouth, I will not be accepting or requesting ARC's in future.  My day job gives me a fair amount of pressure and I want to be reading for pleasure, not obligation, and sharing on here my thoughts on the books I love, or hate.

So, look out for my upcoming posts... including a review of The Woman Who Died A Lot by Jasper Fforde, and a collaborative effort with Mrs F from Fennell Books.