OK, so I’ve obviously been neglecting the blog to a pretty absurd degree lately. And although I’ve been really trying to resist this, I’m afraid that I’m finally just going to give in.
No more romance novels.
I dunno if this’ll be a shock/disappointment/relief to you guys or what, but basically I have less than 50 leisure hours available to me per week, and there are too many amazing things out there for me to spend insane amounts of my free time reviewing terrible novels (I’ve taken that away from Dragon*Con, if nothing else). Like I said when I previously modified my mission statement, if there comes a time when I’m an unemployed loser again, I’ll happily go back to the romance novels.
The blog is called Two Hectobooks, though. I have something like 45 inherited books sitting on my bookshelf that desperately need to be read, and a reading list that’s about a million miles long on top of those, so I’m just going to keep reading and reviewing whatever, interspersed with the Top 100 books. In case you’re curious about what random novels may be coming up, the inherited books are mostly a lot of Canlit. My personal taste, if you haven’t figured this out by now, runs strongly toward sf, with forays into fantasy, horror, historical, and basically just about anything that has a catchy title and smart cover.
I feel sort of sad about this decision, but I feel good about it, too. The blog has been feeling like a burden for the past several months, but now that I’ve made this decision it’s starting to seem like a fun project again. The current romnov, Night Bites by Nina Bangs, is a lot of fun, but it’s also seemed like an impenetrable barrier that I had no time to dissect mercilessly. Now I’ll set it aside in favour of something else, and hopefully get back into the groove again, and post more often than never.
Still, if any one, five, or ten people out there want to take over the romance side of the project, I’m completely open to that, and I’d be happy to add you as a contributor to the blog, or just put up some guest posts from you! Just comment on this post or, you know, call me, since I think all my readers are close friends who have my phone number, haha.
And finally: hopefully over the next couple of weeks I'll have a chance to mess around with the formatting and various pages on the site, so that they reflect the various changes.
Current Distractions, Belated August 2011 Edition
Last month was a whirlwind, to put it mildly. I went from my Company’s office, to no fewer than three different job sites, two of which required drug tests* for access (so I had two pleasant afternoons of hydrating madly to convince my shy bladder that it would be alright to pee in a cup). Work stress has thus been a bit higher than usual, and the hours have generally been longer than the standard 40 hours.
The other major distraction was preparing for travel at the end of the month. I went to Dragon*Con in Atlanta, which I think warrants a post of its own, so I’m not going to say much about it right now. But prior to the trip I was at a remote site, and so my preparations were all a lot more rushed than they normally are. Fortunately I was with two other people, and so we all sort of managed to get things figured out as we went.
I have an announcement post that’ll be going up shortly after this one (and hopefully the Dragon*Con one), which will please and/or disappoint you. In the meantime, I’m hoping to get back to work on my reading in the very near future. (I brought Good Omens with me for reading during the con, and I finished it on the flight home, so I’m all set for a new book!)
* That brings my Total Lifetime Drug Tests quantity to four, which I feel is kind of a huge amount.
The other major distraction was preparing for travel at the end of the month. I went to Dragon*Con in Atlanta, which I think warrants a post of its own, so I’m not going to say much about it right now. But prior to the trip I was at a remote site, and so my preparations were all a lot more rushed than they normally are. Fortunately I was with two other people, and so we all sort of managed to get things figured out as we went.
I have an announcement post that’ll be going up shortly after this one (and hopefully the Dragon*Con one), which will please and/or disappoint you. In the meantime, I’m hoping to get back to work on my reading in the very near future. (I brought Good Omens with me for reading during the con, and I finished it on the flight home, so I’m all set for a new book!)
* That brings my Total Lifetime Drug Tests quantity to four, which I feel is kind of a huge amount.
Current Distractions, July 2011 Edition
Well it's summer, so I hope you guys don't need a whole lot more justification than that.
But in case you do need more, I'll tell you that I've been in Montreal (if you follow me on Twitter you may have figured out something to that effect).
Well, I'll also tell you that I read three books over the course of the trip, but none were my assigned reading:
But in case you do need more, I'll tell you that I've been in Montreal (if you follow me on Twitter you may have figured out something to that effect).
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| This is all I'm going to tell you about it, though. |
Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett - This is only the third Discworld novel, and not as strong as some of the later books. I enjoy the Witches a lot, and from what I've read of the Discworld series so far, they're at their best in the Tiffany Aching books. (And p.s. if you're ever looking for a YA series with a kickass girl as the main character, you don't need to look any further.)
Sex at Dawn by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá - A highly amazing non-fiction book about human sexuality and wtf is going on when it comes to sex and why things are the way they are. As if I needed any more convincing that the Stone Age was pure awesome. This book should be required reading for all romance novelists.
The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling - Prototypical steampunk, enjoyable but missing a certain something that I can't quite put my finger on.
Sex at Dawn by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá - A highly amazing non-fiction book about human sexuality and wtf is going on when it comes to sex and why things are the way they are. As if I needed any more convincing that the Stone Age was pure awesome. This book should be required reading for all romance novelists.
The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling - Prototypical steampunk, enjoyable but missing a certain something that I can't quite put my finger on.
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