Reflecting and Looking Forward

Reflecting

Wow, it's been quite a year! I was aware throughout the year that I was way behind on my book reviews and blogging in general, but I honestly didn't realise until recently just how little I blogged in 2014. Hardly at all, really, besides doing the 24 Hour Read-a-Thons and posting some monthly wrap-ups. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, since my schedule for the last year has consisted mostly of going to work, coming home and doing homework, sleeping, and repeating the next day.

However, there are good things to look back on, too! As much work as it's been, I've learned a lot in school this year (I'm in library tech), and I've become more and more excited by the prospect of becoming a librarian. Recently that's been affecting my leisure reading, too. Since it's important for a librarian to be familiar with all genres for readers' advisory purposes, I've started reading popular books in genres I normally wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole (eg. romance). It's been an interesting experience and I plan to continue broadening my horizons in this way!

Also, I joined a book club! Not an online, Goodreads book club that I won't keep up with at all, but a real, live book club! This is very exciting. That's also got me reading books I normally wouldn't have picked, and I really think it's breathed some life into my reading in a year when it's been tough to fit in any fun reading at all.

Looking Forward

Despite not achieving my reading goals the last few years, I'm my usual optimistic self going into the new year. Since I'm about a year behind on my book reviews (seriously!), I've decided to wipe the slate clean in 2015. (This was not an easy decision for my OCD-tendencies self.) That way I'm not being held back by the prospect of reviewing books I don't even remember. I'll be reviewing my 2015 books as I go, and if I find myself with some extra time to write another review, I'll go back to one of those 2014 ones. The idea is that I'll mostly be writing reviews of things I just read, while they're still fresh in my mind.

My schedule probably isn't going to get any more relaxed in the next year, but I'm hopeful that, with this fresh start, I'll be better able to fit blogging into my daily rat race.

To those of you who actually read this post, and who've stuck around while I've been an absentee blogger, thank you so much!! You rock. Seriously.

New Year's Resolutions for 2014

The year is almost over, and when it comes to reading and blogging, the new year feels very much like a fresh start for me. In the last few months, my schedule has become so crazy and my reading time so limited. Combine that with overly-ambitious reading goals and too many review copies, and you have a less-than-ideal environment for actually enjoying recreational reading.

So, my main resolution for 2014 is to enjoy my reading more. I've already started taking steps to ensure that I follow through with this: I've signed up for reading challenges at lower levels for 2014, so that they're fun instead of unachievable, and I've hugely decreased the number of review copies I accept. I want to get back to where I can read what I feel like when I feel like it. I want to be able to read a 1000 page book without having to worry if I have time for it. And I even want to be able to take out library books without feeling too guilty about my towering pile. I feel a weight off my shoulders just thinking about it. So I'm going into 2014 feeling pretty darn good. :)

2014 New Year's Reading Resolutions:

1. Have more fun reading by allowing myself more freedom in what I read and when.
2. Keep review copies from overwhelming me by never allowing a backlog of more than 3.
3. Start reading some of the Beyond Reality books of the month again (like I used to do way back in high school, in the pre-Goodreads days if you can believe that!).
4. Write reviews soon after finishing a book, or at least start them. That way I won't be trying to remember details of a book I read 3 months ago, like has happened this year!

What are your reading resolutions for 2014? Share in the comments!

Same book, different title!

I had an exciting package arrive in the mail recently. I ordered a couple R.L. Stine books that seem to be particularly difficult to find. One of them, The Witness, was delivered yesterday, and I was pumped, because that means I now have all the Point Horror books written by R.L. Stine! Yay!!

So I was adding it to Goodreads, and I flipped through it, to check the number of pages. (I'm a Goodreads Librarian, and I like to make sure the info on all my books is right.) That's when I noticed that at the top of each page, where you'd expect to see the title (or a chapter title, or something), it said "I Saw You That Night!". That's odd, I thought to myself. Isn't that the name of another R.L. Stine book I have?

Why yes, yes it is. And a quick glance and the back cover and the first page told me that they are in fact the same book! I Saw You That Night! was republished as The Witness. This is apparently not well-known. They were separate books on Goodreads (I combined them). And everywhere I saw a list of this series, they were both listed. I feel like I've made a big discovery! Haha.

So, I already had all the Point Horror books. Probably the reason why The Witness was so hard to find was because (I think) it's the UK edition. Live and learn, I guess!

Gender of main characters

I have a bit of a rant I need to put out there.

Lately I've noticed several different book bloggers I follow say things along the lines of "I was intrigued by the idea of a male main character.", and it got me thinking: what universe are you living in and how can I get there?!

The only explanation I can think of is that these bloggers read primarily within the contemporary YA genre, which in recent years seems to be a lot of female authors writing a lot of female main characters. But still. The fact remains that even in these books that follow a female character's perspective, there is almost always a male love interest. And that love interest is almost always a huge part of the plot. To act as if women have reached a point where we have nothing to fight for anymore in the literature world is, to put it bluntly, absurd.

Not to mention the fact that women authors still often feel the need to use pen names or abbreviate their names (ala J.K. Rowling) so that readers won't know they're women. Yeah, that's still a thing. (Tangent: I just recently found out that S.E. Hinton [who wrote The Outsiders] is a woman. She abbreviated so her book would sell. That would have been nice to know, 8th grade teacher!! Maybe I would have liked that have that role model at a difficult time in my life!)

Anyway, feel free to offer up counter-opinions in the comments, and we can discuss. Because I really don't get what people are thinking on this one.