Just reading my way around the world.
Hello all my followers, both new and old!
I hope you’re enjoying some wonderful weather if you’re getting it, and if you’re not I hope you get it soon.
Here in (certain parts of) Ontario, Canada we are experiencing some summer! But apparently that will be changing soon. Boohoo.
Anyway I just thought I would direct your gaze to some updates on the blog.
So please take a look and if you have any questions just give me a shout.
It seems as though bullet journaling has taken the world but storm and I’m no different.
That being said I tend to keep it simple because trying to make it pretty has pretty much caused me to stop using it a billion different times.
So new journal in hand last month I planned out my monthly calendar, a simply daily log, a reading list, and a quotes list.
This month same thing but a variation on a theme.
I have a to be read list, a check it out list for books, TV, events, etc separates onto different pages and the ever present quotes list along with pages where I jot down character names and plot points.
Those are my weakness. I read a lot, I read relatively quick but due to God knows what my memory is terrible. It does however make each re-read of a book almost make it seem fresh and new, because I only remember the main bits and forget the small details. Bullet journaling has saved me some time in that regard.
So, do you bullet journal as reader? If so how does it go for you?
I am turning 30 years old this year, and it has taken me about 24 years to realize that what I read should not matter to anyone else. And, even more unfortunately, that what other people read should not matter to me.
Because in the end reading is about immersing yourself in a world that makes you happy. And who are we to judge each other for what in those worlds makes us happy.
I read romance novels. I love romance novels. Some of them.
I read fantasy. I read YA. I have a hard time reading literary fiction, not that I don’t love some works of literary fiction but my brain feels better when I’m in an urban fantasy world, surrounded by the supernatural.
You can judge me for it if you want, but I’m going to let my freaky little book flag fly.
However just because I read these things, and enjoy them does not mean there cannot be discourse surrounding certain books.
We can enjoy books and still be critical of their content. But when it comes to talking to someone who loves something that deserves criticism, is it not better to approach them gently instead of confront them? Perhaps they don’t know, or understand what might be problematic in the book they’ve just read.
Criticize the content, not the reader.
After all, aren’t readers supposed to be more compassionate?
Sometimes in life I struggle. We all do. Sometimes those struggles swallow you up and drag you to what I call “the pits”, modeled after a sandy wasteland that used to exist near my childhood home.
You try and struggle through the sand, make your way to the top, and on the way your reading is one other thing that makes it seem worse. Not the act of reading itself, but the act of feeling pressured to do so.
Giant, human sized…NFL player sized to be read piles, towering next to beds, toppling over when nudged. eReader filling, overwhelming books, just waiting for you to devour them.
But trust me. Its okay. The beautiful thing about books is that they last forever. And sometimes, they can help you get out of the pits.
Grab a book. Any book. A book you’ve read a million times, or a book that you’d never thought you would enjoy.
Read about people in pain. Read about happy people. Read about people slaying dragons and allow them to help you slay yours.
Pile up blankets and pillows and sink into them and remember that when you feel alone, if you look in a book you can always find your friends.
And please if you need help, ask for it. Don’t be in the dark alone. Don’t be in the pits alone. Your story is unfinished, still developing. Don’t end it before it’s end should come.
What is reading all about? What motivates me to do it? What motivates YOU to do it? What do we get from it?
For me reading has been many things. It has been a struggle, as I took forever to learn and resented the fact.
It has been a solace, when I realized a written word could comfort me in a way that those around me couldn’t do.
It has been my way of traveling when I’ve been sick, and recently my way of making friend when I’ve been traveling.
This blog was meant to be dedicated to my love of reading and somewhere along the line I got mixed up and confused, obsessed with who was reading this, who was listening.
Forgetting that this blog is just meant to be a tribute to the books I love, and even those I don’t. My little corner of the web where I can talk to whoever is willing to listen.
And maybe I’ll pick up a few new friends along the way.
I am Ashley and I have a huge book buying problem.
I recently downloaded the Delicious Library, and using points bought a little bluetooth scanner because I am a total nerd who wants to catalogue all the things.
I decided to give it a go, and using this program catalogued the books on my shelves into Read and To Be Read piles.
I own 675 books. I have only read 260 of them. That gives me 415 books to read, not counting those which are on my TBR list that I want to take out from the library.
This is my pact, to not buy anymore books UNLESS they are the continuation of a series. This is my pact to only read books that I currently own from now on.
We’ll see how this goes, then, shall we?
I love Kelley Armstrong. I met her before I loved her writing, before I’d read a single word and she was a warm, friendly person. I wish I could meet her now to tell her that I’ve tried to read every word she’s written and it’s still an ongoing project for me, and that the world’s she’s created are amazing.
And thus, my reading project for January, February and possibly March even begins.
I am going to read the Otherworld series in chronological order. It doesn’t seem hard right? Except I’m including the novella’s and short stories as well.
That is, at current count, 61 different pieces of writing, novels, short stories and novellas included.
It has resulted in Otherworld Nights, Men of the Otherworld and Tales of the Otherworld appearing as follows: 
This is going to be a very interesting project, and will hopefully lend more depth to the stories I’ve loved for a while. In a way it will be nice to be reintroduced to the characters who have always felt a little bit like friends, or dysfunctional family members.
I’ve fallen down on the job when it comes to updating this in 2015 so I am going to try and do a better job with that, and will only really be taking on a couple of reading challenges at a time.
So I’ve set my GoodReads goal to 85 for this year, since I read 84 books last year.
I am trying to figure out my own kind of way of reviewing books still, and find my footing in terms of that.
Please let me know what you would like to see as well.
I am sitting here, on my couch, staring at my shelves, split half and half, unread, arranged by genre and author last name, and read, again split by genre and author last name. One thought keeps going through my head, around and around.
What to read?
What to read? What do you want to read? WHAT TO READ? Whattoreadwhattoreadwhattoread.
I call this book shelf trauma. It’s not just a curse caused by my physical shelves, but also my digital shelves.
So perhaps you could help me out a little bit. Below the cut are a couple of screenshots of my digital shelves. How about you let me know what I should read, and subsequently review, next?
17 books in January, 8 in February, 10 in March, 6 in April.
I started off this year strong, and now I’ve hit a slump.
It’s not that I don’t want to read, I absolutely do, but when I look at my shelves, most of which contain my TBR pile I’m downright overwhelmed.
I’m sure this isn’t a common feeling amongst those who read a lot, the thought of never finishing the books you own, the fear of possibly not enjoying those you haven’t read but have spent some hard earned cash on.
In a rare event, I’ve been reading the same three books since the beginning of April. Meg Cabot’s The Bride Wore Size 12, Patricia Briggs’ Dead Heat and Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
As you can see, none of these things or rather, books, are like the other. But yet none of them seem to be capturing my attention.
So what is a reader to do? When all she wants to do is lounge outside and read a book, but nothing seems to be capturing her attention.
