Bookstooge 3.0

I was going to wait until the New Year to upgrade my avatar, but I had all the feelingz this week and so I wanted to do it NOW. Besides, I wanted to show Dr Who how you really do it (that poser needs a spanking).

It's a little more square and red than my previous one, but now I have hands, so if you bother me I can bitch slap you. Total Win! While I am introducing it right now, I am not sure exactly sure when I'll start using it full time. Probably when the mood strikes me and I say to myself "Bookstooge, my fine and devilishly handsome fellow, TODAY is the day you begin your life as Bookstooge 3.0". I'm all aquiver in anticipation already!

Of course, just like when I changed my avatar before, it will take a little while for me to remember all the places I have to bleeding change, so bear with me and if you don't see it somewhere you think you should, let me know and I'll get right on it. I seem to remember from the last change there are 3-4 places I have to deal with. As I change them I'm going to be editing this post with links so that I know EXACTLY where to change them the next time. Because just like Dr Who, I will not be staying at my current level forever. Nigh Infinite Power means a Nigh Infinite Journey.

I'd like to thank Luna for her work on this. My level of "Art" is a stick figure, on a good day, so I always appreciate those with the talent and drive who will help someone like me out.

• A Placeholder for links for places I have to change this.
• https://en.gravatar.com/emails/
• https://wordpress.com/me
• myaccount.google.com
• https://www.blogger.com/edit-profile.g

Here are the previous avatars as I have powered up through the years. As you can see, I start off very modestly and then my power simply explodes as I go on a book reviewing rampage. Now it is all about refining my power and becoming The Bookstooge that has always been inside of me.

The Bookstooge Chronicles: The Midlife Crisis

 25 years since I started Bible School. And maaaaaan, I think I am having a midlife crisis here. So instead of breaking down, buying a red porsche, throwing over Mrs B for a space hooker and burning down my work place, I've decided to read my old journals. Yeah, when I have a midlife crisis, I don't take the easy route!

This little journal is 25 years old. It's older than some of the people I know at church for goodness sake!

Holy smokes folks, what a trip. I was going to share some of them, but after reading several months worth, yeah, that ain't happening. It has shown me several things though.

25 years has allowed me to have a completely different perspective of time. Every day was a new adventure, filled to the brim with new and exciting things. Now, life is a routine that I glide through on a weekly basis and sometimes I wonder where the entire month has gone. Back then, my emotions went through the whole cycle on a weekly basis. Now, if I'm lucky, that'll only happen on an annual basis. Getting married has also changed me immensely. Back then I cycled through girls like socks. Now I've been happily married to one woman for 14 years and she knows me and still loves me (you have no idea how amazing that is if you knew me in real life) and when I wake up each morning I don't have to wonder what I'm going to feel that day. Oh my goodness, that is such a burden off of my shoulders, that was an exhausting way to live, let me tell you.

I was also the most naive person I have ever known. Reading some of those entries I wonder how I made it through life. I also felt bad for the people around me at that time, oy vey. Which makes me laugh because in about 20 years I bet you a hill of jellybeans that I'll be saying the same exact thing about the present me. Bet you didn't see THAT coming, eh? Hahahahaa :-D

While Bookstooge was no Jedi Master by the time he was 23, he also hadn't french kissed his own sister. You decide which is the greater achievement.

I remember one time a professor told a story about how he found an old journal, read it and then razor bladed it because he was so embarrassed by it. I understand that feeling now but unlike my professor, being reminded of that embarrassing time helps me to remember what it is like being that age. And hence to have a bit of mercy to those young punks who are pretty worthless in every imaginable way ;-) Ahhh, I love being a cranky old self-righteous bastard instead of a snot-nosed young self-righteous bastard. Makes all the difference.

Another thing, confidence. I was worried about working out 5 times a week, running every day, if I was too skinny, etc, etc, etc. Everything I did was through the lens of what others would think of it. Now I just don't care. There are a few specific people whose opinion DOES matter to me but outside of them, everyone else can go hang :-D (on a side note, my biceps are an inch bigger now. So don't mess with me or I'll knock your block off, then slit your throat with my kbar and then double tap you with my sig). But don't worry, I'd never actually do that, because I'm so peaceful now and I love everyone so much ;-)

The Whammomatic 3000. It punches, it slices, it shoots, all in ONE convenient and easy to use package.

So anyway, this was good for me. I just needed to get that all out. If this is as much of a "crisis" as I'll have to deal with, I'm totally ok with that. Only start to worry if I start putting up pictures of red porsches. Or posting How To's on arson..

ps,
not to worry you, but don't be surprised if you see more posts like this. Not spending all my words on reviews means I have to get them out some other way and writing drivel like this is the usual way for me. So if you've had a midlife crisis, how did you handle it?

Best Friends for Life ★★★★☆

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Best Friends for Life
Series: ----------
Author: Michael & Judy Phillips
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Non-fiction
Pages: 240
Format: Paperback 

Synopsis:

The Phillips tell 4 different true stories (with particulars changed for anonymity's sake) about young couples they knew and how they proceeded through their dating, into marriage and how those marriages turned out.

The Phillips are convinced that “dating” has such an abysmal track record when it comes to marriages that last after dating that they want to explore other avenues. Their suggestion? Marry your best friend. Basically, make being friends with the opposite gender a higher priority than romance and really know what you want in a spouse instead of letting it all hang on hormones and feelings.

What does God, through the Bible, say about what is important in a marriage? The Phillips use very few specific Bible verses but count on their audience already having a decent grasp of Scripture. They are writing for someone who already wants what is best according to God's will and is searching that out.

My Thoughts:

I read this originally back in 2000. At the time, I had graduated from Bibleschool. Mrs B was still in highschool and we hadn't a glimmer of the others' existence. I was mad to marry and was reading all the advice books I could get my hands on. I wasn't going to be an “old” man like my dad when he got married. For the record, he was married at 28. I was 30. Ironic isn't it? So I figured if I could get all that advice then Mrs Right would fall into my lap and whammo, we'd have the perfect married life because obviously we'd have BOTH read all kinds of these books and know exactly what to do and what things to NOT do.

So the funny thing is, I actually was friends with Mrs B long before we ever were romantically involved. I met her on Xanga, a blogging site (not sure how much traction it still has any more). She'd written a post about going to a medieval wedding and ended her post with “Have a good Sabbath”. I asked her what she meant by “Sabbath” as I was a Saturday Sabbath keeper and it turned out she was a 7^th Day Adventist so she kept Saturday as well. We were friends for a couple of years online but figured we'd never meet. She was in California, I was on the East Coast. I didn't like to travel and she had nothing to draw her to the East. But then a friend of mine, who I'd gone to Bibleschool with, decided he was going to get married. In California. He was in the Navy and would soon be shipping out in a Sub (subbing out?) and I didn't know when I'd see him next so a group of us all went to California. I informed Miss Librarian and invited her as my plus one. Her brother, Sir Grumpsalot, came with her to chaperone and my friends were at the wedding, so it was safe all around. After the wedding that night, I asked her if I could court her. I called her mother that week and a year later we were engaged and 6 months after that we were married. Now, 10 years later, we're STILL happily married.

Now, when I read this book back in 2000, I couldn't have predicted this set of circumstances. In fact, I didn't WANT those set of circumstances. I wanted somebody else. She has since gotten married to a wonderful christian man, has a family and is a bedrock of Faith for her family. But she wouldn't have been right for me nor me for her. It took God to bring the correct Mrs Right into my life. That is what this book is about more than anything. It isn't a hard and fast set of rules that the Phillips promise will bring you the right spouse. But they give solid advice about involving your parents, your friends, and most of all, not letting your hormones and feelings be in control. They are right.

They also give several examples of how people have changed what they've suggested to work for their particular set of circumstances. Some of the things they suggest simply weren't viable for Mrs B and I, such as having family time with each other's families while we were courting. The Phillips are very open that what they are suggesting isn't the end and be all but they do strongly advise young people and their parents to put much more effort into the whole process than just “Oh, we're in love”.

Reading this again, for our 10^th Wedding Anniversary, it is uncanny how much God drew us both down this path in our relationship with each other. I for one am thankful for that. Our marriage is strong, we are happy and content with each other and while our lives together haven't been what we've expected (Mrs B was diagnosed with crohn's disease in '10), our foundation of friendship has taken us through the times of hospitalization, lack of work, etc.

The book is a bit dated in regards to things they call out in American Culture, ie, what they considered a cliff is only a mere step compared to the moral cliff America has chosen to step off of now. It was eye opening and a good indicator of just how fast our country has gone down the path of immorality.

But ultimately, God Himself is in charge. He has taken responsibility through Jesus Christ and one day He will return and make it right again. I want to be ready for that and I hope you will be too.

★★★★☆

• Best Friends for Life (2000 Review)

Bookstooge Reviews 2016

2016 was on the whole a very good year for me. There will be lots of pictures and links in this post and the wordcount is the highest so far this year, so lets get cracking!

The Year in Visual Review. I continue to use Ipiccy.com for my collages, as their 25picture box works very well with the number of books I read each month and their iphone4 setting keeps all the squares pretty close to the cover sizes so the covers don’t get chopped off. I am sure there is a lot more I could be doing, but a monthly roundup is about the limit of my artsy-fartsy’ness.






I read 228 books this year. This was up from last years 183. Much of that is due to starting up Manga Monday again.








My pages read went up as well. From just under 63000 to just over 77000. Even though, in all fairness that includes the full number of pages for books that I DNF’d and abandoned. So take that number with a pinch or two of salt.




Each month stayed pretty steady in terms of overall books read with only 3 months dipping below the 18book mark. Even in August when I had to take some emergency time off to go move my parents when they unexpectedly sold their house in 2 weeks instead of the 3 months everyone was planning on. Which just means that I’ve made reading my main hobby this year and put most of my time and attention into it.






The Stars shall speak


13  
8   
58 
53 
49 
13 
12 
1   
14 
4   
3   

That makes my average for the year right around 3.25. Considering that a 3 is a good and completely average read, 3.25 means I pulled ahead of just plain good. I am more than satisfied with that.



On to the Books themselves!

Venetia was probably the best 1Star of the Year. It was fun to do a buddy read outside of my genre. It did reinforce my thoughts on the Romance genre however.

Worst 1Star was a tossup between Obsidian Worlds and The Store. Both got my stomach churning with disgust and outrage.

Best Non-Fiction wasn’t that hard because it was the only real N0n-fiction I read AND it was a 5Star’r. The Many Faces of Evil. It was just what I needed this year with my friend Amy losing her preemie twins and dealing with stage 4 cancer, all at the same time.

Best 5Star was once again a tossup. This time it was between 2 Re-reads, Dune & Way-farer. If I had to pick a new book, I’d go with Heirs of Empire, as it just hit me right at the right time.

Weirdest book of the year was definitely Gregor Xane‘s Taboogasm.  It just doesn’t get any weirder than that. If it does, I don’t want to know about it😀


Project ReRead
This was a complete success. 11 books that I had read before being read again with the aim of comparing how my tastes had changed and how that was reflected in my enjoyment and rating of said books. I still enjoyed every single book. However, I was able to determine that this was the last time I would read some of them.

I cherry picked specific books just so I wouldn’t bog down. That did lead to me realizing that some of these books are going to be favorites of mine for quite some time.  It also lead to the realization that while I’ve matured as a reader and can articulate the why’s and wherefores better, at heart, I’m still just a big geek/nerd.

Because it was such a success, I decided to expand upon the whole idea in a big way for ’17 and quite possibly into ’18. I’ve got a whole bunch of SERIES that I’m going to be rereading. They are:

I) Malazan books of the Fallen by Steven Erikson
II) Dune Chronicles by Frank Herbert
III) Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia Wrede
IV) Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks
V) Patricia McKillip’s books
VI) Space trilogy by C.S. Lewis
VII) Shadows of the Apt by Adrian Tchaikovsky
VIII) The Malaz Empire novels by Iain Esslemont
IX) Swan’s War trilogy by Sean Russell
X) Polity books by Neal Asher

So be prepared for a lot of whining and angst from me as I rip into these. I did choose books that I think will stand up to my high standards, hahhaaha.

For my other plans for 2017, please feel free to read them HERE.






2016 is the year that Booklikes crashed. Crashed and Burned. Staff literally disappeared, the site kept breaking in new and varied ways, people left, people couldn’t join up. Some of the more patient and determined members made a supreme effort to stick around, figure out ways to work around the broken bits and keep members from totally hemorrhaging away. One staff member has returned at the end of the year but the site still crawls or doesn’t load right for long stretches at a time.

I am staying at Booklikes but it is no longer my primary social booksite. When it takes me 3 tries and 5minutes to just comment, that pretty much kills my desire to be there. You can find me there at: Bookstooge.booklikes.com

To anyone who I have followed at wordpress who also is on booklikes, just let me know which site you prefer interaction at. I unfollowed a lot of people at Booklikes who started up blogs at WP but I know not everyone will make the move to WP and I don’t want to lose interaction if I can help it😀





I joined Librarything with a free lifetime membership, thanks to some other Bookliker’s. I am using it as a backup catalogue site since I can’t export from Booklikes and I don’t know how long BL will last.

It is VERY different from what I am used to and you’re going to hear me complain about those differences, a lot! That doesn’t mean I will stop using it or that I hate the site. It just means that I am set in my ways and learning a new way brings out my inner cranky.

You can find me there at: librarything.com/profile/BookstoogeLT




I’ve been on WP.com since ’13, but more as a backup than as anything serious. As BL kept pushing me away, I started looking around at other booksites to find an alternative. I tried a lot of places but one thing or another just made them unpalatable. So finally I started making a serious effort to find new people here on WordPress and connect with fellow Booklikers who also had backup blogs here.

I’d like to thank you all who I follow for writing such fun things and I’d like to thank all of you who have chosen to follow me. It is nice to know that I am not screaming into the void. I plan on find another handful of bloggers to follow and to refine those I already do, as I see who posts regularly and who does it sporadically.



AND I think that about wraps it up. I’m plum out of words anyway, so that forces the issue. So onward to 2017 and a lot of Good Books!

RIP Leafmarks

Today is the last day that Leafmarks will exist. They started up right after the Free Speech debacle at Goodreads in '13. Sadly, while quite a few high rollers from GR came over, they just never stuck around. They all went back to GR where the people's adoration was. Throw in the fact that one of the co-founders left after a couple of months to concentrate on her own blog [and stay active at GR as well] and things were off to a rough start.  Sadly, it just never really took off after that.

I enjoyed the site mainly because it gave me Librarian experience, which I've used here. It also had an export function. Which has been a lifesaver recently when I wanted to start keeping my reviews in an offline format.

I downloaded all my top Leafs and made a collage of them. I have to say, collecting Leafs made things a lot more fun. It was also nice to be in the Top 100 of several categories. I know, "big" fish in a small pond, but for my ego, it was enough.

So thank you Leafmarks. You tried valiantly. It just wasn't enough.

16 Years of Book Recording

In April 2000 I began tracking what I read. I started with a little Mead 3x5 spiral notebook, much like one of these:


In it, I simply noted the date/day, title, author and genre.  Mind you, this was before Goodreads was even a thought [that I'm aware of] and reviews tended to be either word of mouth or by professionals in a newspaper. I wasn't reviewing but simply recording what I'd read, so that I wouldn't spend "precious" reading time reading the same thing over by mistake. That had happened several times in Bible School. As my mortality was now within my gaze (I did a lot of growing up during those 3 years], I realized that I didn't have time to accidentally re-read books, and this was before the plague of indie dreck inundated the reading world. It was also a natural outgrowth of my journaling every day during those 3 years.

In 2004-5, blogging hit my social group and we all began our own blogs and for about a year it was an explosion of words. Things began to wind down and I thought about how else I might make use of blogger. It was also at this point that my notebook began falling apart and I realized I needed to replace it. The thought of writing it all down, AGAIN, was not a nice prospect. So I decided to start typing it, at least that way it would stay online.

In 2007 I joined Goodreads but didn't really start utilizing it until 2009. Even then, I never made more than a literal handful of friends and I think it stayed in the single digits. However, in '13, with the free speech ban, I left GR. I came to booklikes, along with a lot of other people and made my home.

And let's be honest. In the 2 1/2 years that I've been there, I've dealt with and dealt out, more drama than in the last 13 1/2 years. People I've insulted, people insulting me. Some on purpose, some by accident. Seeing people come, seeing people go.
Making friends. Making a LOT of friends. For those who are introverted, you know what I mean.  Of course, with the uncertainty of recent times at Booklikes and with Leafmarks shutting down, I've been wondering if I'd have to move again.

Thankfully, that won't be the case as long as Booklikes stays open. I am starting to backup my reviews using a separate Calibre Library filled with empty books, so I'll be able to back them up and not have to worry about losing them online.

So to wrap up this little maudlin interlude, a lot has changed in 16 years and a lot has stayed the same. And please ignore me as I go up and down here at Booklikes. I review the books I read, everything else, well, I guess that is part of being human.