October '22 Roundup & Rambling

 Raw Data:

Novels - 23 ↑

Graphic Novels - 6 ⭤

Average Rating - 3.02 ↓

Pages - 6498 ↑

Words - 2175 ↑

The Bad:

Forgotten Ruin - 2.5stars of Rangers rangering this book right into the ground.

The Good:

Kill Shot - 4.5stars of Mitch Rapp at his best.

Movie:

The Muppets Haunted Mansion was the final muppet movie in my journey. I'd say it was for either kids who know nothing about the Muppets or for fans like myself who need to watch everything Muppet. Everyone else, probably not really worth your time.

Miscellaneous Posts:

• Bad Moon - MTG 4E
• The Bookstooge Chronicles: The Midlife Crisis
• Balance - MTG 4E
• Wordpress Forums: Banned Again!
• Ball Lightning - MTG 4E
• Need More Space? Bookstooge Has You Covered Part II
• Battering Ram - MTG 4E
• Author Index: My Next Big Project

Personal:

What a month. I was sick near the beginning that threw me out of work for a week and then took another 2 weeks to fully recover. Bronchitis is awful! :-( But it is one reason I read so much. Of course, feeling so bad I rated things a bit harder and so my average rating was down.

Not writing reviews was just what I needed. It gave me a chance to realize that a book review site is a second job while blogging is a hobby. Over the last year I have turned into a book reviewing site and I want to be a blogger again. I want to write for fun, not because I feel like I have to. With my personality, that is going to be a hard line to balance, as I just want to go all-out in whatever I am doing. But I can't. I would also like to thank all of you for your patience as I posted essentially book ratings. Several of you commented mightily and made it a fun time in spite of nothing going on. Aonghus, I was proud of you for jumping in too. Even if you aren't a regular :-)

Reading my old journals made me realize how I've changed and stayed the same and blogging is integral to that part of me that is fun and spontaneous (it's about the only spontaneous part of my life). I am not a spontaneous person and so I have to take it when I can. I'll never call out of work sick and just go to the beach (especially not in November in New England, brrrrrrrr!) but maybe I can blow off a book review and write about how laundry has changed my life ;-)

Cover Love:

You better watch out

You better not cry

Better not pout

I'm telling you why

Shadow Claus is coming to town

He's making a list

And checking it twice;

Gonna find out Who's naughty and nice

Shadow Claus is coming to town"

He sees you when you're sleeping

He knows when you're awake

He knows if you've been bad or good

So be good for goodness sake!

O! You better watch out!

You better not cry

Better not pout

I'm telling you why

Shadow Claus is coming to town

Shadow Claus is coming to town

Plans for Next Month:

November is going to be a return to having some words and pictures to go along with the ratings. I am also going to be cutting WAY down on the number of books read (I am NOT going to have 29 entries for books, that is for sure!) and I'm going to be leaving Tuesdays open. Not as a space to post something last minute but just have a day to not worry about the blog and to concentrate on those I am following.

I am going to follow Matt's path and make my reviews very simple affairs, like they used to be. Trying to become a blogger again and not exclusively a book reviewer. I LIKE connecting with people on their blogs and if all they did was reviews with no personality, it wouldn't be much fun. So I'm going to add personality here, or at least try.

I am also going to be stopping my manga reading until January. Once the new year rolls around I'm going to start up One Piece again as well as Full Metal Alchemist. But I just need a break so this is one place I can easily make that happen. Sorry, Misaki, you'll have to continue being patient with me.

September '22 Roundup & Ramblings

 

Raw Data:

Novels - 21 ↑

Graphic Novels - 6 ⭤

Average Rating - 3.07 ↓

Pages - 6116 ↑

Words - 1919K ↑

The Bad:

Dead Silence - 1star of totally awesome space horror RUINED by scyenze and romance

Hunting Zero - 1star read that killed this already dead series for me.

The Good:

American Assassin - The ONLY 4star read I had this month. sigh....

Movie:

Muppets Now, while quite enjoyable, had some serious flaws as an episodic show, in my opinion. There hasn't been a season 2 yet and I doubt there ever will be.

Miscellaneous Posts:

• Ashes to Ashes - MTG 4E
• 9/11 - An Unbearable Weight of Remembrance
• Ashnod's Battle Gear - MTG 4E
• Aspect of Wolf - MTG 4E
• Backfire - MTG 4E

Personal:

What a busy, busy month. The only way I got through all the blogging was knowing that October was going to be totally different (more on that in the next section). After August's R&R and realizing I was on the edge of burnout, I spent September strategizing. It helped me mentally and emotionally (you try being an introspective introvert who hates people yet still wants to be liked).

Work still continues to be the dominant part of both my and Mrs B's life. We are both working overtime every week and the holiday season is approaching (Mrs B has already seen Christmas stuff getting readied to be out on the sales floor, boooo!). So Mrs B is only going to get busier and my own work shows ZERO slow down. We're still running about 2 months behind (so if you call and hire us, we won't be able to get there for 7-8 weeks) so this winter is probably going to be as busy as ever. I'm tired just thinking about it.

The weather started to change, which was much appreciated. Some mornings it was chilly enough so you could see your breath but the afternoons were still warm enough that t-shirts and shorts were more than enough. With the drought we're having I don't know what is going to happen for the foliage. Glad I'm not a leaf peeper.

Utilities are skyrocketing in price. The electrical company instituted a price hike that comes out to about a 50% across the board hike. It's all in the "service" part of the bill so you can't even offset it by trying to use less electricity. Once the cold weather hits and we have to turn on the furnace, and the natural gas bills start coming in, well, it's going to be an expensive winter. Thank goodness I have 3 can of campbell's chunky soup in reserve!

On the good side of things, Mrs B and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary. God has truly blessed us together and we are so thankful He led us to the other. We don't take it lightly. I've also been playing the board game Doom with my brother every 3-6 weeks and that has been a blast. I keep taking pictures of the board and mini's when we're playing but my goodness, it is HARD to get even decent pix out of it, much less good ones. I'm going to keep trying though and maybe in the next month or two I'll have a mini's update about it. I also found someone at church who is interested in playing Magic the Gathering. We played a couple of games and while it was a bit too complicated for him, his 9 year old son was utterly enthralled. He's literally inhaling the rules and we're probably going to schedule play times a couple times a month. I figure I've got a year or two before he starts wiping the floor with me. So I'm going to enjoy my "win time" while I can :-D Also, if I play my cards right (oh, aren't I SO clever?!?) I can get him to sort through my cards and take out all the uncommons, rares and mythics in exchange for about 2000 commons. I'll see what his dad has to say on the subject.

Plans for Next Month:

I'm still reading up a storm but for October, while I'll be posting reviews, said reviews will only contain all the data I put in the very beginning. Pretty much going back to my roots of 2000-2001 and how I reviewed books then. That cuts about 90% of the writing so that pressure just isn't on me. That will have the 2fold effect of relieving the pressure and also letting my word well recharge. I won't even be adding covers. We're talking straight up text posts. LITTLE text posts too.

Depending on how that goes I might carry that format on for the rest of the year. Once my words get recharged and I keep on doing the minimum for reviews that will allow me to start writing some non-review posts again. It's been months since I've written something based on an idea that popped into my head at 1435 or some such thing. I need the spontaneity back and I can't do that if all my words go to just reviews.

I suspect October will be a recovery time for me and not a "hey, look at me blogging about Whatever" kind of month. Lots of tiny review posts. I'm hoping it will also help me to clear my head about blogging in general and using wordpress in particular. One change that will be big, for me anyway, is that I'll be crossposting everything to blogger now, starting with this post. I might not get everything all at once, but I'll be working on getting my blogger site more socially friendly.

December '16 Roundup & Ramblings

Another good month overall.

Only Tropic of Serpents was 1star and that was because it bored me rather than because it was poorly executed. Several 4 & 4 1/2 Star reads, so I'm pretty happy with that.

The Blood Mirror was probably my best read this month, as it had a mix of Epic SFF, Complete Tomenosity [weighing in at just over 700 pages] and a solid hefty storyline. However, Heirs of Empire was definitely the most fun book of the month and it hit the sweet spot even while I was able to acknowledge that it wasn't in the same league as Blood Mirror.

Manga Monday is continuing strong with Eyeshield 21. This manga series is really keeping my interest and is doing a great job of mixing the sports with the personal. Christmas brought me lots of giftcards so I'm going to be using them to start buying my next manga series to read, Oh My Goddess!. With 48 volumes, I'm going to need all the time that the next 20 volumes of Eyeshield 21 can give me.

Project Re-Read finished on a decent note with the rest of the Icerigger Trilogy. I'll be talking more about that in my 2016 Yearly Roundup tomorrow or Sunday.

Working out the kinks with being on Wordpress, Booklikes and now Librarything. Once again, more of that in detail in the Yearly Roundup.

My reading of Don Quixote slowed down but that was because of Christmas and New Years and not working so much. Once I hit January and am back to a vacationless working schedule, Sunday's should be filled with updates from it again.

And to end, here's some cover art love:

Now is that just great looking or what? I also happened to love the story!

Who ever is doing Week's covers for the hardcovers sure has my number. They are great!

November '16 Roundup & Ramblings

This month was pretty good, in the scheme of things. Made my way through 20 books, 4 of which were manga and 1 graphic novel.

I did have 3 DNF's, which is higher than usual, but each was for a different reason, so that helped soften the blow of wasting my time on something I didn't/couldn't finish. To balance that out, I did have One 5Star read and Five(!!) 4Star reads. Getting even a single 5star is a good accomplishment and to have so many 4's is wonderful.

After 6 months I finally got Superman: Doomed scratched off my list. That was a real weight off my shoulders. I'd left it on the couch arm where I sit to remind myself to keep on trying to read it, even a page here or there. That just never happened, so I had to dive in, seize the beast by the throat and just choke it into submission.

In general terms, I solidified the next years reading plans, started the move from Booklikes to Wordpress and continued my reading of Don Quixote. All of which made for a busy but satisfying month.

In finishing, here are my two picks of the month for cover love:

I LOVE hooded figures on covers. They are just cool.

I have always been, and most likely always will be, a Superman fan. Even though I was disappointed by the storyline, the Idea of Superman and Doomsday as one is wicked cool.

October '16 Roundup & Ramblings

This past month was the the most up and down that I've had for some time. Quite a few DNF's and then on the other side of the spectrum I had several 4.5 or 5 stars read. So really, quality wise it all kind of evened out to my typical 3 star life :-)

Booklikes drove me as close as it ever has to making me leave. Weekends were consistently unusable and there was one whole week of the same. Things have smoothed out, but in that time I've begun preparations to be social over at Wordpress. I'm sticking around here until the New Years [hence the Don Quixote buddy read] but if at least one staff member doesn't return by then and start giving us signs of life, then I'll be leaving. I've let a lot go, worked around things, put up with a site that didn't work. I haven't really drawn any lines in the sand, but the time has come for me to decide what I can or can't deal with here at booklikes. So, a staff member needs to be appear, and stick around, by the end of the year. If that happens, I'll keep on sticking around even if the site issues continue. But no staff and I'm gone, even if the site dramatically improves. Just so you all know what my thoughts and plans are. I'm not just going to up and disappear one day without a word.

I'm also cross posting everything at Wordpress. So to you "new to me" WP peeps, thanks.  And sorry about dragging you through my Booklikes issues.

And since this has been more about Booklikes issues than about the books I've read, it is time to wrench this train back on the tracks. I'll wrap this post up with my 2 favorite covers.

First one is Caliban. It just screams Space Opera and I LIKE Space Opera.





This second one, Vets Might Fly, appeals to me because of it's simplicity. Very calming, just like the stories within.





I am looking forward to the Buddy Read of Don Quixote starting in 2 weeks. I plan on doing a Pre-Post about it tomorrow, so if it sounds like something you might like to be a part of, stay tuned.

September '16 Roundup & Ramblings

Welp, another month has flown by. And I do mean flown! It really feels like August is ending, not September.  This month was pretty good. 20 books. Knocked another Calvin & Hobbes book of the ol' TBR pile and started up my Manga Monday posts again, now that I have Eyeshield 21 on hand. That will up the numbers as I'll be reading one volume a week and reviewing it each Monday.

Best book of the month was Dune. I knew going in that I was going to love it, as it was part of my Project Reread, so it almost feels like cheating to put it as Best Book of the Month. But it was, so it stands :-)

Worst book of the month was easily, hands down, Obsidian Worlds.  Not much to say outside of what my review states.

Bookwraiths, over at Bookwraiths.com, has been doing a section called Friday Face Off, where he compares various covers of one book and picks which one he likes the best. I'm not going to be doing that, but I do think that highlighting covers can be a fun thing. Considering that I read almost exclusively ebooks, the only time I even see the cover is when the book is in Calibre before I put it on my kindle. So to take a minute and LOOK at the covers seems worthwhile.  I know the collage picture has them all, but they are small. So here's my 2 picks from this month:                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                      
                           





                                                                                                                                      

August '16 Roundup & Ramblings

This is a couple of days early, but I know I won't be finishing anymore books by months end so I figured I'd better write this while I still had some oomph in me.

This month has been something else. I knew going into August that there would be some disruption, but I wasn't expecting to have a full month of bleh. After moving my parents, things just never picked up. Life just kept throwing little curve balls.

Don't get me wrong, it hasn't been a bad month. I've had no DNF's, only one 1Star and one 2 1/2Star, so that qualifies as a good month. No 5 Stars, but those are rare enough that I don't expect them. This was just a solid read month. Nothing really bad, nothing really good.

My weirdest read was definitely Taboogasm by Gregor Xane. When I say weird, I mean alien clone baby, living dolls in space and alien butt holes kind of weird :-D

I'm hoping I get my reading mojo back for September.

.

July '16 Roundup & Ramblings

I was pretty satisfied with this month. No dnf's, which is always nice. Started my audio book adventures and while it was ok and I'll be continuing it with various random books, it is apparent to me that audio and I just don't quite hit it off.

My top reads this month were Talion: Revenant, part of my Project Reread and The New Watch, the latest in the Russian Night Watch series. Talion was a good re-re-re-read but I suspect this will be close to my final read of it. New Watch brought us full circle from new member to mature member and the writing has matured and mellowed.

There were no real stinkers this month, but some pretty Meh reads. Jupiter Theft and Nephilim: Genesis of Evil were both outstanding in their lack lustre'ness and mediocrity.

I am still working my way through Superman: Doomed, and by that I mean I keep thinking about getting back into it and just finishing it off in one fell swoop. I've got 125 books on my kindle so my Priority collection and Reread collection are both taking a place in the regular rotation as I need to get through some of the other books. My Misc collection is the only one that I'm keeping at the front of the queue. Read 8 other books, read a Misc book, rinse and repeat. That collection has grown to over 25, so I really need to work through it and get it under 15, otherwise the books are going to sit in that collection for at least another year.

Hope your July was a good one as well. August will be a slower month for me as I'm going to be helping various family members [some near, some far] move throughout the month. Cheers!

June '16 Roundup & Ramblings

19 books this month. However, 3 of them were Abandoned, so really, that made things a bit less hectic. Unfortunately, 2 of the 3 I had been really looking forward to, so it wasn't a good "Abandoned".

Unlike last month, where the future of booklikes and everything else seemed to be up in the air, this month was Solid.

I had my 2500th Review. I imported all my reviews from Leafmarks into Calibre, so I now have my reviews in an offline program. I read Venetia as a challenge and enjoyed the group read updates.

The only 5 Star book this month, and deservedly so, was:

1)  The Complete Stories Vol 1 by Isaac Asimov

The other end of the spectrum had:

1) Blowback by Brad Thor. Nothing nice to say about this book. Nothing.


Overall, I count this month a win on the ledger. Let's hope July reads strong.

May '16 Roundup & Ramblings

21 books this month that really ran the gamut.

On the high end, I had:

1) Red Rising by Pierce Brown
2) Renegade by Joel Shepherd
3) Weirdos from Another Planet by Bill Watterson

On the low end,

1) Night of the Swarm by Robert Redick - Couldn't even get TO the 10% mark.
2) Ecko Burning by Danie Ware - Finished it but have to admit, I really wish I hadn't.

Then everything in the middle. Thankfully, neither of the low books were back to back, so I had some breathing room to recover. That can make a real difference.

Of course, the end of the month was tough with the news/notnews about Booklikes being sold, being denied, blah, blah, blah. Then finding out yesterday that Leafmarks IS shutting down in a month was just a big cup of manure on top of the crap cake I was munching on. Thankfully today was pretty physical at work, so I was able to clear my head and think about things instead of just "feel" and end up panic'ing, which is what I did most of yesterday.

So I am REALLY hoping that June is a better month than May.

March '16 Roundup & Ramblings

Another strong month for 2016.

21 books, although I had 3 DNF's. I also only read 4 comics [manga, graphic novels and comics] where I was hoping for close to twice that number.

Project Re-read went on a Hiatus, as one week was so busy that I didn't read at all and I wanted to concentrate on new reads. Definitely going to be making that a priority this coming month though.

My most enjoyable book of the month was Dead Six.

My average rating was 3.14, if you include the 2 dnf'd but unrated books. If you take those out, it goes up to a whopping 3.47.

My idea from last month of adding books to a draft post as I read them didn't work out. Not sure if I want to try it for April. So lets all read some more good books in April!

February '16 Roundup & Rambles

18 Books for the month. Only 1 DNF and quite a few graphic novels, comics and manga. This month just flew by, so having the lightness of the GN's and mangas was nice. Kind of like a no pressure read.

The only book that really stood out to me this month was the graphic novel Death of Superman. The DNF, Atlantis Endgame, was only 5% in, so I didn't feel like I'd wasted any time whatsoever on it.

My Project Reread book, Way-farer, was a success and I enjoyed it this time around just as much as all the previous times. So it fared much better than last month's Jurassic Park.

I've also started to map out a reading plan for the manga I want to read/reread this year. It will take probably most of this month to get it really together, but since I still have a couple of Yu-Gi-Oh! R volumes to read, that shouldn't be an issue.  Probably going after Eyeshield 21 and then either W Juliet or Kare Kano.

I have started Madame Bovary, but it is my "phone" book, so I just read a page or two here and there when I'm waiting in line, or something like that. I've only read about 10%, which is why I haven't listed it yet. I really like the writing and am wondering about powering through it this month to see if I enjoy the plot or not.

Every month I think I'm going to type out the books I've read. And each month as I start to do it, I realize what a chore it is and my will to do so evaporates like the morning dew on a summer's day. I am thinking I might start a Roundup & Rambles post at the BEGINNING of the month and simply add each book as I review it. That way at the end of the month I can simply add the Rambles part of the post, along with the pic, and voila, Instant Post. We'll see.

I've enjoyed reading everyone elses wrap ups, roundups, end of months, etc posts. Thanks to everyone who made my feed a fun time yesterday and today. I do appreciate your hard work and ask humbly that you keep at it.

Kanpai!

January '16 Roundup

A pretty good month again. 22 reads, with one being a short story, another a novella, a third a graphic novel and a fourth a volume of manga.

Started my Project Reread with Jurassic Park as well. I've got 6 or 7 more books lined up already for this project, which will give me time to figure out what I want to reread for the last several.

The most fun read was Archie vs Predator graphic novel. It encouraged me to dig out my old graphic novels and give them a spin, as it appears that I never recorded reading or reviewing them. That might be because it has been so long, just not sure. Either way, expect to see more graphic novels to be reviewed by me this coming year.

Most enjoyable was a three way tie between Death of Dulgath, Shadows of Self and Hidden Masters of Marandur. All three were solid, dependable, enjoyable fantasy reads. Each author already has a track record of writing solidly, so I was expecting good things and thankfully wasn't let down.

None of these books are in the running for Best Book of the Year. After last years double hitter of His Sombre Rivals and Flowers for Algernon I am not sure that 2016 can produce a book on that level. But I've got the rest of the year to find out :-D