As anyone who reads my blog will know, I’ve recently been a bit under the weather and my blog has born the brunt of my illness by being ignored. I had been doing quite well in reviewing books and then I got sick and didn’t touch my laptop for days on end and simply couldn’t work up the motivation to blog when all I wanted to do when coming back from work is sleep. This has meant I’ve fallen behind in all the books I want to review.
I’m Behind In My Reviews And Don’t Know If I Can Catch Up
I don’t read all that many review copies of books, but I always prioritise those books to review over other books I’ve read which I’ve bought myself. I do like to try and review all the books I’ve really enjoyed though, even if it’s just a short review, because I like to bring attention to those books I liked. Sadly, when I was sick I was still reading but I wasn’t writing anything up for review and I was already a few books behind for reviews in the first place, getting sick just put me way behind.
My question to all of you is simple, when you fall behind in your reviews (for whatever reason) do you carry on trying to review all the books you originally planned to on top of the new books you’re reading or do you forget those and start afresh?
I’m Thinking I May Have To Forget My Old Books
I am not the best about making sure I get posts written anyway, but to have to work on old reviews for books which have already drifted from my mind is a daunting task. Even my half written notes about a book are not always the best guide for what I should be writing, they are more spontaneous moments of inspiration that don’t make sense out of context.
I am not helpful to myself, and it seems my lack of order and method in writing reviews makes it even more difficult to know what I initially wanted to say. In some ways it’s good, my reviews end up taking a completely course than originally intended and I discover something I hadn’t realised about a book, but a lot of the time it is just confusing and unhelpful until I’ve edited things down.
As such, I now have a bunch of half written reviews and useless notes that don’t help me in writing reviews and leave me quite unmotivated to finish them. That lack of motivation means that any review I write will not be my best, and I don’t want to do that disservice to the books I want to review. I enjoyed them too much to not attempt to capture and explain my enjoyment of them to the best of my ability.
It’s OK, though, because isn’t it an excellent excuse for a reread?
I know I probably shouldn’t just abandon the books I wanted to review, but it’s the only thing which makes sense to me because I know how poorly I manage my time anyway, let alone creating time to write reviews for books that have faded slightly from my mind. I have vague notes written down so maybe I’ll go back and review them, but for now they are on the back burner. There are a couple of books I did really enjoy, and those are the books most likely to drive me to go back and write reviews, but this is also a perfect excise to go back and revisit the stories. Who doesn’t like an excuse for a reread?
As you can probably tell, I’ve already made my mind up on my course of action, but I do want to know your thoughts. How would you go about tackling a review backlog? Would you review your absolute must reads, work on getting all your reviews ready or simply just ignore them and move on?
What I’ve Been Reading
New To Me
First in a new fantasy series from the author of the Novels of the Half-Light City.
Entangled in a court ruled by tradition and intrigue, a young witch must come to terms with newfound power and desire—and a choice between loyalty and survival.…
The royal witches of Anglion have bowed to tradition for centuries. If a woman of royal blood manifests powers, she is immediately bound by rites of marriage. She will serve her lord by practicing the tamer magics of the earth—ensuring good harvests and predicting the weather. Any magic more dangerous is forbidden.
Lady Sophia Kendall, thirty-second in line to the throne, is only days away from finding out if she will be blessed—or perhaps cursed—with magic. When a vicious attack by Anglion’s ancient enemies leaves the kingdom in chaos, Sophia is forced to flee the court. Her protector by happenstance is Lieutenant Cameron Mackenzie, a member of the royal guard, raised all his life to be fiercely loyal to the Crown.
Then Sophia’s powers manifest stronger than she ever imagined they would, and Cameron and she are inextricably linked in the process. As a witch unbound by marriage rites, Sophia is not only a threat to the established order of her country, but is also a weapon for those who seek to destroy it. Faced with old secrets and new truths, she must decide if she will fight for her country or succumb to the delicious temptation of power.
#1 New York Times bestselling author Ilona Andrews launches a brand new Hidden Legacy series, in which one woman must place her trust in a seductive, dangerous man who sets off an even more dangerous desire…
Nevada Baylor is faced with the most challenging case of her detective career—a suicide mission to bring in a suspect in a volatile case. Nevada isn’t sure she has the chops. Her quarry is a Prime, the highest rank of magic user, who can set anyone and anything on fire.
Then she’s kidnapped by Connor “Mad” Rogan—a darkly tempting billionaire with equally devastating powers. Torn between wanting to run or surrender to their overwhelming attraction, Nevada must join forces with Rogan to stay alive.
Rogan’s after the same target, so he needs Nevada. But she’s getting under his skin, making him care about someone other than himself for a change. And, as Rogan has learned, love can be as perilous as death, especially in the magic world.
I’m back for another Top Ten Tuesday, which is a weekly feature created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week’s theme is what I’d wish for from the bookish genie. Now, I am going to tell you now, most of the things I would want from the bookish genie is for certain bookish things to be real… or basically for me to have gotten my Harry Potter acceptance letter when I was eleven and for all to be right with the world.
I would obviously wish for Hogwarts and the entire Harry Potter series to be real and for me to have gotten my acceptance letter. Or… if that is no longer possible, for my future children (purely hypothetical children which I don’t actually have) to receive their acceptance letters because at least than I can live vicariously through them to get to the wizarding world. I can’t be the only one who has that tiny hope for any children they may have.
And I would want to actually be sorted by the sorting hat, I know Hogwarts houses in no way define you as you can have traits which represent all the houses, but I want to know dammit! I obviously signed up for Pottermore (before the fancy redesign) and got sorted on there (I’m a Slytherin, in case you’re interested… no I am not planning on turning evil so stop asking) but it’s not the same as a magical hat having access to your mind and deciding for you based on what it can see from your mind, as opposed to you answering a bunch of random questions online.
Moving away from Harry Potter and onto my other bookish wishes… I really wish the Simon Snow series from Fangirl was real. I know that Carry On is the fanfiction Cath was writing for the Simon Snow series, and Simon Snow is very loosely based upon Harry Potter, but how could I not want the fictional books the fanfiction is based upon to have the full experience?
Any library ever from any book I’ve read would be appreciated, I mean, thinking about it, I would love to find out what my favourite characters are reading… because it is perfectly acceptable to judge people from the books they read.
Also… a chance to talk to a few bookish characters would also be great. I mean Cath would be an ideal bookish friend for me, did you see her passion for the Simon Snow books in Fangirl? I need a friend who gets that excited about reading!
And back to the library topic, I would really really like to have more book shelves. This isn't even a genie worthy wish, but it's what I would like. I need more bookshelves and I need the book genie to grant this wish because in reality I have absolutely nowhere to but them, so I need the book genie to create shelves that take up no space for my ever growing collection of books.
Why do books not come with pullout maps. Or a mini atlas? I can't be the only one who reads fantasy novels and wants a detailed map to understand where everything is. I'm still waiting for Marauder's Map of Hogwarts and I want a map of wizarding England as well.
I would like a perfect book memory. I am forever forgetting what's happened in a series when the next book is released so have to reread and whilst I love rereading it would be nice to remember stuff so I don't always have to.
I want someone to create books that don’t get battered in your bag and don’t weigh that much. I know, you’re all going to say that ereaders are a thing, and I know this and love my Kindle, but I love reading actual books as well. Sometimes you want to read a physical book (especially if said book has pictures or any maps so you can flick back and forth) and that’s just not convenient on an ereader. But then books take up space and I now hate nothing more than letting my books get battered on my journey to work.
And my final wish from the book genie? Well, it’s difficult, but I want a bookish road trip of sorts. I would love to visit the places in my favourite books, to go to Paris and Prague and Australia and all across America, but also to Hogwarts and The Old Kingdom and various other fictional places. I would love to have a gap year of sorts visiting all these places (24 isn’t too old for a gap year, right?) because wouldn’t that be a once in a lifetime kind of journey? Although, I would like to visit my fictional places during peacetime, of course, it wouldn’t be as fun if I killed on my travels.
How about you guys, what have you been asking the book genie for? Tell me your thoughts about my wishes below.
So it turns out whatever I came down with last week was a little more draining than I initially thought. I literally wrote no posts last week and managed to get up one scheduled book review. Pretty poor all things considered. I’ve still powered through at work, but it’s very debatable whether or not I should have gone. Everyone in the office seems to have one ailment or another, though, so at least I can’t feel guilty about infecting others. It’s a case of everyone complaining together, I think other departments have treated us a bit like we’re in quarantine because a lot less people have stopped by to chat. All I seem to have done this week is worked and slept, not very exciting.
Sadly, my illness has meant I’ve barely touched my books as well this week, so not only has my poor blog been left neglected, but I haven’t even managed to read a bunch of books to make up for it! It’s probably for the best, though, because it means I also haven’t indulged in a bunch more books I haven’t had time to review. My backlog is getting a bit ridiculous, but I don’t want to not review any of these books.
What I’ve Been Reading
And you will all be so proud… I have successfully bought no books this week! I know, crazy right? It helps that I’ve barely touched a computer, so no browsing book sites, and the single time I went near a bookshop I managed to ignore the call from the books and didn’t enter (it was hard, but I managed). The only book that is new to me is Visions of Heat, but that was borrowed from the library so I can hardly count it.
I know very little of interest happened this week, but I wanted to show I’m still alive. But how has everyone else’s week gone? Has anyone else managed a small achievement like me, and why can there not be trophies in real life like there are in games?
Red Queen – Victoria Aveyard
Release Date: 12th February 2015
Genre: Dystopia, Fantasy, Young Adult
My Rating:
This is a world divided by blood – red or silver.
The poverty-stricken Reds are commoners, living in the shadow of the Silvers, elite warriors with god-like powers.
To Mare Barrow, a 17-year-old Red girl from the Stilts, it looks like nothing will ever change.
Then Mare finds herself working at the Silver palace, in the midst of those she hates the most. She quickly discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy Silver control.
The Premise
Why I Liked Aforementioned Premise
So, Let’s Summarise
“You want me to pin my entire operation, the entire revolution, on some teenage love story? I can’t believe this.”
What I’ve Been Reading
New To Me
Lo-Melkhiin killed three hundred girls before he came to my village, looking for a wife.
When Lo-Melkhiin - a formidable king - arrives at her desert home, she knows that he will take her beautiful sister for a wife. Desperate to save her sister from certain death, she makes the ultimate sacrifice - leaving home and family behind to live with a fearful man.
But it seems that a strange magic flows between her and Lo-Melkhiin, and night after night, she survives. Finding power in storytelling, the words she speaks are given strange life of their own. Little things, at first: a dress from home, a vision of her sister. But she dreams of bigger, more terrible magic: power enough to save a king . . . if only she can stop her heart from falling for a monster.
Set against a harsh desert backdrop, A Thousand Nights by E K Johnston is an evocative tale of love, mystery and magic that would not feel out of place if Scheherazade herself were telling it.
And perhaps she is...I received a copy of this book off of Netgalley what feels like ages ago, it is a book I had been eagerly anticipating so had to request it. None of this affected my opinion in anyway and this is a totally honest review.
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week’s theme is bookish things I want to or have quit doing. This was a vary open topic (very open) and I decided to list the bookish habits I want to quit doing, because I have a lot of bookish bad habits.
I Will Stop Impulse Buying Books When I Don’t Have Time to Read Them
I think everyone who has ever read a Sunday Summary post by me can attest to my bad book buying habit. It’s only been getting worse, so I vow to try and calm it down a bit.
I Will Treat My Books Better
No more shall I dog-ear the pages of books when I can’t find a book mark. I will stop cracking the spines of my books. I will stop dropping my book in the bath (this happens more than you would think). And I will absolutely stop losing the dust jacket for me hardback books (it gets in the way when I’m reading them, but then I always forget where I put it).
The Library is a Good Thing – I Will Start Embracing It
I suppose this is less quitting something and more taking up something else. I like owning my books, but it’s an expensive habit. I will start borrowing a few books from the library, books I’m unsure about rather than committing to a more expensive books I end up not liking.
I Will Stop Pre-ordering Books I Have No Intention of Picking Up Immediately
This is me giving into the hype with books more than anything. I am terrible for it and I don’t know why. I am very suggestible at times, I see an advert on TV and for a good half an hour I will want whatever was advertised. I don’t know why I’m like that. The same is true for books. I will read something about a book and want it immediately, falling into the draw of the hype. But that fades and my pre-order of that book still arrives. I must stop.
I Will Stop Abandoning Series Partway Through and Not Going Back to Them
I sometimes get series fatigue. It isn’t that I’m not enjoying the book and is more I’m eager for a standalone story so I’m not heavily invested in a long intense series. Problem is, this happens when I’m reading a series and so I take a break… but then I don’t end up going back to that series as I’m intimidated by the catch up.
I Will Stop Skim Reading Books To Get To The Good Bit
I am a reader who wants to know everything instantly (but not really because that would be boring) and so I will sometimes find myself skim reading a book when the story has gotten really intense. That’s great, but it means I miss some of the detail and nuance of a book with my rushing so I must stop and smell the roses when it comes to reading. I don’t need to get everything all at once.
I Will Stop Being Intimidated by Big Books
I can’t be alone on this one, but I am intimidated by long reads. It makes no sense because I normally really enjoy them, but looking at a physical copy can leave me afraid to get started. And when I try reading long books on my Kindle I sometimes get upset when the percentage read doesn’t increase as fast as I would like. I often have the issue that if I spend too many days reading a book I will think there is something wrong with the book and risk abandoning it (no one said I made sense) and so big books are always risky if I spend too long reading I may end up abandoning. I think it’s because I start thinking of all the books I could be reading and feel bad. I don’t know.
I Will Stop Buying an Entire Series Before I’ve Even Read the First Book
I often invest in entire series before even reading the first one. It’s stupid really, because I may not even like the series, but I hate the idea of finishing the one book and being left without the rest of the series to immediately start reading. I don’t know why I’m like that. I think it’s because when I was younger and only had my pocket money to spend on books and the library for further reading material I was frequently left hanging partway through a series because the library didn’t have the next book available or I couldn’t afford to buy it. Stuff like that stays with you it seems and leads you to develop some bad spending habits.
I Will Stop Reading Reviews For Books I Want to Read
This is actually something I’ve already started doing. I used to love finding out what others thought about books I was dying to read, but then I started getting put off books I was excited to get reading. I don’t want others to put me off reading something, I would rather make my mind up for myself, so I have started avoiding reviews for books I haven’t read yet. I do try and save them from my favourite bloggers so I can go back and comment later, but that’s a new thing I’m trying to stick with. It’s harder than it seems. I’m always eager to know others thoughts so I sometimes click on without thinking. I need to stop.
I Will Stop Being Tempted by Deals and Buying Books to Complete a Deal
I am a menace for finding cool, supposedly money saving deals, like the 6 for £10 deal at The Works and Amazon’s 3 for £10 deal and various other deals I’ve found across the internet. I inevitably end up buying at least one book in these deals that I have contemplated reading but have never been motivated enough to buy. There is normally a reason I haven’t bought it sooner, so it ends up gathering dust in my room until I force myself to read it. Sometimes I enjoy it, but other times there is a reason for me not buying it. I will stop giving into temptation.
What are your bookish bad habits that you’re trying to quit?
My First Steps Into The World of Shalvis
I can’t quite recall where I first stumbled across Shalvis’s books, I think I saw her name mentioned on a few blogs when I was searching for a good romance book and everyone seemed to be saying good things about her Lucky Harbor series. I decided to give her first book a read. Okay, So What About Favourites?
interesting, and who doesn’t love a sexy sheriff (that’s from the blurb, so it’s not even me that came up with that one. Doesn’t it sound like a bad Halloween costume?).
yet, it’s on the list) and her new Cedar Ridge series. I do admit that Second Chance Summer is a favourite of mine, partially because this one I’ve discovered when it’s just beginning and there is nothing more fun than starting a new series from the beginning. My other reason for it being a favourite is that it’s a second chance romance, something I really didn’t realise I was a sucker for until I started thinking about my favourites here. So Why Should You Be Reading Jill Shalvis’s Books?
What I’ve Been Reading
New To Me
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