I have had a week. I can’t sat bust, because work wise we are currently trying to delay finishing what we are currently doing because we have managed to finish the majority of our account far earlier in the month than usual. I feel like this week has been long, though. Maybe it’s that it has been dragging, I don’t know. I haven’t even had my usual evening seeing friends this week, I don’t think that helped. I tried to go out and just hangout at the pub with one of my friends, but I felt like death, my head was hurting and my eyes would not stay open and I ended up in bed at 9:30pm. I think that is an accurate representation of me week, I’ve been tired but I can’t sleep because the nights are so warm right now.

I am also parentless for the next week. Yesterday, my mom and her partner, Paul, went away for the week down to Cornwall to stay in a converted chapel (I’ve been sent photos, the place has a walkway landing thing and stained glass windows, it is very pretty) and they have left me and my brother to make sure the house is still standing when they return. I am terrible at being independent, I cannot cook to save my life, I consume only frozen food when left to my own devices. That means next week I am either going to be insanely productive as there are less people at home to distract me from posting, or I am going to disappear slightly as I have to fend for myself and do housework, feed the animals, etc. so we shall see.

It has also left me crazy restless. My dog mopes when people go away on holiday and stops eating for a couple of days, but for some reason this restlessness has spread to me. I don’t know what I want to read, I can’t settle on a book. I can’t settle to watch TV. I can’t even settle to browse the internet I don’t know what to do with myself.

I also did some shopping this week. Online shopping of course. I bought some clothes from Dorothy Perkins, and they got delivered very quickly, I was impressed. They got delivered on Wednesday, which is bin day on my street. We have these black wheelie bins you put at the kerb which you put your bin bags in. They are normally left scattered across the pavement in close proximity to your home. I am always the first person home on a Wednesday (I feel it is planned because everyone hates getting the bin in, but family laugh at my conspiracy theory) and so normally I have to retrieve the bin from wherever it has been dumped. Not this week, this week it was in the corner of our driveway, I thought it strange but thought maybe Paul had been home before he went to play golf and didn’t have time to put it away properly. I then found one of those ‘we missed you you were out’ cards that you get for missed deliveries, I thought they might have delivered it next door like my Amazon order was. Oh no, the card said my delivery was in the bin! That’s right, those shiny new clothes I bought got dumped in the bin. I know this is not really an issue, it was in the delivery bag and the bin was empty, but that is not the point. My issue is those bins are tall, I am 5”4, I had to properly climb in the bin to get my delivery, whack my head in there and everything. It has been warm recently, those bins don’t smell pretty, especially not when some knobhead the week before was too lazy to walk five minutes down the road to the park but to put their dog shit in the designated dog bin, instead they used our wheelie bin because it was convenient to them. Sorry, rant over. I apologise. It annoyed me though.

I did get a delivery of some pretty pictures though. I saw a post over at Vivatramp about winning an art print, and there was a discount code for a UK based Etsy shop, the print to win was pretty so I investigated the shop. Print Kitchen is run by a girl named Karys who is lovely. I have never spoken to her, but she is lovely because she gave me a free print and a little note with my order. It was delivered so quickly and I am now planning to leave the house to buy some picture frames for my art. Seriously guys, I have turned twenty three and I am now concerned with buying art for my home. So yeah, the pictures definitely cheered me up after the trauma of sticking my head in my bin to fish around. Now, on to my reading week.

As you can see, I have been on a romance binge again. Despite the fact I have books I’ve ordered, like Landline and The Glass Sentence, to read, I just haven’t been in the mood for them. Ever since I finished the Study series last week I’ve been feeling a bit book restless. I might start the Glass part of that series see if that helps at all. I have to say there were a couple of disappointing reads in there this week. Promise me was rubbish, so predictable, which is not an issue I have with books, because that’s what I like, but I didn’t even like the characters so it just had nothing to redeem itself with. And Wallbanger, whilst a funny book, a perfect light-hearted read after binging on some of these NA books with the dark angsty issues which make these ‘complicated’ characters, it did go on a bit long. Like, I think I wanted it to end about fifty pages sooner than it did. I liked it though.

I fully intended to commit to watching Orange is The New Black this weekend, but then Friday I got an email from Netflix informing season 2 of Hemlock Grove was out. I binge watched the first season when it came out last year, I loved it. I am a fan of supernatural shows like this, it’s a thing. I think it’s a partly because I loved Buffy, so all shows in a similar supernatural vein interest me. I’ve only watched a few episodes, I’m taking it at a slower pace. Partly due to my restlessness this weekend, I just can’t settle, so focusing for four episodes was an achievement for me.

Wow, this is a longer post than normal. I just had a lot of feelings okay guys. If you have any ideas for a good read to help my book restlessness please let me know, I need a decent read I think. One that will hook me, but not leave me with a book hangover. A good palate cleanser of a book maybe?

This is a quick post to tell you all about a little readathon I learnt about via Rachel at Confessions of a Book Geek. It is all about embracing sex in books, and sex in general. Sex is a thing that happens, we cannot deny it because otherwise we would not be here (sorry guys, but your parents have indeed done the deed in order to create you. I happened and I’m sorry you have to think about that).

I like the motivation behind this readathon, because I do think we all need to be a bit more chilled about sex. I’m not saying I do not blush insanely whilst having whispered girly conversations about sex with my friends, but I do talk about it. It’s not a thing to be embarrassed about, so why not embrace talking about sex and reading sex scenes in books? I don’t feel embarrassed about reading New Adult books and these romance fiction, not anymore. I am occasionally embarrassed that I am reading these books out in public, though. Not because I’m ashamed but I am embarrassed because there are just some books that are not destined to be read in public, and some of the hotter books out there are… well… they should be read when you are at home.

I hate people who judge books and judge others for reading books with sex in. There was a whole thing a while back where people were trashing books for having sex in. These were books that were innocent YA books which maturely looked at the topic of sex, it is a thing that a lot of people do, especially when you’re a teen, so why not write about it? Others were going out of their way to shame others for writing about it and reading about it and that is not on. I used to be a person that cringes a bit at the whole romance novel thing, you know the ones. The bodice rippers. The ones with the big hunk of man meat on the cover, shirtless. The ones with the throbbing member within them. I know you know the ones I’m talking about. I thought they were trashy and stupid. I read only serious books with witches and magic in them.

When I was about fifteen or sixteen I first got introduced to ‘chick-lit’ when I borrowed my mom’s libraries books. She read books by Wendy Holden, Jenny Colgan and Jennifer Crusie. These were my first introduction to sex within books. These were the bookish equivalents to rom-coms, but like the more grown up ones not the teen ones. I adored those books. I still grab them out of the library or off of my shelf from time to time because they are such nice books where sex is a thing that happens. I then grew up and Fifty Shades of Grey came out (and it was pretty shocking, I have read more erotic dominant and submissive fanfiction than what is written in those books. Anyway, when those books came out all anyone could talk about was sex, and New Adult fiction came to the fore. Everywhere I look on Amazon there are New Adult books and romance novels and I love it. I really do, it feeds my craving for romance.

I’ve digressed anyway guys. All I wanted to do was to point out a readathon that is happening. I will try and organise a few good posts in the lead up and through the five days. I’m going to have some bookish recommendation posts in the lead up. It will be a good couple of weeks about embracing sex I think. Or, I’m going to try. Sorry if this post is a bit incoherent and rushed, but I only just learnt about this and I want to get the few readers I have interested in something good. Click the image to learn more.

Well the theme from The Broke and the Bookish this week is a bit different. I’ve never really thought about something like this before, especially since I’ve not been a blogger all that long, I can’t really have developed that many bad habits can I?

1. I avoid books which get all hyped up on the blogosphere. I mean, I actively go out of my way to avoid them. I don’t read posts about them, I don’t go out and buy the book unless it was on my radar before all the hype started. You might think that can't be true because I’ve read plenty of hyped books, like Throne of Glass, Fangirl, Open Road Summer, etc. but it’s the hype I try and avoid. If I read too much about a book I develop expectations so when I read you are horribly disappointed, this happened with the Grisha series by Leigh Bardugo. I know everyone loves it, but I just don’t. I am going to get around the third book, because I hate nothing more than leaving a series unfinished, but  I don’t love it like everyone seems to.

2. I don’t post all that often, which is terrible because I love getting comments on my own posts. I attempt to reply to every comment I get, but I am terrible about posting on everyone else's blogs. I am trying to break this habit, if I like a post or have something to say I am trying to post it, but the number of blogs I read and posts out each day, I can’t comment on everything because mostly I have nothing to say.

3. I am a lazy blogger. I will often throw a post together in the space of an hour because I know I should post something, but I put off writing in favour of TV or reading and then have a mad panic in writing something.

4. I often Google words and phrases because despite using a word or phrase often I begin to doubt myself that it is an actual thing and not just a black country thing (I live in an area of the UK which is referred to as the black country, it’s a thing, Google it if you don’t believe me. We have the most shocking accent known to man and we say weird tings at times).

5. I often skip reading people’s reviews of books, even if I want to read it, because they may spoil things for me. Also, I get bored of hearing the greatness or terribleness of a book over and over again. Then, if I already read it then I don’t read reviews because I have my own opinion so why bother ruining it with everyone else's?

6. I don’t read through and do a general check of my blog posts because I hate to read what I write because I am terrible at creating coherent sentences. So, if you notice any spelling errors or general errors in phrasing etc. that would be why.

7. I judge people’s blogs by their design. I know, it’s as bad as judging a book by it’s cover, and I try not to. Sometimes though, it’s just easier to find blogs I think are pretty. It’s also stupid, because I read a lot of posts on my phone or tablet so don’t even get to see the design.

8. I don’t read that many reviews, but I also don’t write that many because I’m worried people don’t care what I think about books, and that what I do have to say is boring. So I tend to try and avoid writing reviews, and when I do write them I don’t want them to be too long. At the same time I don’t want them to be too short either because then it seems like I am reviewing with nothing real to say.

9. I don’t like text posts that have no pictures, but I hate adding too many pictures so I normally end up going from one extreme to the other, I either have too many pictures or none at all.

10. I have more books than time to read and I am eternally incapable of not buying things. I am jealous of bloggers who can enforce a spending ban and also bloggers who can plan what they read so they are forever on top of their TBR pile. My TBR pile is expanding on both my kindle and around my room.

I don’t know where the first half of the year has gone. I know they say time flies and all that, but this is ridiculous. I can’t believe it is now two years since I graduated uni and I am no nearer to having my life figured out. At this rate it will be December before I know it. Crazy times.

I almost forgot to do this summary post this week, I know, bad Becky. I blame it on The Walking Dead game. I downloaded season 1 on my tablet and I just haven’t been able to stop. I wasn’t even sure I was going to get it, but the first episode was so good that I couldn’t say no to buying the season, it helped I had some Google Play credit to spend. Seriously guys, you need a way to spend a weekend I would strongly recommend this game. I’m gonna get season 2 once I finish, and there’s a similar game for Fables which I want, but it’s not currently in the android appstore, it is in the Amazon one though, so we shall see.

I’ve been a semi productive reader this week, I think. I have binge read two series though. I finished off the rest of the Study series (or whatever it’s called) by Maria V Snyder in the first two days of the week, I then thought I should take a break from the series and started on The Guild Hunter by Nalini Singh because that’s been on my radar for a while and I figure they are easy reads. The series is pretty much what you expect, a girl kicking ass and a ridiculously good looking Angel who is cold and aloof but has such depths of emotion you cannot understand him. It’s cheesy and I love it, I love series like this. The only reason I didn’t stay curled up with this series all weekend is because they went and changed the protagonist in the next two books. Don't get me wrong, I love a series developing secondary characters, but I’m not a huge fan of a series switching perspective part way through. I’ll get back to them soon enough I’m sure.

I was totally going to be all like, yeah I’ve just watched all of Orange is the New Black this weekend and can now understand what everyone has been raving about, but then I didn’t end up watching any TV. So that went out of the window.

I finally have been to Nando’s though, and mine, unlike this one in Leicester, did not run out of chicken. You may be wondering why it’s a big deal that I’ve finally been to Nando’s and I’ll tell you. I love chicken, it is basically the only meat I eat, so to have never been to a restaurant that serves chicken is ridiculous. Also, it seems like Nando’s is totally a big thing, who knew right? It was alright, I don’t think it deserves all the hype, but food is food and it was nice to see some of my friends so I can’t complain.

I suppose I’ll get back to The Walking Dead, I had a plan for this weekend. I was going to do lots of online shopping to sort me out some clothes for my holiday in September and that just hasn’t happened, instead I lost my weekend to a game, but at least I’ve had fun. Also, I did buy a couple of books, I cannot wait for them to arrive Monday.

I am a binge reader. It is something I have been ever since I started reading. I clearly remember going to the library getting our 5 or six books each week and just binging on them. I would try and get out entire series at a time and I would finish them by the end of the weekend. If you think I am lying about this, I am not. I would visit the ‘teen’ section of the library (this was back in the days before YA as a genre was a thing) and I would pick out my books. I would rush home from town and read. I would have a book glued to my hand for an entire weekend. It got to the point that I could estimate how long it would take to finish a book by the length of it and plan my days around it. I would forego sleep to finish a really good series, I would read as soon as a woke up and continue reading until I could no longer keep my eyes open. I would finish a series and be lost without another book to read in that world. I regularly got out my favourite series from the library just to revisit.

I binge in all aspects of my life, though. I binge on TV series, I clearly remember turning sixteen and I spent all my birthday money on buying the Buffy the Vampire series on DVD and then I spent my evenings after school watching it. I knew how long it would take to finish a disc and would aim to watch 2 discs a night. I literally became a hermit. I barely saw people, it was probably a really unhealthy thing to do at sixteen, but I enjoyed it so much.

So, I know binge reading is not the best way to read. I often end up skimming pages in a book because I am so involved in a story that I must find out what happens, and as I read during my lunch hour and on my commute I am often limited in time, and cannot stop reading when I reach the end of a chapter, like at home. The way I read means often I do not savour a book, I dive in head first and immerse myself completely. Then I am so absorbed I read to the exclusion of all things around me. I do not appreciate books as much in some ways I suppose, I miss the intricacies. It also means I am always at major risk of a book hangover. I get so involved in books, and read at such speed that sometimes I finish a book too soon, and my mind is still caught in the pages. I am then lost trying to find another book to immerse myself in.

I sound like I’m a complete recluse, I’m really not. I just have self control issues. I am incapable of reading a book a few chapters at a  time. Instead I must carry on reading until I reach the end, or until something comes along which requires me to stop reading, such as reaching my stop on the bus. I don’t believe the way I read is in anyway a bad thing, but sometimes I do feel like I might be missing out by overindulging in this way. I don’t miss out on the enjoyment, but I certainly think the different ways in which I read affects the experience of the reader. But then again, each readers experience is individual so who is to judge how reading affects that. I don’t know.

Anyway, does anyone else binge read and do you think it changes the way you read a book? Do you think you miss out on things by speeding through a book and not savouring the story a bit? I don’t believe I enjoy books any less from the way I read, I’m simply curious if anyone else has the same experience from reading as I do.