Meandering Along

   I’ve noticed that in the past my reading tastes were one particular thing at one particular time. I would go through a phase in which I’d only want historical or only want fantasy or only want something comtemporary. Well, today I realized that I don’t do that anymore. My reading tastes can’t be defined as any one thing. (Except for that fact that I definitely prefer young adult, but I do read some adult or middle grade if it looks good.) I’ve been in something of a reading slump lately. Everything fails to impress me. Even if it was by all technicality a good book, it didn’t make an impression on me. That’s how I rate books. I rate them based on how they made me feel. Maybe the writing wasn’t amazing, but their was a character that I loved more than I’d usually love a character. Or maybe the writing was entirely lovely but the plot was lacking. Either way, there was something in the book that made me feel happy or something, so it got a higher rating. I take the rating system on GoodReads as it is. Five stars: It was amazing. Four stars: Really liked it. Three stars: Liked it. Two stars: It was okay. One star: Didn’t like it. I rate books exactly as that says. Sometimes people take three stars to mean a bad rating. Well, I’m not sure why. Three stars means I liked it. No, it wasn’t the best thing I ever read, but obviously it was far from the worst. If I didn’t like a book, I will not hesitate to give it one star. I have no problem with giving a book one star. I will give a book one star the same way I’ll give a book five stars. If the writing is lovely but I hated the story and the characters, I’ll give it one star. Seriously. I rate on how I feel. A book doesn’t need to have lovely writing and good characterization and a good plot for me to find it amazing. Guess what? I don’t The Goose Girlby Shannon Hale is the best book ever written. Far from it. But Ani is so much like me. And I love Geric. And the writing is pretty, if not flowery at times. Something about Ani has resonated with me from the very first time I read that book over two years ago, and it has since been a favorite. It’s amazing to me despite its imperfections.

But.

The technical things like writing and plot obviously do matter to me. I mean, all I have to do is think of how I’ve ranted on those particular things before. Okay, so I do think Eragonis poorly written, but even if it had lovely writing and a more original plot, I still wouldn’t like it much. A boy and a dragon and the end of the world just isn’t my thing. Besides, I rather like Eragon the way he is. If it were any different, I wouldn’t get to make fun of it. What? Eragon does kind of set himself up to be made fun of…

Anyhoo, so I really kinda meant to put another video up, but I’m having some uploading troubles. I’ve also been very busy today. I’m going to be very busy tomorrow. I’ve g0t church in the morning, shopping and packing in the afternoon, and then youth group, etc. I’m leaving Monday to go up north. I’ll be back Friday. In that span of five days I shall be in Maryland, New Jersey, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. That means a lot of driving. I shall be taking several books. I’m not sure which ones yet. Methinks Airhead, The Juliet Club, Wondrous Strange, and goodness knows what else. So this will be the last blog post until I get back. Hopefully I can post the other two videos when I’m home again. By the way, my vlog is password protected, but if you want the password, just email me. I’ll give it to you unless you’re some random person I’ve never heard from in my life.

Ta-ta for now.

Off to contemplate packing,

Jess

   Well, you see, I have a lot going on right now in my life. Yes, I know I’m done with school until August, but I really do have a lot going on this summer. Blogging just isn’t a priority right now though. It hasn’t been a priority for quite some time. I’m slacking on all things blogging. That includes writing blog posts, reading other people’s blogs, and leaving comments. So instead of stressing over the fact that I write blog posts about once a week now when I used to write a few a week, I think it’s time to say goodbye to blogging for a while. Just…no time to think about it. No time to deal with the stress that can come with writing blog posts. I’d like to get back into blogging sometime. I’m just not sure when. I might throw in a couple random posts this summer, but I might not. So along with this quitting blogging for the time, I’m not sure how much I’ll be reading other blogs. I’d like to check back at some particular favorites from time to time. We’ll see. It all depends on how the rest of this summer goes.

   I’d like to thank all my readers. Your comments are, admittedly, my favorite thing about blogging. I love comments. I like hearing what other people think. I’ve been at this blog for about 21 months, I think. Some of my readers have been reading since I started. I think that’s pretty cool. And I’m thankful for all the readers that I picked up on the way. So thanks for being awesome people.

Ciao.

   I swear I will write an actual post within the near future. I’ve just been so busy lately. Just give me a few more days to do some reading and I’ll write a really bookish post full of bookish thoughts. Depending on how well I like the books I plan to be reading soon, there could also be some snark or gushing. We shall see.

   So…

   First of all… Ahem. For all those of you who were lovely enough to give me some favorite quotes of yours, please scroll down and see the quotes on the sidebar. At least one of everyone’s got posted. (Unless I somehow missed someone. Eek!)

   And then Maya awarded me this:

   So thanks, Maya. I shall award…*thinks* Maribeth with this one.

   And then Danielle awarded me this slightly frightening one.

   This slightly disturbing award to quote is for “The blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the zombie chicken – excellence, grace and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their words.”

   For this award I shall nominate…*thinks again*

   Spider, ’cause she is so gosh darn hilarious.

   Faith, ’cause I just love her to pieces.

   Delaney, ’cause she always makes me smile.

   All righty then. I am off to conquer chemistry. Anyone want to do it for me? Please?

How do you guys like the new theme? I think it’s pretty. Do you like the addition of quotes on the side? (You’ll have to scroll down to see them.) I intend to add more and eventually have a crazy amount of them, but for now I just have those. I know a lot of people use this theme, so I tried to spice it up a bit with my own style.

So I now have a page of books I’ve review or sort of reviewed. I updated the “Thoughts on Bestsellers Page”. Um, what else did I do… I can’t remember. Hang on. Let me look…. Ah, there’s  “What I’m Working On” page. That’s about, well, novels and stuff. I put a bit on there about my new novel. And…I think that’s it…

I thought this endeavor would take a few days, because I’m so busy. But I didn’t have to do school today, so I spent all afternoon working on this blog. Maybe it doesn’t seem like a whole lot was done exactly, but it felt like it. And choosing a header took a ridiculous amount of time.

Anyhow…

How do you like it? It’s weird to me. I mean, I really like it and all. I’m just so used to having a darker theme.

I am declaring today “Yay for Being Single Day!” If you so happen to have a significant other, then good for you. And happy valentine’s day to ya.

However, if you are like me in that you are single and loving the fact that you are single. This one is for you….

HAPPY YAY FOR BEING SINGLE DAY!!!!