As I promised, here we are with my first writing report, which will be semi-regular posts updating my plans and progress with writing creatively. I thank anyone who is interested in reading these, though I understand that this is less intriguing than my other posts. I want to use these as a way to hold myself more accountable to reaching my writing goals. Even if I don’t always reach them, if posts like these get me writing more often I’ll consider them a success.Read More »
Well here we are a month later, and honestly I’m a little disappointed in myself for not having written any other blog posts since the last one. I did promise another one of these however, so here we are!
Speaking of my last post, I cannot believe I forgot to mention Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett. Shame on me! It was right there in the photo, at any rate. It’s the next book I need to get to in my read-through of the entire Discworld series; I just hope I can enjoy it in its own right because right now I only see it as a stepping stone to reaching Reaper Man.
I’ll soon start an [ir]regular series of blog posts I’m thinking of calling “Writing Reports.” As I mentioned in the last “New Books etc” I want to start using blogging as a way to hold myself more accountable to fiction writing, since it’s something I have a hard time motivating myself to do. It’ll also be a way to share my thoughts and maybe organize ideas better as they’re laid out before me in writing. So, you can expect that in the near future if you’re interested.
Anyway, onto the books!Read More »
As I said in a previous post, I want to start doing some general blogging about books — writing that isn’t formally reviewing books or sharing what I’ve been reading and plan to read next. I’m frequently acquiring and discovering new books (populating a To-Read list on Goodreads that I suspect will never deplete faster than titles are added) and thought it would be fun to give myself a platform to talk a bit about those.
I’ve also been mentally prepping myself more and more for making creative writing a regular exercise. I need to write stories, my state of mind is just weighing me down significantly. Once such writing gets going, I’d like to use posts like these to hold myself a little more accountable to making progress, as well as sharing some of the progress I’ve made. I’m hopeful I will have a better drive to make good on plans I declare more publicly, rather than something I privately think about doing.
Anyway, onto the books!Read More »
Truth be told I’d been wanting to redo the theme of this site for a long time now, the problem was my tendency to procrastinate This was especially the case because my plans had me wanting to do more than just choose a new layout.
As it turns out I was perusing different themes Friday night and accidentally activated one that I didn’t even want to use, which I took as a done deal. My old layout was so stale that even WordPress advised a new one, as it had been “retired,” so with changes happening by accident anyway I decided to get started. I couldn’t just leave it as it was. I guess when you’re hesitant to jump in the pool sometimes it helps to slip and fall in.
The further changes I wanted included reworking the categories going back to day one so that all of my varied non-review posts could be sorted more neatly. Everything now has an organization I’m much happier with. I’ve also used tags to make my reviews accessible from a menu. Lastly, I updated/rewrote some of the pages on the site to freshen things up a bit.
I’m very pleased with the new look, as the old layout was something I settled for when I started and regrettably got too complacent with. I hope you all enjoy the new look too.
One of my new categories is simply “Blog,” and I want to use it to write more off-the-cuff posts like this, maybe once a week or so. While they will occasionally be talking shop like I am here, I imagine, I’d like to use them to talk about books in ways outside of reviews or the WWW Wednesday posts; new books I’ve acquired, series and authors that have caught my attention, or more reflective/introspective ideas I may have about reading and writing.
A review for Universal Harvester by John Darnielle will be up soon, it has just been delayed by all the time I’ve put into reworking the site. I should have it finished and up either tomorrow or Tuesday. Until then, thank you for reading!
I may be having a week off from reading and reviewing, but I still wanted to get a little something posted. Sam from Taking on a World of Words tagged me in this last week, so I thought I’d give it a go 🙂
This tag is originally created by Charly Reynhorse and you can watch the video here.Read More »
Lately I’ve been taking in just how much I still need to get through, not just in terms of books, but all forms of art and storytelling that have been backlogged for years now. I think part of this has to do with coming into my own both as a reader/viewer/etc. and as someone with critical aspirations. When I was in university, the material I had to learn and write about was provided for me and occupied a lot of my time. Now, I have to be the author of my own progress. The problem is, despite progress I feel I have made as a writer, I’m terrible at managing what content I get through.Read More »
Recently, while having a conversation with a friend about books, the subject turned to reading what is generally considered to be “classic” literature. These are the books that are taught in high schools, university courses, and other academic circles. While I personally appreciate the academic reasons and approach to examining this kind of literature (which most people characterize as Literature proper), my friend brought up a very valid point: they’re not only a major chore to get through at times, but contain narrative devices and plot points that would be heavily criticized if done today.Read More »
There is a phenomenon I have experienced throughout much of my life that I haven’t been self-conscious of until very recently. It is an obscure sorrow that I have become increasingly aware of — credit to The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows for inspiring this kind of reflection — and I’ve begun to feel that there are probably a lot of other people who feel the same way.
There are people who love to marathon through shows, movies, speed-run games, or speed read. While they may share my experience, I feel it applies more specifically to the way I go through things. I read a lot, but I’m not particularly fast at it. My pace gets the job done, but I hardly read fast enough to finish even a short book in one sitting. I can spend even greater amounts of time on a game, or a series, where going back to the material becomes a regular routine in my life.Read More »
This past week, while visiting family, my father asked me an interesting question — which I’m sure was inspired by the Halloween season. He asked me if I thought it might be possible in a place where great human suffering had taken place that something could be imprinted upon that location; something that could be measured by science, but right now is outside of human understanding. Essentially, it was a question of whether or not I see any possible truth to cases of hauntings in the world.Read More »
Every now and then while I browse the internet, I come across a certain type of meme. I’ve seen it in various forms, but the central idea is about studying literature and “What the author meant versus what your English teacher says the author meant.” You can see a basic example of the meme here.Read More »
Muse with Me 