To Review or Not To Review...

*cough cough* Boy, it's dusty here...oh that's right, I haven't been here in a while. <.<  >.> I guess I should clean this place up! *grabs a broom* =P

I know one of my resolutions was to blog more, but I haven't been keeping to it very well. I've been too busy reading, writing, and working. I know it's an excuse, but it's also the truth. So I figured I'd write my newest blog entry about the books I have just finished reading (which is in line with my 2011 book challenge and one of my resolutions). This post is not so much of a review as it is my recommendation and opinion about these books. (Which is basically a review, I know.)

I just don't really like the idea of "reviewing" something. I don't usually read reviews since I like to figure out things for myself, and I'm usually disappoint in the reviews. For one thing, I tend to like (even love) things that majority of people don't like (sometimes even down right hate...*don't hate*). And sometimes reviews make me "angry" because the reviewers miss things (did they really just read/watch the same thing as me?), get their information wrong (again, did you read/watch the thing you're reviewing?), or write reviews that are hurtful/mean-spirited (if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all!). Anywho, my mini-rant is over...so this isn't a review...it's just me talking about the books I just read in brief terms and chalk full of my singular personal opinion.

Exercising the Mind and the Pen

Back in December, I discovered a wonderful site called “750 Words”. The whole premise of this site is to get people to write on a daily basis, preferably 750 words or more a day. You can read the whole story about the creation of the site on the site's home page (click the link above). And I thought it was a great idea, so I signed up for it (and it's free). Everyday you are given a blank white page in order to write whatever you want, and the site saves your writing automatically. You also get special points and badges for achieving certain goals and whatnot, but the important part is getting yourself writing. For the month of December, I did pretty well. I wrote an entry most of the days and most of the time meeting or surpassing the daily word goal. So I decided to enter the site's monthly challenge of writing 750 words (or more) every day for the entire month. If I "win," my name is placed on the "Wall of Awesome." But if I miss a day or daily word goal, my name is added to the "Wall of Shame" and it cannot be removed until I succeed on another month's challenge. I'm doing pretty good so far and am keeping myself motivated to write daily. I use the site like a journal to take down notes, story ideas, daily events, my blog entries...and now my new writing exercises!

A Reading Challenge for 2011

As I mention in my last post, I'm going to try to read more this year. I used to read a lot of books...so many in fact that I couldn't even keep track of how many books I read in a month, let alone in a year. But as I've gotten older and life has gotten in the way, I've found myself reading less and less. I've started several books, but then I tended to set them down and either lost them or had to turn them back into the library...never picking them back up to finish them ever again. And they weren't bad books...most of them were very good and I want to finish them (if I can ever find them again). Life and other things would just distract me and I would lose interest in them at that particular moment or I would lose the time to read them anymore. But I'm aware of this problem and I hope to correct it this upcoming year because I really do miss reading. It's one of my favorite things to do and I feel it's very important to read. So when I discovered the Book Vixen's "Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge 2011", I thought I'd join! (I found out about this reading challenge through Roni at FictionGroupie.)