Books Etc. is Turning Four!

Image via The Daily Awe

I cannot believe that it's been four years since I started this blog. Between last year's three year blogaversary and now a lot has happened. So, let's get started!

The day before my third blogaversary was one of the best book events I've ever attended...and I helped plan it! Because I was unemployed, I had some time to work with authors Samantha Stroh Bailey and Lydia Laceby on bringing Book Buzz to Toronto. The event was absolutely amazing and I am so proud of what we put together.

Nine amazing chick lit and women's fiction authors...and me.

Work-wise, the past year has been better than the year before. I started a four month grant-funded job in April and then moved straight into a full time position this past September. Things are still a little rocky and I don't know when I'll stop panicking about money but at least now I can breathe a little easier and attend a few more book events! If you've noticed that I've been slacking in posting lately, it's because of this new job. I have a crazy commute and an early morning so blog writing and reading has fallen by the wayside. I'm hoping I figure out a solution soon!

Speaking of book events, I didn't go to many over the past year. In February, friend and fellow blogger Natalie (of Browsing Bookshelves) and I went to our local library to hear a talk about animals and Jane Austen. I also went to my second Emily Giffin event which I loved mostly for the girls night out vibe than actually meeting the author again. A week later I got to meet Jennifer Weiner at a signing and it was amazing. In early September I went to a signing with four awesome Atria authors (K.A. Tucker, Colleen Hoover, Jamie McGuire, and Abbi Glines) and Tucker recognized my name and Twitter/Instagram avatar. Late September had me traveling to Midland to help sell books with my best friend at two Joseph Boyden events. He's amazing.

One of the best books ever. And the nicest authors ever. 

Once again, because I wasn't working, I had a lot of time to read. Silver lining, right? And I've read a lot of great books in the last year: Gayle Forman's Just One Day and Just One Year, three of K.A. Tucker's (Ten Tiny Breaths, One Tiny Lie, and Burying Water), Just Friends with Benefits by Meredith Schorr, Hard Hats and Doormats by Laura Chapman, and Judy Greer's memoir I Don't Know What You Know Me From, just to name a few.

I finished Allegiant last November (I didn't hate it but I did have a bit of a meltdown after reading it) and watched Divergent on opening night. I finally read The Fault in Our Stars (bawled my eyes out) and watched it on opening night (the theatre was full of sobbing teenagers and the mothers, no lie). All Shailene Woodley, all the time, apparently.

Many tissues were harmed in the reading of this novel.

One of the very best reading decisions of this past year has been rereading the Harry Potter series. There were a bunch of us bloggers who have been wanting to reread the series but hadn't been able to fit it into our reading schedules. We banded together and decided this would be the year we finally reread it (or read it for the first time, in some cases). I will always say that the Harry Potter series is one of my favourites but rereading it reminded me of how amazing it really is.

Two pretty awesome bookish things happened this year. The lovely Lucie Simone contacted me awhile back and asked if I would be willing to read manuscripts for her small press Simon and Fig. Getting a glimpse into the world of an indie publisher has been so cool. The second awesome thing is that I'm now writing book reviews for a real publication! Niagara Life is a magazine published by one of our local newspapers and it comes out every two months. It is a super amazing feeling to be paid for doing what I love - writing about books!

I'm published. Mind. Blown

The very best thing to happen was my trip to Australia. It was a once in a lifetime experience (that I'm really hoping I can have again). I can't even really begin to explain how amazing it was (which is probably why I haven't finished the posts I've been meaning to write for almost six months...) but I can link to the post where I talked about all the bookish parts of my trip. And urge you to visit Australia if you haven't!

Most of the books I read on my trip!

Overall, the last year has been...well, it's been interesting. Some awesome stuff (Australia! Jennifer Weiner! Reviewing for Niagara Life!) and some not so awesome stuff (not having a job for so long). But, I think this year has been more positive than negative. So that's something, right? :) Thank you, so very much, for reading. I think you're awesome, no matter if you've been here from the beginning or are a new follower. I hope I can continue to grow as a blogger and bring you great, honest reviews for many years to come. Here's to another great year!

PS I think it's super cool that I was able to work it that this post is number 600 on Books Etc. I can't even wrap my head around that!

Life as a Bookworm: A Reader in Australia

Many of you know that I had a trip of a lifetime a couple of months ago. Thanks to my superstar family, I was able to accompany my boyfriend, Luke, and his dad as they travelled to Australia to visit their family. It was, in a word, incredible. I've been meaning to write about the trip for ages (we've been back for over two months now) but just haven't gotten around to it. I discovered a solution for this procrastination: writing multiple posts! In this one I will strictly talk about the bookish things I did and encountered while I was there. In another post (which will come sooner rather than later, I hope) I'll write about the awesome things we did and saw.

First up...when going on a sixteen day vacation, which includes a mother effing long plane ride (thankfully, with no mother effing snakes...sorry, bad joke), what does a bookworm plan to pack first? Books, of course.

This was the stack that accompanied me to the other side of the world. My plan was to complete the following (links lead to reviews):

Delicious! - Ruth Reichl
Then and Always - Dani Atkins
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J.K. Rowling
Cure for the Common Break Up - Beth Kendrick
I Don't Know What You Know Me From - Judy Greer
The Never Never Sisters - L. Alison Heller
The Man Test - Amanda Askell
Love and Chaos - Gemma Burgess (which I just realized isn't in the picture...annoying...and I'm too lazy to retake it!)
Twisted Perfection - Abbi Glines

That may seem ambitious, even for a speedy reader like myself but I'm happy to report that I have now read all of them, with the exception of Twisted Perfection. Woot!

My sister and I went to Florida two and a half years ago and I read on the plane with no issue. We would be flying for almost 20 hours all together this time around which meant tons of time for reading! Part way through our flight to LA I realized the worst: I could no longer read on a plane. Nooooooo. A headache hit almost as soon as I tried to focus on the pages so that plan was out. I managed to get a few pages read here and there on all flights but it just wasn't enough. Ah well.

I hadn't actually intended on taking Delicious! with me. I was about two thirds of the way through by the day we left and I just couldn't leave it behind. I finished that one on our first or second day there when we were being pretty low key and just hanging around the house (and recovering from our jet lag). We were staying with Luke's aunt and uncle and since they are both readers, they had no problem with me snuggling on the couch with my book. Once I finished Delicious! I finished Then and Always (so-so), Cure for the Common Break Up (loved), which I had to have read for blog tours, and The Never Never Sisters (ok but ultimately forgettable) in quick succession.

My view from the living room. Bliss.

Early on in our visit, I was brought to the bookstore in the small town of Kingsliff (next to the tinier town we were staying in). It's called Boardwalk Books and it was delightful. It was here I first realized how accustomed I've become to using my phone's camera. It's easy to take a sneaky picture of a store or something with a phone but not so much with a point and shoot (and especially not with the boyfriend's fancy pants camera). I really wanted a picture of the store but it just would have been too awkward! So just imagine a super cute little bookstore, ok? It was interesting to see the different book covers (I actually saw Delicious! there with a lovely bright blue cover). Some were the Canadian covers, some English, some American. And the prices! Hoo boy. I saw The Cuckoo's Calling there in a trade paperback size (not the small pocket book paperback but larger). Amazon.com has the print copy listed at $18.00 (before discounts) and Chapters Indigo has it listed at $20.00 (before discounts). In the store in Australia? $30. The price of a hardcover in Canada. Ack.

My sole purchase in the bookstore? This beauty:

This is the British cover and title of Sarah Dessen's Keeping the Moon. I already own that one but I don't have this cover. I just had to have it. She's my favourite author, after all.

The face of a happy (but jetlagged) bookworm.

I had brought my laptop with me on our trip because I knew I'd have to do some blogging. And, ok, I may be mildly addicted to social media. Here was my second reading related problem: no wifi. It may seem ridiculous but I just about lost my mind. On the one hand, it was really awesome to not have a constantly dinging phone and to be able to really be present in the moment. Highly recommended for all trips. BUT. I had blogging to do as I had assumed I would have wifi and didn't plan ahead and schedule posts. So, I did what any bookworm without wifi would do...I went to the library! The Kingscliff library was pretty small but it seemed to get the job done for its patrons. I didn't look around too much since I only had limited time there. Unlike my local library, you could only use the wifi (with the accompanying password) for two hours. My favourite thing about the library was the scenery. It was nestled into some trees and it was really nice to look out at the greenery while writing. The only downside of its locale was the need for the snake warning sign. Thankfully I never saw any snakes while I was there!

The second week of our trip had us staying in a farm house with Luke's uncle's son and his wife and his son and his girlfriend (Jodie). (Confused yet? Welcome to my vacation...I needed a family tree!) One of the first things I did was check out the bookshelves they had in the house. It was a holiday rental house and I was happy to see they had a good variety of books for the tenants to browse. Including two books by Canadians! If I remember correctly there was a Rohinton Mistry novel and a Margaret Atwood novel (there were also a couple of Atwood books in the bookstore).

This farmhouse gave this bookworm a couple of awesome things. The first was a fellow twenty something female reader. Jodie and I hit it off right away, especially when we realized we were both huge readers. She was reading a Nicholas Sparks novel when she arrived, which was a departure from her usual reads, and our discussion evolved from there. She actually gave me that Sparks book to take home with me since I hadn't read it yet. Not only was that very nice of her, it's also cool because its cover is one I wouldn't be able to get here. Once I learned she had read and loved The Hunger Games I told her she needed to read Divergent asap. She agreed and a month or so later I got a tweet from her saying she read it and did love it. Book pusher success! Then, just a week or so ago, she sent me another tweet in which expressed her displeasure for the end of Allegiant. Oops. :)

The second awesome thing about this house was the view we had. Oh my goodness, it was beautiful. My favourite reading spot was on the second floor balcony. It was so easy to get up at 7am, have a tea and biscuits, and read. Just look at this!

I spent a fair bit of time out there...

I also got some reading done on my birthday in a different, but equally beautiful, spot:

HP on my birthday with Mt. Warning in the distance. Love.

Sigh. I would like to go back now, please.

As I mentioned, I got almost every single book read (or at least started) while I was away. I saved Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for the day before and day of my birthday as an extra treat. We stayed in a hotel the night before and while Luke and his dad watched TV, I happily read and drank some tea (hey, that rhymes...). Love and Chaos was a perfect holiday read - it's about a group of twentysomething girls in Brooklyn. The Man Test let me down, sadly, so I rushed to finish it before I got on the plane in Brisbane. I started I Don't Know What You Know Me From on the plane from Brisbane to LA and got a fair bit done before the headache took over. This was also a great non-fiction vacation read (and a great read overall) and I got another chunk done in LA while waiting for our flight back to Toronto.

And that's that. The bookish part of my wonderfully awesome trip to Australia. Stay tuned for another post (or maybe two...) on the rest of my vacation. Spoiler alert: there will be koala pictures!

Life as a Bookworm: Am I in a Slump?

I've been a lucky blogger. In the almost four years since I've been blogging, I haven't really hit a rough patch or a slump. I hear bloggers talking about it all the time but I never experienced it myself.

Until now.

Yes, my friends, I've hit a wall. But, the good thing is I think I know why.

If you've been following along with my life and posts, you'll know that I was unemployed for a good chunk of 2013 and part of 2014. While that sucked (A LOT) for my wallet and mental well being, it was great for Books Etc. I had lots of time to read, in between searching for jobs of course. And I was able to write reviews as soon as I finished the book so I could move onto my next read. This is huge for me, and for a lot of other bloggers, because we want to get our thoughts on one book out and recorded before moving on to the next world, er, book. Because I wasn't constrained by a work day, I could finish a book at 10am, bang out the review, and move onto another book that afternoon. It was great.

Then the sky parted and rainbows and unicorns arrived to deliver me a job. Wahoo! Finally, I'm back to contributing to the world and making (a little bit of) money.

But...that means I'm back to only being able to read at lunch time or after work. Reviews must be written in the evening when all I want to do is hang out with the boyfriend, watch TV, go out with friends, or play with my pet bunny. Once I started my job I realized that I had completely forgotten how to balance work, life, and blogging. It doesn't help that I work at a very busy and very small non-profit so lunch breaks are basically only for making sure you're nourished. I stretch it out and make sure I take a half hour break but that's not a lot of time for reading and eating (and chatting to coworkers and volunteers since you're eating in the communal kitchen/office where everyone is). So, it's not uncommon for me to start a book at Monday at lunch and only be halfway through by end of day Friday. In fact, this has happened the last three weeks in a row and it's super frustrating.

I suppose I can be glad that this slump I'm in doesn't seem to affect my desire to read. I know some bloggers just don't feel like reading what they "have" to and that puts them off all books altogether for awhile. Sure, my TBR pile is daunting as hell and I don't know how I'm going to get all of them read but at least I'm excited about reading them. I still have a healthy sense of "I'm blogging because I want to and even though all these lovely authors and publishers want me to read their book ASAP I will get to it when I can and when I am in the mood for it" and I think that has helped.

It's funny that this slump seems to be focused around the physical act of blogging and promoting. I love writing (but no, I'm still not ready to write a novel), I love interacting with other readers (I could happily talk about books ALL DAY), and I love social media. But, for some reason, I'm loathing the time I have to put into sitting down and writing something. I cannot tell you the last time I actively set out to comment on others' blogs. And I've been so focused on making the social media channels at work awesome that I don't feel like managing another page when I come home. It's weird, right?

I'm trying to get better. I know that I'm having a sort of scheduling crisis and I'm being mindful of setting aside time to read and write. For example, this weekend I'm heading up to my mom's house up north and I hardly ever get time to read when I'm visiting. We're a family of readers but I don't visit nearly enough so we want to spend time together actually doing things instead of immersed in our own little worlds. But this weekend I must make time to read. (Sorry, Mom.)

Thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts. I'm hoping putting this out there will help turn things around somehow. And maybe someone out there has an awesome tip for me (please share!). But for now I'll just keep plugging away at my TBR list and fitting in the actual blogging work when I can. That's just going to have to be ok :)

Life as a Bookworm: Not Write Now

No, that's not a typo up there in the title of this post. My (not so) clever play on words has to do with the fact that I do not want to write a novel. At least, not right now. But why am I sharing this? Well, this is something that comes up more often than you'd think in this book blogger's life. I had a job interview a week or so ago (it had nothing to do with books - it was for a retail position because that's where I'm at in life right now...sigh.). During the interview I explained why, after leaving my full time job to pursue a publicity internship at Random House of Canada, I was not working in publishing. The interviewer thought that perhaps I wasn't working in publishing not because I don't want to live in Toronto (I really don't) or because I don't want a publishing job enough (I'm still not sure) but because I'm meant to work with books in another way. By writing them myself. The interview moved on to other, more relevant, topics but that idea stuck with me for the rest of the day.

Why am I not writing a novel?

The simple answer is that I just don't feel like it. And, really, that's the only answer I need.

This topic came up after BookBuzz Toronto last year as I was the token non-author in our group. The women I was with asked me, and rightly so, if I ever thought about writing a book. Writing novels is, after all, what they love to do.

The truth is that I have thought about it. I have a few half-formed ideas floating around in my head but that's all there is and that's all there will be for awhile.

If I'm remembering correctly, one of the women told me that if I don't feel the desire to get a story idea onto paper (or screen, I suppose), then it's not going to go anywhere. I've talked to, and consider myself friends with, enough authors to know that deciding to write a novel is a big deal. It's not a serious decision or a life or death one, but it's one that you shouldn't enter into lightly. You have to dedicate time and energy into creating the best possible story. And if you don't really have that burning desire to get those thoughts and characters out there, then you're just not going to want to dedicate the time to write the thing, let alone decide what to do with it after you're finished.

I love writing. I always have. I was a diary writer and aspiring poet when I was growing up (oh boy, I do not want to reread some of the angsty stuff I must have written when I was a teen). My high school yearbook has "journalist" listed as my dream job next to my grad picture (though now that I'm dating a journalist I realize that is so not the job for me). I have countless notebooks that are just waiting for ideas to fill their pages. Keeping this blog is a way to continue writing in a way that works for me right now. That's why you see posts like this popping up more and more on here.

And, ok, maybe there's a bit of fear in this decision, too. I can review books and critique what I read with the best of them...but can I really do any better than those authors I'm reviewing? I worry that my writing wouldn't be good enough. That my story wouldn't be interesting enough. That I wouldn't be able to find an audience. And those worries are sort of overpowering any other thought at the moment. I'm sure every single author has those same worries but the difference is that they push past those fears and worries and write anyway. Why? Because that's what they're meant to do. I may not have any freaking idea what I'm meant to do at this point (you'd think at almost 27 that I would, but no) but I realize that I'm not meant to write a book. Yet.

I know that, if I ever decide to take the plunge and write a book, I have a great group of women to advise me. I've been lucky to meet some amazing authors through my blog and I know there's more than one who would be happy to give me a hand, should I need it. But, for now, the only writing you'll see is on this blog. Maybe on other sites if someone wants me to write words for them. "Author" isn't a title I'm looking to add to my name yet but feel free to keep asking. Maybe my answer will change one day. You never know.

Tales of the Unemployed Bookworm

Time to get a little personal. If you're a friend or family member or if you follow me on Twitter, you know I'm not working right now. And I'm kind of losing my mind.

Some background on how I got here: I graduated from university with a degree in communications just over four years ago, graduated from a one year college event management program just over three years ago, and have held two "real and grown up" jobs in non-profits since then. Last fall I decided to take some courses in publishing because, obviously, I love books. I then decided to apply to some internships because I felt like it was a now or never type situation. I was lucky enough to get hired as a publicity intern at Random House of Canada. You can read my full recap here but the short story is that it was a hell of an experience that left me exhausted (ridiculously long commute) but educated. Then I fell into my internship at Project Bookmark Canada (recaps here and here). I loved it there (combined my love of books and reading with my non-profit knowledge) but that too came to an end in June. It's now October and I've been doing nothing but job hunting, reading, blogging, and watching TV and movies since then. Yeah, I know it sounds great but it would be a hell of a lot better if I didn't have to worry about money!

It's been a really hard road the past few months. I go from being angry to depressed to indifferent pretty much weekly (apologies to my boyfriend...I'm sure I'm not fun to live with). It's still not a great time to be looking for jobs which drives me crazy. I was in the same position FOUR years ago when I was applying for jobs straight out of university. I almost think it might have been easier...now I feel like I have a weird mix of too much experience for some things and not enough experience for others. I've been lucky, as people keep telling me, that I've had six interviews over the past three months. But...I've also had five rejections. (The last interview was just on the 11th.) And that hurts. Sure, my resume is getting through but why am I not getting chosen for the position? I've only had one real explanation of all the "thanks but no thanks" replies so I'm left to just guess. When I did get a call I wasn't really given enough time to ask why I wasn't chosen. And let's not even get into the number of jobs I haven't heard from. I've lost count of the places I've applied to. I couldn't even tell you the ones I still have a possibility of hearing from. I'm not sitting around waiting for something to fall into my lap. I'm searching every day and applying where I can.

Part of my problem is that I just don't know what I want to do with my life. I've never really known. I wasn't one of those kids who said "I want to be a 'insert job here' when I grow up!" Hell, I didn't even know what to choose for my major when I went away to school. So, here I am, at 26, still not knowing what I want to be when I grow up. The things I know: I love books, I like writing (but I don't want to write a novel), I could copy-edit but I don't think I'm good enough, I don't mind working for non-profits but I'd really like to stay away from the actual fundraising, I can plan events, I don't think I want to be a librarian (and don't want to go through a Masters program to discover I don't want that), I don't want to live in Toronto (where every single publishing job is in Canada), and I'm good at communications/marketing. So where does that get me? So far...nowhere.

I'm trying really hard to stay positive. I'm so lucky that family members are able to help me out financially and I've got my boyfriend, bunny, and a few friends at home (plus others elsewhere in the province) to keep me from going insane (though I'm sure I talk to Tonks more than necessary...but that's what pets are for, right?).

I'm happy that I've been able to make a huge dent in the books I want to read and have to read and I've been able to blog on a regular basis. I've also watched lots of TV shows and movies. I'm trying to enjoy this as much as I can because I know I'll miss my freedom once I do get a job. But it's still frustrating.

I know I probably rambled and overshared but I felt like this post needed to get out there. If you have any tips or suggestions, I'd love to hear them. I'm sure there's something out there that I haven't considered. Thanks for listening and putting up with me! Now, if you'll excuse me, I must get back to hunting for a job...

Update: Later on on the 16th, the day this was posted, I got an email telling me I didn't get the job I interviewed for on Friday. My feeling is the manager made the decision right away as he said he had a lot more interviews to do and we had a holiday weekend here. And, it was another email rejection (I've had three phone call rejections, two email, and one snail mail). Not only that, but it was a form one from head office so I actually had to look up which position it was - the one I had interviewed for or the one I hadn't heard from yet. Being completely honest: I didn't want this job. It was retail and I swore when I left almost 3 years ago that I'd never go back. Every time I thought about having to work there again I cringed and got depressed. Guess I don't have to worry about it now...