October was a rough month for the obsessive bookseller. Some of you might know that I’ve been dealing with a crippling dual-wrist injury and I had a particularly bad flareup right at the beginning of the month. I didn’t even know if I was going to be able to keep my new job, so the blog kind of got put on the back burner while I focused every energy I had on getting better. I am not totally healed yet, but things are looking better.
In addition to all of that, I lost my Grandmama… Like I said, it has been a really rough month. I might do a small tribute post for her later to celebrate the life she had, but for now I’d like to just talk about the number one thing we had in common: our love of books.
Books Read:
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- Shifting Shadows by Patricia Briggs
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- Reboot by Amy Tintera
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- The Assassin King by Elizabeth Haydon
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- I Want it That Way by Ann Aguirre
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- The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey
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- Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
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- The First Confessor by Terry Goodkind
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- Magician’s Apprentice by Trudi Canavan
I have a love-hate relationship with the books I read this month. The top row was fantastic – I especially loved The Assassin King – but the bottom row left a little to be desired. I didn’t like The First Confessor or The Magician’s Apprentice at all, and the other two were solid three-star books but left a little to be desired (don’t hurt me! I know many, many people who loved both). I am actually a little proud of myself because all of these books at one point or another were on my “books I REALLY want to read” list, so at least I’m consistently picking up high-priority titles… Life’s too short to do anything else.
Books Reviewed:
Shifting Shadows by Patricia Briggs – 5/5 stars!
Nightshade by Andrea Cremer – 4/5 stars
Well, if I was going to review only two books I guess these are as good as any. I think the covers of both are gorgeous and they are both paranormal werewolf books that I’d highly recommend, so there you have it.
Top Ten Tuesday Features:
Top Ten Series I Want to Start!
I think I am finally at that point where most of the TTT topics are starting to repeat themselves. I’ve been participating in the feature for well over a year now and, although the topics are worded differently, the books I would choose are nearly identical to the lists I did ages ago. Because of this, I probably should consider dropping the feature unless it’s a topic I’m really inspired by. It’s actually my most popular feature, but I can’t help but think a lot of those are just “hey, I’m commenting on this post so hopefully you will come comment on mine” type of visits that really aren’t helping anybody out. Although, I have met some amazing bloggers through the feature… Hell, I don’t know. I guess a lot will depend on how fresh the topics are going forward. I think I’m making this a lot more complicated than it has to be.
Waiting on Wednesday Features:
Okay, so I admit my lack of activity with this feature has less to do with what I’ve been going through and more to do with the lack of upcoming titles on my book horizon Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of books coming out that I want to read between now and next May, but I’ve kind of sort of already featured them all. For the record, The Heir is very near the top of that priority list.
That’s my month in reading… How was yours?
The Obsessive Bookseller 
Sorry to hear about your Grandmama. :( *HUGS*
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Aw thanks – you’re a sweetheart! :)
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I am so, so sorry to hear about your grandfather. October is always a hard month for me because of similar reasons, so I know how…well just how everything kind of stops. And I hope you feel better! Wrist injuries are some serious business. (like 90% of musicians get tendonitis – luckily I’ve been able to scale back and take care of things before it’s gotten to be full blown, but I’m definitely aware/paranoid about how debilitating it can be). Hopefully November will look up.
I definitely pick and choose my TTT posts, and even if there are some (like this week’s) that I think are interesting, if it’s feeling like a chore, I just don’t do it. I’ve also stopped responding to comments that are clearly just there to promote traffic to their blog (although I still stop by theirs, because well…I just feel compelled to do it haha). It’s actually one of my biggest pet peeves; it just immediately sucks all the energy out of me. (And then because I’m passive aggressive – unless they have a list I’m excited about – I leave them an equally short, inane comment. Because I’m vindictive and it makes me feel better.) I also pretty much just stop by the TTT posts of bloggers I already follow/the bloggers who commented on mine, because no matter how excited I am about people’s lists, it gets tiring after a while!
In any case, I’m glad you’re back and hopefully things start looking up soon!
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Thank you for your sympathy. :-) when someone has something in common with me I usually say “I’m glad someone can relate!”but in this case not so much… I’m sorry for your loss too.
It’s awful feeling like you might not be able to do something you love because your body won’t hold up to the strain – I am so glad to hear you caught it before it became irreversible. I wish I’d had the common sense to do the same. Mine was work related, so I pushed on a lot longer than I should have. Luckily, everything in my life seems to be working out so that I can function again like a normal person.
You’re good for going back and visiting when people comment on your site. I always have the best intentions, but just never seems to be enough time. I admit I’m a little vindictive when I reply to the two word comments on my page though. There just doesn’t seem to be any TTT topics that I haven’t done before lately… Although the end of the year recap ones are coming up and I really like those so there’s hope.
I want to thank you for leaving such a thoughtful comment – it really made me smile when I needed one. :-)
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