Workout Wednesday

Workout Wednesday – October 2013

**If you notice this posting, I’m back posting this. Work has been SO busy that I’m two posts behind and there’s no telling how many more I’ll fall behind. I was able to grab a few moments tonight to quick post these two posts.**

This month was split between really good and really bad when it came to working out and keeping it healthy. My workout streak passed 70 days and then I got sick and have missed almost two full weeks. On top of that I started to eat salads without fruit (see above right) which was a big step for me and they were pretty good, but then in contrast to that I ended up eating really poorly while sick and while work has gotten ridiculously busy (I’m in the middle of three 50+ hour weeks) I’ve been eating out more than I should, but I’m getting back on the ball this coming week, fingers crossed.

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ARC, Books

Book 234: The Bookstore – Deborah Meyler

As with many galleys I end up with, I thought this book was a different book. However, I am glad to have read this one and for a debut novel it was really well written and I mostly enjoyed it. I received a copy from the publisher via NetGalley and received no compensation in return for my honest opinion of the book.

The Bookstore starts and ends with great potential, but never quite lives up to it. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters and the setting of the book, but there was just something missing from it. I’m not sure if it was the writing style, lack of a finite conclusion (even though I did like how it ended) or something else completely, but the entire time I was reading I couldn’t help feeling as if something were missing.

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Books

Book 233: The Demigod Files (Percy Jackson & the Olympians) – Rick Riordan

This was a super short collection of short stories and various addons to the Percy Jackson universe and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m picking up the other short story collection for The Heroes of Olympus series Riordan wrote and can’t wait to read it.

There were three short stories in this book: Percy Jackson and the Stolen ChariotPercy Jackson and the Bronze Dragon, and Percy Jackson and the Sword of Hades. Each one had characters from the Percy Jackson universe that you love, or love to hate and the writing was just as creative and humorous as that in the full length novels. In addition to this, the book is set up as a how-to/introduction guide to Camp Half-Blood and included add-ons about some of the campers, a map of camp, a packing list (diagram) and brief bios of many of the campers and key gods of Olympus.

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ARC, Books

Book 232: Good Boy (Theta Alpha Gamma #4) – Anne Tenino

To be completely honest this book was a waste of time for me. It had so much potential going into it, but I didn’t realize how short it was. I will say that if I had paid for a copy of this book, or waited for a long time on a hold list I would have been that much more disappointed than I was. However, I received a copy of Good Boy from the publisher and received no compensation for my honest opinion of the work.

What bothered me about this book was that it seemed to be a hold over until the next book in the series could be released. And this wouldn’t have bothered me anywhere near as much, but the story brings up quite a few things that I assume are answered in a later story in the series, but why bring them up now in 77 pages, why not write a longer book? I would rather have waited much longer and had this book fully fleshed out, rather than be subjected to the short-story/novella form of this book in its current format.

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Updates

September 2013 Recap

I honestly thought doing monthly recaps might make the year go buy significantly slower, but boy was I wrong. Every time I go to write one of these my first thought is holy hell where did _______ go? And this month’s post is no different. I’m trying to figure out where summer and September went and what I’m going to do knowing October, November and December are going to be even busier!

2013 09-19 Finally Reading RowlingOn the reading front, I had a fun month. I didn’t read a single challenge book and don’t feel any guilt at all. I read what I wanted when I wanted and thoroughly enjoyed it, including FINALLY getting around to reading Rowling’s The Cuckoo’s Calling. (Which was great and I can’t wait until another is released!) I read a total of ten books and two short stories. Of those SEVEN were from the library and three were galleys. I think my favorite read of the month was Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake triology: Oryx and CrakeThe Year of the Flood, and MaddAddam. I went and saw Ms. Atwood speak and thoroughly enjoyed it, but I’ll recap that in this month’s Culture Corner. The trilogy and hearing her speak once again reminded me how much I love her and I think I’m going to make an effort to finish reading her other novels I haven’t read yet.

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