Category: Updates

Updates

September 2013 Recap

Geoff W

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 Crake, The 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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Random, Updates

Thank You

Geoff W

So for those of you that have followed The Oddness of Moving Things for a while you’re aware of my personal turmoil or at least aware of the fact that it’s existed over the past year or so. It’s taken a lot to get through the year. I just posted this on Facebook and realized that a lot of it comes from the amazing people I’ve met through here.

It’s amazing where you find yourself year after year: 52 weeks later and I’m happier and healthier than I’ve been in a long time. I’m not as happy or as healthy as I know I’m going to be, but it does go to show that some adages actually are true: time does heal all [emotional] wounds.

So I just wanted to say thank you.

Thank you to those of you who I interact with on a regular basis and even those fleeting few who appear randomly.  Just by visiting and interacting with me you’ve given me the confidence and the support to keep this blog going and to better myself mentally, physically and emotionally over the past three years, but especially over the past year.

Updates

August 2013 Recap

Geoff W

What a busy month! It’s amazing how even though I didn’t work a full week at work the entire month, it feels like I’ve done nothing but work! I guess that’s part of gearing up for the students to return. I did get the amazing postcard, below left, from my friend Courtney who clearly knows me better than she should!

However, reading was seriously delayed this month as I spent TWO WEEKS trekking through Les Misérables and then as soon as I finished I immediately jumped into Austen in August! And the most memorable aspect again was re-discovering the HORRIBLE typo (above right) that occurs in the last 10 pages of my edition of Pride and Prejudice. I mean of ALL the words to get wrong in THAT book, that is not the one you want to misspell. In addition to the original I read three Austen fan-fiction novels (The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen, The Darcys and the Bingleys, The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen) and a Brontë fan-fiction novel, The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë. And surprisingly three of these books were library books! 

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Updates

July 2013 Recap

Geoff W

I read a lot more than I thought I did this month: eleven books. Of those eleven books three were library books, two were galleys, three qualified for 2013 challenges and one was nonfiction. I guess I read so much this month as I was avoiding life so if I wasn’t out walking (84 miles in July so far), I was reading. It’s amazing what you can do when you don’t want to do something else.

July was a busy month, but thankfully rather than a roller coaster ride it was more just one of those rides where you go straight up and then all of a sudden you drop; so only a couple of hiccups, but many self-created (I spend WAY too much time in my mind). On the plus side I completely cleaned my room and organized my desk and a pile of papers which had not been organized since September 2012 (if you’ve read my blog this long you know what happened then) and it was what I needed. It made me feel better and happier than I have in a long time. So now to close out 2013 with a bang or a kiss! 😉

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Updates

June 2013 Recap

Geoff W

This month was a weird month when it came to reading. I read four books, two of which were nonfiction and I think that has to do with why I’ve only read four. Of the four, one was a library book and three have been on my TBR shelf for a very long time. I think the two nonfiction books bogged me down a bit, but I did enjoy stepping out of my fiction comfort zone for a change. The coolest thing of the month is the awesome video I stumbled across from the Seattle Public Library which you should watch here.

On a personal note June, for some reason, was a bit of a roller coaster ride for myriad reasons, many of which have nothing to do with me. Hopefully July will be a little less turbulent and I can pretend I’m on vacation for most of it even though I’m working.

Recent Acquisitions

Apparently late spring/early summer is when I go a little crazy with the book buying! Although, considering how crazy I’ve gone at other times this month was nothing. Above you’ll see the totality of my purchases this month. (I didn’t purchase a single Kindle book, for shame Amazon, for shame.) I’m probably most excited about The Enchantress being released in paperback as I now have all six books and I think a re-read is a must. The others I purchased at the Harvard Bookstore Warehouse sale which is always fun. I stuck only to the remainders tables and went with books I thought sounded interesting. We’ll see when I actually get to them how they are.

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