Raw Data:
17 Books (2 of them DNF’s)
6047+- Pages (DNF’s make it harder to get accurate numbers)
3.44 Average Star Rating
The Bad:
Curse of the Wendigo 1/2 Star. Ugh, ugh, ugh.
Thorn of Dentonhill 2 Stars. Just too young adult/stupid character for me to like.
The Good:
The Monster Hunter Files 4 Stars. Except for just a couple of stories, loved this collection.
Stranger of Tempest 4 Stars. Just a lot of fun that I enjoyed even with some issues.
Graphic Novels & Manga:
Both of my Robinverse reads and my OMG read were enjoyable. Don’t want to take that for granted.
Personal:
January ended on a really bad note and is having effects all the way through February that will have repercussions for the rest of the year. Mrs B ended up in the ER for 2 days and I was throwing up all night, and it was all about stress. We both took this past week to abstain from online entertainment and to do some serious praying together as a couple. We’re going to be taking the month of February to decide what to do. Just so it doesn’t sound all mysterious and crap, we’re having some interpersonal issues with another couple at church and it has reached the point where we are having to decide if we want to stay there. This is a very big issue for us and don’t want to treat it lightly. As such, while I’ll be posting again, I am not planning on visiting anyone else’s sites during February. I am also probably going to be posting only book reviews and use this time as a hiatus from any of the other non-review posts. Nothing personal, just have to prioritize where my attention is going for this month. . Thanks for understanding.
I would also like to thank each one of you that has commented in the last week. I know I haven’t replied back or liked anyone’s comments, etc and I don’t plan to go back over things in my notification bar, but I want to make sure you know that I do appreciate your thoughts and words. From here on out, I’m going to keep up with it as it should be a lot smaller since I’ll not be visiting and commenting around the blogosphere.
Cover Love:
Stranger of Tempest wins this month’s Cover Love easily! I fell in love with the cover when Bookwraiths put it up on one of his “Looking Forward To” kind of posts. And I still love it months, err, years (!?!?!) later 🙂
Self-care is so important, so it’s great you know what your priorities are. Whilst we will miss your funny comments, don’t worry we will all still be here when you are able to get back to it.
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Yeah, in the big picture 1 month is barely a blip. But since we’re in the middle of it all, a month seems like a lifetime. This past week in fact felt like a whole bloody month!
Thanks for sticking around 😀
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If you want some advice on personal conflicts … oh, wait, you probably want advice on avoiding or resolving personal conflicts. My field of expertise is more in the “starting” sub-branch of the discipline.
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Yeah, resolving would be the best option at the moment. Leaving for another church is kind of a last ditch option that we don’t want but it is on the books…
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Love the Round Up design at the top!
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Thanks. I use ipiccy.com with the gunmetal font and a sandstone variant for color. I like that the overall frame is just the right size for fitting in my smaller book cover pix as well 🙂
I’ve tried one or two other free collage sites and they used squares, which cut off the book covers and it wasn’t very attractive.
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I hope everything with Mrs. B is okay! Things are sounding really stressful for you right now, please take care.
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She’s doing ok after a megadose of antibiotics in the hospital. Now’s it a matter of de-stressing and making sure we don’t get in the same situation again.
Thanks. This past week has felt like a month, so I’m not sure how long February is going to end up being 🙂
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Hang in there my friend. My prayers are with you both. In my experience, some church going people are not ‘better’ than non-going church people. Go figure…
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Thank God it’s not being better that gets us into Heaven, right? 😀
I’m also reminded that even St Paul and Barnabas had a bad enough fight that they had to split and go their separate ways. I guess we’re in good company 😉
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I should have put “better” between quotes. What I meant was in terms of being nice people. Some people are just not good of heart.
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I’m sorry to learn that you’re traveling through a rough patch, and I hope everything will be resolved in the best of ways. My best wishes to you and Mrs. B!!!
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Thanks. Definitely soemthing that is going to take some time. No quick and easy answers, sadly…
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Good luck with your affairs, whatever you decide!
Also – impressive stats, 6K pages/month, wow 🙂
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Thanks.
It helped the page count that I wasn’t working a lot and so had more time to eat up some big books. The Malazan books always up my numbers 😀
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I hope it all works out for you and Ms Bookstooge. Youl be in my thoughts.
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Thanks man, appreciate it.
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Wishing you and your wife all the best with your stress and resolving this conflict. My prayers are with you!
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Thank you. We really crave those prayers…
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Sorry to hear of your health struggles, but glad to know both Mrs. B and yourself are doing better. My thought are with you.
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Thank you…
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I hope everything turns out fine. I’ll be here, praying for you and Mrs. B but I’m Hindu so it’ll be to different Gods.
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Thank you for the thought Saloni, but in all honesty, please don’t.
I’d be glad to go into it through email, if you’d like. It’s not a subject to be gone over through a format like this…
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I’ll email you right away.
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I was planning to send you an e-mail and check what’s up as you haven’t posted in a while and I was getting worried.
It’s good to hear from you now, but damn, that really, really sucks!! Take all the time you need and figure out what’s best for you.. I hope you make the right decision for yourself and life is getting much better again. Often, a change will help even though it’s scary.
Lots of love for Mrs. Bookstooge!! Hope she’s feeling better soon.
I’ll definitely miss your posts & comments this month, but totally understand that blogging is the last thing on your mind at the moment!
See you soon!
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Thank you.
2018 is definitely starting with a bad bang. So we’re both trusting it just gets better from here 🙂
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I’m really sorry to hear about Mrs B- I hope she’s feeling better and do take it easy (both of you!) I hope everything gets sorted out with your church too. Don’t worry about visiting- we all understand and you’ll still be seeing me hereabouts. Best wishes to you both!
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Thanks.
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You’re welcome.
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“Liking” more in sympathy and support than anything else. I hope you and Mrs B are feeling better and find a way to resolve the issue with the other couple soon. Sounds like an awful situation if it is making you both ill – and I really hope find a way to kick that issue into touch.
Don’t worry about responding or visiting. Just do what you and Mrs B need to do for the time being.
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Thanks BT.
It’s been an ongoing situation that has escalated unfortunately. Sadly, it doesn’t help that I tend to react in real life like I do online 🙂
So we’re taking a break and letting the leadership team see if things can be salvaged.
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Take as long as you need we will be here when you get back. you guys need to take it easy.
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That’s one of the nice things about the book blogging community. As passionate as every one is, we all realize real life trumps blogging. So there’s a lot of understanding.
Thank you.
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Hope both of you will get better soon – this rough patch’s got to end sooner than later and I hope you’ll get it resolved in a way that’s best for you!
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Thanks. Thankfully we know the whole situation will be resolved by the end of the month one way or another. Just have to get there 🙂
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Best of luck to you, my online friend! Sickness and bad relationships are two things that can suck the life right out of a person. Hang in there, and prayers for peaceful resolution are headed your way.
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Thank you.
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Darn. I hope you and Mrs. B have regained your energy and cleared yourself of all possible stresses over the month of Feb. It was definitely a wise decision to drop the whole blog hopping thing to focus on what’s most important. Take care, good sir.
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Thanks. February is almost over and honestly, I can’t wait to go back to visiting and yacking again.
😀
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