Raw Data:
Books — 11
Pages — 4505
Words — 1215K
Average Rating — 3.55 Stars
The Mediocre:
Pericles, Prince of Tyre — 3 Stars
The Sword-Edged Blonde — 3 Stars
The Good:
Captain’s Fury — 5 Stars
Kingfisher — 4 1/2 stars
Movie:
The 10th Kingdom ended on a rather meh note and I know I won’t be watching it again any time soon. June’s options are either Karas or The Returner. So far, Karas has all the votes.
Miscellaneous Posts:
This was a very wordy month and while I didn’t write a post every day, my total (including this one) was 26. With 11 reviews, that means I pushed out 15 non-review posts. Never felt burnt out even while some of the posts bordered on the simply ridiculous.
So without further ado, here’s the bullet list:
- 20,000 Comments Under the Sea
- Quotes from the Gulag Archipelago, One, Two & Three
- This Picture Never Fails to Amuse Me
- Spanish Spambots, Attack!
- A History of ….. Shaving
- #6Degrees – The Road to…
- The Life & Times of Bookstooge
- The Random (Cranky) Tag
- ♪Music Monday – Winterborn♪
- A Bit More than Peeved
Personal:
Work has gone back to a regular 5 days now, so I was a bit too busy to let small things get any notice. Work is fine, cars are fine, condo is fine, so it’s all fine. Not going to complain about that!
Plans for Next Month:
With work going back to a normal schedule, I suspect my reading numbers will drop back into the single digits and that my output of non-review posts be less numerous as well. I am planning to read & review some manga and to have some more Gulag quotes, as well as the old standbyes of movie & #6degree. Trying to scrounge up some tag post material as well. Might be another rant post about the calendar/scheduling if that continues to annoy me.
Reading numbers should not drop; I can see from your comments that you’ve got an audience! And although posting every day is a goal, it’s not as important as writing consistently!
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Well, we’re going back to 45’ish hours a week for June, so that is an 5 less hours a week to read. That ends up being 2-3 books in general for the month, so I’ll probably be in the single digits, maybe 10 if my manga reads go quickly.
I do have an audience, thankfully. I tend to keep that audience by interacting with them on a one on one basis here and on their blogs. As long as they aren’t saying something outrageous (like euthanasia is a good thing) then I want them to feel that their comments here are important.
Consistency is king indeed! I try to do a Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday base schedule and then fill in on thursdays with extra posts and then tuesdays. Saturday I keep as Sabbath so I tend to schedule as little as possible then.
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Yes, I should probably factor in a day of rest myself. The numbers are less important to me than the comments, they’re the juice that keeps you coming back!
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Yep, I tend to really focus on the comments as my base metric for “success” 🙂
As 7th day Adventists, my wife and I are big proponents of a day of rest…
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Eleven books!? I’m very impressed, not to mention a little jealous;-) I’ve become a bit stuck in the “can’t-seem-to-finish-a-book” mode over the last few months. Currently reading too many! Can’t seem to focus on one at a time. … I blame t’internet! Also, never heard of the 10th Kingdom. Will investigate.
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What is happening to you is one of the exact reasons I have my reading rotation schedule. No choice means I read what is next and that really seems to take the slump out of things for me. Sorry to hear you’re stuck at the moment and I hope you can come out of soon.
10th Kingdom is a decent hallmark fun fantasy mini-series. If you do watch it, watch it by the episode instead of by the disc like I did. It was just a bit much doing it a whole disc at at ime.
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Thank you for the advice and kind words. Now I am intrigued about your rotation schedule. Could you direct me to any posts where you’ve written about it? If that’s not being too nosey:-)
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Not at all. It’s a good question. Give me 10 and I’ll go look it up…
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Thank you! *Looks sheepishly at the pc screen*
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All right, let’s hope this link works:
https://bookstooge.wordpress.com/2017/09/16/book-tag-the-tbr-tag/
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That’s brilliant! Thanks so much and apologies for the trouble. I really appreciate it:-)
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Not a problem at all. I talk about my reading rotation enough that it is always good to keep it fresh in my mind for explaining it to others.
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Unlike yourself, I’m still off work for the foreseeable. Oh the joys of working in the live events industry.
That’s a good number of books!
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Ooooph, yeah, your industry is getting butchered! Do you think you’ll be able to stay in that line of work or is a change going to be called for? I remember the housing bubble bursting here in the US in ’08 and how it affected the land surveying business. I was doing land surveying only part time and other jobs part time for almost 7 years.
Thanks. I try to NOT look at my review numbers from a year ago 😀
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We are fortunate in the UK that, as part of the furlough scheme, the government is paying 80% of our wages whilst furloughed. So I’m still getting paid, until October (when the scheme runs out). I’m hoping there will be some return to business. We supply kit so hopefully there will still be a call for lighting etc …
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I don’t know if I could survive without the stability that work gives my life. Constant time of getting up, leaving the house, etc, etc, etc.
Are you doing anything to keep structure in your life or is it more “sprawl on the couch” kind of thing?
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I organise my day into a routine so that, when the time comes, going back to work won’t proof too difficult.
I’m not one for laying in bed or lazing around. I’ve spent a good deal of time working out, sorting the garden out, writing etc … so I ensure I keep busy
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*thumbs up*
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Yes! More rant posts! They are always fun to read! 🙂 Especially because WordPress is really annoying me.
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Oh,there will be another rant post indeed. This change is getting my back up, sigh…
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Ill be Salty Mc Dave, I would like to see the emergance of Ranty Mc Stooge🙂. 11 books is beastly amount mate. I read few books but Dune was among them and was a hefty tome….
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You have no idea how happy I was when your wife mentioned how much you were liking Dune. I am really looking forward to your review even if all it says is “I liked this book a lot!” 😀
I have to be careful about rants because they take a lot of emotional energy out of me and I don’t have that much to spare 😀 Plus, as much as I might complain about WP, where else am I going to go? Blogspot is ALSO changing their editor and it is even worse than the WP changes 😦
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Dune review will be up tomorrow… i think you might like it. It might be my longest review to date.
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Really? You’ve written some doozies. I guess I know what I’ll be reading tomorrow evening then 😀
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Didnt even touch down on half the stuff i thought i should, but i am happy with it as it stands.
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I’m glad work, the cars, and the condo are all fine! From your posts it sounds like you prefer a regular full work week, so I’m glad that has gone back to normal for you.
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Yeah, I don’t handle downtime very well. I need something that regularly gets me out of the house, gives me some physical exercise and has a point to it. I couldn’t go for 5 mile hikes 5 days a week “just to stay busy”.
As much as I talk about winning the lottery and never working again, I suspect I’d go crazy 😀
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Happy to see things are going back to normal for you as well. And 11 decent sized books is really good. And it looks like they were of good quality as well. Nice 😁
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I was pretty pleased with my average rating. And no 1 or 2 star books either made things seem so much nicer 😀 It is amazing how even one bad book can drag the whole month down…
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It certainly can! I had a great reading month, but then 1 stupid comic can bring it all down.
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Nice, productive month. I’m looking forward to getting back to normal as well, my kid has one more week of curriculum from her teachers and then she’s done, thank goodness. I’m really not cut out for this homeschooling stuff 🙂
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Thanks!
I had to laugh at your last bit though, because what you all are doing is NOT homeschooling. Don’t get me wrong, that is as close to homeschooling as your probably ever going to go, but real homeschoolers will laugh at you. Much like a Hell’s Angel would laugh at me when I was riding my suzuki boulevard.
That being said, I am glad the ordeal is almost done for you. We don’t have kids and I don’t know how you all survived. My hat’s off to you 😀
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Wow, you’ve been busy! Wordy Bookstooge the great! 😄 Hope you got some rest this mints, since its business as usual from now on for you – can you work from home or do you have to be in the office?
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I am a field tech, so 95% of the time I am outside in the physical thick of things. Sucks in the winter time, let me tell you.
And the words really did just roll. Just like the caissons! 😉
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I like how this turned out to be another one of those months where your least favourite books were 3 stars! That’s nice. Hope the new full-time stuff will keep on being fine for you. It’s also nice to see that you don’t have rants for your “new” job since a while!
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Not much has changed on the work front. I’m just beyond caring about it. Not a good sign for my long term viability there.
I feel like months like this spoil me 😀 Not having any bad books makes a HUGE difference 😀
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3.55 average and back to 5 days a week? Sounds good. Nice variety of posts, too.
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Thanks. Life seems to be settling back into normal now 🙂
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It certainly looks like things are going back to nearer normal for you. Things are still up in the air here with lockdown being eased a bit but nothing is really changing in my habits. I just wish I could get more reading done!
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Yeah, our area is almost back. Restuarants are doing soft openings and outdoor dining, so that is good too.
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