There’s something about these dog days of summer that put me in a really lackadaisical mood. This past week I’ve written one paragraph for a review. That’s OK, I am sure the motivation will come eventually. In the meantime I’m reading and enjoying the warm weather. And I’m interrupting my regularly scheduled book blogging with some photos of the wedding anniversary present my husband and I got ourselves: a balloon ride (more pictures behind the jump).

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(image: Mar.tin)

This is a question for other book bloggers. I’ve been curious about this for a while: how do you write your reviews? I know that I can agonize over a sentence or a word, and worry that one paragraph doesn’t flow nicely into the next. I have my system, but it still takes me a while to write a review because I don’t seem to have that ability to sit down and write something for half an hour to an hour and be done. It takes me some timeand I can’t seem to do it all at once.

These are some of the things I do:

• I type all my reviews into emails and save them in draft form in gmail. I work on them in bits and pieces throughout the day. That “check spelling” option of gmail is awesome. I also like the formatting capabilities there.
• My thoughts are fresher as I read a book, so starting reviews while I’m in the middle of the book works out really well for me. I fell out of the practice of doing this, but I’m trying to start again.
• I’m more coherent in the morning, so my best working-on-the-blog time is after my coffee has kicked in.
• I jot down thoughts I want to remember to communicate. I should do this as I read a book, but I don’t. 🙂
• If I can’t remember a name or a place I use a placeholder that I bold or capitalize so I can look it up later. I also do this with words that don’t come to me.
• Sometimes I will just type something quickly, just to get the thought out there before it disappears, and then check back later to fix it.
• I move sentences around until I’m satisfied.
• I scan my review looking for parts that are too stilted, have passive voice, grammar problems, and mixed tenses.

I could never have been an English major: writing takes me too long! Focusing and analyzing while reading are no problem. Communicating what I think? Yarg.

What do you find works for you? Do you have tips for getting your reviews done? For writing better? I am very curious what your process is!

Every time I start writing a new post this month I have to hold myself back from whining ranting about my class, but really, if I think about it, other than long work hours, I’ve been really lucky this month, at least in the book haul department. So let’s look at pretty books that I am hugging to keep myself sane, shall we?

First of all, it was my birthday recently and my husband surprised me with some awesome goodies

First of all, he got me the BBC Emma (2009) DVD I wanted, plus the Penguin Threads edition of Emma. I’d also mentioned wanting The Serpent Sea pretty much as soon as I finished the Cloud Roads, because that book was good (a review is forthcoming). These were on the gift idea list I sent him, so I was happy but not as shocked as when I opened the Penguin Threads edition of The Wizard of Oz. I didn’t know that even existed! He also did good with picking me this edition of Jane Eyre with a watercolor Gothic cover. On top of this he gave me a really nice orchid plant and took me out for a day trip that involved sunny skies, perfect breezy weather, rolling green hills, a barbeque joint, a bookstore, and ice cream. Hello, I should marry him!

Oh, and THEN, I was in my local Friends of the Library booksale area and picked these up, and guess what? They’re signed. For $1.

I don’t know who this Ryan is, but these are mine now.

And THEN.. I won this awesome Avengers prize pack from one of my favorite bloggers, Chelle, and I was so obsessed with the Marvel Fairy Tales graphic novel in there, that I completely forgot it came with other stuff. So I get this box, and I see who it’s from and I am stupidly thinking ‘This box is too big for one graphic novel, what’s going on?’ — I think I’m sleep deprived.

Lots of cool, super cute stuff! I may have done a little squeal jig while the husband was out of the apartment. That’s why when he geeked out over the prints that came with the prize, he said that I was “disturbingly nonchalant”. He also got to open the Tokidoki Marvel for me and is very excited that I got Wolverine :D. Not pictured here is the Avengers t-shirt I’m wearing.

So. Life ain’t bad. Just crazy busy. I hope I can slow down on weekends enough to plan BEA. Anyone else going? I’m definitely going to the Book Blogger Con and then Tuesday and Wednesday. Not so sure about Thursday.

Work has been taking up my mental cycles lately since I’m now officially on two teams. I’m trying to get used to jumping back and forth between two jobs that are not very much alike and involve completely different sets of people. It’s an adjustment.

Anyway, that’s the reason why my reading and blogging hasn’t been as consistent lately, but I have a plan. I’m going to start doing more fun shorter posts and bring back my rants and raves here (I have ideas saved up). I’m also considering doing a new feature. 🙂

Those life changes, they mess up the blog. Anyone else notice this?

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I will now leave you with the back blurb of a book whose premise gave me the willies when I read it.