Highlights of the Week (Oct 8th-15th)

Books I’ve Purchased

Graveminder by Melissa Marr

The Complete Stories by Zora Neale Hurston

Enthralled Edited by Melissa Marr and Kelley Armstrong

Halo by Alecandra Adornetto

Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

Reckless by Cornelia Funke

Books for Review

Mystical Circles by S.C. Skillman

The Desperate Dad’s Guide to Getting Some and other tales from a slightly soiled marriage by Jakie Papandrew

Okay so the book buying ban has been thrown out the window completely. I can’t not buy books, or maybe I have little self-control or discipline. But since that seems to be the true problem, I am going to work on that versus focusing on not buying books. In truth, I found these at a steal and since I have been waiting half of them for a long time, I am okay with it. I mean Reckless, Rot and Ruin, Halo and Graveminder were all under $6. In truth, I brought Reckless because I started reading the chapter sampler I received from Netgalley and realized it’s a book that I’m gonna have to finish. So that purchase I’m blaming on Netgalley. Rot and Ruin, I bought because I was irritated when I went into the store. I have become a follower of a lot of blogs, so many that I can’t count them all. So I decided to start cleaning them up and some of them I will not be following anymore. But what irritated me was that post after post after post was a review of the same book. When I see a review of a book (good review---sometimes a bad review if it gets me curious) I usually go to my amazon account and put it on my wishlist. So I don’t need to keep seeing reviews of it, unless of course you are someone who is not part of the majority and you don’t like the book. So that day I was reading through the posts of the blogs that I follow. 10 of the blogs reviewed the same book on the same day. I get it, the book is good. I was irritated because they started turning into annoying commercials for the same book. Yes, I will eventually read the book but it will be after a long while when everyone has stopped hyping up the book. So back to Rot and Ruin. I remember seeing a review of this book on one of those numerous books. ONE. That review alone made me want to check it out. I remembered it because it was one of the few books that I was not bombarded by reviews of it. I didn’t add it to my amazon wish list or my good reads too read shelf. I remembered it, and when I passed by it while shopping for groceries (I am such an awesome multitasker)I REMEMBERED that I really wanted to read this book. No it’s not completely the bloggers fault that they posted their review on the exact same day as fifty other bloggers, not really.  But it’s something they should think about, something that the publishers should think about. I know that I have, and I have decided to make some changes because of it. I will be focusing on books that have been forgotten about, or overlooked. I will find books that stand out but don’t get the hype as other books do. My blog will not be an annoying commercial.

Always Shine,

Starr K

PS: I was going to do a progress update. But this is long enough. But just so you know I plan on posting three long overdue reviews for books I’ve already finished, as well as a progress update on the three books that I’m reading right now.