The Sunday Salon » Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog

The Sunday Salon (Apr. 8): Rereading for fun and profit

Posted by Anastasia on April 8, 2012 11 Responses »

Apr 082012

I’ve been rereading a good amount of books this year– way more than I did last year, anyway. And I’ve remembered something: rereading is fun! And I don’t just mean rereading something I’d read just the year before: going back to books I first read two+ years ago is almost a magical experience. It’s fun to revisit places and people and stories that I loved once upon a time. I tend to have a very good memory for books and their plots, but I don’t remember everything. Rediscovering why I loved a book in the first place is almost better than reading them for the first time! Plus, there’s always the chance that I’ll catch some new nuance or something that I missed before. Continue reading »

The Sunday Salon (Apr. 1):The Hunger Games movie review

Posted by Anastasia on April 1, 2012 10 Responses »

Apr 012012

Happy April, everyone! I’m going to do my monthly review later this week. Today I want to try and catch up on writing reviews, which have really piled up lately because I’ve been reading SO many good books that all deserve a longish review. I’m not sure how it happened, but I’m basically reading three trilogies all at once, which is strange. Usually I try to break up series books so I don’t get overwhelmed, but these three trilogies were just so exciting I didn’t want to wait too long to continue reading them!

Anyway, since I’ve just finished writing my review for The Hunger Games, I thought now would be a good time to review the movie! There will probably be spoilers, btw. Continue reading »

The Sunday Salon (Mar. 25): Quarterly reading update

Posted by Anastasia on March 25, 2012 2 Responses »

Mar 252012

So March 31st is the end of the first quarter of the year; this means I should be about a quarter way through my reading goal by then, if I mean to stay on track and not frantically scramble around at the end of the year to read two books a day or something. As of today, I need to finish reading about eight books to be able to do that. I don’t THINK I can read eight books in six days– at best I might be able to read one book a day, if I really work at it (and if I read shorter books). But being two books behind isn’t all that bad, and I think once I get access to some graphic novels again I can catch up very easily.

Since right now I (still) don’t have a job, I’m pretty happy with my reading goal and my reading pace. I think, though, that when I DO get a job (and I WILL), I may need to re-evaluate that goal so I don’t try to keep up with something I won’t be able to keep up with. Continue reading »

The Sunday Salon (Mar. 18): Lots of books in a small room

Posted by Anastasia on March 18, 2012 12 Responses »

Mar 182012

Hello! Happy Sunday evening, everyone. I’ve completely forgotten what it was I was originally going to write about for today’s post, so instead let’s talk about bedroom decor.

We’re fairly certain we’re going to get the house we’ve found, so that means I can start planning how I’m going to decorate my room! Now, my new room is about half the size of my Albuquerque room, which means I’ll need to change how I’d normally decorate. For instance: I don’t think I can have three or four tall bookshelves in my room now, because I’d feel like they were about to fall on me and/or the walls were closing in, etc. I’m also planning on painting my walls, doing something fancy with my closet organization– basically, I want my new room to be much more interesting than my old room was.

So! Those of you with small rooms: how do you deal with your books? I can keep most of them in the “media room,” so that’s no problem, but I’d still like to have at least one shelf for favorite books/TBR books. What sort of shelf would be best for a small room? I’m kind of thinking something like this would be good. What do you think?

Besides that whole thing, I’m trying to figure out which sort of bed would be best: should I go for a futon mattress, which I can fold away during the day and thus clear up a lot of room, or should I get a daybed, with drawers underneath for extra storage? Choices, choices… Continue reading »

The Sunday Salon (Mar. 11): Tiny reviews of Death of an Obnoxious Tourist, Penumbra, Kitchen Confidential

Posted by Anastasia on March 11, 2012 7 Responses »

Mar 112012

Okay, so here’s the deal: I’m getting a little tired of my usual blogging practices. Normally I write 3-10 reviews a week, depending on how far behind I am. Keeping up with that? Is kind of tiring. Especially since I want to try doing other, non-review posts sometimes. Writing the reviews, though, takes up most of my blogging time and that’s annoying.

What I’m going to try to do instead is sort of like what I did back in November/December when I was trying to read a book a day: I’ll do tiny reviews of the books I’ve read in the previous week for my Salon post. Longer reviews (and therefor separate review posts) will be saved for review books and books that I just have a lot of feelings for. And then hopefully I’ll have more time/energy to write other blog posts! Like, say, more tips for blogger newbies posts. Or reading journal-y posts! Or other exciting stuff!

Basically I guess I just don’t want to be trapped into doing a million review posts a week. Because feeling trapped is not fun, and I want to have fun! Continue reading »

The Sunday Salon (Mar. 4): LA Times Festival of Books

Posted by Anastasia on March 4, 2012 13 Responses »

Mar 042012

So the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is coming up next month! I’m planning on going for at least one day, although if I can find a cheap hostel (or temporary roomate?) I may go for both days. Since it’ll be my first time being in LA and my first time at the festival– does anyone have any tips for me? What sort of things go on at the festival? Are there any special blogger meet-ups happening?

LA kind of intimidates me for some reason. I was completely fine with going to NYC for BEA last year, but going to LA by myself scares me. I suppose I’ve seen too many of those “gangs of LA” shows, haha!

It’ll be very exciting to meet/see the authors, though! Here’s who I’m really excited about: Julie Andrews, Judy Blume, Libba Bray, Cecil Castellucci, Cornelia Funke, Jack Gantos, John Green, Lev Grossman, Maureen Johnson, Robin LaFevers, Lauren Myracle, Patrick Ness, Shawn Thomas Odyssey, Mal Peet, and Jacqueline Woodson! What about you? Who are you excited to see? Continue reading »

The Sunday Salon (Feb. 26): One year older

Posted by Anastasia on February 26, 2012 10 Responses »

Feb 262012

It was my birthday on Saturday! I’m 24 now! I don’t feel any different from being 23, really, but compared to my 14/15-year-old self I feel much cooler. So that’s good.

If you didn’t know, I took a break from blogging this week. It was nice! I read books, didn’t worry about writing posts, etc. Stuffed my face full of rock candy, which probably wasn’t a good idea. And now I’m trying to figure out how to catch up on my reviews before the end of the month. The thing about taking a blogging break is that getting back into the flow is like climbing uphill in a snowstorm while dragging an anvil behind you. Yuck.

Review notes are nice because they go quick, but they do feel a bit like I’m cheating somehow. But who cares, right? I just gotta get something down before the plots start blurring too badly and any chance of a semi-coherent review (notes or otherwise) is gone.

How do you get back in the reviewing groove after a blogging break? Any tips for me?

Weekly Book Stats

Books read this week:
034. Dust – Arthur Slade [rating: 4] e
035. My Fair Godmother – Janette Rallison [rating: 3] e
036. Wish – Alexandra Bullen [rating: 3.5] e
037. Who What Wear: The Allegra Biscotti Collection – Olivia Bennett [rating: 3.5] e
038. Goy Crazy – Melissa Schorr [rating: 4] e

Books reviewed this week:
Nada.

Books acquired this week: