Post Book Hiatus: Ongoing

I hope everyone had a good holiday. Remember when I said that I would have a post ready by November 25? Yeah, that clearly didn’t happen. My brain short circuited several times this last week/weekend, what with the turkey, the family, and the cluster-fuck of people shopping along with maintaining a poor diet and exercise routine that extended for several days and eventually sent me spiraling down a deep, cavernous Low, which I’ve only recently recovered from. It wasn’t until Sunday that I realized, “oh, it’s Sunday…which usually proceeds sometime after Wednesday…”

Even if I had remembered, I wouldn’t have had anything to offer. I’m still chipping away at the lovely mess called ‘writing.’ The book review I originally wrote on Marie Lu’s The Rose Society was just plain awful. It sort of read like someone pumped with adrenaline who couldn’t muster anything except a cacophony of squeals and squeaks from a kid going to Disney world for the first time. I wouldn’t subject anyone to that kind of torture.

Now that I have submitted and completed my applications for graduate school (yay!), I have nothing except time…sort of. Let’s just say that my free time has been spent catching up on other things that I’ve neglected…such as binge walking the premiere of Marvel’s Jessica Jones (it was amazzzzzing!), the new season of Once Upon A Time (kill Zelena for the greater good already!), Supergirl (verdict is still out on this show), and The Man in the High Castle (only two episodes but I like it so far). There’s also Anime like Owarimonogatari, Steins Gate, and other shows I’m screening at the moment. While I realize this is a lot of TV watching, I figure slacking off on my book reading for a week isn’t going to kill me, but it’ll be the death penalty if I continue to watch TV for the rest of my life, for my bones and brain.

What I can offer are updates on things to look forward to in the next several weeks, however.  Post will resume on Wednesday, December 9.

Coming Soon!!!

My Week with Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince Part 6

Trigger Warnings and Microaggressions

Book Review: Marie Lu’s The Rose Society

Book Review: Alison Brosh’s Hyperbole and Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened

 My Week with Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 7

Book Hiatus (2): The Personal Essay, NaNoWriMo

Dear Readers,

I will not be releasing any new book reviews and/or topics this week or the next. This is not to say I didn’t want to. I have two pieces I’m working on, the first discussing the implementation of trigger warnings and microaggressions, and the other a book review on Marie Lu’s sequel to her Young Elites novel series, The Rose Society. I really, really wanted to publish them; however, I have run into a dilemma.

As some of you may remember, I took a similar hiatus in the summer to engage what I called GRE Book Camp. For inquiring minds, I did well and would highly recommend Magoosh for the undisciplined and (sometimes) unmotivated person.

I’m now entering the last few phases of my graduate school application, which include the application itself—and personal essays. To say the least, I’m not a fan of writing personal essays. I love reading them though. Truly they are a wonder in how someone can compose beautiful, insightful, not to mention intelligent, pieces without making their essay into a loop of ‘I wants’ and ‘I’m interested because…” What’s more, they’re personal, something I struggle to incorporate into any kind of professional document. I worry it sounds too sappy, too sentimental, too general, or not mature enough to put for what I want to study in graduate school (gender studies and diverse literature plus more, FYI.) And just as I start to doubt myself, interpret my own weaknesses and shortcomings as unavoidable trips to failure town, I run into my maelstrom of anxiety, which almost always results in a Low—except this time.

Have I struggled with writing these essays? Of course!

Have I confronted a mountain of anxiety about them? Yupyupyupyup…

But I’m near finishing them, as in I’m plodding along editing them, tweaking things, and in the process, chewing on my nails (yes, yes, a bad habit.) Speaking of bad habits, which will explain the hiatus, I also tend not to prioritize my time well when it comes to items of importance. My book blog is important to me, and I thoroughly enjoy and appreciate my followers’ feedback and comments. Sadly, this is just one of those times where I have to lift the emergency brake up and spend my writing time working on my essays.

To add to this, I know I’m not the only one busy this month. Writers everywhere are planting their butts in moderately comfortable chairs in book stores, coffee shops, or just in their favorite spots to write a novel consisting of 50,00 words in the month of November. I wish everyone good luck with National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)!!!

If you’re in need of inspiration, feel free to check out my mini blog series documenting my own trials with NaNoWriMo in 2014.

Every. Bit. Counts.

I will return Wednesday, November 25.

Sincerely,

Your resident Book Hermit.