Sunday Salon: Change of (Reading) Habits, and some news!

 

Last weekend, I set aside the book I was reading on my Kindle for this month's Faith 'n' Fiction Roundtable in order to tackle some "fresh" reading for the 24-Hour Readathon. That went well; I started and finished two books that day. However, I still have not finished the FnFRt reading! However, I've read enough to participate in the group discussion of Philip Yancey's What Good Is God?: In Search of a Faith That Matters, which is already underway, and I hope to be done with it - the book, not the discussion - by the end of this weekend. I know I've mentioned that I'm not the fastest reader, generally, but this is not a terribly complex book, and even for me, it's taking way too long!

But to be fair, it's not entirely the book's fault. Since the Readathon, it's been extremely difficult to find much time to read, period. It's also been tough to find time to write about reading - or anything else for that matter - which is why I've been a missing person in Blogland for the past week. Physical-therapy appointments and audit work at the office are taking big bites out of my time right now; those will both end - fairly soon, I hope! - but there are some other changes on the horizon that will have a longer-term effect on what happens on this blog.

There probably won't be too much writing for the rest of this weekend, as Tall Paul and I are celebrating the sixth anniversary of our first date with a day trip to Solvang. I'll bring my Kindle and my next book along for the ride, but I'm not the best car reader, so I may not get very far with that. However, I am looking forward to exploring the town's two bookstores!

I posted a review of one of my Readathon books this week, but the second won't be up for another couple of weeks. It's for May's BlogHer Book Club, which means the review will be published there, but I'll link to it when it is. That's going to be a new thing for me - posting book reviews elsewhere - but it's going to be happening more often, which leads to a bit of news I'm excited to share with you:

I will be reviewing books twice a month as a freelancer for Shelf Awareness, which is expanding its book-review coverage! This has been in the works for several weeks, but I didn't want to say anything until the contract was signed. I'm not sure when my first review there will be published, but it will probably happen in another month or two.

I will be re-posting my SA reviews on The 3 R's (with a "reprinted with permission" statement), so it's not going mean a huge change in the content here, although posting frequency may drop (because I'll be spending more time reading books - a worthwhile tradeoff, don't you think?). However, it will mean some change in my reading habits, as there will be more new books in the mix than I've ever had, and I'll probably be accepting even fewer review books from other sources and blog tours.

But you know how we all dream about getting paid to read and write about books? It's not like I can quit my day job to do it, but I'll be getting a taste of what it's like.

Reviews posted since the last report:

Skipping a Beat, by Sarah Pekkanen

The Uncoupling, by Meg Wolitzer (TLC Book Tour)

The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie, by Wendy McClure

New to TBR Purgatory:

For review:

• Anthropology of an American Girl: A Novel, by Hilary Thayer Hamann (TLC Book Tours)
• Faith: A Novel, by Jennifer Haigh (TLC Book Tours)
• Nerd Do Well: A Small Boy's Journey to Becoming a Big Kid, by Simon Pegg (TLC Book Tours)
• The Girl Who Was on Fire: Your Favorite Authors on Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games Trilogy, by Leah Wilson
• For me:
• The Bird Sisters: A Novel, by Rebecca Rasmussen (a thank-you gift for my donation to Writers for the Red Cross last month)

Are you experiencing a Spring Slump in your reading and blogging, for one reason or another?