I'm back! (Sort of)

I've been missing in action for over a month so here are a few excuses!

I took a 'reading break' which sounds horrible considering that I have always been a constant reader and that I have a reading blog here and on Tumblr, but I had a lot of other stuff to deal with and I was also in a reading slump that I couldn't get out of.

 

I did a LOT of crafting and started art journaling again.

 

I started taking Tai-Chi classes which are really fun and relaxing.

I've been doing some 'work' online that pays just enough for me to save up to buy an e-reader soon. 

 

And the big news: My fiancé and I are closing on our first house this week! (If you know anything about buying houses, it is very stressful and time consuming.)

 

All of my books are currently packed away. There are more boxes of books than boxes of almost anything else in the house and they all weigh at least 100 pounds or more. Some I can't even lift. I feel bad for my fiancé. His back is going to shot after moving them all. Good thing we own a dolly.

I just recently went to my local library's bi-annual book sale and accumulated another hundred books (literally). I went twice but the last day is always $3 bag day where you can fill a grocery bag as full as you can and I filled 6 bags with 91 books and 5 DVDs. That cost me a whopping $18 (and sore arms) which is basically about 5 cents per book. I found some great stuff, too, including Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk (a fave), American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis (read), some Melissa De La Cruz, some Maria Snyder, Juliet Marillier, a bunch of awesome classics, and so much more. But now those are packed away as well.

So, for now, I'm in transition. We will be moving next week and hopefully I'll have my books unpacked before the month is over with. October is the one month that I plan to read specific types of literature (horror and ghost stories, obviously) and I hope to get to my favorite book sale find, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, which I read for the first time back in 6th grade and can't quite remember. I also really want to read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving this year since I didn't get around to it last year. I have a ton of other obscure ghost stories and a lot of H.P. Lovecraft I'd love to get around to reading soon, too.

I'm probably not going to make my goal of 100 books for the year. I'll probably be busy for a few months getting the house in order. I'll also be spending a lot of time in the yard building a raised container garden for the organic, non-GMO vegetable garden I hope to get started soon. After renting for so many years, having a little bit of land for myself is the most exciting part of buying a house. I really can't wait to get started. I've been spending a lot of time planning it all out and I think I am even going to start a blog to document my progress (and probably my downfalls as well).

As for now, I'm going to go finish up Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead which is my first book in over a month and I'm not even remotely enjoying it. I thought it would help me out of my 'slump' but I was wrong. It might be a while before I get back into the swing of things around here but I'll be back eventually. :)