Retrospect #63-64 (Double Edition): March 22

In My Life

Yesterday marked the last day of my 2014/15 floorball season and I’m proud to say that my team has been promoted! We were so disheartened when we were relegated during the 2013/14 season, I can still taste the sadness. But we made it back up to the top division and are all excited to prove our worth during the 2015/16 season.

Now that I’ll have a couple of weeks break from training and matches I can get some much needed rest and will have more time to read and blog. Also, I’ll have more time to dedicate to the latest round of Bookish Games hosted by Oh, the Books.

Book Haul

This week some of the books I ordered from The Book Depository arrived:

1. A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
2. The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman
3. Red Ink by Julie Mayhew
4. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
5. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Received Signed Book

The sweetest part of my book haul was that the copy of Red Ink that I received from the Book Depository is a signed copy! Red Ink is the very first book I reviewed on the blog. I ordered it to re-read this April because I loved the book and it means a lot to me. That this one of all books should be signed makes it extra special.

On the Blog

Blog Posts

When it comes to RSS feeds, I’m a huge proponent of showing full blog posts via RSS. I think excerpts are useless and based on the comments, it seems a fair number of people agree with me that excerpts basically render RSS feeds redundant.

I continued sharing photos for Mise-en-Scène, where over the past two weeks the themes were art and night stand. Submissions are still open if you want to share your photos of your night stand!

Around the Blogosphere

• Amber @ The Mile-Long Bookshelf weighs in, is it dishonest to schedule posts in advance? Her discussion struck me because that’s that was the first thought that crossed my mind when I learnt that a lot of bloggers schedule posts. I used to see blogging as a reflection of our current states of mind but in the end I figured that the time shouldn’t really factor into whether or not a post it honest. What matters is the blogger wrote the post themselves. That is the key to honesty.
• Rachel @ Confessions of a Book Geek wonders what on earth the point of pre-ordering is. From what I know, pre-orders help publishers determine re-print cycles, publishing contracts etc. But as a reader and book buyer, I hardly see the point either. All the books I’ve pre-ordered in the past arrived two weeks after the release date. In some cases that was way too long a time to avoid spoilers. It’s very aggravating whenever I got spoiled on pre-orders of all books!
• Crini @ All About Books shared her second round of spreadsheet tutorials. I’m definitely bookmarking this. Not only is it useful for tracking books, it’s also sure to come in handy for work or school. I kinda wish I had known these functions during my honours year at university. I would’ve made the analysis of data for my thesis so much quicker!
• Shelumiel @ Bookish and Awesome responds to the presentation that author Shannon Hale gave at a middle school where only boys from the upper grades weren’t allowed to attend. To prove that books about female protagonists, even if they’re princesses aren’t just for girls, he picked out books well-loved by boys and girls that have female protagonists. That list is nothing to scoff at.
• Sandra @ Tea Between Books breaks down the divide between relatable and likeable characters. She makes it clear that they aren’t always one and the same. This is why it’s possible to relate to and understand a character and still dislike her and yet decide that a book is good despite the not-so-likeable character.

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Do you own any signed books? Which one is the most special signed book to you and why? And if not, which book would you most love to own signed?