There is so much information that I come across each day, I sometimes find it hard to process it all. This is why I decided to post a weekly recap post of what’s been going on here on my blog and with me in general, in the blogosphere and also about books as a whole. Retrospect has been inspired by none other than the lovely Asti @ A Bookish Heart who somehow manages to stay on top things with her weekly Bookish Recap.
IN MY LIFE
The past week I took to experimenting in the kitchen. As you can see in the photos above, I baked crème caramel! While I’ve baked the traditional version many times before, I’ve never tried playing around with flavours. Since one of my best friends loves her desserts with Earl Grey, that’s what I set out to do with my crème caramel. Even though I’m not exactly a fan of Earl Grey myself, I do think it turned out splendid! Texture was creamy, albeit a little heavier than it was with vanilla, and the caramel complemented it well.
ON DUDETTE READS
REVIEWS
- [24 Feb] Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys ★★★★
- [26 Feb] The Paradox of Vertical Flight by Emil Ostrovski ★★★★★
- [24 Feb] Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys ★★★★
- [26 Feb] The Paradox of Vertical Flight by Emil Ostrovski ★★★★★
- [27 Feb] Introducing: Reflect
- [28 Feb] How to Properly Spoil a Book (Part 2)
- [1 Mar] How to Properly Spoil a Book (Part 2.1)
- [2 Mar] Retrospect #9: March 2nd
AROUND THE BLOGOSPHERE
BLOGGING & BLOGGERS
- Alice-Jane @ Crazy Red Pen shares her design journey, favourite design bloggers and resources.
- Chiara @ Books for a Delicate Eternity explores author’s intentions when writing instalove and why they don’t always reach readers the way authors might have expected. She suggests writers calm their excitement and takes it slow because readers don’t know the ins and outs of particular characters the way their author’s do. I couldn’t agree more because I’m one of those readers who gets frustrated when instalove makes no sense at all.
- Oh, the Books! finally went live today. That’s right, Asti, Kelley and Leanne are co-bloggers now. They’ll be settling in this coming week, so be there to soak in the atmosphere on this wondrous new blog.
- Nikki @ The Paper Sea predominantly reads eBooks but she still buys physical copies of those books she liked. After all, she says, one can never have too many books.
- Amy @ Ode to Joy & Katniss explains why Mr Magorium offers a good blueprint for New Adult. If you have never watched Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, you totally should! You can check out the trailer here.
- Genevieve @ The Reading Shelf looks at the differences between Adult and and Young Adult books.
- Amy @ Aya M. Productions reviews Oyster, which supposedly is the Netflix for ebooks. After a month, she decided Oyster is not for her, mainly because of the counterintuitive reading experience the app offers, in her opinion.
- Sophie @ Paper Breathers demonstrates the standard deviation of her ratings, proving that her reviews are probably more useful.
- Ana @ Read Me Away feels compelled to finish series, even if she doesn’t like them much.
- Shelly at Readiculous Reads absoloutely hates spoilers. A lot of readers do, so please be kind and don’t go round carelessly spoiling books.
- Marianne @ Boricuan Bookworms refuses to be defined by her rating average. Honestly, I still don’t understand why people judge others for that. I don’t pick up books to read when I know I’m going to hate them. Sure, bloggers with review copies can’t always be as picky but still, I wouldn’t judge someone if their rating average was 4.5 or something. Although, I would be wary if all reviews were plain fangirling, void of any evidence to back that up.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
But deep down, I sort of knew: The court wasn’t a prison. It was a hideout.
—Jordan Woods, Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally
Anyone who has spent countless hours training for their sport will be able to relate to this. People used to ask me if I ever was tired of training. I did wish sometimes I had more time for other things but I also knew I always found comfort in sports.
Besides reading, what are your hobbies? I’m curious what kind of hobbies everyone else here has, seeing how I also love baking and sports.
Thank you so much for the link up! :)
Wow, that creme caramel looks so good! :D As for non-bookish hobbies, I like sewing and I’m trying to get into running. I’ve been thinking about starting a feature where I interview bloggers about their non-bookish hobbies, and I’m so happy to see this. :D May I interview you for this feature please?
Ana @ Read Me Away recently posted Talk To Me 10: Scared by Starting Series
Gladly! :)
Ooh. What do you like to sew? I took it up for a while but my mum’s sewing machine acts up once in a while, so I lost my patience with it :(
About your new feature, it sounds cool! Shoot me an email with the details, please. I’d love to be part of it! :)
Joséphine @ Dudette Reads recently posted Where is Home?
So far, it’s been mostly skirts and small bags. I’m only starting to get kind of serious about sewing so it’s been baby steps thus far, haha! I was using someone else’s machine at first and it just wasn’t cooperating with me. Ever since I got my own machine, I’ve been more into it. :)
Oh, sweet! Thank you so much, I’ll be shooting you an e-mail soon! :D
Ana @ Read Me Away recently posted Talk To Me 10: Scared by Starting Series
Thanks for linking up to Oh, the Books! That was pretty nice of you to add it to your list since we just went live the same day as this post goes up. Go you ;)
I’m so jealous of your baking skills. I can’t do ANYTHING in the kitchen. The last time I tried baking something by myself was gingerbread cookies for Christmas, and they came out rock hard. Like, I could smash them against a counter and not a single crumb would break off. I fail as a female.
Oh, and hobbies outside of blogging and reading? I don’t feel like I have any these days. I used to really love art (I wrote a blog post before about it – http://www.ohthebooks.com/bookish-life-sometimes-i-like-to-pretend-im-an-artist/), but I rarely draw or doodle or anything anymore. I also used to really like playing video games (I met my boyfriend on an online computer game!), but I definitely don’t feel like I have time to play those anymore. So yeah, not a whole lot. I guess my main ones right now are blogging and reading. I’m so boring :/
Asti recently posted Grand Opening | Kelley’s Story
Of course I had to link up to Oh, the Books! You’re back, I hadn’t posted this yet, so I included your grand opening post since I also love what you guys did with your new blog :)
Lol. Being female is not just about being able to find your way around the kitchen! I first started baking eight years ago but things can still go wrong occasionally nowadays. Like hard crusts on breads that are supposed to be soft because I only remembered about the glaze half-an-hour into baking. Or burnt macaroons. Not pretty. But really, it’s all about practice and not giving up, even if a recipe failed.
Awww. Why don’t you try doodling/ drawing again? Like, 5 to ten minutes every day until it becomes part of your life again? That’s what my sister used to do when she was hard pressed for time because of school. But it’s normal for our hobbies to take a backseat when we get crazy busy. As long as we still have an outlet to unwind, which you do! Reading and blogging are not boring! So don’t be sad! :)
Joséphine @ Dudette Reads recently posted Where is Home?
Ahhhh that crème caramel!!! <3 I need to invest in some ramekins so that I can try to make them too – they look so delicious!
I really like Marianne's post about rating averages – I can't believe she had that experience on Goodreads, and I know I've worried about my ratings being too high/low sometimes too.
Hm, hobbies… would sleeping count? :P I like to cook and do pilates and yoga; I also like to draw, but I haven't had the time to really get into it.
Sophie recently posted Review: This Is Not an Accident by April Wilder
You should! I was so excited when my mum gifted me a set for Christmas. They’re so versatile. I even use them for muffins because I don’t own a muffin tin. Lol.
Yeah, I was stunned too. It’s ridiculous. And I don’t think anyone should have to worry about how high or how low their ratings are. If anything, I get really sad when I’ve a monthly rating average that falls below 3.5, like last month. It means I didn’t have a good share of stellar books. On the other hand, if it’s above 4.0, I say that’s something to celebrate.
HAHAHA. Yes, sleeping counts. My dad’s convinced that sleeping is one of mine. Ooh. Any particular cuisine, or just whatever catches your fancy? Yeah, drawing is very time-consuming but I really admire those who can keep at it anyway.
Joséphine @ Dudette Reads recently posted Where is Home?
Oh my goodness, that creme caramel looks absolutely divine!!! Mmm. And thanks for all the links! I will definitely be checking them all out!
Annie recently posted [MINI REVIEW] The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
They tasted just as divine! :D Happy to share posts that caught my eye :) Hope you find links you didn’t know of before.
Joséphine @ Dudette Reads recently posted Where is Home?