Am I Getting Too Old For This?...

 

Well, I think today is the day when I have officially felt too old. 

This sucks. I have been a self-taught computer noodler since the late 1990s, and I have always felt pretty confident in my abilities to noodle around a program and figure things out. Before YouTube was a thing it was a case of trial and error - with some pretty big errors along the way - and once I could Google/YouTube something, I was more content in my ability to figure it out. That was until today...

As you may know, I was considering adding another platform for book reviewing. Just trying something new, where I could just make purely bookish content. I did think about another blogspot page, but I was hoping to expand my scope. That's where WordPress came in. I just saw so may great book bloggers using that site that I thought I'd give it a go - and became immediately lost. This site is not intuitive at all. I got myself turned around more than a few times just trying to figure out whether or not to use the AI generative feature to create a site, swiftly abandoned that, and when I went to try it the old fashioned hands-on way, I felt so frustrated with trying to understand and apply the multitude of different themes, pages, designs, links, etc. that I am honestly considering just deleting the blog and moving on to something a little more my speed. Apparently my speed is blogger :/ 

Honestly, it is truly a humbling experience to be (maybe) defeated by a site that seems to have changed its dashboard/design platform in the few weeks that I've been gone, sulking about my previous attempt. I think I'm going to have to do a deep dive into the basics of WordPress (if I even decide to go back) and I may concentrate on the graphic elements that I want to add to this new blog before embarking in the physical manifestation of my plans. Okay, back off to the keyboard salt mines.

Thanks for keeping me company, and until I see you next time... 

July Reading Update

I can't believe we're already more than half way through yet another year. Where does the time go? This month has been quite busy for me. Very slow on the work side (since being cut back to only one day a week), but between trying to get all the physical work done for the full wall off shelving for the back room, I've been a bit of a busy camper. 

 

This, however, does not mean that my work has finished. Oh, no. I may already have the wall shelving up in the book room, but now I have to take down ALL the books that I had put on those shelves, and take the boards down to sand, stain, clear coat, sand, clear coat, and then do this for all 16 shelves (8 per wall) - and then put back all those books. I can't wait for this to be a completed project, but I'm not looking forward to starting this 2nd stage.

 

That said, my reading has been going at either a snails pace or I'm ripping through book after book. This is one DIY job that has really messed with my reading. I'm either so sore and tired that I can only manage a small cozy here and there, or I am taking a few days break from things and devouring all the books from my KU list. 

 

Currently I seem to be falling back into a Nora Roberts rabbit hole. I had to take all the books off the old bookcase and I was going to put them on the new shelving, but she takes up nearly 2½ shelves - and to put that into perspective, each shelf in the back room is 6ft long! - so, that's a lot of Nora Roberts/JD Robb. Anyway, so while I was trying to figure out where to put them I got caught up in musing over my favourite ones, and the books I haven't reread in more than a few years, and before I knew it I was curled up with The Search and contemplating picking up Black Hills, Birthright, Chasing Fire and a few more that are overdue for a reread.

 

"But what about your 2026 reading challenge books?" I hear you ask.  Well... as I said in my update video, I am currently reading Where Angels Fear To Tread by EM Forster. I haven't progressed beyond the 10 pages, but I am looking forward to making time in the next couple of days to knock that out. Sadly, my #bigbook2026 is still languishing on my shelves, untouched. I tell myself I have grand plans to begin, but so far I just haven't felt like picking either of them up. I do plan to pick up one of my "6 books to get off my tbr in 2026" offerings. It's chilly, windy and I think it's just the right time to read either Misery by Stephen King, or finally start the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George RR Martin. Yes, I know. I'm a bad reader that I still haven't picked up any of the books in the series. I have owned them for nearly a decade, and I just found that by constantly hearing about them everywhere that it put me off reading them. I am still amazed that I have been able to stay spoiler free for all these years, so I will be going into this completely blind (a small miracle I know).

 

So, that's what's on my currently reading table. I just find that I've slowed down in my reading at the moment, or at least that's how it feels. It seems the older I get, the faster time seems to pass - and I can't say I'm a fan. I miss the summers of my childhood where every day seemed to last forever and the summer holidays seemed to stretch out like an endless dream. Perhaps it's that innocence of childhood that gives it such a magical quality, or that you're not worrying about the state of the world and paying the bills. I just wish I could still capture some of that magic every now and then.

 

Anyway, that's all for the moment. I hope you are having a wonderful reading month. Let me know in the comments what your favourite reads have been recently, and until I see you next time...