Skip to main content

Slowing down the blog

I know I haven't been a good blogger lately. I have been neglecting the blog and not posting much, and very few reviews. In the past when the blog has gone into semi-hibernation it has often been because I was away travelling or because I was going through one of my depressive episodes, but not this time. I have been focusing on my photoblog and on photography in general, and I haven't been reading much, and all of this has led to me neglecting the book blogging.

Photography and reading are the two hobbies that have stayed with me the longest. I read my first novel all on my own at age 7 (not counting the readers we had at school), and I got my first camera when I was around 12.
I would just as soon give up reading as I would eating - it is that important to me - but there have been years when I didn't do much photography. However, I find it gives me something reading doesn't - like almost all the other hobbies I have tried through the years (which include quilting, rock painting, origami, book-binding and cooking) it gives me a creative outlet.

When I invested in a DSLR a couple of months ago it was the first time in several years that I wasn't shooting with a compact camera (not counting the occasional use of my father's EOS because I always used the A program on that). The compact I was using before that is a temperamental little beast that burns up batteries faster than I can buy them and that took all the fun out of photography. The DSLR (a Nikon D7000, if you must know) on the other hand is a dignified machine with so many different settings and buttons that I feel as if I'm back in elementary school. It really is like I'm learning photography all over again, and I am enjoying  exploring my creative side. So you'll just have to excuse me if I only check in sporadically for the next several weeks.

I am reading a brand new crime thriller I was asked to review, and there will be a review of that some time in August. I am also reading a couple of older books I may review as well. The Monday blast from the past will continue to post and I will try to remember to post the Friday night folktales and a few Wednesday night videos, but other posts will be sporadic.

Comments

Dorte H said…
As long as you enjoy whatever you are doing :D

Via my blogroll I´ll notice when something happens here so I´ll be back when you are.
July 28, 2011 4:22 pm
Bibliophile said…
Good to know, Dorte :-)
July 28, 2011 6:30 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Book 7: Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuściński (reading notes)

-This reads like fiction - prose more beautiful than one has come to expect from non-fiction and many of the chapters are structured like fiction stories. There is little continuity between most of the chapters, although some of the narratives or stories spread over more than one chapter. This is therefore more a collection of short narratives than a cohesive entirety. You could pick it up and read the chapters at random and still get a good sense of what is going on. -Here is an author who is not trying to find himself, recover from a broken heart, set a record, visit 30 countries in 3 weeks or build a perfectly enviable home in a perfectly enviable location, which is a rarity within travel literature, but of course Kapuściński was in Africa to work, and not to travel for spiritual, mental or entertainment purposes (he was the Polish Press Agency's Africa correspondent for nearly 30 years). -I have no way of knowing how well Kapuściński knew Africa - I have never been there...
Post a Comment
Read more

How to make a simple origami bookmark

Here are some instructions on how to make a simple origami (paper folding) bookmark: Take a square of paper. It can be patterned origami paper, gift paper or even office paper, just as long as it’s easy to fold. The square should not be much bigger than 10 cm/4 inches across, unless you intend to use the mark for a big book. The images show what the paper should look like after you follow each step of the instructions. The two sides of the paper are shown in different colours to make things easier, and the edges and fold lines are shown as black lines. Fold the paper in half diagonally (corner to corner), and then unfold. Repeat with the other two corners. This is to find the middle and to make the rest of the folding easier. If the paper is thick or stiff it can help to reverse the folds. Fold three of the corners in so that they meet in the middle. You now have a piece of paper resembling an open envelope. For the next two steps, ignore the flap. Fold the square diagonally in two. Yo...
25 comments
Read more

Bibliophile discusses Van Dine’s rules for writing detective stories

Writers have been putting down advice for wannabe writers for centuries, about everything from how to captivate readers to how to build a story and write believable characters to getting published. The mystery genre has had its fair share, and one of the best known advisory essays is mystery writer’s S.S. Van Dine’s 1928 piece “Twenty rules for writing detective stories.” I mentioned in one of my reviews that I might write about these rules. Well, I finally gave myself the time to do it. First comes the rule (condensed), then what I think about it. Here are the Rules as Van Dine wrote them . (Incidentally, check out the rest of this excellent mystery reader’s resource: Gaslight ) The rules are meant to apply to whodunnit amateur detective fiction, but the main ones can be applied to police and P.I. fiction as well. I will discuss them mostly in this context, but will also mention genres where the rules don’t apply and authors who have successfully and unsuccessfully broken the rules. 1...
9 comments
Read more