Bad Excuses, A Break, and the Like

You may have noticed that in the past month reviews and posts in general have dropped off severely. I apologize for this lack of posting and such.

The main reason this has happened was that I was in a bad reading slump all of October. I only managed to finish one book during October - Song of the Nile - which was fantastic, but that doesn't get me anywhere in terms of reviews. This happened in part because school started up, and the full force of actual grad level courses hit me. Another reason was because my boyfriend and I started house hunting which has required a lot of meeting people, seeing places, and of course the surrounding research and learning. Also, I got slightly obsessed with a game called Glitch, and that turned out to be a free time suck of which I really didn't have much of to begin with.

The final reason for the slump was really because reading has become a bit like a chore because of the reviews, which in combination with all the other things made me feel overly stressed. So, to remedy the situation:

1) I have quit playing the game for the time being to free up time and energy to get back to reading because the lack of reading was definitely disturbing.

2) I have decided to officially go on a break from the blog for the next month (incidentally this is about the time until my quarter ends). I will likely write a few reviews in this time, but I won't be posting them until I come back in December in order to give myself some cushion.

3) There shall be giveaways to compensate for my absence when I come back in December. (there MIGHT be a Shatter Me giveaway just saying~~)

4) Third Sentence Thursday will also be taking a break until I come back since I want this to be a complete break from the blog for awhile. Fear not though, it shall be back and better than ever. Edit: this is void. It is now being guest hosted over at Proud Book Nerd. There was an announcement about that here.

Today I am Sad

One of my favorite parts of Goodreads - Bookswap, is being shut down. I know this has been coming for awhile since the Goodreads team has been talking about shutting it down since May due to it taking up too many resources in comparison to the amount of people using it. Nevertheless, I am very very sad to see it go and wish it hadn't come to this. I have voiced my opinion on this matter in the previous feedback thread on this subject, but I guess it didn't sway the matter in favor of keeping the service active.

I have swapped and received many books using the generally intuitive interface that the Goodreads team put together, and I'm not sure I can switch over to other clunkier interfaces. Also, most other swap sites don't let you pay only when you are requesting a book. Instead, you earn credits by shipping a book out.

Bookswap closes officially on Oct 31st, and I for one will be spending less time on the Goodreads site as a result since a good portion of my time on the site was using the Bookswap feature. Not that I will stop using the site altogether since the original reason I started using Goodreads was before the swap portion even existed.

I think at this point it may be too late to change the opinion of Otis and the rest of the Goodreads team, but if any of you are similarly disappointed in the loss of this feature I urge you to voice your disappointment in THIS THREAD or perhaps by email through their contact form.

Taiwan Trip Recapped!

So there were a couple requests for info on my trip to Taiwan so here we go ^.^

I generally have a terrible memory for taking pictures as I've mentioned before so.. we'll try to have some pictures, but don't expect anything complete~~

I was there for 2 weeks total, which is longer than I've been in awhile although perhaps not as long as I would've liked to be there. I spent most of my time in Taipei, which is the capitol. There, I did many tourist-y things like going to night markets where there is much eating and shopping. What's nice about the night markets is that they are frequented by people who live in Taiwan so they are less tourist traps and more just fun places to go.

Boyfriend wanted to try snake meat at one of the night markets (see below) so we tried that.


It was chewy and a tad too salty

I also got Boyfriend to try a vegetarian buffet (run by a Buddhist organization and frequented by monks) which he declared a great success. These buffets have a lot of variety and just about everything was really tasty. They have these hand rolls that I really wish I had had enough stomach to eat more of. Unfortunately no picture because I am fail.

We also got to try lots of restaurants which have really fresh seafood. As in, they get their fish (including shellfish) off boats in the morning, and the fish are then stored in tanks until they are chosen to be eaten (you get to choose which ones you want or you can just note what type and have the seller/chefs choose).


I should probably emphasize at this point that a lot of the trip centered around eating. The Taiwanese are obsessed with eating, and everyone likes to take pictures of their food. Since Taipei especially is packed in really tight, you really don't have to go much farther than downstairs (most people live in flats/condos/apartments) to find food.

We did visit an aboriginal reservation/preservation area that also had an amusement park attached:


Aboriginal Cultural Village (this was more a display than anything else)


The amusement park part. Boyfriend informed me that the roller coaster was pretty awesome although I didn't go on it because well... I'm not a fan of roller coasters.
We did also visit a Memorial for one of the important figures in Taiwanese history although the styling of the memorial has made people comment that it looks like Lincoln T_T



I think I mentioned before that we did explore other parts of Taiwan besides Taipei (which is in the Northmost part of Taiwan). One of the places was this wilderness area surrounding a waterfall:


There was quite a bit of hiking to get around it and to see some of the other cool stuff in the area. Also, we took one of the best scenery pictures of the trip (at least in my mind) at just a little bit beyond the base of the waterfall.


All in all it was a really fun trip although it was during the hot and wet season ( Boyfriend was overwhelmed from the heat and humidity, and I probably didn't drink enough water). The food was delicious, and the relatives were fun as usual. I'm excited to bring Boyfriend back sometime (this was his first trip there).

So I Was Away For Awhile

...and I went to this place called Taiwan. It was full of shopping, gorgeous scenery such as the picture you see above, and oh so much food. So, just in case you're curious, here are some pictures from around Taiwan. (Mostly just scenery pictures)


View from a Fisherman's Wharf of Taipei


Stream next to a camping site


Wicked awesome looking tree


Chiang-Kai Shek Memorial Hall


Old style town/market


Bones!


Countryside


These bakers have some skillaz~~


Black Swans!

Of course there were more photos which I took, but I didn't want to overwhelm you guys. I hope you guys get a chance to visit Taiwan sometime, it's a place I love ^.^

Heads Up for Awayness

I'm going to be out of the country for a couple of weeks, I've got some posts scheduled so you should still see some before I come back although I won't really be able to respond to messages and comments as much.

Hopefully you don't miss me too much, and I'll be back before you know it!

BEA Note for My Dear Readers

Today I am in New York, and this week shall be a whirlwind of BEA (Book Expo America) and BBC (Book Blogger Convention) as well as the events surrounding them. I will likely be blogging from my phone, which means posts will be short, but hopefully somewhat frequent ^.^

I plan to feature books received, authors I meet, possibly some other blogger, any interesting news, and generally try to keep you entertained. I am not likely to be posting any reviews though so if you're here for review next week, erm.. I have an archive of reviews you can peruse!

Thank You to my RAK'ers (April Edition)

April RAK is at an end, and I got some lovely RAK's ^.^ which I would now like to highlight and thank each person who sent me something.

Thank you to Ashley of Bookish Brunette for:
If I stay by Gayle Forman

Thank you to Becky of Stories and Sweeties Blog for:
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

Finally, a thank you to Lori from Pure Imagination Blog for ??. I was informed of a package, but it has yet to arrive! So, something mysterious ^.^

May's signup for RAK hosted by Book Soulmates isn't up yet. But I hope you will join along this month, and who knows, maybe you'll be getting an RAK from me ^.^ Again, thank you to the wonderful bloggers mentioned above.

Review Request Hiatus

Due to the fact that I have a pretty long list of books which need to be reviewed at the moment and the fact that I will be attending BEA (which will likely make this list even longer), I am not going to accept any review requests until after June 15th 2011. Also, I'm heading into a busy period of projects and midterms which means I can't read as fast as I would like to.

I do strive to get to each and every book I request and/or accept for review. Hopefully this break will allow me to give each book the attention it deserves and still have some time to read some of the books which are not on my formal review list.

If you were planning on asking for a review and can wait until after June 15th, please send it then. All requests sent between now and then will be automatically rejected.

I have already updated the review policy page to reflect this change.

An Explanation of Sorts

I've been a tad busy over the last week (1 assignment, 1 midterm, 2 projects, 1 Blogger Social, 1 Easter) so I haven't been able to post much at all. I hope you guys still love me *makes puppy eyes*. Hopefully I can get back to posting some things soon >.>

I have actually been pretty busy since coming back from spring break at the beginning of the month but I had managed to build up a small queue of reviews which I reached the end of last Tuesday. Thus, the sad lack of posting this past week has brought although I did manage to bring to your attention the Apocalypsies site AND got Third Sentence Thursday up in time ^.^

Nevertheless, the rest of the quarter is also going to be busy (more projects, assignments, tests T_T), so if I'm a bit spotty at times. I beg you not to throw rotten eggs at the house. I shall be back shortly if not for huge spans of time at a time.

I think I promised to talk a bit about what I've been doing. So anyway, for those of you who care, I'm taking 3 courses this quarter: Operating Systems, Data and Communication, and Compiler Design.

The Compiler Design course is pretty time consuming in terms of its projects. I'm liking it though ^.^ Basically I'm writing my own compiler... which will compile code for a practice language that the professor made up.

Operating Systems is also pretty interesting as it goes into a lot of the decisions that go into writing an OS. The professor is pretty good for this class so yay!

The last one I haven't been spending as much time on although it's basically talking about how networks/networking works. I really need to catch up on my reading in this course heh.

In other news, I managed to start learning Java again although I had to stop and work on the projects for school. Hopefully this means I will be able to write some small things in it soon ^.^

Edit: Oh, I also wanted to share this article on how math is within reach of everyone. It might be especially of interest to any parents who are looking for a system to get their kids started on the maths~~

I Will Likely Never be a Regular Customer of BN.Com

So, I used to really like Barnes & Noble and spent many an afternoon there eating cookies and reading. I even got a membership there for a few years. As I got older, however, I found that the convenience of online shopping meant I went to bookstores less. It also didn't help that I no longer lived anywhere close to a big box store during my college years (or rather I didn't have the transportation to get me to one).

At any rate, most of my online business goes to Amazon because it has a huge selection of things which I can get with free 2-day shipping (yes, I have Prime) for not that much money. Also, their site is easy to navigate, and has a lot of nice functionality like the wishlist feature.

Recently, I bought the Groupon for Barnes & Noble and wanted to use it on BN.com because the nearest Barnes & Noble to me is still really far away. I found that the prices were competitive with Amazon (the prices didn't use to be competitive) which was a pleasant surprise. Because I no longer have membership though, I have to pay for shipping which, ok is not a problem because I could get membership.

Quite frankly though, I won't renew my membership because I can't stand the BN.com site. I established an account on BN.com sometime ago and wanted to update my password, but apparently this meant that I ALSO had to change my email or it wouldn't let me actually change my password. Seriously, I only want to change my password, don't make me change my email.

Second problem, during checkout I clicked on one of the help links, and it popped up a little message overlay which I couldn't get rid of to go back to editing my order, granted this may have to do with my browser (Chrome which has enough market share to warrant making things work properly), but if I have to start my checkout ALL OVER AGAIN, I'm much less likely to actually checkout.

Third problem, Amazon has this nice feature where I don't have to re-enter my giftcard (the Groupon was set up to be used like a gift card) information every time I check out. BN.com doesn't have this, so when I got booted out of the checkout screen because this damned help box wouldn't close, I had to re-enter all that information again. Yes, this is a small annoyance, but small annoyances make me not want to use the site. Not using the site means I'm not going to buy from the site unless I HAVE TO.

Basically, I'm trying to say that online shopping is about convenience. If an online store makes it inconvenient to check out or do anything with my account, it's less likely that customers will stick around to put up with it when there are store which don't have those hassles.

A Very Different Sort of Review: The Book of Tomorrow

The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahern

Copy Courtesy of Netgalley and Harper Collins
Already Published

This is going to be a very different sort of review than you're used to seeing here on Sniffly Kitty's Mostly Books so bear with me.

Summary
Tamara is a rather spoiled little girl since her dad provides her with everything. When her dad kills himself, Tamara and her mother learn that the family is bankrupt, and have to move in with her aunt. Once there Tamara finds a very interesting diary, and what she finds within its pages will change everything.

Commentary
I can't give this book a rating because while the story itself may be overly dramatic it really made me think. I don't talk much about myself on this blog beyond what I like and don't like in books, but today I'm going to tell you a story.

Some years ago when I was still living at home, I didn't get along with my dad very well. There were many reasons for this, and it has taken a measure of distance (physical distance) and some changes in views on life for both him and I for us to get to a much better point today.

Anyway, at that time, my dad took out a life insurance policy and made special note of the fact that suicide would not result in a payout until the policy had been in effect over a certain amount of years. The way my dad said this then made me believe that he was contemplating suicide. Of course, it wasn't that comment alone, my dad had been very frustrated with his job, our relationship, and some things with my mom. These facts together made me very afraid.

Throughout the intervening, I carried the burden of this knowledge with me, and despite majoring in psychology where we learn about talking as a great mechanism for aborting people's attempts on their life, I had never thought to actually talk to my dad about this because there are many things my dad and I just don't talk about. After I read the Book of Tomorrow, I began panicking about what losing my dad would be like, and finally realized with the help of my boyfriend that I should talk to my dad about it directly.

So, last week, I finally talked to him, and it turns out that while he was extremely frustrated, he had decided that suicide would never be an option for him. After hearing this, I've been greatly relieved. It's been really great to finally put down this burden which I've been carrying for years.

I am very grateful that this book finally propelled me to talk to my dad. I am also very grateful that my dad is alive, and will continue to be alive (*knock on wood*).

I Want Virtual Now

In reply to an article over at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

Quick summary: They want to have kiosks where you can browse a physical bookstore and then buy the e-book right there in the store in part so you don't feel so bad about browsing and then going home to buy an e-book somewhere else.

This is a great idea for a bookstore because the store itself still sells books. That's not really what I want to talk about though. I want to take this idea one step further. I want a virtual bookstore that I can browse like a physical bookstore, and I want it now instead of in 10 years.

What I mean is: I want to be able to 'enter' a virtual bookstore, where books have been shelved by type and alphabetized or whatnot. It has to look like bookshelves. Then I want to be able to 'walk' up to that shelf and pull books off of those shelves and look around that book. Since this is digital, maybe there would be some sort of preview option >.> or whatnot.

Of course, virtual reality being what it is now... may not get to that point. Also, that kind of interface has yet to pick up any sort of standard, and I'm just living in a dreamworld. I would love for this to be a reality though ^.^

Featured Today (Better Know a Blogger)~~

I'm featured over at Tiger's All Consuming Books for Better Know a Blogger today ^.^ check it out here!

Looking for a Couple Guest Posts

I've got tests coming up so will definitely be less able to keep up with the posting rate I've been going at so I'm looking for a couple nice bloggers to guest post. If you're interest, send me an email at snifflykitty@gmail.com or leave a comment with your email so I can get in contact with you!

Thanks guys ^.^

Edit: I could use more than a couple haha, I just picked an arbitrary describer ^.^

I'm Back!

Well, actually I was back yesterday, but there were a whole ton of things to do yesterday so I say hi again today!

I went back to Chicago to see my parents, and apparently my mom has acquired a new toy (video camera thing). She's now posting things up on YouTube and such. Craziness since she has a lot of trouble using computers.

There was lots of good Chinese food (omg so much food), and I got to see some old friends which was great! I did manage to read 2 books, one on the flight over (State of Mind), and one on the flight back (Delirium) so expect those reviews soon!

Wish Me Luck?

I start classes today! Hopefully they go well. I have class from 10am-6pm so... I will try to get back to you, if you leave a comment anywhere, after I get back home!

<3 you all!

Edit: O crap... I posted this a day earlier than I meant to. Tomorrow!!! I have lots of class tomorrow!

Light Response Warning

Hey all~~

I'm going home to Chicago (Big Shout-Out to any bloggers that live there!) which means not much time to reply to ya'll even though I still <3 you guys. I will be back next week. Posts shall continue uninterrupted as I have them scheduled so this should only be a minor blip for you ^.^

Much <3,
Sniffly Kitty

If you haven't done so yet, enter my 150 follower giveaway! It's open to international folk as well ^.^

Sad Little Moisturizer Story

Olay Total Effects
So I purchased this moisturizer because quite a few beauty recommendation sites said it was full of awesome. Excitedly, I hunted for it on Amazon, and it had a coupon so I bought it! Unfortunately, it managed to dry my skin out (my skin type isn't dry). I am sad~~

The End

P.S. If you haven't done so yet, enter my 150 follower giveaway! It's open to international folk as well ^.^

The Latest Obsession: Recettear

As an early Christmas present, the BF got me a little game called Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale, and it has managed to consume a lot of my time in the past few days! It's an indie role-playing game, where you play a shop owner of a store for adventuring heroes. This means buying and selling stuff for the most part. There is also an aspect of it where you get to fight some monsters by controlling some of the heroes you meet in your shop ^.^

I think it's a cute little game, that is also highly, highly addictive. A lot of indie games are really quite fun and a ton cheaper ($4-$20) than their juggernaut counterparts. Steam is having a sale so they're even cheaper than normal ($1-$10) if you want to check some out~~

(I have no affiliation to Recettear or Steam)

Busting the Newbie Blues

I consider myself quite a newbie in the book blogging world so I'm taking part in this awesome event hosted by Small Review. Go here to check out the details.

It comes with a survey!

When did you start your blog?
I started the book reviewing nature of this blog in September this year.

Why did you start your blog?
I had been looking for a topic I could blog consistently about because I want to work on my writing skills, and well, I love books. That's the topic that's been working the best ^.^

What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
Trying to build an audience takes up way more time (at least subjectively) than reading the books or writing the reviews.

What do you find most discouraging about being a new blogger?
The ups and downs of traffic are really discouraging.

What do you find most encouraging?
The fact that I'm building some traffic, and there are some nice people that come around and comment on what I'm writing about.

What do you like best about the blogs you read? Have you tried to replicate this in your blog?
Hmm... I like what people have written for review policies and have definitely incorporated stuff for that. I liked that some sites have an index of just their reviews so I have one of those too... I haven't quite gotten around to putting together a list of challenges I want to take part in next year so definitely look for that to come out soon.

What do you dislike about blogs you’ve read? Do you try to avoid this?
I dislike music on blogs and some blogs have so much stuff in their sidebars that it takes forever to load the pages. I really try to avoid scripts/paraphernalia creep in my sidebar, and I definitely don't have any music.

Any advice for other new bloggers?
Things take time, and other bloggers are generally pretty nice. They don't bite, so try to talk to them. (I promise I don't bite either ^.^)

Anything else you’d like to share about your experience?
Blogging is a lot more time consuming than I ever thought it would be, but it's been a fun learning experience for sure.

Is there anything you’d like to tell us about your blog?
I am picky about my books so I tend to grade them very strictly. You will often find that my ratings are a star or two lower than other people's reviews. I really only want to say I love books that I really truly love and will recommend without any reservations. Thus, 3 stars is not a bad rating.