Taking a chance, and doing a little updating and cleaning up around here. I added in and updated what I am currently reading. I tend to read multiple books at a time, so the list is on the big side. Also, I am doing some reading challenges this year, which I will post about as well. Hope to gradually add reviews here again and get the shelves back on track. We'll see if things hold. On a side note, I had to add some titles as the BL database did not have them.

Back in 2016 I turned out the lights here and walked out when BookLikes basically went unstable and no one was really sure if they were coming or going. I went on to other places, mainly my main book reviews and personal blog, The Itinerant Librarian.

On the one hand, I did miss the place, plus the Tumblr debacle meant one less place online (for those who may have missed it, here is a link). On the other, seems this place has managed to keep some stability (though I am skeptical as this is the second attempt at this post since it failed to post the first one just now), so I am going to make a go at it again here. We'll see how it goes.

As always, if you want to find me, you can also visit me in these other places:

As I mentioned, my main book reviews and personal blog is The Itinerant Librarian.

My Twitter is @bloodravenlib (yes, this has changed from @gypsylib, long story).

My commonplace blog at Alchemical Thoughts. This is mainly odds and ends and some cartomancy content (another thing that has happened since 2016 is I've taken up study of cartomancy, mainly Tarot and oracle cards. Some of that will likely appear here too in BookLikes here and there).

My "Tumblr refugee" blog at Alchemical Annex. This is where I exported my Tumblr before I took it down. Also odds and ends, mainly short things.

My newest experiment. This is one of the Tumblr alternatives recently available. I am still figuring it out. One of the features I like is their ability to rate posts by levels from family-friendly to explicit, which allows a degree of isolation (better effort to keep kiddies and busybodies out or at least out of certain areas). I did rate my blog on the X side (though I rarely post anything explicit if ever) just to try things out. So when you see blog without blogging in, it will show any content lower than X, of which I have plenty and prompt you to log in to see the rest. It is an interesting idea and effort to keep a bit of better control and allow better free expression. Want to check it out? My blog is Alchemical Annex on nT over at NewTumbl.

So anyhow that is some of what I've been up to since last I was here. I hope to get back to reviewing books here, keeping track of what I read, crossposting a bit from Itinerant Librarian, and slowly getting back into the book community here. If you followed me before, and you are still here, hope you will come along. If I am new to you, check things out, feel free to comment even if to say hello.

I've also updated my list of the books I am currently reading. You can find that on the right sidebar. Finally, in a bit of housecleaning, I slightly changed the title of the blog here (because. . . reasons). For me, I am likely going to find a few broken links in other places where I linked here; I'll just fix as I find them. For you, I hope the effect is minimal.

Paz y amor.

New on my blog, my annual reading report and list of books read for 2014. If you see anything on the list you like and you decide to read it, I would love to hear from you and how you liked it (or not). I also add some numbers and some thoughts on reading in general.

So, click on the link. I would be delighted if you check it out. Also, if you find anything good to read off the list, and you read it, I would love to hear from you whether  you like it or not.

I have a new post on my personal blog, The Itinerant Librarian. For some, this may be a bit more than they wish to know about me as a reader. Still, there it is. Here is an excerpt:

"After reading this post on Book Riot discussing "what your reading rules reveal about your personality," then seeing CW reveal her reading rules, it got me pondering my own reading rules. I may have mentioned a rule here or there, my I never really thought of the issue as having "rules." For me, some of these things seem like small rituals related to reading. So, responding to those blog posts, I am listing some of my rituals for reading. I have no idea what they might reveal about my personality, but here they are."

Link to the post: http://itinerantlibrarian.blogspot.com/2013/07/my-reading-rituals.html

So, how about you folks, do you have any reading rules or rituals? Feel free to comment here or over on my blog.

I have a new post at my personal blog, The Itinerant Librarian. This is based on a recent article featured in Salon on that topic, plus I add some additional commentary on libraries and reading. Here is an excerpt:

"I had read this idea before, that Amazon, by killing off its competition, would harm itself by destroying the discovery engines that help it somewhat. Here is an article at Salon talking about just that. Still, it does make an interesting point."

The Salon article in question is linked above. Feel free to visit my blog by clicking on the link to read the rest of my post. Comments are welcome here or over there.

Link: http://itinerantlibrarian.blogspot.com/2013/07/can-amazon-really-shoot-itself-in-foot.html