Cynical Reader and Go Buy This Book

You may have noticed that I've been eerily silent all over the blog-o-sphere lately and I apologize for my silence, I sincerely do, but please give me this chance to explain with this handy-dandy little list.

• I've been busy: Well, duh. Who isn't these days, right?
• I quit smoking so I don't have as much time to read: Bear with me here, I didn't smoke in the house, I would go outside, so when I had a smoke break, I had a book in my hand. It really did make reading so much simpler. Now I feel kind of guilty if I just sit down and read.
• I've been sick and so have the kids: This is all true, but of course, not for the entirety of the past few months that I've been MIA.
• I have been uncommonly addicted to the aps on MySpace and have been spending way too much computer time on them when I should be doing other things: This one, unfortunately, is true. Thankfully, my addiction is waning and I'm able to tear myself away from them fairly easily.
• My schedule at work has been way wonky and is causing me all sorts of stress: Very true, but thankfully, we're getting a bit of a schedule worked out and I should have my afternoons free to clean house and blog.

"Cynics are made, not born."

And while all of these are true, they aren't the real reason. No, the real reason is that I've went from Rabid Reader to Cynical Reader.

I haven't always been this way, but I've noticed that for the past several months I look at the books I'm reading with more harshness than before. When I used to be able to fall in lurve with a book fairly easily, I've gotten to where it takes an author working their ass off to make me enjoy the thing. I mean, the book has to bring its A-Game if it wants me to even like it a little, where as before, I was a pretty easy sale.

Will this help me as I begin to pick up the blogging reins again, or will it hurt me? I actually kind of liked the old Reader me and while it took me a while to come to terms with new Reader me, I think I may like this side of me too. Only time will tell if this will make me a better book blogger or worse. At first, I thought I was maybe just in a funk, but when my standard cure for that didn't work, I realized it was something else, something was shifting in my reading life.

And while I can attribute my cynsism to a few key aspects, I can't really pin point when the change occurred. So, bear with me these next few posts as I find my new voice to go with this new view.

I've also realized that with the job and kids, my writing, and oh yeah, those darn MySpace aps, I can't do this blog completely alone, so I've asked a friend of mine to chime in every once in a while, she's graciously agreed, and Jenny will be joining me here on Novel Reads very soon. I'll have a formal introduction in a few days.

I will say this though, I'm not completly unable to enjoy books, it just takes me a little longer to finish them. I'm not quite finished with Lord Of Misrule The Morganville Vampires-Book Five by Rachel Caine (started it Sunday, it's out today) and I'm totally diggin' it. I'll blog it tomorrow, but it was released today, GO GET IT! I really think you'll enjoy.

Take Care