Saturday, March 1, 2014

Sunday Update (3)

Every other Sunday I'll be posting a general news post. These might preview things I'm planning for the two weeks following (such as a new feature - On My Mind), they might reflect on books I'm looking forward to, or that I've recently heard of and want to discuss.  

I'm hooking into: 



This is a meme hosted by the Caffeinated Book Reviewer wherein everyone gets to share their news for the week. It's a great opportunity to see what's happening out there in the blogosphere, so go check out some other Sunday Posters!

Today's post is going to have a few sections:

1. COYER - March E-reader Clean-Out

2. February Site Stats

3. Currently...

4. Year-Long Challenges Update



1. COYER 

I posted my kick-off post for COYER yesterday, but the basics again are that for the month of March, I will be attempting to clear as many free or nearly free ebooks off my TBR shelf as possible. I've selected eight books to start with, and I'm hoping to squeeze in a few more. I'll be posting mini-reviews through the month, and I'm looking forward to cutting into my TBR pile.

2. Site Stats for February

In February, I reviewed 18 books for the site. 

My average review score was 3.5, which is a bit lower than maybe I would like to see, and down .4 from January. 

I refuse to pick favourites because I read so many really good books this month. I rated two books 5s and two 4.5s:  
In terms of site visitors, Google Analytics tells me that the blog had 266 visits from 150 different visitors and roughly 1000 pageviews. I've taken a bit of a step backwards - partially because I had fewer reviews this month, I think.

Remember that you follow the blog via email using the sign-up in the sidebar or you can follow via BlogLuvin:  Follow on Bloglovin

Or follow the blog twitter account for updates: TETOReviews on Twitter

3. Currently...

Last Sunday Update I mentioned wanting to include some chattier posts - well, one of my current 'go-to' blogs is the Coffee Bean Bookshop, which occasionally posts a meme entitled "Currently" which is questionnaire style update about what's going on at the moment. I thought I'd answer it today:

Reading: Sapphire are an Earl's Best Friend by Shana Galen, The Shadows of Asphodel by Karen Kincy and The Flight of the Silvers by Daniel Price. Yeah, three books on the go. Two of them I can't read on my Kobo reader right now.
Watching: Old episodes of Chopped. 
Playing: Payday 2 just had an update last week so I'm back into it with my favourite set of heisters. I've also been playing Torchlight 2 and Dungeon Defenders with my husband and a friend, which has been pretty awesome. I'd really love to see a five person game come out right now though so the people I regularly play with could all play the same game.
Feeling: Excited about the prospect of starting to write fiction again. I've noticed a couple of submission calls that have me inspired to start putting words on the page again.
Loving: Vanilla Caramel Coffeemate, because I've needed coffee most mornings this week and this makes for delicious coffee. 
Hating: That there aren't thirty hours in the day.
Planning: I really want to get into the habit of planning meals more carefully. My son is hitting the age of finger foods, so I need to be really conscientious about what I'm preparing for him, and my daughter's at that picky preschooler age so there's a short list of things she wants to eat. 
Wanting: To be a better knitter. My current efforts are not as, ah, accomplished as I would like.
Thinking: About starting a monthly publisher feature. One of my favourite things of the past four and a half months of blogging is that I've discovered a number of new publishers that I would never have been exposed to before I started blogging. 

4. The Year-Long Challenges!


Up first, the 2014 Monthly Key Word Challenge. 
Hosted by Bookmark to Blog
February's words were "Her, Life, Night, Red, Dark, Island." For this, I read Night's Promise by Amanda Ashley, which I gave 1.5 stars!  

March's words are "Forever, Inside, Storm, Sky, Flower, Stay." I'm really not sure what I have coming up that might satisfy this one, so I'll have to do some planning!


Second, The 2014 Rewind Challenge!
This is hosted by Coffee Bean Bookshelf.
I read...
Not a darned thing.
So I'm still at 2/40 and 1/40 for my efforts. 

Hopefully my efforts this month for COYER will let me catch up on those totals a bit more.


Have a bit of news to share? What challenges have you been doing this month? Do you have a favourite post out there in the blogosphere you want to highlight?



10 comments:

  1. 1000 page views per month would be great in my world :) but than I'm only new and average about 3000 at the moment. I'm so pleased about you picking up writing - make sure you share it with us. I keep trying to tell my DD's boyfriend he should continue writing, he keeps telling me 'it's rubbish' and I keep telling him the only way to be a writer is to write. He tells me he doesn't want to be a writer, but just feels that 'the story needs to get out of him'. As for my knitting…well, my time on the laptop seriously eats into any knitting time I ever had!
    Have a great week and Happy Reading!
    My Sunday post is here

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    1. That's often the best kind of writer - the kind who just wants to tell the story! Laptop time definitely eats up potential knitting time. I'm on a deadline though as this blanket is for my future niece or nephew and I have to give myself time to restart it three or four times before deciding that imperfection in arts and crafts is really just my thing ;)

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  2. I'm working on a series challenge too. I need to read down my incomplete series. They are taking over my life! :)

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    1. My problem is often checking in with all the series that I have on the go as so many are of the never-ending variety!

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  3. I've completely lost track of the number of series I've started and haven't finished. It'll be nice to get my review queue caught up and I can go back to them and finish them or get them up-to-date. lol

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    1. The day I get my review queue caught up, I will be a happy, happy woman :D

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  4. I'll have to keep the COYER challenge in mind for the future. When I first figured out how to convert Amazon books over for my Nook, I went a little crazy with downloading free books. One-Click Book Shopping with be the death of me!!!

    http://secondrunreviews.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-sunday-post-week-of-february-23-2014.html

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    1. One-Click is so dangerous with the number of fairly inexpensive ebooks out there!! I'm hoping COYER will inspire me to clear out a few books on my TBR. What I should really do is post something with a complete list of all the books I have but haven't read yet. That would be motivating (or frightening....)

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  5. It seems like all I ever read are books in a series. I read one, start another series, read one, start another, eventually go back to the first series, etc. It takes me forever to read a series because I'm reading so many. I'll have to remember COYER for next time. Sounds like a great way to weed through those free Kindle books I obsessively "buy" and to get caught up on series reading!

    Stopping by from The Sunday Post. New Bloglovin' and Twitter follower.

    Jessica @ Tales Between the Pages

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    1. It doesn't help that series/trilogies are such a popular format. And I can't even complain because when I find characters I love, of course I want to spend more time with them. It'd just be nice if I found a series a few weeks before the last one in the series is published so I can read right through....

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