Phew, that was fun!

The A to Z Blogging Challenge is OVER!

I actually loved posting every day. It was a challenge because I haven't blogged in so long. I this lapse with a post a month, on average. I've missed sharing reviews, but I've also spent a lot of time trying to decide what I want this space to be. I'm not good enough a reviewer to have it exclusively be reviews. Plus it's how I FEEL about books, so my reviews will be more casual and personable. And it won't be just books, it will be everything relating to books and literacy and media.

Really developing It's Not Easy Going Green has been a lot of fun. Some of my posts were just thought vomit, and some were more developed. I want that to be a mix of a lifestyle blog and minimalism/environmentalism/financial blog, but all very personal. I'm not trying to be an expert on anything, here or on my green blog, I just like sharing my experiences.

Since launching my photography business, I've posted on Allison and Her Camera, but not regularly. This challenge has pushed me to get back to my blogging roots (because of course those need to be rediscovered?) and I want to stay in the practice of writing often. I've been publicly blogging since 2008, and writing online (diary-x and LiveJournal, anyone?) since 2000. As lame as it might be, I like sharing some things online, so... here I am. And here I am trying to stay while being interested and relevant.

I've loved connecting with so many different bloggers, and hope to keep up with you all, and hope you stick around for my journey and share your experience.

Zusak

I Am the Messenger by Marcus Zusak

I’ve had The Book Thief on my shelf forever but wasn’t in the mood to read it the two times I tried, and I was worried this book would be just as dark. I listened to this as an audiobook and absolutely loved it! Marc Aden Gray, with his Australian accent, was the perfect narrator since the characters are Australian. He seemed to have fun with the narration, changing his tone according to the story, and even changing his voice for different characters. This really helped pull me into the story. Most audiobooks I’d tried to listen to previously were read more straight-forward, so my mind wandered instead of paying attention to the story. I Am the Messenger made me think of radio shows from the time before TV, when families would gather ‘round to listen to a story, instead of turn on the TV and expect to be entertained. The audiobook was well-done, but I would have loved this story regardless of how I read it. There was a bit of suspense and mystery throughout the whole story, and I really identified with Ed. His story of accidentally foiling a bank robbery and then becoming an unwilling messenger of goodwill was intriguing. The ending, however, has to be one of my favorite book endings ever. I kept thinking about it - and that’s all I’ll say! Read it for yourself and you’ll understand why it might have ruined me for all other books! See my detailed review here.