I Heart Paperbacks has a new home!

After much thought, I’ve decided to self-host this blog again. While I’ve enjoyed my short time hosted with WordPress.com, I did find it rather restricting at times. I am still in the process of editing the older posts into categories, but everything else should be up and running. I will keep this site open for awhile since I’m currently hosting two on-going reading challenges. The sign up posts for both challenges will remain active on this version of the blog.

http://iheartpaperbacks.com

And don’t forget, April 30th is the day I Heart Paperbacks will be giving a random M/M Romance Challenge participant a prize! Stay tuned to the new blog to see if you’ve won! ^_^

Happy Blog Birthday!

Today, I Heart Paperbacks turns two years old! Bring out the trumpets and fairy cakes!

My Reader is finally here!

My Sony Reader is finally here! It arrived bright and early yesterday morning. I’m loving it so far, even if I can’t read my bought-and-paid-for Mobipocket files on it. I guess I won’t be buying that format anymore. It’s too much of a pain to convert them to something usable.

I have had a little trouble with my PDF’s, but not much. Most of them turn out readable once they’re on the device. So, not only can I take my ebooks around with me, I can also take my fanzines!

I did get a bit of a scare with it though. I kind of threw everything I had at the Sony all at once. I filled up the internal hard drive and added a 2 GB SD card on top of all that. My Reader didn’t like being gorged like that straight out of the box. Poor thing. It took about an hour to load everything the first time. I was worried that I’d killed it, but it never locked up. It just sat there with it’s little “Loading…” message moving sluggishly now and then as if I’d given it the biggest bellyache ever. It finally settled and it loads like a charm now that the initial trauma is over.

A word about ratings

After much consideration, I’ve decided to change my rating system somewhat. I will continue to use the 1 to 5 stars, but will add 1/2 stars as well. I feel that this will allow me more room to accurately compare the books I read and review. I have not gone through my old posts in order to update them to the new system (or to the new post layout). I may do so when I have more time. Until then, the older posts will stand as-is.

Baby Update

Danny is now 1 month and 1 week old! He’s grown so much over the past few weeks, it’s just amazing. He now weighs 2 lbs. 15.9 oz. His feeds are up to 6.8 ml an hour (he’s still on continuous feeds through a feeding tube) and they’ve weened him down a dose on one of his stimulant medications. He’s still having some troubles with his lungs, but that’s something that is normal for a preemie his age. He’s getting stronger, but it just takes time. As my OB told me on my last visit: “Just feed him, water him, and watch him grow!” Here are a few recent pics:

Welcome to the world, Danny-Boy!

I am still here, but there have been some major changes in my life that have kept me from updating this site. I found out I was pregnant not long after posting the Seafaring Challenge. I spent the next few months feeling very icky and tired, so my book reading took a back burner (unless it was pregnancy related). Just a few weeks ago, at 26 weeks pregnant, I was admitted to the hospital with severe preeclampsia and pulmonary edema. On May 8th at 4:54 p.m., my son Jonathan Daniel, was born via emergency c-section. He weighed 1 lb. 14 oz. He’s in the NICU and will remain there atleast until his due date, which was August 12. He is doing well, though he has a few mishaps now and then with his breathing and heart rate. He’s on medication and the c-pap to help him improve his breathing. He’s very tiny, but he’s a big fighter! Here are a few pics of him at a little over 2 weeks old.

Goodbye Madeleine

Author Madeleine L’Engle passed away today at the age of 88. Her books were my constant companions when I was a child and I owe her my love and thanks for unknowingly helping me through such a rough part of my life.

1918 – 2007
She will be missed.