It's Been A Long Time!

So it’s been almost a year and a half since I last posted on here and that to me is a little sad. Updating this blog was a huge part of my life for the first two years of my time at university, as it helped me mellow out from the drag of uni work! As most students will know, the third year of university is a whole other kettle of fish and really cut into my casual reading time as I was mostly reading about Winston Churchill and the Second World War, which to me is an amazing subject but to most, isn’t really what they want to read about in their spare time. Plus some events that happened in my personal life and starting a full time job really made me lose my love of fiction as I was usually too tired or too fed up to read or write about books. I think during this period I read one book and that was Sir Alex Ferguson’s autobiography, which I thoroughly enjoy but never actually finished.

Jumping Crocodiles, Northern Territory, Australia

 

Not that I’m complaining, but the last ten months of my life have been spent travelling around the world. I’ve been to Japan, Taiwan, Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand and the US and the last thing I wanted to do was spend time writing about books as I was too busy lying on beaches and drinking cocktails! However, all that time on the beach gave me a great opportunity to get back into reading, which I’d forgotten how much I loved. Reading casually is the best hobby or past time ever and meeting so many new people whilst travelling has also given me so many new book suggestions to read. As hard as it is lying on a beach all day, reading whilst travelling is great because it helps fill an amount of time where you would be otherwise sat staring at the back of an old Japanese man’s head on a bus, or listening to a family of Americans arguing on a trip to the Grand Canyon. Luckily, I’ve read some great books throughout my time travelling such as, The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith and its sequel Silkworm. Books I’d never thought I’d read such as Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones because I’d always thought it was a children’s novel.

 

Osaka Castle

 

With the joy of reading has come all the nostalgia of blogging and how happy I used to be when I’d post a book review and people would read it. That’s why I want to try and get the ball rolling and get this blog back on its feet! I’m hoping to post on here on a regular basis but don’t really want to put any time restraints on myself because then it becomes less of a hobby and more of a job (and I ain’t getting paid!). This is something I want to do professionally so writing this blog is a good form of practice and most importantly, it’s fun!

Queenstown, South Island NZ

 

So I plan to get my own domain name and make adam-p-reviews a website and not just a blog. I also want to re-format my blog so it’s easier and clearer to navigate and looks a whole lot more professional. Again, I don’t have a set time frame for this but hopefully it happens in the next few months! I’d also like to encourage any authors to get in contact with me about reviewing their books. I’m sorry to anyone who has already e-mailed me because I literally just checked my e-mails today and it’s the first time for about a year. But, if you’re reading this and still want a review please e-mail me again and I promise I’ll get back to you.

So I hope this post clears up where I’ve been, where I am and where I want to go with this blog. If you’ve got any questions please feel free to send me an e-mail or check out my Facebook page.

And for anyone who’s interested I’ll leave a list of some of the books I’ve been reading whilst I’ve been away and maybe you can send me some suggestions of similar books to read. Thanks for taking the time to read this post, I hope you enjoyed!

 

The Cuckoo’s Calling, Robert Galbraith

Silkworm, Robert Galbraith

Emperor of Thorns, Mark Lawrence

Prince of Fools, Mark Lawrence

Legionary: Viper of the North, Gordon Doherty

The Maze Runner, James Dashner

Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn

The Empty Throne, Bernard Cornwell

Horns, Joe Hill

The Boys From Brazil, Ira Levin

Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

Howl’s Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones

Down Under, Bill Bryson