Monday, February 22, 2016

Thoughts on the Adult Coloring Book Craze

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0399177531/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0399177531&linkCode=as2&tag=alboup00-20&linkId=HN5Z2JYIL3OFIHDI
I like them, although I've only gotten one so far - the Outlander Coloring Book. I'm thinking of getting another though - with a different type of picture, one that's more abstract. Sometimes I'd just like to play with colours, and the Outlander one calls for too much realism to allow that. By which I mean that I've found myself googling the correct colours to use for this or that aspect of the picture - including common colours for cars as in the first image. I'm a bit picky that way.

I think I've been waiting for this since they had one of those giant colouring posters on the wall in the staff-room where I used to work. I don't think it ever got finished though. Still, I had a great time on my breaks - at least before the pens disappeared. This is the kind of picture I'd like to find for a second book:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005MKYHMK/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005MKYHMK&linkCode=as2&tag=alboup00-20&linkId=WTJRMTV46E7EBCAO
There's been another variant on the adult colouring book that's been around for decades; the informational one. I've gone through a few of those too, and I'm thinking of getting some of them again as they've disappeared over the years - unfinished. The most notable of these were the Human Evolution Coloring Book and one I had on bird identification. At least for me, these made a great way to learn the subject.

Are you someone who's getting into the coloring book craze? If so, what are your favorites?

Friday, February 19, 2016

A Year On From My Last Post

It has been just over a year now since I walked away from All Booked Up. I am sorry for doing so with no warning or explanation. Even now, I'm not completely certain why I did so. Maybe there wasn't just one reason.

I do know that these were some of my reasons however:
  1. That I found myself feeling a lot of pressure to read and finish books so I could review them for the blog.
    I know. This was a self-appointed pressure, but I was feeling guilty each time a week went by with no new posts or book reviews. I think I ended up in a major reading slump for a while there. Even now, I often find myself starting two or three books for each one I finish reading.
  2. The books I was finishing were all books I've reviewed two or three, or even more times here. How many times could I come up with something new to say about the same book?
    This is still the case with my reading. I've been almost exclusively rereading books this past year.
  3. Work comes in fits and starts, or, as I tend to call it "feast or famine" and when I have work, a lot of other things go by the wayside - including a lot of reading time. By no means is this a complaint however. I love indexing!
At any rate, although I haven't missed the pressure of reading books for review purposes, there have been a few times when I've wanted to write up a post but didn't want to start the same guilt cycle over again by restarting my blog.

Instead, I've been thinking about it for a while and have decided that I am going to restart All Booked Up, but not primarily as a book review blog any more. I may still post reviews, but I'm not going to set up a regular schedule for them. Rather, I'm going to relax things here and post about anything and everything I choose - movies, TV shows, books, crafting or just about anything else. There may be pauses and breaks in the posting regularity - in fact, I'm almost sure of it - but I've missed having the blog to write at. So, I'm coming back to it.

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