Suddenly Sunday!

Svea at Confessions and Ramblings of a Muse in the Fog has created this new weekly event and invites anyone to join in and leave a link at her blog.

For those of us who knocked on the door of Sunday Salon and found it locked it offers somewhere else to spend our Sundays which I , for one, am very happy about.

Not only is it Sunday but also the last day of the month so I thought this was the perfect time to look back and reflect on February which seems to have just flown by.

I spent January trying to organise myself amidst the holiday period then turned my attention to  the blog itself and making some small changes. Little things that most people would do in a few minutes but for a tech dummy like me were quite a challenge. I particularly wanted to have the 3 columns and was very pleased when I successfully managed that!

Books read in February total 10 - a little down on my average but that was to be expected with a short month and a family wedding in the middle of it. I'm actually surprised I reached that many but burning a little midnight oil did wonders...............and I reviewed all of them.
What suffered more from real life commitments was the posting, visiting and commenting which I missed - thank goodness for Google Reader which does at least allow quick catchups on what everyone else is doing.

Challenges I'm keeping up with without letting them dictate what I read which is what I aimed for so all good there.

This month I offered my first Giveaway - Magpie Hall by Rachael King

It ends today so if you haven't entered hurry on over and do so - this is a fantastic story which I loved. To allow for Northern Hemisphere times I'm letting it go until the middle of tomorrow and then Mr Random Org will choose a winner who I'll notify and post about on Tuesday March 2.

Giveaways are not something I thought I'd be able to offer very often. I don't receive ARCs , books are expensive here plus all my postage will be international but I didn't feel comfortable entering giveaways unless I could reciprocate sometimes. So I was delighted last week with a big find. There is a little shop in town which always has a table of uninspiring paperbacks outside but I'd never been inside - when I did venture in I found some much better quality trade paperbacks at a third of the normal retail price......great giveaway fodder......

........of course I bought one!

Awards - I received my first awards this month which was very exciting as awards didn't feature in my other blogging world. I really appreciate the thoughtfulness of those people who considered me worthy of receiving them.

Kittling:Books posted the results of a poll on awards this week which I found interesting  and made me think a little more about it. If I have one strong opinion it's that an award is a recognition given for achievement and I do not believe it should have conditions attached. While I managed to pass on the first three - 17 blogs is a lot for a newish blogger and I won't pass on simply for the sake of doing it and nor do I like being told I 'have to' give it to a certain number of people. It has to mean something. So the last one I'm sitting on for now.

Blog Tours are something I thought I might like to be part of and started searching for at the end of January only to constantly come across the dreaded "US & Canada only" until I spotted a link at Historical Tapestry for the Classics Circuit Tours and promptly signed up for the March Georgette Heyer Tour.

I'm really looking forward to participating in this event - from tomorrow the button will be on the right sidebar and will link to the daily itinerary. The tour runs throughout the entire month.

Then I was browsing and blog hopping one day and ended up at Aarti's blog

where I discovered The Spotlight Series. This new event is the brainchild of Aarti, Amy and Chris with the aim to........."On a rotating schedule, we will put the spotlight on a small press publisher that we feel sets a standard. We'll let you know the publisher several weeks (that's what I'm doing right now!) before the spotlight goes on so that you can browse the catalog and choose a book to read and review on your blog.

The first spotlight is on Unbridled Books and the tour will run from March 14th - 27th.
Click on the Spotlight link above for more information and how to join up for future tours.

So that's my February - looking back and looking forward to March. My birthday next week so maybe I'll buy myself something.........like a book!!