Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts {6}

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts is a random posting of what's on my mind bookish and otherwise. Sometimes 10 things, sometimes less, always hosted by Bookishly Boisterous.

Bookish Thoughts

1. What do you guys think of the Goodreads Choice Awards? I really love the concept behind it, but it seems terribly flawed. I'm on the extreme of feeling like I can't vote unless I've read all of the nominees. I don't expect anyone else to follow that logic or there would be no votes. What I do expect, though, is for people to only vote for books they have read. If you haven't read anything in the category, don't vote.
   
   The last three years the Best Horror category has been won by Dean Koontz, Ann Rice, and Stephen King respectively. Now I'm not saying that they won based on name recognition (ok, I probably am), but let's look at this year's votes. Saint Odd received 17,644 votes, but at the time of the voting it had only been rated on Goodreads by less than 8,000 people. (That number has since gone up a bit.)
   
   
   
   
   
   I'm thankful there's a horror category at all, but amazing books exist outside of Koontz, Rice, and King. I'm afraid an open popularity vote, however, will always tend to yield the same results.
   
   
2. Entertainment Weekly posted an excerpt and the cover for Joe Hill's The Fireman yesterday. I'm so damn excited for that book. It comes out in May.
   
   
3.  I'm loving all of the Dark Tower casting rumors. I could totally get behind Idris Elba squaring off against Matthew McConaughey. I really need to get back to my own quest for the Dark Tower. I left off in the middle of Wolves of the Calla. Despite my love of Stephen King, this series has been a struggle for me.
   
   
4. Are you guys watching Jessica Jones? The only chance I have to watch it is on my lunch break at work so I've only made it through a few episodes. I'm digging it so far.
   
   
   

Not So Bookish Thoughts

5. It's beginning to look at lot like Christmas! I'm a last minute crafter so my December is usually filled with a lot of projects I had hoped to do during the year. Last year I finished up my handmade gifts on Christmas Eve! My main focus right now is knitting a Harry Potter scarf for my 6 year old. He is a self-proclaimed Gryffindor.
   
   
   
   
6. Last Saturday I got together with my sisters-in-law to create some Christmas wreaths. I spent about $10 on the stick wreath and the poinsettia bouquet. The garland and pine cones I got super cheap last year during a Christmas clearance. I bought them to go above my cabinets, but I had some left over. I'm so happy with how it turned out.
   
   
   
   
   
7. My sisters-in-law have also been into these Christmas pallet crafts they've seen on pinterest so naturally I've been roped into working on one of those. I'm taking the simple route with a lighted Christmas tree. I still need to locate a star for the top and a little bit of ornaments, I think. I was trying to capture the wreath on my door, too, in the picture below, but damn shadow.
   
   
   
   
   
8. The camera on my phone is going out. The poor quality you see there (all of those lines!) isn't because I was taking the picture at night. I'm pretty bummed about it since I'm so bad about taking pictures. I was much better about it once I got a decent phone. I have a feeling I'm about to go back to being pictureless.
   
   
9. This weekend my youngest turns 3! Pinocchio will be a real boy.
   
   
10. It's been forever since I've been able to do a bookish thoughts post. I'm looking forward to having more blogging time next year. We've already cut out some of our extracurricular activities, but I've been working quite a bit of overtime to cover some of my holiday time off. It will be worth the trade once my holidays start!

Let me hear your thoughts this week!