Saturday, September 22, 2012

Brand-Spankin' New Look

I know what you're thinking. Don't worry, you've come to the right blog. Well, that is, unless you weren't looking for Gabriel Reads. In that case you can go back to looking for whatever it is you were trying to find.

If you were trying to find me, then don't panic. I know, I know. It's colorful. There's pretty much no brown to be found anywhere. For the first time in the history of this blog my prerequisite for a blog template wasn't just "Whatever Looks Good in Tan." Put away the thermometer; I'm feeling just fine. I guess I just figured that since I was giving this another go that I was going to make a big change in how the site looked.

You'll also notice that a lot of the pages that I used to have are gone. The "Challenges" page became the "Reviews" page, although I'll be putting up a new page for challenges once I decide that it's a good idea to do some. The "Bookshelf" page is no more and so is the "Extras" page. My "TBR" page has gone the way of the dodo. And don't even get me started on the "On My Shelf" page. That one had to go simply because I moved in August and in the process I ended up donating almost 200 books to the library.

I heard that collective gasp. Yes, it's true. I actually got rid of books. A lot of them. I see that you've put down the thermometer and are now reaching for the straight jacket. Let's not be too hasty.

Sadly I've given up on the idea of hosting Wild Card Wednesdays. It was just too much for me to come up with something that creative every week. I don't know how meme creators do it but my hat goes off to them.

At the moment I'm just regrouping, figuring out where I want to go from here. My inbox is overflowing with unread e-mails (about 15,000 of them), so I'm thinking of changing my e-mail address for people to send requests to so that they don't get lost in the major inbox purge I'll be doing whenever I feel like driving myself up a wall for a few days. Plus, it'd be nice to have a place for people to send official e-mail that won't get buried under all of the other e-mails that I get.

I've honestly not read anything in a while with the move and how busy I've been with my current relationship (yes, I actually have one now!), trying to find a second job (got one of those now, too), and various other things that have gotten in the way. I'm looking forward to getting back on the wagon, both in terms of reading and reviewing. I've missed the hell out of you guys and it's good to be back.

Let me know what you think of the new look. I'm curious to get your opinions. And, as always, leave comments. I frakking love comments.

-Gabe

6 comments:

  1. The blog looks nice! Sometimes it feels good to just start over with the look. :)

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  2. Welcome back! Sounds liek things are going well in your life.

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  3. Gabe!! I'm so happy to see you popping up in my dash again, and I love the new blog layout!

    Can't wait to read your upcoming reviews, and just generally hear from you again. The internet was super quiet without you!

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  4. Lorren: Thanks. I was afraid it was too loud but I was so sick of seeing the same brown background all the time.

    Ellie: I've missed reading your blog. Hell, I've missed reading book blogs in general. Things *are* going pretty well. I just hope things stay that way. :)

    Kayleigh: Thanks! I'm already prescheduled through Tuesday and I just checked out five books from the library so that I'll have ample material to read. Life was kind of blah and boring without the blog. My Significant Other kind of pushed me back into it. Like, "Don't you miss it?" and "Maybe you should do something creative to pass the time with. You could blog again." PS: I tell random stories about you and your blog all the time. Like when we were talking on Twitter about you being a Bond villain. Good times.

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    1. Haha!! I don't think I've ever had a twitter conversation as weird as that particular one!

      I'm very, very glad your significant other decided to push you back towards blogging, send them my mega-huge thanks!

      Also, can't wait to see what you say about the Hobbit. I'm hoping to read it again before the movie comes out because I haven't read it since I was about 12.

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  5. Will do. They get this self-satisfied smirk every once in a while when I mention my blog. LOL

    I'm almost done with the Hobbit. I'm hoping to have my review posted on Thursday. *fingers crossed*

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