The Sunday Salon - Where is the Year Going??

It's already May. I'm getting married in four months - how is time going so fast?! April has been absolutely mental from all angles. I've just started a new job, working for a different company than the one I've been working for since I graudated, nearly three years ago. If I'm honest, I'd got to the stage where I sort of thought I'd never leave, even though I really wanted to. I deal really, really badly with change, and I'd got so settled where I was - I started out part time, and kept getting promoted till I was Assistant Manager, then moved house, moved branches, and went back to being part time for a while - that it seemed easier to stay put. This new job is still retail but full time, and moving towards what I want to do, which is selling books. We do at least have books; yes, they're mostly religious (it's a Cathedral Gift Shop after all!), but still! Baby steps... My first week was this week, and it's really been taking a lot out of me. I get home, and all I want to do is sleep!

We're also having problems with our internet connection (sigh). It's wireless, and only works when it feels like it, which really puts me off blogging. The other day it took me two hours to literally paste a post from Word onto Blogger, as the connection kept dying!

I've been blogging four months now, and I'm starting to realise that I really need to find my own voice. When I started out, I had literally no idea what I was doing, and so I sort of used some of my favourite blogs as templates. Now, I'm realising that I spend a lot of time trying to make my posts sound as 'good' as the blogs I love, and less time letting them sound like me. The posts that I end up really liking, are the ones where I let my geeky love of background research and obscure comparisons come out, without worrying about sounding stupid. My blog is my blog, and if I'm trying to write and sound like other people, I'm doing it (and myself) a disservice. Also, I'd like to assume that if I say something really stupid, somebody would pull me up on it, and give me the opportunity to explain how it's not as stupid as it sounds! One of the things I love most about blogging is the amount of debate which goes on. If I had my way, I would've been a student forever, and blogging is a fairly good (and much cheaper!) substitute for that! I love that blogging gets me motivated to read all kinds of genres, and to really think about what I'm reading, and engage with it. I'd just like to say thanks to everyone whose blogs get me excited about books! I'd list you, but there are faaaaar too many of you for that! :-)

Speaking of which, brings me to my current read. Emma is one of the only two Jane Austen I haven't read (Persuasion is the other, and I will attempt it at some point this year!), and I'm currently half way through it as part of the Classics Circuit's Duelling Authors Tour. Who's better, Austen or Dickens? Let the bloodbath begin.... After finishing Emma (the post will be up on Wednesday.. whether I will have finished it or not is another matter!) I've got a fair few bits and bobs to finish up - two reviews requested by the authors, Christine Nolfi's Treasure Me, and Of No Consequence by Sonia Rumzi. Next after that is Like Water for Chocolate, which I've been wanting to read for ages, and Ghost World, as it fits into both my Graphic Novels Challenge, and the Page to Screen Challenge.

This week, due to working all the time, and the added bonus of travelling to and from work, as well as being able to spend most lunchtime with my boyfriend, I've not read too much. I did finish Even the Dogs, by Jon McGregor, which was very different from what I expected it to be. I really love his style, though - he's such a poetic writer, he even manages to make it beautiful when he's writing about drug addicts...

What are other people reading? Has anybody had the problem I'm having with making my blog sound like me? Any advice?