A New Focus

Welcome to My New Subscribers, and Welcome Back to Those Who’ve Been With Me a Long Time

I have to admit I’m surprised to see so many new subscribers since I haven’t posted in about two years. When I started this blog, my life was much different. I was an active bookseller with inventory selling from my own website. Heath issues forced me to close that kind of business and become a blogger and affiliate marketer. Thus I had no real reason to keep this blog active.  When I saw so many subscribing, I decided I should resurrect it again.

The previous focus of this blog was education and books for children. I have moved that focus to a new blog: Books to Remember.  If you are a teacher or homeschooling parent, you may want to follow that blog instead. It is hosted on my revamped book site, by the same name. You can access the content pages from the blog.

I have expanded my reviews to include educational items I wanted to carry before could not cost ship at reasonable rates.  The merchants I affiliate with do a higher volume and can ship for less. So I will be reviewing more educational toys, games, and puzzles as time goes on, in addition to the books.

The New Focus of This Blog

My Writing Life

I have decided to continue this blog as what a blog used to be — a web blog of what’s happening in my life. That does include my work as a blogger, but not the issues I discuss on Barb’s Writing Life, a blog where I review various content writing sites and the issues many content writers and bloggers face. It’s also a site where I put writing that originally appeared on Squidoo but was not appropriate for HubPages, which acquired Squidoo and transformed Squidoo lenses to HubPages. I’m gradually moving that work to pages of Barb’s Writing Life.

From this day forward, I will be sharing my thoughts here that I don’t share on the other blogs. I will be keeping track of my personal life for myself and anyone who wants to listen in. I will also keep readers up-to-date on new work that I publish elsewhere in case they are interested. Not all my thoughts  fit into the subjects of my other blogs. This is where I hope I can carry on a conversation with both real-world and internet friends. So feel free to comment.

I will post these blogs as I have something I want to remember. Some posts may be quite short and filter through the day, a bit like Facebook. Or a few days may go by with no new post.

My Activities and my Blogs on What I’m Up to in California

Two other blogs discuss a lot of what’s happening in my daily life and in my area of California in San Luis Obispo County. They are heavy on photos and personal experience and would probably be general enough for my friends who want to keep up with my life to read. I cover wine country, local art, and other things I find interesting, at Paso Robles in Photos. It started out as a daily photo blog. It’s part of an international blogging network, City Daily Photos, but I don’t get around to posting every day anymore. I do try to  participate in the monthly theme day since all the networked bloggers from around the world post pictures on the same theme on the first day of each month. One of my most popular theme day blogs was on the Library Theme: A Brief Tour of the Paso Robles Library. I post what I do and observe in my garden at Barb’s Garden Observations. I post sporadically there since I’m more active in the garden during some seasons than others.

Moonstone Beach is one of the places in my world I love.

A blog I plan to put a lot of effort into is A California Life. I was born and have lived my entire life in California and I love my state. In A California Life I plan to share some of the places and activities I love here. The two most popular posts on the blog this month so far have been The Natural Beauty of San Miguel and Art after Dark In Paso Robles.

My Reading Life

I do a lot of reading. I always mean to review the best of it at Bookworm Buffet, my blog where I review a small fraction of the books I read. The most popular post so far this month has been my review of  It is Well: How WW II Affected One Family. I also publish many book and product reviews at ReviewThisReviews, a site I contribute to. My two most popular books reviews there are Review of Samantha Kincaid Legal Thrillers by Alafair Burke (Fiction) and The Day Before 911: A Review (Memoir). My two most popular product reviews there are Review of Inspirational Greeting Cards to Encourage a Terminally Ill Friend and A Review of My Life in Greeting Cards. See all my reviews on ReviewThis!

Books I Read in One Week after a Major Surgery

I have decided to share most of what I read and a brief opinion here on this blog . This helps me keep track for my own use of what I read since I often read up to five books a  week. When I finally have time to review a book I really enjoyed, I often have to reread it because I’ve forgotten so much of it.

Come Walk  with Me

Check in now and then to see what I’m up to and what I’m thinking. Then I hope you’ll chime in, too. Please use the comments to respond. Feel free to ask me questions reading my posts raise and I’ll try to answer them. It helps to know what others want to know more about.

Begin at the Beginning

Since I’ve chosen a blog name from Lewis Carroll, I might as well quote him in the title of this first blog. “The Walrus and the Carpenter” is one of my favorite poems. And I’m also rather fond of the Cheshire Cat. Sometimes when the moon appears as just a big smile in the sky, I’m reminded of the Cheshire Cat’s grin when that’s all that’s still visible of him. Another of my favorite scenes is when Alice encounters the caterpillar. I didn’t intend to talk about this, and I’ve no idea where my copy of Through the Looking Glass is right now, but I think these references are to scenes in that book.

As the blog name indicates, the topics may change from day to day. I am a affiliate seller of new and used books, and most of them are for teachers or children. Others, especially the used ones, are about topics I’m interested in — gardening, cooking, biography, history, humor, etc. Because I read a lot of books, I’m likely to talk about them often. I may also share experiences I have had as a bookseller or a blogger. And if it’s been a beautiful day, I just might mention my garden or what I’ve seen on a walk. Likewise, if something has inspired me, or if I’m thinking over something, I might share that here.

 

‘The time has come,’ the Walrus said,
‘To talk of many things:
Of shoes — and ships — and sealing wax —
Of cabbages — and kings —
And why the sea is boiling hot —
And whether pigs have wings.’ (from “Through the Looking Glass” by Lewis Carroll)

And that’s what I will do in this blog — talk of many things.

I hope you’ll join the conversation by commenting and asking questions. Maybe you have a new twist on something I’ve said here.Feel  free to disagree with me, too. We can all learn from each other.