Ramblings on November 17th

Ever been in the middle of reading something and lost the book? I have. That's kind of what happened to me with The Pledge, the new book by Kimberley Derting. I didn't actually have a physical copy of the book - I had downloaded it from the Simon and Schuster galley grab. But I forgot one very important thing. It expires the day the book comes out.

I lost track of time - life has been pretty busy lately - and when I went back to finish my book, it was Gone! Lost! No More! I feel like I want to cry. I was really enjoying it too, and I would love to find out what happens to the characters, but it's not there any more. It's disappeared into cyberspace, never to be seen again. Ok, that may be a little bit of overkill, but you know what I mean.

The real reason I am rambling on this way is that it has made me aware of how lucky I am, and to say thank you to Netgalley and publishers, like Simon and Schuster, who allow bloggers like myself access to advanced copies of these wonderful books, for no charge. Well, they like a review from us, but we don't have to hand out cold hard cash, and I really feel very privileged to have this. I think I sometimes just take it for granted that the books are going to be there whenever I want them and I forget that I have access to them for just a short while - before other people get to see them.

I wish I had time to read them all and review them all, but if I'm honest I probably only have time, and inclination, to review about 1 in 4. I do recommend a great deal of them for purchase at work though - it's so much easier to know what to order when you have seen the book - so I don't feel I'm taking advantage too much. I thought when I started using Netgalley that I would buy fewer books, NOT! It has just made me ultra aware of how many really great books there are out there and I am one of the world's worst book hoarders (I'm talking 10 bookshelves here guys) and I think I probably buy more now than I did before.

So, I'm off to Chapters tomorrow to pick up a copy of The Pledge, so that I can finish what I started and hopefully get a review out before too long. And in the meantime, I'll try and finish some more of those wonderful arcs that are made available to me. Thank you, I really do appreciate it.