Book Blogger Hop & Follow Friday

How could I almost forget? 

It's Book Blogger Hop and Follow Friday time!

This week's Book Blogger Hop question:

"What very popular and hyped book in the blogosphere did you NOT enjoy and how did you feel about posting your review?"

Sadly, especially considering how much I enjoyed The History of Love, Nicole Krauss's new novel,
Great House was a big disappointment to me. I found it difficult to relate to the narrator, the story elements I wanted to hear more about were not the ones expanded upon, and frankly, I thought the writing was a little boring. In addition to all of that, I just got the sense that the book was trying so hard to be literary, and I really dislike it when writing is aware of itself. So, I stopped reading it about half-way through. And didn't post a review because I tend to avoid posting negative reviews. This is just my own philosophy, but life's too short to continue reading a book you don't like, and there are so many books I did enjoy to blog about that I don't feel the need to blog about those I didn't.

This week's Follow Friday question:

What do you do besides reading / reviewing as a hobby?

If there's any time left over between work, reading, sleeping, eating, and working out, I craft, I photograph, I play the piano when there's one around, I'm considering learning the harmonica, I knit, I sew, I mixed-media collage, I make cards, I cook, I bake, and I'm always looking for more.

 Now then, nice to meet you all!