Borrow or Buy: Megamind - The Ultimate Showdown

So, this is something that has been on my mind for a little while now.  I am an avid gamer, much to my mom's dismay.  I've always loved gaming!  When I was a kid, we used to go to my cousins house.  I've been borrowing games from the library for my consoles for YEARS.  I tend to treat it as a try before I buy.
I've been toying with the idea of reviewing games for a while now.  So, let's get started shall we?  Welcome to the first "episode" of Borrow or Buy!

I picked this up on a whim from the library last summer because I love the movie so much!  I was really hoping that it would be a continuation of the movie and it is, sort of.  You do play Megamind and you get all of the fun toys that were in the movie, as well on some   It was a short fun game which was perfect!  I also managed to get all the trophies without having to do anything which made the little completionist inside of me very happy.  Also, the problem is that there isn't any kind of replayability.  I think even kids who aren't super avid gamers would be able to finish this game in a week.  Also, it isn't all that popular, so renewals should be possible.

Verdict:  Borrow.  It isn't really worth buying given the short playtime and lack of replayability.

How I Got Into Romance

Hey everyone!
So, yeah, this is kind of an interesting way of how I ended up reading romance.  When I was a kid, my sister and I went for piano lessons on a horse farm.  While I was waiting for my sister, I would often be bored and started reading the books on the shelf.  They were Christian romance by Janette Oak.  Once I realized that I liked these stories, I ransacked my local public library that I could get to easily for Janette Oak.  I ran out rather quickly.  When I got to high school, I discovered fantasy and took my escapism in that form.  It wasn't until university at Wilfrid Laurier University that I rediscovered romance.  My "rediscovery" wasn't until university that I found a fellow romance afficiando (Leah, you had better be reading this!).  There was this great second-hand book store in a plaza close to the University.  Although I liked a number of books by Sandra Brown, the only one I owned was this one:

Actually, that's not true.  There was another one I owned by her, but I don't remember which one it was because I reread Hidden Fires so many times.  This was my first experience with historical romance novels.  I loved this book!  It was amazing.  Now I can't find it in any of my boxes and it makes me sad because it saw me through so many tough times.  I don't really like any of her newer works.  This book was my favourite.

I ended up giving up all pleasure books while I was at school.  Then, once I was done and ended up working at a library, I rediscovered romance novels and I'VE NEVER LOOKED BACK.  Don't get me wrong, I love fantasy.  However, while I love fantasy books that are thousands of pages long, I can achieve the same level of escapism and have waaaaay more romance novels that can scratch the same itch while waiting for the next fantasy novel.

Romance Is the New Hotness!

I'm not sure how it happened, but romance is the new hotness.  Declaring your love for romance is awesome!  I mean, Lindsay Ellis did it on her newest PBS video and now the Mary Sue has jumped in with this article (which includes the above video).
I love romance, especially historical romance.  I have so many favourite romance authors who I will review in the next few posts or if you're lucky, a YT video.  I'm working on it!
I love romance for so many reasons!  If you read a good historical romance, the author will leave you notes and you can go and have research fun.  But, let's face it...the reason to read a historical romance is to, well, romanticize the past.  I love historical romance!  Medieval, Tudor, Regency, I don't really care!  It let's me escape into the past.  Since Romance is the new hotness, I will be posting reviews of some of my favourite authors with book (or series) specific suggestions.

Author Review: Jane Ashford

Let's face it:  I love reading romance.  As with any genre, you have so many subgenres that it can be hard to figure out what you truly like.  Although I have a fondness for any historical romance, I particularly adore Regency romances!  The glamour of the ton, the clothes and the food all simply make a wonderful background for a good story.  There were also so much important events happening during this period that you can have a variety of plots as well.  However, sometimes you get so tired of spies and injured war heroes that all you want is a simple, sweet romance story.

This is where Jane Ashford comes in.  Although some of her earlier works are a little too simple (i.e. the main characters fall in love because they are supposed to), I simply adore her more recent works.  She doesn't include explicit sex scenes, but still conveys chemistry between the love interests.  I found that the earliest example of this was in The Headstrong Ward, where the ward butts heads with her guardian as the two slowly fall in love as well as correction misconceptions about each other.  Her newest book, Brave New Earl, has a wonderful plot and the two main characters have wonderful chemistry which she manages to convey without any explicit sex scenes.  I can't wait to see what happens in the next book!

Review: My Little Pony: Ponyville Mysteries

If you know me, this shouldn’t come as much of shock, but I LOVE My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
I enjoy individual episodes, especially the episode where Rainbow Dash realizes that she loves reading.
That’s the librarian in me I guess.

During the summer, I had my niece staying with me and wanted to get her books from the library.  I was
delighted to see that they had thin chapter books called Ponyville Mysteries, so I picked up the first in the
series.  My niece didn’t read it, but I did. I really liked the book and now I want to read more of the series! Sadly, the ebook versions are only available in Kindle, so I’ll just have to read the paperbacks.

I loved the book because it featured the Cutie Mark Crusaders who are some of my favourite characters
(the episode where they actually get their cutie marks makes me cry EVERYTIME).  It was a quick read
for me, but for a new reader it would take longer. The vocabulary is simple enough to understand for
older readers, but requires prior understanding of the show. As for continuity, it would take place after
Season 5, but it is harder to place it more accurately than that as I don’t believe that Lilymoon has shown
up in the show (as of Season 7 at any rate) and I'm not really sure how canon these books are.

I would suggest this for ages 7+ who have a familiarity with the series because you need prior
understanding of the show.

Tech Tips & Tricks: Scanning with An Android Phone

I love getting cookbooks from the library.  Cookbooks are my favourite non-fiction as it tends to be non-linear.  I can flip back and forth looking at sections or just flip until I find a photo of something I want to try.  However, I find that 3 weeks isn't usually enough time to try all the recipes I want, especially in the summer.  I also can't afford to buy books from the bookstore all the time, but I don't want to have to wait another 6 months to access the recipes.  As a result, I usually scan or type out the recipes that I want to try.

In this case, I decided to scan the recipes as I only have my Chromebook with which to work.  However, I didn't want to go through the effort of setting up the scanner on my father-in-law's computer as it is rather bulky.  I decided to see if I could find a way to scan the recipes I wanted without having to set up the scanner.

I just did a quick Google to see if I could find if it was possible.  Here's the link to the instructions:
https://support.google.com/drive/answer/3145835?co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid&hl=en

I did manage to do the "scanning" of the recipes, but it would definitely be better for smaller items like receipts and stuff of that sort.

3M CloudLibrary Express Review

I’m sure you remember that I was super excited when my library got the 3M Cloudlibrary service.  I’m decidedly less excited now.  I’m not sure what is going on but the catalogue is pretty much the same or worse.  There’s a total of 2 fantasy books.  The Romance section has around 40 books, most of which I’m either not interested in or I've already read.  One of the little add-ons that could really help out the service is a wishlist...if there were some books that I wanted to read.  I’m a bit disappointed, especially since I was living in the US and my library there subscribes to a service called Freading.  It has a wishlist and I put an item that said it was coming soon to the catalogue, which is great!  What I really like about Freading is that it has a good mix of older books, including bundles, and new books.

I'm really hoping that my library here in Canada wakes up and does something with the 3M CloudLibrary or it is going to be useless!