For the last year or so I’ve been thinking about my blog name and how much I hate it. See, unless you know my last name (Finch), the “bird” part doesn’t make much sense. Also– I didn’t realize this when I first named my blog, but there’s an underlayer of “I am stupid and so are the books I read” to “Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog”. Once I realized that was there, it slowly ate away at my blogging confidence…until I almost wanted to not blog any longer.

Then on Saturday I read two amazing posts at Nose Graze: Your thoughts on blog name changes and Changing Your Blog Name — What You Need To Know Before Doing It. It unlocked something in my brain: I could change my blog name. I could do it, and it wouldn’t be that hard to do! Sure, I’d lose some of the work I’d put into my blog over the last almost-5 years (mostly in name recognition), but the chance to rebrand myself and get back some of my blogging happiness was very much worth it.

(Also, I have enough time before BEA to get the necessary things changed before I met all those new publicists and whatnot. And get new business cards! Good thing I didn’t buy my new set yet.)

Therefore, I have some exciting news! From today onward Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog is no more. (Moment of silence, please.) Here There Be Books lives instead!

Huzzah!

I’ve always loved the “here there be dragons” thing, and I also love the (much more positive) connotations behind my new blog name. Discovery! Adventure! Finding treasure on every shelf! Also it’s got a slight fantastical feeling to it, which makes me feel kinda dashing. The content will be the same (with maybe a few addition exciting things added), though, so no worries! Only the label has changed.

Over the next week or so I’ll be changing various things: my header, various social media usernames, my RSS feeds, etc. I think I can do all that without making you all resubscribe, so you don’t have to worry about that! (If you ARE worried, the new feed should be here.) I’m working on getting the redirect for the old blog address working, but for right now the new address is http://heretherebebooks.net.

Let me know if anything’s broken, please! I think I’ve got the major stuff switched over, but I can’t be sure until someone tells me it’s okay.

Have you ever changed your blog name? If so, why?

WOULD you ever change your blog name? Why or why not?

I’ve been a big Indiana Jones fan for as long as I can remember. In fact, my love for Indy caused me to nearly major in anthropology in college— the closest to archaeology I could get at the time. I may be a simple English major nowadays, but I still love anything to do with history, archaeology, and adventure. So when The Discovery Science Center unveiled a special Indiana Jones exhibit last October, I knew I had to go.

Last Friday I finally went! And it was AMAZING. Nothing’s better for describing something than going to see it yourself, but I’ll do my best with a pro/con list summarizing my experience at the Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology exhibit. Pictures to show up in another post! (I still have to get them onto my computer, sorry!)

Continue reading this post at Finch-a-go-go! (now on Tumblrrrrr)

As you read this, I’ll be flying across the country to visit my east coast family. It’s a family emergency sort of thing, which is less fun than I’d like a reunion to be, but it’ll be nice to see everyone again. We haven’t met in person for about 9 years, so~.

Traveling means lots of free time, and what do we book bloggers do in our free time? Read! (And eat. Well, I do, anyway.)

Even though I have an ebook reader (or two), I still have to plan out which books I want to bring with me on a trip. I don’t keep EVERY ebook I own on my reader because that’s ridiculous, and redownloading something on a free-but-shakey wifi connection is a big pain in the rear. Therefore I must make lists!

Here’s what I’m planning on bringing. I chose them by going through my Calibre library and thinking “which books would I least hate to have on the other side of the continent?” I may have gone a bit overboard (I’ll only be gone for a week) but since I don’t have to worry about weight I don’t really care. So!

• All the ebooks in my monthly TBR list. Because I want to stay on track! Sort of. I’ll try, anyway.
• Miles Errant by Lois McMaster Bujold, the next Vorkosigan omnibus tbr. I’ve already read three Vorkosigan books in a row, though, so I may hold off reading this until next month (to spread things out a bit). Still, I don’t want to be without it if I DO want to read it after all! Bwahahaha.
• One Coffee With by Margaret Maron. I haven’t read a mystery in a while, and this one looks interesting!
• On Basilisk Station by David Weber, the first Honor Harrington book. I’ve been meaning to start reading this series for a few years now, and since I’m currently on a sci-fi kick I suppose now’s the time to do it.
• The Lark and the Wren by Mercedes Lackey. I wasn’t wowed with my first Mercedes Lackey book but maybe this one will be better?
• Okay For Now by Gary D. Schmidt, just in case. I bought this last year for, like, $0.50 or something, btw! Yay, cheap ebooks.
• Miss Billy by Eleanor H. Porter. I’m not sure why I downloaded this from Project Gutenberg last year, but I DID. Might as well read it, eh?
• The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella. This would actually be a reread– I bought this way back in 2010 (I think?) for a trip, so it seemed wise to bring it again for this one.
• Clementine by Cherie Priest. I bought it when it first came out, and I still haven’t read it. Onto the Kindle it goes!
• The Englishwoman in America by Isabella L. Bird. Izzy’s one of my favorite Victorian travel writers, and I almost always bring one of her books on my trips.
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. Just in case. MOST of these books are “just in case,” really. I’m also bringing the song on my iPod!

And then like five more books which I don’t want to list because (as I write this) I still need to pack stuff. How many sweaters will I need in Baltimore? I hope I’ve brought enough.