Quentin’s first birthday happened this week. He was super confused about our birthday lawlessness (unlimited treats! parsley with breakfast! head rubs all day long!) and now super confused that all of the birthday excitement went away. The best was when people FaceTimed him, and he stood on his hind legs, his mouth half open, staring at the screen with his ears flicking because he kept hearing his name but couldn’t see a person.

Look at this face:

Happy birthday, Quentin Aeneas.

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Stop procrastinating. Go make your backups. Don’t have regrets.

Seriously. Stop what you’re doing for a moment. It will take you fifteen minutes, tops. But you will have peace of mind for days and days. It’s the gift to yourself that keeps on giving.

As always, add any new thoughts to the Friday Backup post and peruse new comments to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.

And now the blogs…

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But first, second, helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week. To read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• “Unexpected Disclosure” (Infertile Phoenix)

Okay, now my choices this week.

The Road Less Travelled has a very sweet story about a KitKat theft, which was her mother’s favourite candy. She even traveled with her own stash because apparently KitKats are different country to country. I love the idea that her mother orchestrated the heist from beyond.

Lastly, Bereaved and Blessed defines her year with a word every blogoversary, and she is on #19. I want to hear what led to improvising, but nonetheless, go wish her a happy blogoversary.

The roundup to the Roundup: Happy birthday, Q. Your weekly backup nudge. And lots of great posts to read. So what did you find this week? Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between April 10 – 17) and not the blog’s main URL. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week. Read the original open thread post here.

As I say every month, I’m shamelessly stealing this idea from Jessica Lahey. She has a recurring monthly date where she reviews all the books she reads that month. Book reviews are important for authors, and I want to get better at doing this.

So. I’m going to review them here and also online, but I’m going to do it a little differently. I’m only going to review the stuff I really liked. I don’t see a reason to spend my time writing about something I didn’t love; it’s just using up more of my energy. So only positive reviews.

These are the books I liked (or mostly liked) from March.

Strangers (Belle Burden): I’m not normally a memoir person, but people were raving about this book. I am so glad I read it because at its heart, it is a story about a woman asking to be understood, known, seen. She is asking her experience to be seen through her eyes. She is a beautiful writer. I am so sorry this happened to her family, but I do think there is worth in using words to create bridges between people. And she has built bridges by sharing her story.

One of Us (Elizabeth Day): I waited a long time for this book, and it did not disappoint. You do not have to have read The Party to read this book. Any important plot points from that book are woven into this book. I liked every terrible character and got a sense that the author did, too. They stayed on the correct line of interesting/terrible without straying into the more common territory of pointless/terrible. It was such a good read.

How to Get Away with Murder (Rebecca Philipson): 5 stars for writing. 1 star for plot. I guessed the end by 8% through. I was certain by 12%. I continued reading, hoping I was wrong. I was correct. So. That was the mystery piece, which brings us to 3 stars. But the writing was good, and I was always interested to get back to the book. So an extra half star for holding my interest, and round the whole thing up to 4 stars.

The Pie & Mash Detective Agency (J.D. Brinkworth): On the show Taskmaster, Stevie Martin and Jason Mantzoukas named their team Javie Martzoukas. I think that every time I write J.D. Brinkworth because they are also a zany team of two writers. This book was delightful. In a world where the news seems to be awful 100% of the time, this book was a welcome break from reality. Loved all of the characters. Will definitely be on the lookout for future books from this duo.

Hot Young Royals (Katy Birchall): This one was a bit of a head scratcher. I normally think of Katy Birchall as “new adult” but this was definitely hard-drinking-cocaine-snorting-YA. It was sweet. And bubbly. It was teens behaving badly and then apologizing. It was mind candy — there will be zero surprises. But sometimes you need something safely sweet to read after the news. And this is it.

What did you read last month?

Remember eons ago when I asked if you had a bag you loved? I have since gone down a rabbit hole into bag land, to the point where ads for random bag companies fill my entire Facebook feed. I’m not even sure they are real companies. I’ve never heard of them. Just hundreds upon hundreds of ads for bags.

I measured the three bags I own and put the measurements in a spreadsheet. One is perfect but falling apart. It will not last another trip. One is too large. One is too small.

Every bag I put in the spreadsheet has a drawback on paper. It’s longer than the perfect bag (yay!) but has less depth (boo!). Or it’s the same size as the perfect bag (yay!), but it doesn’t zip closed, which doesn’t feel great for travel (boo!). Do you remember LeSportsSac from the 1980s? Did you know they still exist? I didn’t. But now I do, thanks to the rabbit hole I’ve disappeared into during my quest for a replacement bag.

I wish I could go into a store and see these bags. That is the drawback to online shopping. I used to go to a store with my current bag, try to fit everything into the new one, and see how it looked when it was full. Trying to judge the size of things from pictures is really hard.

But I have to make a choice soon.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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I recently learned about posy rings, which are pretty much like the one ring to rule them all, except the writing doesn’t fade. And it’s on the inside of the band (in many cases) instead of the outside. So only the wearer knows that they’re wearing the words around their finger.

The V&A has a bunch in their collection.

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts connected to businesses or sponsored posts.

If you read enough (or watch enough television or listen to enough music), you begin to notice patterns. A book (or show or song) will be successful, and other artists will try to copy it, putting out similar work. The theme I keep encountering lately is books with terrible characters.

I don’t mean poorly written. I mean that the writer designed a book where every person is awful. They think awful things. They take selfish actions. They are terrible to other characters. And all of the characters are equally awful. In these books, there is no one you can root for.

I know there is an audience for these books because publishers keep making these books. But now that I’ve noticed this pattern in multiple books, I’ve realized that it’s on me to stop reading these books when it dawns on me that there are zero characters I’m rooting for. When I’m okay with everyone losing, it’s time to put the book down.