Congrats to Dangerously Cold Tea for winning the challenge! I’ll be notifying Dewey and shooting an email your way sometime tomorrow afternoon after packing and traveling is all done!
Make sure to go visit all of the blogs for some incredible ideas! And who knows.. maybe someone out there will see these and start fulfilling some of those wishes!
Wow! You all have some AMAZING responses! I had so much fun reading through everyone’s posts when I got home from the wedding (it was fantastic, but massively cut into my reading time!).
I have the winner chosen and am letting the Readathon folks know. I’ll be contacting the winner then to work out the details of the prize.
Fantastic job to everyone who participated and good luck on your evenings reading!
Here’s my Readathon Update!
Time Started: 9:00 AM CST
Time Now: 10:00 PM CST
Currently reading: The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors by Michele Young-Stone
Total pages read: 367
Books finished: 1
What’s up next: The Sea and the Silence by Peter Cunningham
Total Time Spent Reading: 4 hours
Time Spent Blogging: 70 mins
Mini-challenges completed: 0
Food/drink consumed: Most importantly… wedding cake.
Other Activities: Wedding, reception, lots of chatting, talking and dancing!
Mentality: Exhausted and needing to pack.
Welcome Readers and Cheerleaders! You are over half-way, so exciting! I hope your eyes are still as bright and your minds are filling with amazing stories and thoughts!
This is a fairly easy challenge – no pictures or anything that will require a bit of work from you. All I’m wanting from you is to know the answers to a two-part question! I will choose a winner at random and the winner will receive a book from their “wishlist” (will be purchased through Amazon so you will need to start a wishlist there with at least that book). This challenge will last 1 HOUR.
Here is your question: Think of your favorite book – has it been made into a movie? If not (and maybe you’ll need to go to your 2nd favorite book and so on), tell me if you’d like to see it made into a movie and pick one character from the book and give me information on which actor you’d love to see cast in the part. Make your post as fun as possible, tell me why you think the movie would be amazing and why the actor/actress you chose would be perfect in the part!
Once you’ve created your post leave the link to it in Mr Linky here!
I’ll play along.. because I’m constantly wishing some of my favorite books were movies.
My Movie Wish:
The Fiddler’s Gun by A.S. Peterson. This book was fantastic! One of my favorite characters in the book was Bart – the fiddle-playing ex-pirate. He was an incredible character and I kept trying to match him up with a “famous” face.
After much deliberation I thought.. hm, who was that guy in The Cider House Rules? That’s right.. Michael Caine. This is exactly how I pictured Bart. And the more I think on it, the more I like it.
So what about you? Leave your link here!
($15 maximum purchase)
Time Started: 9:00 AM CST
Time Now: 11:44 AM CST
Currently reading: The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors by Michele Young-Stone
Total pages read: 179
Books finished: 1
What’s up next: The Sea and the Silence by Peter Cunningham
Total Time Spent Reading: 2 hours
Time Spent Blogging: 40 mins
Mini-challenges completed: 0
Food/drink consumed: Sour Octopus (and soon to be toast)
Other Activities: Preparing for a wedding (eek)
Mentality: Groggy but excited!
In the midst of my vacation and all the chaos there… I’ve been totally lapse in posting updates and about, most importantly, the fact that today is the 24 Hour Readathon!
While it is impossible for me to devote every hour of today to reading, I’ve signed up to do a mini-challenge later on in the day and also.. am going to attempt to read as much as possible. So with my awesome Kindle in hand, today I plan to knock out at least three of the books on my list! Can I do it? Well.. in the last three hours I’ve already knocked one out!
I will be posting my review of Paper Daughter by Jeanette Ingol here shortly.. and up next is The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors by Michele Young-Stone. So looking forward to knocking these books out of my TBR list and so excited for all the challenges happening today!
Hop on over to the Readathon website. There will be challenges happening all day and an enormous amount of blogs to be reading. So much fun!
One of my biggest pet peeves when looking through reviews of books I’m interested in.. is to see reviews with 1 star remarks that contain some of the following phrases:
Seeing reviews containing those phrases make me so angry and ranks high on my level of pet peeves.
Today, Paul Carr from TechCrunch wrote an article calling for change with regards to Amazon’s Book Review policy. While I don’t agree with his full article (you should not have to purchase from a site to review it) he makes a valid point.
If you have an issue with the method of distribution there should be a way of indicating your disapproval without marking the book as 1 star or leaving a negative review of the book itself. Author Laura Anne Gilman was speaking about this today on Twitter and mentioned that “most publishers have a “contact us” e-mail. Comments ARE read.“. While I appreciate hearing this from an author, it still does not give a way to publicly express our disapproval. If we don’t like a book for valid reasons, we let people know. If we want to be able to read a book on our electronic device, we should be able to let people know this too. Sure – we can hit the links requesting it from the publisher, but it often just…disappears into cyber-space and we are left not hearing anything for months at a time (I’ve yet to see a book I’ve requested in e-format be approved, and yes.. I keep track).
I won’t get into the whole Amazon vs. the world of publishing arguments. There’s enough blogs and articles talking about such. I will say though as an avid book lover, a reader, a consumer who purchases books as well as supports her library, it frustrates me to no end not to have a book made available to me via my Kindle. I want to read and rate books and unless you can get the airlines to drop their fees for luggage so I can bring a hard copy along or start making ultra-thin books so I can easily carry them in my purse.. that just won’t happen with many of the books I’d love to read.
What do you think? Is there a solution to this that will not punish both Authors and Readers, or either of them?
A few days ago I received my ARC copy of Joseph Monninger’s Eternal on the Water
“…a timeless beautifully rendered story of true love’s power.”
When I read something like that I expect a story such the one held within the pages of A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True
To me, an epic love story is one that grows over time. Sure, there can be instant attraction, but it’s not necessary. The foundation of love, trust and commitment is built. There’s no immediate falling into bed, no hedging around a possible relationship.
One of my favorite family stories is the story I’ve been told of when my Grandpa decided to marry my Grandma. He hadn’t even met her yet. He was in church with his twin brother and she caught his eye. Now, he was young, not even 20 I believe, and she was older than he. He saw her and turned to his brother and said, “See that redhead in that pew up there? I’m going to marry her.”
How often does something like that happen in today’s stories? Today, he might have said some coarse comment and proposed activities that were unheard of 60 years ago. That’s not to say that there can’t be epic stories of love in today’s world, don’t get me wrong. As I look around at my married friends I see evidence of it happening all around me- despite the statistics saying that most marriages will end in divorce. I see the proof of a lasting relationship in my own parents, their love and commitment to one another despite the rough times and celebrated in the good.
In Pasulka’s book, she celebrates a story that speaks of honor, commitment and sacrifice. Monniger’s book has me scratching my head, trying to understand what part of “instant attraction/sexual relations” equates to “true love’s power”. Even Wesley and Buttercup had to wait, and we all know what kind of true love they had!
Now, I’m only half way through the book (although already bored by it) so perhaps things will change. Of course, my review will reflect if it does or not. And I don’t have an issue really with the story, it’s fine and fairly typical of today’s stories of romance, I just take issue with the marketing of this as some kind of epic romance. What are your thoughts on stories like these?
(Bolded challenge descriptions are those I’ve chosen for this year)
The Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge
There are three levels of participation:
Emily: Read 5 books from at least two different categories.
Lorelai: Read 10 books from at least three different categories.
Rory: Read 20 books from at least four different categories.
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The Historical Fiction Reading Challenge
– Curious – Read 3 Historical Fiction novels.
– Fascinated – Read 6 Historical Fiction novels.
– Addicted – Read 12 Historical Fiction novels.
– Obsessed – Read 20 Historical Fiction novels.
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The Young Adult Reading Challenge
–The Mini YA Reading Challenge – Read 12 Young Adult novels.
–Just My Size YA Reading Challenge – Read 25 Young Adult novels.
–Stepping It Up YA Reading Challenge – Read 50 Young Adult novels.
–Super Size Me YA Reading Challenge – Read 75 Young Adult novels.
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–The Mini – Check out and read 25 library books.
–Just My Size – Check out and read 50 library books.
–Stepping It Up – Check out and read 75 library books.
–Super Size Me – Check out and read 100 library books. (So not a problem)
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– Curious – Read 3 Fantasy Fiction novels.
– Fascinated – Read 6 Fantasy Fiction novels.
– Addicted – Read 12 Fantasy Fiction novels.
– Obsessed – Read 20 Fantasy Fiction novels.
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And my own personal challenge involving the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die
1001 Books to Read Before You Die 2010 Challenge
40 Yr Challenge – 25 books read in 2010
20 Yr Challenge – 50 books read in 2010
10 Yr Challenge – 100 books read in 2010
5 Yr Challenge – 200 books read in 2010
A week ago Monday I woke up and experienced one of those nagging feelings in the back of my mind. I couldn’t quite figure out what it was I was needing to do and it wasn’t until about 10:30am that I figured it out.
In Decatur, GA there is a locally owned bookstore named Little Shop of Stories. Little Shop of Stories held a “Graveyard Book” Halloween party this year for a competition and, along with a story in Winnipeg, they won! The reward? A Neil Gaiman book signing. And last Monday they opened up their phone lines to give away 100 tickets – 1 per each phone call.
1 1/2 hours later (and one phone death just as I’d finally gotten through), I had myself a pair of tickets. Tina and I were going to see Neil Gaiman at Agnes Scott College. I was thrilled!
So off I went, armed with my copy of The Graveyard Book. Now, I don’t know what made me think that there would only be about 200 people there (The shop had given out 100 tickets in person as well), but what a silly thing to think. The final count was 1050 (according to Gaiman). And there were children, lots of them as well!
Neil started the evening off by reading from Odd and the Frost Giants. He told us how this book came about. Apparently, in Europe, there is a National Reading Month (I couldn’t hear very well, but I think this is right). And for this celebration, the authors write a short novel, for free. The publishers publish it, for free (it must be short because that’s how much “free paper” they said they have, quipped Gaiman). The bookstores give the books out in exchange for tokens, which children get, for free. What an incredible and awesome idea.
So Gaiman began to read and everyone went silent. In his dry, “British-y” voice, the story came to life. We all giggled and were enraptured by the story.
Gaiman then answered some questions. We learned how the story of Coraline came about, and we learned of the background to The Graveyard Book. We also learned that people in the movie business are.. not all that bright (Does the Graveyard Book movie need to be set in a Graveyard?). He gave us his opinion of T.S. Eliot, he spoke on the meaning of life. He entertained us greatly for about 30 minutes.
And then he read from The Graveyard Book. And the experience was.. incredible.
Afterward, Tina and I waited with some new friends until midnight to get our books signed. He personalized each signing with a drawn graphic or a word suited to just that book. Tina’s copy of Coraline got a picture of a mouse creeping across her title page. Odd and the Frost Giants received the word “Dream”. And my copy of The Graveyard Book … well…
Some other photos from the event. Our new friend, Venessa, took these (www.venessagiunta.com) and graciously shared them with us!
I have only two this year.
1. Be happy
2. Read more (if that’s possible!)
I’m happiest when I’m reading and learning so I figure the two go hand in hand. With my growing relationship with God I find myself more and more interested in books that can further my study in that area as well. So – I’ve begun keeping my list of books read, with a small review of them on a separate page of this blog located here. I have a very wide taste in books – some are pure fluff, but I love them anyway, others are serious and thought-provoking because.. c’mon, I’m 31 here, I should have my thoughts provoked!
But I need some recommendations on books to read to help further my religious study. What are your recommendations?
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