Dewey's Read-a-Thon

In celebration of surviving another block teaching, I'm going to spend today participating in Dewey's Read-a-Thon. There is still plenty of time to join, if you'd like. This is my first time participating in one of these.....I'm excited!   

If you are interested in participating, all the information you need is here. In case you're daunted by the idea of reading non-stop for 24 hrs....no worries! There are cheerleaders with distractions and encouragement, there are mini-challenges, and you can always take a break and update your blog to let everyone know how you're doing (which will be a challenge within itself, for me).


I missed the hour one challenge, but I'll head over to do the hour two soon!


And before I go:    Book Status Update

Reading: Flight of the Night Hawks: Book 1 

Author: Raymond E. Feist

Page Count: 92 / 347

BlogFest 2010 Winner!

I'm proud to announce that the winner of my fantasy reader gift bundle is:

Melissa @ Books R Us

Thank you all, again, for participating! BlogFest 2010 was a huge success!

Melissa, I'll be emailing you.

BlogFest 2010 Ends

BlogFest 2010 has come to a close. Thank you all for participating! 

I had so much fun working through the blogs, visiting some I've never seen before, entering contests. 

I hope you had fun too!

I can't believe how many people turned out to enter my contest! 

Seriously. I didn't expect this much of a response.

And several of you joined my followers! Awesome!

You're probably waiting for a winner announcement....you'll just have to wait. 

This is a filler post. I'll do another post soon with the winner's name. 

BlogFest 2010 is here!

Welcome to stop #204 on the BlogFest tour! 

Glad to see you....hope you stay a while. 

As part of the BlogFest, I'm offering a bundle for fantasy readers.

The bundle includes a hardback edition of The River Kings' Road by Liane Merciel, a Way of Kings backpack, and a some bookmarks. This is an awesome bundle for a fantasy reader! It's just looking for a great home.

Giveaway is open to US residents only. Sorry international folks - I just can't afford it.

To Enter:

1. Leave a comment with your name and email (so I can contact you if you win)

2. Tell me what your favorite fantasy novel is.

3. When you're done here, head on over to Fiction Flurry for the next stop.

Also, Don't forget about the massive BlogFest 2010 grand giveaway!  Head on over to http://ajourneyofbooks.halfzero.net and click on the Tracking Site link ( or go to http://ajourneyofbooks.com/blogfest/ )  to head to our own exclusive tracking site.  Once there you can register with a valid email address (to be used solely for the purpose of contacting the winner).  This site will allow you to track your progress through BlogFest 2010!  You can log on from anywhere at any time and continue where you left off.  The best part is that every blog that you visit and mark off through this tracking site will give you one entry into the massive giveaway!  We have a great collection of books, goodies and other swag that is looking for a new home!

 Good Luck! Hope you enjoy BlogFest 2010!

Comicon Shwag!

This is my obligatory, almost too late for it to mean much, SanDiego Comicon post. Did you know that many of our favorite publishers have booths at the con? How about the fact that many of them are giving out ARCs and other book related goodies? I didn't. I was completely clueless! In fact, it took much razzing by my husband to get me to even be willing to ask for the freebies. I know it was expected, but it just felt wrong....maybe selfish ...at first. I soon got over it.....to the tune of five bags filled with books and goodies!

This is my favorite set of goodies. The Penguin Group were giving out these awesom Vlad Todd bags. There was a different color every day and they encouraged attendees to come by and collect them. I became obsessed with them. Just a wee bit. I think at one point I was scheduling the events I wanted to see around when I could get a bag. Yes, I'm a dork....a happy, book bag lovin' dork.

The colors aren't nearly as shockingly bright in the photo as they are in reality. The yellow and orange are nearly blinding. Purple and blue are my favorites.

Piles o' books! I picked up a few every day....and a whole bunch on Sunday. Mostly they are ARCs.

On left: Procession of the Dead by Darren Shan, Shift by Tim Kring, The Electric Church by Jeff Somers, The Search for Wondla by Tony Diterlizzi, Feed by Mira Grant, Blood Prophecy by Stefan Petrucha, and Lucan by Susan Kearney.

On right: Matched by Ally Condie, Hero by Mike Lupica, Pleasure Model by Christopher Rowley, Clockwork Angel  by Cassandra Clare, Incarceron by Catherine Fisher, Dark Days and Wicked Nights - Sampler, Frankenstein's Monster by Susan H. O'Keefe, The Prometheus Project by Douglas E. Richards,  and Star Trek (movie novelization) by Alan Dean Foster.

There were a few allusive books. I really wanted Boneshaker, but had misread the schedule and stood in line on the wrong day. There were a couple others I would have loved to get ahold of like, Unicorns vs. Zombies, but they disappeared before I could even get there.  All in all a great load of books!

And some awesome book marks!





I'm still all excited over this bunch of book goodness! I just had to share.

My blog is 1 year old!!

I love birthdays! Don't you?  And while I adore receiving birthday gifts, I've learned a lil something from my husband and now I also enjoy giving other people gifts on my birthday. My blog's birthday works just as well for me.....I've got goodies to give away!

One of the bloggy-birthday gifts I'm giving is a $60 gift card to any of the CSN stores. They have dozens...hundreds...of different stores and products to choose from. Personally, I like the book case store and the bedding stores, but you can use it where ever you want.

The other gift, which I decided to add just now (literally), is a surprise. Sort of. The winner of the gift card will have the opportunity to choose from three categories of books.  I will then surprise them with a book of my choice . (Hey it's my bloggy birthday, I pick what you read!)  If the winner of the gift card doesn't choose a genre then a separate, different winner will be chosen from those who did, to receive the book.

Please spread the word! Birthdays are better with friends!

Fill out the form to enter!

So excited!

In honor of this blog's birthday, CSN has kindly given me a $60 gift certificate to share with my followers. Since we're all readers here, maybe you'll choose a new book case, or maybe something to spruce up your bed. Curling up someplace comfy does sound good doesn't it?

On the anniversary of my first post, July 16, I'll post about the actual contest. It will run until July 31...giving you lots of time to enter, hope, and plan what you'll use the gift certificate on. Plus, I'll probably throw in some other goodies.

How does that sound for a birthday party?

Between the reading...

We are readers. Well, I'm assuming everyone following this blog is a reader at some level. I don't know about your reading habits, but I have books that I read between readings. These books are somewhat like brain candy books in that they are relaxing and interesting. But there is a difference...these books aren't necessarily in my comfort zone. Some aren't even books per se. Some get finished, some don't.

Lately, my between book books have been comics. I've been trying to teach myself how to read graphic novels and comics. While I can read and get the story, I seem to miss whole large important sections of the over arching story or historical referrences. This bothers me a bit. I don't like thinking I've gotten something out of the text only to find out I missed a large part of it. I just never learned how to read comics.

Recently, I've been reading the Avengers' first 8 comics. I was inspired to read them after seeing the Iron Man movies. I've really enjoyed how these new comic movies are being dealt with, and I like the connections that are being made in each movie between the different characters. I want to see what they are based on.  Comics 1-8 were interesting, though much easier to read than the graphic novels I've tried previously. Really, the most interesting thing so far, besides being introduced to some characters I haven't known before (I knew of Iron Man and Hulk, but not Thor and Ant/Giant Man), was seeing the evolution of the various costumes. Between #1 and #3  there was a major evolution of Iron Man's costume.

I'm not going to actually review these comics. I don't feel comfortable enough to be able to give any actual feed back, but I wanted to let you know what's been going on when I'm not nose deep in a novel.

Lists

I'm a huge fan of lists. They make me happy. Sometimes I even use them to get things done.  Yep, I'm one of those people. 100 little sticky notes, scraps of paper, messages and lists on my iPhone.....but most of them go unused. I just like the act of listing, mostly. What's all this listing babble leading to? Well you see the other day I stumbled across this website: 1001 Series. There are all sorts of greatest hits type lists here....1001 movies to see, 1001 childrens books to read, and my personal favorite 1001 books to read before you die.

 Now, with 1001 novels on the list there is no possibility of me ever getting done with the list. Plus, I've already read at least a dozen or so of the novels listed. But, I do think this would make an interesting personal growth challenge. Break me out of my reading bubble, so to speak. My current plan is to pick one novel from each of the letters. If I can finish them in this year, that would account for 26 novels. Not bad if I do say so.....especially as I'm sure there will be some novels that will just be play ole torturous for me to read.

So, what do you say? Anyone up for trying to expand your reading horizons with me?

New Blogs on the Block

 

I'm being featured over on Larissa's blog. You should go check me out. ;)

Score!

I have much love for the VNSA booksale! Open one weekend a year there are thousands....thousands of books....some gently used, others in not quite so good of conditions. Other than having to fight through other readers who apparently have the time and patience to consider every single book title their eyes touch on....it's awesome!

My finds today:

 

These were the coolest find ever! Usually we don't go to the Saturday part of the sale. Because of this, I had no idea that the volunteers look for and bundle sets of books. Lucky for me, this lovely bundle of Janet Chapman's Highlander books was just waiting to be picked up. I now have the entire series to date!  My not-so-secret crush on time-traveling Highlanders is all a flutter!

 

I've read The Golden Compass a couple of times. The rest of the series is on both my reading list and my husband's. Because of this I couldn't pass up this bundle either....plus the set cost me all of $4. This makes my bank account very happy.

It wasn't all perfect. I get all flustered around hordes of people who just don't pay attention to the fact there are other people in the world. Happily, other than a few moments of wanting to choke the person inching along the table slower than a snail, I've decided that for-fun readers are friendly people. Also, the apparently inability to alphabetize any of the fiction is eternally frustrating.  There were also some books by a favorite author of mine that I should have grabbed, but I talked myself out of them as I wasn't sure if I had one or all. I got home, checked, and realized I didn't have any of them. But there will be other sales, and now that I'm aware of my lack of these books, I'll be on the look out for them.

Thank you VNSA!

Monday's QoTD

Question of the Day meme hosted by Eleni @ La Femme Readers.

Before I get to the question, I thought I might explain something. I haven't been putting a lot of me....outside of what I think about books....into this blog. But I do love it when I see other people doing it on their blogs. So I thought that this year I would try to slide myself into more of my posts, or maybe pick up some like this. And now on to the question...

Question: Besides reading, what other hobby brings you happiness?

Answer: I have three. The first is the main opponent ( for my attention) against reading. Movies. My husband and I watch a lot of movies.  No really, I mean a lot.  Together we own nearly 400 dvds, plus we have a packed Netflix cue. Ideally, we'd go to more theater movies, but money is tight and theaters are expensive.

(Not our dvd collection - but similar.)

The second is crochet. This is a hit or miss hobby for me. Sometimes, usually in winter, I'm really into it. Other times my project basket can sit for months without being touched. I need to spend more time on it, but I love it....even if I have to redo dozens of rows (on big projects) because I forget to count. Lately, I've been into making amigurumi dolls (is that redundant?) and even completed one that was my own creation.

 (This wee lil man is my first creation. He's fashioned after Bunny in the comic.)








The third is RockBand. I don't play ours nearly enough, but I have options when I do: Rock Band 1 and 2, Lego Rock Band, Beatles edition,  and even the Guitar Hero band game. You know what I mean. I love playing the drums and think the guitar is evil. I may even get up the guts to play Rock Band with Wil Wheaton at this year's Phoenix Comic Con. That guy hosts one slammin' Rock Band party!

Your turn. What other hobbies bring you happiness?

Have you seen this?

Jenn at Books At Midnight is starting this comment activity. I'm all excited over it! I think it will be a great way to help me achieve my New Year's blogging goal of commenting more. The way it works is that you sign up on Saturday, by leaving a comment on her blog, once your comment has posted you need to pay a visit to the blogger who commented just before you. I've already done mine...and found a great new blog to follow! 

Fun!

I saw today's reading challenge over at Bookworming in the 21st Century. I couldn't resist it! I'm not joining in the official challenge, but just had to join in.

For this challenge all I have to do is:

1 - Pick up the book you are currently reading.

2 - Since it is December 22nd, turn to page 22 in your book.

3 - Count down to the 22nd line on the page. (If there is a partial word on the line you can leave it off.)

4 - Post a picture of your book cover along with the 22nd line from the 22nd page on your blog.

 

My line:

                   "They were on the cusp of the present."

From: