Wordless Wednesday (Oct. 28)

‘Day at the Park’

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A-Z Wednesday (L)

A-Z Wednesday is hosted by Vicky of Reading at the Beach

To join, here's all you have to do: Go to your stack of books and find one whose title starts with the letter of the week.
Post:
1~ a photo of the book
2~ title and synopsis
3~ link(amazon, barnes and noble etc.).
Be sure to visit other participants to see what book they have posted and leave them a comment. (We all love comments, don't we?) Who knows? You may find your next "favorite" book.

THIS WEEK'S LETTER IS: L
Here is my “L” Title:

Looking for Alaska – John Green
160 pages; published 2005

From School Library Journal
Sixteen-year-old Miles Halter's adolescence has been one long nonevent - no challenge, no girls, no mischief, and no real friends. Seeking what Rabelais called the "Great Perhaps," he leaves Florida for a boarding school in Birmingham, AL. His roommate, Chip, is a dirt-poor genius scholarship student with a Napoleon complex who lives to one-up the school's rich preppies. Chip's best friend is Alaska Young, with whom Miles and every other male in her orbit falls instantly in love. She is literate, articulate, and beautiful, and she exhibits a reckless combination of adventurous and self-destructive behavior. She and Chip teach Miles to drink, smoke, and plot elaborate pranks. Alaska's story unfolds in all-night bull sessions, and the depth of her unhappiness becomes obvious. Green's dialogue is crisp, especially between Miles and Chip. His descriptions and Miles's inner monologues can be philosophically dense, but are well within the comprehension of sensitive teen readers. The chapters of the novel are headed by a number of days "before" and "after" what readers surmise is Alaska's suicide. These placeholders sustain the mood of possibility and foreboding, and the story moves methodically to its ambiguous climax. The language and sexual situations are aptly and realistically drawn, but sophisticated in nature. Miles's narration is alive with sweet, self-deprecating humor, and his obvious struggle to tell the story truthfully adds to his believability. Like Phineas in John Knowles's A Separate Peace(S & S, 1960), Green draws Alaska so lovingly, in self-loathing darkness as well as energetic light, that readers mourn her loss along with her friends. (Amazon)

Readathon Wrapup

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I had an amazing time during the readathon. I will definitely be back next April (I’ve had some sleep, BethF, so I can say that now!).

My aim for the readathon was to read 5 books, and managed to read 6, so I’m pretty happy on that front. Hunger Games and Paper Towns are warring for top billing at the moment, but reviews will be coming this week for the following:

I’d like to thank the readathon organisers for the amazing work they did in getting the event up and running, and of course Dewey, without whom we wouldn’t have the readathon at all.

I’d also like to give special thanks to all the cheerleaders who came and cheered me on – especially those whose rallying came in verse and blessing form (amazing!).

Traditional read-a-thon blessing:

May the bookshelf be there to greet you.
May all the books appeal.
May the fridge be full of tasty snacks;
the words fall soft upon your eyes and until the read-a-thon ends,
may you always hold a book in the palm of your hand.
(from softdrink @ Fizzy Thoughts)

Books are awesome
Books are great
Congratulations on reading so much
You’re first rate!
(from softdrink @ Fizzy Thoughts)

May you wake up with more hours in which to read.
(from Nise’ @ Under the Boardwalk)

 

I’ll be heading off to visit all your blogs over the next week. My amazing cheerleaders:

 

Diane @ The Book Resort
Kaye @ Pudgy Penguin Perusals
Caite @ a lovely shore breeze…
Christina @ Reading Thu The Night
softdrink @ Fizzy Thoughts
Amy @ The House of the Seven Tails
Kailana @ Kailana’s Book List Obsession
Laza @ Gimme More Books
Linda @ Silly Little Mischief
Katrina @ bloody bad
Elizabeth @ Thoughts from an Evil Overlord
Trisha @ eclectic / ecentric
Nise’ @ Under the Boardwalk
Aarti @ B O O K L U S T
Lenore @ Presenting Lenore
Staci @ Life in the Thumb
BethF @ Beth Fish Reads

and, of course, everyone in the Twitter playground!

Musing Mondays (Oct. 26)

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about note taking…


Do you take notes while reading – either for your reviews or for yourself? How/where do you make these notes (on the page, post-its, scrap paper, notebooks etc)?

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Musing Mondays post, or share your opinion in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks.

I used to take a lot of notes while reading – and then more if I was writing a review, but now I find that I usually just stick in a piece of paper or a post-it for any interesting passages I want to come back to later.

Books I’m reading for book club, however, usually have a lot more notes taken. In this case, however, I have a specific notebook to keep them all together. I have a tendency to to misplace notes and them find them months later – by which time they’re completely incomprehensible, so having notebooks on hand are a must.

Readathon Update 9

Accumulated Reading Hours: 19

Books finished this session: 2 
Pages read this session: 294

Accumulated Pages Read: 1530
Total Books Read: 6

The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
The Good Neighbours, Book 1: Kin – Holly Black and Ted Naifeh
Coraline – Neil Gaiman
Mr. Popper’s Penguins – Richard and Florence Atwell
Paper Towns – John Green
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Vol 1: The Hero Factor – Michael Jan Friedman and Pablo Marcos

Currently Reading:
Love is Hell – Marr et al

Readathon Update 8

Accumulated Reading Hours: 16

Books finished this session: 0 
Pages read this session: 110

Accumulated Pages Read: 1236
Total Books Read: 4

The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
The Good Neighbours, Book 1: Kin – Holly Black and Ted Naifeh
Coraline – Neil Gaiman
Mr. Popper’s Penguins – Richard and Florence Atwell

Currently Reading:
Paper Towns – John Green

Readathon Update 7

 

Accumulated Reading Hours: 14

Books finished this session: 0
Pages read this session: 110

Accumulated Pages Read: 1120
Total Books Read: 4

The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
The Good Neighbours, Book 1: Kin – Holly Black and Ted Naifeh
Coraline – Neil Gaiman
Mr. Popper’s Penguins – Richard and Florence Atwell

Currently Reading:
Paper Towns – John Green

Readathon Update 6

 

Accumulated Reading Hours: 12

Books finished this session: 1
Pages read this session: 174

Accumulated Pages Read: 1010
Total Books Read: 4

The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
The Good Neighbours, Book 1: Kin – Holly Black and Ted Naifeh
Coraline – Neil Gaiman
Mr. Popper’s Penguins – Richard and Florence Atwell

Currently Reading:
Paper Towns – John Green

Readathon Update 5

 

Accumulated Reading Hours: 10

Books finished this session: 1
Pages read this session: 211

Accumulated Pages Read: 836
Total Books Read: 3

The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
The Good Neighbours, Book 1: Kin – Holly Black and Ted Naifeh
Coraline – Neil Gaiman

Currently Reading:
Mr Popper’s Penguins – Richard and Florence Atwell

Readathon Update 4

Had a slight accident with my ‘nap’ – turns out if you program your alarm, but don’t actually set it, it doesn’t work – oops! Slept for five hours, instead of three like I’d intended, but I’m back in the game now.

 

Accumulated Reading Hours: 8

Books finished this session: 2
Pages read this session: 223

Accumulated Pages Read: 625
Total Books Read: 2

The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
The Good Neighbours, Book 1: Kin – Holly Black and Ted Naifeh

Currently Reading:
Coraline – Neil Gaiman

Readathon Update 3

Accumulated Reading Hours: 6

Books finished this session: 0
Pages read this session: 134

Accumulated Pages Read: 402
Total Books Read: 0

Currently Reading:
The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins

 

 

Note: I’m heading off for a few hours sleep now. I had intended to try and stick it out for the full 24, but starting off at 11pm made this harder than I thought. So I hope you’re all having fun, keep up the good reading, and I’ll see you soon!

Mini-Challenge

Bart’s Bookshelf challenges us to construct a book title out of three or four books on our tbr pile… this is my attempt:

Love is Hell (The Ninth Circle): Tips on Having a Gay (ex) Boyfriend

Readathon Update 2

  
Readathon Hour: 5
Accumulated Reading Hours: 4

Books finished this session: 0
Pages read this session: 134

Accumulated Pages Read: 268
Total Books Read: 0

Currently Reading:
The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins

Readathon Update 1

Readathon Hour: 3
Accumulated Reading Hours: 2

Books finished this session: 0
Pages read this session: 134

Accumulated Pages Read: 134
Total Books Read: 0

Currently Reading:
The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins

Readathon Update 0

Readathon Hour: 0
Accumulated Reading Hours: 0

Books finished this session: 0
Pages read this session: 0

Accumulated Pages Read: 0
Total Books Read: 0

One… Two… Three… GO!

And we’re off! My first readathon! Whoo hoo!!! … can you tell I’m excited?

Last night I set up my staging area (yes, last night – leave me alone! I’m very excited!) so my readathon could start right on the dot – 11pm here in case you’re wondering.

I’ve taken up residence in the most comfy chair, with my favourite pillow and my favourite blanket – all of which involved undertaking battle with the cat to acquire. But I won (barely) and should be nice and cosy.

 

And, of course, the number one ingredient for the readathon: a lovely stack of books!

I didn’t list them before in case I changed/added to them (which I did) but here’s the final list. There’s far more than I could ever dream of reading (I’m aiming for 4 or 5), but I sure had fun picking them.

• Richard Atwell – Mr. Popper’s Penguin
• Alex Bell – The Ninth Circle
• Holly Black – The Good Neighbours, Book 1: Kin
• Jim Butcher – Fool Moon
• Meg Cabot – Boy Meets Girl
• Suzanne Collins - Hunger Games
• Kate DiCamillo – The Tale of Desperaux
• F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Great Gatsby
• Michael Jan Friedman –Star Trek: The Next Generation – The Hero Factor
• Michael Jan Friedman –Star Trek: The Next Generation – Maelstrom
• Neil Gaiman – Coraline
• John Green – Paper Towns
• Joe Haldeman – The Accidental Time Machine
• Charlaine Harris – Living Dead in Dallas
• Mallory Hoffman – Touched by a Vampire
• Carrie Jones – Tips on Having a Gay (ex) Boyfriend
• Diane Wynne Jones – Howl’s Moving Castle
• Hugh Lofting – Doctor Dolittle
• Marr et al – Love is Hell
• Arthur Miller – The Crucible
• Christopher Paolini - Eragon
• Sylvia Plath - Ariel
• Emily Rodda – The Key to Rondo

Housekeeping Grap-Bag

Please feel free to ignore this post if you’d like – especially if you’re seeing it in more than place (it’s being x-posted).

 

 

A couple people I talk to online have asked me where they can find me at various online locations so I’ve created an online calling card over here which lists my locations – hope this helps.

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My house has caught the photography bug of late and I’ve set up a new photoblog (mainly so I can keep them straight). Feel free to come visit if you’d like.

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I have officially signed up for this year’s NANOWRIMO and it’s now too late to back out … at least that’s what I’m telling myself. I’m tracking my progress on my writing blog (yes, I’m a blog junkie). If anyone else is participating, I’d love to know so I can add you to my ‘writing buddies’.

Wordless Wednesday (Oct. 21)

‘Lift Your Face to the Sky’

 

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Teaser Tuesday (Oct. 20)

  Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page. 
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

 

 

I suspect my cynicism comes from pretending to be what I’m not stop; covering myself in lies makes me cynical. I know I’m not trustworthy. How likely is it that the world is true if I’m not. (76)

Liar – Justine Larbalestier

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8

[please be aware that this review will hold spoilers for the end of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series]

BVS, Season 8; Vol. 1: The Long Way Home
Joss Whedon and George Jeanty 136 pages; published 2007

BVS, Season 8; Vol. 2: No Future For You
Brian K. Vaughn, Joss Whedon and George Jeanty 120 pages; published 2008

I visited a friend of mine a couple of weeks ago and came home with a huge back of goodies to watch/read/enjoy. In amongst them all were the first two volumes of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight graphic novels.

This are a sure hit for any Buffy fan. Volume one picks up some months after the end of season seven of the television series: all potential slayers ARE slayers, and are living and training with Buffy in a part-mansion, part-dormitory, part-army/laboratory facility.

This is the same story, just in another medium; even moreso than most novelisations or series-related books, these graphic novels bridge the gap seamlessly. The characters are spot on, the humour perfect. Even in volume two, with Brian K. Vaughn writing, you can see Joss Whedon in every page.

The art work, likewise, is superb. The characters are stylised but recognisable and unique. The colouring finds a balance between the darker palette usually attributed to Buffy and being too dark for the page.

Definitely worth checking out. 4/5

Prizes for Read-a-thon

The 24 Hour Read-a-thon was looking for some international prize senders and so I’ve donated some beaded bookmarks for Australian winners.

I’m not handling the allocating of prizes, that’s all being done by the read-a-thon officials, but I’m posting them here so you can see all the same.

Good luck!

 
{click to see bigger}

 

Musing Monday (Oct. 19)

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about the read-a-thon…


Are you planning on participating in the upcoming 24 Hour Read-a-thon (either as a reader or cheerleader)? Have you made any preparations for the event? And, veterans out there, any tips you’d like to share with the newbies?

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Musing Mondays post, or share your opinion in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks.

I am participating in the read-a-thon for the first time and am very excited about it actually. I’ve started piling some books, more than I will ever get through, and have staked out my reading area – I’m going to take over the lounge room … and hope that my net cord reaches.

I’ve yet to actually tell anyone in my house what I’m doing – partly because I’m lucky enough not to have kids to look after, and partly because I’m putting off receiving the “you’re doing what…?” look. I plan on having plenty of booky online people to talk to, however, as I’ve already set up the #readathon and #slumberbash columns in my Tweetdeck for easy access.

As for tips… I have none. Zilch. Nada. I’m just hoping to stay awake. So I’d greatly appreciate any tips from the more experienced read-a-thon-ers.

The Texicans

The Texicans Nina Vida 296 pages; published 2007

There’s nothing I hate more than giving up on a book, but I’m afraid this one is going in that pile – made all the worse because it was sent to me by the author.

Nina Vida’s The Texicans is set during the colonisation years of the Texan state. It follows the character of Joseph, a school teacher-come-coloniser, and the group of people he runs into (and seems to collect) as he goes along his way.

I’d like to stress that this was an interesting, well-written book. It was clearly well researched and the characters were real and engaging. While reading the book I did enjoy it, however I didn’t feel the urge to pick it up in the meantime. Because of this it sat on my ‘reading pile’ for well over a month and was starting to slow down the rest of my reading.

My non-completion would not stop me from recommending it to readers of historical fiction.

Read-a-thon Booklist

I’m very excited to be participating in the upcoming read-a-thon, and have been trying to decide on a list of books. Well. I picked out far more than I’ll ever get through, but I like choice!

And because I’m sure to change my mind between now and Saturday, I’m going to hold off on the titles until then. But who knows, you’ll may be able to guess from the thumbnails.

Wordless Wednesday (Oct. 14)

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A-Z Wednesday (J)

A-Z Wednesday is hosted by Vicky of Reading at the Beach

To join, here's all you have to do: Go to your stack of books and find one whose title starts with the letter of the week.
Post:
1~ a photo of the book
2~ title and synopsis
3~ link(amazon, barnes and noble etc.).
Be sure to visit other participants to see what book they have posted and leave them a comment. (We all love comments, don't we?) Who knows? You may find your next "favorite" book.

THIS WEEK'S LETTER IS: J
Here is my “J” Title:

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel – Susanna Clarke
800 pages; published 2004

From Publishers Weekly

The drawing room social comedies of early 19th-century Britain are infused with the powerful forces of English folklore and fantasy in this extraordinary novel of two magicians who attempt to restore English magic in the age of Napoleon. In Clarke's world, gentlemen scholars pore over the magical history of England, which is dominated by the Raven King, a human who mastered magic from the lands of faerie. The study is purely theoretical until Mr. Norrell, a reclusive, mistrustful bookworm, reveals that he is capable of producing magic and becomes the toast of London society, while an impetuous young aristocrat named Jonathan Strange tumbles into the practice, too, and finds himself quickly mastering it. Though irritated by the reticent Norrell, Strange becomes the magician's first pupil, and the British government is soon using their skills. Mr. Strange serves under Wellington in the Napoleonic Wars (in a series of wonderful historical scenes), but afterward the younger magician finds himself unable to accept Norrell's restrictive views of magic's proper place and sets out to create a new age of magic by himself. Clarke manages to portray magic as both a believably complex and tedious labor, and an eerie world of signs and wonders where every object may have secret meaning. London politics and talking stones are portrayed with equal realism and seem indisputably part of the same England, as signs indicate that the Raven King may return. The chock-full, old-fashioned narrative (supplemented with deft footnotes to fill in the ignorant reader on incidents in magical history) may seem a bit stiff and mannered at first, but immersion in the mesmerizing story reveals its intimacy, humor and insight, and will enchant readers of fantasy and literary fiction alike.  (Amazon)

24 Hour Read-a-thon

I missed out on doing the 24 Read-a-thon back in April, but I’m very much looking forward to my first read-a-thon this month.

Who else is playing along?

As for now, I’m off to make my reading list!

Teaser Tuesday (Oct. 13)

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page. 
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

 

 

My father is a liar, and so am I.
But I’m going to stop. I have to stop. (3)

Liar – Justine Larbalestier

Musing Monday (Oct 12)

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about books on your top book lists…


This past week, Borders re-released it’s  100 Favourite Books of All Times. Do you vote in these kinds of polls when they arise? Do you look through the list, or seek out books featured?

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Musing Mondays post, or share your opinion in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks.

As I’m sure Wendy will attest, I am a huge sucker for a good list, so when you combine lists WITH books – what more could you want? I do vote/suggest titles when polls like these arise – I always try to contribute my vote to those put out by Borders and Dymocks.

I pick up a catalogue every year when Dymocks does it’s Books Alive feature, and when Angus and Robertson does it’s top books lists, and I take great pleasure in checking out what’s been changed from last year, or what books have risen or fallen on the charts. (Yes, I keep the lists on my bookshelf, and yes, I’m aware that’s somewhat sad)

I wouldn’t say that I intentionally go out and try to find the books to read – I always have plenty to read anyways, but I do recheck the old lists when the new one comes out and mark off any that I’ve read in the intervening months.