Reading Journal 9 Nov 2009

Today I was supposed to post the very first installment of my new blog feature, called "Memories Monday". In this series I'd like to highlight some of my favourite books - the books I read as a child/early teen and have re-read many times over. Books which may be slightly old, and which, for this reason, are not often reviewed on most book blogs (as it seems to me that many book bloggers tend to focus on the books being published now - or maybe they just don't feel the need to review books which everyone has read already - what would be the point in reviewing, say, Pride and Prejudice, when everyone has read it already, preferably more than once?).

So, today the first post of my new feature was suposed to appear - the only problem is, I haven't gotten around to write it already, and I don't feel particularly inspired now. I was planning to devote my post to - guess what? - Pride and Prejudice, since when I'm asked about my favourite book, I usually mention this one. But I think I'd better forget about it today and publish it next Monday, when (hopefully) I'm going to have a fabulous post ready. Curious that I don't feel inspired about writing, because this morning I created six different buttons for Memories Monday, and if I had to pick a favourite, I really wouldn't be able to. They're all so pretty! I'm so, so proud of my new-found artistic creativity.

So, let's have a Reading Journal post today, instead. On Friday night I read If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson. It's a slim novel about the magic of teenage love, but also a meditation on rthe tragic absurdity of racism and prejudice. Although I had a pretty strong feeling the book would not have a happy ending, I was still shocked when I wasn't disappointed. If you plan on tryng this book, keep some tissues ready, 'cause you're going to need them.

On Saturday and Sunday I finished Let The Right One In by John Lindqvist (hope I spelled it right...). At the beginning I was slightly annoyed at the book for being so long and apparently slow-paced. Then things started to pick up, and although I was still relieved when the ending came, at least I knew that all the parts in the book were necessary. It's a good book, although way much scarier than my usual reads.

Today I wanted to start on Origins by Cate Tiernan - I found the Italian translation at the library and my attention was immediately drawn to its dark cover in greenish blue and black ,with a butterfly on a spider's web. After the first two or three pages, though, I was thoroughly confused - it was as if readers were already supposed to know about the main character, her best friend, her boyfriend, how she got together with him, that she's a witch, etc. So I got online and looked up Cate Tiernan on Wikipedia. It turns out Origins is the eleventh (11th!!!) book in the Sweep (a.k.a. Wicca) series. Geez. So I went and found the first book in the series, The Book of Shadows. I practically devoured it, and I'm still in awe of it all. It's so... wow. Fast-paced, adventurous, mysterious... the ending was like fireworks going off. Bang. Where's the second book? I need to know how the story goes on. Feed me my poison, please.

Header Heavy

Since I've practically decided I won't upload a new, complete template to this blog, but will use the Minima Blogger template with a brand-new background and a few adjustments of my own making, I've been working on creating a new header for my blog. I've been trying things out on a test blog to see how things work - but now I have at least 3 good headers that I love, and can't choose which one I should really use (umph).

So will you do me a favour? Could you please go to my test blog, have a look at the headers I made, and tell me which you prefer? Thanks a lot! Your help is very much appreciated.

Winning Wednesday November 4th

Hi, everyone! So, this is my new feature: Winning Wednesday - a compilation of all the nice&generous book giveaways I've found in the book blogosphere. It's not a particularly original idea, as I've seen various people doing it already (well, there are whole blogs devoted to this purpose; just think of Susan Helen Gottfried's West of Mars - Win a Book!, or a recent discovery of mine, Cherry's Contests and Freebies). Anyway, I hope that at least I'm not stealing anybody's name. If I am, please let me know and I'll change it to something else.

As for the name, I actually wanted to call this meme Win-It Wednesday, but the name sounded too familiar for some reason, and, of course, it's because Melissa Walker has such a weekly feature - only that she actually has a book giveaway once a week, not a compilation of links. Still, I decided for Winning Wednesday, and I like the name all the same.

So, let's start, shall we?

Weekly or monthly regular contests (or compilations)

These are contests which take place regularly, once a week/month. For example, Katrina at Stone Soup has her Monday Book Giveaways - she gives away a book (or more) every Monday, to a lucky commenter who has access to "reliable mail service". This week, she's giving away three self-published books: The Long Sleep by Stephen Mellor, Shapeshifter, The Demo Tapes: Year Two by Susan Helen Gottfried, and Grundish and Askew by Lance Carbuncle. If any of these books sound appealing, remember to comment before next Sunday at noon for a chance to win one of them. Once in a while, Katrina does a "every book I've mentioned before" or a "any book of your choice up to $25, shipping excluded" giveaway. Check out her blog every Monday.

As I was mentioning above, Melissa Walker has a steady book giveaway every Wednesday (the infamous Win-It Wednesday feature). I've never really understood if this is an international giveaway, but I'm assuming it is (if you know for a fact that it isn't, let me know). This week, Melissa is giving away a copy of Boys That Bite by Mari Mancusi to a lucky commenter. If you're interested, remember to comment before next wednesday, when the winner is announced.

At the beginning of each month, Alyce at At Home With Books has a Bookshelf Cleaning Giveaway, that is, she gives away three or four books that she read during the previous month. For example, for the November Bookshelf Cleaning Giveaway, she has Fire by Kristin Cashore, The Maze Runner by James Deshner, Shadow of the Sword by Jeremiah Workman, and An Offer You Can't Refuse by Jill Mansell. This giveaway is restricted to residents of the US and Canada.

A good compilation of YA book giveaways is provided at The Story Siren. At the bottom of each YA Connection weekly post, Kristi has a Mr Linky for people to submit links to their own book giveaways. See, for example, the latest YA Connection post. I found this a very good idea, and there are always a number of interesting contests linked there (that is, if you like YA fiction; if not, there's not much point even looking). Pity many of them are only restricted to the US or North America, but I can understand that, since postage is not getting any cheaper :( Moreover, Kristi herself always has various contests going on at her blog, most North America only, but some international as well, so if you like YA lit yoy'd better keep an eye on her blog.

Another interesting list of giveaways can be found every Sunday at Ms Bookish. All the giveaways she links to are international and divided by genre: general fiction, romance, YA, mystery/thriller, non-fiction, and so on. Watch out for her Salon Sunday posts: see, for example, her latest giveaway compilation.

If you are doing regular giveaways and/or giveaway lists, too, and wnat me to include a link to your blog, please leave a comment.

Ongoing giveaways - international

100 Followers Contest at YA Book Queen. Lea is giving away a selection of YA books. Three winners. Ends Nov 20.

MegaBook Giveaway at Teens Read and Write! Become a follower and have a chance of winning one YA book out of their pile. Every 25 followers, they're adding a new winner and book to the pile. This contest is getting huge! For more chances to win, comment on the book reviews of the books in the pile (within 4 days of the publication date). Now they're up to 17 winners who will get a book each. I wonder how many winners will they have at the end of the contest, on Nov 20?

300 Followers Contest at Confessions of a Wandering Heart. Suzie is giving away three ARCs (The Demon King, Wish You Were Dead, and How to Say Goodbye in Robot) to one lucky commenter. Ends Nov 10. (Huge congratulations to Suzie, because 300 followers in less than 5 months of blogging is an amazing accomplishment!)

Pick your Poison contest at Bloggers Heart Books. The winner will get to choose one book out of a YA list. Ends Nov 6, so hurry up!

Layers of Thought is giving away a signed copy of Dreaming Anastasia by Joy Preble. Lovely cover, by the way. Ends on Nov 6 (hurry up if you want to enter!)

Suzanne at The Book Butterfly is giving away Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev. This contest, too, ends on Nov 6.

Sharon Loves Books and Cats has a giveaway for 5 books by Nancy Holder. Think - one contestk five books! Ends Nov 7, so you'll better hurry up if you want to win.

Miss Thrifty has a copy of On The Plot With "Dirty Nails" by Joe Hashman to give away - a cute little book for gardening enthusiasts. She will mail worldwide, but she warns that "if you live in, say, the Sonoran Desert, the seasonal instructions may be a little out of whack for you". Ends Nov 8 (hurry up if you want the book!) at 8 pm (GMT).

Lisa at Online Publicist has a giveaway for Falling From the Moon by Lisa Marinelli and God Is No Fool by Lois A. Cheney, in a cute tote bag. Ends at 12 am on Nov 10; winner announced on Lisa's blog on Nov 11.

Suzanne at The Book Butterfly is also giving away a copy of Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick. Take a fun test written by Becca herself and discover what kind of angel you are! Ends Nov 13.

Dar at Peeking Between the Pages has a copy of The Last Will of Moira Leahy by Therese Walsh up for grabs. Ends Nov 14. (one more copy available for US & Canada residents, offered by the publisher.)

An autographed copy of The Sari Shop Widow is up for grabs at Chick With Books. Wow! Enter before 12 pm EST on Nov 14.

Reggie at The Undercover Book Lover is giving away an ARC of Captivate by Carrie Jones, the much awaited sequel to the amazing Need. You have until Nov 14 to enter. I want to win this so much that it hurts, seriously.

An ARC of Fallen by Lauren Kate is up for grabs at The Neverending Shelf. Leave a comment and tell Kate why you want to read it! Ends Nov 18.

Alaine at Queen of Happy Endings is giving away two books - Fire by Kristin Cashore and Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen. Comment and tell her which one you'd prefer. Ends Nov 25.

Michelle at Windowpane Memoirs is giving away a Fallen prize pack (an ARC and some swag goodies). This is her monthly contest, which means you have until Nov 30 to enter. You can get various extra entries, so read her post carefully.

Because Angels Are Hot! Contest at The Story Siren. Kristi is giving away a copy of Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick, a copy of Fallen by Lauren Kate, and a Hush, Hush poster to one lucky reader. Another reader will get a second Hush, Hush poster. Deadline is Dec 8.


Ongoing giveaways - North America only

Dan's Journal is giving away nine books in seven days, to celebrate his birthday. Rules are a bit complicated so you'll better read them for yourself. Open to US residents only.

At Lori's Reading Corner an autographed copy of Holiday Grind by Cleo Coyle is up for grabs. Open to US residents only, ends Nov 20. Winner announced on Lori's blog on Nov 21.

Twenty days of Giveaways going on at Libby's Library News. She's currently at Day 4, and giving away a new book every day. Open to US & Canada residents.

Suzanne at The Book Butterfly is hosting a Haunted Halloween Contest! The prizes are books, including Wish You Were Dead. US entrants only, unfortunately. Ends Nov 11.

The Expressologist by Kristina Springer and a Starbucks gift card are up for grabs at The Book Butterfly. US residents only, ends Nov 15.

Two copies of The September Sisters by Jillian Cantor are also available at The Book Butterfly. US residents only. Ends Nov 20.

Suzanne at The Book Butterfly is also giving away a great Laurie Stolarz prize pack. US residents only (sob). Ends Nov 24.

J.Kay's Book Blog is giving away My Soul To Take by Rachel Vincent. 18 and older (otherwise, get your parents to enter), US & Canada only. Winner announced on the blog on Nov 28.

J.Kay's Book Blog is also giving away Bound to Shadows by Keri Arthur. 18 and older, (otherwise, get your parents to enter), US & Canada only. Winner announced on the blog on Nov 28.

Since this post is getting so long already, I think I can cut this short and end it here. If you want me to list your giveaway link in the next issue of Winning Wednesday, please leave a link in the comments (or email me the link, if you want) and I'll be happy to include it in my post, next week.

I had no idea these link compilations took so much time and energy. I feel exhausted. Till next time, folks!

P.S. I made the buttons *myself*. I know, that's mind-blowing. And totally unbelievable. But true.

P.P.S. Am now wondering if I should've called this feature Winning ON Wednesday. It would be more logical. Ahem. Any thoughts, opinions, suggestions? I guess it wouldn't take much time to add a simple "on" on those buttons. Not tonight, though.

I might be back, at last

Hello to you, wonderful people of the book blogging community. As the title says, I might be back. I say "might" because I'm not sure I still have it in me to blog regularly. But maybe I can put in, say, three or four posts per week; two memes, one book review, one reading journal post. That sounds good enough, right?

Last March I just had to get away from blogging. I was stuck, my life was going down the drain for various reasons, my depression was catching up with me again, and blogging seemed to be another obligation I couldn't stand, another chore I would've gladly done without. So I did.

Now, though, it looks like I've been missing my blog. I started twittering and following (stalking?) a bunch of book bloggers. Reading their amazing book reviews, taking part in book giveaways, anticipating the release of this or that title... I've been missing that. It did me good; it kept me sane. Sort of, at least.

So far I've been stalling: devouring a lot of books (I have, like, ten library books at home with me now, and yesterday the librarian actually asked me what I am doing with all these books. Snacking on them when I feel hungry, I felt like saying. Metaphorically speaking, it's totally true), compiling lists of library books I want to read in the not-so-distant future (I filled three sheets of paper in small writing), looking at blog templates (because since I'm going to resuscitate the blog, I might as well do it with style and give it a nice facelift), daydreaming about future posts.

But then, last night, while I was waiting for sleep to come, I actually came up with two weekly meme ideas. Neither is particularly original (especially NOT the first), but who cares, anyway. I've thought them up on my own, and that's what counts. I've never been great at creative things.

So today I actually created buttons for my two new weekly memes (think! Me, doing buttons! I just typed "image editor" on Google, searched for two suitable images, and went to work on them with the very dummy-friendly Free Online Image Editor), so here I am, because these two memes are supposed to be posted on Monday and Wednesday, and guess what?, it's Wednesday today. So, let's bring on Winning Wednesday.

Big Box Challenge at Princess Bookie

For Princess Bookie's Big Box Challenge, I choose Option 2: Make Your Own Cover Based On The Title of The Book (in this case, based on Before I Fall by Lauren Olivier, which I haven't read yet, but has a very, very pretty cover.) I know this is not very creative (I might be the least creative person on this planet, lol), but I wanted to try my hand at this. Thanks to Picnik.com for the help.

I don't live in the US, so I can't actually compete for the Big Box of ARCs (too bad), but I can enter for another of the prizes. Mainly, a surprise ARC for a book to be released in 2010 (The Unwritten Rule? Captivate?... I want), courtesy of the awesome Cindy at Princess Bookie, of course.

So here it is, in all its glory (?), my personal brand-new cover for Before I Fall:

So, do you like it? I like the black-and-white picture of the lonely tree on the edge of the cliff. So lovely and sad.

If you want to enter this competition yourself, you have time until Monday night at 8 pm (Cindy's time, I suppose; no idea what that is). So put on your creative hat, and let the best book cover win!

Contest-a-thon at Princess Bookie!

Check out the amazing ton of book giveaways open at Princess Bookie! There must be about 60 going on, at least. A good number of them are even open internationally! Yay! Hurry up and enter the ones you are interested in. You know you want to :)

Library Loot: March 11-17, 2009

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by myself and Eva that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

There seem to be little point in hosting this, since I haven't made it to the library in... I can't remember how long. But never mind! Here's the Mister Linky for you. Hope you are getting nice books from your library!

BIP Week 5: Social Media Carnival

For week 5 of the Blog Improvement Project 2009, we're doing a Social Media Carnival. As Kim explains,

I’m no expert in social media, and there are a lot of social media options to think about. There’s Digg, StumbleUpon, Technorati, Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, Ning, and about a million other options I don’t even know about. In that spirit, Social Media Month is going to be about educating each other about social media. Our first project is the much-anticipated Social Media Carnival!

The task is simple: write a post about a social media tool that you currently use. If you don’t currently use any social media, pick one you’re interested in, do some research, and write a post about what you’ve learned. Posts should be as specific and experience based as possible. If you’re stuck on what to write, here are some ideas — how do you use this particular tool to improve your blog or relationship with other bloggers? How do you balance time between blogging and using social media? What are some specific things you wish you’d known before you started your chosen new tool?

During my last year at university, when I was writing my thesis, I was an absolute Delicious fanatic. There's an old post of mine about the wonders of social bookmarking; you can check it out if you want. (The writing is very stiff and dull, I know, but that was an "academic" post and I wrote it as I thought my teacher wanted me to write.)

In a nutshell, Delicious works this way: you can bookmark web resources so you can find them later. In order to make them easier to find, you can tag them with appropriate labels and add a short description. Tags can be bundled up to build your own taxonomy. In addition, you can also search other people's bookmarks, so that your finds can be more relevant than those coming from a normal search engine. Another feature is the possibility of "being a fan" of people who share your interests.

Delicious is pretty basic and user-friendly, and that's why I loved it when doing research work - the number of good things you come up with is amazing. After graduating I haven't used it so extensively. If you want to look up my bookmarks, my username is Alessandra_p. I have a lot of resources about blog basics (we were doing papers on blogs that semester), writing websites, and translation glossaries.

I don't know how Delicious could be used to improve this blog, other than keeping tracks of reviews and finding new book blogs. For example, there's Renay of YA Fabulous who uses it to bookmark as many YA book reviews as humanly possible. Go on, check her out at YA Fabulous on Delicious.

Quick notes on the other social media I use:

• I'm on Facebook, but I don't have many friends there and don't like to friend people whom I don't know in real life, with some notable exceptions;
• On Ning there are some interesting groups such as Book Blogs, with notable discussions about books;
  
• I don't seem to get Twitter at all (I wish someone would explain to me where the fun is - maybe I'll find out once the Social Media Carnival is on);
• I'm on Technorati too, but only to promote my blog to potential readers.

I look forward to reading all your great posts on social media!

This blog turns two today!

Picture by jbparker on Flickr

Happy Blogiversary to me!! Two years ago I started this blog for my Blogging English course at university. I have to say it feels like several lifetimes have passed in the meanwhile. But let's not get nostalgic! Have a piece of cake, and celebrate with me!

Library Loot February 25 - March 4, 2009

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by myself and Eva that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

Click here to add your posts to Mr Linky.

I didn't make it to the library this week. So, no new books. I'm still working on my leftover loot. Enjoy your books, everyone!