Flying across the country? You’ll need LOTS of books.

 Posted by at 6:58 am  2 Responses »
Feb 122013
 

Pretend this Duffy is me

Pretend this Duffy is me

As you read this, I’ll be flying across the country to visit my east coast family. It’s a family emergency sort of thing, which is less fun than I’d like a reunion to be, but it’ll be nice to see everyone again. We haven’t met in person for about 9 years, so~.

Traveling means lots of free time, and what do we book bloggers do in our free time? Read! (And eat. Well, I do, anyway.)

Even though I have an ebook reader (or two), I still have to plan out which books I want to bring with me on a trip. I don’t keep EVERY ebook I own on my reader because that’s ridiculous, and redownloading something on a free-but-shakey wifi connection is a big pain in the rear. Therefore I must make lists!

Here’s what I’m planning on bringing. I chose them by going through my Calibre library and thinking “which books would I least hate to have on the other side of the continent?” I may have gone a bit overboard (I’ll only be gone for a week) but since I don’t have to worry about weight I don’t really care. So!

  • All the ebooks in my monthly TBR list. Because I want to stay on track! Sort of. I’ll try, anyway.
  • Miles Errant by Lois McMaster Bujold, the next Vorkosigan omnibus tbr. I’ve already read three Vorkosigan books in a row, though, so I may hold off reading this until next month (to spread things out a bit). Still, I don’t want to be without it if I DO want to read it after all! Bwahahaha.
  • One Coffee With by Margaret Maron. I haven’t read a mystery in a while, and this one looks interesting!
  • On Basilisk Station by David Weber, the first Honor Harrington book. I’ve been meaning to start reading this series for a few years now, and since I’m currently on a sci-fi kick I suppose now’s the time to do it. Clementine
  • The Lark and the Wren by Mercedes Lackey. I wasn’t wowed with my first Mercedes Lackey book but maybe this one will be better?
  • Okay For Now by Gary D. Schmidt, just in case. I bought this last year for, like, $0.50 or something, btw! Yay, cheap ebooks.
  • Miss Billy by Eleanor H. Porter. I’m not sure why I downloaded this from Project Gutenberg last year, but I DID. Might as well read it, eh?
  • The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella. This would actually be a reread– I bought this way back in 2010 (I think?) for a trip, so it seemed wise to bring it again for this one.
  • Clementine by Cherie Priest. I bought it when it first came out, and I still haven’t read it. Onto the Kindle it goes!
  • The Englishwoman in America by Isabella L. Bird. Izzy’s one of my favorite Victorian travel writers, and I almost always bring one of her books on my trips.
  • Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. Just in case. MOST of these books are “just in case,” really. I’m also bringing the song on my iPod!

And then like five more books which I don’t want to list because (as I write this) I still need to pack stuff. How many sweaters will I need in Baltimore? I hope I’ve brought enough.

5 reasons why I’m still a book hoarder

 Posted by at 1:13 pm  6 Responses »
Feb 082013
 

As of right now probably about half the books I read are ebooks, but that’s mostly for convenience’s sake. I still love paper books! Sometimes I just HAVE to read a paper book purely for the physicality of it. Paper books FEEL GOOD. They’re nice to hold, they’re nice to carry around, and there’s nothing better than cracking open a new hardcover for the first time.

I don’t actually smell my books, but I DO sometimes stroke their covers. Ebooks, while lovely and less difficult to store, just don’t have that physical something that paper books do.

5 reasons why I’ll forever be a (paper) book hoarder:

SO COOL (from Wikipedia)

SO COOL (from Wikipedia)

1. Fancy covers (especially ones with embossing!). For example! The paper cover of The Raven Boys is MUCH cooler than the ebook version.
2. That thing where the page edges are all torn and awesome. Deckle edge!
3. Those weirdly perfectly-shaped books that you find sometimes. This is totally subjective, but for me they tend to be more square-shaped than rectangular. My copy of War for the Oaks is like this.
4. Footnotes and endnotes and other things that don’t really play well with ebooks sometimes.
5. Illustrations, which almost never come out pretty in the ebook version. Especially on a Kindle. Yuck.

Do YOU like physical things about books? What’s your favorite?

How to make a 5th grader cry: a list

 Posted by at 8:46 am  6 Responses »
Jan 252013
 

*sobbing*

*sobbing*

Last week I had a fun conversation on Twitter with Eva and Kristen about books that made us cry in 5th grade. During that conversation I realized that my 5th grade teacher was HORRIBLY, TERRIBLY MEAN. Because we read ALL these books in 5th grade as class reads, and they ALL made me cry.

Wanna make a 5th grader in YOUR life cry? Give ‘em these books!

Did you ever cry because of a class read? Let it out in the comments, it’s okay. THAT TIME IS OVER NOW.

Hey SoCal book lovers! Check this out.

 Posted by at 12:02 pm  1 Response »
Jan 232013
 

It’s ready! The Southern California Book Events spreadsheet is ready for use. Yay!

You can find the spreadsheet here. Check it out, let me know if I need to adjust anything, etc. I included all the info I thought pertinent, but if you think it needs more just let me know. I want this to be useful for EVERYONE, not just me!

And since this isn’t just for me, I’m opening it up to submissions from other people! To submit a SoCal book event (author signing, convention, festival, book group meetings, etc.), fill out this form here. Every week I’ll go through the submitted data and add it to the spreadsheet. (Please be sure to read the instructions and whatnot before adding an event. Thanks!)

After putting together the spreadsheet and submission form, I realized I didn’t want this stuff ONLY on my blog. I’m doing it because I want to help out the book blogging community, and I ALSO want to bring the community closer together! How to do that? By starting a Goodreads group, apparently.

There was already a (somewhat dead) SoCal Book Events group (here), but there wasn’t one for SoCal book BLOGGERS. So I’ve started one! If you go to the group you’ll see I’ve added a few book event-related topics, including this rideshare one that I’m hoping will create a few friendships. Yay! But it’s not JUST about events– I’d also like it to be a fun place for local bloggers to meet and hang out, give each other tips on stuff and whatnot. I’m planning on adding more topics, making group avatar, etc., but for right now please feel free to join the group and join in on the discussions/start new ones/so on. :D

By the way: I was wondering if anyone’s available to help me out with running the group?

See, I can’t be online all the time (especially once I get a new job) and I don’t want to disappear from days on end and leave the group on its own. Something might happen! So I need a few moderators or co-runners or what have you. :D If you’re a SoCal blogger and you have a few spare hours a week, could you please email me? Really all I think needs done is to make sure nobody’s spamming the discussion boards, and that shouldn’t take too long.

Anyway, I think that’s all my news. :D I hope y’all enjoy the spreadsheet, and that you can get some use out of it! Both the form and the spreadsheet will be linked in the sidebar here and in the Goodreads group somewhere, and I’ll be sure to say whenever I’ve added new events to the sheet (probably in Sunday’s chitchat post).

2012 End of Year Book Survery

 Posted by at 1:09 pm  13 Responses »
Dec 302012
 

2012 end of year book survey
(graphic from The Perpetual Page-Turner)

The Perpetual Page-Turner is hosting the 3rd annual End of Year Book Survey! I’ve never done it before, so I’m excited to be doing it for this year.

Best In Books 2012

1. Best Book You Read In 2012? (You can break it down by genre if you want)
Fantasy: Night Watch by Terry Pratchett
Classic: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
(Forgotten) Classic: The Princess Dehra by John Reed Scott
Reread: American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Sci-fi: Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson
Mystery: The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde
YA Contemporary: Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard
General Fiction: Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
Non-fiction: Wicked Plants by Amy Stewart
Audiobook: Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?
The Diviners by Libba Bray. It has flappers! And ghosts! And it’s set in 1920s New York City! But the more I think about it, the more disappointed I am that it wasn’t better. It’s not BAD, no way! I gave it 3/5 birds, after all. But neither is it FANTASTIC like I wanted it to be.

3. Most surprising (in a good way!) book of 2012?
The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde. Previous to this book I’d only read The Eyre Affair, which confused and irritated me. After reading The Last Dragonslayer, however, I’m now a firm Jasper Fforde fan. (Even if I still don’t like The Eyre Affair.)

4. Book you recommended to people most in 2012?
I feel kind of bad about this because I read a LOT of good books earlier in the year, but once the initial rush of love faded I don’t think I talked about them much later in the year. Actually, this is true for most of the books I read? Once I review them, I kinda forget them. Er. HOWEVER, I suppose the one I’d want to recommend the most to people NOW would be Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard, which I read way back in January. Here’s my review! Continue reading »

The great 2013 Reading Challenges challenge!

 Posted by at 9:47 am  4 Responses »
Dec 162012
 

When I first started blogging, I joined a LOT of reading challenges. They were all the rage four years ago; EVERYONE did at least one reading challenge, and if you didn’t do a challenge you were way less cool than the people who DID. Nowadays reading challenges have fallen out of favor. Readalongs and blog tours and things that like are super popular, and while I like all those things I kinda miss doing challenges.

I haven’t done any for the past two years, mainly because when I DID join a challenge I invariably gave up halfway through the year. It was depressing and stressful and I made the decision to stop. Here’s the thing, though: I MISS doing challenges now! Maybe I’m just ready for a more structured reading year, maybe I just want to go back to the time when I was a newbie blogger and everything was exciting and new, maybe I just want to try and see if I can actually complete a challenge for once. Whatever the reason, I’ve decided to make 2013 the Year of the Reading Challenges.1

I think it’ll be fun! Especially because I’m going to do the challenges “right” for once. The idea behind a challenge isn’t just to read a certain number of books that fit into certain categories. It’s ALSO to join the community doing the challenges! Nearly every reading challenge has got monthly round-ups or discussions, and when I was new I tended to skip those (I can’t remember why). So! Here’s my personal set of rules for my Year of Reading Challenges.

    1. Join in on the monthly round-ups/discussions at least six times (so once every two months, at minimum).
    2. Only join challenges with a set challenge category. For example, challenges that’re just “read this many books in a year” don’t count. “Read this many books about cats,” DOES count.
    3. If, after six months, I don’t feel as enthusiastic about a challenge as I did when I joined it, I can drop that challenge.
    4. Year-long challenges are okay, as are shorter ones (like the RIP reading challenge in the fall). There’s no minimum length a challenge has to last.
    5. Readalongs, book clubs, and book tours don’t count as challenges, but I’m going to encourage myself to join as many of them as I want, too.

That said, I haven’t actually decided WHICH reading challenges I’m going to join yet. I’m making a list of 2013 reading challenges though, and I’ve put that list on this page here. Check it out if you’d like! I’d love it if a few of my friends joined in on the challenges, too. :D

If you’re hosting a reading challenge, let me know and I’ll add it to the list!

Footnotes

Some DNF notes / Currently Reading (2) / Chitchat (10)

 Posted by at 10:20 am  9 Responses »
Oct 272012
 

DNF notes

I always waffle on whether or not to add DNF books to my books read list, mostly because I keep forgetting to do so until I’ve got a huge stack of them sitting around staring at me. I think I may just add them onto the end of my monthly reading list? Anyway, here’s some books I’ve Did Not Finish‘d fairly recently (not in any particular order):

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (after ~135 pages)
I just COULD NOT get into this book, not even after all that talk about wanting to reread it and whatever. I just. It’s boring! I like his other series much better, like the Nursery Crimes mysteries.

Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner (read by Ellen Kushner/full cast) (after ~2 hours)
I really wanted to like this audiobook because it’s one of Neil Gaiman’s special projects or whatever, but a) the constant switching from author narration to full cast was jarring (and annoying) and b) it was boring. Maybe if I had a text version I’d like it better because I could skim past the blah parts but I kind of have a feeling I’d consider most of the book to be blah, so there’s no point.

Furies of Calderon (Code Alera #1) by Jim Butcher (after ~150 pages)
Boring, even though there’s tons of female characters and they’re done really well (or better than some of the ones in the Dresden Files, anyway?) and there’s some interesting fantasy stuff and whatever. I think I just like Jim Butcher’s writing more when he’s trying to be funny.

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas (read by John Lee) (after 50%/10-ish hours)
Remember when I said I was listening to the audiobook but I wanted to switch to the ebook? Well, I did, and it just made it worse. I think I lost the momentum and I couldn’t get it back; I’ll have to try reading this again from the beginning, once I’ve forgotten the annoying narrator and such.

What books have YOU DNF’d recently?

Currently Reading (2)

I haven’t actually been reading all that much this week– I downloaded some REALLY good podcasts and I’ve been listening to those, mostly. Plus the bus has been so crowded lately that it’s almost impossible to hold a book open (hardcover book, anyway), so I haven’t even been reading on my commute. However! I’m SLOWLY making my way through Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism by Barbara Weisberg. I got it from the library last week because I figured, after reading so many fictional books with Spiritualism in them, I ought to learn about the actual history and whatnot. I like it! Not only are there copious footnotes, but it’s got a very centered point of view. There’s no “obviously these girls were delusional/lying teenagers,” nor is there “omg everything they said/saw/whatever is TRUE!” Instead it takes a middle path, between the two extreme viewpoints, which I like.

What’re you reading this week?

Chitchat (10)

So! Maybe you can tell from the fact that I haven’t been on Twitter for ages or maybe you’re just psychic, but I’m about ready for a blogging/reading/internet break. I think I’ll take the next two weeks or so off from posting (minus a blog tour book review on November 7th!) so I can both recharge and get some posts ready. What’s been happening lately is that I’ll go through the week not even turning on my computer, and then the weekend rolls around and suddenly I’ve got to get posts scheduled for the next week and I don’t have any and I can’t write them in the few hours I have an internet connection and so it doesn’t happen. Or I get ONE done and that’s it. I want to get back to posting three-four times a week (three reviews and a chitchat/discussion/whatever post) and I want to keep up with my features, and I think in order to do that I need to stop posting completely for a bit. And then I’ll come back strong! Well, hopefully, anyway.

I think the last time I took a break was either when I moved to California in January or possibly in May, when I moved into my house– anyway, it’s time for another one. Yay!

If you’re wondering, the job is going well. There’s a lot of turnover employee-wise but as it’s a seasonal/temp job I guess that’s not terribly surprising? It’ll end in early December, and I’m planning on having a short break for Christmas before starting another job in January. NO idea what that job will be, btw! I’m applying to places but I kind of have a feeling it’ll be another temp job somewhere, which could be good as it’ll mean I’ll be free to go to BEA in June like I want to.

What’s going on with BEA next year, btw? Any news? Any drama? Anyone planning on going and/or looking for a roomie to split the bill? Let me know, please! I feel so cut off from bookish news, argh.

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