Category: Updates

Updates

December 2011 Update

Geoff W

I can’t believe it’s December. My birthday and my annual trek back to NC are in 12 days and it’s mind-boggling to think how fast the year has gone.

November felt especially short as I had a couple of days off and was out a couple of days at the beginning of this month, but on to the post!

Since the November update, I’ve joined another challenge, read two books (Friday Night Lights and I’ll Get There. It Better Be Worth The Trip.), and just last night finished Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. I’m starting to re-read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for the Somerville Books into Movies book group.

Aside from reading, I’ve kept busy with work (it’s the year-end fundraising season) and holiday shopping. I thought I finished shopping last month, but wasn’t and only have one last item to buy.

This past weekend Tom and I had his nieces for the weekend and we had a lot of fun. I mentioned it in a previous post, so I won’t go into too much detail. Let’s just say my birthday celebrations have already started even though I’d prefer to disappear. The two additions to our weekend with Tom’s nieces were the Somerville Public Library to work on an extra credit project for the oldest, and seeing Arthur Christmas, which was adorable! And to cap off the weekend we had dinner at Border Cafe in Cambridge with their parents.

Last week I mentioned buying more books during Small Business Saturday. I ended up buying five books and a mighty wallet (which is awesome – the link is the one I purchased)! Of the books I purchased, Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood, Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie, In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje, and The Color Purple by Alice Walker, are all either on my reading list or for a challenge next year. also purchased The Darcys and the Bingleys by Marsha Altman, and am incredibly wary because of my prudish sensibilities and the subject matter. I will read it, but didn’t read the blurb on the back before purchasing it and am not too impressed with the premise. A week or so before that, I purchased Austenland by Shannon Hale in order to get free shipping for a Christmas present. Who wouldn’t rather buy a book for $2 than pay $5 for shipping?!?

Updates

Lunch Break Interlude I

Geoff W

We interrupt your regularly scheduled…— “Regularly scheduled,” what’s that?

I’ve done this once before, “way back” in August, and thought it was time for another quick one as I had so much new info to share that I didn’t want to wait until the next monthly update. Aside from my lack of humor, I’ve been busy with Thanksgiving and work, but I wanted to give a quick update with a few notables. (This may end up being my December update, if I’m too busy/lazy to actually post one).

  • The blog has gone through yet another re-design (as in I clicked the change theme button – and it was hard work), partially because I wanted to create a banner at the top – so check out the main page: www.geoffwhaley.com.
  • I started a photoblog: The Journal of the Movement of the World. It was inspired by all the 365 Photo a Day challenges, plus the title comes from another book! I’m probably most excited about the archives page because of the collective look at all the photos over time. [Update 01.27.12 – temporarily suspended until I can actually put some time into it. More than one blog was overwhelming.]
  • Last week I attended the Somerville Public Library book group Books into Movies and it was interesting. We read Friday Night Lights and I’ll have a review posted by Wednesday at the latest. (I haven’t quite finished reading it yet.) Next month is Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which I’m excited about re-reading especially before the Hollywood version of the film comes out.
  • I splurged on books again this past Saturday, but don’t feel too guilty as I was supporting a local business on Small Business Saturday. I’ll have that list in the December monthly update.

And to close this brief interlude of your day, my friend Alie (not a blogger yet) went on a trip to Italy over Thanksgiving and brought back this awesome photo to the left. It is of the Italian promotional sign for Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance. I particularly like the other book signs in the back which show it’s definitely not in an English-speaking country, in case you missed the yellow strip across the top.

I love seeing international covers and foreign language editions of novels I’ve read. I actually have versions of Harry Potter in French and Spanish as well as complete British and American collections of the seven novels and the Tales of Beedle the Bard. At one point I had a British copy of one of the Dan Brown novels because I was stuck in the airport long enough to need a new book, but no idea where that went.

Updates

November 2011 Update

Geoff W

Better late than never…or something along those lines.

I waited to post November’s update as I knew I would surpass my 50-book goal for 2011! You can read about book 50 here, but it was only posted yesterday so hopefully you read it.

Now this isn’t a huge to-do as I usually read more books than this (and technically have read 51 already), but I actually kept up with posting about each book which is MAJOR for me. I found the accompanying image on socialdino.com – but it’s made me think I should try and create a line of similar photos for when I pass the various milestones in a year. Oh the numerous ideas I’m always coming up with…

What a crazy month, so not only did I pass my 50 book goal for the year, but I apparently finished 10 books since the October update. I didn’t do it last month, but the nifty pages read stat graphic from Goodreads is here:

That’s a lot of pages. More so than I reported on Goodreads last year (2010 total was 16,975 pages). Next year should be a bit more interesting as I’ve joined two challenges and I’ll build a page for them later, but for now you can see the Mount TBR Challenge and the Back to the Classics Challenge by clicking the links.

Click here to continue reading.

Updates

October 2011 Update

Geoff W

When I started these monthly updates a few months ago I told myself I would try to get them posted by the end of the first full week in a month. That clearly isn’t going to be the case. I’ve truly struggled this past month reading wise. I’ve spent almost 20 days reading the same novel/memoir and I’ve spent a lot of time playing Minecraft (check it out if you don’t know what I’m talking about).

I’m not sure if Waiting for Snow in Havana just wasn’t what I wanted to read now, or if Eire said something to really irk me while reading the novel, but it has been a struggle to finish. I did finish it and will have the review up tomorrow. I’m glad to report The Namesake is such a beautifully written and simple book that I’m flying through it and will probably have a review for next week, as well as my annual review of the Boston Book Festival!

I’m very excited for the Festival this weekend – I just ordered the original book festival poster from 2009. I wanted one and a bag from the first year but couldn’t afford it as I was still a VISTA. I was able to get a poster, but the bags sold out this time last year. I’ve already sorted out the workshops I’m going to and am only letting myself take $40 to spend on books (aka one grab bag if the same vendor is there this year, and a random book to get signed if I’m inspired by a panel). It’s dangerous that it falls on payday weekend.

And as no blog post is complete without pictures, check out the library and light house I’ve built in Minecraft. (It’s the local public library – as no town is complete without one!) I’m working on a University sized library on a hidden island elsewhere in my world and I’ll post pictures of it when it’s completed!

Updates

September 2011 Update

Geoff W

I have no idea where August, went, but we are entering the second week of September and I’m not ready to say goodbye to summer. Although I love fall, and winter is my all time favorite season, there’s just something sad about saying goodbye to summer. Perhaps this is a remainder of the many years I spent working at summer camps, or the time I now get to spend on an island during the summer, but it’s just sad to see it go. But on with the update!

On the blog front, I’ve started making a few minor changes. I’ve finally completed the About Me section with a section about Me and a section about The Oddness of Moving Things. I also purchased a domain (my first!) so if you visit the blog it’s now geoffwhaley.com instead of geoffwhaley.com! And if you actually read the blog on the site rather than a reader or subscription you’ll notice when I’ve finished a book because of the currently reading section at the top of the right column (thanks to Rob at 101 Books for having the idea first).

Over the past few weeks I’d made a real dent in reading the books I’ve collected over the past two years, but have now completely nullified that progress by stockpiling books for the upcoming fall/winter from various sources. Check them out below, neatly categorized into three sections, and the very last thing is an update on the cool Goodreads graphic found last month.
Click here to continue reading.