Tag: Books

Updates

Lunch Break Interlude II

Geoff W

So it never fails that as soon as I post an update about what I’ve been up-to I realize there’s more to add! I could do a weekly recap or even stick to a monthly update – but I know I won’t.* Instead you get these random clumps of posts which are sort of like my personality – intense one minute and completely withdrawn the next. If you’re interested in my internal dialogue read the end of this post – if not just read the next two paragraphs 😀

I mentioned this in the April Update, but two weekends ago Tom and I took his nieces and met my sister to paint pottery.  Well, we were able to pick up our pottery this past weekend and the picture is to the left! 1) It’s a picture using Instagram on my new iPhone I got that weekend; and 2) it’s inspired by UNC – if you can’t tell from the colors. We went up for another reason, but I have to wait to post that picture.

We again stopped by the Used Book Superstore as they were having another great sale!(40% off all used books – and 50% if you used your own bag or didn’t need a bag.) I was very good and made a list of books to look for and only purchased three.  Michael Blakes’ Dances with Wolves for May Book Group and George Orwell’s 1984 and Aristophanes’ Lysistrata and Other Plays for my Back to the Classics and The Classics Club Challenges.

Other than that – I’ve just been chugging along.  I’m most of the way through Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn and am debating on what to read next. I really want to re-read The Hunger Games and Harry Potter, but think I might save those for summer reading by the lake.

Click here to read my aside…

Updates

April 2012 Update

Geoff W

It has been a very long month, but it has gone by fairly fast.  From a reading perspective I’m definitely glad I was so far ahead at the end of March as I haven’t had much leisure time this month.  I have managed to get most of the way through Gone With the Wind and plan on having a review up by Monday at the latest, but it has definitely been a trek.  I also have to read First Blood by David Morrell for our Books into Movies book group and watch the film by this coming Monday.  All I know about the book is that it introduced Rambo to the world.

Last week at work we kicked off the season with our annual gala. It was definitely a success, but the coolest part, at least concerning this book blog, was that Scholastic Book Clubs, one of our sponsors, provided copies of The Hunger Games trilogy for every guest!  Although it was a bit of a pain unpacking all 525 copies and getting them into our swag bags – it was totally worth it.  It was funny to see our student volunteers and our adult guests get so excited over a set of books and many tried to sneak out multiple copies!  On a side note, the books actually weighed a ton – the shipping document said 2080 lbs!

On the book buying front, I broke my spell of no-book buying except for book group if I couldn’t get it from the library (which is pretty good – lasting 4+ months).  I purchased copies of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for Tom to read (he hasn’t read a single one – he says he has plans to read them this summer, but for shame…), The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (for book group in June or July) and a copy of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society as I’d seen it everywhere and loved the sound of the title and the basic premise is intriguing – plus it was only $1.00 with my coupon.

Random

Birth of a Book – The Lost Art of Book Binding

Geoff W

I rarely post two posts in a day, but I’m out-of-town tomorrow and away from my computer for a few days and really wanted to share this! I found this through a blog I regularly read (Towleroad) and I thought it was a beautiful reminder of what goes into making a book and the entire industry that’s still out there even with the awesome new industry of ebooks.

(Hopefully the embedding works and it’s not just a link – but if it is just the link follow it – you won’t be disappointed.)

2012 Challenges

Mount TBR: Climbing Mt. Vancouver (Checkpoint 1)

Geoff W

Bev of My Reader’s Block has called for the first check in of the 2012 Mount TBR (To Be Read) Reading Challenge and I’m quite pleased with my progress so far.  For this challenge I have read 10 of 25 books which is 40%!

Overall on my reading challenges I’m 15 of 30 books which is 47%.  I may end up taking some time off to just enjoy reading other books over the next few weeks knowing I don’t have to push myself so hard to stay on pace for my challenges.

So far my favorite book of the challenge is Murder on the Orient Express. It was incredibly enjoyable and fun, and I really liked Agatha Christie’s writing style.   A Game of Thrones and the other novels were definitely up there as well!  My least favorite (by far) was Two Serious Ladies. I’m most looking forward to the Brontë novels (especially Anne as I haven’t read anything by her), but we’ll see once I get to them! You can see my list here and check out the responses to the novels I’ve already read.

ARC, Random

My First Advance Reader’s Copy

Geoff W

The (not very exciting) Back Story
A little over a month ago someone filled out my Recommend a Book form.  I didn’t think anything of it as mostly the recommendations I get are from Tom and Alie telling me to read the Twilight series, or my own entries reminding me of titles I want to look into.

However, this time I was wrong.  I’d received a REAL book recommendation and not just any book recommendation, but an offer of an Advance Reader’s Copy.  Not knowing 100% what this meant I scoured my brain because I’d read mention of them on a blog before and I was correct.  Thanks to Bev and her review policy over at My Reader’s Block, I was able to figure out a few things (with her kind help answering some random questions by email), I decided to go for it.  So I contacted Christine at Henry Holt and Company and within two weeks my very first Advance Reader’s Copy of a novel arrived in my mailbox.

I believe Christine recommended the book, The Land of Decoration by Grace McCleen*, because of my multiple Emma Donoghue reviews; and since the book received a cover quote from Emma Donoghue and had a child narrator and reminded me of a cross between Roddy Doyle’s Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha and Zaddie Smith’s White Teeth, I thought why not give it a go (there were also mentions of similarities to Jeanette Winterson’s Oranges are not the Only Fruit). I will post my review of the novel tomorrow afternoon and get to these comparisons and my thoughts.

Click here to continue reading.