Tag: Reading

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.

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Updates

March 2012 Update

Geoff W

Found at http://socialsistersblog.wordpress.com/2012/01/12/blog-update/It has been some time since I last did a monthly update and I guess that’s because I didn’t have much to share.  I’ve been reading books and working and that’s about all I’ve done over the past few months so there wasn’t much to say other than my reviews, so on to the various updates!

The Oddness of Moving Things
Last month was my most successful month ever! It’s not a lot compared to some of the sites out there, but I had over 1100 unique views in the month and I was excited.  I remember when I started and I was getting 75-100 views each month!  So THANK YOU, everyone who reads and comments and for all the other wonderful book blogs out there who inspire me to change things on here, read different books and interact with the awesome book blogging community!

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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?!?

Books

Tea & Books Reading Challenge 2012

Geoff W

I clearly should not have even looked at the first two challenges I did, because I have found another. Thankfully all three help to clear my to-be-read list and bookshelves. This challenge I found through Grace at Books Without Any Pictures.

This challenge, the Tea & Books Reading Challenge, is hosted by Birgit at The Book Garden. The challenge idea comes from C.S. Lewis’ quote “You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”

I am participating at the Earl Grey Aficionado level (six books) even though I’ve already have eight titles I could easily (and probably will) read.

The rules are fairly simple and straight forward, but they are below:

  • The challenge will take place between January 1st and December 31st 2012.
  • You can join any time between now and early 2012.
  • You have to pick a level, though you may “upgrade” to the next one at any time. In this case just drop me a line, so I can change your previous level.
  • You don’t need to list your books ahead of time, though I won’t object if you do. I’m definitely curious about your book choices for these challenges.
  • The books you choose may crossover into other challenges.
  • Both physical and eBooks are allowed, though personally I feel that especially the Tea & Books Reading Challenge is more fun with real books.
  • Reviews of the books read are not mandatory.

You can read the full rules and see who else is participating by clicking the blog link in the picture. The books I’ve decided to read are listed on my 2012 Challenges page.

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.

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