Book Blogger Hop: September 13-19, 2013

Book Blogger Hop: September 13-19, 2013

Are you in a book club? How does your book club choose books? How far in advance do you choose?

I wish I was in a face to face book club, but I can't seem to find one in my area.  The best I can do is online group reads on Goodreads.  My last real book club was back in 2009, I really miss it.  Ironically, the area I live in uses the slogan "A City of Readers" to promote literacy in our area, but then I can't seem to find anyone to participate in a book club.  I don't think the slogan is working for them.

Are you in a face to face book club?  Let us know here at The Things You Can Read! Thanks, as always, to Coffee Addicted Writer for hosting Book Blogger Hop! 

Happy reading to all! ☮  

Happy Hopping and Reading!☮  

The Things You Can Read

Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of Books!

Book Blogger Hop: September 6-12, 2013

Book Blogger Hop: September 6-12, 2013

What got you started as a blogger? Everyone has a story/reason, what's yours?

I wanted a place to document by personal reading journey, other than Goodreads (which I love and use), and I wanted this place to also help me with my teaching, thus The Things You Can Read was born on June 7, 2012.  I use it everyday teaching the novel The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, and I try to add other items that I use every year like Elements of Fiction, Drama, etc.  I know that I am not the only person benefiting from having this information out there in the blogosphere because one of the biggest hits for my blog comes from Teaching The Outsiders Page.     

Why did you start blogging?  Let us know here at The Things You Can Read! Thanks, as always, to Coffee Addicted Writer for hosting Book Blogger Hop! 

Happy reading to all! ☮  

Happy Hopping and Reading!☮  

The Things You Can Read

Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of Books!

Book Blogger Hop: August 30-September 5, 2013

Book Blogger Hop: August 30-September 5, 2013

Have you ever ended up reading a book with its last or last few pages missing? What book was it? And how did you managed to get to the end?

In all the years I have been reading, I have never had an issue with missing pages anywhere in a book.  If this did happen to me, I would check for a copy of the book in my library or if it was the first few pages, I would go to Amazon and send myself the SAMPLE of the Kindle version of the  book, which is always the beginning of the book.

How would you handle this situation?  Let us know here at The Things You Can Read! Thanks, as always, to Coffee Addicted Writer for hosting Book Blogger Hop! 

Happy reading to all! ☮  

Happy Hopping and Reading!☮  

The Things You Can Read

Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of Books!

Book Blogger Hop: August 23-29, 2013

Book Blogger Hop: August 23-29, 2013

Book blogging is more than just reading. Who helped you set up or run your blog? Or did you do it all yourself?

I created my blog all by myself.  Yeah, ME!  I spent the summer break of 2012 creating The Things You Can Read.  I spent hours visiting book blogs all over the blogosphere to learn what others had created before me.  I kept tweaking my blog until I was pleased with the look and feel of my blog.  Sometimes I'd ask someone a question, if I saw something on their blog that I really liked,  but didn't know how to make it work on my blog.  But for the most part it has been trial and error, and The Things You Can Read is run by just one person, ME. However, I'd love to have someone guest write a post.  If you are interested let me know!

Thanks to Coffee Addicted Writer for hosting Book Blogger Hop! How would you answer this one? Let us know your thoughts here at The Things You Can Read.

Happy reading to all! ☮  

Happy Hopping and Reading!☮  

The Things You Can Read

Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of Books!

Book Blogger Hop: August 16-22, 2013

Book Blogger Hop: August 16-22, 2013

Were you a born bookworm or did somebody get you into the habit of reading?

My mother is responsible for making me the reader that I am today.  She took me to the library when I was a child, and she read to me at night.  I have wonderful memories associated with reading with my mother.  She also made sure to enroll me in the Scholastic Books Summer Reading Program, which sent a book each week in the mail over the summer break.  Now that I am a mother, I, in turn, am trying to do the same for my children.  Thank you Mom!  I'll add many times in my life, books have been better friends than real people.

Thanks to  Coffee Addicted Writer for hosting Book Blogger Hop!  How would you answer this one?  Let us know your thoughts here at The Things You Can Read.

Happy reading to all! ☮  

Happy Hopping and Reading!☮  

The Things You Can Read

Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of Books!

Book Blogger Hop: August 2-8, 2013

Book Blogger Hop: August 2-8, 2013
 

August 2nd - 8th: How do you turn down a review request?

Saying NO is like having a monkey on your back.  I'll admit that I have never been good at saying NO, but with extremely limited time, and so many ARCs in my TBR pile, I can no longer say YES to every person who asks for a review.  Right now, I am reading only ARCs that I have asked publishers for or books that I have either purchased or already own.  TIME is a limited resource, and I let folks know that if time were unlimited, I'd certainly say YES.  I hope that this is a nice enough way to say NO.  It's one way to get the monkey off your back!  

Thanks to  Coffee Addicted Writer for hosting Book Blogger Hop!

Happy reading to all! ☮  

Happy Hopping and Reading!☮  
The Things You Can Read

Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of Books!

Book Blogger Hop: July 26-August 1, 2013



Book Blogger Hop: July 26-August 1, 2013



 

How do you organize your books to be read?

 

I keep a master list on Goodreads in my Want to Read section. I also keep a list of ARCs and Amazon Samples of books I want to try on my Kindle. I also have a disorganized physical book library of sorts that has never recovered from my move, which I am ashamed to say was three years-ago, so I have no excurse except that I've had three children since I've moved, and organizing books keeps moving down the list, right after changing diapers and cleaning up Legos-BELIEVE me when I tell you, YOU don't want to step on Legos, nor smell stinky diapers.

How do you organize your books to be read?  Let us know here at The Things You Can Read! 
 

 

Thanks to  Coffee Addicted Writer for hosting Book Blogger Hop!

Happy reading to all! ☮  

Happy Hopping and Reading!☮  
The Things You Can Read

Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of Books!

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge: Day 14

 

Day 14:  Describe one underappreciated book EVERYONE should read. 

Okay, you may have noticed, I got day 13 and 14 backwards...oh well...I don't know if I know of an underappreciated book EVERYONE should read, but I AM reading a book that according to some very big literary gurus, like novelist Ian McEwan, it is a novel that should not be looked over, in fact, they are praising it up and down. What novel is causing such a commotion? The novel is Stoner by John Edward Williams, which was published in 1965. Some of these literary giants have gone so far as to say it is one of the great novels of the century.

A little-known book called Stoner has caught the imagination of readers and writers alike. Written by American writer John Williams, it was first published in 1965, and is now being hailed as one of the great novels of the century. Author Ian McEwan explains the book's appeal to the Today programme's Sarah Montague on the BBC. He said: "As soon as you start reading it you feel you're in very, very good hands. It's a very authoritative prose. The story, just to list its elements make it sound rather dull, and a little too sad, but in fact a small life out of which John Williams makes a very, very beautiful novel. "It is the most extraordinary discovery for us readers." BBC

 

Happy reading to all! ☮ 

Additional Resources:

Day 1 and 2 of Challenge

Day 3 of Challenge

Day 4 of Challenge

Day 5 of Challenge

Day 6 of Challenge

Day 7 of Challenge

Day 8 of Challenge

Day 9 of Challenge

Day 10 of Challenge
 
Day 11, 12 & 13 of Challenge
 

How would you answer any of these questions?  Let us know here at The Things You Can Read!

Happy Reading

The Things You Can Read!

Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of Books!

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge: Day 11, 12 & 13

 

Day 11:  Show off five of your best blog post. 

Here are links to five posts I'd like to showcase:

Active Readers

Hunger Games Review?

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald Review

The Rosie Project

Psychopath Test Review

Extra Show offs:

The Book of Secrets

Maryand Lou and Rhoda and Ted


DAY 12

How do I fight blogger fatigue?

I just keep reading.  Eventually, I'll want to write about something, whether it is a review or something interesting I've found related to the book world.

Day 13

Tell us your deal breakers.

I'm still thinking on this one.  I try to be open minded about the blogging world.  I know I'm not interested in reading erotica type blogs or books (no judging here...it just not for me).  It would simply be a waste of my time, since I don't read in that genre...its not my thing, so I guess that would be a deal breaker for me.

Happy reading to all! ☮ 

Additional Resources:

Day 1 and 2 of Challenge

Day 3 of Challenge

Day 4 of Challenge

Day 5 of Challenge

Day 6 of Challenge

Day 7 of Challenge

Day 8 of Challenge

Day 9 of Challenge

Day 10 of Challenge
 

How would you answer any of these questions?  Let us know here at The Things You Can Read!

Happy Reading

The Things You Can Read!

Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of Books!

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge: Day 10

 

Day 10:  How do you choose what book to read next? 

How do I choose what book to read next?  Well, it used to be a lot easier before I started to blog, but now it is often influenced by the ARCs (Advanced Reader Copy) I have been given from various publishers.  I try and read one ARC a week, since my ARC list is really starting to grow, so this list is the first "go to" spot, in order to make a new "what to read" book selection. 

The next list I peruse is my Samples list.  The samples are from Amazon, and they vary in length depending on how much the author or publisher wanted to share with a potential purchaser.  These books tend to be books I just heard about or could not, for whatever reason, obtain an ARC of the full book.  Sometimes I might read these simultaneously while having already started another book.  

After that comes library Ebooks, which I either have already checked out or the book is on my list to be checked out.  I only check out Kindle books because they return themselves without a trip to the library.  I have trouble enough remembering due dates for the humongous number of children's books we check out (not to mention the children's videos).

Then comes the physical books I already own.  However, I have a terrible time with physical books because my son loves to look at books, and he is very physical with them.  In other words, he destroys them, which is why I moved to reading on an Ereader.  Let me give you an example.  I purchased Joyland by Stephen King, I had to purchase the book because Stephen King decided not to release it in Ereader form.  You can only read a hardcopy, so I bought it.  I planned on starting it the other night, but didn't, so I hid the book in the sideboard railing of my bed, and now this morning, I found it all bent up on the floor.  I can't believe he found it, but he did.  Now, my brand new books doesn't look so new anymore, which again is why I use an Ereader.

Well, I'm sure I've left something out in my quest to get this post up and running , but I do recognize the ARCs jump to the top of my TBR pile, but I'm not complaining because I am very lucky that so many publishers are trusting me with an ARC to review.  THANK YOU PUBLISHERS...wherever you are!

Happy reading to all! ☮ 

Additional Resources:

Day 1 and 2 of Challenge

Day 3 of Challenge

Day 4 of Challenge

Day 5 of Challenge

Day 6 of Challenge

Day 7 of Challenge

Day 8 of Challenge

Day 9 of Challenge

 

How would you answer this one?  Let us know here at The Things You Can Read!

Happy Reading

The Things You Can Read!

Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of Books!

Book Blogger Hop: Question of the Week July 12-18, 2013

 

How long have you been blogging?

 

The Things You Can Read was born on June 7, 2012, so I've been blogging regularly a smidge over a year, thirteen months to be exact.  I started the blog for many reason, but in the process, I've learned a great deal about myself.  Blogging has also made my reading more meaningful to me personally, and I hope more powerful because I can advocate for some of the great books I read to a much larger audience.  Neither of these two things were why I started blogging originally, but were both side-effects, if you will, of starting The Things You Can Read.  I have become a bit obsessive over my blog and treat it very, very seriously.  Now, if I could only make blogging  my real money-making job, I'd be a very happy person.

If you blog, how long have you been blogging?  If you don't blog, why not?  Let us know here at The Things You Can Read! 

Happy Hopping and Reading!
The Things You Can Read

Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of Books!

Book Blogger Hop: Question of the Week July 5-11, 2013

 

Do you like or dislike Rafflecopter and why?

 

I have never used the Rafflecopter, and don't plan to in the foreseeable future.  I don't have a Facebook account or a Twitter account, so all the options Rafflecopter has for entries don't really apply.  I keep it simple by using randomgenerator.org for any type of selection.

How would you answer this one?  Let us know here at The Things You Can Read! 

Happy Hopping and Reading!
The Things You Can Read

Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of Books!