A Girl Walks Into a Bookstore...

Do you plan on participating in any reading challenges in 2011? Are you planning on hosting any reading challenges? Perhaps you'd like to share an idea for a reading challenge--to see if there is any interest! Share with us which challenges look tempting to you! (You don't have to "officially" join any of the challenges for this weekly geek. Just let us know which ones you'd be most interested in.) You might want to spend some time browsing A Novel Challenge . Are there any challenges you are looking forward to that haven't been announced yet? Regardless of your challenge plans, are you starting to plan ahead for next year? Do you make lists or goals? Are you a person who enjoys reading more if it is structured? Or are you all about being free to read what you want, when you want? I hadn’t started thinking about challenges for 2011, but I’ve participated in some in the past and found them to be fun. One of my favorites for 2009 was the Pub Challenge...

I spent our snow day at home with my mom; we were basically trapped all weekend, until out snow-blow guy came and got us out this morning. Not a terrible lot of stuff got read, though I did finish The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters last night, and I read about 300 pages in A Hollow Crown over the weekend. On the flip side, though, I did get a number of reviews written, and I participated in Weekly Geeks, where I talked about Helen Hollick . This week I also read Someone at a Distance , by Dorothy Whipple; The Unquiet Bones , by Melvin Starr; and Brigid of Kildare , by Heather Terrell (coming out on Tuesday; reviews of all to follow). Did you hear about the Amtrak train which got stuck in rural Pennsylvania over the weekend ? At least the people onboard had things to read! My mom and I have been watching on DVD the BBC miniseries Cranford , based on the Elizabeth Gaskell book. Both of us loved it so much I went and bought a copy of the novel. Cranford is the story of a small, ...

For Weekly Geeks this week, I would like to revisit one of my favorites from the past. This particular geeky assignment was posted by Dewey back in November of 2008, just weeks before she died. Here's what she posted then: This week’s theme is: fun facts about authors. How to: 1. Choose a writer you like. 2. Using resources such as Wikipedia, the author’s website, whatever you can find, make a list of interesting facts about the author. 3. Post your fun facts list in your blog, maybe with a photo of the writer, a collage of his or her books, whatever you want. 4. Come sign the Mr Linky below with the url to your fun facts post. 5. As you run into (or deliberately seek out) other Weekly Geeks’ lists, add links to your post for authors you like or authors you think your readers are interested in. As you can see, the task is simple this week! Of course, if you did this one before, pick a different author to write about. If you are like me , and can't choose just one, go ahead and...

For this week's Weekly Geeks , share with us the books which call out to you during the cold, wintry months. Are there genres which appeal to you most? Why do you think you are drawn to these types of books during winter? Do you have some book recommendations for other readers who are looking for some escape from the blustery weather? Give us some of your favorites and tell us why you recommend them. As "extra credit" why not share some photos of what the weather looks like outside your home...or where you curl up to read when 'the weather outside is frightening.' Seasonal reading: what a great topic! Especially since it’s 18 degrees F here in southeastern Pennsylvania. I frequently gravitate towards chunksters in the winter; a great read towards this end is Sharon Kay Penman’s The Sunne in Splendour , or MM Kaye’s The Far Pavilions . I also recommend anything by Dorothy Whipple as a good winter read by the fire. I also tend to go for books with a darker theme, s...

Lots of questions on this week's post -- feel free to answer any or all! Do you have a book wish list for the holidays? (Or is that one of those 'duh' questions?) If so, what's on it? Are you very specific when someone asks what you want for a gift? Or do you throw caution to the wind and say, "Oh any book you choose...." Or do you prefer a bookstore gift card? Do you buy books for people on your gift list? Do you choose books for them that you like and try to influence their reading (or hope they'll loan it to you when they're done)? Or do you get specific titles from your giftee? Where do you buy your book gifts? Do you shop at local independent bookstores, or the "big box" stores? or do you shop online? I have an eternal “TBR” list going on at LibraryThing, so really any book on that list that I don’t already own is a welcome gift! I’ve suggested as a gift from my mom a Persephone subscription for Christmas (where they send you one book...

The Weekly Geeks post Here were some of my favorite reads from this year, alphabetically: 1. Sacred Hearts , by Sarah Dunant (historical fiction) 2. The Glassblower of Murano , by Marina Fiorato (historical fiction) 3. The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte , by Syrie James (historical fiction) 4. The Lacuna , by Barbara Kingsolver (historical fiction) 5. Wolf Hall , by Hilary Martin (historical fiction) 6. Cleopatra’s Daughter , by Michelle Moran (historical fiction) 7. Her Fearful Symmetry , by Audrey Niffenegger (contemporary fiction) 8. The Street Philosopher , by Matthew Plampin (historical fiction; not out in the US—at least, yet) 9. Bleeding Heart Square , by Andrew Taylor (historical fiction) 10. The Angel’s Game , by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (historical fiction) There are a lot more, but these were the most memorable.

I don’t participate in Weekly Geeks a whole lot, but I knew I had to answer this question when it came up. I often go to LibraryThing for recommendations, but sometimes I get some from other book bloggers. I’m afraid I don’t get much out of my comfort zone, which is historical fiction, but I do enjoy other genres periodically. As for new-to-me authors, I often read them quite frequently. And I take many chances with my reading, especially if the setting or plot interests me. The other part of the assignment is to ask my readers for recommendations. It’s not as though I need a lot of book recommendations (I’ve got 169 books tagged as “TBR” on LibraryThing), but I’m always looking for new stuff to read. As I’ve mentioned before, historical fiction is truly my thing. I read heavily in the late medieval and Victorian periods; but I don’t have much ancient Roman, Greek, or early medieval history (pre-11th century) represented. I’ve read Michelle Moran’s books, Donna Woolfolk Cross’s Pope J...

Here’s my answer to this week’s Weekly Geeks Question, which can be found here . I have a couple of favorite movie/TV (I’m expanding this theme a bit) adaptations. First is the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. I originally bought this in 2002, and I’ve gone through two more copies of the DVD since then (including the 10th anniversary one with that gorgeous green box. There’s just something really comforting about watching that adaptation of Pride and Prejudice ; it’s done so well, and it really stays true to the book (granted, some things are changed, but the spirit of the book is still there). Another favorite film adaptation of a book is 84, Charing Cross Road , with Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins. Really good acting combined with a great story; it, too, stays close to the intent of the original book. I do also love Bridget Jones's Diary , which is cute and charming and very funny (sense a Colin Firth theme going here?).

This week's Weekly Geeks asks you to tell us about your globe trotting via books. Are you a global reader? How many countries have you "visited" in your reading? What are your favorite places or cultures to read about? Can you recommend particularly good books about certain regions, countries or continents? How do you find out about books from other countries? What countries would you like to read that you haven't yet?Use your own criteria about what you consider to be "visiting" -- whether a book is written about the country or by a native or resident of the country.For fun, create one of these maps at this website ticking off the countries you've read books from - you might be surprised how many (or how few!) countries you've read. Include the map in your blog post if you're so inclined. I haven’t participated in Weekly Geeks in a long time, but when I saw theme theme this week, I just had to jump in. Here are some countries I’ve traveled to i...

In the third Weekly Geeks of 2009, let's have fun with the classics. For our purposes, I'm defining a classic as anything written over 100 years ago and still in print. (If your memory needs jogging, see: Classic Literature Library for examples.) For your assignment this week, choose two or more of the following questions: 1) How do you feel about classic literature? Are you intimidated by it? Love it? Not sure because you never actually tried it? Don't get why anyone reads anything else? Which classics, if any, have you truly loved? Which would you recommend for someone who has very little experience reading older books? Go all out, sell us on it! I feel as though “classic literature” is a very broad category, encompassing pretty much everything: romance, history, mystery, etc. Personally, I think highly of classic literature, though there are of course the books I don’t like and the books I don’t “get” (Joyce's Dubliners and pretty much anything by Steinbeck, for exam...

The rules are : 1. Choose a writer you like. 2. Using resources such as Wikipedia, the author’s website, whatever you can find, make a list of interesting facts about the author. 3. Post your fun facts list in your blog, maybe with a photo of the writer, a collage of his or her books, whatever you want. 4. Come sign the Mr Linky below with the url to your fun facts post. 5. As you run into (or deliberately seek out) other Weekly Geeks’ lists, add links to your post for authors you like or authors you think your readers are interested in. I recently finished reading Victoria Holt’s Mistress of Mellyn , so I thought I might talk about her for this week’s Weekly Geeks. The following information comes from Wikipedia. Holt was born Eleanor Alice Burford in London in 1906, and married George Percival Hibbert, a leather merchant, when she was in her twenties. Hibbert wrote most of her 200-plus novels under about seven or eight pen names, the most common of which was Jean Plaidy, for her histo...

Here's more about this week's WG . I did something like this back in June , but it wasn't very succesful. Here are my answers: 1. Moby Dick 2. Pride and Prejudice 4. One Hundred Years of Solitude 5. Lolita 6. Anna Karenina 8. 1984 9. A Tale of Two Cities 10. Invisible Man 11. Miss Lonelyhearts 12. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 16. The Catcher in the Rye 20. David Copperfield 27. Don Quijote 37. Mrs. Dalloway 38. Slaughterhouse Five 44. The Eyes Were Watching God 48. The Old Man and the Sea 50. Middlesex 51. Elmer Gantry 53. Fahrenheit 451 56. Robinson Crusoe 58. Middlemarch 65. The Color Purple 67. The Bell Jar 78. The Go-Between 87. I, Claudius

Here are the rules: 1. Compile your list of favorites. Please be sure that books you choose actually were published in 2008, or at the very earliest in the winter holiday season of 2007. Sometimes books that come out then are left out. 2. Come back and sign Mr Linky with the url to your top books of 2008 post. 3. If you happen to see any non-WG bloggers making similar lists, please grab the url and come put it in Mr Linky for them. Let them know you’re doing that, please, in case they have some sort of objection; if they do, they can ask me to remove their link. I’ve already seen a couple favorites of 2008 posts, which is another reason I wanted to get started early. 4. Feel free to make changes to your list if you read something new in the next few weeks. After about October 25, I can’t guarantee your changes will be reflected in the master list. We’ll probably start compiling lists around then. 5. Please consider whether you’d like to help me compile lists. So here's my list (in ...

The rules for this week: 1. In your blog, list any books you’ve read but haven’t reviewed yet. If you’re all caught up on reviews, maybe you could try this with whatever book(s) you finish this week. 2. Ask your readers to ask you questions about any of the books they want. In your comments, not in their blogs. Most likely, people who will ask you questions will be people who have read one of the books or know something about it because they want to read it. 3. Later, take whichever questions you like from your comments and use them in a post about each book. I’ll probably turn mine into a sort of interview-review. Link to each blogger next to that blogger’s question(s). 4. Visit other Weekly Geeks and ask them some questions! Books I've read but haven't reviewed: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by Anne Bronte The Girls of Slender Means, by Muriel Spark The Sister, by Poppy Adams The Black Tower, by Louis Bayard (this is an ARC, so don't feel bad if you've never heard of ...

I haven't participated in Weekly Geeks for a while, but considering I just bought my very first digital camera, I couldn't resist this week's WG. So here are my photos: The top photo is a picture of my bookshelves. I arrange everything alpabetically, with nonfiction being on the top row and fiction on the lower rows. If you look closely enough, you'll notice that my taste tends to run to historical fiction, chick lit, and British authors. In nonfiction, I love history. Some of the most common authors on my bookshelves include: Jane Austen, Sophie Kinsella, Anya Seton, Philippa Gregory, Laurie Notaro, and Jen Lancaster. The bottom photo is another TBR pile . Yesterday, I braved the Brooklyn heat and went to an indie bookstore near Atlantic Avenue called Brooklyn Book Court. This is my haul from there. From the top down: Victor Hugo's Les Miserables (uh-oh; what have I gotten into?); JD Salinger's Franny and Zooey ; Christine Falls , by Benjamin Black ( a murder...

The WG challenge for this week is to talk about fond memories of childhood books. Oh, my goodness. Where do I begin? I had to go back to my books on Shelfari.com to see what my favorites were—though pretty much everything is a favorite, to be honest. I have to say that I was a huge fan of series books—the Babysitter’s Club, Cam Jansen, Little House on the Prairie, A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, the Harriet the Spy books, Little Women, anything by Zilpha Keating Snyder (especially The Egypt Game), Judy Blume’s books, Enid Blyton, the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary, Roald Dahl, Eleanor Estes’s The Hundred Dresses, the Nancy Drew series, the Bobbsey Twins, Madeleine L’Engle, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, Anne of Green Gables, A Cricket in Times Square, E. Nesbit, The Borrowers, The Westing Game, the Boxcar Kids, Ann Rinaldi’s books, Sideways Stories From Wayside School, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Noel Streatfield’s Dancing Shoes series...

As explained in detail here , the WG challenge for this week is to see what other WG-ers are reviewing; and if you’ve reviewed a book that someone else has, to put a link to it in your blog. I’ll use this post as a place to list links to reviews., and I'll also place those links in the reviews themselves. With my reviews, please leave a link to your reviews in the comments section. The easiest way to find reviews that I've written is to click on one of the tags listed on the sidebar. Foreign Circus Library, Lord Peter Wimsey Series Maw Books, Shannon Hale’s Austenland The Bookworm: The Secret Scroll, by Ronald Cutler My Own Little Reading Room: A Passage to India, by EM Forster Random Field Notes: A Passage to India So Many Book Reviews: Bitter is the New Black, by Jen Lancaster A Striped Armchair: The House at Riverton, by Kate Morton Savvy Verse and Wit: Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella

Over at The Hidden Side of a Leaf , the week’s challenge is to discover new blogs. Here are nine that have caught my attention. Trish's Reading Nook So Many Precious Books, So Little Time Book Club Classics Kay Valentina’s Room Passion For the Page Em's Bookshelf So Many Books, So Little Time Some Reads