- Commenting - Last year, I set myself a goal of commenting on at least 5 blogs a week. That has done wonders for helping me stay connected with what is going on in the blogging world.
- Twitter & Facebook - I joined Twitter back in October, and just recently created a Facebook page for Smiling Shelves (links to these can be found in my sidebar). I don't post frequently on either of these platforms (yet), but I really enjoy reading what everyone else posts about!
- Read-a-thons - This is one of my absolute favorite parts about book blogging. I love reading, and I love the thought of doing extra reading. But add the idea of hundreds of other people reading at the same time and talking about reading? That's awesome!
This awesome week of book blogger goodness is hosted by the Estella Society. Today's prompt has us musing about how we stay connected to the book blogging community. There are a myriad of ways, many of which I'm only just starting to explore!
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It's time for Day Three of Book Blogger Appreciation Week, hosted by the Estella Society! Today's prompt is to tell what I have read and loved because of a fellow blogger. I don't usually keep track of who has recommended what to me, or whose blog I originally saw a book on (so I'm sorry that I can't give anyone a shout out). But these are a few books that I know I never would have picked up if not for all the good things said about them in the blogosphere. - The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer (Cyborgs and fairy tale retellings? Whoever would have thought that this premise would have made for such an amazing series?) - The Royal We by Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan (I am a complete Anglophile, but this one seemed like it would be too bubbly or too angsty. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that it was neither!) - I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai (I picked this up because of Nonfiction November. What a powerful read, and what an amazing person she is.) - The Martian by Andy Weir (It sounded intriguing, but I probably never would have actually read it if not for all the gushing reviews out there.)
- The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (Mysteries are typically not my genre, but everyone seems to love Flavia. Now I know why!) I haven't participated in Book Blogger Appreciation Week before, but it sounds like a lot of fun. It's hosted by the Estella Society, and each day, you're given a prompt to respond to. For Day One, we're supposed to introduce ourselves using five books that represent us or our interests. This may be a little challenging, but here goes. I love listening to, playing, and learning about music.(Okay, it turns out that was fun and not as challenging as I thought. I probably could have come up with more than five!)
I discovered this survey back in August on Sophisticated Dorkiness. It looked like a lot of fun, but I just haven't had a chance to get to it yet. This is finally the time! So here are some of my habits and quirks when it comes to reading: 1. Do you have a certain place at home for reading? I read pretty much everywhere I can, but my favorite place is on my comfy chair upstairs in my library. I bought it for $10 at a garage sale when I moved out of my parents' house, and it's the perfect chair for reading in. (And I named it Harvey. Don't ask me why. I have no explanation.) 3. Can you just stop reading or do you have to stop after a chapter or a certain amount of pages? It's nice to stop at a chapter break, but not essential. The only place I can't stop is on page 99 (or 199 or 299, etc.). I have to read on to page 100. Again, don't ask me why. I can't explain my quirks. 4. Do you eat or drink while reading? Habitually. I read over breakfast every morning. And if I'm up in my comfy chair, I love to sip hot chocolate as I read. 5. Do you watch TV or listen to music while reading? I sometimes listen to music, but only if it doesn't have any words. I don't watch a lot of TV, but I'll definitely pick up my book during commercials (exception: the Superbowl, where I watch the commercials and read during the game!). 6. Do you read one book at a time or several at once? Before this year, I would have proudly claimed the title of book monogamist. For the most part, that's still true. But I'm working my way through War and Peace by reading 15 pages a day, and I'm finding that I actually kind of enjoy having two books going. It also appears to be a great way for me to get through a huge chunkster. So I may be doing more of this two-books-at-a-time thing. 7. Do you prefer to read at home or anywhere? I'll read anywhere I get a chance to! And yes, I often carry a book with me in my purse. 8. Do you read out loud or silently? Silently. I love reading out loud to my fourth graders, but I'm a silent reader for my own purposes. 9. Do you read ahead or skip pages? Nope. In fact, I hate it even when my eyes involuntarily jump to the facing page. I prefer to know what happens in the order that it happens. 10. Do you break the spine or keep it like new? I'll occasionally bend back a paperback to make it easier to hold open when I read. But I don't typically intentionally break spines or try to keep my books like new. If they look like they've been read and loved, I'm okay with that! 11. Do you write in your books?
Not really. I just got a notebook last month for writing down quotes I like from books I'm reading. I'd rather have them all collected in one place, rather than having to hunt them down in the original books. But I have occasionally been known to write notes in the margins of books I know I'll be revisiting. It has been a goal of mine for a very long time to read War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy. I first attempted it in eighth grade, where I somehow thought carrying around that huge volume would impress my classmates. Unsurprisingly, that didn't work, and I pretty quickly gave up on both lugging it around and reading it. My second attempt came in high school, and it was no more successful than the first try. But I want to be able to say I have read War & Peace. So I recently put it on my 31 in 31 list to give me some motivation. That means it has to happen before September. I figured it was a good idea to start now, to give myself plenty of time. I'm planning on reading it little by little so that I can fit in plenty of other reading, too. The copy I have is 1,361 pages long. I am making it my goal to read 15 pages a day (or an average of 105 pages a week). That will let me finish in about three months. I'm posting this so I can have some accountability to help me accomplish this goal. I'll post a weekly update as part of my It's Monday! post. If I'm not keeping on track, please call me on it! Now I just need to open the cover and begin! It's a well-known fact among my family that I'm a bookworm. I typically receive at least one book for Christmas, as well as several Barnes & Noble gift cards. This year, though, my in-laws surprised me with something a little bit different, which my bookish heart delighted in. First, I had to unwrap eleven packages of index cards. . . Now, I'm a teacher, so I use index cards fairly regularly. But eleven packs was a little excessive, I thought. Then came the big box to open, and it all made sense. . . They got me a library card catalog!! The perfect decoration for my library. Although, being the geek that I am, I'm hoping it will be more than just a decoration. My huge collection of books is currently not organized in any way, shape, or form. Now I can change that! I'm so excited!
Another year of reading has come and gone (very quickly, might I add). It's time to look back at the books I read this year with all sorts of geeky statistics. And maybe a pie chart or two, just for fun. Books read: 140 (3 of those were audiobooks) Pages read: 42,910 Fiction: 77% Nonfiction: 23% Male authors: 44% Female authors: 56% Books I owned: 47% Books from the library: 51% Set in the United States: 46% Set in Europe: 39% Set elsewhere in the world: 15% My Top Finds of 2015Favorite fiction book: The Royal We by Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan (also House of Living Stones by Katie Schuermann)
Favorite nonfiction book: Walk the Lines: The London Underground, Overground by Mark Mason Favorite children's/young adult book: The Black Reckoning by John Stephens Favorite series: Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer This blog has been the best way I've found to keep myself on track for resolutions. Every New Year's resolution I've posted on here, I've actually kept! This year, I even accomplished TWO resolutions! So I thought I would celebrate a bit. Commenting on BlogsIn January, I posted about my resolution to comment on at least 5 blogs a week. Commenting is one of those things that is all too easy to let slip through the cracks, and I was tired of forgetting to do it. I successfully kept this resolution, although it would be more accurate to say I commented on average on 5 blogs a week. Some weeks still got forgotten, but I always made it up later. I have loved being a more regular part of the blogging community through commenting, and I plan to keep this resolution up in 2016! Book Buying LimitAt the end of 2014, I realized that I had purchased 120 books that year. That was a lot, and certainly more than I thought I had bought. It worked out to an average of 10 books a month. In 2015, I decided I needed to get things under control a bit. So I set a limit for myself of only buying 5 books a month. That would be a total of 60 books for the year, which would be half of what I bought in 2014. I'm happy to say that I successfully held myself to this limit! Like commenting, it really worked out to an average of 5 books a month - some months I didn't buy any, some months I bought a lot. But as of right now (and granted, there are still a few days to go in the year. . .), I bought only 57 books in 2015 - three to spare! I'm really proud of myself for accomplishing this goal, because I didn't think it was possible. But now that I know I can do it, I can hopefully hold myself to it for another year! (Although I make no promises.) Have you successfully kept any resolutions this year, bookish or otherwise?
Let's celebrate! I found this tag through Bev at My Reader's Block, and it looked like a lot of fun. And just maybe, it will inspire me to read more from my own shelves instead of checking books out from the library. Or inspire me to read more of my books before buying stacks of new ones. Or just inspire me to read more! (Like I need help with that one.) How do you keep track of your TBR pile? Well, you could technically say I have two TBR piles. One is physical books I own that I haven't read yet. There's no system of tracking there. I don't even keep them sorted apart from the books I own that I have read. Anarchy rules my shelves. The other TBR list is on Goodreads. I do own a few of the books I have on that list, but mostly those are books I've found in the blogosphere that I want to read someday. Is your TBR pile mostly print or e-book?Entirely print. I don't really do the whole e-book thing. That may change someday, but for now I'm perfectly content with letting stacks of books take over my house. How do you determine which book from your TBR to read next?About this time of year, I'm scouring my shelves to find the last few books I need to finish out my reading challenges. But other that, I just read whatever looks good at the moment. What book has been on your TBR the longest?I've owned a lot of books for many years and sadly haven't gotten to them yet. But the longest may be War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, which I attempted to tackle for the first time in eighth grade. I didn't get very far. What book have you recently added to your TBR?The most recent books I bought came from the bargain shelf at Barnes & Noble (I love that shelf). They are The Midnight Rose by Lucinda Riley and The Supreme Macaroni Company by Adriana Trigiani (but first I need to read the first two books in this series, which have been sitting on my shelf for awhile). What book is on your TBR strictly because of its beautiful cover?What book on your TBR do you never plan to read?There are very few books on this list, because I generally don't buy a book unless I plan to read it. But I suppose The Queen Mother by William Shawcross could qualify. I bought it when The King's Speech movie came out because that particular royal family fascinated me. But it's a honking big book, and I'll probably never care enough again to actually read it. What is an unpublished book on your TBR that you're excited for?I'll have to dive into my Goodreads TBR for this. I'm beyond excited for The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson. I love anything he writes, but I am stoked for a new travel narrative from him! What book on your TBR has everyone read but you?Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I know some people have even read or listened to it multiple times before I've gotten around to reading it once. I will someday! What book on your TBR does everyone recommend to you?Okay, so this book isn't technically on my TBR, but I'm going to answer this question with Cinder by Marissa Meyer. There is a lot of chatter about this series, especially now that Winter is out. I haven't read any of the books in this series, but I've heard so many good things about them that I picked Cinder up at the library last week. What book on your TBR are you dying to read?The Island of Dr. Libris by Chris Grabenstein. I LOVED Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library, so I bought his next book earlier this summer. Just haven't had a chance to read it yet, but the day is coming soon! How many books are on your Goodreads TBR shelf?187. I try to keep it reasonable (which originally meant under 100 and now means under 200). Twelve of those I physically own. I don't even want to attempt to count the number of books I own that I haven't read yet. Way too many. Let's just leave it at that. If you want to answer the questions, feel free to do so! Everyone can play. No tagging necessary!
And here we are in fall already! Library season is finally over for me. I returned my last library book from the summer earlier this week. I made it through a lot of books this summer! But now I'm excited to start reading from my own shelves again. Books read: 48 Pages read: 13,810 Fiction: 81% Nonfiction: 19% Male authors: 44% Female authors: 56% Audiobooks: 4% Favorite book this quarter: I have to pick two again. For fiction, The Royal We by Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan. For nonfiction, Because I Said So! by Ken Jennings. But honestly, this list could be about 10 books long. Reading Challenge Progress Mount TBR: 31/36 86% I Love Library Books: 61/36 169% Birthday Month: 7/12 58% Hard Core Re-Reading: 16/10 160% What's In a Name?: 6/6 100% Color Coded: 7/9 78% Victorian Bingo: 3/5 60% Reading England: 8/6 133% Around the World in 12 Books: 9/12 75% European: 6/5 120% Chunkster: 8/5 160% Alphabet Soup: 24/26 92% Authors A to Z: 19/26 73% Nonfiction: 20/16 125% Newbery: 34/30 points 113% Hmm. Well. I seem to have gone a little overboard with some of these challenges. But at least it makes finishing the rest of them seem manageable! In fact, I explored my shelves thoroughly yesterday, searching for the books I needed to finish up the rest of my challenges. I think I found everything I need except for a book with "white" in the title. Anyone have any suggestions?
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My name is Julie, and I own a lot of books. As in, they are stacked on the floor because I've run out of room on the shelves. And those shelves? There are so many books on them that they smile -- not sag; smile. This blog will cover book reviews and all manner of other bookish things.
You can contact me at julie@smilingshelves.com. Archives
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