Category: Events

It’s time for Bloggiesta!

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Bloggiesta is here at last! I was unable to participate in last June’s event, so I’ve been looking forward to this one.

For those of you who are wondering what Bloggiesta is, it’s a three day marathon for bloggers to spend some time working on their blogs, making improvements, fixing problems and finding inspiration. Bloggiesta is hosted by Natasha at Maw Books and you can sign up anytime during the weekend.

I don’t know how much time I’m going to have this weekend, but I’m hoping to do as much as I can. Here are a few of my goals, though I’ll probably be adding more things to this list as they occur to me. I’ll strike through each item as I complete it.

1. Catch up with writing my reviews – I hate being behind with them! UPDATE: Got most of these done, but still have one to write.
2. Write the next few posts in my Remember These? series – UPDATE: Started these but will need to spend more time on them.
3. Check that my posts are tagged correctly and in the correct categories.
4. Update my About page and Review Policy.
5. Check my reviews on Goodreads and LibraryThing – I know some of them are still linking back to my old Blogger blog instead of this one.
6. Finish cross posting reviews to Goodreads/LibraryThing/Amazon.
7. Tidy my sidebars/update links in Blogroll.
8. Try to organise my Google Reader.
9. Change email address and associate blog with new email address.
10. Find out how to transfer my Google Reader feed subscriptions to my new email address.
11. Make new header image.
12. Back up my blog.

I’ll be updating this post a few times over the weekend. Good luck to everyone else who is taking part!

My Persephone Secret Santa Revealed!

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Today is the day when Persephone Secret Santa participants reveal the identity of their Santa and the gift they received! Persephone Books have been a wonderful new discovery for me in 2010. I’ve read four so far and loved them all, so I couldn’t resist signing up for this year’s Secret Santa.

My Santa was Margaret of Ten Thousand Places. I was delighted to find that the book she sent me was Alas, Poor Lady by Rachel Ferguson. Margaret included a message with the book and mentioned that it had been a difficult decision – well, Margaret, I would have been happy with any of the Persephones I haven’t already read, but I think you’ve chosen one that will be perfect for me! I can’t wait to start reading it.

Thank you to Margaret for being my Santa and thanks also to Claire at Paperback Reader for hosting this! I’m looking forward to visiting everyone else’s blogs to find out what they received. For a list of all the Persephone Secret Santa participants see this post at Claire’s blog.

Read-a-Thon Updates

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Update #4: End of Hour 24

I’m finished! Since my last update I’ve read three chapters of Bleak House and one story (The Dream Woman) from The Haunted Hotel & Other Stories by Wilkie Collins. I may not have read as much as some of you, but I wasn’t expecting to so I’m quite happy with what I’ve achieved!

Total time spent reading: 8 hours 55 minutes
Total pages read: 526

End of Event Meme

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?
Hour 11, which due to my time zone was the hour when I decided I needed to go to sleep!
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
I found that The Victorian Chaise-Longue by Marghanita Laski kept me engaged even though I read it when I was starting to get tired.
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
No, I thought everything was well organised (although the End of Event Meme was missing from the Hour 24 post, so I copied the one from last year – I hope these are the right questions that I’m answering!)
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
The mini-challenges seemed to be going well, though I had decided not to take part in any myself this time so that I could concentrate on reading.
5. How many books did you read?
I finished 2 books and read a few chapters of 3 others!
6. What were the names of the books you read?
The Night Watch, The Victorian Chaise-Longue (finished both of these), Dracula, Bleak House and The Haunted Hotel & Other Stories (did not finish any of these).
7. Which book did you enjoy most?
The Night Watch
8. Which did you enjoy least?
I actually enjoyed all of them.
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
I wasn’t a cheerleader this year, but I thought they all did a great job!
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
I will definitely participate again as a reader and would consider cheering next time too.

Update #3: Hour 21

It’s 9:30am on Sunday morning here. I finished The Victorian Chaise-Longue last night, then I went to bed. So far this morning I’ve read 54 pages of Dracula. There are still more than 3 hours of the read-a-thon remaining and I’m hoping to get lots more reading done in those 3 hours!

Total time spent reading: 6 hours 45 minutes
Total pages read: 413

Update #2: Hour 8
I’ve just finished reading The Night Watch by Sarah Waters and am about to start The Victorian Chaise-Longue by Marghanita Laski.

Total time spent reading: 3 hours 45 minutes
Total pages read: 260

Update #1: Hour 1
The October 2010 Read-a-Thon has now officially begun! I’m going to be updating this post several times throughout the day and the most recent updates will be at the top.

I’m not sure how much time I’ll be spending online today – although all the mini-challenges look very tempting, I’m hoping to actually do a lot more reading during this read-a-thon than I did during the last one! For now though, here are my answers to the Hour 1 Meme:

Where are you reading from today?

I’m at home in Newcastle, England.

3 facts about me…

I’m a vegetarian, my favourite colour is purple and this is my second readathon!

How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours?

I’ve chosen 5 specifically for the read-a-thon but if I get bored with those I do have plenty of other books on my general TBR pile.

Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)?

I don’t want to set any goals because I know I probably wouldn’t achieve them. I had a relaxed approach to the April read-a-thon, which worked perfectly for me, and I want to take the same approach this time too.

If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, Any advice for people doing this for the first time?

Try not to put yourself under too much pressure. If you don’t manage to read as much as you were hoping, don’t worry! Having fun is the important thing.

I’ll be back in a few hours with my next progress report. Good luck to all the other read-a-thon participants and enjoy your reading!

Ready for the Read-a-Thon!

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It’s almost Read-a-Thon time again! I really enjoyed participating in my first Read-a-Thon in April – I didn’t actually get much reading done, but I had fun taking part in mini-challenges, I found some great new blogs to add to my Reader and I even won a book!

I’m looking forward to this weekend’s Read-a-thon as I’ve been so busy recently I feel as though I’ve had very little time for reading (or blogging), so this will give me a chance to catch up. I will probably have to go out for an hour or two near the beginning, but after that I shouldn’t have any more interruptions for the rest of Saturday. The way the start and finish times have worked out for my time zone, I will still have time to read when I wake up on Sunday morning too. I’m not going to attempt to read for 24 hours – I need my sleep!

So what am I going to read? Well, I don’t want to feel under any pressure so I’m not setting any targets for numbers of books or pages read. I’m currently reading The Night Watch by Sarah Waters, so unless I finish it before Saturday, that will be my first book to read. I also want to read some more books for the RIP challenge. I’m definitely going to read The Victorian Chaise-longue by Marghanita Laski as it’s short and I’ve been keeping it specially for the Read-a-Thon. I also have some classics on my pile, including Dracula (which I’m halfway through and enjoying) and The Haunted Hotel & Other Stories by Wilkie Collins (I’d like to dip into this one and read at least a few of the stories). I could also try to finish Bleak House as I only have a few chapters left to read. If the classics get too heavy, I do have some lighter books on my shelves too.

I bought a new chair earlier in the week, not specifically for the Read-a-Thon, but it’s very comfortable and in a quiet corner where I should be able to concentrate. In April I was able to do some of my reading outside in the garden in the beautiful spring sunshine, but I don’t think the weather’s going to be warm enough to make that an option this time!

Will you be participating? What are your plans?

Bleak House Readalong: Chapters 20-32

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I didn’t post my Bleak House Readalong update last Wednesday as it was Book Blogger Appreciation Week, so in this post I’ll be discussing Week 4: Chapters 20-25 and Week 5: Chapters 26-32.

*Please note: If you haven’t read as far as chapter 32 of Bleak House, you may encounter spoilers in this post.*

In the first 19 chapters of the book, we were introduced to a bewildering number of characters and storylines. As I mentioned in my previous update, the story had so far felt disjointed and slightly confusing. In these next few installments though, things finally start coming together and the story is beginning to get really interesting. There were still a few new characters (the Smallweed family, Mr George, the Bagnets and Mr Bucket the detective), but I think we’ve met all the major ones now.

I won’t even try to write a full summary for these chapters, but here are a few of the more important plot developments: Charley, the orphan girl we met earlier in the book, arrives at Bleak House as Esther’s maid. Richard changes career (again! I wish it was really as easy as that) and joins the army. Everyone seems to be very interested in Captain Hawdon’s handwriting, Caddy Jellyby marries Prince Turveydrop, Esther becomes ill – and in Chapter 29, the identity of Esther’s mother is revealed! I was very surprised by this because, although I had already guessed who it was, I hadn’t expected to find out so early in the story and had thought it would come towards the end of the book.

So overall, I found these chapters much more compelling than the previous ones because it feels that things are actually starting to happen now. And this section ended on an exciting note, when one of the characters spontaneously combusts! There are still some parts where I’m struggling to stay interested (Chapter 25: Mrs Snagsby Sees It All – was there any point to that chapter?) but I think I’m going to enjoy the rest of the book.

You can see other readalong participants’ thoughts on Bleak House here.

BBAW: Unexpected Treasure

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I knew I wouldn’t be able to participate fully in Book Blogger Appreciation Week this year because I’ve been ridiculously busy recently, both at work and at home, and just haven’t had time to prepare anything. Today’s question, though, is one that I really wanted to answer:

Wednesday—Unexpected Treasure
We invite you to share with us a book or genre you tried due to the influence of another blogger. What made you cave in to try something new and what was the experience like?

Looking back at the list of books I’ve read so far this year there are quite a few that I probably wouldn’t have thought of reading in the days before I started blogging. I used to stay very much within my own comfort zone and while there’s not necessarily anything wrong with that, as long as you’re enjoying what you’re reading, it did mean I was missing out on a lot of great books and authors. I had never considered reading Georgette Heyer or Sarah Waters, for example, before I saw so many other bloggers reviewing their books. I would probably also never have been aware of Persephone books; I’ve now read and loved three of them and have another two waiting on my shelf.

Going back to the question above, the biggest plunge I have taken into something new is when I decided to try an entirely new medium: the graphic novel. Before I began blogging, I had never even thought about reading a graphic novel. I didn’t have any prejudices about them; it had honestly just never occurred to me that I might enjoy one – and I had no idea how popular they were until I saw so many of them being reviewed on such a lot of blogs. So, this summer I finally read my first graphic novel (I should really call it a graphic memoir) which was Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. I don’t want to thank one individual blogger for bringing that book to my attention, because I had seen it mentioned by so many people, but all of you who said it was the perfect choice for a novice graphic novel reader were completely right! I haven’t had a chance to read another one yet, but I’m glad I now know that there’s no reason for me not to read them.

Thanks to everyone who has influenced my reading and encouraged me to try something new!

Bleak House Readalong: Chapters 14-19

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I’m a few chapters ahead of the readalong schedule again, but this post is based on my thoughts at the end of Chapter 19.

*Please be aware that this post may contain spoilers*

It’s week 3 of the readalong, I’m more than 230 pages into my edition of Bleak House, and Dickens is still introducing new characters and new storylines in every chapter!

In this week’s installments, Esther accompanies Caddy Jellyby to the dancing school where her fiancé Prince Turveydrop works. We also meet his father, Mr Turveydrop, who is always talking about the importance of ‘Deportment’ – very annoying! In chapter 15, Mr Skimpole reappears with news that the debt collector Mr Neckett has died, leaving his three children orphaned. The oldest girl, Charley, is taking care of her brother Tom and the baby Emma, as well as going out to work.

The Snagsbys invite the Chadbands for tea and Mrs Chadband turns out to be a face from Esther’s past. Richard changes career again, deciding he wants to be a lawyer this time. And on a visit to Mr Boythorn, Esther encounters Lady Dedlock, who seems strangely familiar although she’s sure she’s never seen her before.

There are an unbelievable number of characters in the first 19 chapters of this book alone! Luckily, I haven’t had too much trouble remembering who they all are. At the moment it’s difficult to tell which of the characters will play a major part in the story and which won’t. Maybe they all will!

As I mentioned last week, I prefer the chapters narrated by Esther to the others, as they are easier to follow. However, we are now starting to see some indications that Esther is not being completely honest with the reader and is choosing what she does and doesn’t want to tell us (usually in relation to a certain young surgeon called Mr Woodcourt).

“For I was so little inclined to sleep, myself, that night, that I sat up working. It would not be worth mentioning for its own sake, but I was wakeful and rather low-spirited. I don’t know why. At least, I don’t think I know why. At least, perhaps I do, but I don’t think it matters.”

I’m enjoying the book but it still feels quite disjointed and confusing. It still seems that storylines are being started and then abandoned just as they’re starting to get interesting, and characters are being introduced then disappear for several chapters at a time. I’m sure that when things start to come together later in the book I’ll be able to appreciate the importance of these early chapters more. I think I just need to be patient!

More posts on the Bleak House readalong here.