Thursday Three: Comics!

What is Thursday 3? It's a new weekly meme, hosted by Tasha, in which we will be discussing our love/hate relationship with our current read.

Here is how Thursday 3 works:

Take your current read, or book you previously finished, and tell me the following 3 things about it.

Character from the book you LOVE (This can be a character you want as your BFF or someone you want to take home to meet the parents)

Character from the book you HATE (This character does not have to be the villian, just someone you disliked)

Your overall LOVE/HATE of the book. (If you haven't decided your feelings for the book yet, or if you prefer, just provide a snippet from the book containing either the word "LOVE" or "HATE")

I wasn't going to post a Thursday Three today because I'm still reading A Feast for Crows (I read the other ASOIAF books in 2-3 days, if that gives you an idea of my feelings towards this book), but the I realized I could write a post about the comics I picked up today instead! I'm really digging the new DC 52 - today's haul included Aquaman #4, The Flash #4, The Guild: Zaboo, Batman #4, and Voodoo #4.

Character I LOVE: Zaboo! He's played by Sandeep Parikh on the web series The Guild, and the comic was written by Sandeep and Felicia Day, the creator and writer of the show. The character is lovable and exasperating, and I think the comic did a great job of showing how he got that way.

Character I HATE: the law enforcement in Coastal City! Seriously, Aquaman just saved a bunch of people - give the man some respect! At least Aquaman got a dog out of the ordeal.*

My overall LOVE/HATE of the book: I love all the comics I picked up today (why bother reading them otherwise?), but I have to admit that I'm most surprised by my affection for Aquaman. He used to be the biggest punching bag in the DCU, but between his shark-telepathy in last week's issue of Justice League and his sensitivity in this week's issue of Aquaman, he's really growing on me and quickly becoming one of my favorite heroes.

* When I told my boyfriend about Aquaman's new pet, he suggested the name "Run," so that he could be referred to as "sea-dog Run." Ah, puns.

Thursday Three: A Feast for Crows

What is Thursday 3? It's a new weekly meme, hosted by Tasha, in which we will be discussing our love/hate relationship with our current read.

Here is how Thursday 3 works:

Take your current read, or book you previously finished, and tell me the following 3 things about it.

Character from the book you LOVE (This can be a character you want as your BFF or someone you want to take home to meet the parents)

Character from the book you HATE (This character does not have to be the villian, just someone you disliked)

Your overall LOVE/HATE of the book. (If you haven't decided your feelings for the book yet, or if you prefer, just provide a snippet from the book containing either the word "LOVE" or "HATE")

I'm currently reading A Feast for Crows, the fourth book in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series.

Character I LOVE: Samwell Tarly! He reminds me a lot of Neville Longbottom (which probably accounts for the affection I feel for him) because he's so bumbling and cowardly. But he's also sweet and stands up for what's right. He's really starting to come into his own, which scares me because Martin tends to kill off awesome characters.

Character I HATE: Robert Arryn. I should probably say Petyr Baelish because he's so despicable, but I find Robert even more odious. And it's really not his fault - he's just so twisted and coddled and poor Sansa has to put up with him. I can't imagine being forced to marry my sickly Oedipal cousin.

My overall LOVE/HATE for the book: I haven't decided yet, but it's leaning more towards hate. The chapters alternate between narrators, which is great if the narrator is a character I like or one who has an interesting story (Cersei, Sansa, Samwell) and really hard to get through if the narrator is unlikable or uninteresting (Brienne). It's definitely not as good as the previous book in the series.

Classic Double Reading Challenge 2012 Intro Post

Essentially, the Classic Double Challenge will encourage you to read one older book (classic) and a newer book that relates to the older one in some way.

There are levels of participation, so you can choose how much or how little you'd like to commit to:

Small: You read 2 related books.

Medium: You read 4 books (2 sets of related books).

Large: You read 6 books (3 sets of related books).

Super Size: You read 8 books (4 sets of related books).

Sign up on this post any time from now until the end of 2012.

I'm committing to the small level, and plan on reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (which I bought in England over a decade ago and haven't actually read) and Jane by April Lindner.

Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge 2012 Intro Post

Rules:

Anyone can join.
You don't need a blog to participate.
Audio, ebooks (some libraries allow ebooks to be checked out), bound books are ok.
No re-reads.
Create a sign up post and post the link at this post.
Challenge goes from January 1, 2012 - December 31, 2012

Levels:

Level 1 - Read 12 library books
Level 2 - Read 24 library books
Level 3 - Read 36 library books
Level 4 - Read 37+ library books

Seeing as I'm signing up for a few reading challenges, this one seemed a no-brainer.

Embarrassing story time!

A few weeks ago, I realized I hadn't yet read the book my YA book club was going to be discussing over the weekend. So I got on the local library's website and tried to put the book on hold (it was only getting mediocre reviews from the other members, and I didn't want to buy it if I wasn't going to love it and want to reread it), but the website wouldn't let me. I ended up calling and talking to a very nice man who, through stifled laughter, informed me that my library card had been expired for two years (!) and that he couldn't renew it over the phone because I had over $14 in fines (!!) from three years ago. The books that I checked out that incurred these fines? Three Jane Austen novels (all of which I already own, so I have no idea why I checked them out in the first place, let alone kept them for two months) and two audiobooks. My bff works at a library and regales me with patron horror stories all the time, so I know this is on the low end of bad library behavior. But for an English teacher in a small town, it's still pretty sorry.

Book 2 Movie Reading Challenge 2012 Intro Post

The goal for this challenge is to read a book/ watch a movie in each of the 12 categories, which are further down, during the year of 2012 (01.01.2012 – 31.12.2012) + 1 bonus category, if someone can’t find a book in one of the 12 categories.

This means: 12 books + movies in 12 months, as a result 1 book/ 1 movie per month. (Book can be read/ movie can already been watched – but just one of each)

You want to join?:
Visit this post to sign up.

Here are my (tentative) books/movies for this challenge:

Read a book/ watch the movie …

1. … where the movie is more famous than the book [ Different Seasons ("The Body") / Stand By Me ]

2. … to a TV- Series [ Storm Front / The Dresden Files ]

3. … which is based on a cartoon/ fairy tale or where the main characters are animals [ Beastly / Beastly ]

4. … where your favorite actor/ actress is playing in the movie [ Wanted / Wanted ]

5. … to a book classic which was made into a movie after 1990 [ The Picture of Dorian Gray / Dorian Gray ]

6. … where the book was written for the movie [ Red Riding Hood / Red Riding Hood ]

7. … from an author of your home country (for English joiners: from an author who is not coming from an English speaking country) [ Q & A / Slumdog Millionaire* ]

8. … where the story is about love and where you’ll probably cry OR where the story is about blood, murder and horrific killers [ The Notebook / The Notebook ]

9. … which is focused on a social critic topic (misogyny, racism, cruelty,…) [ The Color Purple / The Color Purple ]

10. … where the story is playing at least 100 years ago [ Master and Commander / Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World ]

11. … where the story is playing in the future OR where the story is playing in Asia or Africa [ The Children of Men / Children of Men ]

12. … where the movie to the book is coming to the cinemas 2012 [ Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter / Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter ]

(+ 13 bonus category: … where you’ve already watched the movie, but never read the book) – for all who have a problem to find a book/movie in one of this categories.

* - Rereading/rewatching for this challenge.

Gossip Girl Reading Challenge 2012 Intro Post

1. Gossip Girl
2. You Know You Love Me
3. All I Want Is Everything
4. Because I'm Worth It
5. I Like It Like That
6. You're the One That I Want
7. Nobody Does It Better
8. Nothing Can Keep Us Together
9. Only In Your Dreams
10. Would I Lie to You?
11. Don't You Forget About Me
12. It Had To Be You
13. I Will Always Love You (prequel)

Rules:

Challenge will run January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2012. Participants can join at any time throughout the challenge.
Create an intro post, linking back to this post.
Sign up using the Linky. Make sure to add your post about this challenge, not your blog home page.
All forms of books acceptable (audiobooks, eBooks, etc.), rereads are allowed and these books can be used for other challenges.
You don't need a blog to participate.
Reviews, while always appreciated, are not mandatory.

I haven't read the Gossip Girl series in a while (I'm not sure I ever finished it, actually) and I know for a fact I didn't read the prequel, so this sounded like a fun challenge. I love angsty teen drama and stories set in NYC!