24 Hour Read-A-Thon Mini-Challenge

Welcome to my mini-challenge! You guys are doing an amazing job! I'm sure you're all tired, so take a break and watch this little video. Your challenge: to name as many of these authors as you can. Your prize: a selection of books from the Friends of the Library, including The Blind Assassin, Rise and Shine, The Coffee Trader, The Dante Club, and We Are All Welcome Here. Feel free to pause the video if you need more time to stare at a particular author. Oh, and one is a freebie, because I didn't realize his name was at the bottom of his picture until after I made the video. You're welcome. :) Send your guesses (with the subject line "Mini-Challenge") to xjessideex [at] gmail [dot] com. This challenge is open from 7 am to 9 am EST, and [UPDATED] Cheerleaders can play, too. Good luck!

24 Hour Read-A-Thon Hour 13 Mini-Challenge

I'm a cheerleader for the 24 Hour Read-a-thon this year, and I wasn't going to post anything (I'm dead tired from working all day and going to an A1A concert with my mom tonight), but I checked my Google Reader "one last time" before bed and saw this challenge from Vasillis and said to myself, "Well, one little post can't hurt." See that really long sentence? That's the sleepy talking. Anyway, here's my poem:

"La Reina" - Pablo Neruda

Yo te he nombrando reina.
Hay más altas que tú, más altas.
Hay más puras que tú, más puras.
Hay más bellas que tú, hay más bellas.

Ero tú eres la reina

Cuando vas por las calles
nadie te reconoce.
Nadie ve tú corona de cristal, nadie mira
la alfombra de oro rojo
que pisas cuando pasas,
la alfrombra que no existe.

Y cuando asomas
suenan todos los ríos
en mi cuerpo, sacuden
el cielo las campanas,
y un himno llena el mundo

Sóló tú y yo,
sóló tú y yo, amor mío,
lo escuchamos.

And in English:

"The Queen" - trans. Donald D. Walsh

I have named you queen
There are taller ones than you, taller.
There are purer ones than you, purer.
There are lovelier ones than you, lovelier.

But you are the queen.

When you go through the streets
no one recognizes you.
No one sees your crystal crown, no one looks
at the carpet of red gold
that you tread as you pass,
the nonexistent carpet

And when you appear
all the rivers sound
in my body, bells
shake the sky,
and a hymn fills the world.

Only you and I,
only you and I, my love,
listen to it.

Happy reading! I'll see y'all in about 6 hours for my mini-challenge. :)

Summer Reading Extravaganza Day 5: Oh, the Places You’ll Go (With a Book)!

Our final topic is books that transport you. It’s hard to take a trip with rising gas prices so thank God we can travel through reading! What are some of your favorite books that transport you to a new place?

I mentioned some of my favorite literary travel destinations in yesterday's post, so today I'm going to write about places that you can only travel to inside the pages of a book. Namely, other books.

I love a good sci-fi/fantasy novel, and Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series is one of the best examples, especially if you love books and reading - my friend DeAnna and I describe them as "English major porn." If you haven't read them, you are seriously missing out. The titles include: The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, Something Rotten, and First Among Sequels. The series takes place in 1980's Swindon, and the protagonist is Thursday Next, a Jurisfiction detective who works inside books to help "maintain narrative stability." This includes finding a kidnapped Jane Eyre, living within the narrative of obscure books, talking on a "footnoter-phone," and other silly, book-related adventures. The stories can get confusing at times, but they are always fun. I would also recommend checking out Fforde Grand Central, which has information about the books, "Special Features," and a Dodo Emporium (re-engineered extinct species being a popular pet, naturally).

Visit The Friendly Book Nook for more fun places to visit with a book!

Booking Through Thursday: Definition

Today's Booking Through Thursday question:

What, in your opinion, is the definition of a “reader.” A person who indiscriminately reads everything in sight? A person who reads BOOKS? A person who reads, period, no matter what it is? … Or, more specific? Like the specific person who’s reading something you wrote?

This is a really hard question. At first, I'm tempted to say that a person who reads, no matter what they read, is a reader. But I think it goes a bit deeper than that. In my education classes, we stressed the importance of encouraging students to read and take on the label of reader. We encouraged that with anything school-related, actually - at the Early College, if a student self-identified as a "Mathematician," they were heaped with praise. Sounds silly, right? But it worked! So, considering this from an educator standpoint, I would say that anyone who self-identifies as a reader, would be a reader.

Also, I don't think readers of books are the only people who can be "readers." I consider reading comic books or graphic novels a form of visual literacy. I had a friend in college who was equally adept at studying physics, music, and creative writing because he could "read" equations and compositions as easily as a short story. Does that make him a super-reader? Probably. Years ago, I read a kid's book called Sixth Grade Sleepover. One of the characters couldn't read, but she faked it by listening to audiobooks and trying to follow along with the words. Does that make her a non-reader? (That's probably not the best example, honestly, because she vows to learn how to read at the end of the book, but it was the best I could come up with. The point is, audiobooks are still books, and they are most definitely a form of reading.)

Like I said, it's a difficult and interesting question. The English major in me is insisting that only novel readers and lovers should be considered readers, but the teacher in me wants to encourage everyone to consider themselves a reader. Any other thoughts?

Visit Booking Through Thursday for more opinions.

Summer Reading Extravaganza Day 4: Summer Reading Activities

Today’s topic is summer reading activities. What we love so much about reading is that it expands our world! If you have any fun traditions or activities that you share with your kids or students that have to do with reading, today is the day to share them.If you don’t have kids, maybe you have a bookclub that does has some fun traditions or you enjoy organizing your books in the summer. Be creative and share with us!

I don't have any kids, and I don't really have any summer reading traditions (yet), so today I'm going to talk about one that I would love to start.

The summer between my Sophomore and Junior years in college, I participated in a Study Abroad course. We actually had two classes (British Romanticism and Spirit of Place in British Literature). For two weeks, we read a bunch of books and came to class every day to discuss them. Then we traveled to the UK and spent two weeks visiting the places mentioned in the books! It was amazing! My two favorite places were Lyme Regis (I'm sure many of you remember the Cobb that Louisa Musgrove fell down in Persuasion) and Arthur's Seat (site of a rather sublime scene in James Hogg's Confessions of a Justified Sinner). Spending three hours climbing to the top made the idea of seeing God in the clouds a lot more believable.

We also visited the moors of Haworth (Wuthering Heights), Wales (Tintern Abbey), Hampstead (home of Keats), Newstead Abbey (home of Byron), Dorchester (site of pretty much anything Thomas Hardy wrote), and various other literary locations. It was the most fun I've ever had reading.

I've been talking with friends and family about saving up some money this school year and going on a trip to Italy next summer. I probably won't be able to go for very long, but I'd love to make it a literary tour! Any suggestions for books set in Italy? I'll definitely be re-reading John Berendt's The City of Falling Angels, because Venice is so on my list of places to see.

Visit The Friendly Book Nook for more fun summer reading activities!

Camp Jane and other bookish awesomeness

Jane in June is a camp that teaches middle school girls about what life was like in the 1800s:

Lauren Dalme walked about the Kent Plantation House.
She peeked in at farm tools of the 19th century and a blacksmith stable.
The 11-year-old Pineville girl was whisked back to the age when a family lived at Kent House and of the era of Jane Austen.
But she hadn't completely gone back in time.
Lauren quickly snapped photos with her camera phone as she and the other 18 "Jane in June" campers toured the Alexandria plantation home Tuesday.
"I know they didn't have these, but they didn't have a lot of things like air conditioning and toilets," she said. "I couldn't imagine."

They also learn how to sew, garden, play various card games, keep a daily journal, and have daily tea parties! I'm going to mention this at our next Girl Scout leader meeting, because I think the girls would get a kick out of it. Found via Austen Blog.

This book is so going on my wishlist. Geek pride! Discovered through BoingBoing (they also have a link to an interview with the author).

The Times Online had critics chose their most loathed books. What would make your list? Mine would probably include Wuthering Heights, Pamela, and Heart of Darkness; I'm sure there are several more I'm forgetting. Found via bookshelves of doom.

This is why I'll be linking books on this blog to BookCrossing, BookMooch, Library Thing, Powell's Books, or my own review from now on.

There's a new book coming out claiming that Michelangelo hid secret Jewish codes in the Sistine Chapel. Anyone else having DaVinci Code flashbacks?

Amanda Grange is currently working on Henry Tilney's Diary (JOY!) and is blogging about the process (DOUBLE JOY!). Another one from Austen Blog.

Summer Reading Extravaganza Day 3: Magazines

We all love books, but how about magazines? Magazines are perfect for the shorter flight or poolside (so your book doesn’t get wet), don’t you think? What are your favorite magazines or what magazines would you recommend for book lovers? Or is there a magazine we should stay away from?

I discovered Marie Claire a few years ago, and I've had a subscription ever since. I used to read Cosmo, but got tired of the repetitive and ridiculous articles. (I also used to read JANE before it got cancelled. I refused to let them switch my subscription to Glamour out of principle. I want JANE back!) I picked up MC one day because it had Maggie Gyllenhaal (one of my favorite actresses) on the cover, and I was hooked! It has all the fun stuff that you would normally find in girlie magazines - (affordable) fashion, makeup and hair tips that I rarely use - but also book and movie reviews, political pieces, and an "Eye on the World" segment that interviews women from different countries to show problems they face and how they handle them.
I always learn something new after reading an issue.

I also read a few magazines for teachers, to help me get ideas for my class: Teacher Magazine, Instructor, and I have a digital subscription to EdWeek, which is probably more like a newspaper than a magazine.

My mom had a subscription to Newsweek for years while I was growing up, and I would always read it before her. Ditto for Reader's Digest (I still read this one when I'm at her house). I'll flip through Entertainment Weekly occasionally, or Wizard if I'm at the comic book store (which is rare now a days). And...that's about it!

Visit The Friendly Book Nook for more fun summer magazine suggestions!

24 Hour Read-a-thon

Dewey over at The Hidden Side of a Leaf is hosting the 24 Hour Read-a-thon, which will take place starting at 9 am PST this Saturday. I can't participate this time (stupid work and awesome Jimmy Buffet tribute band concert), but I will be acting as a cheerleader and reading in my free time. Visit the main page to get more information or to sign up; there are prizes available for participants!

Summer Reading Extravaganza Day 2: Summer Reading for Children

Yesterday we talked about what we would be reading, but what will your kids be reading? You definitely want them to use some of this free time they have on books! We need suggestions for all age groups! If you don’t have kids, you can still share some of your favorite books from when you were kids, that you read to your grandkids, or your nieces and nephews. Today is the time to talk about books for kids from age 0-18!

Disclaimer: I don't have any kids myself, so all of these recommendations are based on what my students read at school.

The most popular series for my sixth and seventh grade boys was Hank the Cowdog. It's about a dog who is head of security on a ranch. There are quite a few books in the series (Powell's has 52 available, although there weren't that many at the school's library), and some of my students read the same one multiple times. The graphic novel-lite Diary of a Wimpy Kid and its sequel, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules was also a huge hit with the middle school boys.

My female middle school readers tended to like series set in high schools, such as Gossip Girl, Sweet Valley High, and The Princess Diaries.

The middle schoolers also really enjoyed Mildred D. Taylor's books, especially Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, but that might be a little too heavy for summer reading. Ditto for the Twilight saga; each book is 500 - 700 pages! Other popular books for middle schoolers: The Uglies Trilogy, Harry Potter (of course!), The Warriors, The Guardians of Ga'hoole, Artemis Fowl, The Clique, and anything by Gary Paulsen.

Visit The Friendly Book Nook for more fun summer reading for children!

Jodi Picoult giveaway

The book madness continues...a few people suggested Jodi Picoult novels for summer beach reads, so I did a little Googling. Turns out, Heather at Book Addiction is giving away five of her novels. Go here to be entered in the contest.