Readathon: Let the Day Begin!

It's almost here!  And I am going all Carol Ann on this shiz!

You know what I love about Readathon?  It's a chance to let my nerd flag fly. 

I'm on the East Coast, so I'm kicking this off at 8am.  I realize some of you are starting much earlier in the day, or later in the day, or maybe it's already night where you are, but here's a song to get us going nevertheless:

Are you in, midnighters?  Are you ready?  Sorry for the way I am going to BLOW UP YOUR READER AND TWITTER FEED, but hopefully you find my spastic love for books and readathons endearing. I mean, I managed to link Poltergeist, nerd kitties, and an obscure 80's band I love that you've probably never heard of (unless you saw it on a past Readathon post I made) all to Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon.  I also apologize for going all shouty caps at you too, but I'm that excited that lowercase letters just can't convey my feelings.

See ya in an hour, when the readathon shiz will get real and books will be read! 

 (okay, mostly food will get eaten and tweets will be sent, but I'll be listening to an audio book so that totally counts!)

A Midnight Girl Book Necklace!

My lovely sister-in-law, Amy, and my niece Grace (okay, it's mostly Amy) have gotten into the Origami Owl business!  They special in gorgeous charm necklaces and I ordered my first necklace last week.  You design your own necklace, so I made mine with a bookish theme.  I know, go figure.  You can order online here (or just browse to see what all they offer) or throw a jewelry bar party (which I will be doing in March- and if you're in the VA area, you are invited!). There are so many choices, and the prices are good- but I had to stop myself from going too crazy!

 I was so excited to get my cute little pink box in the mail (they send directly to you) within a week of ordering- but I did pay $3 more for fast shipping.

Inside the box was a little card showing birthstones and a little Chinese Take Out box full of jewelry!

Inside the Take Out box.

 The box contained my charms, the chain, a plate for my necklace, a dangle, a cute little fortune cookie shaped jewelry holder, and the locket.

 And here's my necklace!  The key is a dangle that I hang on the chain along with the locket.  Inside the locket is a back plate in rose gold that says ALWAYS, with for those of you in the know is a Harry Potter reference.  The charms inside the locket are: 2 birthstones, one for May (my birth month) and one for March (for the Hubs- the key is also because he, and books, are the key to my heart), there's a little laptop charm because of the book blog, a cup of coffee because books and coffee go together like chocolate and EVERYTHING, and lastly I have a Heart To Read charm.

So I was thinking about my friends, and what charms I would add to their lockets (obviously all ya'll would get the Heart To Read charms, natch).

 For Kim, I'd make her a Packers necklace, with green and yellow birthstones (two of each) with a football helmet, and football charm, plus the one that says Family- because Kim loves her family and her family loves Packers football.

For Courtney, I'd definitely add a baseball charm, a coffee charm, 1/2 of the best friends charm (guess who'd have the other half?), the Heart My Dog charm, a heart charm for her David Levithan Loveathon.

For Steph, I'd add the lipstick, purse and high heel shoe because it reminds me of her blog, the vintage typewriter charm, the wine charm, and the apple charm- for New York and for being a future teacher (which would work for Kim too!) and the running shoe because she is always at the gym! And maybe the margarita charm too.

For Pam, I'd add a fleur de lis for New Orleans, the steampunk charms (because they remind me of halloween), I'd add some green and purple birthstones for Mardi Gras, the Hamsa Hand charm for Daughter of Smoke and Bone (which I just found, how cool!) and a suitcase for all the bookish traveling she does.

For Cindy I'd add a fleur de lis too, since she's in Quebec and the maple leaf charm too, an apple for New York, an owl charm (and owl dangle!), the Mom charm (in aqua to match the owl's eyes) because Cindy is an amazing mom, and a hockey charm to represent her son.

For Andrea, obviously the book charm in a given for everyone, but to that I would add letter charms - DFTBA, because she's a diehard nerdfighter.  Honestly, this would work for several of my friends.

For Katie I'd add the kitty charm, the laptop charm, the sewing machine since they don't have a cross-stitch charm yet, and the number charms for 90210. :)

For Jen I'd add the letter charms for Y and A, the apple charm,  the laptop charm, the hummingbird charm since it's the closest to the mockingjay they have, the Hamas hand charm for Daughter of Smoke and Bones too, and an angel wing charm- in part for all the YA angel books, but also because she's a giveaway angel to all of us!

So if I win the lottery, ya'll are all getting necklaces!!

Stacking the Shelves (1)

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks! Stop by Tynga's Reviews to participate!

Books for review:

 Torched by Andrea Lynn Colt- ebook for review by author

Poison by Bridget Zinn- Around the World ARC Tours

Life After Theft by Aprilynne Pike- Around the World ARC Tours

And Then I Found You by Patti Callahan Henry- Wunderkind PR.

Purchased from Audible (I had a lot of credits and there was a sale): 

Into The Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes

Last to Die by Tess Gerritsen

A Night of Blacker Darkness by Dan Wells

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

A Million Suns (Across the Universe #2) by Beth Revis

From Amazon (Kindle):

 The Sweetest Thing (Lucky Harbor #2) by Jill Shalvis

Head Over Heels (Lucky Harbor #3) by Jill Shalvis

So that's my week in books.  Either I'm going to have to take up speed reading or I'm gonna have to live a several hundred years so that I can read all the books I own...

What did you get?

Joining Book Swim and Starting Book Blog

I've read a lot of books. A lot. Sometimes more than once, and in several cases upwards of 20 times. There are some books I re-read every year, and then there are some that I've been reading off and on for a few years now... and still haven't finished them (yes, I'm talking about you Lisey's Story and Under a Velvet Cloak).

I read pretty much every genre, but I have my favorites. Horror/thriller, chick lit, YA, and just regular popular fiction. Occasionally I'm brave enough to read a manga, or romance novel. I enjoy science fiction now and then. Rare is the time I read non-fiction, but it happens. I used to love true crime, but grew out of my morbid phase, but I'm still loyal to my girl Ann Rule. She had me at The Stranger Beside Me.

I love books, I love buying them, displaying them, sharing them, talking about them... I love their smell... most of the time. My friend Courtney and I started a book club, and our friend Mandy dutifully reads along our monthly selections. We even have a website since I moved from Oklahoma back to Virginia, so we can discuss the books online. Sadly, we haven't had any other regular members, except my friend Michelle who was an early member but soon ditched us.

Moving to Virginia and going from full time manager to extreme part time employee meant less money for books. So I got a library card. But alas, the curse of Not Being Able To Return Books And Or Movies On Time, Not Even Remotely On Time had followed me. I am bad at returning things on time. Even when I've finished all the books I checked out, and even with online renewal. So, whilst I save up for the Kindle of my dreams- thus being to somewhat hide my book buying binges from hubby, I came across Book Swim.

Yes, Book Swim costs a monthly fee, and I don't recommend it if you are one of those millions and millions of folks that can return books on time, or have less of the debilitating curse that was bestowed upon myself. And to be honest, the book selection is still in the growing process, but I already have about 100 books in my rental pool. It's just like NetFlix or Blockbuster Online. There's different pricing fees, return shipping is free and you also get the added bonus of buying the book if you want to keep it.

The down sides so far are that shipping does take a looooooong time, both sending and returning. And I'm too cheap to pay the extra $6.95 for faster shipping. At the moment I get 3 books for $19.99, but I'll probably move up to 5 books for, I think, $24.95. I easily spent more than that a month on books prior to this, and it keeps my already overburdened book shelves safe (they're color coded, because I have enough books to make that look cool).


All this means is more books for me!! Although I still have a pile of books that I have previously bought and not read or remain unfinished. This blog gives me an excuse to get thru those, even more so than my book club does since I don't always get to pick the book we read.

This blog will be my journey through books... and possible cooking and baking- other areas of which I'm trying to improve. So perhaps I'll do a tie-in with the 3... Not sure yet.

Reading is the ultimate escape. In the first grade the school wanted to hold me back because I hadn't learned to read. My parents were shocked, there had been no bad reports no warnings. Both my parents were big readers. My dad yelled a lot, and the decision to move me on to second grade was resolved in his favor (God bless his Irish temper). That summer my dad took me to George Mason University to have me tested to see if there was a reason for my lack of reading skills. My IQ was above average, and it was determined that I had dyslexia. All summer I went to a reading tutor, shout out to Mrs. A, and by the start of the new school year i was several grades ahead in reading ability and comprehension than my classmates.

Years later I realized how lucky I was to get diagnosed at such a young age, at a time (early 80's) when dyslexia was not as well known as it is now. Wow, this is starting to get deep, and I want it to be fun, so on with the book blogging!