New post - now with more polling!!

For those who may use Google Reader only - check out the new poll!

Here is the list of books I came up with for October. The poll gives you a chance the first time around to help choose the book. I tried to stay with an October-y type of book and I linked to all of the books as listed at B&N or Borders. You can check each of them out to get a better idea of what you might want to read.

I found most of these through reviews (and with a little help from Megan). I wanted something thrilling/interesting/different/maybe a little creepy for this time of year. I rarely read such things, but it's fun every once in a while. I tried to get a nice array of books. Please comment and please vote!

The one with the most votes will be what we read so vote well and vote often!!

Newes from the Dead
**review from Young Adult blog** (the review makes it sound interesting - plus it's YA so I was hoping it would be a little lighter fare)

Sherlock Holmes (well, just because)

To Kill a Mockingbird (mostly I have been wanting to re-read this)

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America (I think some of this is based on truth which makes it interesting to me)


The Brief History of the Dead (also, just because)

one more day

one more day to vote on your availability!!

think of it this way, all these polls will get us very ready for November.

Inaugural Post

Aaaaaand smash the wine bottle on the hull of this post, this ship is off to the sea of blogdom! Hi. My name is Mike Shorten, married to a Mrs Michael Nathan Shorten (aka Miri Shorten ha ha sorry sweetie) and I am the newest member of this blog. And enough about me, onto the books.
I have read several books lately and thought I would put them on here.

1-A Wrinkle In Time by Madeline L'engel
2-A Wind In The Door by " " " "
3-A Swiftly Tilting Planet by " " " " " " " " "
4-The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (Not Yet Finished or NYF)
5-Princess Academy by Shannon Hale (NYF)
6-World War Z by Max Brooks
7-The Hot Zone by Richard Preston (NYF)
8-In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

I bid you a good day sir or madam

New poll up now - book poll coming soon!

I'm going to compile a short list of options for an inaugural book club "meeting" for OCTOBER. It will be season/holiday appropriate. There will be a poll open for TWO (2) days!! I'm making it short so we can all go about obtaining the book and start our reading. I will announce the "meeting" date once we get past choosing a book to read.

I suggest the following rules and guidelines:

1. The person who chooses the book (or in this case, organizes the voting of choosing the book) will be the host.

2. The host is in charge of the following things:
a. choosing the book
b. choosing the date of the discussion/meeting
c. getting the discussion going with the first post on the chosen date - this means you should choose a date where you can post in the morning (or late the evening before) so as to give everyone time to get in comments and/or follow-up posts.

3. The discussion on the book will stay "open" and going for 24 hours. This should account for our different schedules and time zones.

4. The discussion will be in the form of comments responding to the original post and/or follow up posts. I will make sure to invite everyone participating to the blog so you have permission to post.

5. This pretty much goes without saying since we all basically read the same books, but I feel the need to include a rule of giving a general "rating" of the book you choose and perhaps a link or summary of the description of the book so people can decide whether or not they want to participate that month. This could just be a link to the book on the B&N website - but it's nice to know a little about what we will be reading.

Okay. That's what I've thought of. Thoughts, input, changes? Anything to add? Look for that poll sometime next week!! :)

photo links

i added photos of us on the sidebar for the time being. they still need to be more bookie, but wanted to get a feel of how it would look. it's also nice because if you click on the photo it will open up our individual blogs.

i will add lauren and mike (and anyone else who formally would like to participate - let me know via comment!) when i can get a good picture of each of them. mike doesn't keep normal pics of himself on facebook apparently...in fact, if you go solely by the photos he chooses to use to portray himself he looks like this:




anyway. let me know what you think.

Facelift

I agree with Miri. We got distracted this summer from sharing our happy reading times. In an effort to revitalize our efforts I have finally picked a layout for the blog. I really think this one is it. I may mess with the colors, but the widgets and the ability to quickly post something new are back again and I am a happy camper - give me your input via poll answer.

I will also be adding stuff on the side bar again - book lists, more author blogs (pass them along in the comments if you have the links!), photos, etc. I thought it might be fun to add photos of ourselves doing something bookish (ie: reading) to put with our names and individual blogs. So, I will be bugging you about this...send me a photo! I'll take one soon to get things started.

In the meantime, if you take one, email it to me at lilifin.dilifsi (at) gmail (dot) com and I will add it quick like a bunny.

I think we need to pick a book and a date to discuss. We can make it in a month (end of September) or in two months - depending on everyone's schedule with school and work. I'm totally flexible. OR we can finish reading whatever we are working on at the moment and each discuss them individually but at the same time (if that makes sense). Maybe Sunday afternoon/evenings? Maybe Tuesday nights? Obviously we will have to work around schedules again, but we can all blog or even instant message our discussions.

If we want to get really into things (now that Megan has a Mac) those of us with cameras can video chat (I think skype and msn have free services) a discussion. Miri, do you have a camera/mic on your computer? If not, then we'll obviously think of something else.

Anyway, these are my ideas. I'm currently reading The Book Thief, which I know Megan and Miri have both read.

Oh, my other idea is to get someone new invited - but we can try for that after our first trial run.

Alright, give me some input.

I submit that we do not post on here enough.

Liz, Mike's sister, started a book club here that I've really enjoyed going to. It was a little awkward at first because basically we'd go in a circle, everyone would tell about their book, and then we'd be done; but now we all talk about our books and other books that we're interested in, and it's really fun. I've always wanted to be part of a group like that, but I like it even more when it's this particular group because I know you girls so much better.

So... can we try and make this blog more involved/post more often? It would help us keep in contact even better and I would really like it. Love you :)

The Dark Side of Camelot

I've been reading this for the last couple weeks alongside my other book. I found it randomly at Borders and picked it up because it looked interesting, and then I went and got it at the Orem library so I could keep reading it. It's a book about the Kennedy family and essentially how they were all terrible people, which I never knew. Anyway it's good, you should check it out.

feedback please

I'm testing new layouts thanks to Miri and Megan but I didn't want to use my regular blog to do it. So this is where our little book blog gets to be a guinea pig.

What do you guys think? Miri, how do you deal with not having the "new post" and "customize" options in the upper right hand corner of the blog? I think that's the only thing I don't like. That and it got rid of my widgets. I'll have to organize that with new stuff soon.

The Wheel of Time

So you might remember when I read The Eye of the World a while ago. I was mildly surprised at my response to it; not love, but definitely not hate. I liked it, and thought I probably wanted to read the second one, but I found myself dragging my feet and decided I wouldn't force myself. Eventually, though, I did read The Great Hunt, and as I was reading that one I discovered that I was really growing to like the series. I'm now on book four, The Shadow Rising, which follows The Dragon Reborn, and I am really into the series. So if you're interested, I think I'd recommend them. However, a couple things to consider before you start.
1) There are eleven books, with the twelfth (allegedly) on the way. These are not small books. The Shadow Rising is the biggest one so far, and it's over 1000 pages, but all the others are at least 500. I made no commitments to the entire series when I started, and I'm still not entirely sure I can summon the courage for the remaining seven, but thus far I have been unable to stop myself in the middle of it. This is probably due to my weird perfectionism that won't allow me to leave something in the middle even if I want to. I do like the books, though, so that's a part of it too. I'm into the story. I'm just not excited about those ones in the middle of the series that have such a reputation for hundreds of pages where nothing happens. Ugh.
2) Robert Jordan is a really annoying writer, for more than one reason. First is that he doesn't appear to understand/care about the rules of letter sounds in the English language. He makes up names all the time that don't sound anything like what they look like they should sound like (there's a pronunciation guide in the back), and it's frustrating to me. Second is that he writes really irritating characters. The girls start off okay, but as the series goes on they start pining after some of the male characters and it just gets dumb. Also the male characters are SO annoying in that they will never accept anything that's happening. Also Robert Jordan's use of slangy-type language is soooo silly, and even four books into the series I still cringe every time.
However. That said, I am still reading the series, and liking it a lot. Every now and then I have to rant to Mike about the latest thing that's annoying the crap out of me, but thus far the books are interesting enough to keep me reading. If you're looking for something fun and frivolous to occupy your time (and if you have a lot of time that you would like occupied), go ahead. They're fun.