books, the universe, and everything

Vox friends & readers:

I feel very bittersweet announcing that I'm another person jumping ship: I'm moving Books, the Universe, and Everything over to Wordpress.

My main three reasons for leaving Vox are:
1. The requirement for people to register to leave comments.
2. The inability to control how much of each post gets published in the RSS feed. (I hate that RSS subscribers can't see my full posts.)
3. The lack of formatting and style control.

As long as my Vox friends are still interested, I will be posting links on Vox whenever I have new posts on Wordpress. You can comment on Vox, or on Wordpress - whatever you prefer.  

Additionally, if you'd like to stay up to date on my posts, you can subscribe to the RSS feed, or follow Books, the Universe & Everything on Facebook. (Links to new posts will appear in your news feed.)

My new Wordpress blog is located here:
http://www.booksuniverseeverything.com/

I have moved all 407 posts from Vox over to Wordpress - and each post links back to the original post on Vox to read the comments.

And while this definitely isn't goodbye, I just want to take a moment to thank all my Vox neighbors. It's been a pleasure getting to know you and to read your wonderful blogs. I look forward to continuing to read & comment on my Neighborhood page, and will do so as long as there are posts there to read. 

I'm excited for Books, the Universe, and Everything's new home, but I'm sad to leave Vox as well. I hope that my neighbors on Vox will continue to follow me at my new location.
 

Links to my first Wordpress posts:
-October's Polysyllabic Spree
-New Home & Book Giveaway

MBS & the Prisoner's Dilemma

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma by Trenton Lee Stewart is the third book about a group of four extraordinarily gifted and adventurous children who call themselves the Mysterious Benedict Society.

Since this is the third book in the series, I won't say much here about the plot. I've enjoyed all three books, and while the first will always be my favorite, I think Prisoner's Dilemma is the second best. I enjoyed that they were back home at Mr. Benedict's mansion for most of this one, and the action built up nicely.

The MBS books in general are fabulous - they have it all: great characters, illustrations that are a bit Gorey-esque, a formidable group of bad guys, logic puzzles, brain teasers, and pie.

This series is outstanding, and is a perfect gift for kids (boys or girls) from about 5th grade through 9th. It's also a series that adults who enjoy YA & kid's novels will love too; my mom and many of my friends have read and loved them.

For anyone wanting to give this series a try, I recommend starting with the first book, The Mysterious Benedict Society, which is available in paperback from The Book Depository for only $3.49.

Look at the Birdie

Look at the Birdie is the second posthumous collection by Kurt Vonnegut. The first was Armageddon in Retrospect, which came out last year.

I thought this collection was a lot better than Armageddon in Retrospect. Armageddon had some good stories, but there were a few I wasn't crazy about. I really enjoyed every story in Look at the Birdie. It's a very solid collection.

Here's one of my favorite passages, from the story "A Song for Selma" -

Ernest Groper, the physics teacher, joined the group. He was a rude, realistic, bomb-shaped man, at war with sloppy thinking. As he transferred his lunch from his tray to the table, he gave the impression that he was obeying the laws of motion voluntarily, with gusto - not because he had to obey them but because he thought they were darn fine laws. 

I read somewhere that one of the next posthumous books by Kurt Vonnegut will be a collection of letters. I'm excited for this, I've read some of his letters and I really enjoyed them.

Look at the Birdie is currently available from The Book Depository for 50% off. 

I had no idea how much fun the Read-a-Thon would be. I had a blast! I loved settling in for a cozy day of reading and good snacks, doing mini-challenges, reading posts from other participants, and tweeting with everyone. I'm already excited for the next one.

Here's a recap of how I did - book reviews to come. I also have several non-Read-a-Thon books that still need reviews posted.

Books Read: 3
Pages Read: 691
Blog Posts: 9
Mini-Challenges Completed: 11
Coffee Consumed: 2 mugs, plus 1 Starbucks Doubleshot around hour 15
Hours I Participated: 18 (some more successful than others)

Books I finished:
Cherries in Winter by Suzan Colon
Making Mischief by Gregory Maguire
The Wild Things by Dave Eggers

Blog Posts:
Hour 1
Hour 2
Hour 4
Hour 7
Hour 9
Hour 12
Hour 13
Hour 17
Hour 18

Mini-Challenge Won:
I was so excited to win Erika's Mini-Challenge! I won my choice of 2 books from the prize page, and a set of bookmarks! The books I chose were:
The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett
The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent 

Money raised for 826 NYC:
I decided to donate $10 for every book finished and $3 for every blog post to 826 NYC. So with 3 books finished and 9
blog posts, that's $57 for 826 NYC!

If you're interested in signing up for the next Read-a-Thon, follow Dewey's Read-a-Thon for updates.

Congrats to Michelle, Dominique, Vishy, Claire, Vasilly, Amanda, and everyone else who participated! And HUGE thanks to all the amazing Cheerleaders!

Well folks, I think this is it for me tonight. I've had an absolutely lovely time participating in the read-a-thon!

I made it to hour 18, which is longer than I expected to last.

I finished The Wild Things during hour 17, for a total of 3 books finished during the read-a-thon.

I'm heading to my final read-a-thon location...my bed. I will read The Magicians by Lev Grossman until I fall asleep.

Thanks to everyone who help host the event at Dewey's, everyone who hosted mini-challenges, donated prizes, cheerleaders, etc. This has been amazing!

I will post a recap tomorrow, with info on how much I raised for 826 NYC, and all other stats. Book reviews will follow, slowly but surely.

Goodnight!

Books Read: 2
Blog Posts: 8 (including this one)
Mini-Challenges Completed: 11 (including the one below)
Coffee Consumed: 2 mugs, plus 1 Starbucks Doubleshot

My progress was severely hindered by the exciting and ultimately heartbreaking MSU game this evening, but I'm only about 40 pages from the end of The Wild Things. It will most likely be the last book I finish during the read-a-thon. I'll start The Mating Season, but am unlikely to finish before needing to finally sleep.

This next challenge (and possibly my last challenge tonight) is the Give Me Five mini-challenge hosted by Infant Bibliophile.

"Go to your blog and post a list of five favorite children's books.  They don't have to be THE five end-all-be-all of your favorites, because then you'll just agonize over which ones to pick, and we want this to be easy.  Just list five off the top of your head that you enjoyed as a child, or that your children enjoy."

I love children's books, and still read them frequently. Five of my favorites:
1. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
2. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
3. Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
4. The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall
5. Matilda by Roald Dahl

Time for the mid-Read-a-Thon survey!

1. What are you reading right now?

The Wild Things by Dave Eggers

2. How many books have you read so far?

Two - Cherries in Winter and Making Mischief 

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?

The Mating Season by P. G. Wodehouse

4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day?

Not really, didn't have any plans.

5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?

The MSU game is my only real interruption, but I'm fairly good at reading while a game is on. :)

6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?

How fun the mini-challenges are! I didn't really expect to do anything except read & post reviews.

7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?

Nope, I love it as-is!

8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year?

At the last minute I realized I should have short books, so I can get through many books. I would plan better to have more short books picked out before.

9. Are you getting tired yet?

Not yet, but in a few more hours it's going to start being a real challenge.

10. Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered?

Short books have been amazing so far! I wish I had some graphic novels to read as well.

We're almost halfway!

Not much to update, still reading The Wild Things. Haven't progressed much - went out to Barnes and Noble, and now I'm eating dinner.

But I wanted to update to participate in the Reading is Fundamental mini-challenge from Joystory.

"The challenge is to create a post celebrating the reading child and to link to the Reading is Fundamental webpage."

Lots of great ideas for posts are included on the mini-challenge post, and I've decided to write a little bit about my childhood reading:

Dad and me reading

2 comments

Books and reading were a huge part of my childhood. My Mom and Dad both read to me, and before long I was reading books to them. They made sure my supply of books never ran dry, and encouraged me to read whatever struck my curiosity. I am the reader I am today because of my wonderful childhood in a book-filled home.

Reading is the most important part of a child's early education, and I love the support Reading is Fundamental gives to children.

What a great idea for a mini-challenge. :) 

I finished Making Mischief: A Maurice Sendak Appreciation by Gregory Maguire at the end of hour 7.

I started For Grace Received, but wasn't feeling it. So I switched to The Wild Things by Dave Eggers (my fur covered edition!) which I'm really enjoying. I think I can at least finish this today... we'll see if I can get to four or not.

Books Read: 2
Blog Posts: 5 (including this one)
Mini-Challenges Completed: 5 (including the one below)
Coffee Consumed: 1 mug (soon to increase)

I'm going to take a small break soon - I'd like to go outside and get a little fresh air on this rainy afternoon. I'll probably walk to Barnes and Noble and look around for a bit. Visiting a bookstore always gives me motivation to read more, so it will help inspire me for the rest of the read-a-thon. Maybe I'll even get a new book. :)

The next Mini-Challenge is Collection Obsession by http://www.caribousmom.com. The goal is to share a photo a info about one of your non-book obsessions.

I'm hoping this counts, because it's still bookish. But it's the most feasible collection I have to photograph easily. Besides, it's not actually books.

I collect bookmarks. I buy them, find them, and get them from bookstores and libraries. I have hundreds, and I keep them in a cigar box.

Bookmarks

I've now had lunch (mac & cheese) and finished Cherries in Winter.

I'm onto book 2: Making Mischief: A Maurice Sendak Appreciation by Gregory Maguire. This is a fun and interesting book, and it should go quickly (there are a lot of pictures). I'm on page 106 of 197.

The next Mini-Challenge I'm participating in is the Eat to Read Mini-Challenge, hosted by Beth Fish Reads. The objective? Share what's in your snack pile.

Yesterday I stocked up on snack foods for the 'Thon. I had a really lovely walk to the grocery store - it was 10:30 pm, dark, in the low-50s, and raining. The rain was light though, I didn't need an umbrella. I strolled through wet leaves on the sidewalk, and it felt quite October-ish.

Here's the food I chose:

ReadaThon Food