Weekly Geek # 3

This week’s theme comes from Samantha, who suggested that one week we all write about our fond memories of childhood books.

As a child I used to go every Saturday to the library get out the maximum six books and read them all in a week - I think I maxed out the kids and teenage section of the library pretty fast.

My 3 top childhood reads:
My Girl: The novel of the film with Maculay Culkin in it. I must have been around 11 or 12 and read it over and over again, it used to make me cry loads - when a friend died when I was 13 I would read the funeral scene in this over and over as it was my way of letting out what I was feeling. Anyway I leant the book to someone and never saw it again.

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe: I got into this after the BBC made a TV adaptation of it in weekly instalments, we all used to sit around as a family and watch it at tea time on a Sunday evening. I must have been about 9 years old. I loved the book even more, I think it is that idea of being able to escape into another world that all kids love, also a world where there are no parents in charge and the kids have to face and solve the problems themselves.

The third would have to be a Roald Dahl book - probably Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as I loved the family with all the old grandparents in the bed together. I got into his books at around 6 or 7 and read them for years.

Challenge: What's In A Name

I spotted this challenge that has been going on since the beginning of the year but I'm going to jump on the band wagon anyway. The challenge is hosted by Annie. You have to read 6 books one from each of these categories:

"What's In A Name?" Reading ChallengeDates: January 1, 2008 through December 31, 2008The Challenge: Choose one book from each of the following categories.

1. A book with a color in its title. Examples might include: The Amber Spyglass, The Red Pony, Blue Blood

2. A book with an animal in its title. Examples might include: The Hound of the Baskervilles, To Kill a Mockingbird, Julie of the Wolves

3. A book with a first name in its title. Examples might include: Jane Eyre, the Harry Potter books, Anne of Green Gables

4. A book with a place in its title. Examples might include: From Russia with Love, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Out of Africa

5. A book with a weather event in its title. Examples might include: The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Red Storm Rising, Tornado Alley

6. A book with a plant in its title. Examples might include: Where the Red Fern Grows, The Name of the Rose, Flowers for Algernon

--You may overlap books with other challenges, but please don't use the same book for more than one category. (For example, you can use The Red Pony for either a "color" book or an "animal" book, but not for both.)

My Choices:

1. Colour = The Red Queen

2. Animal = Moon Tiger (read)

3. First Name = Elizabeth Costello

4. Place = Breakfast at Tiffany's

5. Weather = Gone with the Wind

6. Flower = The Fragrance of Guava

Booking Through Thursday: Manual Labour

Writing guides, grammar books, punctuation how-tos . .
.
do you read them? Not read them? How many writing books, grammar books,
dictionaries–if any–do you have in your library?

I have a few different grammar and punctuation books as I'm an English teacher and I use them to check things I'm uncertain of, or when I need activities or examples. The only one I have read is 'Eat Shoots and Leaves'.

One massive dictionary and a huge thesaraus again used for school and when I was at uni. I'm always completely shocked at the amount of kids I teach that can't use a dictionary - they know how it works but takes forever, far too used to spell check!

Mayday - Booking Through Thursday

Booking Through Thursday

Quick! It’s an emergency! You just got an urgent call about a family emergency and had to rush to the airport with barely time to grab your wallet and your passport. But now, you’re stuck at the airport with nothing to read. What do you do??
And, no, you did NOT have time to grab your bookbag, or the book next to your bed. You were . . . grocery shopping when you got the call and have nothing with you but your wallet and your passport (which you fortuitously brought with you in case they asked for ID in the ethnic food aisle). This is hypothetical, remember….

Although at all costs I avoid the bookshops I would have to be forced, a Jodie Picoult novel and a good newspaper would have to do. Saying that at Heathrow they have a big Waterstones bookshop so if I was there I'd have to stop myself from buying more than one book.

Weekly Geek

This weeks Weekly Geek

The theme for Week 2 is something I borrowed (yes, she said it was ok!)
from Darla at Books and Other Thoughts. She says in her sidebar that if she reviews a book that you’ve reviewed, you
can email her and she’ll link to it in her review. I love this idea for three
reasons.
1. As a blog reader, I like that I can have my review linked in
someone else’s blog.
2. As a blog reader, I like that if I’m interested in a
book Darla writes about, there will be other reviews linked at the bottom of the
page, so I can get other viewpoints. You can see how this works here.
3.
As a blog writer, when I review a book, I often remember that I read someone
else’s review at some point, but whose? And when? With Darla’s method, people
tell her about their reviews, and she can see what they had to say about a book
that is still fresh in her mind.
So here’s your challenge! If you’re willing,
adopt Darla’s policy in your own blog. I realize this is a big commitment, so
think it over first, but I think it can be really community-building.

Anyone who wishes to add a link to any of my reviews is more than welcome although I don't have a huge amount at the moment as I'm fairly new.

Southern Reading Challenge 2008

This challenge is being hosted by Maggie Reads, participants have to read 3 southern set books by Southern authors between May 15th to August 15th. I loved the feeling and atmosphere created when I read the Ya-Ya Sisterhood years ago so I'm hoping I can find some more great reads like that.

I need to think about which books to pick. Thinking at the moment about: The Sound and the Fury, Gone With the Wind and something else, I'm thinking either The Awakening or Cold Mountain. There's loads to pick from on the 125 best Southern Reads page, but looking for something fairly modern.

Books Read:

The Secrets We Keep, Monroe (North Carolina)

Gone With the Wind, Mitchell (Georgia)

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Mississippi) with challenge wrap-up

May's Reading List

1.Persian Brides - this is part of a bookring but will also help Reading Around the World Challenge , Orbius and The Novella Challenge. (read)
2. I Am Charlotte Simmons - for Orbius and Reading Around the World (Abandoned)
3. Gravity's Rainbow - 1001 Challenge (Currently Reading)
4. Elizabeth Costello - for 1001 and the Novella Challenge
5. The Gathering - The Complete Booker, Notable Books
6. The Echo Maker - I Heard it Through the Grapevine ( read)
7. The Poisonwood Bible - MLA, 1001

Plus whatever else comes along.