Weekly Geeks 2009-37

For me, part of the joy of blogging is learning from such a wide variety of people. It's been a great chance for me to open myself up to new ideas and perspectives. At the same time, I notice that the vast majority of book bloggers seem to fall into the same demographic.

So this happens to be my week to write the question for both Weekly Geeks and the C.O.R.A. Diversity Roll Call. So, I thought to myself: "What a great opportunity! Just this once, I'll meld the two memes into one big Diversity-Geek-Roll-Call thingy, offering the chance for Geeks and C.O.R.A.s to play together." (If you normally do both, you can either consider yourself off the hook for one, or do one option for each, or whatever suits you best.)

Pick one of these:

1)Write a post highlighting one or more bloggers who are extremely different from you in some way. For example, think about blogger(s) who:
a. Identify with another race and/or ethnicity, religion, cultural background, age, etc. from you
b. Live the farthest from you
c. Have entirely different tastes in books from you (but you love their blog anyway)

If you can't think of any, go exploring and find some! Or . . .

2) Write a "Personals Ad" post to find bloggers who are outside your norm. Mine might read:

MWF (married white female) homeschool mom from a Pacific Northwest U.S. city seeks bloggers who enjoy literary (but not too literary) fiction, long walks on the beach, music, and will make me laugh.

Then other participants can recommend bloggers (including themselves, of course) who come from a different demographic and have similar interests.

3)Another option: If you consider yourself to be in the minority in some way in the blogosphere, write about that experience and/or highlight favorite bloggers who fit into that same subgroup. Interpretation of this is up to you—-be creative! If we look hard enough, we're probably all different-from-the-norm in one way or another.

When your post is done and linked here, I invite you to also head over to the Diversity Roll Call and put your link there, too. (Diversity Roll Call runs twice a month, is co-hosted by fellow Weekly Geeker Susan and I, and has the same open door policy that Weekly Geeks does—-new people are welcome to join in once, or as often as they wish).

Be sure to visit the other posts to discover new bloggers, recommend some old favorites, and maybe broaden some horizons a bit in the process.

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Weekly Geeks 2009-36

This past week wrapped up Book Blogger Appreciation Week, in which I'm sure many of you participated. In two weeks will be Banned Books Week, in which I'm sure some of you also will participate. I'm also sure that many of you participated, and will participate, with at least a post per day, if not more, on your respective blogs.

Personally, after such weeks, I feel almost burnt out and think, "Why am I doing this? I'm not getting paid for this." Do you ever feel the same way after weeks like the ones mentioned above? If you do, what do you to counter it? How do you keep going? Do you take a break from posts after that, or do you just "soldier on"?

Or if you don't feel burnt out after such weeks, why not? Also why are you a book blogger? From what I've seen and experienced, it's certainly not the fame or the glory that you get. So what is it? Why? Why? Why?

Sign in with Mr. Linky by putting a link to your post and leave a comment if you're so inclined. Thanks for participating. Hope this doesn't contribute to your burnout. ;) I look forward to hearing what you have to say.

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Round-up for WG 2009-35

When Terri asked us to write about our reading plans, I fully expected to see samples of the ultimate spreadsheets and flowcharts, illustrating how fully geeky some of us are when it comes to reading. There I was, cowering in the corner with my multiple TBR piles, ready to be totally intimidated by everyone's superior organizational skills.

Not the case, after all! Maybe the geekiest of us were too busy writing up and editing their spreadsheets (or immersed in Book Blogger Appreciation Week) to post them.

In fact, far more of us—at least of those who responded—are inclined to agree with Maree of Just Add Books who writes:

I never plan my reading. I sort of stumble over books in a clumsy and graceless fashion and read whatever smacks me in the face the hardest.

Kerrie, of Mysteries in Paradise, treated us to a nifty flow chart to show how her monthly reads are determined. It's not so much a system, as an outline of how her priorities come into play. It's simple enough not to require the type of regular updating that would eat away at reading time. And it's in color!

The closest we got to a big-time planner was Puss ReBoots, who used to have a master reading plan but recently gave it up in favor of the "willy-nilly approach." Puss Reboots is a planner at heart, though. She even has planned randomness, using random.org to schedule the order that she posts her reviews. Now that's dedication!

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Weekly Geeks 2009-35: What's the Plan?

It's hard to believe we're approaching the last quarter of 2009. Soon those of us in the northern hemisphere will be curled up in front of the fire (or solar heater) with our favorite wintry reads, and those in the southern will be off to the beaches with their summer books.

Do you have a plan of what you're going to read the rest of the year? Have you had a master plan all along? If so, have you stuck to it? What helps you to decide what you're going to read next? Challenges? Book groups? Or do you have the luxury of closing your eyes and picking any book off your shelf?

I know some of you have spreadsheets and other devices to help you keep track of your books and challenges. (I even succumbed to using a spreadsheet this year after teasing my friends relentlessly about theirs.) If you have online spreadsheets, such as Google, can you give us a peek at them with a link or a screen shot?


As usual, sign Mr. Linky below and leave us a comment if you're so inclined. Don't forget to visit your fellow Geeksters and see what kind of plan they're working on for the rest of 2009. Maybe you'll get inspired for 2010!
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Have you voted yet for your favorite blogs for Book Bloggers Appreciation Week? The voting ends at midnight tonight! Weekly Geeks is on the shortlist for Best Meme/Carnival Event. And sally forth next week and appreciate you some bloggers!

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Round-up for WG 2009-34

This week’s Weekly Geeks was prompted by Shannon Hale’s blog post from a few week back, in which she discussed book evaluation and self evaluation.

We offered three choices for your post, to rewrite a negative review, write a new review, or respond to Shannon’s six questions about how you review.

Here is a sampling from this week’s contributors:

Maree at Just Add Books wrote both a new review (The Graveyard Book), and answered questions about a negative review (Handle with Care).

Ceri at Not in the Pink offered her thoughtful answers to the six questions.

Stephanie at Reviews by Lola discussed why her review of Fast Food Nation was negative.

Bernadette at Reactions to Reading also answered the six questions, and talked about how part of her motivation for posting reviews is to engage in a discussion about the book.

Azrael at The Double Breasted Dust Jacket wrote about how he puts a lot of work into his reviews, with the goal of being honest.

Overachiever Violet Crush answered all three options. Extra credit for her!

Trisha at Eclectic/Eccentric posted a lovely letter to Ms. Hale.

And Heather at Book Addiction answered the six questions…and asked if anyone would like to design a button for her favorites. Anyone feeling creative?

If you haven’t already, be sure to stop by these blogs, and all of this week’s participants, and show some Geek love.

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Also, Weekly Geeks made the shortlist for Best Meme/Carnival/Event. As did the 24 Hour Read-a-thon. Thank you, thank you!! Don't forget to go rock the vote! Since both Weekly Geeks and the Read-a-thon are legacies of Dewey, these nominations are a wonderful tribute to her and her contributions to the blogosphere.

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Weekly Geeks 2009-34

Hello Geeks.

Shannon Hale (author of Austenland and The Actor and the Housewife, as well as many other books) recently posted on her blog about reviewing books. Take a moment to go read her post, in which she talks about going beyond saying simply whether or not you liked a book when writing a review.

For this week’s Weekly Geeks, we challenge you to respond to the questions Ms. Hale asks in one of three ways.

1. Find a negative review that you have written. In your post, link to or include the original review and then rewrite it to answer these questions:

• Why did you react negatively to the book?
• What was it about the story or characters or style that hit you so strongly?
• Are you reacting to any fears or insecurities?

2. Write a new review about a book you loved, keeping in mind these questions:

• What was it about the story that resonated?
• Would you have loved this book as much ten years ago? Five years ago?
• Will you keep loving it in the future?
• Where are you in your life that this is the story you wanted and needed?

3. At the end of her post, Ms. Hale posed six questions for those who review books on their blogs or other sites. Write a letter to Ms. Hale explaining your position on each of these questions, then return to her post and leave a comment with a link to your post. And remember her request to speak freely, but kindly and respectfully!

• Do you find that the anticipation of reviewing the book has changed your reading experience?
• Are you rating the book even as you read? Or do you wait until the end to sum it all up?
• Does knowing you'll be reviewing it (or rating it) publicly affect which books you pick up in the first place?
• Does the process of writing the review itself change how you felt about the book?
• What is your motivation to assign a rating to a book and declare it to the world?
• If you review a book but don't rate, why not? What do you feel is your role as reviewer?

Thanks to Rhapsody in Books and Word Lily for the inspiration for this week’s post!

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Weekly Geeks 2009-33 Round-up: Many of One

This week, Suey asked Weekly Geeks about collecting one particular book:

Last year, I saw a movie, I think it was called Definitely, Maybe, that got me to thinking. In this movie, one of the girls was on a quest to find a particular copy of Jane Eyre, I forget now the specific reason why. But in the process of her search, she ended up with this massive collection of Jane Eyre books, from all sorts of places and years and styles. She had a shelf that went all the way around her room, filled with these wonderful Jane Eyre books.

It made me wish I had a collection like hers, a collection of one particular title, in all its various versions.

So, Weekly Geeksters, tell us, do you have a collection (or are you starting a collection) of one particular book title? If so, what's your story? Why that book, and how many do you have, and what editions are they? Share pictures and give us all the details.

Or perhaps you dream about starting such a collection. What title would it be and what would it take for you to get motivated to start collecting?

Or maybe it's the works of a particular author you collect (or want to collect) instead a certain book title?

Not many Geeks seem to have extensive collections of single titles, although some admit to having more than just one or two editions of a few books.

At Dreaming Out Loud, Marineko posts about her collection of various editions of A Wrinkle in Time and the other novels in Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quartet. Elena's collection of over eighty books by and/or about J.R.R. Tolken includes multiple copies of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, which she posts about on All Booked Up - and she dreams of adding some first editions to it.

Sometimes collections just happen. Trisha at eclectic/eccentric has accidentally acquired multiple copies of several books, but wouldn't mind deliberately collecting even more copies of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. At Nonsuch Book, Frances showed fellow Geeks that she actually does have a Jane Eyre collection - and one of Swann's Way as well - but neither of them was intentional.

Gautami of everything distils into reading has nearly-complete collections of several authors, and is more motivated to collect those than multiple editions of a single book. Michelle at Master Musings by Michelle is more of an "author collector" as well.

In an interesting twist on the topic, Deanna discussed her duplicate and triplicate copies on Kitsch Slapped, and was inspired by that to do some musing on the classification of bibliophiles at Collectors' Quest.

Thanks to all of the Weekly Geeks participants this week! Check back tomorrow for a new topic.

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