TBIF: Thank book/blog it’s Friday! This week’s bookishness

BOOKKEEPING: The Reading Status Report

Reviews posted this week: The Unit, by Ninni Holmqvist
Next review scheduled: Certain Girls, by Jennifer Weiner (RYOB Challenge)

New additions to my “to be read” collection in LibraryThing:
The Widows of Eastwick, by John Updike (a belated sequel to The Witches of…)
Wife of the Gods: A Novel, by Kwei Quartey (for an upcoming TLC Book Tour)
Nothing but Ghosts and Undercover, both by Beth Kephart ++
Pasadena: A Novel, by David Ebershoff **

Thanks for the Reviews! Books I noticed on the blogs this week:
The Local News, by Miriam Gershow

++Have you heard that My Friend Amy and Presenting Lenore have joined forces to promote Beth Kephart’s newest novel, Nothing But Ghosts? Lenore reviews the book and interviews Beth, and Amy‘s hosting a book party and author chat next Tuesday. They’re also trying to get as many as 200 copies of the book sold by then – I couldn’t resist. I love Beth’s blog and look forward to reading her books for the first time.

** Did you read my post about meeting him this week? That’s when I bought this book, and here’s proof that it happened:

(L-R: Amy from My Friend Amy, me, David Ebershoff – photo by Lisa of Books on the Brain)

Tuesday Thingers, hosted at Wendi’s Book Corner: “Confusion”

Wendi says:

(On Monday), we had a small blogger/author/publicist get-together here in the Seattle area, and it was lots of fun! We talked about our blogs and a few of the sites we frequently use, Library Thing was there too!

One thing that came up was how confusing Library Thing can be. I was actually surprised to hear that, as it is the first book/review site I go to when I update my reviews.

Questions: What areas of Library Thing do you find confusing or frustrating? The team at LT seem to be continually updating things at the site. Is there anything in particular that you would like to see updated or changed?

My Answer: For the most part, I find LT pretty easy to use, and it seems to keep getting better. I have had some frustration in the past with the import/export functions, but my way of getting around that has been to add books a few at a time, as I acquire them. I’ve had issues when I’ve tried to export my LT library and import it into GoodReads, which is supposed to be possible (although not directly – it’s converted to an Excel-style spreadsheet first), but I don’t know whether LT or GoodReads is more at fault for that. However, that’s probably one reason that my GoodReads account doesn’t get nearly as much use as LT does.

I agree with Wendi’s own comment about the challenges of finding people on LT; GoodReads has LT beat on the “social” side of social networking, I believe. However, since I use LT primarily for keeping information about my books and consider the social part a mostly a nice bonus, I haven’t been too aggravated by that. Still, if you’re on LT and you’d like to be friends there, here’s my profile – come and visit!


Booking Through Thursday: “Hot!”

btt button

Now that summer is here (in the northern hemisphere, anyway), what is the most “Summery” book you can think of? The one that captures the essence of summer for you?
(I’m not asking for you to list your ideal “beach reading,” you understand, but the book that you can read at any time of year but that evokes “summer.”)

I can come up with songs, movies, and even foods that seem associated with summer for me – but books? Not much. I think that may be because, for me, that evocation of a particular time or place is more of a visceral, sensory thing, and reading engages my brain more than my senses, if you follow. In a lot of cases, prior to this blog, I’m not even entirely sure of when I read things, especially since I haven’t followed an academic calendar for well over twenty years, and that’s when summer tended to stand out a lot more.

But having said that, the first book I thought of is one that I know I read in the summer – more than once, actually, but nearly always in the summer: The Thorn Birds, by Colleen McCulloch. Those summers were mostly during high school, though, which backs up my point about the academic calendar. Between that and the fact that I’ve lived good chunks of my life in places where the seasons tend to blend into each other, summer doesn’t really seem to stand out much any more.


Friday Fill-ins #130

Serendipity
Graphic courtesy of Tonya!

1. She had a great collection of potholders.

2. A book (if I’m lucky, a good one) is by my side, always.

3. I know this: I either don’t have enough time, or I don’t make the best choices about how to use the time I have.

4. The traffic stands still.

5. These words apply to me: life is short, and so am I.

6. It’s been a few mornings since the sun was shining (we’re actually having some “June Gloom” this year).

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to a quiet evening, tomorrow my plans include taking my mother-in-law out for a birthday dinner and Sunday, I want to enjoy lunch with the kids before we send them off to spend a week at Grandma’s!

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,318 other subscribers

9 comments

  1. Kathy (Bermudaonion) – I don't know if I'd go that far, although I did enjoy meeting him. I think it's mostly the camera angle. Lisa's about a foot taller than I am :-).

  2. So, are you the potholder collector? Just wonder. 🙂

    I get to work this weekend, that's what I get for taking vacation. Have a good weekend.

  3. Storm – I'm a few inches under 5'. My nine-year-old is almost as tall as I am already.

    Mike – No! For some reason, that was just the first thing that came to mind, and it seemed just absurd enough to use.

    Seems like there's always a payback for vacation, doesn't it?

    Nat (BookLineandSinker) – Seems like a win-win, doesn't it? I don't know when I'll get around to reading them, but I'm looking forward to doing so.

  4. Woohoo! The weekend is here at last. It was such a long week. I think it had more to do with the fact that it wasn't quite as busy at work, which always makes the time drag a little bit slower. Not that I want overwhelming busy. Just a nice steady busy will do.

    Anyhow, let's get to you! I really liked your review of The Unit. I remember seeing that in the store the other day and thinking it sounded good. I have yet to read a book by Jennifer Weiner. Someday. 🙂

    I got a copy of Wife of the Gods for the tour too. I was surprised though. I figured since I had mentioned that I already had a copy, they wouldn't send me another. Now I have one for a giveaway!

    I can't wait to read your thoughts on Pasadena when you get to it. I'd like to read something else by David Ebershoff too. I can't believe I missed your post about your meeting with the author. How did I manage that? I'll check it out later. After lunch. Hubby's getting a little antsy since I've been on the computer longer than I meant to be, and so we haven't yet had lunch. I told him this would be the last post I comment on for now (see how I am saving the best for last?).

    I had such a hard time the first time I joined Good Reads and tried to import my LT library into GoodReads. It was a bit frustrating. This time around, I am doing it a bit differently and am not using GoodReads the way I had originally been thinking I would.

    When I think about it, I have to agree with you in regards to your initial statement in response to this week's BTT question. Music, movies, songs, and foods I can think of in terms of summer, but not so much books. I do tend to associate reading more to summers, even thought that hasn't been the case for me since I graduated from the university.

    My mom has quite a collection of potholders. 🙂 I think we have three total in the house. LOL Time management can be such a struggle. Like you, I know that all too well.

    Today's quite sunny. Looks like the June Gloom is lifting. I hope you have a great weekend. Enjoy the birthday dinner.

  5. Wendy (Literary Feline) – I hope to see you at one of the author stops for the Wife of the Gods tours; apparently Kwei Quartey is a local too. I think I like the combination of virtual and actual book tours!

    I'm glad I'm not the only one who's been frustrated by trying to duplicate their LT library on GoodReads. So, how are you using GoodReads? I end up reading other people's reviews and updates there, but almost never adding my own.

    I have about half a dozen potholders. I wouldn't call it a collection. Refrigerator magnets, on the other hand…

    We took my mother-in-law to see Star Trek before her birthday dinner – she hadn't seen it yet(!). It's still good the third time (or the fourth, in Tall Paul's case), and she really liked it too.

    "Hubby's getting a little antsy since I've been on the computer longer than I meant to be, and so we haven't yet had lunch. I told him this would be the last post I comment on for now." The exact same thing has happened in my house more often than I'd like to admit, but our husbands could probably compare notes :-).

    Hope you're enjoying your weekend, Wendy!

  6. Hey, Florinda!

    Just wanted to let you know that you're entered in the NOTHING BUT GHOSTS giveaway for the $150 Amazon.com gift card!

    You're awesome!

    Take care and talk soon…

    XO

    Anna