Category: Blog Hop

Blog Hop: Creative Things to Do with Books

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop, Ruminations3 Comments

book blogger hopThis week’s Book Blogger Hop question: What is the most creative thing you have ever done with a book?

I have to admit, I’m not quite sure what this question is looking for…but vagueness does open wide possibilities!  Mostly, the only things I do with books are read them or keep them on my shelf 🙂 but I do have two interesting stories.

Freshman year in college, I had a small TV that I wanted to put on my desk in the dorm room.  Due to logistical complications, to really watch it I needed it to be about two feet higher on the desk.  So I went to the school library, found eight enormous hardback books, and took them home to use as a stand.  I’m not sure what the person checking the books out for me thought I was doing, considering not all of them were even in English…  But they made a good temporary solution, until I could get to Office Max and buy a more proper stand!

And two, a much more recent story…just last weekend there was a WizardCon convention in my city.  For those not familiar, it was a convention for all things geeky, with merchandise and celebrity guests doing presentations and signing autographs.  One of the guests was Billy Dee Williams, who you probably know as Lando Calrissian from Star Wars.  I decided that the one unique souvenir I wanted was to have my copy of The Lando Calrissian Adventures signed by Billy Dee Williams, General Calrissian himself.  And I got it!

WizardCon1There will, of course, be more on WizardCon for future Saturday Snapshots… 🙂

Blog Hop: Book Blogger Purist?

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop, Ruminations8 Comments

book blogger hopThis week’s Book Blogger Hop question: Are you a book blogger purist? Do you only have book related posts or do you review/post on anything/everything that catches your eye?

I feel like if I was really a purist book blogger, I’d only post book reviews.  Which, obviously, I don’t!  On the other hand, I do try to keep to my general theme–which, as I think about it, may be less about books and more about stories.  I do movie and TV reviews, sometimes I post about songs, and I share my fiction writing at times, but the common thread is stories.

All my challenge posts relate to books and reading, and most of my blog event/meme posts do too–except for Saturday Snapshot, of course, but even that one I try to give a book spin when I can.  Or if it isn’t a book-related photo, I try to at least give a story to the photo I’m posting!

Your turn: book bloggers, do you consider yourself a purist in what you post?  Blog readers, do you like blogs to have laser-focus on their topic, or do you like more varied posts?

Blog Hop: Christmas Books

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop, Ruminations5 Comments

book blogger hopThis week’s Book Blogger Hop question: What is your favorite book set around Christmastime?

Most of my holiday traditions, oddly enough, center around movies rather than books.  The Charlie Brown Christmas Special is a must-watch every year, closely followed by It’s a Wonderful Life.

As to books though…I’m a traditionalist, and I like A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.  A lovely message, with one of my favorite Christmas quotes–not Tiny Tim’s, but this rather longer one from Scrooge’s nephew, on the meaning of the season: “I have always thought of Christmas time…as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.”

A more recent favorite Christmas book is The Mischief of the Mistletoe by Lauren Willig.  Arabella and the wonderfully-named Turnip join forces to investigate possible spies at a girls’ school during a Regency-era Christmas–with Jane Austen as a supporting character!  It’s funny and sweet and Arabella and Turnip are two of my very favorite book characters.

I could use a few more good books set at Christmas…what are your favorites?

Blog Hop: Christmas Wishes

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop, Ruminations4 Comments

First of all, Happy Friday the Thirteenth!  Watch out for ladders and talking ravens. 🙂

book blogger hop

This week’s Book Blogger Hop question: What books do you want for Christmas?

You know, there are less than you might think…because I get the vast majority of my books from the library, and when I madly love something, well–I usually buy it!  And then, I’ve been working on collecting books by my favorite authors for so long, I own all the obvious ones.

However–that doesn’t mean I don’t have an Amazon wishlist…  And near the top are Cybele’s Secret and Heir to Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier, Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George, and (bookish if not actually a book) the Masterpiece Theatre film of Northanger Abbey.  Maybe the best would be The Bread We Eat in Dreams by Catherynne M. Valente, because I must admit I’m balking rather at the current list price (downside–it won’t actually be released until December 31st).

What books would you like to receive?  And may I suggest a really great book to put on your Christmas wish list? 🙂

Blog Hop: Scheduling Memes and Reviews

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop5 Comments

book blogger hopThis week’s Book Blogger Hop question: When you are out of town, do you still participate in weekly memes or do you have your post scheduled to appear on your blog and perhaps check back? Or do you not participate at all?

Handling memes while out of town isn’t too challenging for me, because all the memes I regularly participate in are ones I can easily prepare ahead of time.  With only the occasional exception, I schedule all my blog posts (for instance, I’m writing this on a Monday…)  You may have noticed they all publish at the same time of day!  Scheduling ahead lets me avoid the stress of needing to do last-minute writing, which for me works much better.

Anyway, the challenge when I’m out of town isn’t putting the memes on my blog, but getting my post linked on the host blog.  Sometimes I link up very early before I leave town, or use my smart phone later.

So all that adds up to–yes, I do generally still participate while traveling.  It’s not as much fun, of course, because I usually don’t have time/opportunity to interact with the other participants…but I can still be involved a bit by posting.

Anyone else who’s run into this?  What’s your strategy on memes-while-traveling?

Addendum: So it turns out I misread the schedule, and answered last week’s question!  Meaning you’re getting a double-feature today…  This week’s question is: Do you post your book reviews as soon as you have completed the book or do you wait a few days?

As noted above, I don’t post hardly anything immediately.  The more relevant point may be whether I write the reviews as soon as I finished the book or wait, and…I don’t have a definitive answer.  Often I wait a few days until I have a convenient space to write up a review.  Sometimes I’m so inspired that I write a review immediately.  Other times books sit around for a couple of weeks before I get around to writing the review.  Oddly, it doesn’t seem to have much to do with how much I enjoyed the reading…

So–how do you schedule your writing and/or posting?