Ramblings
Seasons Greetings and Reading Resolutions
I know I’m a little late for some of the holidays this month, but I hope all of my readers had a wonderful holiday season! It doesn’t feel like winter in my part of the world so it really didn’t FEEL like the holidays compared to past years. On another note – look at this cute book tree that I found on Pinterest!
Did you get any good gifts? Any good gifts involving BOOKS? I know quite a few people who were gifted Kindle Fires. I’m really curious about them but it doesn’t seem to make sense for me to get a tablet like that since I already have a smartphone, Kindle 2, and a laptop. But they look pretty awesome! I’ve noticed that the traffic here has been pretty steady over the past few days – I guess a lot of people are searching for new books to download to their e-readers and tablets!
One of my Twitter friends is a librarian, avid reader, and blogger and gave me an idea. She had set a goal of 45 books to read in 2011. And she hit the goal with a few weeks left in December! Holy cow! When I heard that, I thought I’d check Goodreads to see how many books I’ve read this year because I knew it had to be a lot. I was slightly disappointed to see that it was only 26, but then I realized that 1) that’s a whole lot more than most normal people read per year (or per five years! Or ten!), and 2) I was planning a wedding for the first half of the year and was too busy doing DIY stuff to read in my spare time. So I GUESS I can be okay with 26. But I bet I could get more than that next year. 35 maybe? I also have to keep in mind that I have to pay for most of these books so I can’t go too crazy. Although I still have a ton of books on my Kindle that I haven’t read yet for numerous reasons, so at least I have a stock to go to if I’m short on cash.
What’s your reading resolution for 2012? Finish a series? Read a classic that you’ve had your eye on for awhile? Beat me in the number of books you read?
Upcoming Books-Turned-TV Movies
I was watching a Law & Order marathon on TNT this morning and saw a promo for a bunch of mystery/thriller movies coming up at the end of the month. One that caught my eye was a TV-movie version of Sandra Brown’s “Ricochet“. I’m a big fan of Sandra Brown but sadly, I can’t remember if I read this book! I own a bunch of hers and would assume that I have read it, but it’s not on my Goodreads list (which only goes back over a year) and it’s not on my bookshelf. Hmm. Maybe I borrowed it from my mom. Either way, I want to watch it (or at least DVR it). John Corbett (Aidan from Sex and the City) is in it. (And he looks really good in the promos. None of that scraggly longish hair.) It airs November 30th on TNT. Here’s a bit more about it and the promo clip from Sanda Brown’s own blog.
Another one that I heard about recently is a movie adaptation of Jodi Picoult’s “Salem Falls” on Lifetime. Jodi Picoult is another one of my favorite authors and I can confirm that I own and have read this book. She’s had a few other books made into Lifetime movies, like “Plain Truth” (which I blogged about here) and “The Pact” (which I have read but not seen). It may have already started to air for all I know, since I don’t watch Lifetime very often, but here’s the upcoming schedule for the movie. Next airing is November 19th. And if you were going through withdrawal from not seeing James Van Der Beek on TV in a really really long time, other than in Ke$ha’s music video, which is just kinda gross, here’s your chance.
Any others that I missing?
Operation Paperback for Veterans Day
I’ve always been very grateful for the men and women who put their lives on the line and fight for our freedom. I also love books (obviously). In honor of Veterans Day next week, I wanted to tell you about a charity that I heard about from a colleague who is also very involved with veterans. It’s called Operation Paperback.
Operation Paperback is a non-profit organization that collects gently used books to send to troops stationed overseas and in military/veterans hospitals. Everyone needs an escape and a book is a great way to do that, no? The organization has sent 1.3 million books to troops since they began. 1.3 MILLION. That’s incredible!
Here’s how you can help. You can make a monetary donation - just $5 will ship a medium sized box of books overseas; $20 will help pay for the purchase and shipment of a box of high-demand genre books. Any little bit helps! You can also become a volunteer to send books directly to the troops. Once you register with the website, you can tell the system what kinds of books you have, and you will be given a list of names/addresses of troops who are requesting those types of books. You can also register to periodically receive an email with a list of special request books or genres.
I would love to put together a box (or boxes) to send over. Anyone interested in contributing? Please contact me via the Contact Me form or find me on Twitter at @fortheloveoflit.