Ramblings
Like Free Books?
Are you on Goodreads yet? If not, you should be. One of the reasons why is because you can get free books! Let me explain. There’s a section in Goodreads called First Reads. Authors list a giveaway of a hard copy of their book. They can give out one, or they can give out 100, whatever they want. The giveaways are listed for a limited amount of time and you can sort through by ones that are ending soon, popular, most requested, etc. Goodreads users can enter to win by just giving their mailing address. THAT’S IT! So easy.
The books listed are ones that haven’t been released to the public yet. The whole idea is that if you win, you get a “first read” of it so that you can start to post reviews early to help promote the book. And you don’t need a blog or anything to do that; you can just post a review on Goodreads.
I am SO excited because I finally was chosen for a giveaway! And it’s a book that I was going to buy anyway. Score! I’ll be getting “The Song Remains the Same” by Allison Winn Scotch. I guess it’ll take a few weeks to get to me, but that should still be in advance of the release date of April 12. I’ll be posting about it here as soon as I’m done!
It’s also a good way to learn about up-and-coming new authors and releases, and who knows, maybe you’d win a book from someone new to you and gain a new favorite author!
Posted in giveaway, Ramblings | 
Tags: authors, books, free books, giveaway, goodreads, new releases | 
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Upcoming New Releases
I went just a wee bit crazy on Amazon recently pre-ordering books for my Kindle. I admit that I’m not very good at keeping up with what new books are coming out, but Amazon’s “Recommended Items” that show up whenever you buy something else are FANTASTIC. Thanks to that handy little tool, here’s everything that I pre-ordered…
- “Home Front” by Kristin Hannah – this just came out on January 30 but I haven’t started to read it yet
- “I’ve Got Your Number” by Sophie Kinsella – February 14
- “Lone Wolf” by Jodi Picoult – February 28
- “Another Piece of My Heart” by Jane Green – March 13
- “The Song Remains the Same” by Allison Winn Scotch – April 12
- “Jeneration X: One Reluctant Adult’s Attempt to Unarrest Her Arrested Development; Or, Why It’s Never Too Late for Her Dumb Ass to Learn Why Froot Loops Are Not for Dinner” by Jen Lancaster – May 1
- “Summerland” by Elin Hilderbrand – June 26
- “The Next Best Thing” by Jennifer Weiner – July 10
- “Where We Belong” by Emily Giffin – July 31
Looks like I’ll be busy for the next six months or so. This list is just about all of my favorite authors. 2012 is gonna be AWESOME!
By the way, have you started your 2012 Reading Challenge yet on Goodreads? I’ve already read 8 books out of the 35 that I predicted as my goal for the year. I have a feeling I’m going to go over since this is only February. I’m thinking about doing a contest for my readers to guess how many I’ll go over by and then whoever comes the closest at the end of the year will win some sort of a prize… what do you think? I credit author Jenn Thorson for the contest suggestion during a recent discussion on Twitter. Thanks Jenn!
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?
Posted in Ramblings | Tags: books, e-reader, fiction, goodreads, holidays, summer reading | 4 Comments »
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?
Posted in Jodi Picoult, Ramblings, Sandra Brown | Tags: contemporary, fiction, movie, mystery, thriller | 1 Comment »
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.
