Weekly Geeks # 3

This weeks challenge is to write about our favorite childhood books.

I wish I had a better memory. I don't remember any specific books from when I was very little. I can remember a book with a train on the cover. I do remember I had a very tiny rocking chair with a little blue chair cover on it. I would love to grab books and sit in it to read, even though I couldn't really read yet. To me I thought I looked so grown up. I must have been 4 or 5 at this point.

My dad is a huge reader and my mom doesn't touch books. I take after my dad. So I started carrying books with my into the bathroom when I was a little kid to be like my dad (he would kill me if he knew I wrote that)

I can remember reading

• Charlotte's Web
• The Bridge to Teribithia
• A Light in the Attic
• The Secret Garden
• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
• Island of the Blue Dolphin
• Little Women

over and over again. This was probably 3rd or 4th grade ish? I can also remember reading every Judy Blume and Beverely Cleary book too. I can remember in school this little booklet would come and you could pick books out of it to order. What was that called?

I remember in 5th grade I read my first Stephen King book and I steadily read all of his book through high school and continue to read them now. That also started my fascination with horror and murder mystery/thrillers. I would wander the library and randomly pick books from that section to take home and read. I wonder what my parents would have thought about me reading that stuff in sixth grade? I also recall (how horrifying) LOVING the Sweet Valley High Series. Those two blonde twins, Jessica and Elizabeth. What wonderful lives they lived! So different from mine. I was also fascinating by the Flowers in the Attic series.

I'm going to need to think a little more about me early childhood and see what else comes to me. I'll cruise some other posts and see if my memory gets jogged. This was a fun post to write!

Weekly Geeks # 2

I'm a little late getting around to the challenge this week but that is OK. This weeks idea is borrowed from Darla at Books and Other Thoughts

I'm going to offer to link to any book reviews that you and I have both reviewed! Just leave the link in the comment of that post and I'll add it to the post.

So check out my side bar for books I've finished this year. I have them crossed out under my challenges. I've reveiwed most of them. Have you reviewed any of them???? you can email me pandabear 102205 at gmail dot com and I'll link them for you! I've been working on another blog called Running Book List where it lists all my books with my reviews but it is far from complete. (yet)

Dewey wrote that she liked this idea for three reasons (and I agree)

1. As a blog reader, I like that I can have my review linked in someone else’s blog.

2. As a blog reader, I like that if I’m interested in a book Darla writes about, there will be other reviews linked at the bottom of the page, so I can get other viewpoints.

3. As a blog writer, when I review a book, I often remember that I read someone else’s review at some point, but whose? And when? With Darla’s method, people tell her about their reviews, and she can see what they had to say about a book that is still fresh in her mind.

So feel free to commment in any of my old reviews and in any of my future ones and I'll add the link to your review!

Weekly Geeks

This week is Discover New Blogs Week!

These were our instructions:

1. Look through the list of blogs on the Mr Linky below and see if you can find five that are new to you. If you can’t, find as many new blogs as possible and then some you don’t read super regularly.

2. Visit those new blogs. A comment would be nice; people like comments.

3. When you’re ready, at some point by Friday if you want to be included in the blurbs next week, write a post in your blog featuring those new blogs you visited.

4. Don’t forget to come back here and leave a link to your post, so that I can get it into the blurbs!

Here are the blogs I visisted:

BLOG # 1

Mary at This Book Is For You. I picked her because she was right above me on the list and I had to start somewhere. I stayed because of her blog description "Dear Reader, life is too short for crap books." A good laugh is a good start. A lot of good stuff going on at her blog. She likes YA as much as I do!

BLOG # 2

Chartroose at Bloody Hell, It's a Book Barrage. This one got my attention by the spelling of Chartroose and then I was expecting that to be the title of the blog. I started laughing, again, when I saw "Bloody Hell". This may show my ignorance but Chartroose's blog introduced me to the Kindle and the controversy it is apparently causing. Looks pretty cool to me!

BLOG # 3

Mog at Mog's Book Blog. Mog's taste is books is very different than mine. I hope that when I go back and read some reviews I can get some motiviation and inspiration to pick up a books for the Nineteenth Century Women Writers Challenge. I had a nice visit.

BLOG # 4

John Mutford at The Book Mine Set. He's the host of The Canadian Book Challenge. I have a lot of exploring to do here!

BLOG # 5

Em at Em's Bookshelf. I picked her from the list because my cat is named Emmy. Silly...I know. Her blog is filled with nice reviews, mostly teen stuff.

Weekly Geeks: A Blogging Challenge

Dewey at The Hidden Side of a Leaf has come up with a blogging challenge called Weekly Geeks that sounds like a lot of fun. I've signed up already. The first "theme" started yesterday. Go here to check it out.

Here are the basics from his site.

The basics:

1. Every week there’ll be a different theme. One week might be “catch up on your library books” week and the next might be “redecorate your blog week” or “organize your challenges” week or “catch up on your reviews” week. It’ll be fairly bookblogcentric, but not exclusively.

2. Everyone who joins agrees that they will try to check each week to see what the theme is, although they DO NOT have to participate each week, only when they feel like it.

3. Everyone who joins is welcome (encouraged, begged!) to send me ideas for weekly themes via email, comments, whatever. The more ideas, the better.

4. I will post the weekly theme each Saturday, but you can check in any time it’s convenient to find out what the theme is.

5. If you post about your progress with that week’s theme in your blog (whether you were wildly successful or didn’t get around to any of it) then you can come back and leave a link to that post in the comments for that theme.

6. The next week, when I announce the new theme, I will also post a mini-carnival-like blurb, with links to everyone’s progress posts. Either way, you’ll have a link to your blog every week you participate, which will hopefully help other participants find their way to your posts.

7. In order to motivate participants to spread the word, anyone who posts promoting this challenge is guaranteed to be able to choose the theme for one of the weeks this year (their choice of week, first come first served). No need to pick a week now; just let me know when you have a theme idea and you can pick your week then. In addition, each participant who writes a promotional post by the end of April will have their name entered in a drawing for this chocolate monkey. If any of your readers sign up and leave a comment saying they heard about it from you, you get two entries for the chocolate monkey. You may never again have the chance to say to your friends and family, “Yeah, the internet gave me this chocolate monkey.”