‘Tis the season for year-end wrap-ups. I’ve already participated in the Weekly Geeks‘ Book Bloggers’ Top 10 of 2009 preliminaries,
and really need to find some time to think about my personal Books of the Year picks (can’t write a post about them till I decide what they are!). I expect those to differ a bit from the Top 10 list, since it’s based on books I read this year, regardless of when they were published – and I will limit myself to a much smaller number than ten!
The LA Times‘ Jacket Copy books blog posted their top fiction and nonfiction picks of 2009 last week – it’s interesting to look at these mainstream-media lists and see how different they can be from book bloggers’ picks.
I was recently invited by
Peter of
Flashlight Worthy Book Recommendations to contribute a title to a list of “
The Best Book Club Selections of 2009” – books to generate great group discussions, “as chosen by great book bloggers” (his words). (He said that the fact that I’m not currently
in a book club wasn’t a problem.) My pick was
The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist, which was also in my Top 10. Please click the link to the post at
Flashlight Worthy Books to see the other recommendations and who made them – I can’t figure out how I made the cut to be part of this stellar group!
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Looking ahead instead of back for just a moment: I posted my last “scheduled”/tour book review of the year this past week. This week, I’ll post a review of the last ARC I have on hand. All of my other review books right now are final copies, and none has a fixed review date set – so I don’t think I’m going to read any of them until after the holidays. The rest of my reading for this year will be on a “whatever I feel like” basis. I may start reading for one of the challenges I’m doing, but right now, I’m leaning toward reading without an agenda.
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Because it is a contractual requirement that all off-line gatherings of bloggers must be appropriately documented, here are (left to right)
Ti from
Book Chatter,
Tracy (Gentle Reader) of
Shelf Life,
Amy from
My Friend Amy, and
Jill a/k/a Softdrink of
Fizzy Thoughts at our meet-up at
Portrait of a Bookstore in Studio City yesterday. We converged from various points in the greater L.A. area, and Jill even made the drive down from north of Santa Barbara to join us! We had great food from the
Aroma Cafe, which shares the building, and spent some time browsing the appealing books and gifts in the small but nicely-stocked bookstore. I hope to find my way back there soon. But of course, the conversation, and seeing online friends in the “real world,” was the best part! I really hope that we’ll be able to do this again soon, and perhaps be joined by more SoCal book bloggers! (We especially missed
Wendy and
Lisa this time!) And we’re just a few months away from the
2010 LA Times Festival of Books…
(l – r: Amy, Jill, me, Tracy, Ti)
BOOKKEEPING: The Reading Status Report
Nothing, really. Maybe next week…
BOOKMARKS: Reading-related Reading
Challenges and Event News
The
Social Justice Challenge asks participants to do more than
read about important issues – it asks them to
act to make a difference! Challenge hosts
Amy, Hannah (WordLily) and
Natasha have done an impressive job organizing this one. Each month has its own issue theme, and there are four levels of commitment which participants can change from month to month – click the button for all the details! I’m not sure I’m prepared to commit to this challenge myself, but I think it’s a great concept, and wanted to make sure you knew about it too!
A challenge in the spirit of the season: The Dewey Tree, hosted by Lisa at Online Publicist, and named in honor of a dearly-departed friend. Find a new home for some of your old books, take a picture of your donation, and send it to Lisa; you’ll make some room on your shelves, help out a library or literacy organization, and have the chance to win a custom-made tote bag!
Of course, there’s always the “opt out of challenges” challenge. I used to do pretty well at that one.
What’s on your reading agenda this week?
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Only 19 days left? Why are you trying to stress me out?
Looks like a nice bookstore/cafe. A good place for book blogger meeting. 🙂
Mike – Yep, 19 days. And I'm stressed, so why shouldn't you be too? I'm all about sharing :-D.
It was a great place to meet up – the bookstore was small, but had an interesting selection, and the food was great. It's also not that long a drive for me, which was definitely a plus.
It was lovely to see you yesterday–looking forward to doing it again soon! I think I'll join the Dewey Tree, also–great thing to do this time of year 🙂
I was thrilled to see so many bloggers I "know" in Flashlight Worthy books! Your meet-up looks like so much fun.
Looks like a great gathering of bloggers!
What Else But Home was such a touching and powerful read for me–I really hope you'll like it as much as I did.
Looks like you all had fun! It's so great to meet fellow bookbloggers in person!
Tracy (Gentle Reader) – It was great to see you, too! I give away most of my used books anyway, so I really like the Dewey Tree idea as well.
Kathy (Bermudaonion) – I had no idea who else had been asked to contribute until I saw the list posted – and I was excited to see that I know (and read) almost all of them!
Ali – It was a lot of fun; I wish we could have spent more time, though!
I'm not sure how soon I'll get the chance to read that memoir, but it definitely appeals to me. Thanks for the great review!
Melody – It was especially nice because we've all met before :-). It's just hard to get everyone together very often.
I loved seeing the pictures of all of you meeting! I'm jealous- I don't know of any book bloggers who live close enough to me to meet. 🙁
And thanks for the link love. Have a wonderful week!
Carrie – Thanks for the great song!
A few of the other local book bloggers we know couldn't be there – this time of year gets so crazy for everyone! We're also hoping that a few others we know about, but haven't yet met in person, will come around the next time we meet up :-).
Love the meetings you have! I hope to get organized one of these days and try to get those in y surrounding area to meet – that would be fun!
Love the great pictures.. everyone looks so happy!! I missed you guys and will definitely move mountains to be there next time.
Sheila – It's a bit of work to coordinate, and it can be hard to come up with a day and place that works for everyone, but it's worth it :-).
Lisa – We definitely missed you too, but better luck next time!
I haven't given much thought to the year's end or this month for that matter. It's showing in my blogging. I try not to think about my top ten list until closer to the end of the year though. I'm always afraid that last book I read of the year will be the absolute best. It could happen. Although I admit that sometimes I think I should read something I know I won't enjoy quite as much just so I know it won't be.
My tour today was my last scheduled review for the year too. 🙂
I am glad you and the So Cal bloggers had such a good time in Studio City this weekend. I wish I could have been there. Hopefully next time!
Wendy (Literary Feline) – We missed you too! We're hoping to do this at least one more time before the Festival of Books in April. Amy suggested that we try meeting up near UCLA – at the Mystery Bookstore. Would that lure you in :-)?
I think I'm just noticing that time is flying, and if I'm going to do year-end posts, I need to get working on them! Given that, it's nice not to have any pressing review obligations for the next few weeks :-).