Paging All Bookworms! discussion

Well, I think our MEMBER OF THE MONTH feature has run its course. Few people are participating in the challenge, and the last two attempts I made to contact member to verify their interest resulted in no response.

So, Paige is our last featured MoM ... and the May challenge, based on her responses will be the last MoM challenge.

Do you like having challenges?
Do you prefer short (i.e. monthly) challenges or longer-term (quarterly, or even yearly)
Any ideas for future challenges?
Are you willing to help create the challenges?

Thanks for your input.

I like the challenges and try to participate when I can. I am traveling right now and not doing well on my own Member of the Month! :( I liked learning about the other members in the group and the challenges in general get you to read books you might not have otherwise read.

I think longer term challenges might be better, that way if something unexpected comes up, you have a chance to still complete the challenge.

Maybe a theme/genre challenge once a quarter and then write a short review of your book or answer a few generic questions like "Have your read a book in this genre before?" "Was this a new author, will you read any more of his books? Why or Why not?". ---Or there is a year-long one of 50 books that has stuff like, "read a book that has been made into a movie", "read a book over 500 pages", etc.

I don't know, I pretty much lack the creativity gene for coming up with challenges.

So, I took a day of vacation on Friday to attend the Milwaukee Public Library Friend's Spring Literary Luncheon. The featured author was Elizabeth Strout, and I snagged a signed first edition of her newest work, Anything Is Possible.

But ....

One of the raffle prizes was having lunch with the author ... and I WON!

She couldn't be more gracious. Had a lovely conversation (including the Mayor, Head Librarian, and a couple of mega-donors to the library at that head table). I'm just still besotted by the idea!

That sounds wonderful!

Book Concierge wrote: "So, I took a day of vacation on Friday to attend the Milwaukee Public Library Friend's Spring Literary Luncheon. The featured author was Elizabeth Strout, and I snagged a signed first edition of he..."

Oh my gosh - she is one of my favorite authors. How wonderful! I would have been so excited, I don't think I could have eaten anything.

Wish I knew how to upload a photo .... I picked at my salad ... but did manage to finish a mini cream puff, AND a mini espresso chocolate bar. Of course I ate dessert while she was up on stage speaking, not while I was sitting next to her.

After she finished her remarks, the event coordinator announced that at each table someone had a program with a blue dot ... that person wins the centerpiece. Elizabeth Strout had the magic program at our table, so she gave me the flowering plant ... Turns out I had the magic blue dot at my original table! So I gave one of the plants to another attendee.

I should have bought a lottery ticket on my way home ....

Just to let y'all know ... I'm leaving for a road trip to Texas tomorrow morning, and will have spotty internet connection. Probably won't be around the site much until May 18 or so....

Happy Mother's Day!

I like having challenges but don't always do them if I don't have anything on hand or its out of my comfort zone (for instance, if its a sci-fi book I probably wouldn't do it cause I hate sci-fi). I have 3 other groups that do challenges so I cant always do all of them.

In another group I belong to the members of the group take turns thinking up a challenge. There are enough members that do it that each person gets a turn once or twice a year. Just a thought.

Book Concierge wrote: "Wish I knew how to upload a photo .... I picked at my salad ... but did manage to finish a mini cream puff, AND a mini espresso chocolate bar. Of course I ate dessert while she was up on stage spea..."

Wow! How cool, BC! Sounds like a wonderful & fun experience :)

Book Concierge wrote: "So, I took a day of vacation on Friday to attend the Milwaukee Public Library Friend's Spring Literary Luncheon. The featured author was Elizabeth Strout, and I snagged a signed first edition of he..."

How great that must have been!

Hope you have happy trails on your way to Texas - and Happy Mother's Day to you, too!

Well, I have exactly nine days left to work before I retire! Went into the office for a bit today (Memorial Day) so I could clean out some cabinets and bring some of my "stuff" home ... or throw it out. Still much left to do, but I made a huge dent in the project.

Congratulations!! Enjoy your retirement :)

Yes, congratulations!

I just have to brag about my niece. She's just finished her sophomore year in high school and decided to take the ACT as a benchmark - "So I know what to focus on the next year before taking it 'for real' my senior year."

She scored at the 97th percentile!

Book Concierge wrote: "I just have to brag about my niece. She's just finished her sophomore year in high school and decided to take the ACT as a benchmark - "So I know what to focus on the next year before taking it 'fo..."

WOW!

ilikeboox wrote: "WOW! ..."

My exact response when her mother shared the news with me.

Book Concierge wrote: "I just have to brag about my niece. She's just finished her sophomore year in high school and decided to take the ACT as a benchmark - "So I know what to focus on the next year before taking it 'fo..."

That's awesome! My daughter took it and scored a 28 (out of 36 I think). She's going to take it again this year and see if she can get a better score. We've been told that you can get a free ride to college with a score of 32.

Book Concierge wrote: "I just have to brag about my niece. She's just finished her sophomore year in high school and decided to take the ACT as a benchmark - "So I know what to focus on the next year before taking it 'fo..."

That's great!

The year's half over (!) .... what book(s) might make your "best of the year" list?

I have quite a few 'five star' books:

Enchanted Islands

House of Thieves

Clandestine

Orphan X

Still Life

The Gentleman

The Mark of Zorro

You're having a good year, boox.

Seems like...

I haven't been around much since early May, but there is a reason! My daughter was having a tough pregnancy but on June 2 (the day before my birthday), my second granddaughter was born! Her name is Norah Ruth and she weighed 7 lb. and 7 oz. and 19 1/4" long. It's been a lot of fun so far, but Gramma's pooped! I'll try to make her picture my profile picture here.

Congrats to you Gramma

Marti wrote: "I haven't been around much since early May, but there is a reason! My daughter was having a tough pregnancy but on June 2 (the day before my birthday), my second granddaughter was born! Her name is..."

Congratulations on the new "edition" in your family .... Looking forward to seeing the picture!

Hope everyone in the path of Hurricane Harvey (and it's continuing aftermath) is safe and dry.

Is anyone still in contact with Roger (Night Hawk) ... our original founder when we were on Shelfari? He was from the Houston area.

Well, our clothes dryer died .... Hubby and I went out this morning and shopped for replacement washer/dryer. Now what do I do with all that "regular" detergent that we have stockpiled? (New washer uses the "He" formula detergent ...)

I was lucky enough to get the last load done, so I have enough clean underwear to last until the new appliances are delivered next week.

Book Concierge wrote: "The year's half over (!) .... what book(s) might make your "best of the year" list?"

So far, my favorite book this year is:



Al Franken, Giant of the Senate by Al Franken.

Hi, Leah ... just noticed your new avatar pic. Great family photo! (But I do miss that little dinosaur!)

Horrified by the news this morning of the Las Vegas shooting massacre. My prayers are with the victims and their families. Hope none of our BookWorms family is affected.

Book Concierge wrote: "Horrified by the news this morning of the Las Vegas shooting massacre. My prayers are with the victims and their families. Hope none of our BookWorms family is affected."

Yes, despairing and baffling.

Book Concierge wrote: "Anybody else eager to watch the miniseries of War and Peace which starts tonight on Lifetime? Even my husband is excited about it ... go figure ..."

There's a War and Peace miniseries? How did I not know about this? Thanks for the heads up! :)

Melissa wrote: "Warren wrote: "Does anyone else set their book challenge to low? I set mine for 60 thinking that it would be something I would get maybe late November. But I just hit it this past week....."

I usu..."

I set mine high and then usually fail to reach it. :/ I didn't realize you could change it mid-year. I'll have to look into that.

Kat wrote: "Melissa wrote: "Warren wrote: "Does anyone else set their book challenge to low? I set mine for 60 thinking that it would be something I would get maybe late November. But I just hit it this past w..."

I don't set a goal at all ... I just read. But I do keep track in an excel spreadsheet and I try to estimate what my final number might be based on how much I've read "so far" each month. So, for example, if I read 10 books in January ... I would estimate that I might read 120 books for the year. (1 month x 12). If I've read 50 books by the end of June, my estimate would be 100 books for the year.

Last year I read 167 books ... and I think I'll go over that mark this year.

Book Concierge wrote: "Kat wrote: "Melissa wrote: "Warren wrote: "Does anyone else set their book challenge to low? I set mine for 60 thinking that it would be something I would get maybe late November. But I just hit it..."

You completely put my numbers to shame! Although, to be fair, I do a lot of research which involves reading sections of books. So my total page count is much higher then my total book count would lead you to believe. Not that it matters, I'm just competitive, even with myself. Lol!

Kat wrote: "You completely put my numbers to shame! Although, to be fair,..."

To be fair ... This year, I'm participating in a challenge here on goodreads to read the Caldecott winners .... 50 picture books adds a lot of books to the list without significant work! Even The Invention of Hugo Cabret - despite it hefty length - can be read in a day.

Book Concierge wrote: "Kat wrote: "You completely put my numbers to shame! Although, to be fair,..."

To be fair ... This year, I'm participating in a challenge here on goodreads to read the Caldecott winners .... 50 pic..."

That's awesome! I bet you've read some fantastic picture books!

Hi all! I'm new to the group, but have already been sucked into a couple of conversations. Who doesn't love talking about books? My historical fiction novel released today and the ebook is FREE on Amazon. I'm not fishing for reviews and I won't be following up with people, I just wanted to offer a free book to some fellow Bookworms. :) Happy reading! In a Time Never Known

Well .... we dumped AT&T/U-verse and switched to Spectrum (formerly Time-Warner). Technician was here most of the day, but we're up and running again and things seem to be going fairly smoothly .... except ...

One of our televisions keeps stating "no signal' .... I found a work-around to get the signal back but it's a real pain in the tush. Our calls to customer service were pretty frustrating ... the tech JUST connected us this afternoon ... so, NO, we don't need new batteries in the clicker ... The tech left our house barely two hours before our first phone call (which got "disconnected" ... and she never called us back). S * I * G * H

Supposedly they're coming back tomorrow to fix it.

How's everyone doing in the new year? Any great reads, yet? I see Sheila's out of her slump ... YAY ...

I just got notification from Cloud Library that the book I requested, Red Clocks by Leni Zumas, is now available! I'm so excited! I've heard good things :)

Over the last two weeks we've had snow just about every other day. Looking out my window ... it's like living in a Christmas Card. But temps will climb to the low 40s on Wednesday and it will mostly melt away....

Book Concierge wrote: "Over the last two weeks we've had snow just about every other day. Looking out my window ... it's like living in a Christmas Card. But temps will climb to the low 40s on Wednesday and it will mostl..."

We have had NO snow! I'm moving in with you!

I won my first book from Goodreads for 2018: The Touch: A Supernatural Story - Part I by Robert Flynn III.

Melissa wrote: "I won my first book from Goodreads for 2018: The Touch: A Supernatural Story - Part I by Robert Flynn III...."

Woo Hoo!

My "baby" brother (he's 53) had "minimally invasive" back surgery yesterday. He went home the same afternoon.

What a difference from my husband's back surgery a few years back ... when he was in the hospital for four days.

He'll still be off work for 4-6 weeks, but he'll be more mobile more quickly.

Well, the calendar says it's Spring, but Mother Nature apparently hasn't gotten the memo. Snow in the forecast for Easter Sunday ...

Well, it's snowing today ... and forecast is for "record-breaking" snow tonight and possibly tomorrow as well.

Not quite so bad as that sounds. The record is only 3" for today, and 1.5" for tomorrow .... a little snow goes a long way in April.

Glad I haven't put my snow sneakers away yet. (Seriously .. that's what they're called. I got them from L L Bean.)

Snowing - again - today, April 15. On top of freezing rain yesterday/last night. Jiminy Cricket, will spring NEVER arrive?

Just wanted to let you all know that I've been on the road these past two weeks, with sporadic internet access. I'm at my brother's house now and using his computer for a bit. I'll be back home by this Wednesday, and hopefully back to regular posting by the weekend.