30-Question Bookish Meme

OK, I'm finally breaking down and doing this meme, though I really should be reading The Dawning of Power (it's really good so far), but I keep getting sidetracked by my Reader and Twitter... And the TV's on, which is always a distraction. But after this, I'll get back to reading!!

1. Hardback, trade paperback or mass market paperback?
Well, I love hardbacks when I can get a good deal on them. There are certain authors and series that I collect in hardback. I have a bunch of the B&N Classics in Hardback, Mary Higgins Clark (thanks to Bargain books and used bookstores), Harry Potter... If I don't get a book in hardback, I prefer trade paperback when it's available.

2. Barnes & Noble or Borders?
Barnes & Noble! I used to work for the B&N College Bookstores (sister company to the stores you all know) and have been hooked on B&N ever since. I just prefer the atmosphere there, and I get lots of coupons with their membership.

3. Bookmark or dog-ear?
Lately I've been better about using bookmarks (or some kind of pieces of paper to serve as a bookmark). I never dog-ear books anymore, though sometimes I'll leave them open face down, which really isn't much better, I know...

4. Amazon or brick and mortar?
Both. Amazon frequently has great deals and I like to take advantage of their free shipping (and no sales tax. (Same with BN.com on the free shipping.) But I enjoy browsing bookstores on occasion, too--it's nice to be able to browse a bit before buying.

5. Alphabetize by author or alphabetize by title or random?
I tend to alphabetize by author (and title within author) by genre (roughly).

6. Keep, throw away, or sell?
I usually keep (unless I hate it) and I NEVER throw books away. Books I don't like will either go to a used bookstore or I might run a giveaway on the blog if I feel other people would enjoy it.

7. Keep dust jacket or toss it?
Keep it! Often they have beautiful pictures and they do serve as added protection to the book.

8. Read with dust jacket or remove it?
I guess I usually end up reading with it, though if it starts bothering me I'll take it off.

9. Short story or novel?
Novel. I haven't had much luck with short stories.

10. Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket?
Harry Potter for sure! I've only read one Lemony Snicket and I didn't feel compelled to read another. It was OK but not as magical for me as HP was.

11. Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks?
I always try to stop at the end of a chapter, but if I'm falling asleep while reading I usually give up and just stop wherever I am in the book.

12. “It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”?
"It was a dark and stormy night." The first line of A Wrinkle In Time. I remember loving it when I found that out :-)

13. Buy or borrow?
I admit I like to buy. I'm working towards my own personal library.

14. New or used?
New is my preference, but I will buy some used--particularly hardcover.

15. Buying choice: book reviews, recommendations, or browse?
By browsing or book reviews, usually--love these blogs, Amazon and BN.com for those reasons. I don't have too many friends/family who read like I do, so I can't count on recommendations (although I've gotten a couple from other book bloggers out there, and I always take those seriously).

16. Tidy ending or cliffhanger?
I guess it depends. In some respects I like cliffhangers if I know there's another book coming and I really loved the story. Otherwise I prefer a tidy ending with no loose ends.

17. Morning reading, afternoon reading, or nighttime reading?
Anytime I can fit it in. I'd love to have more time to read in the morning when I'm fresh, but I usually find myself doing more reading in the evening before bedtime.

18. Stand-alone or series?
Doesn't matter. If I love the story and the characters then a series is nice.

19. Favorite series?
Guess that would be Harry Potter. :-)

20. Favorite children’s book?
I always liked the Berenstein Bears

21. Favorite YA book?
Tough one, not sure I could pick so I'm going to cop out and say there are too many to name.

22. Favorite book of which nobody else has heard?
Well, I can only think of one that no one was familiar with, which I read recently - The Maidenstone Lighthouse. Oh, I had an epiphany while answering #27--The Oval Amulet by Lucy Cullyford Babbitt is another one that I like, though I'm not sure if it is very well-known.

23. Favorite books read last year?
Um, Confessor by Terry Goodkind, Several of the Shannara books by Terry Brooks.

24. Favorite books of all time?
I don't know, now I'm started to get annoyed by these questions. Probably anything by Georgette Heyer, more specifically These Old Shades, Regency Buck, Frederica, Devil's Cub, The Grand Sophy and Lady of Quality.

25. What are you reading right now?
I'm reading The Dawning of Power by Brian Rathbone. Well, that's what I SHOULD be reading but I'm typing up this stupid meme instead. ;-)

26. What are you reading next?
I don't know, I'm hoping to get A Passion Most Pure in the mail so I can start on that one :-) Otherwise I might read Need by Carrie Jones.

27. Favorite book to recommend to an eleven-year-old?
Maybe The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, I remember liking that one.

28. Favorite book to reread?
Georgette Heyer's books or the Harry Potter series.

29. Do you ever smell books?
Yes, I love the way a lot of older books smell. (And brand new books, too!)

30. Do you ever read Primary source documents, like diaries or letters?
Nope. (Finally, an easy question--for me--requiring practically no thought!

Blogger Tips & Tricks: Widgets

Welcome to another installment of Blogger Tips & Tricks. Sorry this one's been delayed a bit. I think the issues I had while trying to post HTML code on previous posts burnt me out on these a little. :-)

Here are links to my previous posts, in case you missed them or simply want to revisit them:
The Look & Feel
Functional Headers
Grab Buttons & Favicons

And this is completely beside the point but don't you love the word "widget?" Such a goofy word, yet such a wonderful little feature...

WHAT ARE SOME WORTHWHILE BLOGGER WIDGETS? (AND WHERE THE HECK CAN I FIND THEM?)

In my numerous searches and with the help of some of you out there, I have come across several widgets that I have enjoyed using on my site. In this post I'll tell you where you can find them and why I love them...

The Recent Comments Widget
I noticed several bloggers had a little section in their sidebar devoted to recent comments. I thought that was pretty neat, since it gives visitors an idea on what posts are generating discussion and interest on that particular blog. You can find the widget at Blogger Templates. It's a piece of cake to add, so why not try it out?

Top Commentators Widget
I first noticed a top commentators widget being used over at J. Kaye's Book Blog. She uses it to highlight which bloggers to feature in her blogroll, which is pretty cool. For me, it came in handy when I wanted to hand out the "You Don't Say - Super Comments Award." You can customize it to look at a certain range of past comments, whether it's the last 500 or 5,000. (They do recommend limiting it to around 500 of the most recent comments.) I think it's a neat little way to give some commentators a little recognition. You can find this widget at Blogger Plugins.

Blog Statistics Widget
This little widget simply shows how many posts you've written and how many comments you've received, in total. I thought it was neat, so I added it to my blog. You can find it at Blogger Tips & Tricks (uh-oh, looks like I accidentally stole that name for this series of posts... sorry :-/)

Label Cloud "Widget"
I don't know about all of you, but my Blog Post Labels list was getting a little out of control after awhile. Eventually, I did pare down the number of labels I was using, but I also added the code to turn it into a label cloud, making it take up less room in the sidebar. So I guess technically this isn't a widget, since you are editing HTML code, but since it's a sidebar item I'm featuring it as a widget. You can find the code and instructions at phydeaux3.

Translate This Blog Widget
I don't remember whose blog I saw this one on, but given how many people from outside the U.S. I've seen on various blogs, I thought perhaps it would be handy to have this little widget. I don't know how much use it will get, but it seemed like a neat addition to make my blog accessible to more people. You can find this widget at Blogger Plugins, again.

Actually, Blogger Plugins is a great web site and may just have all of these plugins I've mentioned here. I'm simply telling you where I first found the information to add these little gadgets to my blog. If anyone else has any great sidebar gadgets and widgets they'd like to share information about, please leave a comment below. I know a lot of people have some cool features on their blogs, some of which I may not have even come across yet. Remember, I'm just sharing with you the little bit that I've learned in trying to tweak my blog and make it my own. There's a whole wealth of knowledge on blogging just waiting to be discovered!

I hope you find all these tips useful. Please let me know if you have any questions!

Stay tuned for my final post on Blogger Tips & Tricks: Helpful Links - this is where I'll summarize all the useful sites I've found in improving my blog. It may be the most helpful of all of these posts and I may start wondering why I wrote the rest of these entries :-)

Teaser Tuesdays: The Dawning of Power

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

(1) Grab your current read
(2) Open to a random page
(3) Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
(4) BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
(5) Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


Here's mine (as usual I'm cheating a bit, posting more than two sentences):

With her homeland sliding by, Catrin's thoughts turned to all those she had lost and left behind. Tears filled her eyes as she thought of her father and Benjin. Equally distressing were worries over the safety of Chase, Strom, and Osborne, her faithful companions. They had stayed by her side and risked their lives for her, and now she was abandoning them. Unable to bear the pain, she wiped her tears and concentrated on what lay ahead.

~ From The Dawning of Power by Brian Rathbone, p. 206

REVIEW & GIVEAWAY: The Crimes of Paris by Dorothy & Thomas Hoobler

Genre: Non-fiction, Crime
Pub Date: April 27th, 2009, Little, Brown & Co.
Format: Hardcover, 384 pages
Source/FTC Disclosure: I received a copy of this book for review from the publisher/author in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was received and my opinions are my own.

Turn-of-the-century Paris was the beating heart of a rapidly changing world. Painters, scientists, revolutionaries, poets--all were there. But so, too, were the shadows: Paris was a violent, criminal place, its sinister alleyways the haunts of Apache gangsters and its cafes the gathering places of murderous anarchists. In 1911, it fell victim to perhaps the greatest theft of all time--the taking of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre. Immediately, Alphonse Bertillon, a detective world-renowned for pioneering crime-scene investigation techniques, was called upon to solve the crime. And quickly the Paris police had a suspect: a young Spanish artist named Pablo Picasso....

MY THOUGHTS

First off, thanks to the kind folks at Hachette Book Group for sending me an advance copy of this book to review! Keep on reading, there's a giveaway to follow the review!

I have to come right out and say that I rarely read nonfictional works, which is a little embarrassing for me to admit, but there you have it. But when I read about The Crimes of Paris I was intrigued and thought I would give it a shot--it would make a great review for Mystery Mondays! My initial reaction: I wish the book was more like what the dust jacket portrays it to be: an account of the true story of the theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911. That story is there, but it is drawn out through the entire book, along with accounts of other crimes that have tenuous ties (at best) to the theft of the Mona Lisa.

That being said, it was a very interesting read on Paris and its crimes in the early 20th century. Until reading this book, I had no idea that Paris had once been a hotbed of criminal activity, ultimately leading to many advancements in police work and detection coming from the City of Light. To me, that was one of the more interesting aspects of the book, along with the story of the Mona Lisa. One thing I have to say with regards to that theft: it was never clear to me that Picasso was actually a suspect, as the synopsis implies. He was brought in for questioning, but it was in reference to a friend of his that had been arrested.

So, if you are expecting this book to be solely about the theft of the Mona Lisa, you may be disappointed. I found that I grew tired of reading about various criminals and their capers, though some of the stories were certainly more interesting than others. The Crimes of Paris was also an interesting study of the people of Paris in the early 1900's--I never knew how fascinated they were by crime and how much they sympathized with the criminals while distrusting the police. This fascination led to a profusion of literary and dramatic works revolving around crime and detection--this was the era when the true detective stories really began.

Other reviews of The Crimes of Paris:

A Girl Walks Into a Bookstore
The Biblio Brat
Books Love Jessica Marie

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

And now for the GIVEAWAY!!

The ever-generous group at Hachette Books is letting me give away FIVE copies of The Crimes of Paris! This copy is open to the U.S. and Canada only, and sorry, no P.O. boxes. You also must be at least 18 years of age to be eligible to enter.

To enter, all you have to do is:

~ Leave a comment with a valid email address

~ For a second entry, become a follower and let me know you are one in the comment below

~ If you are already a follower, let me know--that's TWO additional entries

This contest is open until 11:59pm on Sunday, April 26th. I will let Random.org choose the winners and announce them on Monday, April 27th.

Mystery Mondays: Poll Results!!

Thank you to everyone who participated in my poll over the last couple of weeks! I received a wide variety of responses! I also learned that I want to try a different site for poll questions in the future--I wasn't able to customize this poll the way I wanted to, but I'm glad people voted anyway! Next time around it will be much improved! So here was the question...

Who is your favorite mystery author?

Your answers:

Agatha Christie - receiving 4 votes
Charlaine Harris - receiving 2 votes
The following each received one vote:
Sue Grafton
James Patterson
Karin Slaughter
Carolyn Keene
Janet Evanovich
Laurie R. King
Arthur Conan Doyle
Michael Connelly

Thanks again for participating! Keep an eye out over the next few weeks for another Mystery Mondays poll!