Ulysses Read-along, anyone?

You know that monster of a book that everyone's always afraid to pick up? The one that gives you anxiety just thinking about it? The one that you know you should read, but just can't seem to find the time for?

For me, that book is Ulysses. I read portions of it in college and loved it, and the full book has been sitting on my shelf for the past four years.

Well, I say, NO MORE!!

I'm going to do something about that book sitting on my shelf, taunting me. I'm going to break it down into smaller, more manageable sections. Anyone who wants to tackle this is more than welcome to join me!

Starting August 1, I will be hosting a read-along of Ulysses. I'll lay out a (manageable!) schedule sometime in July, hopefully around 100 pages per week or so, and we can discuss each section. I'll also have an annotation of the book (It's nearly as long as the book itself!) available, so feel free to ask questions!

Who's in?

Get to know me!

U.L. Harper, author of The Flesh Statue, is hosting a few weeks of blogger interviews over at his blog, and I'm one of them!

Go visit my post to learn more about me and tell him you've come over from my blog!

The Clear Away the Clutter Read-a-Thon

 

Kate at The Neverending Shelf is hosting a Clear Away the Clutter Read-a-Thon. 

Thanks to Jennifer at Rundpinne, I found this great, easy read-a-thon that (hopefully!) will help me power through that mounting stack of review books and some of my personal TBR pile.

Kate encourages everyone, blogger or not, to participate in the read-a-thon. You don't even have to commit to a certain number of hours or books or pages. Just hop on in and read, read, read!

Here are some of the details:

The Clear Away the Clutter Read-a-Thon begins at 7 a.m. Monday, April 5, and ends at 11 p.m. Sunday, April 11. There will even be prizes! Seriously, who can say no to prizes?

As for me, I think I will attempt a total of 60 hours (2 1/2 days total) of reading over the course of the challenge. Ambitious? Yes. No one ever called me a slacker!

For more information, visit Kate.

Announcing the 50 Followers Contest!

Holy canola oil, guys! I just announced the 50 Followers Contest this morning, and here I have 50 followers. You guys are awesome!

Here are the details:

1. You must be a follower to participate. New followers are eligible, too.

2. I don't care if you live outside the US or Canada. Since my followers are so awesome, and some live far away (Hi, people in Thailand and Australia and other places!), I'm opening this contest to everyone. This includes PO Boxes.

3. The prize is a copy of The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, my favorite read from the last couple of years. If you already have a copy of this book/have read it and you win, I will give you a copy of Gourmet Rhapsody, also by Muriel Barbery. If you have/have read both of these, well, I'll think of another book!

4. All followers are eligible, but it would really, REALLY help me out if you would leave a comment with your choice of prize book and your e-mail address if you want to participate. Please, preserve my sanity!

5. Contest closes Monday, March 1 at 10 p.m. CST. I will e-mail and announce the winner shortly thereafter.

6. If, by chance, I make it to 100 followers by the end of the contest period, I will have TWO winners. Yay!

Thanks so much for all your support. I'm so excited to be able to offer this contest after just two short months of blogging!

In My Mailbox (2)

Hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren, In My Mailbox explores the contents of bloggers' mailboxes on a weekly basis.

This was a pretty busy week for my mailman, and I loved it! Here's what I received:

Here we have:

Last Snow by Eric Van Lustbader was sent to me by Forge Books (I reviewed it here and my giveaway of Last Snow and First Daughter is here)

Tithing: Test Me in This  by Douglas LeBlanc was sent to me by Thomas Nelson through Booksneeze (Watch for a review of this later this week)

A signed hardcover copy of The Riddle of Berlin and a signed paperback copy of The Riddle of Berlin was a win from the author, Cym Lowell. (Watch for a giveaway of the paperback in the coming weeks)

The Girl Who Chased the Moon  by Sarah Addison Allen was sent to me by Random House for a Pump Up Your Book tour in March.

Also, in my e-mail box was a copy of Dirty Little Angels by Chris Tusa, a win from Library Thing.

What was in your mailbox this week?

Read 'n' Review Challenge

OK, I'm joining another book challenge.

This one, however, doesn't have any above-and-beyond requirements, so it will fit in perfectly with my other challenges and my regular reading.

We'll see how this goes...

My Favorite Albums of 2009

In the proliferation of end-of-the-year Best-Of lists (Or, this year, end-of-the-decade), I find myself having one of three reactions: 1) "Why is THAT album on there? It's terrible!" 2) "OK, that album is solid. I agree with that one." or 3) "Where is (Insert album name)? That album was awesome!"

I also find that I leave those end-of-the-year lists with a much longer list of new music to listen to then when I started, part of the reason I've tried to avoid as many of the lists as possible.

As a result, I've decided to list my 10 Favorite Albums of 2009. Many of these were released this year, but some were released prior to 2009 and they just kind of set the soundtrack for my year. They are by no means a "greatest" list, just my personal favorites. Oh, and they're not in order because I really can't make up my mind enough to rank them. Be glad I even cut it down to 10!

1. The Resistance - Muse: Yeah, knock it as electronic prog-rock if you want. This album is great for rocking out in the car. Or at home. Or at the library. Either way, I loved listening to this album if for nothing other than the references to 1984. I am so stoked to see them live on March 15.

2. The Hazards of Love - The Decemberists: The Decemberists have been getting a bad rap for being literarily pretentious just for the sake of being literarily pretentious. I loved this album solely for its audacity: It's a folk opera, for crying out loud! Music has gotten away from cohesive concept albums in favor of stand-alone songs, mostly because of the popularity of iTunes and other downloading services, but The Decemberists brought back the idea of an album as a whole. Oh, the orchestration doesn't hurt, either.

3. Two Suns - Bat For Lashes: Prior to this album, I wasn't a B4L fan. But it converted me. It's haunting and gorgeous and I just love it.

4. Monsters of Folk - Monsters of Folk: A super group of indie hard-hitters (M. Ward of She & Him, Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes and Jim James of My Morning Jacket) finally, after a half-decade together, churned out a fun and off-beat album. The individual members' quirks shine through this one. Remember how I said I loved Hazards for its cohesiveness? I love this album because it's not cohesive.

5. Bitte Orca - Dirty Projectors: I really have nothing to say about this album except that I love it. A lot.

6. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust - David Bowie: Yeah, I'm nearly 40 years behind the curve on this one, but I finally listened to Ziggy in its entirety this year. And then I listened again. And again. And again. As odd as it sounds, this album helped me get through a pretty rough patch this fall, and I will always have a soft spot in my heart for it.

7. Dark Was the Night - Various Artists: This is one amazing compilation album. Seriously. Some of the best writing I've heard all year comes out of this album, made to benefit awareness for AIDS and HIV. Don't believe me? Listen to "Knotty Pine" by Dirty Projectors and David Byrne. Wow.

8. Around the Well - Iron & Wine: Returning to his folksy roots, Sam Beam produces another solid, chill album. Don't get me wrong, The Shepherd's Dog is a great album, it's just that I like the chill Iron & Wine better than the flashy pseudo-70's Iron & Wine.

9. New Moon OST - Various Artists: Yeah, mock if you want, but this album has some solid songs written for a terrible movie. This album actually kind of made me like Death Cab for Cutie. Just for a second.

10. Farm - Dinosaur Jr.: I hadn't heard Dinosaur Jr. until this year (Scandalous, I know), but I immediately fell in love with them and listened to the rest of their catalog. I have a warm place in my musical love life for punk-that's-not-really-punk, and Dinosaur Jr. fits right into it.

Honorable mentions:

These Four Walls - We Were Promised Jetpacks
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Far - Regina Spektor
The Fragile - Nine Inch Nails

Thoughts?

I've Done It Again...

I've gone and joined another book challenge. This one sounded like far too much fun to pass up!

It's the Take Another Chance Challenge hosted by Find Your Next Book Here.

The challenge points sounded particularly intriguing, and I've got books for the first nine (of 12) challenges decided already.

Here they are:

Challenge 1: The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond
Challenge 2: Push by Sapphire (via Bermudaonion)
Challenge 3: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Challenge 4: The Giver by Lois Lowry (Newbery Medal winner)
Challenge 5: Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier (5 words)
Challenge 6: Swimsuit by James Patterson (Thriller)
Challenge 7: Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner ("Chick-lit")
Challenge 8: Ophelia by Lisa Klein and Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Challenge 9: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan ("Thief")

I really need to stop Googling "book challenges." This is going to get ridiculous.

Join with Me!

I just officially joined my first online book challenge, and I'm so excited!

I've joined the 451 Challenge.



This challenge, in the spirit of the "book people" from Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, presents a list of books which, from what I can tell, provide essential ideas which should be passed down from generation to generation.

From the looks of it, this will be a fairly easy challenge, as the levels are pretty attainable:

Spark - read 1-2 books from the master list
Ember - read 3-4 books from the master list
Flame - read 5-6 books from the master list
Blaze - read 7 or more books from the master list

You're allowed to re-read books and to cross over with other challenges. Judging by this list, I've got a lot of them either on my already read and favorited list on Goodreads, or they're on my to-read shelf and sitting on my shelves here at home.

I can't wait until Jan. 1!

Update:

Here's the list of books I either own or have here at the library that I plan on reading (some of them, that is!):

1. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Kahled Housseini
2. Atonement by Ian McEwan
3. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
4. Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
5. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
6. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
7. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
8. Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice
9. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
10. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
11. Night by Elie Wiesel
12. Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike
13. Sea Glass by Anita Shreve
14. Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
15. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
16. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
17. The Giver by Lois Lowry
18. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
19. The Hours by Michael Cunningham
20. The Iliad by Homer
21. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
22. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
23. The Stand by Stephen King
24. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
25. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Whew! I'm tired just looking at that list!