TSS: Weekly links

I have never posted a weekly links message - although I greatly enjoy reading those of other bloggers, particularly the detailed links of Kittling: Books. But this week I have followed quite a few blogger recommendations for Christmas themed posts and thought it might be helpful to some of you if I passed them along.

Christmas links

The Guardian's Virtual Literary Advent Calendar - this link is thanks to Susan of You Can Never Have Too Many Books. This is a very neat site, although I must admit that my literary skills are not what they should be to fully appreciate all the bookish trivia.

2009 Virtual Advent sponsored by Kelly of The Written World and Marg of Reading Adventures I like this link because it lists all the participants -with links - on the day they plan to post. I have had such fun reading all the Holiday themed posts each day - and was even inspired to sign up myself. Watch for my Virtual Advent post this Tuesday, December 15.

Shadowing Dickens serial which I found at Dickensblog. I posted about this earlier this week, but thought it was worth repeating. This is a lovely companion piece to A Christmas Carol - written in serial form. Each day a new chapter is posted at this site, with the conclusion planned for Christmas Eve. It is a great short story that incorporates some non-fiction details about Dickens life in a touching story about an orphan whom the great author befriends.

Tacky Light Tour --- the concept for this site is great: plug in your zip code and a list of all the "tack light displays" -- I prefer to call them large festive displays -- will appear. Unfortunately there weren't any listed for my area (I am pretty sure we have some tacky displays here in Kansas City, they just aren't yet recognized as such by this site). But who knows, perhaps there are several listed for your neck of the woods - and I thoroughly enjoy all the lovely outdoor decorations this time of year.

I was able, however, to locate a site on Kansas Travel.org that listed all the neighborhoods with large light displays in my county of residence. The list was extensive and I hope to visit a few of these displays before Christmas. My husband and I were lucky enough to pass by this business office who has timed their lights to music. We quickly located a parking spot across the street and enjoyed the simulcast audio/video display. Of course....I remember when a large display included a Motionette Santa in the window and plastic reindeer on the roof. We've come a l-o-n-g way since then!

The Virtual Gingerbread Man link, courtesy of Jenners at Life with a Little One and More, is a whimsical site that can become an addiction if you are not careful. While I enjoy making my own gingerbread men, I must admit that this site keeps my kitchen a lot neater.

I always enjoy finding a new Christmas Cookie recipe each year and I think I found my 2009 experiment: Cleo Coyle's Eggnog Latte Cookies as featured on Mystery Lovers' Kitchen blog. Cleo Coyle is the author of the Coffee House Mystery series, which I have only had the opportunity to read the first book, but thoroughly enjoyed. I love a good eggnog, and this cookie seems to include enough of that flavor to jazz-up the sugar cookie tray. (this link was edited after the original posting of this entry).

Lastly, I'd like to remind you of my book give away which ends Tuesday, December 14: A Dog Named Christmas - which I thoroughly enjoyed and reviewed here.

I haven't done too much reading this week, as it is the last week before finals and grading is a bit out of control, but I have been thinking a lot about reading! I am an avid follower (stalker?) of A Novel Challenge and have thoroughly enjoyed reading all the new creative challenges that have been these past couple of weeks. There is indeed a challenge to fit any and every reading taste, and I am trying to use great restraint from signing up for every single one!

I hope you all are gearing up for this holiday season, but not stressing too much. Perhaps some of these links will help bring a smile to your face.

Shadowing Dickens

I have just learned of this marvelous site from the most recent posting at Dickensblog. A journalist for the Edmunton Journal, Rick McConnell, is currently publishing a serialized novel, Shadowing Dickens, which focuses on the writing of A Christmas Carol. Readers can follow the daily postings of this wonderful story here. The series started on Sunday, December 6, so there is plenty of time to catch up on the previous postings. I promise you will look forward to each new chapter. It is written very well - and is a sweet story of a young orphan named Alfy who meets Charles Dickens when the great author visits the orphanage that is located on the same street that housed Fagin and the Artful Dodger. Dickens is taken with Alfy and has just summoned the boy to his home so that he can get to know him better.

I read A Christmas Carol every year with my 7th grade class and while I have only read the first four installments of this new serial, I am quite captivated by the premise of the book as well as the author's writing style. It would definitely be worth your while to check it out this holiday season.

And...if serialized novels are of interest to you, I also discovered a great little site while searching through blog postings this weekend. Mousehold Words is the name of the site and where you can subscribe to several of Dickens' original works in serial form. You have the option of selecting how often you would like to receive the installments, from daily to once a month, and they arrive in your email box as a rich text attachment. Of course, Dickens is not the author that they feature. You can also subscribe to the works of Wilkie Collins, Alexander Dumas, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, just to name a few. I have always wanted to try to read some of these works in the original manner in which they were written, and I hope to utilize this site quite a bit in 2010.

TSS - Networking in the Blogosphere

I am not a morning person by nature, so I need to allow plenty of time to wake up before I officially start my day. My typical routine is to start with a cup of coffee (that was pre-assembled the night before and put on a timer), read my emails, and catch up on book blogs. Just recently I have added checking the tweet deck to the schedule. Weekends are the best (for a variety of reasons) but some of my favorite posts happen over the weekend: Weekly Link Round Ups (most notably Beth Fish and Kittling: Books), Saturday Review of Books at Semicolon, and The Sunday Salon. I can spend hours following all the links to all the book-related posts and enjoy every single minute!

This morning I felt as though I were playing the children's game Operator. (You know, all kids stand in a line and the child at the head of a line whispers a message to the child next to them. The secret is then whispered down the line until the last person has to reveal it. And of course, the message has been so garbled along the way that it is never accurate.) The difference between the adult "internet" version that I play and this childhood version is that the secret is ALWAYS accurate because we have hyperlinks to lead us to the direct source.

Here is the example: This morning I read Nymeth's tweet that she had uploaded her Sunday Salon post. I followed the hyperlink and read her amazing post of all the books she currently wants to read (added at least 4 books to my ever growing TBR pile). Nymeth credited Debi with the idea of using one TSS posting in May to create a Coveted Books List in honor of Dewey. Well, of course I had to visit Debi's blog, my first time ever, and spent quite a bit of time looking over her entries (found an amazing idea to use my classroom next year, but that will be the subject of another post). I then followed the link to Dewey's Sunday Book Covet posts and read through them to discover the history behind this great idea (I am so sorry that joined the book blogosphere too late to enjoy this great woman's dedication to the love of reading).

So there you have it: from one tweet message I found 4 books to read, one new blog to follow, a great teaching idea, and an opportunity to learn more about a beloved book lover. Have you had a similar "operator" experience in the blogosphere? Isn't it wonderful?!

Friday Finds - 1.2.09

This will be my first time to participate in the Friday Finds meme, but since I have spent many hours this week surfing other blogs and following several "book" bunny trails, I have several "finds" that are at least new to me. I will apologize in advance, however, if I found the recommendation at your website but do not give you adequate credit. I am learning that I need to keep a journal by my computer so that I can keep accurate notes in case I want to return to the website again. That will be another blog resolution for the new year.

The first find is not a book, but rather a website that is devoted to anything and everything that has to do with books: The Book Trib. Kristen at Book Club Classics recommended this site and I am ever so glad that she did (or perhaps I'm not quite so glad as I have spent numerous hours checking out the various links on its home page). The site contains links to the New York Times, Washington Post and New Yorker book reviews; many, many, many different book blog links, and various other book related information. If you haven't had a chance to check it out, it is well worth the click.

The second "find" that I discovered was the author Nick Hornby and in particular his essays on his book purchases and book reads arranged in a month-by-month format. Stefanie at So Many Books gave a review of his 2nd collection, Housekeeping vs Dirt (now who can't resist skimming the contents of a book by that title!) and I was intrigued. Being the rather anal-compulsive person that I am, I wanted to read his first book, The Polysyllabic Spree, which fortunately my library had sitting on the shelf. I can't really say that I read the book, as Hornby's taste in literature is far different from my own, but I did thoroughly skim the book New Year's Eve. I enjoyed his casual writing style, but what I really gleaned from the book is a way to keep track of my reading for 2009 (a New Year's Resolution anyway). I created an Excel spreadsheet of books read that includes title, author, date read and my rating, BUT...I will now also include the list of books purchased which tracks the title, author, date and place of purchase. I found it fascinating to see his buying patterns (some months several more titles were purchased than read, other months it was the opposite) AND the fact that he infrequently read the books in the same month that they were purchased. This made me wonder what my own reading/buying habits might be and I think it will be a fun and educational exercise.

I have also been inspired by Becky of Becky's Book Reviews to keep track of the first sentence of each of the novels that I read this year. Becky compiled a "best of the best" first lines and wrote a blog entry entitled "You-Had-Me-at-Hello Awards". I found this entry fascinating -- and added many more books to my TBR pile as a result. The entry caused me to really stop and consider the power of the first sentence: the blood, sweat, tears and effort authors must endure to develop the first words to entice their audience to want to read more. I am anxious to keep track of these first lines as well. I think it will be a great way to review what I have read at the end of the year - and also to provide some valuable lessons for my writing classes.

The last "find" that I wish to report is probably not new to many of you, but it is to me: the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. I had never heard of this series until this past summer when fellow Bread Loaf students were talking of the "fun" literature they read after an intense summer schedule of 17th century British literature. Several mentioned this series, but to be honest, it just didn't float my boat, so to speak. I have never been interested in historical fiction before, although I am learning to appreciate that genre more and more; I am NOT a romantic (just ask my husband), so the romance aspect of the storyline was not a draw for me; and I am too much of a realist to enjoy science fiction/paranormal literature (so the time travel aspect just did not compute in my little black and white brain). However, in surfing the web this week I came across the Outlander Challenge 2009 and I checked it out. Much to my surprise there is almost a cult-like following for this series of books, and since the 7th book in the series is scheduled to be released in September, the challenge is to read all 6 novels prior to that release date. Now, I am not spontaneous enough to sign up for this intimidating challenge (each book is well over 600 pages x 6 books = over 4,000 pages before September!!), but I have challenged myself to read the first book in the series. As luck would have it, Outlander was available at Half Price Bookstore this weekend - and I was able to purchase it for half price + an additional 20% off; it was obviously meant to be.

I am about a fourth of the way through the book (page 147 out of 617) and while I am not yet prepared to say this is the best book I have ever read --- I can honestly say that I am enjoying it. I really like her writing style (and I am absolutely fascinated how a woman with a zoology / marine biology / ecology background can write thousands of pages of fictional literature! I spent quite a bit of time on her website reading her background information). While she writes in great descriptive detail (sometimes too much detail when it comes to the violence of 18th century Scotland, in my squeamish opinion), she also adds enough humor to keep it entertaining. AND...she has somehow managed to make the sci-fi aspect (time travel through stones to the 18th Century) believable enough for my brain to accept -- that is no small feat for any author. The romantic interludes have not been too frequent nor too explicit for my taste, which is another major accomplishment. All in all, I am looking forward to finishing the novel (hopefully before school is back in full-swing next Wednesday) and perhaps.....read another in the series as well.