Sorry for the delay in picking the last winner (it’s been crazy here–more so than usual–is my only excuse). It was also really hard to pick one winner from the stories that were submitted. After a lot of dawdling and thinking I picked the following story by Wrighty:
I have so many Christmas traditions and memories that I cherish. We became engaged on Christmas Eve, my oldest son was born on Dec. 22nd, my brother became engaged on Christmas Eve, the list goes on and on. But one of my favorite memories was when my two oldest children outsmarted us.
My husband and I stay up late every year putting together gifts and watching A Christmas Story marathon (”you’ll shoot your eye out!”) until the wee hours of the morning. When my kids were 9 mths. 3 1/2 yrs. and 5 yrs. we got them a electric powered jeep to ride on. We were up until 3:00 a.m. putting it together and charging the battery. We put a huge red ribbon on the top, checked all of the presents and headed to bed. As a precaution, we locked the door with the hook and eye latch that’s up at the top of the door. Since they wouldn’t be unwrapping the jeep we wanted to make sure we went into the room with them in the morning to see their excited little faces when they saw their big gift. We went to sleep knowing they would be up and in our room in just a few hours.
We woke up later than expected with no kids in our faces and it was too quiet upstairs. We checked their rooms and they were empty, even the baby’s room. We hurried down the stairs just knowing we would have very anxious kids. The door was shut but it wasn’t locked. We opened it and all three of them, even the baby, were sitting in their jeep! We had no idea how they did it. They were so proud because they helped the baby out of his crib and down the stairs. Then they took the broom and raised it up to the lock and popped the hook out of the eye! They had been riding back and forth for almost an hour. They only had about 15 feet of space in that room and it was too narrow to turn around so they were just going forward and then reverse, over and over again. But they took turns! We were so shocked but it was the funniest thing to see.
It’s only one of many stories we tell our now teenagers but it’s one of the best. Sorry I rambled but thanks for letting me relive that one. Happy Holidays!
I’ve e-mailed Wrighty to let her know. You can read all the memories/traditions in the comments of the original contest thread. If I get a moment I’ll do a post of some of the other entries. They were all interesting especially the different traditions that everyone has. Have a happy holiday season whatever you celebrate! (And that reminds me that I have Festivus
and Holidays on Ice
to review yet).
I’m off to the land of dial-up Internet access and intermittent power outages for a litttle bit, so blog updates will be intermittent. I have a backlog of reviews to write, which I hope to get done at the airport so I can post them later this week. More giveaways next year as well as a Health & Fitness Book Reading Challenge (the challenge part is actually putting into practice what you read about!). And book reviews, which have been sparse this month due to general holiday and end of term madness, will be more regular in the New Year (I tell myself).
For those who downloaded the Charlie Huston’s Caught Stealing back in October (mentioned in part 18 of this series), you can still download the second book, Six Bad Things, until the 16th (that’s tomorrow, so get a move on — I’d forgotten about this one myself). The third and last book, A Dangerous Man, will be available for download on the same page from December 17th to sometime in January in preparation for the release (not a free download) of the fourth book in the series, The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death, on the 13th of January. If you’re in the US you can also enter to win print versions of the books (too bad for the rest of us, poo!).
If you have an iPhone (not sure if this will work on an iPod Touch or not), here’s a press release that will make your day:
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My interview is up at The Book Bloggers for anyone who is interested in knowing more about this blog and how books end up getting reviewed here. The Book Bloggers was conceived to let authors know which book bloggers they should target, but I’ve actually found it useful as a book blog reader. I like to know how books get onto a book blog and what the book blogger’s philosophy on reviewing is.
These are the questions book bloggers answer over at The Book Bloggers:
01. What motivated you to create a book review blog?
02. What do you find most rewarding about book reviewing?
03. What types of books do you review?
04. In what genre do you consider yourself to have the most expertise?
05. Is there any type of book that you absolutely will not review?
06. Do you accept submissions from self-published authors?
07. Do you accept PDF versions or e-books for review?
08. Can an author guest blog for you?
09. Do you host book giveaways?
10. Do you interview authors?
11. Do you ever host stops on an organized book tour?
12. What is the average turnaround time for a review, from the time the book arrives in your mailbox until the review is posted?
13. Do you cross-post reviews to Amazon or other sites?
14. Will you notify an author by email when a review is posted?
15. Do you have any specific requirements for review submission?
16. Where can authors submit review queries and to whom should they be addressed?
Posted in Linkage, Rambles |
I don’t know about you, but most of the time when I put an audiobook into iTunes it shows up as music. So what you say? Well, having audiobooks show up as music means your audiobooks show up in smart playlists. It also means that you can’t easily look at all of your audiobooks at the same time, or access the iTunes features reserved for audiobooks like being able to change the speed of playback or pick up exactly where you left off instead of the beginning of the track. These are handy features, but I rarely get my audiobooks from iTunes. I get my audiobooks online (usually podiobooks.com) and by converting them from CD so that I can listen to them on the go.
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Posted in Linkage, Rambles |
I know, I know: How can I possibly recommend non-book gifts on a book blog? Well, it’s one thing to know that someone is an avid reader. It’s quite another thing to figure out what book to get them. Here’s a list of non-book (but still bookish) gifts to give to people who like to read. Some gifts can be paired with a book and some are good all by their lonesome:
- Something warm to drink while reading: tea bags, coffee or some hot chocolate (this depends on what they like to drink of course).
- Something snackish to eat while reading (I’m partial to chocolate-covered coffee beans, but it depends on the reader you’re buying for).
- A handmade bookmark (good for kids’ projects too).
- An I.O.U. for several hours of kid wrangling for the parent reader short on reading time.
- Post-It flags or some brass book darts for marking passages.
- A book light (like this one from Lee Valley or these ones
).
- A LibraryThing.com membership for those readers who are technologically and organizationally inclined (or, for a similar price, a copy of Bookpedia — that one’s for Mac users only though).
- A pair of bookends.
- A bookshelf.
- A throw to keep the reader warm while reading.
Did this list get you thinking about non-bookish gifts for bookish people? Leave your gift ideas (I know you have some) in the comments.
