Read-a-thon 2012 - Ebooks only!

Potential reading titles for the Readathon: 

1. Kelley Armstrong's The Gathering 
2. KA's The Calling
3. Jo Beverly's Emily and the Dark Angel
4. Diana Wynne Jones - The Tough guide to Fantasyland
5. Intuition, the short-story prequel to Intangible by J. Meyers (its Free) 
6. Mike Norton's Battlepug Graphic Novel

 I'm trying to mix it up - Short story, a comic, romance, the inimitable DWJ...though they are ALL ebooks! What other genres could I add to provide some light relief? 

Introductory Hour 1 Challenge: 
1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? 
Manipal, a small town in India

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? 
Probably the Diana Wynne Jones one, but I'm starting off with Jo Beverly's historical romance

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? 
Just went out for ice-cream to kick-start the Readathon!

4) Tell us a little something about yourself! 
I have a newborn son to look after, so this Readathon might involve a lot of breaks

5) If you participated in the last Read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? 
My last Read-a-Thon back in Oct'10, when I read 4.5 books and 1,553 pages in 10 hours 
 

I'm a cheerleader - Go Team Puck! See you on the read-a-thon

2011 Man Booker Prize results - Final 13!

The weekend brought the Thirteen finalists for the famous Man Booker International Prize:

• Wang Anyi (China)
• Juan Goytisolo (Spain)
• James Kelman (UK)
• John le Carré (UK)
• Amin Maalouf (Lebanon)
• David Malouf (Australia)
• Dacia Maraini (Italy)
• Rohinton Mistry (India/Canada)
• Philip Pullman (UK)
• Marilynne Robinson (USA)
• Philip Roth (USA)
• Su Tong (China)
• Anne Tyler (USA) 

There's only a few I've read here (Carre, Pullman, Roth) so I'd love for book recommendations. Who would you read first and why?
The last Booker winner I read was Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger.Alice Munro is the only past winner on this list (I'm not sure if I've read her or not).
In other gossip, John Le Carre has asked to be removed from consideration so that other lesser known authors can win!! Cool guy, that.

Black Friday Sale Roundup: Gone in 60 seconds

How many of you are getting/giving ereaders for Christmas or other occassions?

The Black Friday Sale on Amazon listed the older, Amazon Kindle 2 (for $89 ) - and sold out within Seconds!

Barnes & Noble had a similar sale on the Nook - the refurbished Wi-Fi Nooks were listed on eBay for $79, and later $99. The sale also included the refurbished 3G models for $119. The sale ended after a couple of days, having sold 6,777 Nooks in total.

Some reasons for the difference in the speed of sales (seconds vs. days) was the Amazon Kindle 2 Sale was on Black Friday, when buyers are madly refreshing their browsers for deals!
Still, gone in seconds?? My theories why -

• It was hugely publicized, and word spread via facebook, twitter, before blogs and newsfeeds could pick it up.

• The estimate is that half a million folks saw the update through these sites.

Let me mention here that we tried to buy a $139 WiFi Kindle for a friend 2 weeks ago, and Best Buy was out of stock, both the times we went. 

Tuesday (November 23rd) Amazon reported on their Facebook wall: “We had our biggest sales day ever for Kindle devices yesterday. Thank you, customers!”

What I want to know now is:  
How many readers are gifting/getting ereaders this season?

More info:
Kindle sale results in the news

Read-a-Thon: Roundup

Number of books read since you started: 4.5 (In Order: Odd Hours, Sabriel, Thud!, Battle of Britain and half of About Time)

Running total of pages read since you started: 1,553

Running total of time spent reading since you started: Approx. 10 hours of reading. Spent 2 hours cheering and visiting other readathoners.
Mini-challenges completed:

• Hour 1 Meme
• Back in the Day Children's Book Challenge 
• Armchair Travelling
• Title Word Scramble
• Love to Hate (which I won!)
• Nonfiction Readathon  
• Pitch Your Book
• Ban This Book!  
• Character Photo Challenge
• Favorite Sidekicks

Would I take part again? ABSOLUTELY!

I'm also going to sign up for some official Cheerleading next time, in addition to Reading.  I did visit a lot of pages this Readathon, but not officially.

Post #100 and Friday Hop Oct 8-10

This weekly BOOK PARTY is an awesome opportunity for book bloggers to connect with other book lovers, make new friends - Thanks to Jen from http://www.crazy-for-books.com/

This weeks question: "What's your favorite beverage while blogging and reading?"

I don't ever have anything to drink or sip while I blog or read! I usually get fully immersed into what I am doing, so my drink gets cold (or warm, if it started off cold!).
WHOO this is my ONE HUNDREDTH POST! I must say, I am excited about all the people I've gotten to know a little bit since the blog began. Thank you! If you have not yet entered my Giveaway, please do. Also, a few of my favorite posts are here:
Review: The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
Free Ebooks Download - Do you want some?
Multiplying Like Rabbits
Medieval copyright Protection

If you want to begin considering the ebook option -
Starting with EBooks - for beginners and explorers...
Readability - The battle of the Kindle vs. Paper v...
ilona Andrews - Magic Bites & Magic Burns

September Roundup - Thanks to You!

Wins:
We went from about 600 visits to 900+ (Woot!). 

Blogger Stats show that my Sept visits were at 1696! (I still don't know why Blogger vs. Google Analytics is different)

Page views went up by 20% as well, so I just want to thank you all for visiting and reading!

Reviews/Interesting Posts:

100+ Follower Giveaway - Ends Oct 15 (highest reads)

Free Ebooks Download - Do you want some? (FREE Books!)

Skins for your ebook reader - style over substance... (I've bought super skins here myself)

Banned Books Week - Sept 25th to Oct 2nd

Why book publishing needs to Change

Baen Publishing - a home for ebooks and new author...

If you need a laugh - Medieval copyright Protection is a good way to relax!

Also, in the interests of this week's blogger hop question - 

it looks like the Friday Hop, Twitter and Teaser Tuesdays are the biggest connectors.

***

A big heartfelt THANK YOU shoutout to all the lovely people who are reading my blog 

and are bloggers themselves.

It is so much fun getting to know you all!
Remember, I Follow Back. 

Book Blogger Hop #2 - And August Roundup

 Hi! Thanks for stopping over from the Friday Hop - Today also happens to be the day that I do my monthly round-up (which follows the Hop question), so do scroll away.

The book blogger hop is hosted by http://www.crazy-for-books.com, and the idea is for the event to last over the weekend to give everyone a chance to visit the other bloggers.

Do you judge a book by its cover?

Ans: Yeah! I don't usually get to see covers, what with my Kindle and e-book reading habits. However, if I'm in my store or at the library, I will totally judge what I pick up based on the cover and the spine.Also, when I'm itching for a new not-yet-released book, I will go gaze at the cover at Amazon.
In the spirit of this question, my post below, from earlier today, is on the Cover of Blameless, the new just-released book by Gail Carriger.

Grand August Round-Up

Wins: 
Teaser Tuesday - Maker's Song got the most number of views

Followed by Friday Blogger Hop #1
and New Blogger Header - What do you think?


Highest read post (aside from those above) -
Walk inside Bookshelf - Designed for a Museum 
The biggest win to my mind has to be the New Name (Thanks to the winner!) and my new header design.
I could use some suggestions on how to measure views - I'm an analytical person, and I use Google Analytics to track my site here, and Blogger Stats. I also have a matching Posterous site, which has a lot higher reads per post than here ('cause it links to Twitter, Faebook) - http://readseverything.posterous.com/
According to Posterous, My post on a new ebook reader entrant to India got 480 views!! The numbers below are purely from Google Analytics.

Upto 591 visits in Aug (up from 418 visits last month!)

 Whoo! 1355 pageviews. Blogger says I have 908! Posterous is even higher..which one is right? Any help on this?

Reviews/Interesting Posts:
Walker Papers #4 - Walking Dead by C.E. Murphy 
New eBook Reader 'Wink' to Enter India
Graphic meme comparing Tablets

Grand Round Up - July

Wins:

Catchy Name Contest! got the most number of views (~100)

Followed by Fantastic thought for the day
and http://readseverything.blogspot.com/2010/07/amazon-releasing-next-kindle-at-139.html

418 visits this month!

Data was taken from 2nd July till today.

Most Read Posts:

Amazon's Kindle patent, a competition killer?

Reviews:

FIFA Time Read!

Review: Chicagoland Vampires by Chloe Neill
Update and Review: Twice Bitten, Chicagoland Vampires by Chloe Neill
Teaser Tuesday #5 - The Spook's Apprentice

Ebook Related:

Readability - The battle of the Kindle vs. Paper vs. iPad

Amazon releasing next Kindle at $139

Amazon's Kindle patent Revealed!

Teaser Tuesdays:

Teaser Tuesday - A Game of Thrones

Teaser Tuesday #4 - Conflict of Honors

Teaser Tuesday #5 - The Spook's Apprentice

Teaser Tuesday #6 - Bridge of Birds

Grand Roundup - June

Statistics:

The Teaser Tuesday's get the most comments, as they get linked in from a very popular blog. Now, if I could only get a few people to linger on and return :)

Books Reviewed:

 

Teaser Tuesdays:

Patrick Rothfuss - The Name of the Wind

Chicagoland Vampires

Posts in the Spotlight:

Guest post by the very talented Shilpa of http://shilpa-thisandthat.blogspot.com/

Upcoming Releases for June and July

Also began the Flashback this month, and it is 3/4ths done. If you have any good challenges, let me know, I would love to take part.

That's All, Folks!

Grand Roundup - May

Statistics:
Total Comments: 30 Comments (i.e. 15 or so by Readers)
Most commented: http://readseverything.blogspot.com/2010/05/robert-jordan-wheel-of-time-series.html (Because we segued into chatting about our mutual adoration for Miyazaki)
Unique Visitors: 105 (YAY!) ; More than 10 visits: 25 visitors (Pretty fantastic)
Books Reviewed:

See and download the full gallery on posterous

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Other Posts
Author Update - Neil Gaiman
The Best Book Covers of the Decade
A Paen to the Kindle and Calibre

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