Weekly Geeks- A Quote a Day #7

"Write it down, boy. If you come across a passage in your reading that you’d like to remember, write it down in your little book; then you can read it again, memorize it, and have it whenever you wish."
— Keith Donohue

"Statistically, if you're reading this sentence, you're an oddball. The average American spends three minutes a day reading a book. At this moment, you and I are engaged in an essentially antiquated interaction. Welcome, fellow Neanderthal!"
— Dick Meyer

"When I was a child, it was a matter of pride that I could plow through a Nancy Drew story in one afternoon, and begin another in the evening. . . . I was probably trying to impress the librarians who kept me supplied with books."
— Kathleen Norris ("The Prodigal Reader," Ruminator Review, Summer 2002

***FYI: I was that child. I read the entire Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books during my summer before I went into the 5th grade. After reading them, I went up to the librarian and said, "Where do I go now?" She told me, "Trixie Belden." Oh, how I loved my librarian!!!

"The reading of a fine book is an uninterrupted dialogue in which the book speaks and our soul replies"
— André Maurois

Weekly Geeks- A Quote a Day #6

"She said it out loud, the words distributed into a room that was full of cold air and books. Books everywhere! Each wall was armed with overcrowded yet immaculate shelving. It was barely possible to see paintwork. There were all different styles and sizes of lettering on the spines of the black, the red, the gray, the every-colored books. It was one of the most beautiful things Liesel Meminger had ever seen.

With wonder, she smiled.

That such a room existed!"

— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)

Weekly Geeks- A Quote a Day #5

"Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them."

— Arnold Lobel

Weekly Geeks- A Quote a Day #4

Nunchuck skills, bowhunting skills, computer hacking skills...girls only want boyfriends who have great skills.
p. 76

Napolean Dynamite

Weekly Geeks- A Quote a Day #3

"For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die."
— Anne Lamott (Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life)

Weekly Geeks- A Quote a Day #2

"Books can be possessive, can't they? You're walking around in a bookstore and a certain one will jump out at you, like it had moved there on its own, just to get your attention. Sometimes what's inside will change your life, but sometimes you don't even have to read it. Sometimes it's a comfort just to have a book around. Many of these books haven't even had their spines cracked. 'Why do you buy books you don't even read?' our daughter asks us. That's like asking someone who lives alone why they bought a cat. For company, of course."
~ The Sugar Queen by Srah Addison Allen
p. 206

Weekly Geeks- A Quote a Day #1

One of my favorite Weekly Geeks last year was: A Quote a Day. This will have you pulling books off your shelves and Googling for your favorites. It also means a post a day for the next week - or as many as you can do. Quoth Dewey:

You may want to come up with a theme, such as favorite passages from books, author quotes, political quotes, quotes about books or reading, humorous quotes, whatever. Or you may not want a theme at all; maybe you just want to gather up seven assorted quotes that appeal to you. You may want to start each of your posts of the week with a quote, or you may want to give quotes posts of their own in addition to your regular posts. It’s all up to you!

This week's WG brought to you by Terri/teelgee

This is one that I can totally get into!! I'm just going to post my favorite quotes..some of them are about books, while others are just about life, and some have just touched me in some fashion. I hope you enjoy mine and I can't wait to read everyone else's as I am sure to be adding them to my collection!! I'm glad I started that other blog Quotes and Passages so I have somewhere to list my favorites after this week is done!!


Quote for March 7, 2009:




"I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! -- When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library."
— Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice)

Weekly Geeks #5- Cover Art

Judge a Book By Its Cover!

This week it's all about judging books by their covers! Pick a book--any book, really--and search out multiple book cover images for that book. They could span a decade or two (or more)...Or they could span several countries. Which cover is your favorite? Which one is your least favorite? Which one best 'captures' what the book is about?

Well, I wanted to post the cover to the two books that truly influenced me to be the reader that I am today: Charlotte's Web and The Little House on the Prairie. The only problem is that the cover does not have very many different editions. So I decided to post Little Women instead. I love this book and can never pass up the opportunity to watch the movie version that Katherine Hepburn starred in...She is Jo!!



The first one I'm not that crazy about, it shows Beth in her sick bed and I just think it's kind of bland. I do like the second cover. I would pick this book up and see what the story was about.







Sometimes I like movie covers on books but this is not the case for this edition. I do however love the second book cover!!






Well a lot can be said for book covers that is for sure. Some covers I spot from across the room and instantly attract my attention, while others I wonder why in the world they chose that particular art/photo to express what this book is about. I know that I shouldn't judge a book by its cover but I have to be honest and say that I do, and I do it a lot!! So far I don't feel that it has been a hindrance in regards to choosing a good read or not. I will always go with my initial gut reaction and then see where it leads me!!


And on a side note: the book that I own of Little Women is extremely old and tattered, there is no cover art on the front, but it has the most beautiful color pictures within the covers!! I found it in a library sale!!

Weekly Geeks 4- My Other Passions

This week's Weekly Geek is inspired by Dewey's Knit-a-Long, a mini challenge of Dewey's Reading Challenge. Dewey had other passions besides reading and blogging. Knitting was one of them. This made me think, what are the Weekly Geek's other passions?

#1. What are you passionate about besides reading and blogging? For example, are you crafty (knitting, woodworking, scrapbooking, model building)? Do you cook? Into gaming (computer or board)? Sports (player or spectator)? Photography? Maybe you like geocaching, rock climbing? Or love attending events like renaissance fairs, concerts? Music? Dancing? You get the idea.

I am very eccentric when it comes to other things that I'm passionate about. One thing that I'm passionate about it LEARNING!! So, in order to learn I find that my interests are all over the place. I learned how to cross stitch and found out that I truly enjoyed it!! I've bought several kits but to date I've only finished one...A Detroit Tiger logo for one of my friends who is passionate about the Tigers!! I also LOVE to scrapbook!! I use to post a lot of my stuff at a web site but I've slowed down on doing that and instead just focus on my projects and how I want my pages to come out. Right now I'm working on my hubby and son's trip out west..they took over 350 pictures!! I absolutely love photography...especially black and white photos. The only time that I truly enjoy winter is when I can go out with my camera and get some really cool snow on tree photos!! I enjoy going to concerts...my husband does not! So I go with friends...we've seen Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts, Def Leppard (took hubby for his b-day!) I danced and sang, he just stood there???, Duran Duran, Poison.....and my biggest passion of all----watching my son Marc play football! He is so intense and aggressive.....I totally love it!! Now if I could just get my hands on a digital SLR with the telephoto lens.......

The above two photos are just some of my scrapbook pages that I've done over the past years. The top one is of me and my husband before we left for a friend's wedding. The Beach baby is my nephew Simon....I had the pleasure of having him stay with me for about 11 days 2 summer's ago and took endless photos of him...He's adorable!!

Links for scrapbooking:

I really only follow two people who scrapbook and the first one is Ali Edwards. I love her. I had the pleasure of meeting her a few years ago and taking some of her scrapbooking classes together with my friend Tracy. Ali has a clean and simple style but yet it is always fresh. I highly recommend her site to anyone because she has a lot going on, and not all of it is scrapping. Her son is autistic and her hubby Chris, is a State Representative for Oregon. Check her out here. The other scrapbooker is my friend Julie. I met her at a scrapsite and she welcomed me with open arms!! Not only is she a great scrapbooker but she's also a wonderful human!! You can catch up with her here!

The 3 photos above are my attempts at photography.

Photo #1 is of a river that I see all the time on my way to one of my favorite places.....the library!! I took my camera with me because I wanted to document this spot during the winter. I love how stark everything looks. Black and white photos are my favorite.

Photo #2 is after a frost occured during the winter. I got on my hands and knees and crawled under one of our pine trees and then took this shot on my back looking up through the trees. This is truly the only time I enjoy winter!!

Photo #3 was inspired by Ree from The Pioneer Woman. Her photography is out of the world and I long to be riding a horse on her ranch. She's also a fantastic cook, great story-teller, and an awesome mom. I think her website has one of the largest followings out there. This photo was shot from my back yard. The sky was just beautiful that day and I wanted to capture that feeling I get when there's a pretty crop in the field behind my house, the weather is gorgeous and I enjoy(on that particular day) living in Michigan.

#3. Visit other Weekly Geeks. Link in your post to other Geeks who've peaked your interest in their passion. Or maybe you might find a fellow afincionado among us, link to them.

I'm going to follow-up with #3 later this week after I've checked out the other Geeks blogs!!

Happy weekend everyone!!

Weekly Geeks 3- Very, very, late!

Last week Ali challenged us to think about the classics. She gave us four questions, and allowed us to mix and match.

1) How do you feel about classic literature?

I would like to tell you that I just love classic literature but I'm afraid that I am not a huge fan of it. Why? Because yes, I am intimidated by it. I don't get all the extra layers and subtleties that the author intends for you to uncover. I need to become a better reader that is for sure.

Which classics, if any, have you truly loved?

I've read Sense and Sensibility and truly truly loved it. Right now I'm reading Pride and Prejudice which is such a great read. I will be the first one to admit that I find these books much easier to understand and read because I've watched the movies several 100 times!! Next month I'll be trying my hand at Anna Karenina, but I've got a ton of stuff printed out to help me study this novel in more depth and to question things while I'm reading it. I hope that will help!!

Which would you recommend for someone who has very little experience reading older books?

I honestly don't think I can recommend one to anyone at this time seeing how my knowledge of the classics is still pretty limited.



3) Let's say you're vacationing with your dear cousin Myrtle, and she forgot to bring a book. The two of you venture into the hip independent bookstore around the corner, where she primly announces that she only reads classic literature. If you don't find her a book, she'll never let you get any reading done! What contemporary book/s with classic appeal would you pull off the shelf for her?

I would give her The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. For one thing if she's such a classics buff then she should recognize the story of Hamlet being played out within the pages of this chunky novel. Plus I'm sure that she will love all the underlying dynamics, questions, hauntings, the connection to The Jungle Book etc. that this book will bring to her attention. The added bonus...the book is pretty long so she should be good and quiet for a long time which means I will be able to get some serious reading done!!

Weekly Geeks 2009-02: What It Means To Be A Weekly Geek

For our second Weekly Geeks of the new year and our second post without our founder Dewey, Joanne of The Book Zombie has these questions:

For those who have been with the group, either from the start or joined within recent months, what does being a member mean to you? What do you enjoy about the group? What are some of your more memorable Weekly Geeks that we might could do again? What could be improved as we continue the legacy that Dewey gave us?

For those just joining us, why did you sign up for Weekly Geeks? What would you like to see here?

Well, I fall into the latter area because this is only my second posting on Weekly Geeks. One of the reasons why I signed up was that I liked the different questions that were asked each week and felt that it would give a little bit of variety to my blog, especially on those days when nothing fantastical (which is more often than not) was happening in my world. I liked the idea of having an assignment and being interactive with other bloggers out there in the vast world of internet. The other reason I signed up is because I love meeting people (even though it is online) and getting to catch a glimpse into their world. I guess I'm a bit of a voyeur if you will. I love to visit blogs and to let someone know that I was there. More traffic means more sharing of ideas, thoughts, books, and yes, dreams!!

Weekly Geeks

Welcome to the return of Weekly Geeks! We took a break for six weeks to give us time to honor Dewey, regroup and decide how to proceed. It takes a village to keep Dewey's projects going - and that's just what this blogging village (blogage?) is doing. Although there will be different facilitators every week, this is the place to come for the Weekly Geeks theme, Mr. Linky and comments, so add this page to your favs.

So - shall we begin?

In the spirit of the amazing community building that Dewey was so good at, tell us about your favorite blogs, the ones you have bookmarked or subscribe to in your Google Reader, that you visit on a regular basis. Tell us what it is about these blogs that you love, that inspire or educate you or make you laugh. Be sure to link to them so we can find them too.

Another option: Reading goals for ’09 and wrap ups for ’08 have been pretty well covered by now on a lot of blogs and other memes. But if you haven’t done this, feel free to make that your first WG of the new year, in addition to or instead of the above.

********The above was copied directly from www.weeklygeeks.com

I had seen Weekly Geeks posts on several blogs that I visited and came across the postings of the passing of Dewey, who was a beloved member of the book blogging community. I never had the opportunity to interact with Dewey but I've spent a lot of time at her blog and could see just how much reading and the blogging community meant to her. After seeing today's Weekly Geek, I wanted to play along.

I've decided to post about all the wonderful blogs that I've found in such a short time since I've been blogging. I can you one thing, I spend way more time "reading" on the computer than I do with an actual book!! I can't get enough of blogs about books !! Every time I log onto my blog I find a new link to a blog that I haven't read yet and I find myself either following the blog or adding it to my ever-expanding blog roll!! I find it extremely difficult to just list a few of my favorite blogs because I love them all!! So I'll just list a few in no particular order that I would like to feature today and hopefully you all will stop by and find something interesting for yourself!!

• Heather at Book Addiction- I love, love, love her blog. I always come across some author or book that I have never heard of and she gives straight forward and honest reviews!! In fact, it was her blog that inspired me to participate in Weekly Geeks.

• Trish at Hey Lady! Whatcha Reading?- I love her reviews and I picked up The Wednesday Sisters yesterday at my public library because she told all of us that we had to read it because this story has stayed with her for over six months!! Can't read to read it!!

• Mellymel at Lit*Chick- I met Melly at a scrapbooking site and she helped moderate a bookworm thread for all of last year. From there is how I came across her blog. I love her writing style and her reviews are pretty much right on! She also has a lot of fun giveaways. Plus, she's just a great person!!

• Wendy at Musings of a Bookish Kitty- Can I just say that I wish I could write reviews like her? I get excited whenever I see that she's updated her blog. She took a much needed vacation this past week and I've missed her daily writings. But she's so sweet that even on her downtime she's visited my blog and left several comments. I spent over 4 hours one day going through each and every one of her posts and my TBR list grew exponentially!!!

• Bonnie at Redlady's Reading Room- Her blog is so informative!! Every time I go to her blog I walk away with great information. I especially love reading her Mailbox Mondays... I live vicariously through her when she gets all those great ARC books!!!! And she always takes time to stop by my blog and leave me some kind of sweet comment. Thanks Bonnie!!

• The Compulsive Reader- This is a teenage girl who writes like she's 30!! She has the best vocabulary and I envy her wonderful writing style. It seems like she's been doing this forever. I think her blog is one of the best out there for the YA genre. She's got a bright future ahead of her. Sorry, but I don't think she's ever posted her name anywhere!! I did win a book from her blog last week! And she has a really cool feature on her blog called B2B where if you buy one of the books she has reviewed then send her a pic of the book and the receipt and she will enter you in one of her drawings!! I've given this blog addy out to a ton of girls at my middle school. This young lady is rocking the YA genre!!

• Heather at A Day in the Life-because she's sweet, has a fun blog, and she's my sister-in-law!!