Weekly Geeks - Blogger Playlist

This week's Weekly Geeks post is a neat one:

This week, I thought we could share blogging-inspired playlists. The idea of this one is to choose song titles that sound like they have something to do with reading or blogging. Songs that reflect how you feel about blogging in general. This has more to do with the titles themselves than the actual genres or styles of the songs. So you might include on your blogger playlist songs that you'd never actually put together on a playlist.

My playlist:

1. Is There Something I Should Know? - Duran Duran
2. Fairytale - Enya
3. Book of Days - Enya
4. The Enchantress - Greg Joy
5. Express Yourself - Madonna
6. Open Sesame - Kool and the Gang
7. I'm Going Slightly Mad - Queen
8. Don't Stop Me Now - Queen
9. Time Stand Still - Rush
10. Words - The Bee Gees
11. Empty Pages - Air Supply
12. Workin' Day And Night - Michael Jackson

Weekly Geeks - Antique Books

This week's Weekly Geeks post is one that caught my attention for sure: Antique Books. The post question is as follows:

The other day I was noticing the old books on my book shelf. Old, meaning books that were "born" a long long time ago. Books that were published AND printed a long long time ago. (Not simply books that have been sitting on our shelves forever!)And it made me wonder what old books other readers have in their collection.

So this week, write a post sharing with us what old antique books you may have on your shelves, and tell us the story behind them. Did you inherit from a relative? Are you a collector of old and rare books? Did you just discover a certain book in a used book store and couldn't pass it up? What's the very oldest book you have? Do you even like old books? Or do they creep you out? Do you read and enjoy your old books, or is it more a "look and don't touch" thing?

 My answer is that I definitely have a few antique books, and I could easily see myself becoming a collector (if I only had the income). The two clearest examples I have are both more of the "look don't touch" category - but not because I don't want to, but because I can't read them!

The first is the Ancrene Wisse manuscript as edited by J.R.R. Tolkien. It's a lovely edition from the Early English Text Society, dating from 1962. To me at least, that makes it an antique! Why I haven't read it yet? It's in Old/Middle English and Latin. When I bought the book, I was under the impression that it was a translation. An "oops" on my part.

The other one is very similar: Also an Early English Text Society edition. This one is of Sir Gawain And The Green Knight. I haven't read it because I have got other versions that I prefer: translation and facing page translation.

Other than those, I have a nice box of children's books that I haven't looked in for years. But, I remember that there should be some of the Bobsey Twins, Nancy Drew books and Cherry Ames - and more than a few of those have the old brown cloth covers. I don't know if they count as antiques, but they were passed down to me from my mother.

Weekly Geeks - Graphic Novels

This week's Weekly Geeks questions are about Graphic Novels:

Do you read graphic novels or memoirs? Who are your favorite authors? Which books do you recommend?

If you haven't read any, why not?

Some people have the impression that graphic novels are glorified comic books, are unsophisticated or don't qualify as "serious" literature. What do you think? If you track your book numbers, do you count a graphic novel as a book read?

For myself, no I don't generally read graphic novels, although I do have a few: the Star Wars Rogue Squadron omnibus set, and the first two of the Laurell K. Hamilton Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series. The first ones I have because I've enjoyed the Rogue Sqadron/Wraith Squadron novels. The others because I like the original novels, and I was curious as to how the graphic novels would be in comparison.

However, I don't overall find graphic novels to my taste, and I especially don't understand the current craze for putting existing novels into graphic novel format, though I think the "first time" stories such as Homecoming by Patricia Briggs and the story in the ABVH graphic novels are neat ideas. It just feels like cheating to read a novel in graphic format when it exists as a normal novel. I wonder if the people who read graphic novels of novels will also read the full novel, of if at least some of them will figure they already know the story. On the other hand, there are also those universes that are designed for graphic novels. I do admit that the artwork can be spectacular, which is the main reason I still have the Anita Blake graphic novels.

My problem, at least with the Rogue Squadron/Star Wars graphic novels is that even after finishing the first couple of stories in the first book is that I still couldn't manage to tell the characters apart.

Should I actually ever finish reading a graphic novel though, I would definitely count it as a novel read. I'm overall not certain they're really for me in general.

Weekly Geeks - "What's the Plan" Response

This week's question at Weekly Geeks is:

Do you have a plan of what you're going to read the rest of the year? Have you had a master plan all along? If so, have you stuck to it? What helps you to decide what you're going to read next? Challenges? Book groups? Or do you have the luxury of closing your eyes and picking any book off your shelf?

The second question is talking about spreadsheets and ways of organizing books to be read, but I don't.

Anyway my answer is more or less option three. I do tend to read whatever suits my mood whenever I finish my previous book, but these days, I'm usually picking up books I've been sent for review before I tackle anything on my shelf. Hardcover books usually get the pick over e-books too (and I'm feeling a bit guilty over that, as I have a couple of e-books I've received from the LibraryThing Member Giveaway that I need to read).

There's also a couple of challenges calling my name too: The Arthurian Challenge, the Pre-Printing Press Challenge, and the What's In A Name Challenge. All of them need some reading to be done towards them. Where I can, I'm overlapping books for those (mostly the Pre-Printing Press and the Arthurian Challenge).

I don't spreadsheet my reading, but I do have a document where I list the books I've been sent, where the reviews are to go and when I finally get to them and get the reviews posted. It's nothing fancy, but it does keep my commitments at the front of my mind. There's also the rough list of my TBR pile/Unread Books on my blog.

I choose my reading based on what I feel like. Sometimes I get a real itch to read an old favorite or something, where I can almost see specific passages, or else it will be because I'm in the mood for more like the previous book I read, or I'm on a particular author "kick". The last is what's motivated me recently with Michelle Moran's books. At the moment I'm reading Cleopatra's Daughter and loving it. Not overly certain what's next on the list though. Perhaps A Breath Of Snow and Ashes, as the book following it is due out soon. Not particularly organized perhaps, but fun.

Weekly Geeks - Collecting

The Weekly Geeks question this week is about collecting.

...do you have a collection, (or are you starting a collection,) of one particular book title? If so, what's your story? Why that book, and how many do you have, and what editions are they? Share pictures and give us all the details.

Or perhaps you dream about starting such a collection. What title would it be and what would it take for you to get motivated to start collecting?

Or maybe it's the works of a particular author you collect (or want to collect) instead a certain book title?

For me, the third question comes the closest. I collect the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, but not just the books by Tolkien. I also buy the books about Tolkien and his writings. My family says I'm obsessed with Tolkien and Middle-Earth. Given my website on the subject, Finduilas's J.R.R. Tolkien Page, they may have a point LOL (it's been growing for over ten years now).

I don't know what it is about Tolkien's Middle-Earth that's so inspiring to me, but I do know that my reading of Tolkien's books has had a positive impact on my choices and interests, so his books are something I'm glad to collect.

I definitely do collect, as I have over eighty books by or about Tolkien at last count, including multiple copies of the core books (the Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion). I don't have any photos of my collection though, as it's overflowing from the shelf, double-shelved and in dire need of re-organization (as are the rest of my books). For that matter, much of it is in dire need of reading as my buying has outpaced my reading.

I dream of getting copies of the first editions for the Lord of the Rings, and The Hobbit, but I know how expensive they are. The same thing is true for a lot of the early minor things Tolkien wrote, such as some of his poetry.

Weekly Geeks

I've never participated in a Weekly Geeks post before, but this one is right up my alley:

I think just about every reader has a least one book that they've been meaning to read for awhile (months or even years) but, for one reason or another, they just haven't gotten around to it. Maybe it's a book a friend recommended last year, or a title you've flirted with in a bookstore on more than one occasion, or maybe it's a book that's sitting right there on your bookshelf, patiently waiting for you to pick it up -- but the thought is always there, in the back of your mind: Why haven't I read this yet?

This week, tell us about a book (or books) you have been meaning to read. What is it? How long have you wanted to read it? And, why haven't you read it yet?

I've got almost too many books to chose from to answer this question. Enough so that I've made a list of the books and posted it to try and prune it down.

The book I've chosen for the answer to this is Diana Gabaldon's A Breath Of Snow And Ashes.

I've had it since the week it first came out in hardcover. According to Amazon.com, that was back in 2005, so the book has spent about four years and counting on my TBR pile. The reason I haven't read it yet is because A Breath Of Snow and Ashes is the sequel to The Fiery Cross, and I feel like I need to re-read that book before I can read this one. And, I just can't seem to get through the other book again. I'm going to have to read A Breath of Snow And Ashes soon though, as it's created a bottleneck in my reading. There's two other Diana Gabaldon's waiting for me to finish this one, and now, her next one is due out at the end of September.

Anyway, this book is the next one in the story of Claire and Jamie Fraiser, the series that began with Outlander. The other books in the series are: Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, The Drums of Autumn, and The Fiery Cross. There's also a series of stories about Lord John Grey, a recurring figure in the Outlander series.