So Many Precious Books, So Little Time

From Becky:


I was thinking that it might be nice for those bloggers who are Weekly Geeks to pay tribute to Dewey in the next week or so. To take the time to post to their blogs a "Weekly Geek" post about Dewey--maybe share their favorite posts from her site, maybe share a memory or two about participating in weekly geeks, the bookworms carnival, the 24 Hour Readathon, or one of Dewey's challenges, maybe just share a favorite memory of Dewey in general, what they'll miss most, how they'll remember her, etc. I'm going to try to post mine this Saturday--but bloggers anywhere and everywhere are encouraged to post whenever they want.

About Dewey: (excerpt taken from her blog The Hidden Side of a Leaf):

"My main focus in blogging is community. I want to share my love for books with other bloggers, hear what they think of what they’re reading, and have lots of bookish fun. My non-review blog activities, such as the Bookworms Carnival, the Read-a-thon, Weekly Geeks, the challenges I host or join, and the contests and giveaways in my blog are all meant to build community."

Dewey acheived her main objective above brilliantly and with much enthusiasim. I wish we could have bottled her enthusiasm and energy!

Like most of you when I found out about Dewey's passing, I was in shock. It really hit me a few minutes later and the tear came streaming down my face. I spent the entire evening going from blog to blog reading memorials about Dewey and commenting. What has really struck me over this week is how we have pulled together as a community, just like Dewey taught us. She would be proud of what has been accomplished in our discussions of how we can keep Dewey’s projects alive. How we have come together as a community in mourning her death and celebrating her life!

Before writing this I visited Dewey’s blog, The Hidden Side of a Leaf for inspiration. What hit me first was her most recent post of "Book Coveting". She listed five books that she planned to read soon. I wondered if she started any of them, finished any of them, or even started reviewing any of them? Was there a book she started that she left unfinished? It made me sad all over again. There are so many books that I want to read and the list keeps growing. I’m sure that was the case for Dewey.

The next post of Dewey’s that hit me was here review of John Steibeck’s East of Eden. I love John Steinbeck and remember reading her review a few weeks ago. At the end she said, "I’ve enjoyed every Steinbeck novel I’ve read, but I haven’t read The Red Pony." Another book Dewey will never read.

Then a little further down on her blog was her Reading Journal November 18 2008. She said, "I am seriously behind on book review posts. I actually have about 35 books in my read-but-not-yet-reviewed pile." That’s around 35 book reviews that we will never get to read.

Dewey, we miss you!

Posted by Teddy Rose at 3:50 PM 7 comments    

Labels: Weekly Geeks

Becky at Becky's Book Reviews is asking bloggers to pay tribute to Dewey through Weekly Geeks.

Here's how Becky explains it:

I was thinking that it might be nice for those bloggers who are Weekly Geeks to pay tribute to Dewey in the next week or so. To take the time to post to their blogs a "Weekly Geek" post about Dewey--maybe share their favorite posts from her site, maybe share a memory or two about participating in weekly geeks, the bookworms carnival, the 24 Hour Readathon, or one of Dewey's challenges, maybe just share a favorite memory of Dewey in general, what they'll miss most, how they'll remember her, etc. I'm going to try to post mine this Saturday--but bloggers anywhere and everywhere are encouraged to post whenever they want.

If you're interested please SPREAD the word to all your blogging friends.

Note: You wouldn't have to have been an 'official' weekly geek to join in on this. New participants joined on a weekly basis. There was always room for more then...and now.

To join in on the Dewey discussion--how to honor her memory, keep her legacy alive...visit the Book Blogs discussion forum here.

Posted by Teddy Rose at 9:27 PM 0 comments    

Labels: Weekly Geeks

Okay, technically I am not a weekly Geek, just I an occasional Geek. I have been finding many of the tasks too time consuming. I just don’t want to give up that much free time that I could use to read books.

This weeks challenge was a good one for me! This week’s theme is Challenges.

1. If you participate in any challenges, get organised! Update your lists, post about any you haven’t mentioned, add links of reviews to your lists if you do that, go to the challenge blog if there is one and post there, etc.

2. If you don’t participate in any challenges, then join one! There’s a good selection of possibilities over on my right hand sidebar (scroll down) where I list those I participate in. There’s also A Novel Challenge, a blog that keeps track of all sorts of reading challenges.

3. Towards the end of the week, write a wrap-up post about getting your challenges organised OR if you’re joining your first challenge, post about that any time during the week. Once you have your post up, come back and sign Mr Linky with the link to the specific post, not just to your blog.

This last week I have been working on this. What I plan to do here, is to list all of the challenges I am in and what my progress is.

The challenges:

Completed Challenges:
The Canadian Book Challenge (read13/13 books).

Timed Challenges in Progress and/or starting soon:
TBR Challenge Jan. 1- Dec.31,2008 (read 8/12 books)

On the Porch Swing Jan. 1- Dec.31,2008 (read 2/5 books)

Mini Challenge 2008 Jan. 1- Dec.31,2008 (completed 8/12 tasks)

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge Apr. 1 - Oct. 1, 2008 (read 5/6 books)

342,745 Ways To Herd Cats May 1st - November 30th (read 1/3 books)

I've Heard it Through the Grapevine Challenge May 1st - November 30th (read 1/3 books)

Elizabeth Gaskell Mini-Challenge May-Nov. 2008 (viewed 1/2 mini series)

ARC Reading Challenge June 21, 2008-Sept. 21/2008 read 0/4 books)

A Well-Rounded Challenge July 1, 2008- December 31, 2008 (read 0/6 books)

The 2nd Canadian Book Challenge July 1, 2008- July 1, 2009 (0/13)

Book Awards II Reading Challenge Aug. 1-June 1, 2009 (0/10)

Perpetial Callenges:

Book Around the States ( read 13/50 states)

Book Around the World (read 22 books from 6 continents out of 13)

Raved About Reading (read 0/?)

So, what does this tell me? Besides having a book addiction, I also have a challenge addiction!

Posted by Teddy Rose at 3:58 PM 12 comments    

Labels: Weekly Geeks

This week’s theme comes from Samantha, who suggested that one week we all write about our fond memories of childhood books.


There were several different ways suggested to do this. I chose to re-read a childhood favorite and write about it.


I was the youngest of 4 children in my family. My siblings were all quite a bit older than me. I use to drive them crazy asking them to read the same book over and over to me. I must have been around 3 or 4 years old at the time. To tell the truth, I remembered the tile of this book, but I couldn't remember what it was about. LOL! I believe I had it memorized back then.


The book is Stone Soup:












While I was searching for a copy the other day at the library, I found out that is an old French Folk Tale. It has been re-written and illistrated by many different authors. The one I chose was written and illistrated by Marcia Brown.



It only took me a few minutes to read, it about three hungry soldiers who come across a village and ask the villagers if they could spare any food. The three soldiers say that they will have to make stone soup. This of course peaks the villagers curiosity. While the soldier make the soup, they con the villagers into giving them food for the soup.



It was a cute little story, and I can see how a young child would like it. It says it's for ages 4-8, but I think that the oldest child it would appeal to these days, would be perhaps 5.


My rating: 4/5

Posted by Teddy Rose at 7:32 PM 6 comments    

Labels: Weekly Geeks

This week is Discover New Blogs Week!

Here are 5 blogs that I discovered through Weekly Geeks this week (not in any particular order):

1. In Spring it is the Dawn by Tanabata was an awesome find! Tanabata is a Canadian currently living in Japan. She has very well organized and fun, fun. fun blog, with a great sense of humor! This blog was a fantastic find and I am now subscribing to it through Google Reader. Stop by and see for yourself!

2. Everyday Reads by Lightheaded is a beautiful blog with gold fish. I just read one book review and had to add it to my TBR. I can tell Lightheaded is another book enabler! I'm adding this to Google Reader as well.

3. The Armenian Odar Reads by Myrthe. Myrthe introduced herself by saying, "I am a bookeater. These are the books that nurture my mind". I love that! She's a Dutch woman who moved to Armenia. I was quite suprised to see my blog on her blog roll, because I had never seen her lovely blog before today. I am adding her to Google reader and my blog roll.

4. Table Talk by Ann seems like a tranquil peace of heaven to visit lots. I added it to my subscriptions on Google Reader as well. I can't wait to visit again!

5. Kay's Bookshelf is another really nice blog. She wrote an excellent review for 'Out of Africa' by Isak Dinesen, which has been on my TBR. Another one added to my subscriptions on Google Reader.

Honourable Mention:

A Girl Walks Into a Bookstore by Katherine

This was a great exercise that introduced me to some more awesome blogs! Thanks Dewey, Weekly Geeks is great so far!

Posted by Teddy Rose at 10:05 PM 8 comments    

Labels: Weekly Geeks

Dewey from The Hidden Side of a Leaf has come up with a great idea called Weekly Geeks.

Here’s how it works:

1. Every week there’ll be a different theme. One week might be “catch up on your library books” week and the next might be “redecorate your blog week” or “organize your challenges” week or “catch up on your reviews” week. It’ll be fairly bookblogcentric, but not exclusively.

2. Everyone who joins agrees that they will try to check each week to see what the theme is, although they DO NOT have to participate each week, only when they feel like it.

3. Everyone who joins is welcome (encouraged, begged!) to send ideas for weekly themes via email, comments, whatever. The more ideas, the better.

4. If you post about your progress with that week’s theme in your blog (whether you were wildly successful or didn’t get around to any of it) then you can come back and leave a link to that post in the comments for that theme.

AND there is a chocolate monkey give-a-way for those participants who post about this idea before the end of April. Since I'm a vegan and the chocolate monkey looks like milk chocolate, I'm passing on the give-a-way, but posting it here for any of my readers who are interested. I think this sounds like a great idea for us bloggers.

Posted by Teddy Rose at 5:13 PM 2 comments    

Labels: Weekly Geeks