What Do YOU Love About Brick & Mortar Bookstores?

I love the sense of community that a brick and mortar bookstore offers along with the ability to touch and feel the books too! The author events offered at a brick and mortar bookstores are also awesome to attend!

I also recently read an article on BuzzFeed titled 10 Lovable Things About Brick-And-Mortar Bookstores. Some of the things I enjoy about brick and mortar bookstores are also mentioned in the Buzzfeed article, along with other amazing things that brick and mortar bookstores offer to readers and the community at large.

Share what you find lovable about brick and mortar bookstores!

Bout of Books Read-A-Thon 7.0 May 13th - 19th --- A Week In Review!!

First of all, my apologies for not blogging sooner than today. I've been out of town for over a week visiting family & was without reliable internet access to write posts regarding my reading stats while I was away from home.

I did accomplish some reading during the past week, but not as much I normally accomplish during a regular week as I was spending more time having fun with family.

On Day 1, I spent roughly 60 - 70 minutes reading. During this time, I was able to start and finish reading 'Nosebleed', which is a 72 page children's novel by Ged Maybury. 'Nosebleed' was an awesome novel to read and I'll write a review regarding 'Nosebleed' later this week.

On Days 2, 4, 5, & 6, I started and finished reading an eBook titled, 'Mystral Murder' (The Julie O'Hara Mystery Series) by Lee Hanson, which was just okay. 'Mystral Murder' is a mystery novel that takes place on a cruise ship, which sounded interesting to me at the time. It's an easy, breezy novel to read and I liked the main character, Julie O'Hara.

On Days 6 & 7, I began and continued reading 'Castle Cay', which is another mystery novel in The Julie O'Hara Mystery Series by Lee Hanson. 'Castle Cay' is actually the 1st novel in The Julie O'Hara Mystery Series. I'm roughly 45% into this novel and am too pooped to continue reading the remaining 30 odd minutes remaining of the Bout of Books 7.0 Read-A-Thon.

What is Bookshout!?

It's amazing to me all the social networking websites that keep popping up. I've recently come across BookShout!, which sounds like another interesting way to connect with other readers to discuss books.
 
According to the BookShout! website:

BookShout! is a social reading application where users can create reading circles, share reading notes, and invite others to join in on reading a particular book. BookShout! is a cross platform application which runs on iOS, Web, and Android. The user can save and access notes and books across each platform.

 Watch the following video about BookShout!

Anyone out there using BookShout!? How do you like using the BookShout! application? 

Booktagger

So, I've come across another book website called Booktagger, which is a new website to me as I'd never heard of it until a few days ago.

On Booktagger's homepage, it states the following:

Tired of cruising book stores trying to judge a book by its cover? Now you can ask those who've read it before.

Booktagger is an online bookshelf application to list the books you've read and to share them with others.

Plus, the Booktagger website offers the following features:

• Discover books to read by browsing others' bookshelves.
• List the books you've read and want to read.
• Find people with similar reading tastes.
• Keep track of books you lend.
• Create book lists (scariest, funniest and best).
• Build an online book club.
• Review the books you've read.
• Order books.

This sounds like an interesting website. I especially like the idea of starting and running your own online book club! 

Has anyone joined Booktagger? If so, what has your experience as a member of Booktagger been like?

Rules for Bookstore Flirting

I enjoyed reading Lauren Leto's article on the Huffington Post titled 7 Rules for Bookstore Flirting, because she makes a great case for why bookstores make one of the best places to find a date and potential mate. Leto writes:

Bookstores are the easiest place to pick someone up. Think about it: a conversation topic is usually in the hand of the other person, people often browse quietly and alone (no need for shouting over music or wingmen), it's easy to pass yourself off as just being polite if the person seems disinterested in talking with you. A low pressure, casual atmosphere for even the shyest bookworm.

Click on the above link to read the full article and learn the 7 rules for bookstore flirting! The article is short and to the point.

P. S. I also learned from the article that Ms. Leto has a book coming out next month titled, Judging a Book by Its Lover, and it sounds awesome!! Another book title to add to my ever growing wishlist!!

International Book Week Meme

Happy International Book Week! 

Here are the rules of the International Book Week Meme according to the Wikipedia site: 

Grab the closest book to you, turn to page 52, post the 5th sentence as your status. Don't mention the title. 

My sentence is as follows:

"The youth ran quickly and seized the girl and kissed her before she had the chance to throw salt into the stew."

Okay, now it's your turn to play! Grab the nearest book to you and share with me the 5th sentence found on page 52! Have fun and I look forward to reading the sentences you leave in the comment section. :-)

As a side note, I learned through Wikipedia the following about International Book Week:

International Book Week is an awareness week mentioned in a socially generated internet meme where users of social networking sites share arbitrary lines from nearby books. Unlike globally publicised events such as World Book Day, International Book Week is not a formally established awareness week, and does not exist outside of the meme.

Share the International Book Week Meme on your blog or social networking and see what sentences you'll find yourself reading!

34 Fun Book Chats You Should Tune Into on Twitter

I'm not on Twitter myself, but I know a lot of people out there in the community are. So, this blog post is for all of you Twitter members who are also avid readers and book lovers! 

I came across an online article titled 34 Fun Book Chats You Should Tune Into on Twitter, which I found on the Online College Courses website. This article goes on to state the following:

Book chats are alive and well on Twitter! They're sometimes hosted by authors who want to promote their books, but most often by books lovers at regularly scheduled times throughout the week. We've found book clubs, genre chats, even discussions for writers and publishers, all of which are easy to access and fun to join on Twitter. Check out this list to find some of the best book chats you should be checking out.

There is a wide variety of book chats to participate in on Twitter. The genres to choose from seem varied to suit many different reading tastes. So, click on the link above to learn more!! Maybe you'll find the perfect "book chat" group to participate in on Twitter!