Celebrate Banned Books Week!! Read A Banned Book!!

Today is the 1st day of Banned Books Weeks, which takes place this year from September 30th through October 6th. This year also marks the 30th year celebrating the Freedom to Read!! Join in the celebration by reading a banned or challenged book this week. Fight censorship!!

This year Bill & Judith Moyers are Honorary Chairs for Banned Books Week 30th Anniversary. Watch the following video message from Bill Moyers about censorship!

I've started a Banned Books Week Reading Challenge, so please join and share which book you'll be reading this week for Banned Books Week 2012.

I'll be posting more banned books related topics throughout this week, so stay tuned! Until my next post, I'll be busy reading a banned book and I hope you will be too!!

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!!

Coronado by Dennis Lehane

Coronado by Dennis Lehane is another unabridged audiobook that I've finished listening to recently. 

Coronado is a collection of short stories and is the first book of published works I've read or listened by Dennis Lehane. I really enjoyed all of the short stories featured in this book, but the story titled, Until Gwen, was by far my favorite story in this collection. The stories were well written, gritty, and feature the darker side of humanity. 

Actor Stanley Tucci was the dramatic reader for Coronado and he did an awesome job of reading the entire collection of stories.

After Coronado had ended, there was an interview of Dennis Lehane that followed. I really enjoyed listening to this interview as I find it fascinating to hear about the author's writing process and other insightful information they share about what they've written. 

The Box: Uncanny Stories by Richard Matheson

Sometimes I enjoy taking a break from reading books and turn my attention to listening to audiobooks. I've listened to quite a few audiobooks lately and The Box: Uncanny Stories by Richard Matheson was one of the more intriguing ones.

The Box is a compilation of twelve short stories written by Richard Matheson and they fall into the horror and suspense genre. Grover Gardner did a superb job of reading each story. I enjoyed listening to Mute, Button, Button & Girl of My Dreams the most. However, most of the stories were excellent, with the exception of a couple that didn't interest me much.

The first short story, Button, Button, was actually made into a movie titled The Box starring Cameron Diaz, which I've heard about, but haven't seen.

I've never read anything before by Richard Matheson. Nor was I familiar with his name until recently. I learned from Wikipedia that Richard Matheson is an American author and screenwriter with a long and prolific career. Even if I wasn't familiar with Matheson's name, I am familiar with several movies for which he has written screenplays for like I Am Legend, A Stir of Echoes, and Somewhere in Time. Plus, Matheson wrote 16 episodes for the Twilight Zone television series which ran during the late 1950s, early 1960s.

In 2010, Richard Matheson was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.

Since I enjoyed listening to The Box, I plan to seek out other published works by Richard Matheson down the road.

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!

Essential Presidential Campaign Reading

Here in the USA the presidential elections are right around the corner. So, with all the campaign hubbub going on, are you looking for a good political read or two pertaining to political campaigns? 

If so, then you might be interested in an article published in the Los Angeles Times titled 12 essential presidential campaign books. Check out the article and list of essential must read campaign books!

The Man Who Turned His Home Into a Public Library

Wow, what an inspiring story!! Hernando Guanlao, a man living near central Manila in the Philippines, shares his love for reading by turning his home into a free public library! Checkout the following BBC News article titled, The man who turned his home into a public library by Kate McGeown. McGeown writes:

Hernando Guanlao is a sprightly man in his early 60s, with one abiding passion - books.

They're his pride and joy, which is just as well because, whether he likes it or not, they seem to be taking over his house. 

Guanlao, known by his nickname Nanie, has set up an informal library outside his home in central Manila, to encourage his local community to share his joy of reading.

The idea is simple. Readers can take as many books as they want, for as long as they want - even permanently. As Guanlao says: "The only rule is that there are no rules."

t's a policy you might assume would end very quickly - with Guanlao having no books at all.
 
But in fact, in the 12 years he's been running his library - or, in his words, his book club - he's found that his collection has grown rather than diminished, as more and more people donate to the cause.

 Click on above link to read the full story!! 

Have you come across any inspiring book related stories lately in the news?

Bookish Quote of the Day!!

“Reader's Bill of Rights

1. The right to not read

2. The right to skip pages

3. The right to not finish

4. The right to reread

5. The right to read anything

6. The right to escapism

7. The right to read anywhere

8. The right to browse

9. The right to read out loud

10. The right to not defend your tastes”

 ― Daniel Pennac

Queensland Literary Awards 2012 Winners Announced

Are you looking to expand your reading horizons? The winners of the 2012 Queensland Literary Awards were announced earlier this month on September 4th, which just so happened to fall on the eve of the Brisbane Writers Festival. Check out the post on Bookseller + Publisher titled Queensland Literary Awards 2012 winners announced to view this year's list of winners!

Flip Reads

Flip Reads is another new website (or at least new to me) that I came across recently on my quest to discover interesting and informative book related topics to share here with my blog readers.

The Flip Reads website describes itself in the following way:

Flipreads is your premiere source of electronic books (e-books) from and about the Philippines and Asia.

Flipreads serves as a secure distribution platform for Filipino and Asian publishers, authors, and other content providers and gives the Asian reader easier access to e-books.

Our e-books are in ePUB format or screen-optimized PDF e-book format. They can be read on the Apple iPad, and any device or computer running Android, Microsoft Windows, or Mac OS.

So, if you're interested in reading e-books written by or about the Philippines and Asia, then this may be the website for you to checkout. Click on the link about for more information!