Follow Friday Hosted by Anniesh Imaginary Adventures

March 1 - June 1, 2013
Hosted by:
Anniesh Imaginary Adventures

As you may know, every Friday people tweet the names of Twitter users they'd like others to follow and tag it with #followfriday and/or #FF. My idea of this monthly feature originates with the aforementioned feature on Twitter.  Follow Friday should become a great way for bloggers to socialize and network their blogs, and to share upcoming events! I hope that it will help many bookworms not to miss any interesting event as well as my fellow bloggers to attract more participants or even more blog followers.

And, this is how it should work:

• On the third Friday of every month I will share with you a bookish challenge, a read-a-long, or a readathon that I've found in the blogosphere and will start soon, and the entering of which I'd recommend to every kindred spirit.
• Create your own Follow Friday post and recommend upcoming bookish events hosted by other bloggers that you find interesting. Even though I'm addicted to the classics, please feel free to recommend events from any genre that is dear to your heart! You may keep your FF post short or you may write a lengthy one; it's up to you. You can also praise the whole blog that hosts that particular event, if you like.
• It would be nice, if you would use my official graphic and please link back toAnneish Imaginary Adventures so that other people wanting to participate know where to get the information to do so!
• Once you have your Follow Friday posted, come back to Anneish Imaginary Adventures and add your link to the list.
• Visit other participants' link to find out what events they recommend and please do share with them as well as with me, if they inspired you to enter an event!
• Finally, have fun and read on!

This meme is hosted by Hotchpot Cafe. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.

Birth Year Reading Challenge

March 1 - June 1, 2013
Hosted by:
Hotchpot Cafe

Announcing the fourth year of the Birth Year Reading Challenge! 

This year's challenge focuses on an important year in your life, one that introduced you to dynamic and meaningful possibilities. Maybe that was the actual year of your birth, or maybe it was the year of another kind of "birth":  when you were "born" to a new life in the spiritual, emotional, educational, social, geographical, or some other sense.
What books were published the year you were born, or the year that you experienced another kind of "birth"?

This challenge encourages you to find out, and then read some of them. You might even draw a few conclusions about social and literary trends that year. If nothing else, you'll have an incentive to explore books you might otherwise not have considered.

Wikipedia has lists of books by year published. You can check literary prize lists for high-quality choices. Using Google to locate “best books of _____” provides some interesting choices. There is also a cool feature at BibliOZ where you can check theNew York Times bestseller list for the week you are interested in. 

If you already participated in this challenge, or if you discover you were born in a year of unattractive books, the Rebirth option gives you the chance to sample another year instead. So read on!

RULES

1. Join anytime between now and November 30, 2013. The challenge ends at midnight EST on January 31, 2014.

2. a. Choose books from your birth year.

AND/OR

2. b. Choose a year that you experienced another kind of "birth," then choose books from that year. Your sign-up post should include a few details about the year you've chosen and the kind of "birth" you are commemorating.

3. Books may come from your TBR pile or list, but they don’t have to.

4. Overlaps with other challenges are allowed and encouraged.

5. Change your list at any time.

6. Reviews and reactions are encouraged, but not required. You don’t need to have a blog to participate. But you do need to let me know of your progress, so I can bestow your virtual candles. (Here's the progress and reviews page from BYRC 2012, so you can see how it works.)

7. All genres and formats are eligible. If it’s a book, you can count it.

8. One candle is awarded for each qualifying book you read. There is no limit on how few or how many candles you can earn.

ACHIEVER PRIZES

When you meet your reading goal, you can select a book from my library – most likely a gently used trade paperback – and I'll mail it to you. But keep reading because . . .

OVERACHIEVER PRIZE

The person who reads the most books for the challenge will receive a fun little surprise package with a bookish theme. And . . .

GRAND PRIZE

On February 1, 2014, the three readers who’ve earned the most candles will be entered into a drawing for a $25.00 gift card from Barnes & Noble. Nothing like a little no-cost book shopping to start a new year off right!

This meme is hosted by Hotchpot Cafe. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.

The Spring of Sarah Dessen Reading Challenge

March 1 - June 1, 2013
Hosted by:
Ramblings of a Daydreamer

When I was in my mid-teens, I discovered Sarah Dessen’s books and fell in love. I can’t remember which one I read first, but the one that stuck with me the most (and still to this day is a favourite) was Someone Like You. It was one of those stories that was so relevant to me, and that I could have sworn Sarah had written about me and my best friend. It was that book that made me even more certain I wanted to be a writer.
 I realized it was a shame I hadn’t read all her books since I’m such a big fan. I decided I would read all of them this year, and then I realized it would be fun to ask people to join me, so The Spring of Sarah Dessen was born (I was going to wait until summer, but I just couldn’t!).

Here’s the deal: read as many Sarah Dessen books as you can before June 1st. Pretty simple right?

Oh, you want more details than that? ;-)

The Details:

• This is basically a reading challenge, and the idea is for you to read and review as many of Sarah’s books as you can between March 1st and June 1st. Each new review you write gets you one entry into the giveaway (I’ll get to that in a second). Reviews must be posted for the first time between March 1st and June 1st (you can start reading the books any time, but all reviews must be brand new and never posted before as of March 1st, 2013). So basically if you read and write a review for one book that’s one entry, if you read and write a review for 3 books that’s 3 entries, etc.
• Rereads count as long as you haven’t posted a review for it before (or if you posted a review quite a long time ago, I’ll accept a ‘fresh’ review - for instance, I read and reviewed Along for the Ride in 2011, so if I were to read it again, I’d write a new review with my second impressions and link it to my old review - you can do that too).
• Audiobooks count
• You can join this challenge at any time
• You don’t have to have a blog to participate, as long as you can post reviews somewhere (GoodReads, YouTube, Amazon, Chapters, etc)

Other Stuff:

• Between March 1st and June 1st, I’ll be posting reviews of the Sarah Dessen books I read, along with other posts like cover comparisons, favourite characters, book crushes, etc. If you’d like to write a post for the event (your favourite Sarah Dessen books, why you love her books, what her books mean to you, favourite quotes from her books etc), please let me know and I’d be happy to include it in the event.
• I will be creating a page for this event and will update it regularly with all our reviews so people can check them out easily. Hopefully it will drive a bit of traffic to participants’ blogs.
• If you’re on Twitter, feel free to use the hashtag #SOSD so we can all find each other and cheer each other on. You can share your reviews, updates, book/page count, etc. BTW, I'm @SweetMarie83 on Twitter. ;-)

The Giveaway:

Instead of a Linky List, I’m going to set up a Rafflecopter. You get one entry for participating, and then one entry for each review you post. On June 2nd, Rafflecopter will pick a winner from among the entries, and the winner will get a pre-order of Sarah’s new release The Moon and More (which comes out June 4th). If you’re lucky enough to have gotten an ARC of The Moon and More…first of all, can I have it? *grins and bats lashes* (I’m only half-joking…I want that book so bad!!) Seriously though, if you already have the book, you can pick a Sarah Dessen book of your choice. OR if you already own all of Sarah’s books, you can choose a contemporary YA novel (I’m sticking with Sarah’s genre) of your choice up to $10 CAN. If there’s enough interest in this challenge, I will add a second winner. 

Sarah Dessen’s Books

*in order of publication…I’m going to be reading them in order, just for fun*

That Summer {GoodReads}

Someone Like You {GoodReads}

Keeping the Moon {GoodReads}

Dreamland {GoodReads}

This Lullaby {GoodReads}

The Truth About Forever {GoodReads}

Just Listen {GoodReads}

Lock and Key {GoodReads}

Along for the Ride {GoodReads}

What Happened to Goodbye {GoodReads}

The Moon and More {GoodReads}

Does this reading challenge sound like something you'd be interested in? Want to join? Simply sign up via the InLinkz below (the URL can be your blog or wherever you'll be posting reviews). If you want to write an introductory post with your goals (feel free to use one of my graphics, and please link back to this post so other people can find out about the challenge) you can use that link to sign up.

This meme is hosted by Ramblings of a Daydreamer. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.

Shelf Candy Saturday

Every Saturday

This weekly meme/blog hop, hosted here, features beautiful book covers!

If you'd like to participate, just grab my button (or create your own), write your post, and link up in the Linky widget at the bottom of this post.  As a bonus, you can include information on the artist, designer, and/or photographer, but it's not required.  You can simply feature a cover and explain why you love it!

This meme is hosted by A Night's Dream of Books. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.

Monday Musings

Every Monday

This is a weekly feature hosted at The Book Barista where each Monday I'll post a book-related topic for your thoughtful consideration. So, grab your cup of coffee and let's chat!  There is a different topic each week.

You can either leave a comment on the meme post, or if you would like to share your thoughts on this subject with your blog followers as well, simply use the linky for your blog post.

In your blog post, please be sure to link back here as well, thank you!

This meme is hosted by The Book Barista. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.

Bram Stoker Awards Reading Challenge

February 18, 2013 – December 31, 2013

Are you a fan of Horror Fiction? Then this is the reading challenge for you!  Join me as I read my way through the list of nominees for the 2012 Bram Stoker Awards. For the final list of nominees, please CLICK HERE.  Anything from the list is acceptable, including short fiction, screen plays, and poetry.  I'm hoping to organize a few special events to occur during the days of the awards as well which will take place June 13th - 16th. 

Challenge details:

1. This challenge will begin on February 18th, 2013 and end December 31, 2013.

2. Books for this challenge may include print books as well as e-books and audio books.
Choose a Level: 3-6 nominees: Afraid of the Dark7-12 nominees: Sleeping With One Eye Open13+ nominees: Among the Walking Dead
3. This challenge can cross-over to your other reading challenges.
4. You do not need a blog to participate! If you are not a blogger, you can post your reviews at Goodreads, Shelfari, or LibraryThing and link them up on the monthly review posts or leave a comment with a link to your review.
5. I will create a new post each month with a link-up for your reviews.
6. To sign-up use the link below. If you are a blogger, create a sign-up post and link back to this post. If you don't have a blog you can just leave a comment for this post saying that you are joining. 

Are you a fan of Horror Fiction? Then this is the reading challenge for you!  Join me as I read my way through the list of nominees for the 2012 Bram Stoker Awards.

This reading challenge is hosted by I Eat Words. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.