September TBR Pile, Online Events, and Utah Signings
// By Jessica 2 Comments
31 Aug
2012

September TBR Pile, Online Events, and Utah Signings

To-Read

Here is my list of books I want to get through this month.

Book Cover for For the Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana PeterfreundBook Cover for The Forsaken by Lisa M. StasseBook Cover for The Infinity Ring: Mutiny in Time by James DashnerBook Cover for City of Bones by Cassandra ClareBook Cover for Witch's Brew by Heidi R. Kling

 

Goodreads Links:

For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund

The Forsaken by Lisa M. Stasse

The Infinity Ring: A Mutiny in Time by James Dashner

City of Bones re-read (I swear I am going to get to this….)

Witches Brew by Heidi R. Kling

 

Online Events

Book Blogger Appreciation Week
  • What: Daily blogging topics, guest posts and in-depth profiles on bloggers, and interview swaps! The focus will very much be on community and community building.
  • Where: The Book Blogger Appreciation Week Official Blog
  • When: September 10-14, 2012

Bloggiesta

  • What: Bloggiesta is a three day event where bloggers everywhere come together to work on spiffing up their blogs. It’s time to make goals to solve those annoying blog problems you’ve been meaning to fix, or adding some fun features, or catching up on reviews or whatever blog thing you’ve fallen behind in. It’s time to be brave and learn something new, or teach something new to other bloggers.
  • Where: It’s All About Books and There’s A Book
  • When: September 28-30, 2012

Utah Events

Smart Chicks Kick It Tour

Brandon Mull & Lisa McMann 

  • What: Join us as we welcome New York Times best-selling authors BRANDON MULL and LISA McMANN and celebrate an evening of enchanted children’s literature! Brandon and Lisa will both speak about their works, answer patrons’ questions, and sign copies of their novels at the conclusion of the program.
  • Where: Provo City Library Ballroom (550 North University Avenue)
  • When: Wednesday, September 26 at 7:00 pm

Raven Boys Book Signing

  • What: Maggie Stiefvater will read from and sign her latest young adult novel, The Raven Boys.
  • Where: King’s English Bookshop 1511 South 1500 East Salt Lake City, Utah
  • When: Tuesday, October 9, 7 p.m.

Lois Lowry Signing

  • What: Loise Lowry is doing a signing for the Provo Library’s AuthorLink series.
  • Where: Provo Library
  • When: Wednesday October 10, 2012 at 6 pm.
For more Events, you can check out my Events page.

Winners

The Feed Your Reader Giveaway winner was….Jenny J. Congrats! She chose Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo for the Nook.

Posted on: August 31, 2012 1:00 am By Jessica Filed Under: News Tagged With: , 2 Comments
// By Jessica 4 Comments
13 Jan
2012

The Dusty Bookshelf Goodreads Group

First of all, I’d like to say thanks to everyone who has signed up for this reading challenge so far! There are over 30 people signed up which has gone above and beyond my expectations! So thanks everyone! I will be posting a mini-challenge in February so keep your eyes out for that. It’s going to be fun and I can’t wait. :D

If you are interested, I’ve made a Goodreads group for this challenge.  It’s a fun place to talk about books that you’ve been procrastinating reading and meet fellow procrastinators. :D  Also, you can keep track of your progress on the home page. If that sounds like something you would be interested in, you can join The Dusty Bookshelf Goodreads Group here.

Have a great weekend everyone!

This is the widget on the group home page that keeps track of how many books you've read for your challenge. Cool, huh?

Posted on: January 13, 2012 4:13 pm By Jessica Filed Under: Reading Challenge Tagged With: , 4 Comments
// By Jessica 11 Comments
25 Nov
2011

The Truth About Google Friend Connect

Google announced this week that it is no longer going to support Google Friend Connect (GFC).  ”To recap, we’re in the process of shutting a number of products which haven’t had the impact we’d hoped for…”  I was puzzled by that statement since 90% of the blogs I visit have a GFC widget.  Ninety percent is not enough for Google, guys.  They want WORLD DOMINATION.  I’m not hating on Google.  I seriously fail to see how GFC is a failure to them when so many bloggers use it.

So to recap my feelings, I am mad.  Actually, I’m mostly sad like I’ve been dumped by a boyfriend that I relied on for so long.   But, since I don’t like being sad, I’ve decided to be mad.  When I sat back to examine why I was mad and what exactly I was losing, I came to realize something.  I’m not losing hardly anything.  People can still read my blog through my RSS feed, twitter, facebook and email.  What did I value about GFC that I feel like I’m losing?  ANSWER – THE NUMBER.  You know what number I’m talking about.

Every blog I visit, I am always curious about what their follower number is.  Without even thinking about it, I always judge the blog a little by their numbers.  Not in a bad way.  I would break down my judgements into these categories:

  • 0-100 Followers: Aww, how cute.  They just started blogging!
  • 100-500 Followers: Newbie blogger, but look how hard they are working!
  • 500-1000 Followers: Established blogger.  I want that to be me someday.
  • 1000+ Followers: JEALOUS.  Maybe that will be me someday if I work hard enough.
Maybe my blog will be better off without a number attached to it.  In reality, only about 10% of a blog’s followers actually read their posts.  I mean, how many times have you come to a blog once, followed it on GFC, and then never came back?  I like this header. *Follow*  What a cute blog name! *Follow*  FREE BOOK?!  *Follow*

I spent all day thinking about how I was going to replace GFC.  The truth is, I don’t really need to replace it.  I’ll let it sit there until Google pulls the plug. Since visitor stats are useful, maybe I’ll put a hit counter or a RSS reader count from feedburner on my sidebar – I can’t really decide.

How do you feel about Google discontinuing Google Friend Connect? 

Posted on: November 25, 2011 9:33 pm By Jessica Filed Under: News Tagged With: 11 Comments
// By Jessica 1 Comment
27 Sep
2011

Kindle Finally Gets Library Books

This is what it looks like on my library website when I check out a kindle book.

Yay!  I’ve been waiting for so long to get library books on my kindle.  Up until this point, this was one of those areas that the Nook had a clear advantage.  So, last Wednesday (the first day you could borrow library books for you kindle) I got onto my libraries’ website and went a little nuts.  At least half of my Amazon wish list was available at my local library.  My local library subscribes to OverDrive, which is the ebook borrowing service that supports kindle library books.  It was easy to check out a book and it delivers wirelessly to my kindle just like purchasing a book.  Some of the popular books have waiting lists because like real books, the library has a limited number of ebooks available.  One thing that I love about borrowing ebooks is that they are automatically returned.  That means no late fees and no waiting longer when some bozo lost the book you’ve been waiting weeks to read.

I thought that the kindle would allow the popular epub format of ebooks to work on it, but to my surprise there was a separate link under each book for the kindle version of that book.  This worries me.  The Harry Potter ebooks are going to be sold by Google Books this October and Google only sells epub format books.  Am I going to be able to read Harry Potter on my kindle?  I can’t say for sure until they start selling them, but if I can’t read Harry Potter on my kindle, my pure love will turn to blackest hate.

There were a few articles last week about publishers getting nervous over ebooks being available from libraries.  These nervous publishers are obviously making decisions based off of fear.  Let me give you an example.  I’m going to borrow Eragon from the library.  The movie version of this book was so bad that I would never in a million years pay to read it.  However, I am willing to give it a try if I don’t have to pay to read it.  This is true of all books.  People are more willing to try things that are free. This increases demand.  Libraries pay for books.  I don’t get what publishers are complaining about.  Another example; I borrowed the Twilight Saga on my kindle even though I own all of these books just because I’d rather read them on my kindle.  I personally think that libraries increase the demand for books.  Libraries buy more of the popular books and people that don’t like waiting for them go out and buy them.  I think this means more profit for publishers in general.

What do you think?  Do you think libraries are good or bad for the profit of publishing companies?

Posted on: September 27, 2011 4:29 am By Jessica Filed Under: My Reading Diary Tagged With: , 1 Comment
// By Jessica Leave a Comment
19 Sep
2011

Sign-up for Dewey's 24-Hour Read-a-Thon!

Sign-ups started today for Dewey’s 24-Hour Read-a-Thon!  If you want to sign up, go here.  I’m so excited to participate.  It looks like a blast!  If you don’t want to be a reader, but you still want to help out, they need lots of volunteers.  You can volunteer here.

The read-a-thon starts October 22 at GMT+0 Noon, which is 5 am MST for me.  Can’t wait!

Posted on: September 19, 2011 7:46 am By Jessica Filed Under: News Tagged With: , Leave a Comment
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