This week ....

I'm reading

I finished a couple of books this week. I finished reading Maame by Jessica George which is the current Cook the Books selection. On Sunday night we cooked the recipe that I was inspired to get my husband to cook, so my review will be up on Saturday.

I also finished The Midwive's Christmas Miracle by Fiona McArthur. I mentioned last week that I realised that I hadn't read all the books in the previous connected series. I am not sure why but it really bothered me!

I then started reading Letters from the Ginza Shihodo Stationery Shop by Kenji Ueda, which is another Japanese book and I started Good Spirits by BK Borison. After reading the first chapter of that book I am pretty sure I am going to love it!

This weekend was our read on a theme book club meeting. It was a free choice theme this time and above are some of the choices that people read. My choices were Maame and The Lucky Sisters by Rachael Johns. The first theme for 2026 is Childhood Favourites, and I have a few different ideas of what I might read but I haven't decided yet.


I'm watching

Nothing in particular

Life

On Saturday night we went to see the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra playing the music of Billy Joel which was a lot of fun. You forget how many amazing songs Billy Joel has had over the years! It was a great night!

It was a momentous blogging occasion for me this week! It is 20 years since I started my blog! Can you believe it, because I am not sure I can! Here's my post about it!

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Books set in or After WWI
Mini reviews of two Aussie novels
Weekend Cooking: Joanna Lumley's Spice Trail Adventures
Sunday Salon: 20 years!





I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date, Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz and the Good Book and a Cup of Tea link up hosted at Boondock Ramblings

Sunday Salon: 20 years!

 

On the 12 November 2005, I posted a very imaginatively titled post called "First Post" on my shiny new blog which at the time was called Reading Adventures. I never expected it to last very long. After all, I had started diaries several times and never got beyond writing Dear Diary for more than a few weeks at a time. But....here we are.

I did have a gap of a year or so back in 2019 which coincided with a major reading slump, but other than I have been posting about books, baking and life in general over that time.

If I look back to see what prompted me to start a blog it was really because I read a book that I absolutely had to talk about. I was involved in various forums, and I read The Red Tent by Anita Diamant, and I absolutely had to talk about it, so I wrote a review and thought well, I could put that in a blog and so Reading Adventures was born. 

My life has changed a lot over the period as you would expect. When I started, my son was 7, and we followed his cooking adventures as the little chef. Now he's the man who cooks on occasion. He spent time in America playing basketball, and has played quite a bit of 3x3 in Japan, China and Malaysia. When I started the blog I had been a single parent for 5 years. I had no idea that I would have to wait another 12 years to meet someone amazing but I did. Since then we renovated one house, built two more, been on numerous holidays, got married in 2019 and so much more.

Like life, blogging has changed a lot over the years. I have a few different templates, had a blogspot address and have had a .com address for years now. I used to also blog over at Historical Tapestry, have hosted and continue to host numerous events and challenges. These range from Library Loot which I co-hosted for years to Weekend Cooking and the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge which I still host now.  

Over the years, people have come and gone from the blogging world, but there are still a few of us who have been going for similar lengths of time. Some people, I still miss. Others have become friends in real life. Some of the bloggers I have met have inspired me to try new things, and I hope that I have done the same thing in return. I have met many authors, gone to book festivals and retreats and so much more. 

It's easy to look back and think that things were better in the past, but I think it is probably more that they are different. It does feel like there used to be more blogger events and a more cohesive community. For example, back in 2010 someone came up with the idea of Armchair BEA. When some people were actually heading to New York to go to Book Expo America, the rest of us joined in. I did whole weeks of posts where I would say if I was in New York today where I would think about which author I would be tracking down or this is what I would be doing. Or there was the Great North and South Crusade where KristieJ convinced us all that we absolutely had to watch the BBC adaptation of North and South starring Richard Armitage. I was obsessed with that show for years as a result. The book community of Twitter thrived and it was easy to get caught up in the excitement. 

While it is nostalgic to look back, you can still find those events which bring people together. I think of Paris in July (probably my favourite current event) or Twenty Books of Summer/Winter which I only participated in for the first time this year even though it has been going for years.  I still find new to me bloggers who have been around a long time through those events. I don't know that I am particular good at connecting with new bloggers, but I try!

There are things that have changed. Back in the day I predominantly read paper books and borrowed a lot of books through my local library. At the time I could have up to 60 books out from the library at one time and I was often juggling returning books so I could borrow the next ones. These days I predominantly read e-books. I remember I was so excited when I got my first e-reader (it was red and a thing of beauty) but it is really only in the last few years that I really moved over to e-books for the majority of my reading. I used to receive a LOT of book mail from publishers, but now it is very rare for me to receive a physical review book and it is even getting a bit harder on Netgalley. 

What I read has changed too. Back in the day I read very little contemporary romance and mostly historical romance. Now, it is absolutely the opposite. I can't remember the last time I read a historical romance. I also read my fair share of vampire, werewolf and other paranormal romance. I read a bit more crime and a bit more fantasy than I do now. Now, I read a lot more books set in Europe (France in particular) and I read quite a bit of Asian fiction. Things that haven't changed...I still love reading Aussie authors and historical fiction, although I read a lot more WWII fiction and less medieval than I used to.

For whatever reason, what I do and how I do it isn't particularly appealing to publishers, maybe because I am no good at aesthetics on Bookstagram and it often feels like a competition. Even after all this time, I still haven't worked out how engagement works. Sometimes I put a lot of time into a post and get nothing in terms of responses, and other times I post something easy, like a quote from a book about a particular subject and boom, more responses than I have had in weeks. You'd think I would be better at all of this by now! And I still don't have the secret to getting a large and active following. I think I am interesting but I don't seem to hold people's interest. 

You know I love a statistic, so I thought I would pull a few together!

This is post number 4304, and according to my stats there have been something like just under 6 million site visitors in that time. It's fair to say not all of them are actual people! There have been approximately 50000 comments.

I've read 2578 books in that time (or at least that's what my spreadsheet tells me!)

Of those I have reread 47 books, with The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta being the book I have read/listened to the most times, closely followed by The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley and Hogfather by Terry Pratchett. 

Beyond anything, I am grateful to blogging for giving me a community, especially during all those lonely years when I was a single parent where often blogging was my company. I have spent hours and hours creating blog posts, reading other peoples posts and more, and I don't regret any of them. When I look back through my archives I often find posts I had forgotten about that entertain me, bring back great memories or that I am just really proud of!

I still love talking about books, food and travel in this corner of the internet and I don't see that changing any time soon.

Alphabet 2020 - S is for Social Media

I have been thinking a lot lately about social media and blogging, how they interact, how and where I want to spend my time, and more. That's a lot of thinking.

There are so many ways for you to interact with other books lovers I don't think it is even possible to attempt to keep up any more. There is also a lot of ways to catalogue your books, with more emerging every day.

Let's start with the big three:  Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.  In theory, I am on all of those, but you couldn't really say I am fully present on them, at least from a book blogging perspective.

I have recently started a Facebook page for my blog and I am really enjoying that. I try and remember to share the links from my posts there although I am sure that there must be a way to automatically feed  links from here to there. I know that you used to be able to do that to Twitter, but that doesn't seem to work anymore, so I need to figure that out. On my Facebook page I also share all sorts of other random book links there as they capture my interest, and I follow several other book bloggers too.  In addition, there are book clubs, book groups, publishers pages and so much more, but the thing is that I don't often read the book club books because I have enough to read without adding another "should read" book to my pile.

I do spend a bit of time on Instagram, but to be fair it is more about non book related things, so there are lots of pictures of cakes. I need to figure out how to put up interesting look blog related content, without it just being a screenshot of the blog post because that just looks a bit boring. Having said that, I don't have the decor, accessories or the imagination to do pretty book posts, especially since most of my reading now is on Kindle which is a black and white screen!  I also never really got into the #bookstagram thing either, even though I am aware that a lot of publicists love Instagram and Facebook for reviews now, rather than the traditional blog reviews.

I have been on Twitter for years, but I really don't do much on there, certainly in comparison to the early days. It really is just my page updates from Goodreads and sometimes an image from Instagram, but not all of the time. I think if I want to use it for images, I do have to go to Google and upload the image rather than just pushing it from Instagram because you just get a link rather than an image doing it that way. I also need to make more of an effort to go on there and share my blog content. I used to spend a lot of time there amongst the blogging community but now when I am on there I feel like I am talking to a void. I used to always post something on Twitter and have it automatically flow through to Facebook. I was all for those types of automated tricks but it doesn't seem to do that anymore.  I am aware that it would feel less like talking into a void if I was more active and more invested, which is true of all of these things. The more you put in the more you get out, but how do you decide where to put in when there are so many options.

Another place where I am somewhat active is Litsy. I do enjoy Litsy but I don't always update there, and again, its hard to make every single book picture look interesting when it is of my Kindle front page.

Finally, from a purely social perspective I have joined a group on Discord, which is another way to chat to people with similar interests. It is popular in the gaming community so maybe it will take off of as a book thing too. Right now, the group I am in is super super busy so I am not sure I have the time to keep up and participate.

I am sure there are many, many more places that we could be talking about here. Even as I was just about to post this I realised I haven't mentioned podcasting or Youtube. There's a whole community of Booktubers out there that I am not really connected to. And are there book communities on Snapchat and Tiktok? Is Snapchat even still a thing? I don't hear much about it anymore. Even if there is I would have no intention of joining either of them, but I am still curious.

You'll notice that I haven't yet mentioned Goodreads yet, and that's because I am going to cover the book cataloguing sites separately.  I have been a member of Goodreads since 2009 and it is just a part of my reading experience. Every couple of days I go in and update my reading progress and when I finish a book I add it to my spreadsheets, and then I go to Goodreads and mark it as read. If I write a review I do put part of my review there and then link back to here but I am not sure if I should just copy the whole review over there and not worry about linking back here.

The thing is though, there are other options out there. Many years ago I had a Librarything account but I haven't been there for years but I guess it is still a viable option, especially seeing as Librarything now own Litsy. Just this week though I found out about two more sites that could have potential. One is called Bookhype and the other is Storygraph.

Bookhype's tagline is Never Miss a New Book Release and it says that you can log your books, see upcoming new releases, add new books in a series to your library and more, which I have to say does sound promising.

Storygraph is currently in beta, but from what I have seen of it is another book cataloguing site. but it's points of differences are that it gives you targeted recommendations and that you can easily access lots of stats and graphs at the touch of the button. I do love a good graph and statistics, so I think this is the one that I will try for now. Actually I did play with it a little bit and I really like it so far! The graphs are fun to play with! For example, this is the mood graph for all the books I have just imported into it.

My thinking around these different options is about the practicalities like if I decide to start with one of these other sites, is it replacing Goodreads, or does it become in addition to it and therefore becomes another place that I have to remember to update going forward.

The key to all of these things is trying to keep a bit of balance between blogging, visiting other people's blogs which I think is important but time consuming, spending time on social media, work, life and, oh yes, still finding time to read. And throw in there the fact that we are talking about doing some work related study and that is even less time to do everything. Except for today. Today I am going to be playing with Storygraph.

How do you balance this? How do you manage with all the different social media sites? Are you interested in all of these new sites? Are there other new sites that we should be checking out??

I'm not sure if I have come up with any answers by putting all these thoughts in writing, but maybe it will help clarify my thinking a bit. Oh, and if you are interested, click on the socials links on the right to follow me at any of these sites. Depending on which one you click you may or may not see lots of content! I think I am Margreads on just about all of them!

Public Service Announcement

Today I offer up a cautionary tale about the dangers of blogging tired. Not only are there the spelling mistakes that come with the territory but apparently your brain does very odd things.

I offer up this sentence as Exhibit A:

There were several blogs that were mentioned for my area, inlcuidng one where the dad was working their so dad would go running just as teh kid would disappear.

And here is what I was trying to say:

There were several blogs that were mentioned for my area, including a dad and son who visit establishments throughout the western suburbs of Melbourne and then share their thoughts

Please heed the warnings and never blog tired!

Elsewhere

While I haven't been putting many blog posts up here, I have still been blogging elsewhere!

Last week I was honoured to attend the inaugural Stella Prize award presentation. You can read my write up of that event over at the Australian Women Writers Challenge site.

Also at that site I have written up a roundup of the historical fiction books that have been read for the challenge during the month of March. Come to think of it, I don't think I ever posted the links for January or February here before.

Finally, I was the Triple Choice Tuesday guest at Reading Matters this week. Head over to see my choices for a book that I love, a book that changed my life and a book that more people should know about. Given that Kim from Reading Matters is hosting Ozlit Month during April, all my choices are from Australian authors.

Normal service will hopefully resume here soon.

Sunday Salon: On following and the demise of Google Reader

I was just a bit panicked over the last few days when the news broke that Google Reader will be shut down as at 1 July this year.  And coming just a few days after I was forced into changing from the Tweetdeck app to the web version, and not really liking it, it hasn't been a great week for me technologically.

Many years ago now, I discovered how much easier blog hopping is once you start using a RSS Feed to follow your blogs. This is especially true as you accumulate more and more blogs. For each blog I remove from the list (usually because they haven't posted for more than 6 months or so) I am sure I add at least three or four more! I am sure I am not the only one who does this!

On Twitter the other day the question was asked why people use a feed reader anyway, so I thought I would talk about my experiences with feed readers, the positives and negatives, why I don't choose to follow via other methods and maybe talk about the options going forward.

My number one reason for using a feed reader is that it is a time saver. When I first started, I maintained a blog roll and each day I would faithfully click on each link and see if there was a new post or not. It was all very well if there was but if there wasn't, there was a pointless visit. With a feedreader, you can see exactly who has posted since the last time you visited and how many times (yes, those people who post 5 times a day or more I am looking at you!)

Another reason I like using a feed reader is the ability to categorise blogs into groups. It means that if I am time poor for whatever reason, I can make sure that I have read at least one group. I have mine sorted into groups like Aussie bloggers, Historical Fiction bloggers, Must Read Romance, Must Read Book bloggers, Book Blogs, Others, Challenge Blogs and New Feeds. The last one is a label that I use when I meet a new blogger who I think I might like to follow, but I want to take a look at a few more posts before I decide for sure. Once I have decided I will move them into a different category.

One thing that I do find easier in a feed reader is finding a post that I know I have seen but can't remember where. By using the search feature, I can usually narrow down the list of blogs which talked about a specific book or perhaps a specific recipe. You can also "star" posts so that you can come back to them later.

There are downsides. That feeling of being "behind" is so much easier to succumb to when you open your feed reader and it tells you that not only are there posts to read but in fact there are more than 1000 of them! Some days that causes me to go "Mark all as read" and start again, but often I sit here and go through each category and read the posts, stopping to comment on the ones that interest me. And then I give myself a mental pat on the back for getting through them all and promise never to get in that situation again. Obviously I need to work on that second part because it keeps on happening.

The other thing is that sometimes it is easy to just read through your feeds and not actually click through to the blogs to make comments. There are some times that I am really good at that, but other times when I am not so good. One of the things I might do is to say I am going to make sure that I am going to comment on 10 posts in each group, or in an hour or something like that so that I can ensure that I am not  just reading but also connecting with other bloggers.

So what about the other ways of connecting to bloggers, using methods like Google Friend Connect or subscribing to blogs via email?

I choose to be able to follow all of the blogs that I follow in one place, regardless of whether they are Blogger blogs or Wordpress or Typepad or whatever different variation they are. I don't want to have to look in one place for some and another for others etc. There are also some times when I think that the GFC thing is more about numbers than the connection that builds between bloggers.  Let's not talk about the fact that my follower count in Blogger broke once I went to my own domain name. Apparently I haven't had a new follower in the last 3 years. In theory that could be true, but I would like to think that it isn't!

How about receiving posts via email? Like many other people, I get more than enough email without also getting a new email every time there is a new post from multiple blogs. Whenever there is the option I choose to follow any new comments that come on a post I have commented on previously so that I can possibly continue the interaction which is more than enough mail coming into the inbox.

I do get a bit cross when I see contests and the like that are specifically only for GFC followers or email subscribers. I do get that people can do what they like with their own blogs, but the fact that I choose to follow via RSS does not make me any less of a follower than someone who chooses to receive the emails or use GFC. Anyway... moving on.

So, I guess for people like me who choose to use Google Reader currently, the big question is where to from here? I could go back to Bloglines which was actually the first RSS feed reader that I used. The only reason I moved from there was that it was supposed to be closing down. I moved all of my feeds and then came the news that Bloglines was being taken over by a new company but given that I had already moved I never went back.

Whilst I have signed one of the #saveGoogleReader petitions that sprung up, the fact of the matter is that it is totally in Google's hands and even if it is saved this time, there is no guarantee that it won't be under threat again at some point in the future.

I get the impression that part of the reason for this closure is to try and get more people using Google+. I have to say that I have had a Google+ account for ages now, and I don't think I have actually worked out the best way to use it. I do participate in a closed group there which mostly works effectively but in terms of being a blogger I haven't yet worked out why I should expend my time and energy there or how I should go about it.

Maybe this is a good time to be having a look at what other services are out there in terms of RSS readers.

The kind of things I will be looking for in a new feed reader will be the ability to import my existing feeds from Google Reader, web based (I don't need yet another reading distraction on my phone - Twitter and Instagram take up enough of my time as it is), ability to organise into categories, easy to subscribe to new blogs and to manage existing blog, functional search facilities, preferably free or at the very least minimal cost.

Possible alternatives that I have seen mentioned include The Old Reader, Newsblur, Feedly, Feedreader, Google Currents (which I have never even heard of until today - who knows if that will close in due course as well), Taptu and Zite.

Tania from Girlxoxo.com has done a comparison post of four services: Netvibes, Bloglines, Bloglovin and Feedly which you may find interesting and I am sure that there will be other posts along those lines in due course.

At this stage I am leaning towards Feedly, but it is early days yet. Do you know what you are going to switch to with the demise of Google Reader?

Currently Reading

Not actually reading anything at the moment. I am still listening to Tuscan Rose by Belinda Alexandra

Up Next

I am in the strange position of not having any library books due until early April and no review books due for 10 days or so so I can pick whatever I like! No idea what that will be yet though!

BBAW: No guilt blogging

It's the end of BBAW for this year and we all made it to the end!  I always tend to feel a bit tired at the end of these kinds of events!

Today's prompt is:

The world of blogging is continually changing. Share 3 things you are essential tried and true practices for every blogger and 1-3 new trends or tools you’ve adapted recently or would like to in the future.

I am not really 100% sure what I want to say today that hasn't already been said! A bit of reiteration never hurt though so here goes.

Probably the most important practice is commenting. Yes, I know it takes time, and I know that it is often easy to feel overwhelmed by being 'behind' but the truth is that commenting is probably the best way to connect with new to you bloggers.

I do think that commenting is a bit of a habit, and like all habits it is easy to make a new bad habit and hard to break it but not so easy to create a new good habit and easy to lose it.

Over the years I  have developed a few strategies to help with commenting so I thought that I would share a couple of them here. It is however important to decide what suits you and what works for you! These helped me when I felt like I should be commenting more than I was.

• Sort your feed reader (Bloglines/Googlereader etc) into various categories. I have them sorted into Aussie Bloggers, Historical Fiction Bloggers, Must Read, Book Reviewers and others. If I can get through my Aussie blogger folders and the must reads then I am happy with my blogging day. On a really good day I get through everything!
• If you need to hit "Mark all as read" in your feed reader, then do it! (I feel guilty about this one sometimes but it will relieve unnecessary pressure)
• If you have limited time, set yourself a target. For example, if you only have half an hour to spend blog hopping, say that you need to leave 5 comments in that time.
• Make it easy as possible for other people to comment on your blog, and then return the favour when they do so.

What if the dreaded blogger's block happens? Again, a couple of strategies that have worked for me in the past.

• Most of the time I spend time blog hopping and then decide to write my own post with the left over time. Sometimes you need to put your own blog first!
• Try something new! This year for example I started participating in the Weekend Cooking meme hosted by Bethfish Reads. You might think that is because I have a passion for cooking, but I don't really. I am a functional cook at best. What I enjoy is looking for another post that may or may not be book related!
• Read some of your own old posts. I sometimes take half an hour to have a look through my archives and it gives me a lot of enjoyment when I do it. Often I get a little surprised at what I have posted about, or what I haven't posted about!
• It's okay for your blog to change and evolve. If my blog was exactly the same as it was when I first started I am pretty sure I would have quit ages ago.
• Preschedule posts. If you are feeling inspired, write a few posts and have them sitting there ready to go on days when you aren't feeling quite so inspired
• You don't have to post every day, or a certain number of times per week etc!

I relieved a lot of the pressure that I was feeling by realising that I didn't have to review every single book that I read. Oh, sweet freedom. It does come back to haunt me when I realise that I would like to read a review of a book that I read a couple of years ago, but that is a small price to pay for the lack of blogging stress.

Decide what you can and can't do and don't feel guilty if you can't do more! There are always lots of new and shiny things coming along that can be distracting. Some examples are Google+, Klout, Pinterest, Tumblr and more! Personally, I have a pretty full schedule with my blogging, Facebook and Twitter and for the most part I am happy to keep it to that. I know that I am missing out on things by not being on some of these other sites, but like everyone else I have other responsibilities that need to be a priority for me. I am all for no guilt blogging!

At the end of the day blogging is meant to be fun. If it is becoming a chore that you dread having to do, then it is clearly not working for you and you might need to think about making some changes!

Sunday Salon: What's in a Name?

One of the things that I have often heard is that as a blogger it is important to own your own domain name. It is something that I have heard a lot, and I have been thinking about actually doing something about it for a couple of years now! After all, given that I have now been blogging for nearly 6 years I probably am going to be sticking with this blogging thing for a while longer at least.

Today, I finally sat down and did what needed to be done and so my new blog address is:

www.TheIntrepidReader.com

The changes are in the process of going through, and as far as I am aware you don't need to necessarily update your blog feed subscriptions as it should all take care of itself, however I would suggest that it is probably a good idea to so if you want to. If you come across any issues I would be very grateful if you could let me know. It will probably be a couple of days before everything is finalised so your patience would be appreciated if there are any glitches over the next couple of days.

The other thing that I have been thinking about doing for a while now is getting some bloggy business cards, but I didn't do that because I knew that I was going to eventually change the URL. Give me another 18 months and I might actually get around to doing those now too! You can't rush these things.

Currently reading:

After such a good reading month last month, I am finding it a bit difficult to settle into which book I want to read next. I am therefore kind of flitting from one book to another at the moment. I am currently therefore reading:

Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani - Adriana Trigiani is an author who I have been meaning to try for a long time but never quite managed to do so before now.

Fools Rush In by Kristan Higgins - there are a couple of things about this book that are really annoying me right from the beginning. I have been told that I should just stop now if I am already annoyed, but I had to get this by interlibrary loan so I think I would feel a little guilty if I ended up returning it unread.

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi - read the first chapter of this one, but I don't think it quite fits the criteria that I was looking for - a book I could get lost in. I think this is one that you have to concentrate on a bit more than that.

Up next:

My next read will be a choice from Accidents of Providence by Stacia Brown, The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do or The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obrecht.

Blogoversary giveaway - Boxed set of Shaun Tan's The Arrival

5 Years! How long is that in blogging years?
It's hard to believe that I have been at this blogging business for 5 years! When I was a kid and teenager, I started dozens of journals. I would do a couple of entries, and then a couple of months later I would pick up the book, turn a couple of pages, and then start again, and the cycle continued over and over again. When I started blogging I actually half expected that same sort of thing to happen again, but it didn't! And now, 5 years on, blogging is an integral part of my life, and very much part of who I am! There are people who I know through blogging that I might never meet in person, but who I count amongst my friends!

To celebrate, I have a very special giveaway, but first a little background.

As soon as I saw a mention of the prize, I knew that I wanted to do a giveaway of it. Never mind that it is the most expensive non text book I have ever bought, and that I haven't bought myself a copy yet!

The Arrival by Shaun Tan is one of my favourite books that I have read since I started blogging, and I know that it is a book that has touched the hearts of other bloggers around the world. I've mentioned it here numerous times, and I have guest posted at other blogs about it, and if I see a review of the book on someone else's blog then I am practically guaranteed to comment!

It doesn't matter that there are no words in the book. The images have such strength that the story is evident and moving without words! One of the things I did when I first read this book was to give it to my then 8 year old son. While his story was different to mine, the key elements were the same.

Now, Shaun Tan has released a boxed set of The Arrival, and another book called Sketches from a Nameless Land, which gives the background behind The Arrival, the illustrations and so much more. To quote Shaun Tan, "it is like the extras on a DVD."

Here is the info from the website for this set:

This special boxed set of the best-selling, internationally acclaimed graphic novel THE ARRIVAL, and a new companion volume of commentary and developmental drawings, SKETCHES FROM A NAMELESS LAND, will fascinate anyone who has fallen under the spell of Shaun Tan's timeless story, and offers a revealing insight into the craft of one of Australia's most compelling author-illustrators.

THE ARRIVAL has become one of the most critically acclaimed books of recent years, a wordless masterpiece that describes a world beyond any familiar time or place. How did it come to be created, and what inspired its unique and captivating story? In SKETCHES FROM A NAMELESS LAND, author Shaun Tan explains the origins of his ideas, using examples from early research and concept sketches through to finished artwork. In tracing this evolution, he sheds light on the silent language of images, the spirit of the migrant experience and the artist's creative journey.

And here is just one of the videos from the website. If you would like to see more videos then there are a number of them available to view here.



As far as I am aware, this box set is only being made available through the Australian publishers and so if you win it, then you will have something that is quite hard to come by outside of Australia.

If you really love the book, and you are really cashed up, you might be interested to know that there is also a deluxe Collector's Edition which comes in a box that looks like a suitcase. Again, see the website if you want to drool over that! I must say that the website that has been developed to promote these releases is amazing, and you can easily spend more than a few minutes exploring it. Please note, if you do look at the website, then the prize that I am offering for this giveaway is the first item under Other Books, not the suitcase!

For those of you who haven't read The Arrival yet, what are you waiting for? I will also offer up a second  prize of a copy of The Arrival. In order to win this prize, you must be in a country that the Book Depository ships to.

Please spread the word so that as many fans of the book as possible get the chance to win this fantastic prize.

The prize details:

First prize: The winner will receive a special box set of The Arrival and Sketches from a Nameless Land as pictured above.

Second prize: One copy of The Arrival by Shaun Tan

The contest is open internationally, although for second prize I must ask that the prize winner live somewhere where the Book Depository ships.

Contest closes on 1 December 2010 at 5pm Eastern Australian Daylight Savings Time

To enter, please complete the following form:

In the spirit of Bloggiesta

The Saturday Network

Have you heard about Jenn from Books At Midnight's fabulous blog networking project, called The Saturday Network. The idea is that you leave your link in the comments and the person after you comes and leave a comment on your blog, and of course, you comment on the person above you. Sounds like a fun way to find new blogs!

It's my blogiversary!

Today marks four years since I started this blog! You'd think I would be better at it by now wouldn't you! LOL!

Over the last three years, we have had the low key I-won't-mention-it blogiversary and a couple of retrospective blogiversary posts. This year is different though! We might call it the Party blogiversary!

Let's see. What do we need for a party? Gifts? I can do that. Announcements? I can do that too!

I'll start with gifts. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to do this because of the events of the last few days, but I have decided that I am just going to do it and worry about the costs later! Do what? Why have a giveaway of course!

There are four books that I have read this year that I have rated as being 5/5 reads, books that I have absolutely adored, so I will give the winner their choice of book from the following:

Over the next four days I will do a post with the synopsis of each book (who knows, maybe even a review) to help you choose.

The winner will also receive a handmade bookmark. I love painting these ladies, and so have a couple of examples here, but if you would like a different colour dress, the please just let me know and I will make it for you in whatever colour you would like. A couple of runners up will also receive one of the bookmarks. I will probably put up a chart in the next couple of days so you can see the colour choices, and tell you about my sad obsession with Twinkling H2Os, which is the ink that I used to colour them.

The giveaway will close on November 25, and is open world wide, as long as Book Depository ships to you. Just leave a comment on this post saying which book you would like to win. Please also make sure that your email address is either in your profile, or in your comment so that I can contact yoiu if you are the winner.

Is that it? Well, no, it isn't actually.

I am also incredibly pleased to announce that I have decided to host a reading challenge. For years, I have been intending to go back to the beginning and read my way through Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. Despite my best intentions, it just hasn't happened, so now I am challenging myself, and whoever else would like to participate to read some Pratchett during 2010. The sign up post will go up in a couple of days, but in the meantime, here's a sneak peak at the fabulous button that was created for me by Maili as a result of my cry for help the other day!

Finally, I thought I would also quickly mention that it is just a few days until Kailana and I unveil this year's Virtual Advent Tour. We have had lots of fun doing this for the last couple of years, and I really hope that lots of people join in again this year! The proper announcement will be up shortly, so keep watching this space!

So there you have it. A book giveaway, some book marks, a challenge and an upcoming event! Sounds like a pretty busy blogiversary to me!

I've hit the wall ...

Reading and blogging wise at least. It isn't often that I find myself not reading, or blogging, but at this point in time I haven't finished a book in over a week! I have at least at 3 posts that I need to write, about half a dozen posts that are half written and if I just finished writing would have new content and I am hundreds of feeds behind in Bloglines.

Part of the reason that there was no Teaser Tuesday post this week was because I am still reading the same books as last week. I guess I don't have far to go with Silver Phoenix, but I don't think I am even a third of the way through The Terror, despite the fact that I am really enjoying it. My problem is that the book was due back at the library a couple of days ago, so now I need to decide whether to keep it and hope I finish it soon (no one else has it requested), or to take it back and then try and reborrow it straight away.

I will however do a Library Loot post! I took a whole heap of books back unread this week, and only picked two up:

The Wedding Officer by Anthony Cappella - Thanks to a mention from Rosario

Away with the Fairies by Kerry Greenwood - I did have this out on audio book but had to return it because I bought a new MP3 player but can't figure out how to get to the stuff that I save on it!

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner - Thanks to a rave review from Jenclair at A Garden carried in the Pocket.

What is the best thing to do when you are not reading. Buy books? Or perhaps contemplate signing up for the read-a-thon that is happening this weekend? I know straight up that I won't be completing the whole 24 hours, but I am definitely thinking about doing as much as I can. I have been thinking about what books I might want to read. I am pretty sure though that my eyes aren't going to cope particularly well with long stretches of reading - not until I go and get my eyes checked and new glasses at least! The other thing is that it officially starts at 10pm on Friday night here, but I am going out, so I will probably start on Saturday morning, and try and fit in stuff like house cleaning etc to give my eyes a break!

Who else is doing the read-a-thon?

Australian LitBlog Snapshot

Matilda, one of my favourite Aussie blogs to read, has been hosting an ongoing series called the Australian LitBlog Snapshot where he asks the same series of questions to a group of Aussie bloggers! Some of the blogs are new to me, others I already read regularly, and there is great variety amongst the list!

Today, I am lucky enough to be the featured blog! You can read everyone's answers by clicking here.

Thanks for the opportunity, and welcome to any new visitors!

Sung to the tune of Sgt. Peppers...

It was 3 years ago today
I started to blog and play

It doesn't really fit does it??

Oh well...I am sure you get the sentiment. On this day three years ago I started this blog. Little did I know that blogging would become such a big part of my life, so much so that it is my main hobby as well as the source of my connection with people all around the world.

Now that I look back at those early posts and reviews I cringe, but at the end of the day they are what they are, and so I leave them up for posterity!

So let's review the last year or so shall we? Personally I think that the focus of this blog has moved a little bit from just a predominantly book review blog, to all a more general reading blog, and these days a little card making as well as with a bit of life in general. The only problem with that last part is that I live such a boring life that it is hard to find anything interesting to post about there! LOL!!

Another change this year has been the whole hearted jump into Reading Challenges! It's hard to believe that last year I didn't participate in any challenges that I remember.

A big highlight of the last few months was being Blogger of Note for a day. My number of visitors skyrocketed to more than 30000 visitors a week! Wow! The numbers of visitors has dropped down again a fair bit, but some of the people who found me through Blogger of Note have stuck around! Thanks to all of you who did!

Last December's Blog Advent Tour was very successful, and this years is already sure to be bigger and better! If you haven't already signed up, please do so. There are lots of first timers who have already signed up, many of whom are new blogs to me!

Another highlight has been watching the continuing growth of Historical Tapestry, a group blog that focuses on the historical fiction genre! I am very excited about the things that have been happening over there recently, and I look forward to more great HF news and reviews from the group.

What hasn't changed? I still read a lot. As always I am behind on my reviews, I still haven't found another job, I still use the library a lot, the list of blogs that I read in my Bloglines account continues to grow ever longer, and I still love blogging!

Seeing as I started with a Beatles reference, it seem only fair to provide a snippet of a couple of their songs! Enjoy.

Blog of Note

I woke up this morning to lots of comments overnight. My first thought was 'Oh, no. The fact that I have removed the verification letters for comments has come back to bite me!' But no, there is another, much nicer reason!

I am today's Blog of Note on Blogger! Wow! What a thrill!

If you are stopping by for the first time, welcome! I hope you enjoy looking around in the archives of my blog!

The Big Picture

Does anyone else read The Big Picture? It is a photoblog that is connected to the Boston.com website, and often the photos that they show are amazing.

A couple of days ago they posted a really beautiful series of images of the Earth from Above by photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand.

If I was in New York I would totally be making the time to go and see his exhibition because the photos are breathtaking.

Blogging

Like a lot of other people there are times when I do wonder about blogging and whether I am talking to myself or not. In fact, today over at Despair.com I saw a new poster that could almost sum things up for me in the mood that I was in for the last few days. **Going off on a tangent here, but have you all visited Despair.com. They have some very funny demotivator posters over there!**


Don't get me wrong. I love blogging, I love visiting everyone's blogs, but sometimes I watch groups form of people who are obviously becoming close friends and I wonder if and why I sit on the peripheral of all that - a question that I often ask myself in real life as well! A sign of where my head is at I am sure!

But then, just as I am about to engage in a full on pity party, along came three blog awards to show me that I am may well be wrong! Michele from A Reader's Respite gave me the I Love Your Blog award. She also awarded it to Historical Tapestry which is awesome! And then I got that same award from Books and Other Stuff and Teddy at So Many Precious Books, So Little Time too. Thanks so much to all of you! I would love to give the award back to each of you, because I do love all of your blogs, but instead I am going to try and give them to a few different people!

The rules for this award are that you need to:

1) Add the logo of the award to your blog
2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you
3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4) Add links to those blogs on your blog
5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs!

Carolyn Jean from The Thrillionth Page - Always a lot of fun!

Zeek from The Way I See It - A mix of movies, life and reading. I always enjoy reading her posts.

Kerry from Saving my Sanity... One Stitch, One Scrap, One Page at a Time. Very talented with a needle (something that I am not, nor will ever be) and she reads as well!

Amy from Passages to the Past - another HF fan, and she has a really great template as well. Looks great Amy!

Bobbi from Bobbi's Book Nook - Recently she has been reviewing one of my first mystery series, which included my first literary crush. Jim Frayne, you rocked my world!

Kailana from The Written World - It was a bit quiet for a while over there, but appears to be back now. Besides, it's her birthday, so here's your present Kailana!

Raidergirl3 from AnAdventure in Reading - every Tuesday she asks 'Where are you now' - such a great question! I love hearing what books other bloggers are reading and where those books are set!



One final thing for this post, Bethany from B&b Ex Libris is starting a movement to Kill Word Verification. I must confess that mine is turned on, just because I assumed that I would get spammed without it, but I am willing to turn it off and see what happens. If I do start getting spammed, then I will turn it back on.

It's either ...

Very quiet in blogland or Bloglines is down. I haven't had any new feeds come through in more than 18 hours. Very unusual!

998...999...1000!

Did you ask 1000 what?

It could be 1000 tissues used on my poor nose, seeing that my lovely child has decided to share his germs with me.

It could be 1000 times that I have thought about how bad I feel today.

It could 1000 degrees centigrade, which is probably how hot it is in my house today. The heaters are going full bore, but my hands and feet are still freezing and I am still shivering.

Or it could be that this is the 1000th post published on my blog since I started back in November 2005 (not counting the posts that are either scheduled or in draft). Of course, if that was the case, then I would have organised some kind of blog celebration wouldn't I, but instead I am moaning about how crook I feel!

So that this post has some kind of actual interest, there is a new meme going around that is being hosted by ShouldbeReading.com. The rules are pretty simple:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!

So my book is Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland and the two lines are:

His hand flew from the canvas to the little tin of linseed oile, to his palette, then to the canvas, back to the oil, canvas, palette. There was soemthing wild about it, like a swallow darting to catch insects.

One bonus of being home today was that I was able to log in for the online launch of the fourth book of the Gardella Vampires Chronicles. Author Colleen Gleason took questions from the people who were 'attending', gave out some prizes and managed to fill nearly an hour with plenty of interesting facts about her books. If I had of gone to work I wouldn't have been able to watch!

A couple of posts ago, I talked about how I have 27 library books to read by 2 September. By the time I finished watching the event I was all excited about the prospect of reading the next book in the series that I have here to read...which isn't one of those books! Whoops!

I know that there are others out in blogland that will be able to relate

I saw this mentioned over at Bookgirl's Nightstand and just knew that I had to have it!



It was made by Mrs S from the 50 Book Challenge blog which is a new blog to me!