Book Blogger Hop

The Book Blogger Hop is on tour the rest of this year as the originator of it (at Crazy-for-Books) has been given the opportunity for a new blogging venture. Good luck to her!

This week the Hop is at Soon Remembered Tales.

This week's prompt is: Banned Books Week ends on the 6th. How do you feel about books being challenged to be banned from libraries or schools? Have you read any banned books?

I've been celebrating Banned Book Week all week and have already posted on why I think banning books is  wrong. As part of Top Ten Tuesday I did an extra top ten list of my favorite banned books. I've also been posting reviews of the banned books that I've read this week (i.e., Catcher in the Rye and Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging). I'm currently reading A Prayer for Owen Meany and will hopefully have that finished and reviewed soon.

Instead, I'm going to talk about the importance of reading banned books all year round. Things like Banned Book Week, Women's History Month, Gay Pride Month, Black History Month, and the like raise awareness of people and issues that are important to keep in mind, certainly. But what good is it to just think about these things one week or month out of the year? 

In order for society to move forward and to become a more equal place for all, we can't ignore things. We need to constantly be thinking about them and doing things to help. Books are banned or challenged all the time. If we aren't standing up to the people trying to remove them from the shelves, how can we expect this practice to stop? Similarly, if we only stop to think about an African-American inventor or a female doctor once a year, how do we expect discrimination and bigotry to end?

Push back against the banning of books. Read banned books as often as possible. Don't let this be a discussion that we have for only seven days out of the 365 that comprise a year. If someone is trying to ban a book at your school (or your child's school), get a counter-movement going. Tell that parent and the school board "No! You aren't going to take books out of my child's hand." Do what the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library did and donate free copies of a book that has been removed from the shelves in protest of that action. Don't just sit back and let an injustice happen. Speak out against it.

I look at the history of the United States and all of the protest movements that have led to more equality and freedom and I wonder what happened to that spirit of protest. Did we all just give in and say, "It's too hard to fight for what I believe in so I'm just going to let this happen?" Don't just let it happen. Be proactive. If people can be motivated to ban a book why can't people be motivated to keep it from being banned?

In short, stand up and fight for banned books. One week out of the year is not enough.

-Gabe

Book Blogger Hop!

It's Friday and time for the Book Blogger Hop, hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books. Every week, Jennifer asks a question and hundreds of book bloggers link to their own post answering that question. It's a great way to connect with other bloggers who have similar (or divergent) interests.


This week's question is: When did you realize reading was your passion and a truly important part of your life? 


I've been doing the Hop for months now and I mean it when I say that this is my absolute favorite question so far. The problem is that I'm not really sure how to answer it.


I learned to read when I was about two years old. It's early, yes, but it was all thanks to my mother, who read to me all the time, and my grandmother who encouraged me to read anything I could get my hands on. There's one book in particular, Go Car Go, that Mom read to me over and over again (because I kept asking for it). Eventually I had the book memorized and, from what I'm told, was able to recognize the words in other books. 


Between then and kindergarten I learned enough words from enough books that I entered at a second grade reading level. It was nice because I got to skip out on the "see Jane run"  books, but it also sucked because my elementary school library was broken up into two sections: picture books and chapter books. You weren't allowed to check out chapter books until you were in second grade, which meant I spent more time at my town library than my school library. 


I think it was this distinction that really cemented for me, even at such a young age, that reading was my first true love and that books were kind of a big deal for me. I would sit with my kindergarten class in the picture book section of the library and while they'd be paying attention to the story being read to them by the librarian, I would be looking over at the chapter book section longingly. 


I almost think that in first grade my teacher finally convinced the librarian to let me get books out from there, but I don't fully remember. I do remember that shortly after I was able to do so, I read chapter books so fast it made my head spin. I also used to read all of the dinosaur books they had, including this old-ish yellow encyclopedia with red letting on the cover that was about two or three hundred pages of nothing but dinosaurs. I'm pretty sure I read it straight through two or three times before I went to middle school.


My grandmother had a huge collection of books and would always let me read pretty much whatever I wanted from it. There was never any censorship or control over what I read. Grandma might say, "Oh, I didn't like that book," but only on very rare occasions (maybe once or twice in my entire life) did she tell me straight out, "You really shouldn't read that." 


From her I learned the value of packed bookshelves and a voracious reading habit. She always had a book next to her, usually with an unused tissue stuck in it as her bookmark, just in case she wanted to read at any given moment during the day. She told me that when I was about four or five I told her that she must be rich because she had so many books. That, I think, is another moment in which my passion for reading was evident. 


There have been so many other moments like these, moments that have made me realize that reading isn't just a hobby for me. It's almost an addiction...just not in a creepy, sell-your-children kind of way. During college I wasn't able to read as much as I would have liked and I felt its absence. Having this blog the last few months, reading as much as I have in such a short amount of time, has reignited my addiction in a big way. 


-Gabe

Book Blogger Hop!

This week's Book Blogger Hop (which is usually hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books) is being hosted by Lori at Lori's Reading Corner. Head over there to hop on board.

This week's question: Who is the the one author that you are dying to meet?

My answer: There are a lot of authors that I would love to meet in person, chief among them are Neil Gaiman and Deanna Raybourn, although there are others who make the list. There is one author, however, that I would love to meet who may not be around for much longer and it is this author that I'm choosing this week.

Sir Terry Pratchett has been one of my favorite writers since I was in high school. I've read nearly the entire Discworld series and am sort of holding off on reading the ones that I haven't yet simply because I'm not looking forward to the day when I can say that I've finished the series. A few years ago I was devastated to hear that Pratchett had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, not only because I feared it meant the end of his illustrious writing career, but also because over the years he has become one of my writing heroes. Funny, imaginative, satirical, touching, prescient--as a writer, Pratchett is everything that I would like to be someday.

His strength and bravery have touched me more than I could ever possibly say. Although someone is currently typing for him, Pratchett has continued to write even as the disease ravages him. Lately, he has become an advocate for assisted suicide and a person's write to choose death over suffering. Rather than seeing this as a dismal thing, I support him in what may be his eventual final decision. While I will mourn his passing when it comes, I truly believe that he should be allowed to choose his end rather than waiting around in pain and grief for the blackness to finally claim him.

That having been said, I wish with every fiber of my being that I could meet him once before his death. I would tell him that he has been an inspiration and that his books have gotten me through some of the most difficult parts of my life. His particular brand of humor and way of looking at the world have resonated with me in ways that no other author has. I would thank him from the bottom of my heart for being a voice of sanity in an insane world. And then I would simply shake his hand and walk away before I burst into decidedly unmanly tears. The world is a better place with Pratchett in it, but, even when he eventually passes from it, the legacy he will leave behind will, I hope, bring joy and wonder to future generations of eager readers.

There are a lot of people out there who love you and stand behind you, Terry, no matter what you decide. I think that I speak for all of them when I simply say "thank you."

-Gabe

Book Blogger Hop!

It's Friday, which would be awesome for me if not for the fact that I have to work 10 hours today. This means, of course, that I have ample time to read and blog, so I'm going to make up for this morning's craptastic post.

Friday means the Book Blogger Hop, hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books. Every week, Jennifer asks a question and hundreds of book bloggers link to their own post answering that question. It's a great way to connect with other bloggers who have similar (or divergent) interests.

This week's question is: Share your favorite post from the last month and tell us why it's close to your heart.

My answer: My favorite post from this past month is a relatively recent one--as in, it was posted two days ago. The post I'm talking about is this one, the second occurrence of my brand-spankin' new meme, Wild Card Wednesday.

This is more than just a shameless plug (although I do encourage everyone to participate next week). That post was so much fun to write and the other participants' posts were just as much fun to read. As a writer of fiction and a blogger, I feel like the two rarely ever coincide. My stockpile of unfinished novels and the posts that I do for this blog are mutually exclusive; fiction vs. non-fiction, creative vs. realistic. Any time when I get to blend the two is cause for celebration.

That's actually part of the reason why I started this meme. I know there are many other bloggers out there who like to be creative but may find that it's hard for them to juggle reading, blogging, and creative writing. Wild Card Wednesdays allows us to be creative without putting our blogs on hold.

-Gabe

Book Blogger Hop!

It's Book Blogger Hop time again, brought to you by Jennifer at Crazy for Books! As I have a headache and a huge desire to sleep, I won't go into an explanation of what the Hop is, but if you visit Jennifer's blog, you'll have all the information you need.

This week's question: What book-to-movie adaptation have you liked most? Which have you disliked?

My answer:

LIKED: I'm not going to use either Trainspotting or Stardust for this answer because I honestly didn't know they were books when I watched the films; I didn't read them until after I had fallen in love with the movies. Instead, I'm going to choose a book where I watched the film AFTER I had read the book:

I won't say too much about this because I'm reading the book/watching the film next month as part of the Books to Movies Challenge hosted by Two Bibliomaniacs. What I will say is that this film is incredible; not as incredible as the book, and I had an issue with the under-usage of Nadsat in the script, but incredible nonetheless. Malcolm McDowell makes such a terrifying yet sympathetic Alex and Kubrick's trippy way of making films definitely served this book well.

HATED: I don't even have to think for this one. Being that I'm not a Michael Crichton fan, I was surprised how much I really liked the book Timeline. The only reason I read it was because I saw the trailer for the film and decided to read it before going to see the movie. The book was a fun, easy read considering that it had to do with time travel, quantum physics, and the Middle Ages. I really liked the characters and found the plot to be engaging and exciting. Not high-end literature of course, but still a pretty decent read. The film was so bad, however, that I was tempted to demand my money and my time back. They actually added a character at the beginning of the film just so that they could kill him. I hate that, that whole idea of "well, we need a sacrificial lamb, someone to show how dangerous the situation is." Um, these people just went back in time to an era of bad hygiene, non-existent sanitation practices, constant warfare, plagues without medical treatment, and any number of other undesirable things without any knowledge of how to get back to the modern era. Do you really think the audience is that stupid that they'd be like, "Oh, they'll be fine! It'll be a walk in the park." I'm pretty sure we've all seen at least one King Arthur movie, for crying out loud. In addition, the dialogue was laughable, the acting was mostly bad (with few exceptions), and the whole thing just screamed "awful" at the top of its lungs.

-Gabe

Book Blogger Hop!

It's Friday and that means it's time to hop! Every Friday, Jennifer from Crazy for Books hosts the Book Blogger Hop. A question is asked and hundreds of bloggers answer it, hopping from blog to blog to see what everyone else has said.

This week's question is: If you were given the chance to spend one day in a fictional world (from a book), which book would it be from and what would that place be?

My answer: There are so many books that I could answer this question with, some more literary than others. I think, in the end, it would have to be Diagon Alley from the Harry Potter series. While I would love to spend time in Deanna Raybourn's vision of Transylvania, the far reaches of space that permeate sci-fi novels, or the beautiful British countryside of an Austen tome, Diagon Alley is a place that no one can really visit. It simply doesn't exist. For the right price I could go to Europe or, when technology finally permits, into space, but I can never really go to the magical world that J.K. Rowling built for her novels.

Why, out of the magical locales I could have picked, did I decide on Diagon Alley? Because there's so much to do and to see. Hogwarts is only great if you can actually go to school there and it really doesn't offer many friend-making opportunities for those of us over the age of seventeen. But in London's magical street there are people from all over the world of all shapes and sizes and colors and ages. There's also tons of stores that offer a feast for the eyes. It would be like being a kid in a very large candy shop where most of the candy can probably bite you.

So, what did you guys pick?

-Gabe

Book Blogger Hop!

It's Friday, which means it's Book Blogger Hop time! Every week, Jennifer at Crazy for Books hosts this event in which a question is asked and hundreds of book bloggers answer it. It's a great way to find new blogs to follow as well as some new followers for your own blog.

This week's question is: Summer is coming quickly--what 2011 summer release are you most looking forward to?

My answer: Today is apparently Deanna Raybourn day at Gabriel Reads. Not only am I reviewing one of her books, I'm also talking about her for today's 30 Day Book Challenge question. And now I'm dropping her name for the Hop.

My most anticipated summer release is The Dark Enquiry, Raybourn's latest installment in the Lady Julia Grey series.

It's going to be released in June, which means that I have until then to read the fourth book in the series, Dark Road to Darjeeling, because somehow I haven't gotten around to it yet. I'll be reading the entire series, including the newest book, in June as part of my Series of the Month feature that I'm debuting in May, so you can look forward to (or dread) that this summer.

-Gabe

Book Blogger Hop!

Jennifer at Crazy for Books is once again hosting the Book Blogger Hop. Every week a question is asked and hundreds of book bloggers answer it.

This week's question is: If you find a book you love, do you hunt down other books by the same author?


My answer: Abso-freaking-lutely. Well, most of the time. You all know about my unhealthy obsession with Neil Gaiman novels, most of which I read soon after reading American Gods. And right after I put down my first Discworld novel (Interesting Times), I was already planning which Terry Pratchett novel I would buy next.


Sometimes, however, I wait awhile before I pick another novel up by the same author. I didn't read another Vonnegut novel until a few years after I read Slaughterhouse 5. This is mostly because he had so many that I didn't know which one to read next. It wasn't until a friend suggested that I read Breakfast of Champions that I really got into Vonnegut's works. 


The other issue is, of course, that a lot of the authors that I read write series. Occasionally I'll find a book that I'm interested in and love it, only to find out that it's the first book in a series...and the rest of them haven't come out yet. This was the case with Justin Cronin's The Passage and Deanna Raybourn's Silent in the Grave. Now, while Raybourn has subsequently published three other novels in the Lady Julia series (as well as a fifth novel with completely different characters), the next book in Cronin's trilogy isn't slated for release until 2012. 


So, yes, I will usually scour bookstore and library shelves for books by authors that I've just discovered that I like, but from time to time there are mitigating factors that prevent me from doing so. 


-Gabe

Book Blogger Hop!

Jennifer at Crazy for Books is once again hosting the Book Blogger Hop. Every week a question is asked and hundreds of book bloggers answer it.

This week's question is: Pick a character from a book you are currently reading or have just finished reading and tell us about him/her.

My answer: Since the book I'm currently reading is non-fiction, I'll be picking a character from Mortal Coil, the book I just finished. (I know, I know, you're all sick of hearing about Skulduggery Pleasant. Don't kill me.)

Solomon Wreath is a really random character for me to talk about which is why I picked him. He's a necromancer who feels that Valkyrie Cain, although currently learning Elemental magic, could be really good at necromancy. So good, in fact, that he offers to give her lessons. Little does she know that he's actually hoping that she is the Death Bringer, the savior of the necromancers' religion. If this is the case, Valkyrie would be the one to save the world from itself. Solomon is an interesting character and I wish that he was used a bit more in the series. He's not evil, he's not good, he's just sort of neutral. His whereabouts are unknown at the end of Mortal Coil which means that he'll probably turn up in the next book doing something awesome.
________________

I'm going to count this as my "morning post" because I haven't gotten very far into my current book and I don't really have anything else to write about. So, sorry, but for the first time ever there will not be a pre-scheduled 8 am post. :(

I have good news though: I finally tracked down a copy of Clive Barker's Imajica. I couldn't find it in a bookstore for the longest time (Barnes and Noble never has it, that's for sure) but there it was on the shelf at one of my local Borders. It was pretty much fate. It's an 800 page book so I don't know if I'll be able to fit it into my reading schedule anytime soon, but since I've already read it and it can count as a sort of horror novel, I might use it as my Reread of the Month for October. We'll see.

Also, I'm not sure that I'll be doing another strictly non-fiction theme again. Fiction is so much quicker to read and April, which is the last month of the semester and therefore the busiest, was such a bad month to pick for a non-fiction theme. I'm really tempted to cut a few books off of the list this month (as in, the two that I'm supposed to be reading by the end of this week that aren't going to happen) just to make it easier for me. I still have eight books to read by the end of the month and I'm not sure I'm going to get through all of them. I'll be making the final decision by tomorrow, I think. I'll still be reading non-fiction, just maybe not an entire month of it. Or maybe I just shouldn't have scheduled eleven books for the busiest month of my life. Hmm, yeah, that's probably it.

-Gabe

Book Blogger Hop: Non-Weekend Edition

Jennifer at Crazy for Books just posted the Book Blogger Hop yesterday and I'm just now getting around to doing it. Every week, she asks a question and hundreds of book bloggers answer it.

This week, the question is: Outside of books, what is your guilty pleasure?

My answer: I have a really big thing for learning languages. I've studied three so far (French, German, and ancient Greek) but I have a list of about a dozen more that I'd like to learn at some point. I don't really know what it is about language, but it fascinates and excites me. I think I like the fact that I can express myself in four different languages, which gives me much more choice, and that if I eventually get to travel I can actually converse with people in various countries in their native tongue.

I would like to add, though, that neither books nor languages are really a "guilty" pleasure. They're just a regular, plain old pleasure.

-Gabe

Book Blogger Hop!

It's that time of week again! Every Friday, Jennifer at Crazy for Books hosts the Book Blogger Hop. Hundreds of book bloggers answer the same question every week, including yours truly.

This week's question is: Since today is April Fool's Day in the USA, what is the best prank you have ever played on someone OR that someone has played on you?

My answer: I'm actually not a prankster, nor are most of the people I know. When I was an undergraduate, however, I saw the aftermath of a pretty decent prank. I played in the pit orchestra for a musical that was being held at a neighboring college. Because it was break week at my school, I had to stay on the other college's campus for the weekend. The person that I stayed with had a group of friends who lived in one of the apartment buildings on campus. One was a group of girls and the other was a group of guys and they lived right across the hall from each other. Apparently they had been playing pranks on one another for the last few years. When we went to go visit them, the girls had struck the guys' apartment...by covering every possible surface with pads. I'm not sure how many packages of them it took, but the TV, the couch, the coffee table, the rug, everything was covered in brand-spankin'-new feminine hygiene products. It was hilarious.

-Gabe

Book Blogger Hop!

It's that time of week again. Jennifer at Crazy for Books is once more hosting the book blogger hop, where every week a new question is answered by tons of different book bloggers. Go check out her blog as well as the others that are participating this week.

This week's question is: If you could physically put yourself into a book or series...which one would it be and why?

My answer:

I'd love to say something impressive like Pride and Prejudice or a Dickens novel, but I'd be lying. I really love the world that Derek Landy has created for his Skulduggery Pleasant* series. The characters are fun and creative and they have a great sarcastic sense of humor that I love. Besides, who can resist a skeleton mage detective who wears pinstripe suits and drives a Bentley?

*If you're an American who is interested in buying the whole series, you'll need to use the UK version of the website because for some reason the fouth and fifth books haven't made it to the States yet. That's why I, regrettably, have not been able to read those two yet.

-Gabe

Book Blogger Hop II

Once again it's Friday, which means it's time for the Book Blogger Hop, hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books. Every Friday, dozens of book bloggers answer the same question. This week's question is:

Do you read only one book at a time, or do you have several going at once?

My answer: I used to read multiple books at one time. I think at one point in middle school I was reading seven or eight at once. Now, however, I tend to only read one at a time, especially now that I'm doing this blog. I like to be able to focus my attention in one place so that my reviews are more coherent and in depth. Plus, with my busy schedule, finding time to read one book is often a miracle. I couldn't imagine what it would be like trying to juggle eight!

If you're stopping over at Jennifer's site today, don't forget to check out the other blogs who are participating in today's blog hop.

A note regarding this blog: Right now I'm reading Nabokov's Bend Sinister. I flew through Lolita in about a day and a half, but this book is proving difficult to get through. I'm hoping to have it read and reviewed by Saturday, especially because I have several more books that I want to get through before the month is over. If my book-related posts seem few and far between the next few days, this is why. My goal is to review a dystopian film that I borrowed from the library by tomorrow or the next day, so stay tuned for that.

As always, I'd love to hear from you in the comments. What are you currently reading? How did your St. Patrick's Day go?

-Gabe

Book Blogger Hop!

Every week, Jennifer over at Crazy For Books hosts the Book Blogger Hop, which connects book bloggers from all over the net. This is my first time even hearing about this but I figured it would be a great idea to jump on the bandwagon. Check out her site for more details!

This week's question: If I gave you £50 (or $80) and sent you into a bookshop right now, what would be in your basket when you finally staggered to the till?

My answer:

• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• Sourcery by Terry Pratchett
• The Landmark Xenophon's Hellenika
• The End is Now by Rob Stennet
• The Company We Keep by Robert and Dayna Baer
• Imajica by Clive Barker

I don't know if that actually adds up to 80 bucks, but I was never a math major for a reason. Either way, that's my list. If there is any cash left over, I'd probably do what I always do, which is to grab a few random things that look interesting. Possibly a few zombie books. Maybe something by Vonnegut.

On an unrelated note, everything has now been moved over from WordPress. I'll only be updating this blog from now on so anyone who was reading me there will have to follow me from here. 

-Gabe