My first successful header

It’s been exactly one year since I started Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog, and I’m so proud of myself for sticking to it for so long. I read somewhere that the average blog only lasts about six months, and sure enough I felt like quitting six months ago. Of course, six months ago was also around finals week, so I’m not entirely surprised I wanted to quit blogging then. But! I didn’t quit, and I kept going, and I’m proud to say that I made my blog even better since then. I’m really happy with my blog and where I plan to go with it, and I’m looking forward to celebrating my 2 year blogoversary next year.

So, in celebration of this blogoversary, I thought I’d write a little bit about why I started my blog. I write a lot about what I want my blog to do in the future, but I don’t think I’ve ever gone into any detail about why exactly I started book blogging.

A somewhat embarrassing history…

Okay, so when I first started this blog I distinctly remember it was meant mostly just for memes and reading challenges, with reviews a distant third. In fact, I only started this blog because I wanted to participate in memes and reading challenges and needed some place to put them. Luckily I didn’t stick with that plan for long, and I actually changed my plans because of Kim’s Blog Improvement Project. (Thanks, Kim!)

Once I joined that, I started thinking of my blog less as a hub for memes and more like a reading journal. (This would have been around January, btw.) I think it also helped that I started getting more comments and visits to my blog at that time, and so I started feeling more energetic about having a blog that people wanted to visit and read. I wanted to post more things that kept bringing people back, and so I posted more and more reviews. So, thanks, all you early visitors! You helped me stay motivated, for sure.

And so here we are!

And now it’s been several months later and one year after starting, and I’m super happy with how far this blog has come. I’ve started some memes, I’ve hosted two challenges, I’ve made lots of friends and I can’t wait to see what’ll happen in the next year.

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported me over the year! I hope I’ve made you proud.

Interesting posts and other things that have caught my eye this week. It isn’t actually everything, since I didn’t want to kill myself copy-pasting, so for the entire link collection check out my Delicious page.

And now, I present to you, my readers: Awesome Post Full of Links #10: November 1-7!

Books in General

• Is It Time To Stop Listing “Best” Books? – Book lists – Jezebel
  “When a list like this one draws criticism — and they have in the past — the compilers usually defend it with the argument that “this is just what we like.” But what we like is subject to deeply held and unconscious biases, and when we think we’re being objective, we are often praising what we’re most comfortable with, or what we think is most deserving of praise based on whatever stereotypes we grew up with.”
• LJNDawson.com Blog, Mythbusting the ISBN by Laura Dawson
  “Last month, the AAP’s Digital Initiatives Working Group and BISAC’s Identifiers Committee conducted a survey among members to determine what publishers’ views actually are on the ISBN. Publishers have been told what to think, repeatedly – and we know how much publishers like being told what to think – so we thought we’d turn the conversation around and ask them what they thought.”
• Story Psych: A Semi-Scientific Look at What Makes a Good Story / Tor.com
  “Memorable does not necessarily equal good, but it would make sense that a story with scenes and characters that stick in readers’ minds would be far more likely to become a success than one without that sticking power. While you’re reading, you’ll enjoy a story more if you have a clear memory of what came before and how the events are building to the climax. And afterward, if you continue to remember and think about the story, there’s a sense that you’ve read something powerful.”

Authors & Publishers

• How to Start a Career in Publishing – mediabistro.com: GalleyCat
  “Today’s guest on the Morning Media Menu was Peter Ginna, publisher and editorial director at Bloomsbury Press. Ginna fielded questions from a listener about how to get a start in publishing during this difficult time for the media industry. The publisher also discussed his new blog, the hardcover pricing war, and the most important skills needed to work in 21st Century publishing.”

(Book) Blogging

• In which I get transparent about my blog commenting practices « The Book Lady’s Blog
• Book Reviewing in a Digital World: #FollowReader Recap « Follow The Reader
  “How do major book reviewers select books, and how much has social media and other technology changed the way they discover new titles? Do print galleys, pre-pub reviews and trade shows matter any more, as digital tools expand and print review outlets continue to shrink?”

Meta: Delicious | Google Reader

Library Loot is a weekly meme hosted by Eva and Marg that encourage bloggers to talk about what books they’ve gotten from their library during the week. Anyone can participate any time during the week, so feel free to write up your own post and link it using Eva’s (or Marg’s) Mr Linky!

I dragged about seven books back to the library yesterday, including two that I decided I didn’t want to read, but then I immediately checked out five more. Whoops?

Click on the book cover to go to that book’s page on Amazon!

Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brian. The Vampire Archives, edited by Otto Penzler. The Riddle (Pellinor #2) by Alison Croggon.

The Crow (Pellinor #3) by Alison Croggon. The Magicians by Lev Grossman.

My getting The Vampire Archives is actually a kind of funny story– someone requested it through ILL at the library where I work but they requested under false pretenses (so they’re no longer allowed to get it), so I got first dibs! Or is it second dibs? Anyway, all I know is that I get it before anyone else. Yay! I have no idea if I can finish it soon, though. It’s really freakin’ big, and I’m not super good with finishing a whole book of short stories in a timely fashion.

I’m really excited about the two Pellinor books, and I think I’m going to read them ASAP.

I went to see Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant with my parents last weekend, and I wasn’t too disappointed. It was a little cheesy and ridiculous, but since the book series is cheesy and ridiculous and yet somehow still enjoyable I didn’t much mind that part.

I’ve only read the first book of the series, and I thought it was mostly mediocre but with potential for more awesomeness as the series goes on. The movie is less mediocre and more over-the-top, which I think was actually a really good choice. If the movie had been exactly like the book(s) it would have been horrible and MST3K-worthy, so I’m glad they changed a lot of things.

The actors were a good choice; I really liked Chris Massoglia, who played Darren, and Patrick Fugit, who played Evra the lizard boy. I loved how John C. Reilly played Mr Crepsley as sarcastic and witty (and funny). He really was the best part of the movie, and if I end up watching the movie again it’ll be purely to see him.

I immediately noticed that they cut a lot of things from the books, like I said before. The things they cut made the movie move much quicker, and — this is kind of mean– a lot of the things they cut were the things that were, well, boring in the book. For instance, that time when Darren steals Madame Octa and keeps her in his room for weeks and weeks and the book goes through the whole re-training Octa thing and whatever. Boring! And they totally cut it from the movie. Yay!

Unfortunately they went a little too crazy with the cutting sometimes, and it felt like about half the movie was missing. I don’t want to sit through five hours of The Vampire’s Assistant, but I also want the movie to make sense, you know? It was like quickcut-quickcut-quickcut all the freakin’ time, and it was quickcutting away from any decent exposition. And with the way they cut it– it always felt like BIG REVEAL! OMG! was happening every ten minutes and that was really irritating.

Like I said before, the books are really cheesy and some things in them are, uh, stupid (transferring blood through fingertips? Yeah, that’s dumb), but the movie tried to fix some of that (mostly through humor and John C. Reilly) and it wasn’t a bad result. It’s not my favorite movie adaptation of a book, but I had fun and I’ll probably go see it again when it hits the $1 movie theaters. If this movie was a book I’d rate it 3.5 birds.

I should mention that my parents, who haven’t read the books, loved the movie and had a great time. However, neither of them would pay to see it again, not even at the dollar theater (harsh, dudes).

Have you seen this movie? What did you think about it?

Thursday Tea is a weekly meme hosted by yours truly. To play along, all you need is some tea, a book, and the answers to these questions: what tea are you drinking (and do you like it)? What book are you reading (and do you like it)? Tell us a little about your tea and your book, and whether or not the two go together.

The book: I just started Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brian, and I’m not entirely sure I like it. My most favorite Napoleonic era naval series is, of course, Horatio Hornblower, and anything else I read must be compared to that. Master and Commander isn’t bad (I’m about 90 pages in), but I don’t like Jack Aubrey or Stephen Maturin as much as I like Horatio H. and William Bush. Maybe Aubrey and Maturin are too realistic– I think I prefer naval captains (and lieutenants, midshipmen, etc) to be idealistic and unbloated from too much drinking and too much meat.

But I’ll keep reading it until I get bored. Maybe a battle is coming up soon?

The tea: Acutally, I didn’t have tea this morning, but a cup of coffee at Satellite Coffee. Satellite is a local coffee place, and though it’s a little expensive it makes me feel better to be drinking coffee there than at Starbucks, however much I love Starbucks’ egg nog lattes. It’s good to support local places! Plus Satellite’s stuff is all freshly ground/brewed/made, even the pastries, and it’s delicious. I had a blueberry scone (seen in photo to the left) and I’m STUFFED. I’m definitely going back whenever I can afford it.

Do they go together? The blueberry of my scone matches the blueberry color of their navy coats?

But, seriously, they drink quite a few cups of coffee in Master and Commander, though I don’t know if it’s organic or free-trade or what. Mine and their’s goes well enough together, whatever kind of coffee they’re drinking.

What are you drinking/reading this Thursday?