Happy 4th of July & Answers to Triva

4th of July Comments



Here are the answers to the triva questions.


1. What are the names of the children from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? I already gave you one.
Charlie Bucket, Violet Beauregarde, Mike TeeVee, Veruca Salt, and Augustus Gloop.

2. From Dr. Seuss, what does Sam not like? Green Eggs and Ham

3. In Anne of Green Gables, what did Anne serve Diana, causing her to become dizzy? Current Wine but Anne thought it was raspberry cordial.

4. In The Little Princess, where did Sara's father go? India

5. What do Margaret and her friends want to increase in Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret?
Their busts!

6. What curse did Harry Potter survive? Killing Curse or Avada Kedavra.

Thanks to those who tried to answer the questions! It was fun. I'd love to do it again!

Mid-Year Recap

Let's what books I've read in the first 6 months of 2009.

The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao-Junot Diaz
Dark Places-Gillian Flynn
Ink Exchange-Melissa Marr
Wicked Lovely-Melissa Marr
Fragile Eternity-Melissa Marr (not yet reviewed)
Sarah-Orson Scott Card
Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist-Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
Perfect Fifths-Megan McCafferty
The Sharper Your Knife The Less You Cry-Kathleen Flinn
Lark and Termite-Jayne Anne Phillips
Alchemy of Stone-Ekaterina Sedia
Handle with Care-Jody Picoult
A Homemade Life-Molly Wizenberg (Oops I think I forgot to review this one!)
Saving Juliet-Suzanne Selfors
Revolutionary Road-Richard Yates
Bottlemania-Elizabeth Royte
Time Traveler's Wife-Audrey Niffenegger
The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted-Elizabeth Berg
Shop Your Closet-Melanie Charlton Fascitell
What A Scoundrel Wants-Carrie Lofty
I Feel Bad About My Neck-Nora Ephron

Total so far is 22 books. Not bad. I've got my 23rd under way right now.

Gasp, no library loot! Nothing was ready to be picked up at the library before today. Perhaps later in the week!

Weekly Geeks-Triva

Though I'm really not very good at it, I love trivia. Put books and trivia together and you've got a perfect match. So I thought it would be a fun Weekly Geek activity for us to come up with some book trivia questions to ask each other.So take a moment, don't stress about it all, and write down five to ten questions that pop into your mind. You could center all your questions around a particular theme or genre, maybe something in which you specialize. Or ask questions about one certain book. Or teach us about your favorite author through your questions.You could do really easy ones that you know we'll all get or really hard ones that will challenge even the best of us.Once you post your questions and add your link here, be sure to go around and answer the questions posted by everyone else. Remember, no fair Googling! At the end of the week, don't forget to do another post with the answers to your questions.

I had a real hard time coming up with the topic for triva. I almost decided not to do until Sabrina gave me an idea-children's books! So here's my attempt at writing trivia questions.


1. What are the names of the children from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? I already gave you one.



2. From Dr. Seuss, what does Sam not like?



3. In Anne of Green Gables, what did Anne serve Diana, causing her to become dizzy?



4. In The Little Princess, where did Sara's father go?



5. What do Margaret and her friends want to increase in Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret?


6. What curse did Harry Potter survive?


I only went with books I read as a child or as classified as young adult fiction in the case of the last question. Leave your answers below. I'll post the answers this weekend.

A Bloggy Meme

I stole this from Eva.

1. How long have you been blogging?
Since August 07.

2. Why did you start blogging?
Honestly, I was going to apply to be a bee. I never applied and decided that I liked just blogging on my own.

3. What have you found to be the benefits of blogging?
I've met some awesome people through this blog. I've been exposed to so many different ideas. I've been able to express myself so much better.

4. How many times a week do you post an entry?
I was posting everyday. Now I try to post frequently-about 4 times a week. I rather post something that means something to me than just posting to post.

5. How many different blogs do you read on a regular basis?
I have 217 Google Reader subscriptions. I haven't done any weeding there in a while.

6. Do you comment on other people’s blogs?
Yup. I love comments so I try to comment on other people's blogs. Share the love!

7. Do you keep track of how many visitors you have? Is so, are you satisfied with your numbers?I use hitstats.com to keep track of my stats. I look at it every week or so just to see if there are any spikes or new sites linking to me. My numbers have stayed pretty even for a long time now.

8. Do you ever regret a post that you wrote?
Nope.

9. Do you think your audience has a true sense of who you are based on your blog?
Hm, I try to stay positive on my blog. So if something is bothering me I probably won't blog about it. I can be a lot bitchier in real life. I try to reign that in here. You never know who's reading.

10. Do you blog under your real name?
I use my real first name. I try to avoid using my last name, but I think I've slipped before.

11. Are there topics that you would never blog about?
My work.

12. What is the theme/topic of your blog?
Life/books/food

13. Do you have more than one blog? If so, why?
Nope. I also post on the Filling In the Gaps blog though.

Library Loot #17

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!
For Tai, Xenocide and A Stroke Of Midnight. I expect these to last time a little longer than the last group of books did. Finally Little Bee came for me. I can't wait!
I finished the first book on my Filling In The Gaps challenge-The Brief Wonderous Life Of Oscar Wao. I was so excited to read this book but was totally disappointed. I loved the parts about Oscar not so much about his family. Here's my complete review. Has anyone else read it? Other reviews can be found here at Trish's Reading Nook, Cicadian Rhythms, Age 30+...A Lifetime of Books.

Weekly Geek #16

This week's Weekly Geeks topic was suggested by Sheri of A Novel Menagerie. She writes:

"Reading Challenges: a help or a hurt? Do you find that the reading challenges keep you organized and goal-oriented? Or, do you find that as you near the end of a challenge that you've failed because you fell short of your original goals? As a result of some reading challenges, I've picked up books that I would have otherwise never heard of or picked up; that, frankly, I have loved. Have you experienced the same with challenges? If so, which ones? Do you have favorite reading challenges?"

As we pass the halfway point of 2009, how are you doing with your reading challenges? Did you participate in any challenges this year?

I've been reluctant to join any challenges. I've decided to make the Filling In The Gaps Challenge my only challenge until I make a sufficient dent in my list.
But I think overall challenges can help people read new things and find different books to read. I don't always know how to find out about various challenges. Can any point me in a direction to learn about them before they start?

Erin's Baby Shower

Erin and Sean are having a baby in July. Her sister threw here a jungle themed shower.I can't believe she made these cards. The details were wonderful.
Here's what I got her for the baby shower.
I want to rock n' roll all night and potty everyday. What happens at Grandma's stays at Grandma's.
And these teethers.
I put everything in this monkey box.
It was such a great box. Erin told me she was into monkeys. I guess she told everyone cause she got a ton of monkey stuff. Plus her sister used monkeys to decorate the whole party.
Erin started blogging here. Perhaps she'll have pictures from the shower.

Currently....

wanting

Untitled by honeylin featuring Old Navy

Click on picture for more information.

I'm in desperate need of more cute summer tops. Any of these would be adorable!

using
Marta gave me this for my birthday. I can't tell you how long I wanted one. I'm so happy using this instead of buying Pam all the time!

eating
I introduced Texas Toast to Tai. He'd never had so we bought a box. He's in love. I now have to ration the toast! Great another carb that we can't live without!

A Deal On Seattle Adventures

I know a couple of you have plans to visit Seattle. I stumbled on a free coupon book for Seattle area attractions. Admittedly most of the coupons are for touristy thingy. If this isn't your first visit here you might not be interested.
There's a $2 off coupon for the Woodlawn Park Zoo. I'd like to see the new penguin exhibit.
There's a $2 off coupon for The Museum of Glass. I've still never been there.
There's a $2 off coupon for The Seattle Art Museum. Tai and I haven't been using our membership to its full advantages.
I've lived here all my life and there's stuff I've never done. Sometimes it's fun to be a tourist in your own town.

Library Loot #16

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Alessandra and Eva that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!
I've been lucky with pulling books off the shelf lately like Bittman's Food Matters. I was pretty stoked to see this one just sitting on the shelf. The next Ice and Fire book for Tai as well Seduced by Moonlight. He's already finished Seduced by Moonlight. Think he liked it?
I finished Dark Places by Gillian Flynn this week. Wow, I was engrossed. The characters, the story so well written. I hated to finish it but I was racing to finish it to find out who dun it and it wasn't who I thought. It was scary in parts especially the parts of the murders. I really liked it and would recommend it even though it's not my usually fare. Other reviews can be found at Today I Read...(spoilers), Carrie's YA Bookshelf, and Curled Up With A Good Book.