Inspire (1)

Welcome to the first post of one of my new features, Inspire! Inspire is a weekly writing prompt or writing exercise, posted on Mondays. Anyone who's interested can participate, and you're more than welcome to share what you've written by posting a link in the comments.

So, here's the first writing exercise. Since it's January, I'm guessing that most of us are experiencing at least some cold and snowy weather. I always have mixed feelings towards winter: I love snow and think winter is one of the most beautiful seasons, but I hate the cold. This week's exercise is to write two separate paragraphs (you can write a larger amount if you want) about the weather where you live. For the first paragraph, describe the weather in a positive way. For the second, describe it negatively.

Hope you enjoy!
~blackandwhitedreamer

New Year, New Look, New Features

So, you may have noticed that my blog looks entirely different than the last time you saw it. I've been thinking that it's needed a makeover for awhile, so last night I started experimenting with some backgrounds and banners from The Graphics Fairy, and once I found this combination, I loved it too much to even consider going back. It's a lot different from my previous layout, but I think the change is for the better. I hope you like it as much as I do!

Over the next few days, I'm going to continue to modify the layout. There won't be any major changes, but I'll be adding some new pages and some things will probably be moved around. I'll post another update or edit this one once those are done.

The layout isn't the only thing new about this blog. I've decided that it's time to add some new features. The only one that I've been consistently posting is The Reading Room, and while I definitely enjoy posting that, I want to add some more.

I'd like to bring music into the blog more, since I love it almost as much as I love books, so I've come up with two music-related features. The first is called Song Wars, which will compare two (sometimes more) songs with similar titles, lyrics, or meanings, different versions of the same song, or an original song with covers that have been made of it. I'll discuss both songs, decide which one I like better (if there is one) and ask for reader's opinions.  The second music-related feature doesn't have a name yet, but is somewhat similar to The Reading Room - I'll share an artist, song, or album I've been listening to a lot that week, and talk about why I like it so much.

As for writing, which is supposed to be the third focus of this blog, I'd like to try again at posting regular writing updates - for awhile I wasn't writing much, so I had nothing to post, and then I sort of gave up the attempt. Before I try to do this, though, I definitely need to come up with a name for this feature. Having nothing better than "What I'm Writing" might drive me insane. I'm also thinking of adding writing prompts as a feature, but that idea definitely needs some more thought.

I haven't decided on when all of these things will be appearing, but a posting schedule is one of the things I'll be working on over the layout. I'll update again soon, and keep an eye out for new features appearing on the blog!

~blackandwhitedreamer

Short Story Reading Challenge 2012

Hello, everyone! So, I know we're already 12 days into 2012, but hopefully it's not too late to interest the readers of my blog (there's seven of you now, I'm so thrilled) in a reading challenge for 2012. I've wanted to host one for awhile, but was unable to come up with a focus or concept to base it on. The other day, though, I finally came up with something. So here's all the information you'll need:

Challenge Name: Short Stories Reading Challenge 2012

Goals: Read collections/anthologies of short stories in 2012

Levels

• Level One - Read 5 Collections of Short Stories
• Level Two - Read 10 Collections of Short Stories
• Level Three - Read 15 Collections of Short Stories

Rules

• Stories must be read between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2012
• Stories can be by any author in any genre, and collections can contain stories from one author or many
• Collections of short stories can be published in any year
• If you have a blog, please write a participation post and link back to this post
• You don't have to know what you're reading or post a list right away, but it would be nice if you'd share what you've read somewhere that other participants can view it. Editing it into your participation post later is fine. Likewise, you don't have to post reviews of what you've read, but if you do they're greatly appreciated. 

If you have any questions, let me know in the comments.

Not Sure What to Read?
Here's a brief list of some of my suggestions on GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/7545207?shelf=short-story-collections
If you have any suggestions for other participants, feel free to let me know and I'll add them to the list!

Sign Ups
Sign Ups will remain open until December 15, 2012

The Reading Room (8)

The Reading Room is a weekly update on books I'm reading and plan to read. It was inspired by Ren's On Myshelf at the awesome blog All By Myshelf.

This post is a day late this week, for which I sincerely apologize. Yesterday was crazy, and before I realized it, it was ten o'clock and I was going to sleep. Luckily, I do have quite a lot to post about to make up for the lateness of the post.

First of all, I'm still reading Dracula. Reading it on the nook has been kind of slow, but I don't think that's because of the eReader - in fact, I was reading another book today and found myself missing some of the features of my nook. I think it's the book itself - while it's good and I definitely enjoy it, I'm at a slower spot right now. There's not much to keep me up late reading.

Something that has kept me glued to the page since I started it is Lament, by Maggie Stiefvater - author of The Scorpio Races and Shiver.  One of my friends read it and said it was good, but I never got around to reading it; now that I've finally started, I can't believe that it took me so long to check it out from the library. I love it and I can't put it down. I only started it last night, and I'm already 115 pages into it - I stayed up much too late last night and read all through school today. I'm starting to wonder if anything Maggie Stiefvater writes can be disappointing. Lament is definitely enough to pull her up to favorite-author status.

The school library was closed all last week, so on the same trip to the public library when I picked up Lament, I also checked out Witch and Wizard, by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet. I downloaded a free sample onto my Nook, and liked it enough to check out the book from my library. Ironically, one of my best friends also started reading it about the same time - and she's already finished it and moved on to The Gift. A promising sign - I trust her judgement.

When the school library finally reopened, of course, I had to make a trip in first period. Because I can never have enough books. I checked out two more books that I've been planning to read for awhile - Incarceron by Catherine Fisher and Firebirds Rising, edited by Sharyn November. Firebirds Rising is the sequel to Firebirds, a collection of fantasy short stories that I absolutely loved. I can't wait to start reading it.

Finally, I still haven't gotten through all the books I got for Christmas. Next on the list is Tiger's Curse by Colleen Houck, which my grandparents gave me when they visited over New Year's. I wasn't planning to read it before some of the other books I got, but we're studying Ancient India and China in history, and any opportunity I have to relate what I'm studying to what I'm reading, I take - it makes things ten times easier to remember.

That's the end of my reading list - it's crazy-long this week, which exactly how I like it. Now, I have to get back to reading Lament...


~blackandwhitedreamer

YA Mythology Challenge - Participation Post

This is one of those reading challenges that just screams my name. I absolutely love mythology, and novels based off it are even better. This challenge - hosted by For Those About to Read... - looks completely awesome. The goal is to read 10 books with any kind of mythology in them in 2012. I'm so excited! I'm going to try to find books with myths from a variety of cultures, not just the more common Greek/Roman myths. 

I'm not entirely sure what else I'm going to read, but I know I'm starting off with The Warlock by Michael Scott, which I started a few days ago and am reading now. I definitely recommend The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series for anyone interested in mythology - there's so many myths incorperated in it, from all different cultures around the world. Plus, they books are just plain awesome. 

Excited for more mythological adventures,

~blackandwhitedreamer

The Reading Room (7)

The Reading Room is a weekly update on the books I'm reading and planning to read. It was inspired by Ren's On Myshelf at the blog All by Myshelf.

As you can see, I've finished Clockwork Prince - it was amazing. As I said in my review on Shelfari, it's unusual for me to find a book like this, where I absolutely love all the characters. I can't wait for the next book in the series to come out.

After finishing Clockwork Prince, I couldn't wait to start the next book on my reading list - The Warlock by Michael Scott, which I mentioned in my last post. Right now I'm on Chapter 18, and the series is definitely as awesome as I remembered. I've missed reading about these characters and all the myths that are incorporated into the books. (Okay...I'll be honest. Mostly, I've missed Perenelle and Machiavelli.) I can't believe it's the next to last book in the series - I'm excited, but also a little sad it's ending.

I've also downloaded some books for my nook, so I have something to read on it besides the User Guide. One is The Scorpio Races, by Maggie Stiefvater. Despite the fact that I try to avoid anything involving werewolves, I really loved Shiver. This new book looks really good - as soon as I read the description, I was intrigued. I can't wait to start it, and I'll definitely post a review (at least on Shelfari) when I'm done. I have high hopes for this one - with luck, I won't be disappointed.


The other book I downloaded came free on the nook: Dracula. Yes, the original vampire novel - but one I can stand, because this is how vampires are supposed to behave and act. I started reading it as soon as I downloaded it, but it took me awhile to get through all the introductions and notes at the beginning. (I've decided that's how you can tell how old a book is and whether it's a classic or not - how much you have to read before you get to the actual book.) I'm only on Chapter Two, but so far I like it. Not much has happened yet, but I really appreciate the way Bram Stoker uses foreshadowing. It's subtle, and if I didn't know Dracula was a vampire, I think it would be just enough to make me curious without giving everything away.

Still working my way through my pile of Christmas books,
~blackandwhitedreamer

YA Historical Fiction Challenge - Participation Post

I'm not sure whether to call this "irony", or just, "supremely perfect timing." Either way, the day after I posted 2011: A Year in Books and made the comment that I love historical fiction more than you would guess, and said that I should read more of it, I found about this reading challenge. I discovered it through a post on All By Myshelf, and it's hosted by YA Bliss.  It's the perfect solution to my not-reading-enough-historical-fiction-dilemma, and of course I have to participate. 

If anyone else is interested in participating, I highly recommend it. It looks pretty simple - the challenge is to read 5-15 YA Historical fiction books in 2012. For more information, click on the link above - it'll take you to the official post with all the rules and how to sign up. I've decided to attempt level 2, reading 10 books; I'll add the titles as I read them. 

Excited for this challenge,

~blackandwhitedreamer