Ahoy, mateys!  Since it’s Talk Like a Pirate Day I invited the gang over (you know, Anne Bonny, Blackbeard, Henry Morgan), and asked them to draw and quarter some numbers for the winners of my 5 Recent Reads giveaway.  After a few shots (of rum) and some avarring and avasting, this is what they came up with:

48 Joanne at The Book Zombie – The Magicians

44 Icedream ar Reading in Appalachia – The Cellist of Sarajevo

22 Violet at Violet Crush – The Weight of Silence

12 The Book Vixen – Catching Fire

3 Kathy aka Bermudaonion – The Favorites

Congratulations to all of the winners (and please let me know your address!)!  And thanks to everyone for all of the awesome parody suggestions…I think I’m set for a few decades now.

I’ve always said I’d never buy an eReader…but that doesn’t mean I won’t try to win one!  The awesome Kevin Hamilton of IREX (and yes, that was me brown-nosing…do you think it’ll help?) is offering up an eReader to one lucky winner (read all about it in this BBAW post)…but he wants to know what we think the most important feature is in an eReader.

I can sum it up  in one word.

C O L O R

I’m a visual person, and I want my eReader to be colorful in a number of ways.  Think iPod…I want a variety of colors to choose from.  And I want color on my screen.  I may read in black and white, but I want to see the cover as if it were the cover of the actual book.  Call me shallow, but for us visual types, color and pretty pictures are important.

Besides, there are other benefits to colorful eReaders:

• they’d be easier to locate in the depths of a bookbag or a pile of books
• they’d be attention grabbing – which translates into publicity for IREX
• and I’d be a happier reader

And let’s face it, this is all about me.

What do you think?  Do you have any suggestions on what you’d like to see in an eReader?

Today is the day for blogger interviews!  My partner for this fun is Colette, at A Buckeye Girl Reads.  As she says on her blog, Colette is “an avid reader who will read just about anything, but has a weakness for romances, specifically, historical ones.”

1.) First of all, tell me a little bit about yourself…

I’m in my 30s and still looking for the right guy to marry-it pains me to admit it, but I’m closer to 40 then I am 20…I have 2 younger sisters, and am always being asked to cat sit for them. Both of them got married within a year of each other! I got really lucky in the Brother in Law Department-both of mine are great guys. I’m disappointed that their brothers aren’t as great as they are. I love to read (obviously!) but I also love to watch movies, travel and bake. I’m a horrible cook, but am getting better. I work in a supermarket where I am the Receiving Manager-which means I am also the pricing coordinator and inventory control. If something rings up wrong when you check out I’m the person who you are cursing at! I came an inch away from having a Masters in International Education, but had a bad experience with my internship and abandoned my quest of higher education and went back to my roots. (I come from a family of grocers. We owned our own store forever, until the economy caught up with us and we sold it to another independent grocery chain. The staff and management has stayed the same. My dad is my direct supervisor.)

2.) The name of your blog is “A Buckeye Girl Reads.” Just what exactly is a buckeye? And how did you decide on that particular name?

A Buckeye is actually 3 different things to an Ohioan:

1. It’s a nut that comes off a tree:

2. It’s a name of the most wonderful candy ever - a mixture of chocolate and peanut butter that puts Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups to shame:

3. The most important kind of Buckeyes are The Ohio State Buckeyes:

Brutus Buckeye-The Ohio State mascot

I came up with the name A Buckeye Girl Reads because my twitter username is Buckeyegirl31-a name I took from my personal blog. I was having trouble coming up with a name, and for some reason I thought Buckeyegirl would be a cute name. However, buckeyegirl was already taken so I added the age I was at the time. It seemed only natural to use that name on Twitter as I had a lot of blogging friends who used it. When I started this site, I was originally going to go by lovesromances, because I well, love to read romances-mainly historical or paranormal ones. I began meeting more book bloggers on twitter, and thought it might confuse people if I didn’t have Buckeye somewhere in the title of my blog, so I changed it from Lovesromances to A Buckeye Girl Reads. (I got the name Buckeyegirl because Ohio is known as the Buckeye State, and women just didn’t sound right, so hence the girl part..the reads comes in because I like to read.)

3) How long have you been blogging? Did someone inspire you to start blogging, or did you decide it was just time to jump into the fray? How did you find the book blogging community?

I have had a personal blog since 2003. About a year ago I noticed that more and more of blogs had to do with what books I was reading then personal life stories. The site where I blog started losing bloggers left and right, and it wasn’t as much fun as it used to be. After reading Heidenkind’s great book reviews on her book blog, I decided to give it a shot. I found the book blogging community through her site. I entered the Everything Austen Challenge which I found through Jenn’s Bookshelves. Through that challenge and Twitter I’ve found some amazing book bloggers! (I can’t remember how I found her site, but I’m sure it was through Heidenkind…)

4.)Do your family and friends read your blog? Or are you incognito?

My family and friends know I blog, but I’m pretty much incognito. None of them are into blogging despite my declarations of how fun it is.

5.) Can you describe your reading habits?

My reading habits are all over the place. There is no rhyme or reason to the madness.

Do you race through books, or savor them?

I do both-it depends on how good the book is. I try to savor them, but sometimes the books are so good that I can’t help but to race through them.

Do you take notes, or are you the type who can’t bear to put the book down?

I don’t take notes, and with a few exceptions, I generally can’t bear to put the book down. Why waste time taking notes when I could be reading?

Do you have any reading quirks you’d like to share?

If I really like the book I flip to the end to see who gets together with who, and try to figure out how they end up there. Other quirks I have are that if I’m watching tv I only read when the commercials are on. I also tend to want to eat whatever the characters in the book are having. For instance I was reading Jane Austen Ruined My Life and they kept talking about drinking Earl Gray tea. It made me want it so much that the next day I went and bought some. I love Earl Gray tea, but normally only drink it sporadically. I also sometimes talk to the characters. I’ll say stuff like: “you idiot!” or “you didn’t just say that..” luckily I live alone so there is no one to hear that little quirk.

6.) I’ve been known to read the end of a book first. What’s your reaction to that?

I’ve been known to do that, so my reaction is that’s completely normal. (Note from softdrink:  See!!  It’s normal!!!)

7.) Tell me about the weirdest book you’ve ever read.

The most recent weird book that I’ve read is the Thirteenth Tale. The whole plot was kind of weird and there wasn’t a whole lot of action. I forced myself to finish the book because I was reading it for an online book club that I host on my personal blog. I didn’t understand why so many people loved the book or why the author got such a huge advance for it. I’m sure I’ve read weirder books, but that’s the title that jumped into my head.

8.) Describe your favorite place to read.

In my apartment it’s on my papasan chair. It was just made for reading. I also love to read on my couch. When I’m at my parents house I love to read on their deck because their backyard borders a woods and it’s so peaceful and quiet.

9.) How about where you blog? Can you tell me about that? Are you a Mac or a PC? Do you sit at a desk? Lounge on the couch? Do you plan out your posts, or do you just sit down and hope something coherent comes out?

I’m a pc! We’ve never been a Mac family. I have a desktop, so I sit at the computer desk. Whenever I try to plan out my posts, they turn out awful, so most of time I just sit down and hope that what’s coming out makes some kind of sense.

10.) Besides reading, do you have any other hobbies or passions?

I’ve never been a hobby kind of person. I tried scrapbooking and was bored by it. I’ve tried stamping-didn’t have the patience for it and the list goes on…that is unless you count reality tv as a hobby. I love trying to figure out the editing to see who will win shows like Survivor.

11.)Do you have a favorite bookstore?

It’s a second hand shop called Browse awhile Books. It’s in an old historical house that is two stories. Every room is crammed with every type of book imaginable. It has that old book smell-all that’s missing is a cat. (It seems like in every mystery I read where there is a bookstore like this one, there is a cat who lives there.)

12.)Are there any books that you’re anxiously awaiting?

Not really..my reading has been all over the place, and I’m so far behind on some of my favorite authors like Sherrilyn Kenyon that I’ve lost track of when their newest book is coming out.

13.) Do you have a TBR pile? If so, are you willing to tell me how big it is?

I did have one, and it took up an entire shelf. I re-organized my bookshelf and put them in with all the other books. I’m really regretting that decision now, but am too lazy to rearrange to do anything about it. My want to read shelf at goodreads.com is up to about 90 books.

14.) If you could invite an author to tea, who would it be?

I would invite either Barbara Kingsolver or Johanna Lindsey. Barbara Kingsolver because her books are some of my favorites-I just loved Poisonwood Bible. I read it right after I got home from living in Morocco with the Peace Corps and she described what it’s like to live in a foreign country really well. I’d invite Johanna Lindsey to thank her for writing Gentle Rogue. It introduced me to the world of historical romance. The Mallorys are still one of my favorite fictional families.

And what would you serve?

I would serve all sorts of tea and coffee..and an assortment of baked goods and tiny finger sandwiches.

15.) Nymeth and Amy and I recently decided to pool our online lottery winnings and buy an island for book bloggers. We’d pretty much spend the day reading and being waited on by cute guys (I think Amy is hoping for the cast of Lost). Nymeth had the marvelous idea of building a library. Since you probably received the same email notification saying you’ve won the same lottery, are you willing to share? And if so, what would you buy for the island?

I am willing to share, and would buy a never ending supply of wine for the island. (Did I mention I’m also the wine manager where I work-I’ve discovered some great labels!) (Another note from softdrink:  woo-hoo!!)

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Thanks Colette!  Aren’t her answers fantastic?  Be sure to stop by A Buckeye Girl Reads and say hi!

Today is the first day of BBAW!  Woo-hoo!  I’ll be participating in the daily writing prompts all week. To start us off, we’re asked to write a post thanking and spotlighting your favorite blogs that didn’t make the shortlists.

I currently have just under 100 blogs in my Google Reader.  I know some of you have more, but I find 100 is about all I can manage.  So I could go on and on about this topic, because I love all the blogs in my Reader (and more!).  But for today I’m going to focus on three blogs:

Book Chatter and Other Stuff – Ti and I have similar taste in books (not all the time, but usually), so I like to check out what she’s reading. She recently revamped her review style, and I like it a lot…here’s an example. Also, like her blog’s title says, Ti writes about “other stuff,” including her adorable kids and her birthday adventures. And she has a sense of humor, as evidenced by the title of this post. Plus, I got to hang with her at the LA Times Festival of Books earlier this year…good times, people! And finally, we occasionally have little chats as a result of our comments. I always enjoy these.

Farm Lane Books – Jackie blogs from England, my favorite country ever.  However, I don’t read her blog for that reason. I read it because she’s a damn fine blogger. Jackie recently blogged about some of the different book awards…it’s a concise, informative post. Like Ti, Jackie and I have read some of the same books, so it’s always fun to get her take on things, especially since she writes insightful reviews. Her two posts on Half of a Yellow Sun are fantastic. Also, since she’s in England, there’s a good chance the cover art will be different. I enjoy seeing the alternate covers. Besides her reviews, I appreciate the clean style of Jackie’s blog and her responsiveness to comments. It’s always a treat to stop by.

The Indextrious Reader – Melanie is a librarian and a Canadian blogger. I love Melanie’s blog because I often read about books I’ve never heard of before. Half the time I never know what to say in response to a review, but I still love it.  :-) Just recently, she posted about Penelope Lively’s book Making It Up. Melanie and I had a brief conversation and I now have this book, as well as one other, on my wish list. Also, Melanie stops by my blog frequently and leaves great comments, for which I will forever be grateful.

So there you have it. Like I said above, there are many, many blogs I read and would love to share with you. But even the blogroll in my sidebar isn’t a complete list. And I’m looking forward to discovering some new favorites this week! BBAW can be a dangerously good thing.  :-)

To contribute to the BBAW festivities, I’m holding a giveaway featuring 5 of some of my more recent reads.  Why 5?  Because there are 5 days of BBAW!  And I’m excited about each and every one of them!

The 5 books I’m giving away are:

• Catching Fire
• The Favorites
• The Magicians
• The Weight of Silence
• The Cellist of Sarajevo

The only catch is that these are the copies I read.  So they are not brand-spankin’ new.  They are, however, in very good shape.  And since I don’t smoke and I have no pets, they are allergen-free.  :-) And I’ll ship worldwide, so this is open to book lovers everywhere.

Oh wait.  There’s another catch.  Did you know I parodied a song for BBAW?  Go check it out.  Do you have it stuck in your head?  Hah!  Now…what I need from you is suggestions for my next parody, the one I’ll write for next month’s 24 Hour Read-a-thon. So in order to enter this giveaway, all you have to do is:

1.  Leave a comment with a suggestion for a song that you’d like to see mangled into a bookish parody.

2.  Let me know which of the 5 books you are interested in winning.  You can enter for all of them, but you can only win one.

That’s all!  I’ll draw all of the winners next Saturday, so make sure you check back then!

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P.S. … If I’m in your feed reader, please make sure that you’ve updated the feed in the last two weeks.  While the website address is still the same, I moved from Blogger to WordPress and broke my feed. Thanks bunches!

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