Weekly Geeks #9: Challenges

This week’s Weekly Geeks was purposely a little relaxed after last week’s mad rush.

The theme this time around was ‘Challenges’; essentially, to work on and clean up the challenges each Weekly Geek participates in. Since I’m pretty good about keeping A Chain of Letters as organized as I can, I spent the week focusing on working toward the end of A Midsummer Night’s Challenge, hosted by your’s truly.

The outcome? Well, while I managed to read and review 3 of the 4 works I had intended, I’ve only heard back one other participant. I suppose I could have put more effort into reminding the others of the deadline, but I had intended this to be a relaxed challenge. And frankly, chasing down voluntary participants is closely akin to tilting at windmills. All I care about is that people had fun, and at the very least, I exposed a few more people to the concept of derivative fiction.

Oh, and good luck to all the participants in this weekend’s 24-hr Read-a-Thon!

Weekly Geeks #8 Wrap Up

This time I figured I’d post my wrap-up before Dewey actually closes the challenge (the last few weeks she’s beaten me by about an hour).

Well, I’ve spent countless hours online searching what must have been hundreds of blogs (okay, I exaggerate a bit, but not by much) as part of this week’s Weekly Geeks Challenge. This scavenger hunt drove me manic – mostly because I did at least half of it in IE while at work, and that’s just asking for trouble (they refuse to use Mozilla products like Firefox).

As for my results, I think I held my own. I doubt I’ve beaten out the other participants, with their fancy rss feeds, advanced metasearching, and newfangled digital gymnastics, but I enjoyed myself. Hated the internet for a few days, but I’ll live.

So how did I do? Well, as I count it, my tally is 55 out of 61 keywords, found through a total of 46 different blogs. All the links are listed in my initial challenge post.

This challenge was, as always, a lot of fun. I made an effort to read every post that contained each keyword (though by the end of the week I could barely focus), and there are quite a few blogs I plan to return to. Many thanks to Dewey for continuing to challenge us mortals.

Weekly Geeks #8: Scavenger Hunt

So this week’s Weekly Geeks is a Scavenger Hunt!

In short, you search through other Weekly Geeks’ blogs and find the specified keywords. The catch? The list is ever expanding as keywords 50+ are decided by participants and listed in the comments to the original post over at Hidden Side of a Leaf.

Weekly Geeks #7

Weekly Geeks #7 is a photo post week.

My chosen theme focuses on the places where I read.

Like at the office, or on the T, or in bed.

Sometimes the cats watch. Yah, it’s a little creepy.

Weekly Geeks #6 Wrap Up

At the start of this week, I didn’t realize what a challenge catching up on reviews was going to be. But here we are, 14 reviews posted this week, 11 of them eligible for the challenge, and I’m exhausted. My back aches and if I don’t already have CT in my wrist, I’ve surely developed it now!

For those of you following via RSS, thank you for sticking by me through this storm of reviews.

When we started, Dewey was thinking to make this a regular challenge. A spring cleaning of sorts. But now… now, for the sake of people who can’t control themselves, I beg for mercy.

Here, in order of posting, are the reviews written as part of Weekly Geeks #6, “Catch Up on Reviews Week”:

Books

Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis

The Serpent’s Shadow by Mercedes Lackey

Shaman’s Crossing by Robin Hobb

The Free Bards by Mercedes Lackey

The Gates of Sleep by Mercedes Lackey

Coyote Dreams by C.E. Murphy

Forest Mage by Robin Hobb

Graphic Novels

The Clarence Principle by Fehed Said

Dramacon by Svetlana Chmakova

The Long Way Home by Joss Whedon

Crécy by Warren Ellis

As always, A big Thank You to Dewey for hosting the Weekly Geeks challenge.

Weekly Geeks #6

I know I missed the last few Weekly Geeks, but I decided I needed to spend more time actually reading instead of blogging.

But here it is, week 6, and the theme is one I can really get behind: Catch up on Reviews Week. Now, admittedly, this is what I’ve been doing most of the past month while getting A Chain of Letters established. But there are still… 15 or so books/graphic novels to review before I am acceptably current with what I’ve read in the last few months.

So expect a spike in reviews this week. I can’t say I’ll catch up, but I plan to really put a dent in that stack of waiting novels.

Weekly Geeks #3

So, after long deliberation, I decided to do the meme portion of this week’s Weekly Geeks Challenge. The meme was created by Beastmama, another Weekly Geek.

1. What is the earliest book you remember loving?

I would have to say Where the Wild Things Are. It fascinated me for years.

2. When you were younger, which book characters did you want to be in your circle of friends?

Hmm. I would have to go for The Boxcar Children. I swear I read every one of those books. That and Animorphs as I grew a little older. I would daydream about both of them.

3. What books do you have nostalgia for as an adult?

I can still remember the first times I read The Sword of Shannarah and The Hobbit. And the time I borrowed the first three books of Asimov’s Foundation series from my dad. The feel of the paperbacks. Staying in bed all weekend, absorbing every detail. Memories like those are part of what drive me as a reader.

4. What books do you wish to share with the kids in your life?

There are so many classics that will never grow old. The Hobbit, The Chronicles of Narnia, the tales of Sherlock Holmes, various Agatha Christies, and all the books of Redwall.

5. More philosophical question— how do you think your childhood reading shaped what you like to read as an adult?

Dramatically. I spent so many hours after school delving through the fiction stacks at my local library. Genre fiction – Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Mystery – still propel my passions today. The few non-fiction books I read as a kid were focussed on strange science phenomena and unique or bizzarre historical accounts. Little has changed there.

Weekly Geeks Perpetual Challenge

As I was surfing the great blog yonder, I came across this challenge / opportunity posted by The Hidden Side of A Leaf. In short, he was inspired by another blogger’s example to expand his blog and engage other bloggers by linking to their reviews. It works like this: if I review a book (or graphic novel) that you have previously reviewed in your own blog, comment in that post with a link to your review and I will edit my post to include said link. That way the reader is exposed to varrying views on the same material and we benefit from increased traffic. It’s Brilliant!

To keep this going perpetually, I have posted a little reminder in the right column on the main page and added a blurb in the About page.

For now, I’m going to go surfing around the other participating bloggers and see if we have any reviews in common.