Bookworms Carnival: Poetry

I am delighted to welcome the Bookworms Carnival to my site for a special carnival of POETRY.

As you probably know, Savvy Verse and Wit has been sponsoring a month-long National Poetry blog tour! In addition to the poetry links below, make sure you check out that link for a detailed listing of all the ways that poetry has been honored this month around the blogosphere. Continue reading »

Call for Poetry Posts: Deadline Extended!

Early next week I hope to post a Bookworms Carnival highlighting poetry.

If you’ve recently reviewed a  poetry collection,  written about a favorite poet or poem, or discussed some nonfiction about poetry, send me a link.

If you haven’t yet written something recently (or ever!), you still could. Send me your links before Monday at noon (Central Daylight Time).

That’s all you need to do. I’ll collect the links and post on Tuesday.

National Poetry Month + Call for Poetry Posts

April is National Poetry Month in the United States, but why not celebrate poetry around the globe this month? Whether or not you normally read poetry, pick up a volume of something, be it modern, classic, or ancient. If a volume is too intimidating, just read one poem!

A bonus to this April is I’m hosting a Bookworms Carnival all about Poetry at the end of the month. Read something and write about it on your blog by April 23. Send me the link by emailing rebecca [at] rebeccaread [dot] com (with Bookworms Carnival in the subject line) and I’ll include you in my Carnival. If you don’t feel like reading something new, you could write about your favorite poems or poets as well or you could send an old post. The bottom line is that I’d love to see a variety of poetry poetry: modern, western classics, non-western.

I’m going to be going on a weekend trip and so I won’t be around the next few days to respond to comments, etc. My reading material? The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas and Everyman’s Pocket Poets: William Blake. I’m going to make a point of carrying poetry around with me all month. What about you?

November in Review + Reading Journal (2 Dec)

I feel I’m finally getting a balance back between reading and blogging. It felt very good to be unplugged for nearly five days, and I think I may have to do that more often. I’m also trying to shy away from challenges in the coming year. There are so many that have tempted me, but I think I’d rather have freedom to read whatever I want to once I close a book and want to pick up the next. I have enough structure as it is, with the Classics Circuit and book groups and so forth.
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Reading Journal (9 Sep): What is Rebecca Reads?

I didn’t even respond to comments over my short vacation weekend. It was so refreshing, and yet for some reason, I feel like I was being neglectful. That suggests to me that I’ve been tied to the blog a bit too much, and I think I may make it a habit to not check the blog every once in a while. (Is that just sad?)

I did read a little bit this week, in between the family dinners and my son’s early-birthday picnic (he’s just a few weeks away from age 2). I finished my reread of Beloved, which I loved, and I read a shorter book for my book club.

Because I’ve been away from the blog, I’ve been thinking about why I blog about books to begin with. I’ve wanted to explore what my blog is, and when Lezlie wrote a post pondering how her blog is perceived by her readers a few weeks ago, I put that idea on my radar too. I’m not sure how my readers perceive this blog (that’s a question for another day), but here are some my thoughts on why my blog is what it is, and what I see it as. Continue reading »

BBAW Voting is Open + Rebecca Reads Shortlisted!

I have been out of town for the past five days, and it’s been nice to have an essentially blog-free weekend! I did get my book club book read this week, but other than that, it’s even been a light reading week.

That said, my reception back in to the blogging world seriously made my day, my week, my month, and my blogging year.

Rebecca Reads has been shortlisted for Best General Review Blog along with these excellent bloggers:

• 100 Scope Notes
• Books on the Nightstand
• She is Too Fond of Books
• The Zen Leaf

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35th Bookworms Carnival: Really Old Classics

Welcome to the 35^th Edition of the Bookworms Carnival.

Today we celebrate really old classics. I hope this carnival is fun, whether you already have developed a love for really old classics or are among those who haven’t read them lately (or ever!). Maybe this will give you some ideas for your next classic read.

I organized most of the carnival by subject, with a brief overview to the posts I’ve linked to. Make sure you visit the blogs and leave your thoughts on their reviews there. Carnivals are a great opportunity to help you choose what to read next. They are also a great opportunity to find bloggers with your reading tastes, or maybe those bloggers who read things out of your comfort zone that you’d like to try reading some day.

If you haven’t read any really old classics, maybe this will be a springboard for you to do so.

Enjoy! Continue reading »

Reminder! Send Me Your Posts

I want your reviews!

This weekend is the deadline for the upcoming Bookworms Carnival. Get me your links ASAP.

If you have any reviews of really old classics in your archives, send a link to me: rebecca[at]rebeccareid[dot]com. Include “Bookworms Carnival” in the subject line.

Your post need not be a brand new one; any post on your blog would work. For more details on which reviews might work, see this post. A review of any work originally written pre-1600 or so can be included.

Bookworms Carnival Call for Submissions: Really Old Classics

Consider this an official call for submissions to the upcoming Bookworms Carnival, which I am hosting!

But before I get to details about the carnival I’m hosting, make sure you send something in to the current carnival. It’s easy: just select one of your most recent reviews and send it to bookwormscarnival at gmail dot com. Do it ASAP! As in right this minute. Details here.

The subject for the carnival I’m hosting is Really Old Classics, which I’m interpreting as classics written before 1600 (i.e., pre-Shakespeare). This post has some pointers for what I’m looking for as well as some ideas of what works you could review (or already have reviewed). Continue reading »

Recent and Upcoming Bookworms Carnivals

In the past month, there were two great Bookworms Carnivals. The first one was about paranormal fiction, hosted here. I admit that I’m not interested in vampire books, but if you are, go check it out! The other carnival was all about local authors, hosted by Ali at Worducopia. This was lots of fun because it links to reviews for a variety of books from many genres.

A few more are upcoming, with at least one that you can definitely submit something too. Continue reading »