Tag Archives: questions

July 29, 2012 · 9:00 am

Summer Mini-Readathon Start-Up Post!

 Wooooo! It’s time!

Some of you may have started already, and that’s cool. I’m getting over a cold (well, I’m hoping I’m getting over it anyways) so I’m starting a bit late, somewhere between now and 10 AM Eastern time. You can start as early or as late as you want, as long as it’s sometime on Sunday wherever you are.

Here’s how the mini-challenges are going to work – there will be 4 (including this one, the start-up post) and you can join in or not. However, you DO have to complete the wrap-up post in order to win the big giveaway prize.

And what is that?

A $30 Amazon gift card (or a $30 order from The Book Depository)! Your choice.

 There’s nothing special that you have to do – just have your name on the linky in the sign-up post, and complete at least the wrap-up mini-challenge. You have until Monday night to complete your wrap-up post, and on Wednesday I’ll use random.org to select a winner and I’ll announce it via blog post and email that person.

I’m really excited for today’s mini-readathon. Honestly, I was pretty lazy about it all but I think it’s going to work out really well. The prize system is simple, and there’s only 4 challenges/update posts so that means more reading time for us all! And I look forward to chatting on Twitter with you guys too :-)

OK, LET THE FIRST MINI-CHALLENGE BEGIN!

Copy, paste, and answer the questions below, either in the comments or on your blog. If you do a start-up post on your blog to answer, come back here and leave the link to the post in the comments.

1. Tell everyone three random things about yourself:
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2. Is this your first readathon?

3. Do you have any specific goals for today? (# of books or pages to read?)

4. Do you have any specific snacks, drinks, or books planned?

5. What hours do you plan on reading during?

 

And my answers, as an example:

 

1. Tell everyone three random things about yourself:
- I’m an extremely messy sleeper. I sprawl out a lot and sometimes talk in my sleep. The honeyman makes fun of me for it.
- When driving, I hate making left-hand turns onto busy streets and will in fact turn right and then turn around somewhere more convenient.
- I walk into walls / doorframes / tables a lot.

2. Is this your first readathon?

Nope! LOL.

3. Do you have any specific goals for today? (# of books or pages to read?)

I’m hoping to finish two books that I’m currently reading, and possibly start a third. Other than that, I don’t have any specific goals.

4. Do you have any specific snacks, drinks, or books planned?

Well, here are the books I’m going to have by me today. I’m hoping to finish The Graveyard Book and The Book of Tomorrow at the very least. I’ll try to squeeze in a bit more of Great Expectations, but I have An Abundance of Katherines and Antimatter available to read from too. It’ll just depend on my mood I guess.

 

As for food and drinks, I’m sooooo looking forward to it all! For snacks I have jalapeno poppers, bread and cheese spreads, grapes, clementines and whatever else is around the house. For dinner the honeyman is probably going to order pizza so we don’t have to deal with cooking. And I have a banana cream pie defrosting in the fridge for dessert. For drinks I have water, lemonade, berry punch, raspberry ginger ale, coffee, and tea.

I just realized that this sounds like SO MUCH for 12 hours… but you know, I probably won’t eat it all. I just like to have options. Plus the honeyman will be home with me, and a friend of mine is coming over to read with me today too!

5. What hours do you plan on reading during?

10 AM to 10 PM Eastern time. Sadly I have to work until 2 PM, but I should be able to get a decent amount of reading in because Sundays are usually really slow.

 

Can’t wait to see your answers everybody! Now get reading, and I’ll be back in 4 hours (2 PM Eastern time) for the next mini-challenge!

~Sarah

 

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June 21, 2012 · 12:45 pm

It’s my blog and I’ll meme if I want to…

Todays’ my only day off until next Wednesday. Which SUCKKKKSSS. And since I’m still reading Blackout (only like 250 pages to go!) and I saw this on Jillian’s blog A Room of One’s Own, I decided to do it. Just cause.

 

Do you snack while you read? If so, favourite reading snack: All the time. I really like to eat soup and bread while I read… maybe because it’s easy to eat while holding a book in one hand? Also, popcorn.

What is your favourite drink while reading? Coffee or Monster energy drinks. I’m a caffeine addict, obviously. Unless I’m reading in the tub… then I prefer wine or a mixed drink of some sort.

Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you? Sure, some of them. Mostly in non-fiction books, where I underline and makes notes all over the place. Or sometimes I stop being lazy and I use post-its instead.

How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book flat open? Bookmark, unless I set a good down just for a second, then I lay it open cover-side up.

Fiction, non-fiction, or both? Both! I read mostly fiction, but I’ve enjoyed getting into more non-fiction. Even if some non-fiction is fluffy lady-actress biographies and it feels like I’m cheating.

Are you a person who tends to read to the end of a chapter, or can you stop anywhere? I can stop anywhere, but I prefer to wait until the end of a chapter.

Are you the type of person to throw a book across the room or on the floor if the author irritates you? Not really. I think I wanted to do it once, but it was a new hardcover and I still didn’t want to ruin it.

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop and look it up right away? Only if I’m really confused by it. Otherwise I get the gist of it in context.

What are you currently reading? Blackout by Mira Grant, the third book of The Newsflesh Trilogy. I’m over halfway through it. Also I was reading Visions of the Multiverse but I had to stop so many times because I was too busy or tired  to concentrate that I put it back on my shelf and I’ll re-visit it sometime soon. Oh and I’m also re-reading Married With Zombies for a readalong.

What is the last book you bought? Blackout.

Do you have a favourite time/place to read? Morning-time on my days off, because I like to sit on the futon while the sunlight shines through the window. It’s so relaxing. Otherwise, I read a lot at work when it’s not busy. Oh and I love reading in the car when I have time to kill before running errands or hanging out with people.

Do you prefer series books or stand alones? Stand alones, usually. Depends on the books.

Is there a specific book or author you find yourself recommending over and over? Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. I believe I’ve developed a reputation for how much I gush about the Outlander series. Also, I’ve been pushing everyone to read these Mira Grant books because they’re soooo good.

How do you organize your books? (by genre, title, author’s last name, etc.) Genre, and then by size and loosely by read / unread. If you want to see, just click the “Pictures” tab up above and you can see all my books and how they’re organized. When the honeyman and I eventually buy a house and I have a whole library room with shelves along all the walls, maybe I’ll finally be able to organize by author’s last name. I don’t have the space for it now.

 

See, fun! You know you wanna do it too… In the meantime, I’m going to go lay on the couch and finish season 3 of The Big Bang Theory. And then I’m gonna read Blackout, and then I’m gonna take a nap. Man I love days off.

~Sarah

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June 4, 2012 · 4:00 am

Armchair BEA! Day 1: Introduction Questions

It’s herrrree! Armchair BEA time!

So hi everybody! Excuse the lame picture, but I’m currently in my pj’s so a nice, waving-at-the-webcam photo was not an option. This is my first time participating in Armchair BEA, and I’m very, very excited! I even signed up to be a part of the commenting committee, so you may see me around the blogosphere a lot during this week. So, let’s jump right into the Introduction Questions, kay? Here are the five questions I chose to answer…

1. Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging?

Well, I’m Sarah here at Sarah Says Read. I started my blog in June 2009, over at Blogger. Sadly, I didn’t start blogging regularly until September 2010, so I’ll say that I’ve been blogging for almost 2 years now. I originally got into blogging because I was bored at work, and my older sister Heather wanted me to start one. At first I had a personal-only blog, and then I realized that what I really wanted to talk about was books and stuff, so I started a separate blog for that. I never celebrate blogoversaries because I don’t feel right starting it from my first review post because I blogged so inconsistently for the first year. I switched over to WordPress.com in June of 2011, and I’m enjoying it.

4. What is your favorite feature on your blog (i.e. author interviews, memes, something specific to your blog)?

I don’t really have a favorite “feature”. I do a couple of memes, but there’s no weekly thing that’s really central and unique to my blog. So I suppose my favorite features are my reviews, which is what the book blog is all about, and my weekly Sarah Sunday post because let’s face it – I like to ramble about real life too.

5. Where do you see your blog in five years?

Hopefully by then I’ll have made the switch over to WordPress.org, so that my blog is more customized and I have use more widgets and plug-ins. Ideally I’ll have at least the same amount of regular readers that I do now, if not more. And I’d like to think I’ll be able to post more reviews and host more events or features, but that depends on whether or not I’m still working full-time in 5 years.

8. What literary location would you most like to visit? Why?

World’s Biggest Book Store in Toronto, Canada is definitely high on my list. (It’s not the biggest per floor space, but apparently carries the most titles.) Though it’s not really a “location”, I’d love to go to BEA in New York City someday. And I’d also really love to visit the homes of Jane Austen and the Brontes sisters, cause come on – that would be freaking amazing. Oh, also this isn’t strictly literary or bookish, but I’d love to go to Comic-Con, and I know that a lot of sci-fi and fantasy authors go there, so it counts.

9. What is your favorite part about the book blogging community? Is there anything that you would like to see change in the coming years?

What isn’t there to love about the book blogging community??? There’s camaraderie and hundreds of other people to talk to books about, fun online events like readathons and readalongs (and Armchair BEA!), there are friendships to form with other bloggers who have similar tastes… it’s all so awesome. Sure, there’s the occasional drama, but drama is bound to surface in any large community so who cares? You can just ignore it, or you can jump into the controversial discussions. The only thing I would like to see change is fewer bloggers who are just in it to get free ARC’s. There’s not many, but they give all of us book bloggers a bad name.

 So, there ya have it! I can’t wait to come visit a whole ton of blogs and get to know more of you better!

I do want to point out that as part of the commenting committee, I’ll be commenting  A LOT. I’ll try to sign in with my WordPress log-in as often as possible, but usually for Blogger-hosted blogs it’s easier if I comment using my Blogger profile (example below), which links back to my WordPress site. So look for “Sarah” or “Sarah Says Read” and hopefully that’ll be me! Also, I’ll be on Twitter a lot – @SarahSaysRead if you’re around!

Example of what a Blogger comment from me looks like. Click to make bigger.

Happy Armchair BEA!

~Sarah

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February 13, 2012 · 8:20 am

Tag! Tag! Tag! You’re IT!

Most annoying title I think I’ve ever come up with.

So, I finally sit down to get some bloggin / commentin done, and what happens is that I stumble upon Alley’s post at What Red Read, in which she tagged me. And because I admit that writing posts is more fun than going through my Google Reader, I figured why not.

So, here we shall go.

What to do

1. Post rules.
2. Post 11 fun facts about yourself.
3. Answer questions from the person who tagged you.
4. Make up 11 questions for people you tag.
5. Tag 11 people. (Yeah I’m not tagging 11 people.)
6. Let them know they’ve been tagged. (I’m also not bothering to do this… if you see the post and see that you’ve been tagged, cool. Feel free to participate or not.)

11 Fun Facts About Sarah

1. I went to a Catholic school up until 8th grade. I’m an atheist. Even as a kid, I used to argue with the teacher in Religion Class. For some reason though, all the teachers really liked me. I even stabbed a boy with a pencil once (he had it coming, and I warned him), and they still liked me. I didn’t even get in trouble. Yay!

2. The honeyman actually met in 9th grade, when we were what… 14-ish? I thought he always looked really sad and tried to cheer him up, which made him feel really annoyed and he hated me. We lost touch, started chatting again when we were 20, and BAM! started dating. Aww.

3. I dropped out of school in the beginning of my junior year. I went to some “alternative” hippie high school, which basically meant that when I started to skip class and stuff, I never got in trouble… and yeah. I eventually decided that I wasn’t learning anything and dropped out. I got my GED when I was like 21 or 22 because I was worried I wouldn’t get this job I wanted if I didn’t have it.

4. I was an assistant manager at Waldenbooks when it closed, and I was on unemployment for 6 months. That was the best summer ever – and it was when I ran into the honeyman and we started dating. It’s also when I realized that I don’t want to work, I’d rather be a housewife (no kids). You know, have a house, a garden, some dogs, etc. The honeyman supports me in this. I can’t wait.

5. I used to want to be a singer when I was little. I spent hours singing along to Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera in my bedroom. I’m sure this annoyed my family to no end.

6. I really hate turning left out onto a busy street, like from a parking lot or gas station where there’s no light. There are some streets that I just will not turn left onto. I often plan my routes on whether or not I’ll have to turn left… I’m like Zoolander, but in a car.

7. I hate almost anything athletic. In middle school, I always came up with some excuse and just sat there during gym. I’m just too self-conscious for sports. I have to get tipsy just to go bowling. I like walking… and probably would like hiking. I’ve never seriously hiked before, so I’m not sure.

8. I love movies / stories about omnipotent characters. Like the Phoenix in X-Men, or those weird creepy kids in that new movie Chronicle. I’d love to be that super bad-ass and powerful. It’s weird that I didn’t read comics as a kid… and I feel like I’m too old to really get into them now.

9. I don’t want to live past like 75. I hate old people, and I have a huge fear of being old and invalid.

10. When I was about 10, I tricked my little sister. I told her that in order to turn 7 years old, she had to drink this disgusting mixture – I put mustard, chocolate syrup, ketchup, pickle juice, and basically any other liquid I could find in the fridge into a glass. She took one sip and puked all over the place. It still makes me laugh :-)

11. I’ve never broken a bone. I know this isn’t a fun fact, but dude… it’s hard to think up this many fun facts about myself. I lead a boring life.

Questions from Alley

1. What’s your favorite bookish movie? (Movie based on a book, movie with literary tendencies, whatever) Ummmm… Wuthering Heights, the one with Tom Hardy in it. Love that movie, I need to re-watch it soon.

2. How often do you re-read books? Not often enough. I’m still in the middle of re-reading the Outlander series.
3. What’s your favorite reading spot? Hmmm… probably in the spare room. All my books are in there, there’s lots of light, there’s a futon and an end table. It’s awesome.
4. Which season is your favorite? Spring. I like seeing all the little green buds on the trees. That’s my favorite time of year.

 
5. What’s your profile picture? I’d have to look to be sure, but I think it’s my on our couch smiling like an idiot.

 
6. What’s your ideal meal? Man… some sort of chicken, some sort of potatoes, and then veggies. Simple, I know. I love chicken and potatoes though.

 
7. What’s your guilty pleasure TV show, movie, book? Hmmm… probably Glee.

 
8. How do you like to spend a rainy day? Home, cleaning and reading and cooking. I’m a homebody.

 
9. Do you have any good Tumblrs to recommend? No, I don’t really understand tumblr…

 
10. If you like to cook (or bake), what’s your favorite thing to make? Hmmm… good question! I like making chicken pot pie… It’s a lot of work with the pre-cooking the chicken, chopping a bunch of vegetables, etc. but I think that’s why I like it. I like spending a good hour or so putting it all together. Plus it’s the honeyman’s favorite, and I like hearing him tell me how good it is.


11. Do you have a big TBR list? Or do you wait until you’re done with your current book to buy (or borrow from the library) your next reads? GIANT. I have almost 900 books, and I still have to read over half of them. Someday…

 

OK, 11 Questions for You to Answer…

1. Do you like where you live?

2. What would you do if you were omnipotent?

3. What’s your favorite holiday?

4. What music did you like to listen to 10 years ago?

5. What are your favorite websites?

6. What’s your favorite plant or flower?

7. Do you have any pets?

8. What are some of your favorite tv shows right now?

9. If you could jump into any book, which would it be?

10. What’s your favorite joke?

11. If you could buy anything right now, regardless of the price, what would it be?

 

OK, and here are the folks I’m tagging…

Jenn at Booksessed

Daisy at Between the Pages

Pepca at Beyond Strange New Words

L.L. at The Story Girl

Kristilyn at Reading in Winter

And you know, if anyone else wants to grab this, do so. Have fun!

 

~Sarah

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January 22, 2012 · 10:16 pm

Winter Mini-Readathon Wrap-Up Post!

I can’t believe it’s over already! I didn’t get QUITE as much reading done as I wanted today, but I was able to read 242 out of 418 pages in Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer. And the great thing about it is that it was QUALITY reading time – no interruptions from work, people, doing laundry, etc. And I’m thinking that I’m going to go to the bookstore and buy the sequel to this book, cause I’m totally into it.

So, this is the last mini-challenge! Remember you have until 10 pm EST on Monday to complete the mini-challenges, and I’ll announce the randomly-chosen winners on Tuesday.

Thank you so so so so so much to Jenn for hosting her mini-challenge, and to Heather for hosting the bonus challenge. You guys are awesome :-)

And thank you to EVERYONE who participated today! I really enjoyed visiting your blogs & chatting with you on Twitter! And I’m going to spend some time tomorrow morning coming around to visit blogs / posts that I didn’t have a chance to visit today.

OK, so let’s do the last mini-challenge! Same as the start-up post – copy, paste, and answer the questions below either in the comments or in a blog post link in the comments.

1. How many books and/or pages were you able to read?

2. About how many hours were you able to read for? (Were there many distractions, breaks, etc?)

3. Do you have any likes/dislikes about the 12-hour readathon, compared to a 24-hour readathon?

4. Favorite and least favorite books that you read today?

5. Do you have any suggestions for things you’d like me to do differently if I host another mini-readathon?

 

And just for funsies, here are my answers…

1. How many books and/or pages were you able to read?

I read 242 pages.

2. About how many hours were you able to read for? (Were there many distractions, breaks, etc?)

Well, if you assume I read at a page her minute, then I read for about 4 hours today, lol. And of course there were distractions: the challenges, re-doing my header with Heather, food, chatting, Twitter, blogs, etc…

3. Do you have any likes/dislikes about the 12-hour readathon, compared to a 24-hour readathon?

Not in particular, I like doing these little 12-hour readathons because they’re less stressful, even with me posting challenges every few hours. I don’t have to worry about struggling to stay awake.

4. Favorite and least favorite books that you read today?

The only one I’ve been reading is Hominids, which is kinda awesome so far.

5. Do you have any suggestions for things you’d like me to do differently if I host another mini-readathon?

Well this is like me asking MYSELF, lol, but yes I do. I’m going to try to think of more exciting prizes for next time, and I’ll try to think of better ways to promote it. Although honestly, I think having a small number of people participating is actually kind of nicer than having hundreds of participants like in the 24-hour ones. I get to know you all a little better, and I feel like you guys are actually participating for the fun of it, not necessarily to win a ton of cool swag like in the big giant readathons. What do you guys think?

 

OK, so that’s it! Thanks again to EVERYONE for joining in, and I hope I see you guys next time around, probably in July! And remember to check back here on Tuesday for the challenge winners! I’m going to go catch up on my reading now :-)

~Sarah

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· 9:55 am

Winter Mini-Readathon Start-Up Post!

 

Good morning everybody! IT’S TIME!

So, let me just remind everyone how the mini-challenges / prizes are working…

There will be 5 mini-challenges today, and the prize for each one will be a $5 Amazon e-gift card (I promise I’m going to think up more exciting prizes for the next summer mini-readathon.) You have until 10 PM tomorrow (that’s US Eastern time) to enter into the challenges. I know I originally said it was until noon tomorrow, but I’m extending it. Winners will be announced on Tuesday.

The mini-challenges will be about 3 hours apart, and the bonus challenge will be just a surprise time. So it’s easiest to keep up if you have my blog bookmarked, in a feed-reader, etc.

I encourage you guys to go visit other blogs and tweet during the mini-readathon. You can see the list of other participants here, just click on the linky widget. The twitter hashtag will be #ssrminiread and if you need to reach me directly, my Twitter handle is @SarahSaysRead.

OK, LET THE FIRST MINI-CHALLENGE BEGIN!

Copy, paste, and answer the questions below, either in the comments or on your blog. If you do a start-up post on your blog to answer, come back here and leave the link to the post in the comments. MUST POST YOUR ANSWERS OR BLOG POST LINK IN THE COMMENTS TO BE ENTERED FOR A PRIZE!

1. Tell everyone three random things about yourself:
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-
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2. Is this your first readathon?

3. Do you have any specific goals for today? (# of books or pages to read?)

4. Do you have any specific snacks, drinks, or books planned?

5. What hours do you plan on reading during?

 

Here are my answers, as an example…

1. Tell everyone three random things about yourself:

- I drive a yellow VW Beetle.
- I have 2 tattoos.
- I hate the winter, and want to move to Hawaii.

2. Is this your first readathon?

Nope!

3. Do you have any specific goals for today? (# of books or pages to read?)

No specific goals for me! I’d like to read a few more chapters in Don Quixote, and I want to start a new book, but I haven’t decided on which yet. I’ll let you know later.

4. Do you have any specific snacks, drinks, or books planned?

Ohhhh yes. Coffee, water, juice, alcohol… Cucumber sandwiches, jalapeno poppers, artichoke dip, popcorn, etc, and chicken tacos for dinner. I know this sounds like a lot of food, but my sister Heather is reading / eating with me, so you know, it’s not SO bad, lol.

5. What hours do you plan on reading during?

I am aiming to read from 10 AM to 10 PM Eastern time, with breaks obviously to do the mini-challenge posts and stuff.

 

OK, so if you guys have ANY questions today, you can leave a comment, you can send me an email at sarahmay227(at)gmail(dot)com, or you can tweet me on Twitter @SarahSaysRead.

READY, SET…. GO!!!!

~Sarah

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