A Winter's Respite: Post Your Wrap-Up and Final Winners

Winners of the Mega Mini-Challenge...the Covet/Cherish Challenge:


Risa @ Bread Crumb Reads

Ashleigh Oldfield

Daily Winners for the Final Day:


Julie @ Knitting and Sundries


Bev @ My Reader's Block   Bev asked me to pass her win on to another read-a-thon participant so I chose another winner and that is:

Tracy @ Just another bookworm's blog


Head over to the PRIZE PAGE and pick your prize and then email me your choice at truebookaddictATgmailDOTcom  Prizes are awarded on a first response basis.  Congratulations!


******

I hope everyone enjoyed the read-a-thon and I'd like to thank you for joining me.  I'm still reading...extending my read-a-thon into the wee hours...and since I'm not eligible for any of my prizes, I guess that's okay.  I'll post my wrap-up tomorrow.

I'd also like to thank all the authors, bloggers, etc. who donated prizes and who hosted mini-challenges/giveaways.  Thank you for helping to make the read-a-thon a success.

Be sure to post your wrap-up with the number of books you read because Kate's (Read 2 Review) giveaway of Fallen in Love by Lauren Kate is for the person who read the most books during the read-a-thon.  Please place the link to your post in the linky below.

Looking forward--Many of you know that I host these read-a-thons seasonally and in the Fall I hosted from my brand new horror/speculative fiction blog, Castle Macabre.  It was a read-a-thon with a scary theme and it was a big success and a lot of fun.  So I decided to make my Spring read-a-thon scary themed.  The Fall and Spring read-a-thons will have a spooky/scary theme yearly and the Winter and Summer ones will be with a regular theme.  I have asked my readers to help me pick the name for the Spring read-a-thon.  You can vote on the poll at Castle Macabre HERE.  It's at the top of the left sidebar.  Now I know some people aren't in to horror.  No worries! My only requirement for a scary read-a-thon is to read at least one scary book and that does not have to be strictly horror.  It can be a mystery, thriller, paranormal, etc.  I'm also thinking about focusing this read-a-thon more on the reading and so the mini-challenges might be reading sprints or pages read in chunks of time or something like that.  I mean that is usually our goal during a read-a-thon...to get a lot of reading done, if possible.  Any input would really be appreciated.

Again, thank you for joining me for A Winter's Respite.  I hope you will think about joining me in the Spring or Summer...or both!

A Winter's Respite: Day Six Winners...and a little less than 24 hours to go!

Day Six Winners!


Melissa @ Must Read Faster


Gina @ Book Dragon's Lair



Head over to the PRIZE PAGE and pick your prize and then email me your choice at truebookaddictATgmailDOTcom  Prizes are awarded on a first response basis.  Congratulations!

Don't forget!

All of the mini-challenges and giveaways being hosted at other blogs are still going on.  There are some great prizes up for grabs.  Check out the list at this POST.

My Mega Mini-Challenge...the Covet/Cherish challenge...is open until the end of the read-a-thon, Sunday at 11:59pm CST.  Check the details out HERE.

A Winter's Respite: Intro Mini-Challenge and Mini-Mini-Challenge Winners

The two winners of the read-a-thon intro mini-challenge (to post your tbr list and/or photo for the read-a-thon) are:

Justice @ Cheap Black Pens

Amber @ The Musings of Almybnenr   Amber asked me to pass her win on to another read-a-thon participant so I chose another winner and that is:

JP @ Elle Lit

The winner of the mini-mini-challenge is:

Tobey @ Reading Schtuff (entered via comments)


Head over to the PRIZE PAGE and pick your prize and then email me your choice at truebookaddictATgmailDOTcom  Prizes are awarded on a first response basis.  Congratulations!

A Winter's Respite: Day Five Winners and You Can Still Sign-Up!

Day Five Winners!


Celine @ Nyx Book Reviews


Jane Harfeld @ Jane's Book Blog

Head over to the PRIZE PAGE and pick your prize and then email me your choice at truebookaddictATgmailDOTcom  Prizes are awarded on a first response basis.  Congratulations!

Don't forget!

All of the mini-challenges and giveaways being hosted at other blogs are still going on.  There are some great prizes up for grabs.  Check out the list at this POST.

You still have time to complete my read-a-thon mini-mini-challenge.  It ends this morning at 8:00am CST.  It's quick and easy.  Check it out HERE.

My Mega Mini-Challenge...the Covet/Cherish challenge...is open until the end of the read-a-thon, Sunday at 11:59pm CST.  Check the details out HERE.

You can still sign-up and participate in the read-a-thon.  Why not join us for the weekend?! If you decide to take the plunge, go to this POST to sign-in.

A Winter's Respite: Day Four Winners and Final (Mega) Mini-Challenge

Day Four Winners!

Srivalli @ Valli's Book Den

TFrances @ Wading Through the Ocean of Life

Head over to the PRIZE PAGE and pick your prize and then email me your choice at truebookaddictATgmailDOTcom  Prizes are awarded on a first response basis.  Congratulations!

******

On Wednesday, we had a mini-mini-challenge...fairly easy, not much effort.  Well, today for our final mini-challenge we have a Mega Mini-Challenge (sort of)! The object of today's challenge will be to show something we covet and something we already cherish.  And what is the object that we covet and cherish?  Why it's our home libraries! Here's what I want you to do:

• Show/share what you covet...Find an image (Google images, photobucket, etc.) of a home library design that you covet.  Post the image in a blog post.  If you're not updating from a blog, you can just share the link to the image in the comments.
• Describe what you cherish...If you're not up to taking photos of your home library or your huge TBR stack, you can describe your home library or TBR stack, either in your blog post or in the comments along with the link to your image of your coveted library.  OR....
• Show us what you cherish...For those of us who are extremely boastful proud of our home libraries, take some photos of your library (or use images you've already taken) and add them to your blog post, or leave links to the photo(s) in the comments.

**You must do the 1st step above and one of the 2nd or 3rd step above for your challenge to qualify**
If you do a blog post for this challenge, add the link to your post in the linky below.  If you decide to just leave a comment, it should include the following:

• link to coveted home library image
• description of your home library/TBR stack OR link(s) to image(s) of your home library
• your email address, in case you win 

This mega mini-challenge will stay open until the very end of the read-a-thon, which is Sunday, January 29 at 11:59pm CST.  There will be two winners drawn randomly from all entries via random.org  Have fun and good luck!


And now I'll share with you my covet and cherish....

I had to post two coveted home libraries.  I have such a huge amount of books (3000+), I was looking for designs that would hold a ton of books yet still look aesthetically pleasing.  I think these two libraries fit the bill.  Which one do you like better?

Now, it's time for me to show off the home library I cherish.  You will probably notice books stacked in front of many of the shelves and this is because I ran out of shelves.  LOL  I apologize for the quality of some of these images.  The cell phone camera isn't always agreeable!

 The corner shelf holds my collections 

of Anne Rice, Stephen King, and other 

authors and/or series books

 My Christmas books

 Some of my non-fiction

 More non-fiction

   Yes, I even had to utilize my coffee table!

A Winter's Respite: Day Three Winners

Day Three Winners!


Shaunie @ The Space Between


Melissa @ Jayne's Books



Head over to the PRIZE PAGE and pick your prize and then email me your choice at truebookaddictATgmailDOTcom  Prizes are awarded on a first response basis.  Congratulations!

Don't forget!

All of the mini-challenges and giveaways being hosted at other blogs are still going on.  There are some great prizes up for grabs.  Check out the list at this POST.

My read-a-thon mid-week mini-mini-challenge is open until Saturday morning at 8:00am CST.  It's a really easy one.  Check it out HERE.

Good luck!

A Winter's Respite: Day Two Winners and Mini-Mini-Challenge

Day Two Winners!

Bri @ Kindling the Fire


Abigail @ The Story Factory Reading Zone


Head over to the PRIZE PAGE and pick your prize and then email me your choice at truebookaddictATgmailDOTcom  Prizes are awarded on a first response basis.  Congratulations!

Now...on to today's Mini-Mini-Challenge!


Here's what I want you to do: 

• Take your current read and pick one sentence from three of the following pages:  page 1, page 77, page 179, page 255, page 360, or one from the 5th page from the end (I picked a diverse number for books of varying lengths).  
• Take the three sentences and make them into a short paragraph.  If it makes sense as is, fine.  If not, you can add your own words or sentences to make it romantic, funny, scary...whatever.  
• Be sure to bold and/or italicize the original text from the book or, if you leave it in the comments, put quotes around the original text.  
• You can leave yours in the comment section below and/or post it on your blog.  If you do a post on your blog, add the link to the linky below.  If you don't have a blog or just would rather not do a post, leave yours in the comments and include your email address.  
• This mini-challenge will be open until Saturday, (1/28) at 8:00am CST.  One winner will be randomly selected from all submissions and chosen by random.org  The winner will pick a prize from the PRIZE PAGE.

I will do my current read for you as an example.  I'm reading Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.  The sentences I used are from pages 1, 77, and 829 (5th page from end).

Her eyes were pale green without a touch of hazel, starred with bristly black lashes and slightly tilted at the ends.  They were eyes that would flash fire when she was angry or provoked.  She dragged her eyes away from his without smiling back, and he turned as someone called.  When he turned back around, he looked at her in an almost kindly way, speculation in his eyes.


Easy Peasy! Here's the linky:

Banned Books Week Giveaway Hop Winners!

The winners of my Banned Books Week Giveaway are:

Liya (The Lovely Bones)

and

Janelle (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil)

Congratulations! I will be sending you an email to obtain your mailing information.  Please respond within 48 hours or I will draw a new winner(s).

Thank you to all who entered!

SPRING'S SERENITY READ-A-THON PRIZE WINNERS

I have winners for the read-a-thon prizes!

First up is the winner of the participant giveaway, which was a copy of the book, The Gold Rush by Frank W. Lewis, from Stephanie Barko, publicist.  There were 20 read-a-thon participants and I used random.org to draw the winner.  And the winner is:

#17 Carol @ Carol's Notebook


I hosted a fun mini-challenge and the prizes are copies of Charlie Courtland's three novels.  I'm seriously thinking of using this mini-challenge for all of my read-a-thons.  I think everyone really enjoyed it.  And you never know what you'll come up with so it's a surprise every time.  But I digress...  We had 9 participants do the mini-challenge and I used random.org to pick the winners.  The first place winner of a print copy of each of Charlie's novels is:

#6 Kai @ Fiction State of Mind


The second and third place winners of an ebook copy of each of Charlie's novels are:

#9 Tracy @ Just Another Bookworm's blog


and


#2 Yvonne @ Socrates Book Reviews


Please email me at truebookaddictATgmailDOTcom with your mailing addresses, Carol and Kai.  Tracy and Yvonne, I think I will just need your email addresses.  If I don't hear from you in the next couple of days, I will search out your emails and send you a message.

Congratulations and thanks again for joining me for the read-a-thon.  I look forward to the next one in July!

ANNOUNCEMENTS: GIVEAWAY WINNERS, TUESBOOKTALK...OH, AND I'M FAMOUS (SORT OF)!

I have winners for my 300+ Followers giveaway! Thank you for entering and to all who follow this blog, my labor of love.  So, without further ado...

First Place

Victoria Zumbrum (entry #27) won Testimony by Anita Shreve

Second Place

Maddie M. (entry #60) from Off In Another World won Fallen by Lauren Kate

Third Place

Jessica Hansen (entry #66) from Taking it One Book at a Time won The Monk by Matthew Lewis

Fourth Place

Elise (entry #56) from Bookish Delights won Saturday by Ian McEwan

Fifth Place

Rachel Fewell (entry #72) from Jacob's Beloved's Books won Tomato Girl by Jane Pupek

(winners were chosen using Random.org  I will email the winners.  Please respond within 48 hours or I will choose a new winner(s). )

Next order of business--

TuesBookTalk...as some of you may know, I've been hosting a book chat every Tuesday night on Twitter for over a year now.  We meet every Tuesday night at 10:30pm ET/9:30pm CT and we chat for about an hour.  I also created a goodreads group for participants to vote on genres, book selections, etc. and for us to keep track of reading schedules.  I'm going to try to announce our monthly reading selection here on my blog as well (hopefully, I don't flake...LOL).  Our next read is What The Night Knows by Dean Koontz.  Discussion will begin this Tuesday, March 15, at 10:30pm ET/9:30pm CT on Twitter.  Hashtag for the chat is #TuesBookTalk or #tuesbooktalk.  Our reading schedule can be found on goodreads HERE and why not join the group while you're there.  I hope you will consider joining us.  It's pretty laid back, but we have a good time. =O)

My name in lights!!!

The incomparable Robert Parry, author of the excellent historical novel, Virgin and the Crab and the recently released The Arrow Chest (watch for my review...coming soon), emailed me last week with the proof for the new back cover of Virgin and the Crab...and guess what?  A blurb from my review along with my name and blog name(s) is on it!!! How totally awesome is that?! Check it out below and be sure to stop by and visit Robert at his blog, Endymion at Night.

That's all for now! Hope you're having a great week. =O)

A WINTER'S RESPITE READ-A-THON WRAP-UP AND GIVEAWAY WINNERS

No...I didn't get as much reading done as I wanted, but I enjoyed myself.  As part of the read-a-thon, I spent some time signing up for the reading challenges I'll be participating in this year.  I sign up for all reading challenges through my challenge blog, but I will have a post up here soon detailing which ones I joined.  Now here is what I read for the read-a-thon:

By Fire, By Water by Mitchell James Kaplan...what a great book! I will have my review up this week.
The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks...read 165 pages
Quicksilver by Joy Spraycar...112 pages--this one is a little slow going so far.

So...how did you do?  I hope you got some good reading in, but most of all, I hope you had fun.  If you do a wrap-up post, feel free to share the link in the comments.  Looking ahead, I already have the name for my Spring read-a-thon, which will be in April (no worries...I will distance it from Dewey's 24 hour).  I'm calling it Spring's Serenity Read-A-Thon.  I just have to come up with the dates.  Stay tuned!

Now for the two winners of signed copies of The Queen's Pawn by Christy English.  Drum roll please....

Kai Charles @ Fiction State of Mind

 &

Bev @ My Reader's Block

I have notified the winners.  Please respond to me with your mailing addresses within 48 hours.  Thanks!

I would like send out a special thanks to Christy English for her generous donation of our prizes for the read-a-thon.  And I'd also like to thank everyone who participated.  I'm looking forward to the next one.  Word is Unputdownables is having a 48 hour TBR the first weekend in February...can't wait!

I HAVE FALL CATCH-UP READ-A-THON WINNERS!!!

The Read-A-Thon was a success thanks to all my lovely participants! I've decided to make this week long read-a-thon a seasonal event and will be hosting my next one in January, a week long winter read-a-     thon.  Stay tuned for details!

Now, on to the winners of the read-a-thon giveaways....

The winner of the $20 BetterWorldBooks gift certificate is...

Sheila @ Book Journey

(Sheila, I will email you the gift certificate!)

The US/Canada winner of the mini-challenge, who wins two print copies of Charlie Courtlands novels is...

Crystal @ My Reading Room

(Crystal, I will email you for your address so I can send it to Charlie)

The International winner of the mini-challenge, who wins two e-book copies of Charlie Courtland novels is...

Charlotte @ Lit Addicted Brit

(Charlotte, I will email you the codes so you can order your free e-books)

Congratulations to all the winners and thanks again to everyone who joined me in the read-a-thon! Also, a very special thanks to Charlie for providing the awesome prizes for the mini-challenge!



HAPPY SEPTEMBER: NEWS AND BLOGOVERSARY GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Happy September everyone! We only have a couple more weeks until the first day of Fall.  I just wish the Tennessee weather would cooperate.  I can't wait for the cool, crisp Autumn days, especially after the sweltering summer we had!

I have some news and then I will announce the giveaway winners.  Patience, patience! =O)

My create-a-button contest entry for Brizmus Blogs Books' Japanese Friday, or Nihon no Kinyoubi, is currently tied for FIRST PLACE! Thanks to all who have voted for me so far.  Voting is open until Sunday, 9/5, so if you haven't already, please go here and vote in the poll on Brizmus's left sidebar.  Mine is #7.  Thanks...and wish me luck!

My weekly book chat on Twitter, TuesBookTalk, is still going strong.  I needed an easier way to get in touch with all the members so I created a group on Goodreads.  You can go here to visit (or join) or access it from the widget in the left sidebar.  We are going to start discussing Labyrinth by Kate Mosse on this Tuesday, 9/7...that is, if everyone can get the book.  If not, we will postpone by a week.  Our first discussion will be on Chapters 1-10.  Tuesday chat time is 10:30pm ET.  Coming up in October, we will be having Halloween Horror Month.  There is a poll up at the group so we can vote on our reading selection for that event.  Who doesn't love a spooky read during Halloween?!  I hope you will think about joining us, Dear readers.  If you can't make the Tuesday night chat, you can go to the group and post your thoughts in the discussion thread there.  Hope to see you!

I will have the sign up post and read-a-thon info up later today for my Fall Catch-Up Read-A-Thon.  I hope you will join us.  It will be a fun week! Also, Banned Books Week starts that Saturday of my read-a-thon so I will have daily posts up starting Saturday and throughout the week in honor of it.  Banned Books Week is September 25-October 2, 2010!                            

FIRST BLOGOVERSARY GIVEAWAY WINNERS!!!

First Place....Brooke--3 books

Second Place....JennJ--2 books

Third Place....Juju--1 book

(winners were chosen by random.org)

Brooke gets to choose first...3 books from the following:

Cardboard--Fiona Place

The Silent Governess--Julie Klassen

Fragile--Chris Katsaropoulos

Winter's End--Jean-Claude Mourlevat

206 Bones--Kathy Reichs

Hush--Kate White

Once Brooke picks her 3, I will email JennJ with the remaining choices, of which she gets to choose 2.  Then, Juju will get the book that is left.  Brooke, if you are seeing this post, you can go ahead and email me your 3 choices at truebookaddictATgmailDOTcom (don't worry...I'm still emailing you!)  Each winner will have 48 hours to get back to me with their choices from the time I send out their email.  Congrats!

Thanks for reading about all my news and thank you to everyone who wished me a happy blogoversary and entered the contest.

Have a safe and happy Labor Day weekend!

Winners of my 100+ Followers Giveaway and an announcement

There are three winners! The first winner I drew had only requested World Without End so I was able to draw another winner for The Pillars of the Earth!

The winner of World Without End is:

Laura @ The Calico Critic

The winner of The Pillars of the Earth is:

Ronnica

The winner of Catherine the Great is:

Heather @ The Maiden's Court

Congratulations to all the winners!

I am emailing the winners.  Please respond with your mailing addresses within 72 hours.  If I do not get a response within that time frame, I will pick another winner(s).  Thanks!

Now, an announcement:

Since starting my blog in August, I have entered a TON of contests and giveaways.  I have found that I much prefer the giveaways that only require you to be a follower and leave a comment.  You might ask me, "Well, why don't you just not do all the extra entries?"  I just can't! If the opportunities are there, I try to do them.  But I do get (slightly) annoyed, which isn't the giveaway blog's fault...I could just walk away by leaving a comment only.  People do win with only one entry.  Case in point--one of our winners today won with only one comment! Okay, okay...get on with it, I know! What I'm proposing is that from now on the only requirements for my giveaways will be that you must be a follower (I do verify) and leave a comment with your email.  Easy peasy! After tallying this contest's entries, my head was spinning so it will be a lot easier on me too! I don't know how the people with hundreds and hundreds of followers do it! Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think of this new guideline.  I hope I haven't ruffled any feathers.  I'm just trying to make it easier on everyone!

I'm planning a giveaway on my challenge blog when I reach 40 followers.  If you're not already following, head over and follow.  Just click my challenge blog button at the top of my left sidebar.  Thanks!

Congratulations again to the winners!