Follow Friday and Book Blogger Hop (6)

Follow Friday will be updated here when it pops up later, so this week starts with Book Blogger Hop from Crazy for Books!

“In honor of Banned Books Week, what is your favorite “banned or frequently challenged book”?”

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. According to the ALA website: A parent had complained that the book has a “high volume of racially offensive derogatory language and misinformation on Native Americans. In addition to the inaccurate imagery, and stereotype views, the text lacks literary value which is relevant to today’s contemporary multicultural society."

Does it contain racial slurs? Yes, and the book was originally published in the thirties; racial slurs and comments in books that are deplorable today were perfectly normal in an older era, though that is no reason to ban a book. Any teens reading this, assuming that they are mature enough to read the book, should recognize that much.

Also, what is this about lacking value in today's society? I'm pretty sure that the person who made the complaint has never read one page of any edition of Brave New World ever published, ever. Between test-tube babies, a disregard for those who reject technology/ live "off the grid", recreational drug use, and little to no concern within society regarding one-night stands, Brave New World is an eerie portrait of the twenty-first century (at least, the Western world), and definitely a book that changed my life when I read it. 

Ahoy! NaNoWriMo Approaches!

(Picture from The Booksmith)

What does Water for Elephants, The Night Circus (pictured above), and dozens of other books all have in common? They had their humble origins as rough copies from NaNoWriMo.

This Saturday, October first, marks the date where the NaNoWriMo website reboots itself, letting members new and old alike come in and set up their pages before the fun, challenging, totally off-the-wall awesome event that is National Novel Writing Month.

If you have never heard of it, National Novel Writing Month is an event spanning all 31 days of November where a participant writes a 50,000 word novel (or rather, novella, but it is generally agreed in NaNoWriMo that "novel" is a cooler word.) That breaks down to around 1667 words a day to make the deadline, unless you are like me and blow through 10,000 in the final weekend.

I'm writing about it for two reasons:
1) I first learned of it a few years (four, to be precise) ago on a blog, and am now using my blogging abilities to spread the word further
2) The book bloggosphere has been up in arms with love for The Night Circus recently, and today it was revealed to me that not only has it hit the New York Times bestseller list, but it started when Erin Morgenstern decided to sit down and takes the challenge that thousands of other people just like you take every November

Needless to say, it isn't easy. But then again, most of the worthwhile things in life ever are. And you only need one thing to start: that tiny spark in the back of your mind that says "Yes, I can do this."

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer book trailer

The book trailer for The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin, which will be released next week on the 27th, has just been released and honestly it is one of my favorite book trailers. It plays out more like the preview for a movie or a show than a book, and there's no doubt that it's release to the public will be the talk of the year (or at least what's left of it.)

You can read my review of Unbecoming here, and you can watch the trailer below. The song is "Black Dog" by Kelli Schaefer:

Follow Friday and Book Blogger Hop (5?)

I'm losing count, my days have been so busy recently D;

First is Follow Friday, from Allison Can Read and Parajunkee:

Q. Do you have a favorite series that you read over and over again? Tell us a bit about it and why you keep on revisiting it?

The only novel series that I constantly go back to is the Artemis Fowl series, which for many reasons I continue to mention here on Follow Friday. In my eyes, the series has a great plot, awesomely snarky humor, characters that I've grown to love/ loved since the first page, and is long enough to be satisfactory without feeling ripped off (final book, #8, is scheduled for next year.) I know that many times it's humor is seen as childish (and rightly so), and that the books are in both the childrens' room and YA section of my public library, but I swear I will go and see the movie even if I am forty when it comes out. 

Also, I put the graphic novel on a display stand in the childrens' graphic novel section while I was working last week, and had a happy-dance moment when I came in this week to find it gone. Another soul converted!

Next (as usual) is Book Blogger Hop, hosted by Crazy for Books!

“As a blog reader, what information (besides the book review) do you like to see in other bloggers’ reviews of books? (For example – Author bio, social media links, book synopsis from Amazon/Goodreads or one written by the blogger, page count, ISBN number, link to purchase, etc.)”

I'm actually not that picky about it. I like seeing the publication date (and subsequently forget to put them in my own reviews), and the Goodreads link for the book. I'm on GR a lot, so I like to be able to click on a link at the bottom of an interesting review and be taken to the page so I can mark it to be read. Personally, I find author bio to be a bit unnecessary in a book review, and I'd rather those go on a separate post (about new and upcoming author posts, NYT bestseller posts, etc.)

As for which synopsis that I like, for a while I would write them on my own but recently switched to writing down the ones from the inside/ back cover of the books. That's obviously easier on my part, and I can then devote more time to writing the review itself. I see a lot of other book bloggers do it too.

Insurgent (Veronica Roth) cover revealed!

Mark your calender for May of 2012, because Veronica Roth has recently released the (very beautiful) cover for her next book, Insurgent, and I am spazzing out at the beauty of it.

They kept the set-up the same, with the symbol in the middle against the cityscape, but changed the color scheme to a darker, rather ominous green. If I'm being completely honest I like this cover more than the first one. I also like that they added the train, since it was such a big symbol in the first book, and it is finally getting the love it deserves.

You can send her some love herself on her blog, and you can read my review of the first book, Divergent, here.

Follow Friday and Book Blogger Hop 4

Hello! If you are new here I am Emily, and this is my fourth Book Blogger Hop and Follow Friday! Huzzah!

First up is Follow Friday by Parajunkee and Allison Can Read:


                                 

Q. It's that pesky magic book fairy again! She has another wish: What imaginary book world would you like to make a reality?

I really like fantasy series, and would love nothing more than to be able to trek out on my own magical, world-saving adventure. Something along the lines of The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan or The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner (both of which I will get through some day!)

Pulling inspiration from 

Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Crazy for Books. This week's question is:

As a book blogger, how do you introduce yourself in your profile?

The first thing that I try to do is not to be misleading; everything in my profile is the truth, and the last thing that I want from people who read my profile is for them to think that I'm something that I'm not. 

Second, alongside the average such as name and the fact that I'm a student, is a few non-book-related things that I like to do. Obviously I read, and I figured that those who stumble across this blog would think as much, but I want people to see that I have other passions too. I've had people comment before on my love of geocaching and LEGO Star Wars, and it makes me happy to know that I have more in common with my readers than just reading and blogging.

And... That's it for this week! See you next Friday!

TGIF (last minute!)

I know that Friday's almost over, but I've seen the TGIF meme from GReads around on other book blogs so often that this week I cracked and decided to participate. It will be posted with my other two Friday memes, Follow Friday and Book Blogger Hop, starting next week. Until then, welcome and enjoy!

Books to Television: Which books would you love 

to see made in to a TV series? or movie?

I have come to terms with the fact that there will, most likely, never, ever been a series of Artemis Fowl movies. I'm dead serious here, I've picked up old copies of the first/ second books only to find contest advertisements for being an extra in the movie. It's been "in the works" for years now, and we don't have so much as a leading actor. If the ball got rolling earlier I would've had no doubts that the movies would have come in a series, kind of like Harry Potter did, but it's been ten years since Artemis first graced us with his presence... Still crossing my fingers though!

Luna by Julie Anne Peters is in a similar position, though with no movie talk as far as I know. It's such a heartbreaking story, about a teenage girl and her transgender (male-to-female) sister. I think, if put in the right hands, it would make a beautiful and successful movie that would finally get some transgender characters onto the big screen as more than just last-minute attempts at equality or comic relief.

In other, more hopeful news, Divergent by Veronica Roth has had its rights bought by Summit, and I have hopes that we might get some movie news in the upcoming year!