Masterpiece
*****
Excellent
**** 1/2
Very good
****
Good
**** 1/2
Just okay
***
Not for me
**
Definitely not for me
*

Bloggiesta! (Facebook Like & Retweet Buttons)

bloggiesta

Click for more Bloggiesta info

Decided to join Natasha’s Bloggiesta if only to do two things:

  1. Add a facebook like button to each post
  2. Add a retweet button to each post

(I already had an ‘all in one’ social plugin, but it seems that you get better results on your site/blog score if you have dedicated facebook and twitter buttons.)

Mission accomplished!! If you use wordpress, all you have to do is go to your control panel and then to plugins. Then, go to ‘install plugins’ in the top right hand corner. Enter ‘Facebook Likes It!’ into the space and you’ll see where you can install it. After installing the plugin, click the activate plugin button. Then, go to your settings on the left sidebar and scroll down to Facebook Like It! to place the button where you want it to go.

Do the same thing for the retweet button and search for ‘twitter anywhere plus.’ Continue the procedure above.  Now when you get to the settings for this plugin, you’ll see a link to follow for a twitter API key on the twitter site. Enter the information, and then you’ll get a code to use. You don’t have to enter this code. Instead, use the long number after id= in the code and put it in the box for the API key on the settings page. (Edited to add: if you want a shortened code to the url of your post you must put %u in the content box under the ‘retweet button’ section)

You’ll have to play around with the settings to get it the way you want it. Mine’s not perfect, as the facebook like button is above my linkin boxes and the retweet is below it, but oh well, I can live with it for now.

Also, please facebook like or retweet this if this post was helpful to you and you decide to use these features.

Thanks, and Happy Bloggiesta!!

Wanna help me write some reviews?

helpwantedYou will not believe the amount of reviews I have to write. The list below isn’t even complete! I’ve seen some other bloggers ask for questions on certain books that they will answer in their review post, so I thought I’d try that out as well. Please help me get out of my review backlog quagmire by asking me some questions about the following books. I will be in your debt! I’ve put my star ratings for each book below so you can guage my general reactions. Please, ASK AWAY!!

  • The Help stars4h.gif by Kathryn Stockett
  • The Poisonwood Bible stars4h.gif by Barbara Kingsolver
  • The Namesake stars4.gif by Jhumpa Lahiri
  • The Good Earth stars4h.gif by Pearl S. Buck
  • The Age of Innocence stars4h.gif by Edith Wharton
  • The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie stars4h.gif by Alan Bradley
  • A Thousand Splendid Suns stars5.gif by Khaled Hosseini
  • The Inhabited World stars3h.gif by David Long
  • The Hungry Tide stars4h.gif by Amitav Ghosh
  • The Monsters of Templeton stars3h.gif by Lauren Groff
  • Fragile Things stars4.gif by Neil Gaiman
  • Tess of the d’Urbervilles stars4h.gif by Thomas Hardy
  • Alias Grace stars4.gif by Margaret Atwood
  • Beneath a Marble Sky stars4.gif by John Shors
  • Finn stars4h.gif by Jon Clinch
  • All the Living stars3h.gif by C.E. Morgan

Borders’ 100 Favorite Books of All Time

This past week, Borders re-released it’s 100 Favourite Books of All Time. Do you vote in these kinds of polls when they arise? Do you look through the list, or seek out books featured?

I do vote sometimes, and it’s always fun to do research on the ones I haven’t heard of.  Like I really need to add to my TBR pile!

I love lists, so I couldn’t resist bolding the ones I’ve already read and asterixing the books I’m most interested in reading.  This is from Borders in Australia, though, so some of the titles were unfamiliar to me.  Still, it’s all in good fun.  I’ve read 38 of the 100 on this list. I thought it interesting that I’ve read all but one of the top ten.

1. Jane Austen – Pride & Prejudice
2. Harper Lee – To Kill A Mockingbird
3. JRR Tolkien – Lord Of The Rings (I’ve read the first two books)
4. Jodi Picoult – My Sister’s Keeper
5. Stephanie Meyer – Twilight Saga
6. JK Rowling – Harry Potter & The Philosopher’s Stone
7. Audrey Niffenegger – The Time Traveler’s Wife
8. Markus Zusak – The Book Thief
9. George Orwell – 1984

10. Raymond E. Feist – Magician
11. Khaled Hosseini – A Thousand Splendid Suns
12. Paullina Simons – Bronze Horsemen
13. Gregory David Roberts – Shantaram
14. Margaret Mitchell – Gone With The Wind*
15. Bryce Courtenay – Power of One
16. Dan Brown – The Da Vinci Code
17. Dan Brown – Angels & Demons
18. Paulo Coelho – The Alchemist
19. Charlotte Bronte – Jane Eyre

20. Tim Winton – Cloud Street
21. Khaled Hosseini – The Kite Runner
22. Emily Bronte – Wuthering Heights

23. Arthur Golden – Memoirs of Geisha*
24. LM Montgomery – Anne Of Green Gables
25. Joseph Heller – Catch-22
26. Elizabeth Gilbert – Eat Pray Love
27. Niv Mass Market Bible With Bible Guide – International Bible Society Staff and International Bible Society
28. JRR Tolkien – The Hobbit*
29. Yann Martel – Life of Pi
30. AB Facey – Fortunate Life
31. Douglas Adams – The Hitch-hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy
32. Lewis Carroll – Alice In Wonderland & Through The Looking Glass*
33. Diana Gabaldon – Cross Stich
34. Rohinton Mistry – A Fine Balance*
35. David Pelzar – A Child Called It
36. Li Cunxin – Mao’s Last Dancer
37. John Marsden – Tomorrow, When The War Began
38. Frank McCourt – Angela’s Ashes
39. Frank Herbert – Dune
40. JD Salinger – A Catcher In The Rye
41. F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Great Gatsby
42. Gabriel Garcia Marquez – One Hundred Years Of Solitude

43. Bryce Courtenay – April Fool’s Day
44. Ken Follet – Pillars Of The Earth
45. Patrick Suskind – Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer
46. Matthew Reilly – Ice Station
47. Carlos Ruiz Zafon – The Shadow Of The Wind
48. Stephen Hawking – A Brief History Of Time
49. Christopher Paolini – Eragon
50. Louisa May Alcott – Little Women

51. Mitch Albom – Tuesdays With Morrie
52. Jane Austen – Persuasion
53. Alice Sebold – The Lovely Bones
54. Ian McEwan – Atonement
55. Leo Tolstory – Anna Karenina
56. George Orwell – Animal Farm

57. Anthony Burgess – A Clockwork Orange
58. Antoine de Saint Exupéry – The Little Prince
59. Roald Dahl – Charlie & The Chocolate Factory
60. CS Lewis – The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe

61. Gabriel Garcia Marquez – Love In The Time Of Cholera
62. Bill Bryson – A Short History Of Nearly Everything
63. Fyodor Dostoevsky – Crime And Punishment*
64. Anthony Bourke – Lion Called Christian
65. Arundhati Roy – The God Of Small Things
66. Paullina Simons – Tully
67. John Grisham – A Time To Kill
68. John Grogan – Marley & Me
69. Vikram Seth – A Suitable Boy
70. Alexandre Dumas – Count Of Monte Cristo
71. Neil Gaiman – American Gods*
72. Cormac McCarthy – The Road
73. Aldous Huxley – Brave New World*
74. Brendan Shanahan – In Turkey I Am Beautiful: Between Chaos And Madness In A Strange Land
75. Tim Winton – Breath
76. Bryce Courtenay – Jessica
77. Graeme Base – Animalia
78. Donna Tartt – The Secret History*
79. Mario Puzo – The Godfather
80. Anne Rice – Interview With The Vampire
81. Steig Larrson – The Girl With A Dragon Tattoo

82. Stephen King – Stand*
83. Helen Fielding – Bridget Jones’ Diary
84. Eckhart Tolle – New Earth
85. Matthew Reilly – Seven Ancient Wonders
86. Jung Chang – Wild Swans
87. Nicholas Sparks – The Notebook
88. Bret Easton Ellis – American Psycho
89. David Eddings – Belgariad Vol. 1: Pawn Of Prophecy; Queen Of Sorcery; Magician’s Gambit
90. Louis De Bernieres – Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
91. Melina Marchetta – Looking For Alibrandi
92. Celia Ahern – PS I Love You
93. John Irving – A Prayer For Owen Meany
94. Colleen McCullough – The Thorn Birds
95. John Kennedy Toole – A Confederacy Of Dunces*
96. Terry Pratchett – Good Omens
97. Hunter S. Thompson – Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas
98. Joanne Harris – Chocolat
99. William Goldman – Princess Bride
100. Charles Dickens – Great Expectations*

Kindles, the FTC, and Power Cords

Did everyone see that the Kindle is now only $259? I’m so glad I waited, though I still probably won’t be able to get one for awhile. And if you travel a lot internationally, you can get one with wifi access in over 100 cities for $279.  Cool beans!  Although, I’m wondering if getting an iPod Touch would be better for me so I could listen to audios, etc.  Anyone have one?  I’d love to hear your experiences with the Kindle app for the iPod Touch.

Well, the FTC is certainly going to make book blogging less fun.  I guess I won’t be accepting ARCs anymore.  I’m dead serious.  I’m not one to jump through hoops, and I was starting to get away from ARCs anyway.  Most of the books I want to read I can get from my library and be first or second in line for it anyway, so I guess that’s the route I’m going to go. I can definitely understand why this is a bummer for a lot of book bloggers, but it sort of solidifies my thinking on the direction I want my blog to go. Starting December 1, the start of the new regulations, 1morechapter.com will be doing reviews strictly on purchased or library copies (other than the ARCs I’ve already received that I still plan on reading).  In addition, I will be putting many of my unread ARCs (and some of my reviewed ARCs) up for mooch on bookmooch.com.  You may want to consider joining as I have already put up a few and reserved them for book bloggers/friends and I will be putting up more copies in the coming month or so. My bookmooch id is 3m, so friend me if you join.

Power cords are essential for laptops, right?  Unfortunately, mine is on the fritz so I ordered one from China because it was so much cheaper than getting it here ($10 on ebay including shipping from a 99.9% favorable seller). That means even though I’m back in Iowa instead of doing my former daily painting duties in Kentucky, I can no longer use my laptop until my power cord gets here.  The joys of blogging.  At least it was only a power cord problem and not a hard drive problem.  [Shudder]

Fall is my favorite season, and it definitely puts me in the mood to read.  Hope it does you, too!

Happy reading, everyone.

My personal BBAW Awards

BBAW2As usual, I’m a day late and a $1 short, but I thought I’d still post my own personal awards for BBAW.  Since these were supposed to highlight blogs not on the shortlists, my awards are free of those blogs, even though some of them are my favorites as well.

And the winners (from me) are:

Best literary review blog: Dovegreyreader

Best new blog: KevinfromCanada

Best challenge host: Stainless Steel Droppings

Best challenge: The Canadian Challenges (1, 2 and 3)

Best commenters: KailanaLezlie, and Veens

Best book published in ’09: The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa AND The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Best collaborative blog: Novels Now

(I’m tooting my own horn here, but there are some wonderful bloggers on this site who review all of the latest books.  If you haven’t had a chance, check it out.)

I’m adding a new category:

Best world literature reviews: The Literary Saloon (The Complete Review)

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees!

All it took was a little ‘#’

allittookFinally!  After a month, I finally have my background back.  I COULD NOT figure out why my middle section of my blog wouldn’t stay white instead of showing through to my books background.  I tried everything.  Finally today I just realized I was missing the ‘#’.  My code read ‘background: ffffff;’ instead of ‘background: #ffffff;’

It’s usually something small like that.  One time I was only missing a semicolon.  Arggh.  Oh, well, at least it’s back now.

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