Ramblings: Currently Reading

So I've been missing again for the past couple of days, mostly because I've been using my free time to play around with my new Goodreads account. The "currently reading" feature kind of fascinates me. And it made me think of something.

I'm the kind of person who can read multiple books at a time. I think I picked up this school through my English classes for college, since I would have a lot of different school books I was reading, and then ones I was reading for fun too. But as I'm trying to fill in my library, I notice I have a LOT of books that could be marked "currently reading". Not only do I have about 7 that I'm actively reading, but I have probably that many (or more) that I started to get into and then were placed aside for the time being in favor of something else. I wonder if that counts as "currently reading" too. Obviously I'm reading it, because I'm in the middle and I haven't abandoned it completely, but I'm not actively reading it either.

So what do you all do? Are you the type of reader who reads one (or two) books straight through before picking up a new one? If you read multiple books at a time, how many do you typically read at a time? What's the biggest number you've been reading at once?

Enquiring minds want to know. ;)

Goodreads

Okay, okay, I finally did it. After being a firm LibraryThing user since September 2006, I have broken down and joined Goodreads. It was the same thing for me with Facebook actually. I resisted for years, but finally joined because I wanted to find some information the required you to be a member to access. Oh, well. The damage is done.

Now that I'm a member, I'm a little lost as to what to do. So for you veteran members out there, what are your suggestions? What do you find most helpful/least helpful? Any features I shouldn't miss? Any of you who are also LibraryThing users who have suggestions for me? Please leave in the comments below!

And if anyone is interested, here's my profile. As you can see, I've done absolutely nothing with it yet. I'm a brand new clean slate, so I'm totally open to suggestions!

A Very Random Post

Still battling El Nino here. Weather kind of scary and internet still shaky. Will be back when I can. Some hail, over 1" of rain, and 50 mph winds today. More coming tomorrow...

Anyway, this is completely random, but I just saw this in someone's signature and thought I'd share. I figured I'd better hurry and share before 1) I forget and/or 2) our power decides to snuff it:

Foolish human, do not meddle in the affairs of dragons. Because you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

Food for thought. :)

Waiting on Wednesday: 1.20.10

Thanks to El Nino we've been hit with a never-ending series of storms. That's why I haven't been around the past few days. The wind is blowing at a constant 40 mph around here, and it's possible I could lose power at any moment. So why drop in to do a WoW post? Well, you know what they say: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays this blogger from waiting on more books." (Or something like that...)

The Agency 1: A Spy in the House by Y. S. Lee

About the Book (from Amazon.com): "Rescued from the gallows in 1850s London, young orphan (and thief) Mary Quinn is surprised to be offered a singular education, instruction in fine manners — and an unusual vocation. Miss Scrimshaw’s Academy for Girls is a cover for an all-female investigative unit called The Agency, and at seventeen, Mary is about to put her training to the test. Assuming the guise of a lady’s companion, she must infiltrate a rich merchant’s home in hopes of tracing his missing cargo ships. But the household is full of dangerous deceptions, and there is no one to trust — or is there? Packed with action and suspense, banter and romance, and evoking the gritty backstreets of Victorian London, this breezy mystery debuts a daring young detective who lives by her wits while uncovering secrets — including those of her own past."

I love the title treatment of this cover. I do like the bright colors of the UK one better, but overall this is a better cover in my opinion. The plot description reminds me of an Ann Rinaldi book I read once. She's one of my favorite historical fiction authors, but for the life of me I can't think which one it was. Oh well, time to reread them I guess. :) Either way, I'm not a big fan of most mysteries, but I LOVE historical mysteries. So I'm excited for this one.

Apparently this is already out in the UK. So for any of you UK readers out there, have you read it? What did you think?

The Agency 1: A Spy in the House will be released (in the US) on March 9th. You can currently pre-order it from Amazon.com. If you don't want to wait that long, you may be able to find a copy of the UK version online too:

LOL of the week: Your Cheesburger

I first saw this one about two years ago, but it still remians one of my favorites:


If you'd like to learn more about LOLcats, you can check out the website, or read my review of the book.

Have a great week!

Source of the Last 15 Books I've Reviewed

So I'm really bad about remembering to post those FTC disclosure notices on the bottom of my review posts. So I'm borrowing this idea from Sharon Loves Books and Cats, who in turn got it from Presenting Lenore. Thank you to both blogs for giving me the idea for this format.

Instead of posting individually, I am going to list where the last 15 books I've reviewed came from. Now Lenore and Sharon both did this in groups of 20, but I haven't posted a lot of reviews lately, so I think 15 is a better number so I don't end up going back too far. So every 15 reviews you'll see a new list like this.

These are in reverse chronological order, starting with the most recent:

Never After by Dan Elconin - Received from the author after I responded to his email request
Penguin's Special Christmas Tree by Jeannie St. John Taylor and Molly Idle - From publisher
Believe: A Christmas Treasury by Mary Engelbreit - Public library
Mary Engelbreit's A Merry Little Christmas: Celebrate from A to Z by Mary Engelbreit - Public library
A Very Mary Christmas: A Collection of Holiday Art by Mary Engelbreit - Paperbackswap
The Legend of Holly Claus by Brittney Ryan and Laurel Long - Bookmooch
Holly Claus: The Christmas Princess by Brittney Ryan and Laurel Long - Purchased via Amazon
Christmastime by Sandra Boynton - I don't know where this came from, actually. It's been in our family since before I can remember. I assume we either got it as a gift or purchased it at some point.
Humphrey's First Christmas by Carol Heyer - Sent by publisher after interviewing the author for Robert's Snow 2007
Magic Trixie by Jill Thompson - From publisher
A Coming Evil by Vivian Vande Velde - School library
The House Next Door by Richie Tankersley Cusick - School library, then Bookmooch
The Haunted Mansion by Various - Purchased by me
The Ghost Files by The Ghost Society - From publisher
Halloween by Jerry Seinfeld and James Bennett - Children's Lit class at school

So that's 15. After another 15 reviews I'll be back to do this again, just in case I keep forgetting the FTC things.

Reminder for Design a Button Contest

Just a quick reminder that tomorrow (Friday) is you last day to submit a design for the Design a Button contest. You have until midnight PST to submit an entry.

Good luck! I'll be announcing my two winners soon.

Review: Never After

Never After Dan Elconin

16-year-old Ricky Darlin is sick of his life. He'd much rather be spending his time on the mysterious tropical paradise he keeps dreaming about: "The Island". So when a teenager named Peter shows up at his window one night and offers to fly him there, Ricky jumps at the chance to leave everything behind.

Once they get to the Island, however, things don't go as planned. It turns out Peter's not nearly as nice as he pretends to be. And while the Island is certainly beautiful, it's also full of dangers, one of which is Peter himself. Ricky is rescued by a ragtag group of boys (and one girl) led by the slightly insane James Hooke, who the group refers to as "Captain". No one seems to know what Peter's motives are, but unfortunately he's the only way to get off the Island and back home. And Peter's zombie-like Lost Boys aren't going to make capturing Peter easy.

I would personally call this more of a re-imagining of Peter Pan than a retelling. The reason being that some things have the same names, but so many things are different that if you didn't know the story of Peter Pan and you no one told you it was based on Peter Pan, you'd probably think you'd picked up a great adventure story.

And the book is full of plenty of adventure. The other great thing are the characters. Ricky and his friends act exactly like the people I knew in high school, and they have a gritty realness about them that adds dimension to the story. Dan Elconin has also mastered the art of the suspenseful chapter ending, which gives the story pull and makes it move along at a fairly quick pace.

Now, I think I have to mention at this point that I didn't finish the book. While I can see a lot of merit here, there were a few things that bothered me. Namely the profanity, which is quite prevalent. These characters act like teenager with all the swearing and behavior that you would expect from teens dealing with dysfunctional homes. So I understand why it's there. But that is something personally that I don't enjoy reading. Once I found myself scanning the pages rather than fully reading them I put the book down. I was more 100 pages in by that point, so I think I have a pretty good handle on the book without knowing how it ends. The profanity certainly won't bother some readers, and that's great, but I would not be writing an honest review if I didn't mention it. Because honestly, I would have finished the book if it hadn't been for that.

So not my sort of thing, but I can see how other people would love this book. Because of the profanity issue and some of the other things the characters discuss, I definitely wouldn't give this to say a 12-year-old. But older teens (especially ones who love adventure books) will probably enjoy this. For those readers who are desperately searching for a strong male protagonist in YA lit, this would certainly be a good choice.

Listen to Me on the Radio

Don't forget that today I'm appearing as a guest on A Book and A Chat.

I'll be on at 6:30 p.m. EST. So that's 5:30 Central time, 4:30 Mountain time, or 3:30 if you're on the Pacific coast like me. Stop by to listen and you can even send me questions via phone or chat while the show is on.

There's still lots more guests for YA Radio Month after me too, so check out the show blog for details on that, and to listen to past shows (and mine too, if you miss it).

Check out my guest post!

So although I've been interviewed a couple times before, today saw the birth of my first guest post. Yay! First of all, I want to double thank anyone who has ever done a guest post for this blog in the past. I didn't realize these were so much work!

Anyway, you find my post today over at Melanie's Musings. Melanie is having a week celebrating Beauty and the Beast and asked me to write a post about why I love that story so much.

So head over there to comment. I am dying to know what you all think. Did I do okay?

Work in Progress

Thank you to everyone who has commented on my two posts involving stolen content. Your comments have been both helpful and uplifting.

I hadn't planned it this way, but based on some of the comments I've been receiving, I am going to do a few more series of posts on this topic. This is a serious issue, and I want to share the information I've been learning with my fellow bloggers so we can fight this together.

Right now I'm planning additional posts on these topics: How to tell if you content has been stolen, Steps to take when you become a victim of plagiarism, How to protect your work against future theft, and Tips for making sure you don't inadvertently steal someone's work. I'm going to continue the research I've been doing and spread these out over the next few weeks so you are bogged down in such a serious topic all the time. I don't want the tone of my blog to be like that, but this is important, so it will have to simply be like that some of the time over the next few days.

In the meantime, if you have any tips or suggestions you'd like to offer on any of these topics, please send me an email at shadyglade(AT)mail(DOT)com. As I said, I'm doing lots of research on this, but no amount of typing things into Google can compare with personal experience.

Okay, now I promise on to happier things. I appreciate you hanging in there with me through this.

Stolen Content: Why Should I Care?

In response to my plea to bloggers about stolen content, the comment came up that someone didn't really care if their work was stolen. I respect that perspective, but I do want to respond to this in a new post, hence today's addition. I've found out a lot of things as I've researched this topic, and I want to share what I've learned/think with everyone else

I also want to take a quick moment and point out that I am specifically talking about posting someone's entire post (or a great part of it) word for word without giving credit or getting permission from the author. Quoting a small bit of a post and then linking back to the owner is not stealing, and it doesn't apply in this situation.

So your blog content has been stolen. Does it really matter? That's a compliment right? That someone likes your work enough to steal it?

Wrong. Most of these sites (usually called "spam blogs" or "splogs" for short) are completely run by automated software. It's not a compliment to your hard work at all. Your blog just happened to be the one picked out of literally millions of other websites to be slurped from. In the event that the site isn't automated, the blog owner happened to find the right combination of keywords to get his/her blog higher in your post, and that's why you were chosen. It's not a compliment, it's just bad luck.

Why would someone be looking for certain keywords?

The name of the game is money. Many of these blogs use things like Google AdSense to make money. By using certain types of keywords, these sites can appear higher in search engine ratings (this is called search engine optimization, or SEO). Higher SEO = more traffic, and more traffic = more money.

So why should I care about that?

Well, maybe it's just me, but how do you feel about someone making money off of something you created instead of you? If that doesn't bother you, then I guess it's kind of a moot point. Personally, if someone's going to be making money off my writing, I want to be the person making that money. Also, the splog in question may be beating your blog in the search engine results, meaning you're getting cheated out of blog traffic you worked to create.

The money doesn't bother me, so it doesn't matter. After all, you take a risk when you post stuff on the Internet.

That is true, you do take a risk when you post stuff to the internet. You may think lightly about someone stealing your content, and that's fine. But that doesn't change the fact that it's just plain WRONG. Would you feel the same way if someone broke into your house and stole your computer/TV/iPod/etc.? So maybe that's comparing apples and oranges a little bit, but it's the idea behind the act that counts.

I once heard a quote (can't remember who from) that said "the only thing needed for evil to triumph is for good people to stand by and do nothing". It's the same way for this. If we want it to stop someday then we need to stand up for our rights. And it is a right. The content your write for your blog is automatically protected under copyright laws. You ARE the owner of that content. It's against the law to steal your content. But if we don't stand up for our rights as protected under that law, does it matter if the law was broken? And if no one stands up for a law, then is it effective? A law that no one follows isn't a law anymore.

Let's face it. Most of us would feel awful is something like this happened to our own blog. But there are (and always will be) some who it just doesn't matter to. So if after reading this you still don't care if your content is stolen, that's fine. Everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion, and I respect that. But I feel that I would be standing by and doing nothing if I didn't point out the reasons why I care. I am willing to fight for my rights as a blogger, even if I am alone in thinking that way.

Stolen Content: An Urgent Plea to Bloggers

It saddens me that I have to write a post like this, but unfortunately I feel I must. Today I happened to find a blog that was stealing content from other blogs, two of which I am familiar with. I'm not going to link to the blog because they don't deserve to get a hike in their numbers, but I feel I do need to speak out.

I happened to come across this because of a Google Alert I have set up with my blog name. One of the stolen blogs had written a post mentioning my blog name and so it showed up in the same Google alert as under a different website. It was obvious as soon as clicking over that this blog DID NOT write the post in question (as well as every other post there) and did not give credit to the people who had written the content.

Please, please, please if you ever notice a blog where posts appear to be stolen, contact the owner of the original blog right away. It may turn out they were reposted with permission, but it's better to play it safe than sorry.

Stealing someone's posts is WRONG. It doesn't matter if it's on the internet, that post still belongs to the person who wrote it and is protected under copyright law. The thing that really gets me mad about this blog is one of the feeds they are stealing from has a copyright notice written into each and every post to prevent this from happening. And although they didn't remove it, they did twist it around so it meant something completely different. Quoting someone and linking back to their post is fine (and I think should be encouraged) but do so with the permission of the person who wrote it. We bloggers are a pretty friendly lot (generally speaking), and a quick email just to check will suffice.

Now, if this has happened to any of you reading this, what did you do to respond? I've been looking for things all day, but I have yet to find a good, definitive source on how to take care of this sort of thing. If anyone has any links/suggestions/etc. please leave them in the comments.

We're all in this together. Let's help support our fellow bloggers and keep our eyes open for stolen content.

Okay, plea over. We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.

Contest Roundup: January 11

So I'm still pretty busy with our company this week, so I'm going to make this a really quick roundup. I promise I'll have a larger one next week.

As far as contest news goes here at The Shady Glade, don't forget Friday is your absolute last day to enter the Design a Button contest. Also, I finally picked a comment contest prize for January: The Miles Between. So make sure you check out the rule post for that if you haven't already.

Moving on, Jessica from Shut Up! I'm Reading has a celebration going on since she's reached 200 followers. 4 winners will get the chance to pick from a list of books including Hearts at Stake. Open internationally, ends Feb 14.

The lovely Celi.a is having a contest to celebrate the new year and her new job with $25 to spend at The Book Depository. All you have to do is tell her your beverage of choice while reading. Open internationally, ends Jan 20.

Sammee from I Want to Read That has reached 100 followers and is celebrating with a 30-pound trip to the Book Depository (30 pounds because she's in the UK, but I'm in the US, so I have the dollar sign ($) instead of the fancy L for pounds on my keyboard. So just imagine it there.) Obviously open internationally and ends Jan 25.

La Femme Readers is also having a book of your choice giveaway. Lots of those going around. :-) Two winners (US only) will be allowed to pre-order a 2010 release book of their choice (under $25). Ends Feb 15

So that's it for me this roundup. I hope you found some great contests to enter!

LOL of the Week: Sink Trouble

If you'd like to learn more about LOLcats, you can check out the website, or read my review of the book.

Have a great week!

Ramblings: Book Countdowns

Yeah, I know I'm supposedly on vacation from blogging for a bit. I guess I just can't stay away.

So I've had some blog-related thoughts tumbling around my head lately. (Who am I kidding? I constantly think about blogging!) And one that keeps coming up is blogger pet peeves. Now, this post isn't really about that, but it lead to the thought for this post and I'd like to hear what you all about it:

So what do you think about book countdown widgets?

You know the ones I'm talking about. Those things you see posted in sidebars all over the blogosphere that countdown the days, hours, and minutes until a book is released. So really, I want to know what you think of them. Are the cool? Stupid? What about seeing them used in blogs? Do you like to see them attached to reviews of that particular book? In the sidebar? At the bottom of the blog? How many should you have? How many is too many? Do you even pay attention to them? In what context should they be used on a blog (i.e. if a blogger is looking forward to that book, if the blogger has reviewed/will review that book from an ARC, if the author was a guest on the blog, etc.)?

Leave your thoughts in the comments below. Maybe we'll get some discussion going on this one.

Comment Challenge 2010

Totally forgot to post this earlier, but better late than never!

I know many of you are participating in the Bloggiesta this weekend, so here's another good challenge for you.

Courtesy of MotherReader, it's time for the second annual Comment Challenge 2010. Since it takes 21 days to form a habit, the idea is to make at least 5 comments per day for 21 days. You can read all the details at the original post and then visit this post to sign up.

And yes, there are prizes! I know I've seen a lot of resolutions to comment more the past week or so in the blogosphere, so get out there and start commenting. :)

Where am I?

Don't worry, I'm still around. I just have a few things that have been keeping me from the blog lately. First of all, our family is currently hosting an Australian exchange student for the next two weeks, so lots of my evenings are busy with that. Secondly, my dad happened to pass on his latest cold, so I've been spending a lot of time trying to rid myself of migraine headaches caused by sinus pressure. Yuck.

And lastly, I'm kind of tired out by all the action lately. First the Cybils, then A Shady Glade Christmas, and then the 12 Blogs of Christmas was a lot of work. And I think it's time to rest for a little bit.

I'm not going to disappear completely, but I may be posting a little less for the next week or so. I'm going to try and catch up on my reading too, so hopefully I'll have some new reviews for you coming soon.

In the meantime, here's wishing all of you happy reading adventures.

Just FYI

In case you haven't been keeping an eye on it, the Best of 2009 roundup has just been updated.

January Comment Contest: Win a Copy of The Miles Between

I know that we are already a week into January, but I was kind of debating about which book I should feature this month. So now that I've decied, it's time to post about it.

How to enter: Each qualifying comment you leave on this blog equals one entry into the pot. The more you comment, the better chance you have at winning. Your fate is in your own hands. So if you really want the book, comment a lot!At the end of the month I randomly pick one winner for the prize. It's that easy. Qualifying comments do not include "please enter me" or other contest-related comments.

The prize for this month is a new hardback copy of The Miles Between by Mary E. Pearson. To win it, comment away until 11:59 p.m. PST on January 31st. The top 10 commentors will get extra entries into the contest. You can check the top 10 using the widget in the left sidebar.

About the Book (from Amazon.com): "Destiny Faraday makes a point of keeping her distance from her classmates at Hedgebrook Academy. Her number-one rule: Don’t get attached. But one day, unexpectedly finding a car at their disposal, Destiny and three of her classmates embark on an unauthorized road trip.

They’re searching for one fair day—a day where the good guy wins and everything adds up to something just and right. Their destination: Langdon, a town that Destiny’s unsuspecting companions hope will hold simply a day of fun. But, as Destiny says, “Things are not always what they seem.” Only she knows that Langdon holds far more than that—a deep secret she has never shared with anyone.

The Miles Between explores the wonder and magic of a very real world where chance, mystery, and secrets abound."