I arrived back home this afternoon and then had a 50th wedding anniversary for my aunt and uncle, followed by a bonfire with friends. I am exhausted – but excited to share with you the great reads I completed this weekend and what arrived in my mailbox this past week.
All of this will have to wait until Monday as I am so tired out! Lots of info coming your way – this should be a great week! Come back often! 🙂
** This is a sticky post – meaning this post will stay on top for weekend but new posts will be below! 🙂
We are finally catching a little break and Al and I are heading to our cabin on the North Shore for the weekend. While I will be taking my lap top (I am like Linus and the lap top is my security blanket) I do not believe I will have access to the internet unless I actively seek it out! That being said, you can see here that I am reading ready – even though I have a book case full of unread books at the cabin.
What I am taking with amounts to two blog tour reads for next week, a book on Minnesota, and a couple bonus books! 🙂
While I am away I still have posts prepped to come out throughout the weekend so stop by! I have a book review, morning meanderings and more!
I will be home later Sunday to post In My Mailbox and on Monday we will tackle the CNN bookshelf! Yeah!
What are your plans for the weekend?
♥Have a safe and happy weekend everyone! ♥
Sheila
I was just having a conversation on Twitter about how we as bloggers keep track of our books as they
come in, blog tours…. what we sign up for, etc…
As I have become more involved in blogging these past few months I have realized that I really need to keep track of the books and where they come from (they don’t always come with paper work!) as well as blog tours, giveaways, etc…
Currently I am using an agenda book where I record all book related things…. but chatting with Jamie, from Revenge of the Book Nerds on Twitter, she is using Google calendar and I bet that works pretty slick.
Well… this morning I am still on Alvor…. loving it but with busy commitments I just havent had the time to really sit 
down and read it through…. hopefully today is the day and I have a bit of time blocked off this afternoon for just this book!
I have a few others waiting for me that I can not wait to dig into! The Sign For Drowning is one I have been looking forward to…
When she was a child, Anna stood at the water’s edge beside her mother, both of them helplessly frozen as they watched an ocean wave capsize the boat carrying Anna’s younger sister, Megan. In that singular, life-changing instant, Anna envisioned Megan fighting off “monsoon rains with every turn of her neck. Earthquakes broke fault lines with each kick of her leg. Every thrashing of her arms brought forest fires somewhere. Opening her mouth caused volcanoes to erupt. In this way, she left us.”
Sounds great huh?
When The Sun Goes Down came in quite a while ago and I really need to get this one read. This book is a bit different and is actually about planning your funeral – and no, I am not in a hurry that I know of -LOL. I believe I have many good years left. I think I chose this in my early book blog days when I was still at that “let me review all books!” stage! Well -we will see… it may surprise me.
Stray Affections is on for a blog tour next week that I would love to get read this week.
The last thing that Cassand
ra Higgins expects out of her Sunday is to be mesmerized at a collectors convention by a snowglobe. Shes enjoying some mommy time, with husband Ken at home tending their brood of four young boys, when shes utterly charmed by the one-of-a kind globe containing figures of three dogs and a little girl with hair the color of her own. She cant resist taking the unique globe home even if means wrestling another shopper for it!
We (Al and I) are on track this weekend to head to our cabin up North and I will be taking Bran Hambric with me for the drive. I have no internet reception there and a weekend “unplugged” means more reading time! 🙂
It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? (This meme comes from J Kayes Blog – be sure to pop over and see what she is reading as well as what many others are reading this week. You can add your list to her Mr Linky!)
I just over visiting Jamie at Revenge of The book Nerds and she is requesting that we book bloggers offer up a picture of what we look like. Since I am currently working on my In My Mailbox post (which usually takes me a bit of time) and I am a bit bummed that I have not yet posted today due to life craziness that seems to surround me… I thought – why not?
So here is me…. If you want to help Jamie with her quest, check out her blog, Revenge of The Book Nerds and link to her post.
This is actually me and my super hero (non fiction) Al. This was taken at my cousins home yesterday afternoon in their photo booth. They had a photo booth at their wedding last year and thought it was so cool they bought it and now it sits in their home.
This is last month, the end of July in Duluth Minnesota. From left to right: Sara, Heidi, me, and Cindy
Recently I have had the pleasure of chatting with Dave Lateiner about his book blog. What makes 
Dave’s blog so interesting – is that not only does Dave write book reviews, but so does his wife Mara and their two daughters Lauryn and Sami. How super fun is that?
So tonight, I am pleased to offer you this interview I have completed with the Lateiner Gang to see how book blogging became a part of their lives. Please help me welcome them. While Dave is the one responding to my questions, the whole family has had input in the responses.
Welcome Dave, Mara, Lauryn, and Sami! I just love the idea of your whole family blogging about books! Please tell me a little bit about how this came to be.
Dave: We have been reading books for a very long time. My wife and I 33, have been reading since we were little kids. Our daughters Lauryn and Sami, 11 and 9, have been reading or read to since they were infants. By 1 years old, they were each able to read. Lauryn’s favorite to read was “Just like Ernie” from Sesame Street. Believe it or not, at 1, she was able to read the whole book by memory! Sami’s favorite was book was “Pat the Bunny”, which she could also recite by memory. We usually read about 2 hours minimum a night each. I (dad) had started using the website a year or so ago to go to blogs and read reviews, get recommendations, and share how I felt about books I read. Soon after, the rest of the Lateiner Gang had found themselves doing the same thing.
A few months back, we received an ARC for Suzanne Colllins “Catching Fire”, the sequel to “The Hunger Games”. As part of the deal of getting it, Lauryn was required to write a review for Scholastic of what she thought of the book. She LOVED writing the review. It dawned upon us then that this would not only be a great family project, but a way to give back to the all the authors, bloggers, publishers, and most importantly, fellow readers. So that is how The Lateiner Gang Book Review Spot was born. The idea was that with a gazillion other blog sites out there, ours would stand out as there are 4 of us, typically who read different genres and kinds of books, therefore able to give 4 sets f opinion rather than the standard 1.
How long have you been blogging?
Dave: We have been going on blogs for well over a year and reading reviews, adding our comments and getting suggestions from other readers. After doing this for some time, we just decided to open our own site and see where it goes from there. We have been “live for a few months but posted our first tactual review on July 26th on James Dashner’s “The Maze Runner”. From there, we started off slowly, but are quickly picking up the pace. Our idea was to really review books and interview authors that were our favorites. Posting about every single book is ok for some people, but the one thing our readers know is that if they see a book on our site review or an author interviewed, then we love them. so in about a 6 weeks of “actual” content, we have had appx 1500 hits and just under 30 followers. Of course, having a semi- background in marketing, myself and my wife have taught the children as well as us doing it ourselves, how and where to market our site. The other thing we do is try to CONSTANTLY give away books as contacts. And not usually any book, GREAT books that are usually signed ARC’s and occasionally an already published book that we loved. We have already formed some relationships with some authors as well as Publishers.
Wow! You have really put a lot of work into your blogging! Are you all naturally avid readers?
Dave: It depends on what your definition if an “Avid” reader is…the kids and wife usually spend about 2 hours a day minimum reading and then more time on the computer doing research or posting our link anywhere an everywhere they can to spread the word. Me, I usually spend about 3 hours night reading (more if there is a book i just CAN NOT put down, then I read until it is finished. I also spend plenty of time advertising for our site and coming up with good ideas…That reminds me, I will post about this, but I recently learned how to change the background and add a 3rd column to our site, so real soon (possibly over the weekend) , look for the site to look soooo much better!
Do each of you have certain genres that you like to read?
Dave: Mara tries to read biographies or books written about people for example, “Candy Land ” buy Candy Spelling and her daughter’s book ,” Mommywood” by Tori Spelling as well as Chelsea Handler’s book. She will also read something like “The Accidental Millionaires” about the 2 guys who started up facebook. Occasionally, Mara will stray and pick something up that I have to twist her arm until she reads it and then loves it.
Dave: I would suppose the same as any other household, come home from work, have some dinner, read, watch a bit of Television (only our favorite shows) and then either back to reading or working on our site, either posting, reading emails, or doing research as to how to improve. We are always looking at ways to improve. Always. Oh, and we typically take a walk many nights in the week. We live close to the center of our town, so we try to walk in there and just hang out for a little while, maybe pick up some Starbucks or hang out with other families we know. It’s that type of town w live in. Shhhh, don’t tell my family, but I wait for them all to go to sleep, then I crack open a book for another hour or so until I just can’t read anymore. I ALWAYS carry a book with me wherever I go.
LOL… your secret is safe with me! What are you trying to accomplish through your blogging?
Dave: Our main goal is really to be a part of a community. We feel like we owe these wonderful authors and all of those who have inspired us to start a blog, as well as readers. We want to give back to them what they have given to us, happiness, referrals on books, and opinions. We have read so many books that have been suggested online. As a matter of fact, many times when we post, we ask that if you are going to write a post, please include a favorite book you recently read or a book you plan to read in the near future. We get such a rush from writing a review, or interviewing an author. It’s crazy, we get so excited at every single follow up comment that someone leaves. It’s a feeling almost when an actor on stage finishes a performance, he gets an ovation. Well, we get that same feeling when people write how much they enjoyed our review, or now because of our review they are going to pick up a book they didn’t even know about or were on the fence on. We also get so psyched about giving away books. We are currently running 2 contests for AMAZING books, James Dashner’s “The Maze Runner” and new author, Laura Bingham’s “Alvor”. Our goal is to constantly be running contests of the best books we can get our hands on. Next is “FIre”, the prequel to the best selling book “Graceling” by Kristin Cashore.
As fairly new reviewers, do you have any questions you would like to put out there to the more experienced bloggers?
Dave: WE would love to know how to form relationships with publishers, authors, etc. to be able to get books to review and give away. So far, we have just been spending time on the phone and email and it seems to be working, but there has to be an easier way. Also, since I am a numbers guy, I was curious what sort of numbers were average, or above average…For example, how many followers do you expect over a certain amount of time? How many hits on your site can you expect over a certain amount of time? Besides this interview ;O) where and how are the best ways to advertise our site. Anything else you want to share with us, please feel free as we always keep our eyes and ears open for good ideas!
Thank you Dave and the rest of the Lateiner Gang for stopping by One Persons Journey Through a World of Books and sharing with us! Readers, I encourage you to stop by their blog at The Lateiner Gang Book Review Spot and give them a warm welcome.
Dave: Thank you so much for the opportunity to do this interview.
I love the two sales our Local Library does each year. One in the spring (Aprilish) and one in the fall. 
The fall one was yesterday and even though I was moving my son to college on this same day – he knows me well enough to say that we will leave after I return home from the book sale.
At 8:30 am (later then my usual arrival time but had a commitment prior) I take my spot in line, anticipating the 9 am opening of the doors… I suspect feeling much like the kids felt that waited outside Wonka Land in the movie Charlie and The Chocolate Factory.
At 9:00 am…. the doors open and I am in!!! Books, books, everywhere! I start
where I always do, in the oversize paperback section, my favorite book format. I have wisely tucked money in my pocket as I know better then to try to fight through the crowds with a purse. There is also the inevitable crawling under the tables of books where they stack the overstock.
I emerge by 9:45 am with a $26 total. That’s right…. 52 books. This spring I had spent $35 so I have done better…LOL
Here are my purchases:
Time To Read!!!I just came back from a wonderful weekend adventure with two friends, Heidi and Sara, and a new buddy – Heidi’s daughter Camryn. We traveled about 4 hours from home to Rochester, MN to spend a couple nights in a hotel eating a lot of delicious (but not healthy) food and by day hanging out walking the 1500+ vendors with antiques.
Heidi purchased a beautiful pair of antique lamps that will wonderful in her home as well as a few other items, Sara and Camryn as well made some small purchases.
Me? I found seven Nancy Drew books (the originals) that I was excited about as I have wanted to start finding all of them as well as the original Hardy Boys. Two series I had spent much of my childhood with.
So pictured here are the seven books, I know I have many to find – but this gives me a good start!
The titles are:
My Nancy Drew hunt continues…
I recently had a comment that has left me in thought…. a commenter said something to the effect that they did not have book friends in the “real world”.
Real world.
This is not about the comment, as the comment is great and I am in full agreement that there is a separation of sorts. It just got me thinking about the “real world.” If my home where I sit and tap tap tap away on my keyboard is the real world… then who are you that I tap tap tap to?
I have mentioned in recent postings that I am fairly new to all of this and I know I have a long ways to go and I actually love that I am still in the learning phase… and maybe I always will be.
Yet, I think – or maybe I hope – I have made genuine friendships in the blogging community. In the past two months that I have seriously book blogged, I have talked books with great bloggers who I know by name. Who in many cases I know by face. If I had a chance to meet them in person, I believe I could pick them out of a line up. And maybe that’s just the way I am wired…. I enjoy meeting people and I enjoy talking books…. face to face and computer to computer.
I have emailed back and forth with bloggers who have answered my questions, and in turn, thanks to those who have helped me…. I have been able to help others. Maybe I am not sitting in a cafe with a delicious mocha latte (uhh…no whip) in one hand and discussing the latest and greatest read with you across the table with the scent of coffee beans in the air…. but sometimes I feel that I am.
I am rambling. 🙂
The question I want to put out there is – what do you think? Are the book blogging relationships, relationships at all? Are they real to you? How would you describe this world?
Kristen at Bookworming in the 21st Century, put out a Twitter last week looking for newer book bloggers to interview on her blog. I responded and asked if I would qualify with 7 weeks in. I did.
Today, Kristen featured my interview and I am just thrilled with how great it looks. Thank you Kristen truly!
Kristens Blog has great reviews and features. Take time to stop by and see for yourself.
Book Journey 