March 2010

That's a Wrap - March 2010

It hasn't been as big a month here at Page Turners as in February 2010, but I will summarise what I've got up to in any event.

There are two exciting things today that I want to share with you first up:

1. The first is that this morning I received The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck from Mrs Q: Book Addict, which I won from her a few weeks ago. She has a great blog you should all check out, and I am very grateful that she has sent me this book all the way from Canada to Australia!

2. The second is that I finally finished The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James last night. It was my very first Henry James book. I really loved it when I started reading it. It has that lovely, old-fashioned detailed writing that I adore. The problem is, as the book went on and on...and on... and on.... I just found that I had lost all enjoyment, and I was forcing my way through it. Anyway, more on that in my review, I just needed to try and get it out of my system and announce to the world that I am proud for actually persevering to the end!

This month I decided to put some of my special features on hold. I am finding my work very time consuming at the moment, and I have decided to spend less time on the computer at home. The result is I haven't been able to keep up with everything I would like to. In the end though, it's all about the reading, and that's what I prefer to spend my time doing.

So, to compromise, I decided to give up some my own special features rather than the memes that I love participating in. I have also given up my competitions for the moment.

Some of you may remember that I had a feature called "Thoughtful Thursdays", basically where I discussed book and blog related questions that I had been thinking about. I am toying with a new idea - rather than have this as a regular feature, I will post any such thoughts and discussions as they come to my mind and label them with "Literary Thoughts".

Milestones

1. I did start a new meme called Book Beginnings on Friday.

Here is my introduction to it: "Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence of your current read, making sure that you include the title and author, so others know what you're reading. If you like, share with everyone why you do, or do not, like the sentence."

A lot of people have started to participate in it, and I would love it if even more people did! It's a bit like Teaser Tuesday really, only it's the first sentence of the book. Gillion from Rose City Reader gave me the idea.

2. 100+ Followers

I reached 100 followers this month which is very exciting. Click here to see my thank you message to everyone. I know it's not supposed to be about how many followers you have, and it's important to keep sight of the reason of we start our blogs, but given how much effort we all put in, I think it's OK to admit being excited about having followers and knowing that there are other out there reading and enjoying your blog. So, thanks.

3. Book club

I went to my first ever Book Club on Sunday with a friend of mine and I absolutely loved it! I can't wait to go to another book club. I haven't decided yet whether I will have a separate post where I discuss my experience at the book club, or if I will include this in the review of the book that we discussed. We will soon see.

Reviews

I reviewed 5 books this month:

Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards
The Secret River by Kate Grenville
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

I actually read 6 books this month, but I have yet to review The Legacy by Kirsten Tranter (I have been waiting for the book club before I reviewed it) and The Portrait of a Lady Henry James (which I finished last night, thank goodness).

Special Features and Memes

On Great Authors I discussed:

• JK Rowling

On Wonderfully Short Wednesday I discussed:

• The Blockade by Sushma Joshi

On Thoughtful Thursday I discussed:

• Dust jackets
• How do you broaden your reading?
• Unfinished series

On Lights Camera Blog Action I featured:

• Reading Extensively
• Caroline Bookbinder
• YS Princess's Ideas, Resources and Reviews
• A Literary Odyssey

PLEASE NOTE: I have no one scheduled for Light's Camera Blog Action this coming Friday, so if anyone is interested, please email me at pageturnersbooks@gmail.com and I will send you the questions asap.

On Book Beginnings on Friday, I discussed:

• The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James 26 March 2010
• The Spare Room by Helen Garner 20 March 2010
• Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier 12 March 2010
• The Legacy by Kirsten Tranter 5 March 2010

On A Blast from the Past, I discussed:

• Freddie and the Enormous by Hugh Scott
• The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
• The Hobbit by JRR Tolkein
• Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

Challenges

I am plodding along with all my challenges, you can see a list of all of them by clicking here. This month I decided to keep a record of them all in my sidebar, so if anyone is interested in my progress, they can have a quick look. I try to keep them as up to date as possible. I was going so well with the New Authors Challenge, that I have decided to change from goal from 15 to 50!

And that is it for March.

I would love to hear how everyone went this month - if anyone has a wrap up post of their own, please leave me a link so I can have a look. Happy reading to everyone in April!