The Book Zombie: Weekly Geeks

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Weekly Geeks 2009-12 … Link Love

This weeks assignment for Weekly Geeks is something I’ve been meaning to do for so long, but just never got around to. The idea is one that Dewey used in the very second edition of the original Weekly Geeks. So it’s super awesome that Chris chose this one for us all to take part in.

Here’s what we’re to do:

1. Write a post encouraging readers to look through your archives (if you have your reviews in a particular place on your blog, point them there), and find the books that they have also written reviews. Tell them to leave a link to their review on your review post. For example, I've written a review for Gods Behaving Badly and Jane Doe leaves a link to her review of Gods Behaving Badly in the comments section of my review.

2. Edit your reviews to include those links in the body of the review post.

3. Visit other Weekly Geeks and go through their reviews. Leave links for them.

4. Leave a note somewhere on your blog to let people know this is your new policy.

5. Write a post later this week letting us know how your project is going!

This is a big undertaking but as Dewey put it, it's 'community building'. Have fun!

I’m a bit late to this week’s project, but I plan to spend what’s left of the week looking through all fellow Geekers archives and linking up to any I’ve done. This is something I try to do whenever I post about books, because it’s a terrific way of providing exposure to a whole whack of opinions and perspectives. Normally I would just search out reviews from blog that I’m subscribed to in Google Reader. But I’ve just learned of a wonderful resource created by Nicki of Fyrefly’s Bookblog called the Book Blogs Search Engine. Testing it out I searched for the title of a book sitting on my TBReviewed pile using these search terms "Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic"+ review and voila 2 pages of blog posts about this book!

And if, I’ve reviewed a book that you have too, but I don’t have a link to you – just let me know and I’ll add one. You can leave a comment on my blog, or send me a message at shiloki@gmail.com

As I was looking through some of the Weekly Geek posts this week I was struck by this …

“please please please don't be shy about leaving links. The reason why I'm saying this is because I can feel reluctant about it myself. I worry that I'll look like a spammer, even though rationally I know there is no reason to.” - Nymeth @ Things Mean A Lot

The reason why this made such an impression in my mind is because I’m incredibly shy, even when I post someone else’s link I’m worrying that it’s not appropriate, so the idea of commenting on someone’s review and saying “hey I reviewed this too – here is my post” nearly makes me break out in a sweat :P Anyways Nymeth said perfectly what I have been thinking lately. We review books not only for ourselves, but also as helpful guideposts for other readers – so the best thing we can do as a group of book geeks is share as many opinions as we can!

Here is a link to my master list of all the reviews I’ve posted - The Book Zombies Review List They are listed alphabetically by author’s last name and I try to keep it updated at least once a month.

Weekly Geeks 2009-09 Quotable Part 3

For my third instalment of geeky book to film quotes I’ve chosen my very favourite children’s book to be adapted for the big screen – Alice In Wonderland! And it will focus on one of the best parts from both the movie and book. Can you tell yet that my taste in movies and books is across the board genre wise? So far I’ve had quotes from a twisted/comedy-noir/slasher/social-satire and a socio-political/dystopian/sci-fi/thriller.

Book Title
Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland
Author
Lewis Carroll

Movie Title
Alice In Wonderland
Producer
Walt Disney

‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’
‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’
‘I don't know where. . .’
‘Then it doesn't matter which way you go,’ said the Cat.

(I found this artwork on the website of artist Barnaby Ward. You should definitely check out the gorgeous Alice interpretations found there - somefield.com)

‘But I don't want to go among mad people,’ Alice remarked.
‘Oh, you can't help that,’ said the Cat: ‘We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.’
‘How do you know I'm mad?’ said Alice.
‘You must be,’ said the Cat, ‘otherwise you wouldn't have come here.’

Alice didn't think that proved it at all: however she went on.
‘And how do you know that you're mad?’
‘To begin with,’ said the Cat, ‘a dog's not mad. You grant that?’
‘I suppose so," said Alice.
‘Well, then,’ the Cat went on, ‘you see a dog growls when it's angry, and wags its tail when it's pleased. Now I growl when I'm pleased, and wag my tail when I'm angry. Therefore I'm mad.’

‘Well! I've often seen a cat without a grin,’ thought Alice; ‘but a grin without a cat! It's the most curious thing I ever saw in all my life!’

Weekly Geeks 2009-09 Quotable Part 2

This weeks Geekly assignment handed out by Terri/teelgee is to post a quote a day. There’s no rules, the theme is completely up to us. I’ve decided to post some quotes from film adaptations that I enjoy. Yesterday, I wrote about American Psycho, one of my favourite sick and twisted stories. Today I’m going to go with something a little less bleak. PD James wrote a fascinating dystopian book called Children Of Men which was adapted for the big screen in 2006. While it does start off darkly with humanity at it’s lowest, there is an underlying message to be found of the power of hope and human goodness. I would highly recommend both the novel and the movie.

Book Title
Children Of Men
Author
PD James

Movie Title
Children Of Men
Director
Alfonso Cuarón

"Early this morning, 1 January 2021, three minutes after midnight, the last human being to be born on earth was killed in a pub brawl in a suburb of Buenos Aires, aged twenty-five years, two months and twelve days."

"But what do you believe?
I don't just mean religion.
What are you sure of?"

“That once I was not and that now I am.
That one day I shall no longer be."

“As the sound of the playgrounds faded, the despair set in. Very odd, what happens in a world without children's voices.”

Kee: Froley.

Theodore: Froley?

Kee: Name my baby Froley.

Theodore: It's the first baby in 18 years. You can't call it Froley.

Kee: Says who?

"We can experience nothing but the present moment, live in no other second of time, and to understand this is as close as we can get to eternal life."

Weekly Geeks 2009-09 … Quotable

This week's WG brought to us by Terri/teelgee:
“One of my favourite Weekly Geeks last year was: A Quote a Day. This will have you pulling books off your shelves and Googling for your favourites. It also means a post a day for the next week - or as many as you can do.” Quoth Dewey:

You may want to come up with a theme, such as favourite passages from books, author quotes, political quotes, quotes about books or reading, humorous quotes, whatever. Or you may not want a theme at all; maybe you just want to gather up seven assorted quotes that appeal to you. You may want to start each of your posts of the week with a quote, or you may want to give quotes posts of their own in addition to your regular posts. It’s all up to you!

Quotes are awesome, and I really enjoyed this one last time when I chose to do quotes related to my dogs. This time I am going with a theme of quotes from some of my favourite book to film translations. My sense of humor is morbid at best, so let’s start off with a really black comedy. And here we go:

Book Title
American Psycho
Author
Bret Easton Ellis

Movie Title
American Psycho
Director
Mary Harron

Patrick Bateman:
Do you know what Ed Gein said about women?

David Van Patten:
The maitre 'd at Canal Bar?

Patrick Bateman:
No, serial killer, Wisconsin, the '50s

Craig McDermott:
So what did he say?

Patrick Bateman:
"When I see a pretty girl walking down the street, I think two things. One part wants me to take her out, talk to her, be real nice and sweet and treat her right."

David Van Patten:
And what did the other part think?

Patrick Bateman:
"What her head would look like on a stick... ”

Bateman: [laughs] Craig: [laughs] David: [laughs]

Weekly Geeks 2009-05 … Eye Of The Beholder

Judge a Book By Its Cover!
This week it's all about judging books by their covers! Pick a book--any book, really--and search out multiple book cover images for that book. They could span a decade or two (or more)...Or they could span several countries. Which cover is your favourite? Which one is your least favourite? Which one best 'captures' what the book is about?

Further details on Weekly Geeks found here.

I’ve decided to focus on Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
My favourite covers are #4 and #10, my least favoured are #3, #5 and #9.

If you judged a book by it’s cover, which of these Brave New Worlds would you be more likely to pick up?
Which would you pass right by without a second glance?

#1 – Chatto and Windus 1932	#2 – Bantam 1952
This is a first edition cover and for the age of it I like the use of color as a way of showing separation.	Lol – I love these pulp-style covers, and as horrid as this looks it does contain the savage, the desirable woman and the modern city in the background.

#3 – Flamingo 1977	#4 – Harper Perennial 1998
This is a cover that I hate, the clones are appropriate to the book, but it reminds me of the movie I, Robot (which I was not impressed with)	Clones again, yet I like this cover for the way they are presented as faceless, sexless, and all marching to the same beat. There is something attractive about the color scheme also, with the glare of white representing their ‘good’ origin.

#5 – Penguin Readers UK 1999	#6 – Vintage Books 2004
I see this representing one person among a group who cannot conform – but it would be more appropriate to have a male because Lenina, the main female in BNW is more conformist than not.	Again the faceless being is related to everyone being the same and the fetus could be seen as a representation of how babies are being pre-designed and mass produced. A product rather than a person.

#7 – HarperCollins 2004	#8 – Harper Modern Classics 2005
The capsule is a great reference to SOMA – a drug in BNW used to control people. “"All the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects."	Since people in BNW were judged alot on materialistic things/looks, this blue-eyed, blond-haired mannequin-like face strikes me as making a connection to the Aryan power movement.

#9 – Pearson Longman 2005	#10 – Harper Perennial Modern Classics 2006
More faceless, mannequin like clone troops. Not too original and a bit more bland than the others. The title design in this one is a complete turn-off, it blends into the background and it’s strangely spaced.	The mixture of technology with humans is a good connection. The gears could be taken to mean every person is engineered to smoothly interact with all others to make the world one machine comprised of parts that don’t work individually.

#11 – Vintage Canada 2007	#12 – Penguin 2008
The egg is another reference to the design and incubation of humans. The zipper perhaps saying that the human inside has no control, rather it is the creator that decides when they are ready to hatch.	This is the only cover that focuses on the creator of the brave new world, although his clones are still present as he seems to watch over them. For me it is a little too reminiscent of 1984’s Big Brother ideal.

Geekalicious !

geekalicious
- Someone who is a geek to the extreme but still has social skills.
example: My friend Lilac is geekalicious. you should really ask her out.
UrbanDictionary.Com

As the definition above proves, being Geekalicious is actually a great thing – so who’s ready to get geeky?

Check out WeeklyGeeks.Com for the return of the Weekly Geeks Event! Grab a button for your blog while your there to show off just how geekalicious you really are!

Weekly Geeks 27 – This One’s For You, Dewey

I’ve been reading books all my life. It’s hard to remember a time when I didn’t have a book in my hand. One day while searching for opinions on a certain book, I stumbled across The Hidden Side Of A Leaf, a bookish site run by a sassy woman named Dewey. I checked out a couple pots and was instantly drawn in by Dewey’s friendly, informative and ‘real’ book talk. Why do I say ‘real’ you may think? Easy, if you’ve ever read Dewey’s posts, you may have noticed her writing style is so comfortable that you feel as though she were talking specifically to you, in that coffee and chat way that is so hard to convey over the internet. Reading Dewey’s blog made me feel good, because it was so obvious that Dewey herself was a good person. Her opinions were always straightforward, honest, non-judgemental and quite often funny. Her personality sparkled throughout her writing.

For quite some time I read Dewey’s blog, and many other blogs that I discovered through The Hidden Side Of A Leaf. Then in July of this year, I decided to start my own blog – Dewey deserves all the credit for inspiring me to try my hand in this wonderful blogging world. Always, she seemed to be having fun, her book reviews made me really consider how blogging about books could add to my reading experience and her Weekly Geeks events every Saturday opened my eyes to the incredible community that was available for book lovers.

For all this I say Thank You Dewey – you are truly an inspiration, your welcoming attitude and kind soul had a huge impact on my life, a wonderful impact – and for opening my eyes to this incredible experience I will never forget you. I only wish I had told you how much your presence meant to me. In appreciation of what you unknowingly gave me, I will try to live my life more like you – happy, encouraging, generous and friendly to all. Making every moment count.

Wherever you are Dewey, I wish you only the best.
May your dreams be sweet, friend.

Weekly Geeks #25 – Bookish Gifts

Holiday Gift Guide – Bookish Style

Christmas may seem like it’s a ways off yet, but before you know it the Holiday Season will be upon us. Many people like to get their lists made and their shopping done before the stores get crazy, and no one enjoys having to run out Christmas Eve for that last minute gift. So in the spirit of being ready and also to promote literacy and the love of reading, here is my Bookish Gift Giving List.

Hopefully some of my holiday ideas may come in handy!

For The Gamer :
With video-games becoming so popular, it only makes sense for the craze to have trickled over into the bookstores. These books based on the award-winning video games, Halo and Resident Evil would make the perfect reading material for any gamers. Both series follow the original storylines and are quite well-written.

You can also find strategy guides available for almost every game made.

The two most popular publisher of these guides are Brady Games and Prima Games.

Hands On Fun For The Family :
Everyone, from toddlers to grandparents, enjoys getting their hands dirty, and with these great books it’s easy to find the perfect project.
Not only will kids have a fantastic time crafting, they will also have fun reading through these books and planning their next creation.

For The Nature Lover :
A great gift for anyone who enjoys the great outdoors is a book that provides information on the areas in which they enjoy investigating. Many of the major guidebooks do not give much information on lesser know attractions. With hiking and specialty guidebooks you can find many unknown treasures right around the corner.

The books pictured above are all ones that my family uses for adventures in Nova Scotia, but most every bookshop has a section devoted to travel books for all over the world.

For The Reader :
Buying books for a reader should be easy, but what if you don’t know what they like, or what they have. Or maybe you want them to choose their own books. Gift cards are the best choice when you just aren’t sure. Also many bookstores now have entire departments full of non-book gifts for the book lover. Below are a few of my favourites.

For Everyone On Your List :
Last but not least, one of the gifts I enjoy giving to friends and family, both far and near, is a magazine subscription. With the millions of magazines being published today, finding one to interest even the hardest person to shop for is a snap. And the wonderful thing about giving a subscription is that it lasts all year long!

Weekly Geeks 2009-12 … Link Love

Weekly Geeks 2009-09 Quotable Part 3

Weekly Geeks 2009-09 Quotable Part 2

Weekly Geeks 2009-09 … Quotable

Weekly Geeks 2009-05 … Eye Of The Beholder

Geekalicious !

Weekly Geeks 27 – This One’s For You, Dewey

Weekly Geeks #25 – Bookish Gifts

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