Where Has All the Memeage Gone?

I am extremely distressed by the lack of memeage going on here. It has been absolute months and I can already feel the the pride that memes tap into soaking through my spinny computer desk chair. Memes anyone?

Also. Challenges. Here's the challenge. Find me a challenge! Ah yes! The gauntlet has been thrown! How many challenges can you find? Hmmmm?

Ver Ver Hopeful,
Aella

OH. NO.

I have looked at the A-Z challenge once more and have hit a serious road block. The authors list. *cue scary music*. So I have decided to bring it to all of you incredible people who go out of your way to read this blog. Help.

If anyone has any suggestions for the following letters, could they please let me know in comments? Grazi.

K: *edit* Now Complete! Thank you to commenter "grey" for suggesting Annette Curtis Klause. I shot over to the library and picked up her new book, entitled Freaks, as soon as I could. Be expecting a review on that one. Thanks to Mrs. Magoo for her suggestion as well!

U:

X:

Y:

Especially X.

Thanks everyone!

A New Challenge...

Can you hear my defeated sigh? I try and try to stay away from signing up for more challenges, but I just...can't...help myself. And this new one looks really great. Check it out everyone. My progress will be up on the sidebar soon (aaaahh... the eternal sidebar...).

"It's the End of the World" Challenge

Object: Read at least three books about the end of the world
Where: Becky's Book Reviews
The Rules: Check 'em out here

BONUS! A very cool banner

Happy Challenging,

National Poetry Month

According to the giant banners going up around the library, April is national poetry month. I am intrigued by what this may mean for the book-blog-o-spere, for many bloggers seem to be quite the writing-types in their own respect. So I challenge you. Write a poem and post it on your blog. When you have, leave a comment or post something in the C-Box. That way people can link to your awesome and spread the word on their own blogs. This isn't a meme. Just a suggestion. I'd love to see what everyone does with it.

My own poetry (hahaha... if you can call it that) can be found on my Deviant-art. There are some short stories too, but I'll try to post a poem a week in honor of this month.

If you'd like to see how your state is doing in the way of rhyme and reason (bad pun intended), you can check it out on this spiffy map over at Poets.org.

Cheerz!

1 Day Refund

It is a habit of mine to wait until the last minute to do everything. This spread-the-word activity is (sadly) no different.

So. Over at the Story Siren, a splendid book-blog of challenge taking and book giving glory there is a contest. A contest for THREE WHOLE BOOKS!!! Note that these are whole books as opposed to ones with the pages torn out. They are for the Fire/Poison/Magic Study Series by Maria V. Snyder. For all the details you must go off in pursuit of the shiny grey link. Oh. And just a quick note. This contest ends tomorrow at midnight. Yes. Yes. I can hear your protests. "Aella! Why must you put such important things off until the very last minute?" And I have no answer but to hang my head in shame.

But to make it up to you, I am now engaging in another spread the word activity. 3 Cheerz for dual-postage and space conservation! This one is another book give away, but at the Page Flipper. This is also a laudable blog with many the intriguing review. 6 Books all of which are described ever so eloquently at the linked blog:

• Tweak by Nic Sheff
• Here, There Be Dragons by James A. Owen and its sequel, In Search for the Red Dragon
• Three Little Words by Ashley Rhodes-Courter
• Fake Boyfriend by Kate Brian
• and The Unspoken by Thomas Fahy

Bloggers will enter. But who will win? Simply observe the details and act upon the directions. And this time I've given fair warning. 31 days worth actually. The entire challenge is simpler than chick lit and far less painful.

Support the literary realms and its "dauntless crusaders" (time for another round of Name That Movie) in these splendid challenges and my hopes for success to all.

Holding Blog-Banners on Street Corners,

Meme-ing Me!

Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews? Honestly?
Harry Potter, actually. I should probably pack up and leave town to avoid pitchfork-wielding fans at this point. It’s not that I dislike the books so very much, but I don’t think they come up to the bar people project them to be even with.

If you could bring three characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be?
*Ponder* For a night of clubbing (something I’ve never done) I would have to raise Loor from the Pendragon series, Alianne from the Trickster’s Choice/Trickster’s Queen set, and Jacky from the Bloody Jack series. That would be very...exciting.

(Borrowing shamelessly from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde): you are told you can’t die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for a while, eventually you realize it’s past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave?

Without a doubt, A String in the Harp by Nancy Bond. Every time I try to read it it’s like an out of body experience. My entire brain goes into an impermeable lockdown as to maintain any semblance of mental activity.

Come on, we’ve all been there. Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you’ve read, when in fact you’ve been nowhere near it?
Actually. I’m not sure I have been there. The answer is It by Stephen King. I can’t even look at it. Clowns have been my worst fear for years. Some kid asked me if I was scared of them and I became defensive, saying stupidly, “Pshaw, no. I’ve read It.” Settled his fears, but the karma just might kill me.

As an addition to the last question, has there been a book that you really thought you had read, only to realise when you read a review about it/go to ‘reread’ it that you haven’t? Which book?
No. I almost always remember what I read.

You’re interviewing for the post of Official Book Advisor to some VIP (who’s not a big reader). What’s the first book you’d recommend and why? (If you feel like you’d have to know the person, go ahead and personalise the VIP.)
Oh dear. It really depends. Lets say the VIP is female. I would suggest something intense like Cut by Patricia McKormick or Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. Most people like those and they’re short and moving. I’m reading Catalyst right now actually.

A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with?
Japanese. Have the animes I love are in Japanese with English subtitles, but their mangas don’t come in English at all.

A mischievious fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will reread once a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick?
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. I do that anyway.

I know that the book blogging community, and its various challenges, have pushed my reading borders. What’s one bookish thing you ‘discovered’ from book blogging (maybe a new genre, or author, or new appreciation for cover art—anything)?
Definitely a new appreciation for cover art. This has actually been instilled in me by my co-blogger Medeia Senka. Her artist’s eye could kill you in a rage.

That good fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she’s granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leatherbound? Is it full of first edition hardcovers? Pristine trade paperbacks? Perhaps a few favourite authors have inscribed their works? Go ahead—let your imagination run free.
Oh. My. Tempests. My dream library would be behind a wall in a castle on the sea. Of course I would live in this great stone work of art. But you wouldn’t know the library existed. It would be secreted behind two-inch thick walls and reached only by daring to walk the ledge so far above sheer cliffs and pull a gargoyles right ear. This would then open a passageway. You would traverse this with a dimly flickering torch and then you’d enter through the door, ouroboros marked. Inside you would have to touch the torch to a wall ravine and then the flames would encircle the library to a never-ending ceiling, reached only by the ladders that slid along great walls. Books of all kinds would grace the walls. Everything from sea-logs, or an original scripted work of the Brothers Grimm, to Alex Rider novels or mangas. Perfect hardcover without the dreadful ‘80s first print artwork and a plethora of things I have yet to read. My secret fantasy. It gives me warm fuzzy feelings and the musty scent of old books in my nose just to think it.

I was memed by Ink Mage at http://www.inkmagic.blogspot.com. What fun! It was very nice to know someone wanted to hear my answers *hugs self* I have memed Twyla Lee Nyx, Medeia Senka (must I really link that for you), Bibliovore, and the mahvelous macabre of Sera Zane.

Cheerz and Feeling Loved,
*Aella Siofra*

Awesome - Zing

Another challenge, I say!! Somebody stop me. Medeia has signed up for this one too. As I understand it you are to read 52 books in the time that passes during 2008. One title for each letter of the alphabet and one author as well. Very cool and Neanderthal simple. So follow the black and pink link (failed Wizard of Oz theme) and find something that's interesting to read. Chances are that either the title or author's name starts with a letter. My list and progress will be viewable on the side once I start making progress and I hope to see yours on your own individual progresses in net-pursuit (blogs, livejournals, etc.). And expect some reviews *cough, cough* 52 *cough, cough* from the Maelstrom we call home.

Hunting Down a Dictionary and Ransacking the Local Library,
*Aella Siofra*

Challenge

I lurve challenges. Don't you? Doesn't everybody? All the same, I have been click-crazy all day and have joined three challenges *blush*. But I'll post about only the first on this particular fine evening.
So. The YA Challenge 2008. It's an awareness and inspiration thing. People tend to read more if they are lured to do so. And that's what this is all about. You sign up at the site, pick 12 books, post about them and review them as you go. Very, very simple. Just read those selected and you're all set. And it is a cause of sorts. And in the name of pursuit of odyssey, go forth and read.
Here's my 12. Hold me to 'em.

2008 YA Book Challenge

1. The Book of Mordred by Vivian Vande Velde
2. The Dark Elf Trilogy by RA Salvatore
3. Birdwing by Rafe Martin
4. The Shamer’s Daughter by Lene Kaaberbol
5. Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier
6. King Dork by Frank Portman
7. Sabriel Series by Garth Nix
8. If I Should Die Before I Wake by Han Nolan
9. Over A Thousand Hills I Walk With You by Hanna Jansen
10. City of Flowers by Mary Hoffman
11. Tunnels by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams
12. Flora Segunda: Being the Magickal Mishaps of a Girl With (and so on) by Ysabeau S. Wilce

Feeling gladiator-like and reading numero uno,
*Aella Siofra*