On Monday it’s Valentines Day here in the US, which means love is in the air! Many of us have been talking about love all month, but I thought it would make a perfect Weekly Geek-ish type assignment to suggest a post that included anything about love that moves you.
Some ideas:
- favorite love stories.
- favorite romantic movie.
- favorite love songs.
- favorite romantic get away.
- a personal loves story you’d like to share.
- favorite couple in books, movies, TV or real life.
- things you like or don’t like about romance.
- anything love related you can think of!

This is the first Weekly Geeks post in a long time. The topic fits a poem I recently read. I wasn’t familiar with A. E. Housman until some time ago and I quite like this one.. not necessarily romantic, admittedly, but at least it is realistic. Sorry to all the Valentine’s Day lovers.

Oh, when I was in love with you,

Then I was clean and brave,

And miles around the wonder grew

How well did I behave.

 

And now the fancy passes by,

And nothing will remain,

And miles around they’ll say that I

Am quite myself again.

See what other Geeks write about this week at The Weekly Geeks.

Do you plan on participating in any reading challenges in 2011? Are you planning on hosting any reading challenges? Perhaps you’d like to share an idea for a reading challenge–to see if there is any interest!  Share with us which challenges look tempting to you! (You don’t have to "officially" join any of the challenges for this weekly geek. Just let us know which ones you’d be most interested in.) You might want to spend some time browsing A Novel Challenge. Are there any challenges you are looking forward to that haven’t been announced yet? Regardless of your challenge plans, are you starting to plan ahead for next year? Do you make lists or goals? Are you a person who enjoys reading more if it is structured? Or are you all about being free to read what you want, when you want?

I have already talked abut my reading challenge plans for 2011, but it won’t do any harm having them all together in one post.

For 2011 I am planning to participate in the following three challenges:

• My own Steampunk Challenge
• The One, Two, Theme Challenge
• The Gothic Reading Challenge

That’s it. I will try to stick to my list for the One, Two, Theme Challenge, will read one book for the Gothic Reading challenge and as as many Steampunk books as I like. I don’t tend to stick to lists, so the fewer the better for me.  I am not very structured when it comes to reading, it’s supposed to be fun, not a schedule I have to follow.

To read what other weekly geeks have to say, go to the Weekly Geeks site.

Johnny Got His Gun is a book everybody should read. It is now as up-to-date as ever, even though it came out at the beginning of WWII and talks about WWI. I read it many years ago and will never read it again. That won’t be necessary anyway because once you read it you will never forget it again. If you don’t know it, I strongly urge you to go and read it. It is horrifying and intense and will leave a huge impact. No summer read for certain!

I like the two English covers, especially the second one. The two German ones, I’m not sure. The bottom left one is the one on the copy I own so I am used to the image now, but I find it gives away a bit too much.

The German title is ok. It means “Johnny goes to war” so it is just an adaptation of the original one. About the sub-line “Süss und ehrenvoll” (sweet and honourable) – no idea where that came from. Obviously they thought they have to improve the title for some reason. Totally unnecessary in my opinion.

Have you read “Johnny got his gun” and how did you find it?

1. F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Mann.

2. Annie Proulx (that was easy, you just had to look in the sidebar)

3. This is Axel Scheffler, a very popular illustrator of children’s books with a distinctive style.

4. He illustrates a lot of books by Julia Donaldson, who sings in my video her famous Gruffalo song. She and Mr. Scheffler were at Thalia in 2008 and put up a great show. I love her books.

6. Elizabeth von Arnim whose Enchanted April I reviewed recently.

Thanks everybody for posting your answers. Carin from A Little Bookish got them all right. According to her she found all the answers on this blog so she obviously has considerable detecting skills. Congrats, Carin! Since she didn’t enter the giveaway and there was only one commenter who actually DID enter (was it too hard, I wonder), the lucky winner of a book of her choice from my list is Judith.

Congrats, Judith. You said you wanted “The Smoke Thief”. Please tell me your address and I will send it to you as soon as possible.

I don’t think I’ll have a picture for all categories, but will come up with some. I’ll make a little contest out of this with a (used) book as prize for a random commenter.

1. Photos of your favourite authors. These are two authors I really like, not my favs, but I am having a hard time pinning down favourite authors. So here we go:

2. Photo of the author of the book I am currently reading.

3. Photo(s) of any author(s) you’ve met in person (even very briefly).

This might be a bit hard…not sure. Not so much an author, but artist and illustrator of books.

4. A Youtube of (an) author(s) you’ve heard speak (or sing in this case)

I’m not very familiar with uploading videos and don’t want to put it on youtube, since this is my own video I took in 2008. Somehow I couldn’t embed it here, but the URL seems to work, so, please, click the link below for the Quicktime video.

Who is singing here?

6. A photo of the author of the book you’ve most recently finished.

Do you know any of these authors? Please comment and let me know. All commenters can mention which (used) book of the following list they would like to have and The Hat will select a random winner who will get their choice at the end of the week. You don’t have to have any answer correct, but you do need to give it a go! No comments without trying to guess, ok? Open to everybody. In the same post I will name all the authors I’ve shown you here, too.

• From the Dust Returned by Ray Bradbury
• Alexander by Valerio Massimo Manfredi
• A Haunted House by Virginia Woolf
• Zadig / L’Ingenu by Voltaire
• Answered Prayers by Truman Capote
• Demian by Hermann Hesse
• The Smoke Thief by Shana Abe

Why don’t you join this week’s Weekly Geeks and show us some pictures of your favourite authors?

It’s strange, but it seems I’m an untypical reader – or at least not as avid as the rest of us. I don’t particularly suffer from P.A.B.D., don’t hoard excessively and my wishlist is manageable. And now I realize that the Shiny Book Syndrome isn’t my thing either. Yes, I often do read the new book first and leave the older books on the shelf, but this is simply because I got the new book since it suited my current mood. If I all of a sudden feel like reading that specific book that has been waiting to be read for months, then I’ll read it. I had “Gods behaving badly” next to my bed for a long time and the other day I felt drawn to it and started to read.

To me it’s not about new or old, but totally about my mood and whether a certain book fits in or not.

Do you watch book trailer?

If yes, Do you actively seek them out or just watch the ones that get pushed to you in the same way.

If you don’t watch them, why not?

Have you ever read a book based solely on seeing the trailer?

Where do book trailers come on your list of things that influence you with regards to what books to read (friends recommendations, mainstream reviews, bloggers, bookstore promotions, the blurb….)

Do you have a favourite book trailer that you’ll like to share?

What do you like about it?

If you missed out on seeing many book trailers you might want to visit the Moby Awards Website which list the nominees and winners of what is set to become an annual award for the best(and worst) book trailers.

I have never watched a book trailer before, so I thought before voicing an opinion I need to go and have a look at a few.

I went to that Moby Awards Website and watched and was not impressed.

So, my answers would be:

No, I don’t think I’ll watch book trailers in the future.

I don’t watch them because I don’t need to watch a friggin’ FILM in order to know whether I want to buy a BOOK.

No, I have never read a book based on a trailer. Book trailers are at the very bottom of my list of things influencing me in regards to what books to read.

No, no and no to everything.

I don’t see the point of book trailers at all.

Read what the other geeks have to say about this!

• Post a photo (or two or three) of your books to-be-read
• Share your buying or book accumulating habits – how bad of a problem do YOU have?!?!?
• Do you keep all the books you’ve read, or do you give them away or sell them?
• Can you walk past a bookstore and not go in? If you go in, do you impulsively purchase?

Don’t let these questions restrict you…tell us all about your hoarding issues, if only to make the rest of us feel better!

I don’t think I have a problem. I know, everybody says that they are alright, but when it comes to hoarding books, I’m good. Sort of. Just a bit erratic and random.

I buy books when I see them and like them, planning to read them soon and then I don’t. On the other hand I buy books and read them right away. It all depends on the book and my mood.

I have no TBR pile, some books are next to my bed, some are on one book shelf, some are on another one. I’m not that organized when it comes to books, I’m afraid. Sometimes I want to read a book and can’t find it. So, maybe I do have a problem after all.

When I see a book store I usually go in. Just to have a look around, not necessarily to buy something.

I used to keep all the books I’ve read, but recently we started to have a severe problem with space. So, now I only keep fiction books I know I might want to re-read again. Others I swap. This month I also started to give away books here on the blog, which I want to keep doing regularly. I have two moving boxes full of books I want to get rid of right now and there are more to come. Somehow though our shelves look just as crowded as they did before. I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me, it seems.

Have a look at what other Weekly Geeks have to say about their hoarding behaviour!

I’m not going to take part in the BBAW, somehow this is all getting too much. September 20-12 will be the Blogfest 2010 I signed up for, so that will be enough to do already.

For Bloggiesta I already did a mini challenge about labels / tags that was hosted on Beth Fish’s blog. Actually that post of Beth’s made me join the Bloggiesta yesterday.

I only recently gave my blog a new look with a new theme, banner and some cleaning up, but I still have some plans what I want to do in the course of the Bloggiesta.

• Consolidate Bloglines and Google Reader and at the same time clean up my feeds.
  This is not going to affect my blog’s look in any way, but certainly my effectiveness in following others.
• I want to prepare some blog posts for the future, so I’ll have some up my sleeve ready to post if needed. Especially for the Thursday 13 and the Weekend cooking memes.
• Mini challenge Write your blogging to-do list at the 2010 Blog Improvement Project. I’m using this as a short-term goal for the weekend as well as for the near future. I’m sure I won’t get everything done within the next two days.
• Find new blogs with the Embracing community mini challenge at bonjour, cass!
• Getting a bit more acquainted with Googe Analytics with the help of the mini challenge It’s all about the numbers at There’s a book.
• Prepare the Blogfest 2010, so that I won’t be surprised when September 10 is here and I have no clue what my giveaways will be.
• Keep the mini challenge about anchor text at Galley Smith in mind and try to follow it in the future. The challenge was part of a previous Bloggiesta
• Participate in the mini challenge Grade your blog at Bookish Ruth. The challenge was part of a previous Bloggiesta
• I’m simply adding Beth Fish’s mini challenge about labels AGAIN, so I can tick something off…

Oh, I need to get going now…

Read what other Weekly Geeks do for the Bloggiesta or BBAW!

I have several wishlists all over the place and don’t keep track of them very well. I have several amazon wishlists sorted by topic, a wishlist on shelfari and a wishlist at the swap site I get a lot of books from. None of them is complete and I could do with consolidating and updating them.

Also my wishlist is not very long. I tend to buy books I want right away, and I don’t follow series to such an extent that I’m eagerly waiting for the next instalment. So, no books that are yet to be released are on my list.

Apart from some beading books and some that I put on in a half-hearted way, just in case I ever feel like continuing a series (for example “Atlantis Unleashed” by Alyssa Day, which I probably will never get). the following books are on my wishlist:

• “Date me, baby, one more time” by Stephanie Rowe
  ”Must love dragons” by Stephanie Rowe
  The first two books in a series that sounds funny and somewhat different from other PNR.
• “Shadow Touch” by Marjorie M. Liu, the second book in the Dirk & Steele series
• “Heart of the dragon” by Gina Showalter, first book in the Atlantis series
• “From dead to worse”, Dead and gone” and “Dead in the family” by Charlaine Harris. I’m quite behind in the Sookie Stackhouse series.
• “Call me by your name” by Andre Aciman
• “At swim, two boys” by Jamie O’Neill. Jane Seville recommends this on her website.
• “Boy meets boy” by David Levithan
• “The book thief” by Markus Zusak
• “By the lake” by John McGahern
• “The Gargoyle” by Andrew Davidson
• “Zwei Liebende” by Catherine Guillebaud. I think the original title is “Amants”, not sure whether there is an English translation available.
• “Tintenherz” by Cornelia Funke (translated title is “Inkheart”)

So, what is on your wish list? To see what other geeks have on theirs go here.