Paris in July, The Great American Read, and My Blogoversary

PARIS IN JULY

Happily, Tamara of Thyme for Tea has announced that Paris in July is on for 2018. To help her out, I took some of my photos from our trip to Paris earlier this month and made them into buttons.

What do you think?

Have you signed up yet for Paris in July? There are no real requirements. You can feel free to read as much or as little as you like. You can blog about French books or movies or cooking or travel. Sign up here.



THE GREAT AMERICAN READ

I felt pleased to have read 71/100 nominees for The Great American Read. The remaining 29 books fell into two categories: (1) Scorned. These are popular books that I felt like I was too good to read. These include DiVinci Code, James Patterson, The Shack, and The Godfather. (2) Impossible. These are books that I thought would be so difficult that they had, in essence, scorned me. These include War and Peace and Moby Dick.

I thought about it a little more, though, and I decided to give this a try. After all, now that I'm retired, I can easily read a mere 29 books.

I started with Looking for Alaska by John Green (Scorned) and Their Eyes Were Watching God (Impossible). After reading on these two books, I realize that I am wrong. Both of these are amazing books, and I can see why others have put them on their list of favorite reads ever.

So I picked up copies of a few more books. If nothing else, this is teaching me not to...wait for it...judge a book by its synopsis.



READERBUZZ'S 10TH BLOGOVERSARY (WITH A GIVEAWAY)!

I never planned to be a blogger.

But somehow I am, and it's now one of my favorite things to do.

And now I've been a blogger for ten years. So let's celebrate! I'm giving away a book of your choice from my list of 100 favorite reads each month this summer. The giveaway is open internationally, so please feel free to join in by sharing your list of books everyone should read here.

What are you reading today?

What is the Sunday Salon? Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them,and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....That's what happens at the Sunday Salon, except it's all virtual. Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon get together--at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones--and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs. Think of it as an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon, an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities and fall into a good book. Click here to join the Salon.

The Sunday Post is a meme hosted by Kimba at Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It's a chance to share news and recap the past week.

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at The Printed Page. We share books that we found in our mailboxes last week. 

 It is now being hosted here.

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews in which you can share the books you've acquired.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between!  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from! I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is now being hosted at The Book Date.