Thursday, June 16, 2011

Booking Through Thursday #6, Update Thursday #11, & Wannabe Writers #2

Booking Through Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by Deb @ BTT. This week's question asks the following:

With the advent (and growing popularity) of eBooks, I’m seeing more and more articles about how much “better” they can be, because they have the option to be interactive … videos, music, glossaries … all sorts of little extra goodies to help “enhance” your reading experience, rather like listening to the Director’s commentary on a DVD of your favorite movie.

How do you feel about that possibility? Does it excite you in a cutting-edge kind of way? Or does it chill you to the bone because that’s not what reading is ABOUT?



Well, I just got myself a Nook, so I don't know if I can be the best person to answer the question. Personally, I love a book I can hold in my hand. The only problem is that I can only hold so many books on my shelves. So I focus on the books I actually want A LOT to own on paper. The books I've gotten for my e-reader are basically books only available in e-book format and a few others that are available in real book format that I don't think I'll want in real book format. I don't really care all that much about fancy extras, even on some movies. Maybe some of the extras will be cool, but, I probably would care less about most of them. I just enjoy reading the book.

~*~



Welcome to Update Thursday, my own personal meme (but feel free to use it if you'd like) that I started to keep track of everything going on in my book blogging/writing/own world. Basically, I list off a few different things that have happened in the last week.


1. My approach to 100 followers is coming fast! My giveaway is coming sooner than I thought. And this excites me!!!

2. I have Saturday off this week and have no idea what to do. I generally only have, let's see, maybe 4 or 5 Saturdays off in a year, mostly ones I request off. This one, I was just given. I need to find something good to do.

3. I watched all of Gossip Girl Season One over the course of 4 days. And this is in between working the last 3 days. Needless to say, I am hooked on that show now. And currently in the process of getting Season Two and Three.

4. Speaking of TV shows... I have to say, on almost every TV show that I like, I have a huge crush on one of the characters. With Veronica Mars, it was Logan (Jason Dohring). With The OC, it was Ryan (Benjamin McKenzie). With Bones, it's Booth (David Boreanaz). And currently, I have developed a new crush on Gossip Girl's Chuck (Ed Westwick). I can't help it. And I have this tendency to become obsessed, over and over again.

5. I want to post a disclaimer to my fellow bloggers and followers: For some reason, our internet is moody. It decides once in awhile that it wants to act like a dial up internet instead of high speed. This ends up preventing me from being able to comment as readily to comments made on my page, not to mention keeps me from viewing your pages as often as I'd like and commenting on them. So... if I don't seem like I'm as active, it's not my fault. I actually have just been spending the last 2 hours this morning trying to work on this post and checking up on updates, the latter to no avail apparently. I was able to look at like three pages at most. We're supposed to be working on fixing the internet situation, so hopefully it won't last forever and I can take a look at more of your reviews and posts soon. ^_^

6. I need to get going on my reading and writing more. Especially my reading. I don't want to get behind. Plus it's annoying to have to repost every week that I'm still in the middle of the same books. At least I finished one this morning. :P

~*~

Wannabe Writers is an Internet writing group hosted by Sarah at Confessions Of The Unpublished. Anyone is welcome to join. It's a place to meet other writers, ask questions, and get feedback. Basically, you post about your current writing progress, problems, and she asks a question she needs help answering. Go check it out!


Where I am in the writing process: Hmm, somewhere between 7500-8000 words last I looked. I haven't done any writing over the last few days, only a couple brainstorming notes I typed into my phone.

My current problem(s): Distractions? Lol. That's part of my problem. TV on DVD marathons happen once in awhile. It's kept me from reading much too. Other problems, tying in a couple scenes. I jumped ahead a scene or two and now I'm trying to figure out how to get a dialogue going between my main character and a new additional character. Until I get it figured out, I skipped ahead to the next chapter, since that scene is pretty irrelevant as far as the main story goes.

My question(s) this week: Length? How long do you like your YA novels to be? I had found a site that had a list of approximate word counts per genre, but I cannot find the page at the moment. I looked it up on Wikipedia, and found a page about Word Count. What I remember reading from the other page basically said that a Young Adult novel can range from 45,000-80,000, but they average between 50,000-60,000.


~Jessica

7 comments:

  1. I LOVE Ed Westwick, he's definitely my Gossip Girl crush and I'm with you on the internet thing. A couple of months ago my hi-speed internet was more like slow-dial. It drove me insane! I had to keep calling the phone company in order to get them to do something about it. And they kept telling me my speed was fine. After I hung up, MAGICALLY the speed was better. So frustrating!

    And I have a Kindle but I love having a book in my hand so I usually just have the books I'm going to review (that I can only get in e-book format) on my Kindle so I can take it everywhere with me. I don't usually watch the extras on dvd's so having a ton of bells and whistles on my book doesn't sound that appetizing to me... ;)

    ~Loren

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  2. Oh! And congratulations on almost getting to 100 followers! ;)

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  3. I've been told about ereaders and stuff, that they're so much better and the goodies, but I just can not get past the fact that I'd have to buy every book. And then I don't actually have the book to put on my shelf. I'm all about the library, where everything is free, and buying what I like and want to read again.

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  4. I love my nook and sony ereaders but I'm in love with my books. mine gets pulled out only when i'm traveling and i'm trying to lessen the luggage and weight requirement.

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  5. I've always wanted to watch gossip girl and never have. It sounds good! And I've going to keep resisting and resisting on the e-reader. I have the kindle downloaded to my computer since sometimes authors give out arc copies on them, but I hate reading on a computer! It sucks and I get distracted. So I don't like the sound of all that extra stuff.

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  6. Ahhh, perhaps it's because Ed Westwick is an amazing actor. Personally, I wish I could combine the best of both worlds - Nate & Chuck. That would be my crush. Or, if you continue watching the show, there are quite a few hunks in season 3 :D.

    I'm also in the same position as you via reading and writing :(. Like commenting on your blog right now instead of writing ;). But it's worth it!

    Congrats on getting Saturday off!

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  7. Loren Chase: I don't like having to call companies to fix things, so frustrating. Thanks for the congrats!
    blondein2ways: I don't see the point in spending $8.99-9.99 on a e-book when I can get the real thing for the same price, if I really want it.
    Sidne,the BCR: That's one reason why I liked the idea of an e-reader--travel.
    Sarah Darlington: I've read some e-books on my laptop and I can't do it for too long or I get a headache. I've found that the Nook is much better in that regard for myself.
    Christina: He IS an amazing actor--I'm surprised he hasn't done much else. I can't wait to continue and get caught up in time for next season. I love reading blogs, you get to meet all kinds of cool people. Definitely worth it! Thanks for the congrats!

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Thank you for commenting and happy reading!