#ReadingMyLibrary Challenge – Wrap up!

Sadly, the #ReadingMyLibrary Challenge is over. But I had a blast this month – saving so much money through my library, seeing what you guys were reading, doing the scavenger hunt. All of it was so much fun, and I hope you all enjoyed it too! I loved (almost) all of the books and comics I read this month, and I can’t believe how much money I saved! Let’s break it down, shall we? (prices listed are MSRP)

Beautiful You by Chuck Palahniuk – $25.95
Mustache Baby Meets His Match by Bridget Heos – $16.99
Compulsion by Martina Boone – $17.99
Superman: Earth One, Volume 1 – $19.99
Trees, Volume 1 – $14.99
Deadpool: the Complete Collection – $34.99
Deadpool & Cable: Ultimate Collection, Volume 1 – $39.99
Jackaby by William Ritter (audiobook) – $29.95
The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows (DNF) – $17.99
None of the Above by I.W. Gregorio – $17.99
The Great Fuzz Frenzy by Janet Stevens – $17.99
The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma – $17.95
The Skunk by Mac Barnett – $17.99
Power Down, Little Robot by Anna Staniszewski – $16.99
I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson (audiobook – still listening) – $29.99
The Sin Eater’s Daughter by Melinda Salisbury (still reading) – $17.99
Watchmen by Alan Moore (still reading) – $19.99

TOTAL SAVED: $375.71

THAT IS AWESOME! That is $375 I kept in my bank account this month, money I can use in the future on gas or…okay, more books. Whatever. But since I DNF’ed one of the books, I’m actually quite happy I didn’t spend money on that one or on Beautiful You, which I didn’t really like. I will say that I will eventually buy a copy of None of the Above because it was wonderful. Comics are SUPER expensive, so I’m glad I didn’t have to buy any of those either.

Favorite book read during the challenge: None of the Above by I.W. Gregorio; I am also LOVING I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson and I will probably buy it in physical format to reread it

Least favorite book read during the challenge: Obviously this one goes to The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows as I DNF’ed it

I’m so glad that Amy and I organized this challenge, because I’ve loved seeing how much you guys love and appreciate your libraries. I hope you all enjoyed this challenge.

Amy and I will be announcing the giveaway winners (hopefully) today on Twitter, so make sure you keep your eye out! It could be you. 🙂

#ReadingMyLibrary Challenge | Week Four Update

This week I started the audiobook for I’ll Give You the Sun. After listening to it for about 35 minutes on my commute to work, I tweeted this:

Started the I'll Give You the Sun audiobook by @jandynelson today. WHY DID I WAIT SO LONG TO READ IT? Why didn't any of you force it on me?!

— Stefani Sloma (@StefaniSloma) April 20, 2015

It’s safe to say that I’m LOVING it. If you haven’t read it, the book is written from two perspectives – Noah at age 13 and then his twin at age 16. Noah’s narrator, Jesse Bernstein, is just incredible. He’s got me driving down the road cackling and probably looking like a complete idiot, but I don’t even care. I’m really enjoying this one, and I’m pretty sure this will be one of the books I reread again as a physical book so I can appreciate the story in more than one way.

I also read Nova Ren Suma’s The Walls Around Us this week. Magical realism is always fun, and this was just so cool. It’s trippy and strange and wonderful. I was so confused most of the time and I loved it. Usually I don’t like when I have absolutely no idea what’s happening, but I was a fan of it in this case.

This week, I saved a total of $47.94 – $29.99 (I’ll Give You the Sun Audiobook) + $17.95 (The Walls Around Us)

Overall in the challenge, I have saved a total of $242.24! Libraries are awesome!

Each week during the Challenge, we’ve chosen a topic to discuss during our weekly update. This week’s topic is:

Share how often you visit your library.

Again, I feel like I’m cheating a little. I work in a library so I technically “visit” it every day Monday-Friday. HOWEVER, let’s talk about how often I check stuff out from the library, shall we? We get our “runs” every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at the library. Since  my library is part of a 20 branch system, we can request books/movies/audiobooks/etc. from any of the other 20 branches for our patrons and they’ll be delivered to our branch (it usually takes a couple of days, unless it’s currently checked out). I pretty much get something in our run each time we get one. That’s how often I check out something from my library system. Almost three times a week. Yeah, you could say I love my library.

Also, while we’re here, I wanted to share some exciting news! I currently work part-time (well, this month, I’m full time since our Children’s Librarian left), so I work Wednesday – Friday. Starting May 1 (NEXT FRIDAY), I’ll be the FULL TIME Youth Services Assistant at a library that is roughly four times the size of my current branch. The children’s section at the new library is just about the size of the entire library where I currently work. So yeah, the new library is HUGE. It’s also about 15-20 minutes closer than my current branch. I’m really sad about leaving my current branch as I absolutely love working there; my boss is awesome, and I’ll miss working with him every day. I’ll also miss the wonderful patrons I’ve gotten to know over the last 10 months. (Of course, there are a few things I won’t miss, but we don’t have to go into that here). I’ve felt guilty and sad and elated and excited and stressed and a whole bunch of other things for the past several weeks since I found out, but I think I’ve finally settled on excited. I’m ready for a new adventure, a new library, and full-time pay.

So how often do you visit your library? Do you check out items with as much frequency as I do?

LINK YOUR WEEK THREE UPDATE BELOW!

And don’t forget to enter the #ReadingMyLibrary Challenge giveaway and participate in the Scavenger Hunt for another chance to win $15 to TBD and discover some new stuff about your library!

#ReadingMyLibrary Challenge | Week Three Update

Before I start, don’t forget that our Twitter chat is TODAY, April 18 at 2 p.m. CST!! I’ll be hosting and we’ll be using the #ReadingMyLibrary hashtag!

This was National Library Week! We did book dominoes at my library which was so much fun! I’ll be posting a video of it later. As for reading, I finished the Jackaby audiobook yesterday, and I really liked it. I’m looking forward to the next book in the series. I’ll probably review the book soon. I also read some comics!

I’m still currently reading Deadpool & Cable, and I also started Watchmen – though that seems to be one you take a while to read. I don’t think it’s one to read in one day. I also decided to DNF The Orphan Queen. I feel like I’ve already read it even though I haven’t. It’s too similar to a lot of other books I’ve read and I’m just not in the mood for it right now. I might try again at a future date.

This week, I saved a total of $142.91 – $22.95 (Jackaby Audiobook), $34.99 (Deadpool: The Complete Collection – Vol. 1), $14.99 (Tress Vol. 1), $39.99 (Deadpool & Cable Ultimate Collection – Book 1), $29.99 (Superman: Earth One). Comics are expensive, dude.

Overall in the challenge, I have saved a total of $194.30! (Still counting The Orphan Queen even though I DNF’ed).

Each week during the Challenge, we’ve chosen a topic to discuss during our weekly update. This week’s topic is:

Why you love libraries or why you love being a librarian.

I love libraries because there are whole worlds contained in them. They can inspire, teach, console, and relate. They’ll make you laugh, cry, and realize you aren’t alone. You can visit places all over the world or places not of this world. You can meet someone who understands you completely or learn about someone who is completely different from you. I love libraries because they are full of friendly, helpful, interesting people (I’m not just tooting my own horn here, promise) who will introduce you to your next favorite read. I love libraries because you can apply for jobs, apply for a passport, send in your taxes, make copies of your research, print out you application to college, and more.

I love being a librarian because I can inspire, teach, relate, and recommend. I can help you apply to college or find your next favorite read. I love being a librarian because of the look on my patrons’ faces when they return a book they loved that I recommended. I get to help with homework or job applications. I get to order books I know my patrons will love (or that I’ll be able to passionately recommend). I get to discover new worlds, new characters, new books and comics and movies. Being a librarian is basically having a book blog in real life.

Why do you love libraries?

LINK YOUR WEEK THREE UPDATE BELOW!

And don’t forget to enter the #ReadingMyLibrary Challenge giveaway!

#ReadingMyLibrary Challenge Scavenger Hunt!

Are you ready for the #ReadingMyLibrary Challenge Scavenger Hunt?! We thought this would be a fun way to explore your library and have a blast! If you are not participating in the giveaway, you are free to find as many (or as few) of the following things. If you are participating in the giveaway, please find at least TEN (10) of the following things in your library If you are unable to find ten of these things, leave a note in your post explaining that.

Make a post on your blog (or Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc) with pictures of the following things:

• Your library
• Library Card
• Old School Card Catalog (we know that not all libraries have one of these, so take a picture of the catalog on a computer instead!)
• Your Librarian / Circulation Clerk (ask nicely and I’m sure they’ll let you!)
• Date Stamper
• Bookmark
• An audio book
• A DVD
• Withdrawn or discarded book (can be controversial, but a part of a book’s life at a library.  Most end up for sale)
• Fun library furniture
• Your favorite library book (could be broken down into F, NF, YA, JF/MG, E, etc)
• A large print book
• Your library’s event calendar
• Flyer for an upcoming event
• A fun display
• A book from the 800 non-fiction section (a book categorized in the 800s of the Dewey Decimal System)
• A set of encyclopedias
• Newspaper/Magazine
• A graphic novel
• Fun round (take a picture with all these books together – make sure you take the stack up to the circ desk when you’re done so they can in-house the books!):
• Find a book with a girl in a dress on the cover
• Find a book that’s green
• Find a book with an author who has the same initials as you
• Find a book with a number in the title
• Find a cookbook
• Find a picture book
• Find a book with a picture of someplace you would like to visit
• Find a book with more than eight (8) words in the title
• Find a book with a one (1) word title
• Find a book about libraries or with the word library in the title
• Find a book with a duck on the cover

To give you some examples, you can find my pictures of the above things in the gallery below!

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I’m missing: My library (I’ll add this in later!), Date Stamper (we can’t seem to find our old one!), Withdrawn or discarded books (I just forgot!), Fun library furniture (our furniture is old and boring), but I hope this helps! The main thing is to HAVE FUN! Ask your librarians for help or tell them about the challenge! Wish them a happy National Library Week.

After you’ve done your post (on your blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), link up below!

And then enter the giveaway for a chance to win your choice of book up to $15 from TBD (meaning the giveaway is international as long as TBD delivers to you).

#ReadingMyLibrary Challenge: Week One Update

This was a short first week for the #ReadingMyLibrary Challenge – only four days! BUT I was able to read all of Beautiful You by Chuck Palahniuk and about 100 pages of The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows. Beautiful You made me feel really weird and uncomfortable and I’m not sure what I thought of it overall. Still processing. Orphan Queen is pretty cool so far. It took me a little bit to actually start it though; I read the first three pages several times before I processed what was happening. I think it was a side-effect of finishing Beautiful You. I’m also listening to Jackaby as an audiobook and I really like it. Nicola Barber is the narrator and she’s amazing with voices.

According to Amazon, I saved $33.40 by checking these books out from the library instead of purchasing them. Woo!

Each week during the Challenge, we’ve chosen a topic to discuss during our weekly update. This week’s topic is:

Tell us a little about your library (include a picture if you can!).

I work at a small library in a small town near central Mississippi. The population of the town is a little under 3,500 though not nearly that many people are registered at the library. We are part of the Central Mississippi Regional Library System, which comprises 20 branches in four counties. We’re pretty small, but we have a lot of amazing patrons, from kids to adults. We’ve got all your basic services, like faxing/copying/scanning, inter-library loan (though I’ve been here for 10 months and haven’t done one yet), computers, free wi-fi, newspapers/magazines, movies, and, of course, books. Some pictures? Like I said earlier, we are pretty small, so most of my pictures are from the same place because you can see almost everything from there.

This is from the circ desk looking out at the library.

We have two stuffed animals in the library, each done by the circulation person before me who recently retired.

You can see pretty much the whole library from here, except the computer area behind me to the right.

A small study area.

The children’s section.

Half of my YA shelves. Told you we were small.

I should’ve taken some more pictures of the computer areas and such, but I forgot. Ooops. But as you can see, the library is rather tiny. But I like it. 🙂 It’s a wonderful place to work and I have an awesome branch manager.

Alright, so there’s my week one update for the #ReadingMyLibrary Challenge. Now it’s your turn! What did you read this week? Link up below!

THE #READINGMYLIBRARY CHALLENGE HAS STARTED!

Hello, everyone! Today is April 1, which means the #ReadingMyLibrary Challenge has begun! And no, this isn’t an April Fool’s joke! No worries if you haven’t signed up yet; sign ups are open until Wednesday, April 15, so you still have a whole TWO weeks to sign up. Also, don’t forget that you only have to read ONE library book to participate, and why wouldn’t you? If you’re already going to be reading books from the library, just sign up and enter for a chance to win our giveaway!

Here’s the beginning of my #ReadingMyLibrary Challenge! I started the audiobook of Jackaby yesterday (oops), and today I can’t decide if I want to read Beautiful You by Chuck Palahniuk or The Sin Eater’s Daughter by Melinda Salisbury. You don’t need to remind me how ridiculously different those two are. I know. I just can’t decide which I want to start with. I’ll probably just pick right before I head to work – whichever one catches my eye first.

What are you going to read first?

A little more info on the weekly updates since we’ve had some questions. These updates do not need to be super detailed or anything. They’re not even required, but more of a fun way to see what everyone is reading! My posts will discuss (and probably contain pictures of) what I’ve read that week. I’ll answer the weekly questions and talk a little about the challenge. I will probably include how much money I’ve saved that week by checking out the books from the library instead of buying them. That’s it! If you want to just tell us what you’ve read and nothing else, that’s cool too! Up to you. Just have fun! Each week, I will include the linky in my own weekly update post, but it’ll also go HERE on the Weekly Updates page.

Once you create your sign up post, don’t forget to enter the #ReadingMyLibrary Challenge giveaway for your choice of book up to $15 from The Book Depository!

#ReadingMyLibrary Challenge – My Sign Up Post

Hello, lovelies! As you may know, I am co-hosting the #ReadingMyLibrary Challenge with Amy at Read What I Like next month! You might also know that I am the Circulation Clerk and YA Librarian at a small library in Mississippi. Each month I order between 10-20 new YA and Middle Grade books for my library, though I’m only able to read a very small number of these (because of time, ARCs, life), so Amy and I started the #ReadingMyLibrary Challenge to fix that. We want to read ONLY library books for the month of April (though if you participate, you are only required to read ONE library book). I hope to get caught up on the books I’ve ordered but haven’t read – partly so I can be even better at recommending titles to my patrons and partly because I ordered those books for a reason! 🙂

So here is my (tentative) TBR for the #ReadingMyLibrary Challenge (definitely subject to change based on my mood, and also in no particular order whatsoever). Also, a few books/audiobooks are not pictured but linked below. I’ve only chosen books that I have ordered for my library since I started working. Yes, the TBR is a little overambitious, but if you recall, I’m a mood reader, so I need options!

The Sin Eater’s Daughter / Made for You / Shutter / Vivian Apple at the End of the World / The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley / Red Queen / I’ll Meet You There / Beautiful You / Atlantia (on CD)

NOT PICTURED (aka waiting on holds/hoping the new books come in soon!)

I’ll Give You the Sun (on CD) / Jackaby (on CD) / We All Looked Up

My TBR is obviously VERY ambitious, and I’ll be lucky to get to even half of these, BUT I’m excited for all of them, so I just went ahead and checked them out. It gives me options!

I would LOVE it if you would join us next month. As I said earlier in the post, you only have to read ONE book to participate in the challenge (did I mention there were TWO giveaways?!), and I hope it’ll be a lot of fun to show your support of your library. So if you do want to participate, head over to my sign up post to learn more and enter your link!

Sign ups are open for the #ReadingMyLibrary Challenge!

Hi guys! So remember how last month I posted about the #ReadingMyLibrary Challenge that Amy at Read What I Like and I were working on a challenge for the month of April all about libraries and reading library books? Well, it’s HERE and sign ups are open today! You might’ve noticed my brand new tab at the top of my page called “#ReadingMyLibrary Challenge” – no? It just magically appeared? Yeah, I’m good like that – where you can find more information about the challenge, including a schedule, rules, and a FAQ of sorts, even though no one’s asked any questions yet. 🙂

Calling all librarians!! #ReadingMyLibrary Challenge

As a librarian, you see so many books come across your desk (either that you’ve ordered yourself or that your patrons are requesting) that you just don’t have time to read. Which sucks, honestly. Yes, you’ve ordered those books for your patrons, but let’s be honest: you’ve ordered them for yourself too. I order around 10-15 YA (and MG) books per month – remember when I said I’m at a tiny library? – all of which I want to read but end up just putting out into the library. As a library patron, I’m sure you have a LONG list of books you want to read, don’t you?

Well, Amy at Read What I Like and I have a solution for you! We’ve created the Reading My Library Challenge – a month long event in which we will try to read as many of those library books we’ve seen come in but haven’t had a chance to read yet! Sound fun? Join us!

Right now, we’re still in the planning stage, but we need help – from any other bloggers who work in libraries! This is what we know so far:

• The Challenge will take place throughout the whole month of April (April 12-18, 2015 is National Library Week)
• Anyone can participate as long as you have somewhere to share what you’re reading
• You don’t have to exclusively read library books, as long as you are reading some library books
• We’re going to have an EPIC Library Scavenger Hunt that will span all areas of a library and get you appreciating everything your library has to offer
• We’ll have TWO giveaways – one for the Scavenger Hunt and one for participating in the challenge
• We want you to have fun and save money – libraries are FREEEEE!

What we need right now is help ironing out all the details so we’re asking any bloggers who are also librarians to PLEASE sign up below (link will take you to a Google Form that will ask for your name and email). You can also feel free to send any questions or emails to caughtreadhanded [at] gmail [dot] com!

And of course, if you aren’t a librarian, but this challenge sounds like something you might like, keep your eyes open for a sign up post sometime next month! Leave any suggestions in the comments below or feel free to email me too!

If you want to talk about the challenge before April or would rather tweet suggestions, please use the hashtag #ReadingMyLibrary so we can all see what you have to say!

[Learn more about National Library Week]