I’m also heading out to Bear Lake, Jackson Hole and Yellowstone (without my husband – who “gets” to stay behind.  Wish me luck with my two boys!), so I’ll be offline for a bit but expect to have prescheduled posts.  I literally won’t be touching a computer but will be anxious to find out what I missed while I was gone and  read your comments when I return.  In the vlog, I also share the huge pile of books that I’ve set aside to take with me.  Am I crazy?  I know I’m taking WAY to much with me.  But heck, why not?

What’s your bet? How many of these books do you think I can read while chasing a two-year-old and a three-year-old around Yellowstone?

Trish from Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin?, Amy from My Friend Amy and myself discuss why we think book blogs are so awesome.

Would you believe me if I told you that the above video was filmed almost two  months ago?  Well before the recent discussions found on many a blog and Twitter regarding book blogs in the aftermath of BEA?

At a time when anybody with an opinion and a computer can start a blog and have their voice heard, albeit one must raise their voice loud to be heard amongst the noise, book blogs are becoming more influential.  We are here.  And we are having the time of our lives.

So what say you?  If you already know the merits of book blogs and had to give somebody an elevator pitch about why they should turn to book blogs as their source of book recommendations and reviews what would you tell them?  And if you happened  upon this post with no opinion one way or the other, what do you think?  Have we convinced you?

P.S  Don’t miss the blogging party!  Come Bloggiesta with us!

It was really great to meet a lot of bloggers, publishers, publicists and authors whom I’ve communicated with for the last year. I was thrilled to be on a book blogging panel and having the audience mob us afterwards made me feel almost like a superstar (what can I say, most of the time, I’m wiping snot off of my clothes – I’ve got to live it up while I can).  Even the conversations that resulted from the panel were almost worth the trip!

The #BEAtweetup and the Kidlit Drink night were great (despite the fact that one agent was all sweet in my face until he found out I didn’t have a story to sell and did the rudest “drop the conversation and get away from me” I’ve ever experienced and then Betsy Bird aka Fuse #8 told me she mentions my blog not once but twice in a book she just wrote – so yay!)   The networking alone was worth the trip and the big ‘ol box of galleys I brought home was a really nice perk.

My box (which was $75 bucks to mail home!) arrived today and I thought it would be fun to open it up with you, so to speak:

I’ve got a lot of great books to look forward to reading!  There were so many authors that I would have LOVED to meet but missed.

And now that my books are home I can announce the winners of the #BEAtwittyparty giveaway!  I LOVED seeing which authors you would party with.  It was so much fun.   The three winners are:

#29 Susan at Reading Upside Down with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon.

#35 Clarice at Island Girl in Utah with Everyone is Beautiful by Katherine Center.

#5 Jen at Devourer of Books walks away with the grand prize of  three ARC’s from BEA: Strength in What Remains, A Journey of Remembrance and Forgiveness by Tracy Kidder, American on Purpose by Craig Ferguson, and Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls.

Congratulations girls!  I haven’t drawn my winner yet for The Chosen One giveaway.  Watch the comment thread (probably tonight) where I’ll announce the winner.

Are you doing Dewey’s 24 Hour Read-a-thon too?  Don’t forget to let me know so I can make sure I’m following you.  And if you’ve got any tips on posting, etc for a newbie, I’d love to hear them!  See you Saturday!

Today, I show off all the signed books in my house.  Do you have a lot of signed books?  Does having a signed book make you value it more?  I’ll tell you that I think it does.  I love meeting the authors and having them personalized.  And even if I don’t meet the author, I love having them arrive in the mail already signed.

More on getting a lot of those books signed and meeting the authors are detailed in the posts below:

• More on Meeting Laurie Halse Anderson and a Signed Wintergirls Giveaway!
• An Open Letter to Laurie Halse Anderson
• On Meeting Jodi Picoult and an AMAZING Giveaway!
• An Evening Spent with David Ebershoff, Author of The 19th Wife
• The Tale of Shannon Hale and a . . . Zucchini (????) (Rapunzel’s Revenge release party)
• Authors Here, Authors There, Authors Everywhere! (Sara Zarr, Shannon Hale, Brandon Mull, Brandon Sanderson, James Dashner, Jessica Day George, Ann Dee Ellis, Mette Ivie Harrison)
  
• My Evening Spent with Stephenie Meyer

Seriously, those giveaways right now are amazing!  Don’t forget to enter!

Did you miss the video where those two sweet little book destroying monsters showed off their favorite books and even give a reading?  I’ve watched the video like twenty times, for some reason, I just can’t get enough of it.  Go check it out!

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Books mentioned in the video:

The Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton (love how he has this one memorized!), Dora the Explorere- Choo Choo (he’s never seen the video ever, he just loves the train sounds), Noah’s Big Boat: A Lift-the-Flap Bible Book by Allia Zobel Nolan, illustrated by Steve Cox (lift the flap books are always a huge hit, this one was a gift from their grandparents – they love it), Richard Scarry’s First Little Learners Colors (who doesn’t love Richard Scarry!).

I’ve just asked my kids to bring me the books we talked about in the video. They have now emptied their entire bookshelf onto my bed!  I literally have a pile of books now surrounding me and more keep coming!

What are some of the books that you have to read over and over to  your kids?  To the point where they have them memorized?

And, if you make it to the end of the video, there is a surprise for you courtesy my husband and kids (who doesn’t know I’ve posted a video of him).  It’s a special shout out to Jen at Devourer of Books.  I also did the video three times trying to bring it under the 5 minute mark and it just didn’t happen.  Perhaps if I stop saying “um” and “pretty excited” all the time.  I’m still getting the hang of this and still nervous.  I promise to try to cut it down in the future. Also, still figuring out the compression settings. A question.  What topics or things would you like to see in these bi-monthly video chats?  I’d love the ideas.

The bookstore mentioned in the video is The King’s English Bookshop.  They totally rock!  Betsy Burton, the owner, has written a memoir about bookselling called The King’s English.  Do check it out (I am).  What do you think of that whole concept?

By the way, how do you like the new look?  It’s small, but boy did I need the change!  More changes to come (hopefully!).

This first video is about six minutes long (because it’s the first) but I hope to have them no longer than about three minutes.  So if you’d like to know what I’ve been up to the last couple of weeks, then take a look. . .

By the way, if anybody has a clever title for these new video chats, then please share!