Morbid Romantic

Book Review & Personal Blog

I saw this meme over at The 3 R’s Blog // Reading, ‘Riting, and Randomness and decided that I would consider myself tagged and post here on my blog.

Rules: Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen movies you’ve seen that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.

1. Labyrinth
2. Legend
3. Willow
4. The Dark Crystal
5. A Nightmare on Elm Street
6. The Breakfast Club
7. Stigmata
8. Perfume- The Story of a Murderer
9. Quills
10. Donnie Darko
11. IT
12. Big Bang Love
13. Taboo
14. The Princess Bride
15. Interview With the Vampire

Of course, I challenge all of you to participate in this meme, as well.

Lenore over at Presenting Lenore decided to post, in the nature of “full-disclosure”, where she got her last 20 books. At the end of her list, she posed the question: “Where did your last 20 reviewed books come from?”

So, here is mine:

The Wolves’ Keeper Legend by Sylvia Weber-Given by author for blog tour
A Band of Roses by Pat McDermott- Given by author for blog tour
Under this Unbroken Sky by Shandi Mitchell- Got from B&N First Look in order to participate in the August book discussion
Annie’s Ghosts: A Journey Into a Family Secret by Steve Luxenberg- Received from publisher to participate in blog tour
Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn- Got from Hachette Book Group to read and review
For Cory’s Sake by Carolyn Wada- Given by author for blog tour
Jack Wakes Up by Seth Harwood- Given by author for a review
The Castaways by Elin Hilderbrand- Given by Hachette Book for blog tour
The House of the Vestals by Steven Saylor- Traded for on PaperBackSwap
The Man’s Book by Thomas Fink- Given by Hachette Book Group for review
Knight of Desire by Margaret Mallory- Given by Hachette Book Group for blog tour
My Forbidden Desire by Carolyn Jewel- Given by Hachette Book Group for blog tour
Visions by Jean Koning- Sent by author for blog tour
Synarchy: Book 1- The Awakening by DCS- Sent by author for blog tour
Forbidden- The Temptation by Samantha Sommersby- Sent by author for review
Gauntlet by Richard Aaron- Sent by author for blog tour
Chemical Cowboys by Lisa Sweetingham- Sent by author for blog tour
Memoirs of a Fortune Teller by Gary Turcotte- Sent by author for review
Of Bees and Mist by Erick Setiawan- Sent by B&N First Look for book discussion
Outcast by Cheryl Brooks- Sent by author for blog tour

As you can tell, I LOVE blog tours. They’re a lot of fun to participate in.

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This is a blogging meme for the Senior Project of State of Denmark.

1. How long have you been blogging?

I have been blogging for years, but the exact time frame is lost to me. I don’t remember when I started, just that I’ve had this particular website for almost eight years. And before that, I had other blogs here and there for a few years. So, I would approximate that I have been blogging for about ten years, maybe more.

2. Why did you start blogging?

I guess it just seemed new and interesting. The idea of being able to anonymously talk about my life, all of the problems and joys, was appealing. I wanted to be able to pour my heart out to people willing to listen. It seemed a better alternative to telling my secrets to friends and family. Since I am a restrained person by nature, I liked being able to just… talk without worrying about consequences. I also liked the idea of being able to make friends and join a community. Veiled by a bit of secrecy and anonymity, we would nevertheless get to become friends.

3. What have you found to be the benefits of blogging?

Tons of benefits. First off, I am able to be a member of a really great community. I have met and made friends with a good number of fellow bloggers who have brought wonderful ideas along with their priceless friendships. It is good to know that there is always someone willing to listen and lend some advice when you need it. If I have a problem, I need only blog it and hope that someone will come along and offer me advice. Blogging is cathartic, too. I can stress out and unwind, complain and moan, and not have to worry about someone taking offense.

Secondly, there is a monetary benefit to blogging. Once you establish your blog, you can get advertising and paid sponsorships. My websites pretty much pay for themselves with tons left over. While a grand might be a small amount in the scheme of things, it’s money that I got for sitting in a comfortable computer chair for ten minutes every few nights. It is essentially money for nothing. Naturally, I don’t use my blog for just making money, but it’s a nice addition.

4. How many times a week do you post an entry?

Multiple times. Whenever I feel like I have something to post. I have sort of stopped making personal posts and most of them center on books, reviews, or weekly memes. If I did just memes, I won’t post at least one entry a day. But since I do about two a day (give or take), I would estimate that my weekly post count is about 7 to 21. That’s a pretty wide difference, I know, but I don’t have a steady blogging schedule.

5. How many different blogs do you read on a regular basis?

My Google Reader is quite full with at least 50 different blogs if not more. A few times a day, I will flip through it and read anything that seems to have an interesting subject line. Sometimes I’ll just randomly select a few to read. I wish that I had more time to read everything and comment, but I just don’t.

6. Do you comment on other people’s blogs?

Rarely, which is something I need to remedy. I am not the biggest conversationalist in real life, so I suppose that personal quality extends to how I am in real life. I read, but then I don’t have anything to say. Of course I have opinions, but I’m the type to keep them to myself. In cases of comments, I like to reserve them for something important. Unless I have something to say that useful, I don’t want to say anything.

7. Do you keep track of how many visitors you have? Is so, are you satisfied with your numbers?

I’ve tried! I have tried trackers and visitor counters and everything else that I have found on the web to try to accurately track visitors. Problem is, most give incomplete numbers, slightly inaccurate numbers, or are too complex for me to be able to simply glance at. So, I have given up. It doesn’t matter how many visitors I get as long as my blog is read by someone.

8. Do you ever regret a post that you wrote?

Definitely not. Even though some of my posts may be mean, I still write honestly and from the heart. It wouldn’t be MY blog if I had to censor what I say. Now, I feel that some care and tact is appropriate, but I should be able to express myself and won’t regret doing so.

9. Do you think your audience has a true sense of who you are based on your blog?

Definitely not! They see and understand a side of me, but there’s a lot of me that I don’t share. For instance, I am passionately in love with Ancient Rome. Yet no one would know that just by reading my blog entries. My love of history is one of the greatest things that define me, but I don’t express that part of me here. Like I said, I only show one side of me and not the whole picture.

10. Do you blog under your real name?

No. I give people my first name, but I would prefer no one ever know my last name. Granted, I send packages out with my full name, but I don’t want it written here on this website.

11. Are there topics that you would never blog about?

Honestly, no. There are many topics I have yet to blog about, but that is not because I don’t want to or would never. The topics I have yet to write about are absent only because I haven’t felt the need to write about them yet.

12. What is the theme/topic of your blog?

Book reviewing and book promotion with a big of personal blog on the side.

13. Do you have more than one blog? If so, why?

I only want the one.

I got this meme from Tempting Persephone and thought it would be a fun way to spend this Sunday Salon…

1. What author do you own the most books by?
I would say that would be Piers Anthony. I have about 25+ books in his Xanth series, which belonged to my mother long before they belonged to me. I guess you can say that they are family heirlooms being passed down? Or maybe not since they are hardly old or important to anyone other than me. After Piers Anthony would be Anne Rice, which I cherish just as much because most of them too belonged to my mother before they belonged to me.

2. What book do you own the most copies of?
Oh man. My favorite book Blood & Gold: or the Story of Marius by Anne Rice. I have:
Hardback first edition
Hardback first edition signed by Anne Rice
Paperback
Uncorrected proof signed by Anne Rice
Ebook (.pdf)
Audio Book

3. What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Secretly!? It is no secret at all that I am passionately and insupportably in love with Marius de Romanus from The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice.

4. What book have you read more than any other?
Being that this is my favorite book that also stars the character I am in love with, Blood & Gold: or the Story of Marius by Anne Rice.

5. What was your favorite book when you were 10 years old?
When I was 10 years old, I was reading all manner of young adult horror/thriller novels written by the likes of Christopher Pike and R.L. Stine. While I can’t remember what I read when I was 10 and what my favorite book was then, I can say that I very much loved Christopher Pike most of all. Especially Whisper of Death and Road to Nowhere.

6. What is the worst book you’ve ever read?
I have read a great many books that were tedious and difficult, but I can’t say that any of them were so awful that I would label them the ‘worst’ book(s).

7. If you could tell everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
Other than my favorite book? Well, maybe Geek Love by Katherine Dunn if you have a strong stomach.

8. Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
Oh Voltaire! Gustave Flaubert, The Marquis de Sade…. definitely French.

9. Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Ooooo, Milton or Chaucer? Paradise Lost or The Canterbury Tales? Such a hard choice! Both are great pieces of literature. I am going to have to go with my beloved Chaucer, though.

10. Austen or Eliot?
To be honest, neither. Though if I had to pick, I would say Austen since I favor her more.

11. What is your favorite novel?
Blood & Gold: or the Story of Marius by Anne Rice

12. What is your favorite play?
Marat/Sade.

13. What is your favorite poem?
Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost.

14. What is your favorite epic poem?
I am going to go with Odyssey by Homer. Though it’s hard to choose when I have such other greats as Paradise Lost or The Divine Comedy.

15. What is your favorite non-fiction?
History major here! I have read so much non-fiction that the head should spin at the thought. My favorite was a book called Hidden Horrors by Yuki Tanaka about Japanese war crimes during World War II.

16. Who is your favorite writer?
Anne Rice.

17. What are you reading right now?
Right now I am reading Terra Incognita by Ruth Downie and The Wonder Singer by George Rabasa.

I took this from one of the blogs on my feed reader, The 3 R’s: Reading, ‘Riting, and Ranting.

1. Hardback, trade paperback or mass market paperback?
It depends on the book. Some books I want in hardback because I know that they are special. My favorite books I like to have in hardback. And sometimes I find good books at the hardback bargain table for super cheap and buy them. For most books, though, I want trade or mass market paperbacks. Since I like to keep a book in my purse, most books I will simply buy in the smaller size mass market paperback.

2. Barnes & Noble or Borders?
I generally shop more at Barnes and Noble since there are quite a few of them close to me and only one Borders in the area that I can get to. Granted, Borders has some excellent coffee and better books on sale… I wish I lived closer to a Borders. If I did, I would shop more at their location.

3. Bookmark or dog-ear?
I always use a bookmark. You can’t force me to dog-ear a page! If I have nothing around to mark a page, I will memorize the number. Or, if I have my purse rip out a piece of paper or find something to slip in there to save the spot. But never will I dog-ear.

4. Amazon or brick and mortar?
I love to shop at Amazon because they have great prices. If I buy in bulk, the way I like to, I get free shipping. But, nothing can replace a brick and mortar book store. When I go to them, it’s mainly to browse books and find new ones to check out at Amazon or Ebay. I rarely every buy from a brick and mortar store unless they have something on a really good and unbeatable sale.

5. Alphabetize by author or alphabetize by title or random?
Well… I try to keep my books organized by Author. But, I get so many new books that I have run out of space and can’t catalog anymore. So, now the new ones just sit in tidy piles with no organization whatsoever. My bookshelves are not very updated at all.

6. Keep, throw away, or sell?
Keep! I would never throw a book away, even if it was one I did not like. If I read a book and didn’t want to keep it, I would either give it to a friend, donate it to a used book store or thrift store, or hold a giveaway and give it to someone on this vast World Wide Web.

7. Keep dust jacket or toss it?
Keep. Always. Often times the dust jacket has a very lovely design. And, if anything, it will protect the edges of the book from being knocked against, scuffed, or frayed.

8. Read with dust jacket or remove it?
I remove it when I read because I read a lot lying down and I get tired of it flopping loose and around.

9. Short story or novel?
Novel.

10. Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket?
Harry Potter! I have read every Harry Potter book, but I have never read a Lemony Snicket book.

11. Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks?
I TRY to make it to the end of chapters. When I feel myself start to get tired, I hang in there as best as I can until the end of the chapter is reached. But sometimes I am too tired or the chapter is too long. Sometime I just don’t have the stamina to hang in there and keep reading. So, I do end up falling asleep a lot when I am tired but don’t finish a chapter.

12. “It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”?
Definitely “It was a dark and stormy night.”

13. Buy or borrow?
I would rather buy. If I burrow, it is from a library. Even then, if I read a book that I really like, I will go out and buy it as soon as I can get a good deal on it. I don’t really have any book friends who borrow from.

14. New or used?
New is always great, but I will buy used books from eBay if I am trying to save some money. I will eventually get the books ‘new,’ but I like to have a cheap used copy to read in the meantime. I’ll usually pass on the used copies to used book stores or send them in the mail to friends.

15. Buying choice: book reviews, recommendations, or browse?
By browsing or by book reviews, usually. I don’t tend to stake much on book reviews, though I do read and enjoy them. I like learning other people’s opinions about books, though I don’t necessarily knock a book off my list for having a bad review, or put a book on my list because one person said it was great. It might put it down on paper to check it out myself in the bookstore. But, I have to browse a book myself before I’ll buy it.

16. Tidy ending or cliffhanger?
It depends on the book. Some books that end with an unresolved ending or in a cliffhanger are just exciting. It gives you a sense of continuity, like the book is stretching on even though you don’t get to take part in it. But, in the wrong book, it can be annoying or badly done. You’ll just end up feeling dissatisfied with the book because you’re left without the resolution that you crave. The same goes for tidy endings. They have to be done right. Even the tidiest ending, if done poorly, can make a person feel as if things are unresolved.

17. Morning reading, afternoon reading, or nighttime reading?
Nighttime. I work in the morning and afternoon, so I am not around to do much reading then. Maybe I can squeeze some in on my lunch break.

18. Stand-alone or series?
Honestly, it doesn’t matter to me. I have just as many stand alone books as I do series books, though I do confess that I love a good series because I can ‘keep’ the characters and enjoy them more. Some characters are just too good to read only one book with. And some books you are disappointed only have one or two to read.

19. Favorite series?
Without a doubt, The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice.

20. Favorite children’s book?
Where the Sidewalk Ends… is that even a children’s book anymore? It was always kind of disturbing.

21. Favorite YA book?
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling.

22. Favorite book of which nobody else has heard?
Submission (Deviations, Book 1) by Chris Owen & Jodi Payne

23. Favorite books read last year?
In 2008: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, Dead Until Dark (Southern Vampire Mysteries, Book 1) by Charlaine Harris, and Submission (Deviations, Book 1) by Chris Owen & Jodi Payne.

24. Favorite books of all time?
Blood and Gold: Or the Story of Marius by Anne Rice, The Vampire Armand by Anne Rice, A Spell of Chameleon by Piers Anthony, and Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris.

25. What are you reading right now?
I am reading Follow Me by Joanna Scott and Hotter Than Hell edited by Kim Harrison.

26. What are you reading next?
I don’t know! I have some books that have tours/interviews coming up, so I think I am going to knock those out one by one.

27. Favorite book to recommend to an eleven-year-old?
Hm… I don’t recommend books to eleven year olds.

28. Favorite book to reread?
Blood and Gold: Or the Story of Marius by Anne Rice.

29. Do you ever smell books?
I do.

30. Do you ever read Primary source documents, like diaries or letters?
I have my degree in history, so of course I read primary source documents. I absolutely LOVE them! I love being able to gather a whole bunch and pull out of them a story or picture of the past. It’s fun to do because it’s… a discovery.