Sunday, May 2, 2010

Sunday Salon: May 2, 2010.

Matt and I spent the weekend in Battle Creek, MI for my friend's wedding. I met Sarah in college and we have become incredibly close friends, even though we are pretty opposite. She is a numbers kind of a girl, and I am obviously a words kind of girl, but we are incredibly close and I love her dearly.

She stood up in our wedding back in December and I was so honored when she asked me to be one of her bridesmaids. It was great to see someone I care about get married to someone who is so right for her. It was a beautiful wedding ceremony and it touched me deeply. The reception was a great party.

The best part of all of it was reaffirming my own feelings towards Matt. I think too often people get wrapped up in the day to day motions and forget what is truly important.

Anyway, it was a busy weekend and we managed to get back to our side of the state this afternoon to get to work. I feel quite exhausted and I am grateful I have another day off tomorrow. Knowing I can sleep in a little makes staying up a little more bearable. :)

I made sure to schedule a post for yesterday and I was happy to see that some people answered my questions. If you haven't already, I would appreciate some more input! But, I have already decided on a few things that I want to add. I agree that my blog needs to be a little more interactive, so I have a few things stewing in my head.

I have two things I would love to get started on right away, but they require some reader participation.

The first is a new feature where I would like to interview readers on classics they have read. You don't have to read a new-to-you classic to participate, but just be willing to answer some questions and give your thoughts. You also don't have to pick a book that is on my list, or one that I have finished already. It simply needs to be a book by a classic author. If you are interested in participating, please e-mail me (you can find my e-mail on my blogger profile page). I would love to have as many people participate as possible! It will be great to get other opinions on these great works.

Second, I really want to host some more read-alongs. Based on my experience with read-alongs, I think that scheduling one date to discuss the whole book will work better than "assigned" reading. One of my goals when I started this blog was to encourage more people to read more of the classics, since they are often forgotten, or snubbed. One of the things I am learning about these works is that they are not nearly as inaccessible as I thought they were. In fact, I have loved almost every book I have read for this project, with a few small exceptions. I find that to be an overwhelming result!

There should be a poll in the side bar (or there will be shortly), of what you would like to read first in a read-along. I am trying to offer a variety and I hope people will participate. Please vote!!


I have also rethought the structure of my posts. From this point forward I am going to combine my "book stats" post with my initial post on each book. I am still going to keep posting multiple posts, but I will try and provide links to my other posts on each book. For me, reading is a process and I like to document my thoughts as I read through each book. I doubt I will do this when I return to my regular reading habits, but I find I have so much to talk about when I read the classics that it is too much for one post.


Wow, that was a lot of discussion. Anyway, I hope you all have a great reading week. Personally, I have been in a bit of a reading slump, so I am hoping I can get out of it this week and get some wonderful books read!

4 comments:

  1. I love the idea of combining the stats with the initial post. I think that'll help out with what i was saying before. And I would love to participate in an interview about classics. How are you planning to do it - about classics in general or about a single book? My email address *should* come attached to this comment, but if not, it's on my blogger profile too. Off to check out the poll...

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  2. Allie, I don't know if you know that I exist, but my entire blog is an extended one-sided interview about the classics!

    I've never understood why more bloggers don't use multiple posts to write about books. We're free, free! Just as you say, when I read a book of any complexity, it provides all sorts of directions - why not pursue some of them? Who's in charge here?

    Anyway, best of luck with the new ideas.

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  3. I will happily participate in the interview about the classics. I'll email you in a bit.

    I've gotta catch up a bit, as usual, but I did vote in the read-along poll :)

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  4. So glad you had a great time at the wedding! Those kinds of trips are a lot of fun. :)

    I can't commit to a readalong at the moment but I might be interested in the future (and as an aside, I'm hosting a readalong of The Color Purple next month in case that's on your TBR list ...). And I'll shoot you an email about the classics interview. :)

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