Wrapping Up The Challenge

Hey Everyone!! First of all, I have to send my most heartfelt apologies out to everyone for not updating the challenge blog more often over these last few months. It’s been a hectic few months, Dewey’s blog went down, life happened. And that’s no excuse, I know, but I am sorry guys! I do want to let every one know that we’re planning to end this celebration of Dewey’s life as a reader with a wonderful mini-challenge that Kelly at The Written World has come up with. The details will be announced on Wednesday, or around then, but for now I’ll let you know that it will involve doing something simple (or big if you wish) for your community or the blogging community and writing a post about it. Something that Dewey seemed to do each and every day.

I have to say that this has been quite the bittersweet challenge. I’ve had moments where I’ve felt overwhelmingly ecstatic and overwhelmingly sad. And I’m sure we’ve all felt that way. But the thing that I really loved about this challenge is that it kept us talking about books that Dewey recommended and it kept us talking about her. I don’t think I’m going to continue this challenge next year. If someone else would like to, you’re more than welcome to. I think it was nice though just to have this one year celebrating her. Of course, we will always celebrate Dewey. In the little things that she gave us, the big things she gave and all of our wonderful memories of her. We don’t need a challenge for that…though it was nice to have one for this year 🙂

I do want to thank everyone that helped Robin and I this year with this challenge and all of our wonderful mini-challenge hosts. You were all fantastic. And thanks to everyone who participated. The response was amazing and this was just incredible. Feel free to leave links to your wrap up posts in the comments. I don’t know what the final prize will be but I will put something together and I’ll draw a winner from those who leave a comment in this post. Even if you didn’t complete the challenge, just drop a comment saying you participated and I’ll put your name in the drawing. Happy reading everyone, and as always….we love you Dewey!

Time for the June Mini-Challenge

The lovely Kailana at The Written World is hosting June’s mini-challenge and it’s one that I think Dewey would absolutely love!! Remember her idea of having others ask her questions about the books that she read and she would review the books in the form of answers? Well here you go…a mini-challenge all about that!

Howdy folks! It is my turn for the Dewey reading challenge. This will be combined with the Once Upon a Time III challenge, I think! Carl said yes, but we didn’t work out the details back then and now he is having computer issues. If he changed his mind, I will change this post accordingly when the time comes! (But for now, I am just going to assume he still says yes!)

The object is to list books that are:

a) Are Dewey books that you have not reviewed yet.

b) Are OUaT books that you have not reviewed yet.

c) Any book that you have not had a chance to review.

d) If you are very on-top of things, you can list books that you have read recently (even if you have reviewed them already)

These lists have to be posted by the 20th of June. (Yes, I am aware that the Once Upon a Time Challenge ends on that day, but it is the only way to give enough time!)

When you have made up your lists, leave either a comment on this post or on the Dewey Reading Challenge blog. I think I will probably coordinate with Chris so that all the lists are linked in a post for easy accessibility!

Once the lists are up, the object is for people to read your post and ask questions about the books listed. You do not have to answer all the questions, but you do have to link to everyone that asks you a question. This is for prize options, so please do! It will make it so much easier for me!

You have until the first week of July to post reviews answering the questions. You can do one and answer everything, or you can do several. It is entirely up to you!

You will be entered for a prize for:
1) Posting a list of books to be questioned on
2) Asking a question. Hopefully in reviews people can thank ALL the question-askers, not just the ones that you answer…. This would be very helpful!
3) Posting a review answering the questions

Dewey did these interview posts all the time and I always thought they were a lot of fun! They assure that your reviews address what your readers really want to learn about instead of just what you want to talk about. Plus, Dewey was all about community-building, so that’s why it is a combination of the two challenges.

Any questions, feel free to leave them in the comment section of this post!

Oh, right! The prize! I have no idea! I think there will probably be a first and second prize and they will be tailored to the winners. I like surprises (well, sometimes) and I thought that this was a fitting time for one.

I Swear I had Nothing To Do With This

From Debi:

Time to reveal the winner of the Book Coveting Mini-Challenge. But before I do, can I ask you all a quick question? Did this mini-challenge have you adding as many new books to your wish list as it did me?!! Yikes! I’m really not sure this was such a great idea after all. 😉

Okay, our winner is…

None other than our fearless host: Chris!!!

Congratulations, Chris! Hope you enjoy!

Winner of the Random Giveaway

Ok…so I totally didn’t pick the winner of the lovely bookmark and EcoLibris trees on May 11th like I was supposed to :p Sorry guys! But better late than never right? Without further ado, the winner is Chris at Book-a-Rama (otherwhise affectionately known as “other Chris”) for her review of 1984!! Congrats Other Chris! Send me your address at chrisa511(at)gmail(dot)com and I’ll get your bookmark and ecolibris stickers out to you!!

Also, don’t forget to be sure to enter Debi’s mini-challenge by doing your Sunday Book Coveting post and posting your link in the comments of the post below this one! You could win a year long subscription to Bookmarks Magazine!

Announcing Debi’s Mini-Challenge!

Debi from Nothing of Importance (wrong, wrong, wrong) is hosting May’s Mini-Challenge for the month of May and it’s a fun one! Here are all of the details:A Mini-Challenge for May

I don’t know about you, but I was literally addicted to Dewey’s blog. (Yeah, I’m pretty darn sure I wasn’t alone in this addiction either!) And some of my favorite posts were her Book Coveting posts. And there were her Reading Journal posts, I really loved those. Oh, and her monthly wrap-ups. And yes, of course, her book reviews. Okay, so I guess pretty much everything she had to say…

But for this mini-challenge, I thought maybe we could focus on Book Coveting. And seriously, this challenge really shouldn’t be much of a challenge at all! Because all you have to do is write a Book Coveting post of your own…and I know you all have books you’re coveting! So just write your post anytime during the month of May, and then come back here and add your post to the comments.

And the randomly drawn winner will receive a subscription to Bookmarks. Seems fitting, huh?

Just a quick note from me, Chris. You’re link to your post should go in the comments of THIS post on THIS blog. Not on Debi’s blog. Thanks everyone and have fun!! If you haven’t checked out the latest giveaway yet, read the post below this one. I’ll be drawing the winner on my bday, May 11th.

Time For A Random Giveaway!!

Hey everyone 🙂 Hope everyone is having fun with the challenge so far! I figured it was time to do another random giveaway, so here’s what’s up for grabs this time. I’ll pick one random review from the review site to win the following. Please make sure you’re adding your reviews over there on the website as that’s how you’re entered for all of these random drawings! The more reviews you have, the more chances you have…and of course they have to be books that Dewey read 🙂 Anyway, this time, you can win this beautiful book mark/book thong from Etsy:

AND

10 trees planted in your name through EcoLibris! You’ll also receive 10 EcoLibris stickers that you can proudly display on your books 🙂

I’ll draw a winner on May 11th because that’s my birthday and why should I have all of the fun :p

Stay tuned!! There’s a great new mini-challenge coming in May hosted by the oh so fabulous and oh so misnamed blog that belongs to Debi of Nothing of Importance! Really, her blog should be named “full of awesomeness and bound to make you smile”.

Winners Announced For Nymeth’s Mini-Challenge

Huge thanks goes to Nymeth of Things Mean A Lot for hosting a fantastic mini-challenge during the month of March that asked us all to try something new. I found a new favorite author as a result of this challenge. How about you? As promised, here are the winners of the various prizes she offered!

Paper Towns: Rhinoa

$10 from Eco-Libris: tanabata

Bookmark sets: Jessica (http://thebluestockings.com/) and
Jodie at Book Gazing (http://bookgazing.blogspot.com/)

Congrats to all of you winners!!! Please head on over to Nymeth’s website and pass on your information to her so she can get your prizes out to you!!

April Mini-Challenge at Fizzy Thoughts!

Hey everyone! Did you know that Jill at Fizzy Thoughts is hosting a helluva mini-challenge this month? If not, head on over to her site to read all about it! It’s all about birthdays and it’s sure to be a month long celebration!! Bring cake over with you.

Knit-a-Long Update and Giveaway #3

Oh dear!  I’m a little late with my end-of-March update for our Knit-a-Long in memory of Dewey and the drawing for the March giveaway!  There are still a lot of projects in progress or completed, and I don’t have photos of all of them.  So I will post what I have, and if you have a knit-a-long project you would like to share with us, please leave me a comment with a link to your post, or email me a photo of your project, and I will add it to this post! 

 Here are the photos and links for the March projects:

Mari's completed sock...

Chris's sweater progress...

Monnibo's keyhole scarf...

Jessi's shawl...

Be sure to visit Kim’s blog (Page After Page) to read her review of a number of knitting books!

One of the knitting books reviewed by Kim...

This beautiful shawl was knit by Becca (Stitches by the Sea) with the yarn she won in our drawing last month!

Becca's shawl...

 These beautiful spring preemie hats were knit by Monique (Knitting For Peace) and I wanted to include them here because not only are they beautiful, but they are such good inspiration in the spirit of Dewey!

Monique's spring preemie hats...

And finally, congratulations to our winner of the March random drawing for our Knit-a-Long giveaway:

MONNIBO of Monniblog!  

(I’ll email you, Monnibo, for your mailing address!) 

 

Winner Announcement and Extended Deadline

Hey everybody…time to announce the winner for this fantastic tshirt:

Congrats to Raidergirl for her review of Just Listen by Sarah Dessen, an author I’ve been wanting to read for awhile!
Raidergirl, just send me your address and which style/size you want. They have Mens/unisex or Babydoll tees sizes S-XL. My email address is chrisa511(at)gmail(dot)com.

Here’s a reminder too! Nymeth has extended the deadline for the Try Something New Mini-Challenge to April 7th! Don’t forget to leave the link to your post on the Mr. Linky to be eligible for the prizes that she’s giving away!!!

Stay tuned for an announcement in the next few days about April’s mini-challenges! And happy Dewey Reading 🙂