I woke up to this

In the past week I've seen a lot of bloggers speaking out about plagiarism and a lot of us opened up about the type of stress we all have to our side (here is my post) and how even then, there is no excuse to steal other people's posts and use them as your own.

Now, some might tell me, Caro, what do you know? you've only been blogging consistently for less than 4 years. But as a relative new book blogger here are some of the things I do know:

1. It takes time to find your voice

You know something? I am still struggling to find my right voice in this community, not only because we are so many, but because finding what makes you unique takes time and work. My posts have changed over the years, and that is a good thing, I am only now starting to really like the way I talk about a book and the way my discussions take place. Would I love to be as eloquent as some of the big time bloggers? Sure I would! So I read them, and I learn from them. Taking their posts wouldn't improve my style, it would just make me a copycat.

Having original content is hard, sure. Sometimes it feels like all the subjects have been already discussed, that doesn't mean that you don't have something to say about it. As with reviews, not all posts are (nor should) be the same. We can gather inspiration from others, always giving credit where credit is due, but we are all perfectly capable of building something different from it. We all have different experiences everyday and this shapes our posts and our reading. Don't lose that.

2. It shouldn't be about the pageviews/followers

I will admit I look at my stats way more than I should. But I started this blog to have fun with it, to have a record of what I read, not to have a mass of adoring fans. It is fun to have followers, especially those who comment and then spark and good discussion on your site. I know some people have publicity on their sites (I chose not to) and hence have a small income from it, so I guess I understand the pressure or desire to have more followers, more clicks, etc. But guys, I don't know you, but for me there is a lot of excitement when I get a new follower solely because this person liked my site, because they honestly found something interesting that I made. Buying followers just increase some of your numbers, is it really worth it? I certainly don't think it does. 

We all try to get more viewers, we check infographics to know when should we post, and what makes a post more interesting, and what can we do to get more clicks...but it really shouldn't defeat the idea of doing this for us, not for the clicks!


3. Making it "big" in this community takes time

Again, the big time bloggers I follow, they've been at it for years, 10 or more! So they've built their audience, they have worked at it. I said it before, but we are a big community, and hence not all of them will make it "big". But that shouldn't be the point either, finding that niche that makes you grow as a reader and as a blogger is always a plus, but don't do it to be "famous", do it because you are having fun and you want to share your voice.

You know what I've always said to people who asked me about the book blogger community? That people are supportive, that they are sweet as can be, and funny and that so far I hadn't encounter that much nastiness. 

And then these things happened and some people are being just plain bitchy (say it Trish!). So you are being called out for doing something that is plain wrong, and your answer is to be like that? No, no I say!. This hurt me a lot, and in my way to work all I could think is, we are better than this aren't we? We have the tools to have a better conversation, to no fall into just calling names and meanness.

As I said, I knew eventually I would see a not so pretty side of the community, but golly, this has been so much in so little time. I still think that most of us can have a better conversation as to why these things are happening; and informed and well constructed conversation, not one where we are just yelling at each other.

That's all I have to say for now. That and that I am so sad to see this happening to our happy place.

Why I am grateful for Book Challenges

I have to tell you guys, this has been the year of he bookish challenges for me and I am so happy about it. Thanks all the challenges I've been participated have helped me expand my reading, not only in numbers, but also in authors and genres. 

Diversiverse is one of the new challenges I joined this year. I thought I was doing a good job diversifying my reading, but the sad truth is that I haven't as much as thought. Joining this event gave me an appreciated push to look for even more diverse authors, consciously. This challenge goes a bit in the same subject that Where are you Reading, but the latter is more concentrated on where the book takes place. However, when it is a Fantasy or SciFi book, taking place outside the real Earth, I tag the county of origin of the writer and that expands those reading limits even more.

The Sequel and Prequel Challenge has "forced" me to finally tackle several series that I started and might've left to the side, and this is a good thing because with so much to read, sometimes you loose track of all the series going around.

This year I also joined NetGalley and sooner than I thought I had a lot of Galleys to be read and a very low NG ratio. This is where ARC August and NetGalley Month helped me tons.

And off course, my favorite events/challenges the Dewey Read-A-Thon and the seasonal Once Upon a Time and Readers Imbibing Peril. Thanks to these events I have met en become part of the awesome blogger community which incidently took me to the wonderful Bloggiesta. This is the best event I've seen to Get. Things. Done!

So now is your turn! What are your favorite challenges/events? Any suggestions for 2015?

On the News this Week: Enough books?

This week Yves Bolduc, the Education Minister of Québec, recently said in an interview, regarding the recent budget cuts, that libraries have enough books:

I would prefer [that libraries] buy fewer books. Our libraries are already well-equipped. Go in the schools. There are books… books that were bought last year, two years ago, 20 years ago,” Bolduc told Le Devoir.

This is true off course, libraries do have a lot of books, but one thing is too have a lot of books and another is to say that they have ENOUGH because...what is enough really? 

First of all, what Mr Bolduc seems to not have into consideration is that there are books coming out EVERY YEAR to say the least, and that off course includes books for children, MS and YA and off course text books. While the later sometimes have almost the same information from edition to edition, in science at least, theory can change a lot, and hence the book that the library has from, say, 2 years ago, might carry statements that are no longer valid.

As for books that are not text books, a lot of them that have appeared recently, tackle more and more recent events or situations and hence offer a completely different reading experience than a book from 20 years ago. This does not demerit the value of books from 20 or more years ago off course, but is not the same thing, and one person cannot say that because you have the Encyclopedia Britannica from 1950 at home, you have no use for a Wikipedia entry for Climate change.

It is normal that different entities have to go under budget cuts but is a sad thing when one of the first options is education. I grew up not knowing a public library until I was a full grown teenager. My school's (a private one) library was the only library I knew besides the one at home, and I consider myself lucky because of this. When I moved here and finally had access to a free public library system it was heaven for me. Demoting the value that books can have for children AND for their educators is not alright. 

What is your opinion on this situation? Is there such thing as enough books, particularly when it is related to children's education?

On the News This Week: Ralph Lauren promotes Kids Literacy

Hello, Hello everybody! Welcome to another "On The News" post. Here is our piece of news:

From August 5, 2014 through September 1, 2014, 10% of the purchase price from the sale of the apparel and accessories* in the Fall 2014 Children's Fashion Show will benefit Reach Out and Read as part of the Ralph Lauren Children's Literacy Program 

          -From Ralph Lauren website

When I first saw this on Twitter, my first thoughts were very positive. I love campaigns that promote reading particularly for children. Reach Out and Read promotes reading, early literacy really, through medical practitioners, such as pediatricians.  It is a great cause, and it sure deserves some extra support. It reaches "only" the United States and I am using quoting marks, because it is a lot, even is technically is only one country.

But then I went to see the collection. It is adorable, both the clothing for girls and boys. You can find clothes for your 2 year old toddler and up to 16 years old...but it can be incredibly expensive!!!

Sure, you are going to tell me, well It Is Ralph Lauren. Yes, they have very good structure in their clothing, good quality materials...they also have a fair amount of their clothing outsourced and hence their cost of manufacture doesn't really compensate their prices. It is all related to the lable. Off course I know this is not a situation unique to RL, I know the "power" of a label, not only in fashion...but right now I am looking at the adorable clothing and thinking: if I had a kid, would I want her/him to learn about this power so early in life? even if part of this money is going to help other children?

I do not have kids yet, and I know parents want to give the best of everything to their kids, including good example, supporting nice causes like this one, but a voice inside of me keeps telling me that I might as well just donate the 40$ that RL would give Reach Out and Read, instead of buying a 395$ Schoolboy Jacket...What do you think? I would love to hear your opinions as always.

On the News this week...

This might become a weekly installment about book related news, let's see how it goes

I have been living in Montreal for almost 5 years now and I really like this city. Regardless of the fact that winter settles here for almost 6 months every year thank you very much, it is an amazing city, full of restaurants, museums, site seeing and good bookstores, both indie and chains.

This week, I learned that one of the biggest stores of Chapters (think Barnes and Noble, or Waterstones but in Canada) located in downtown Montreal is closing...and it will be replaced by a Victoria's Secret. This is bothering and it has nothing to do with VS. Granted I do not like VS; I feel inadequate with my body after five minutes of watching their famous Angel fashion show; I could not find anything that felt comfortable at their store; I do not like the fact that they have an underwear line for girls that looks sometimes lie lingerie for girls. But this is a general feeling I get often with some lingerie companies. This is not however what upsets me about them replacing Chapters.

What bothers me is that is not a bookstore replaced by an art gallery, or a small museum, or even a new restaurant. Now there will be a retail lingerie store...in front of ANOTHER lingerie store (in this case La Senza) that is a few steps from ANOTHER lingerie store (La Vie en Rose), sure there is still La Maison de la Presse International, but its dedicated as the name shows, to press. To quote my boyfriend, is not like a form of culture is being replaced by another one form...is bras all over the place.

It is true that a couple of steps nearby of the Chapters in question you find Odyssey, a nice place for buying and selling books; if I remember correctly is only Anglophone literature so there is a bit less offer than what you could find on Chapters. But again, my point is not that we are losing a place where to buy books, there are tons of places here, and that is great...is the nature of the replacement that makes me sad.

What do you think of this type of situation? I would love to see your comments

Reading frustration

I've been trying to finish reading a certain article. It has taken me the whole day. Is not that long, 7 pages, and yet I haven't made it through page 3. I've been having a similar problem with a book. I don't want to put the book down, because I won it and it seems only fair to finish it and give my review. I can't put down the article because I need to read it for a class...and then it hit me. I am reading frustrated. 

Is not the article's or the book's entire fault as one could've thought at first. I have a bunch of frustration at work and instead of being able to escape I'm reading a book with very big environmental agenda and an article far from my field that keeps sending me to google terms. So I get more frustrated...and so the wheel spins, and I'm a bundle of frustration. It doesn't help that I'm trying to loose the weight I gain during the holidays and hence I've been controlling my comfort foods. Do not fear I am not starving myself. I can't and I won't do that. But I'm staying away from pizza and chocolate for a while. 

Anyway, back to the problem. I think that's why it was so easy to read Bossypants. It was far from everything happening at work (or real life if you prefer), it was light hearted, it was funny. I picked up Dead reckoning hoping for something like that too, something that would lighten my mood...I was disappointed.

What do you guys do when this happens to you? I just reserved I don't know how she does it at the library. It has mixed reviews, but if is anything like the shopaholic series it should be light, not too demanding and might take out of this spiral. Any advice?

TSS : “Worshiping” a book, a discussion

So yeah, I’m late for my Sunday Salon, but never mind that, today I’m doing a 2-in-1 version of my Sunday Salon post and a discussion.

Ok, so by now, you probably have heard of the craft video Lauren Conrad did. And if so, you also have seen the waves of comments asking for the poor girl’s head. If you don’t, long story short, she took some books, cut the back of them, pasted into a box and made a storage box that, once put in a shelf, looks like books and not a box.

Now, I have to admit, I did NOT like this video. Not because I don’t like Lauren, I kinda do; not because I don’t like crafts, I’m not very crafty but I like the ideas. No, I didn’t like it because she starts the video saying that this is a great way to display books….but is not, is a great idea to have clever storage, so salvage books that are too old or too torn to hold themselves together, but truth be told, she is not displaying books.

However, most of the people out there that are mad (I’m talking REALLY mad people, like crazy mad) because “she murdered the books” or things like that…well, she didn’t. Other than that, she didn’t murdered or killed anything. Dearest, the tree that was used to make the book died a long time ago, but is not über dead because they undid the book. I think she would’ve avoided a lot of (unnecessary) hate if she would’ve done the craft with stained books, old books, etc, books that otherwise would’ve ended up as recycled paper, instead of brand new ones. 

But let’s talk about this for a while. I’ve told you guys before, I’m a fan of paperback, because you can take them wherever without the weight, you can bend them, and not feel awful because they not longer look new…in my world, the paperback that looks new is just unread, so…read it! I will NOT write or underline my books, I don’t like it, but is mostly because I like lending books, and I think that if I underline something, people are going to be biased to that part that I marked, and I want the read to be as fresh as possible. Doggy ears? Debatable, but if I have nothing else to mark down something I want to come back to, I will make some, as small as possible, again, for the same reason that I do no underline. I used post-it flags, and re use them as long as they stick. And yes, I have some hardcovers that I treat with a lot of care. If I’m borrowing a book I will probably make it an extra cover out of a manila envelope, but that’s out of respect to the person that lent me the book, I try to give it back in the same condition I got it. If the book is mine, and you see me taking extra good care of the book…is probably because it has an emotional story behind, and I would like to keep that particular version of the book as long as it is possible.

But this ludicrous position that the books are being somewhat harmed…well, that’s when you lost me. As Rebecca Joines Schinsky puts it in Book Riot, is the story that should count, is the story that is alive, not the cumuli of sheets. Is the message between those pages that comes to live when you read it. 

In a world where more and more people are turning to e-readers (I haven’t fall into that trend, I really like to change pages and the smell of books) I cannot understand this uprising for some “physical” books. People are madder about this that when someone in Goodreads insults an author that they just didn’t enjoy!.

So what’s your position on this? Are you mad at Lauren? Do you think books should be kept in golden shrines and never been touched or are you a sharing is sexy type of person?

Have a lovely week!

It's not you (dear book) it's me

Last week-end I finished reading The Colonel...as you can see in my review, it was a hard one, I know I should be praising this book, but I just couldn't . I didn't know the context enough to understand it.

I hate when this happens. Lucky it doesn't happen to me THAT often, but every once in a while, I will find a book (or a movie) that has everything to be a good one for me, I mean there is a reason why I bought the book you know? But then, I'm sitting there, and things just don't click. The potential is all there, and you feel it in your gut: "This is a good one! don't let it go". But is too late, is over and you are moving on to the next one

So I'm asking you now, what was the book(s) you knew you should love, but just couldn't?

Hardcover or Paperback

OMG, it's been so long since I had time to write a discussion! Right now I'm still at the lab (lately is either here or at home, I swear I'm just watching the summer pass by through a window) but I have a long incubation, so I can take some time off.

I was discussing the other day with my boyfriend and some friends about our views on paperbacks vs hardcover books. Personally, I like both, but I don't mind having a paperback instead of the hardcover because it takes less space in my bag and (usually) weights less too. Also, and as a student this is something I cannot neglect, they tend to be less expensive. I think it doesn't really matter, since the story is the same, and that's what I want in a book, a good story.

My boyfriend on the other hand, prefers hardcovers. He just likes them better. But to be fair, he rarely reads outside home, and when we do, we go to a park and we just put both books in a bag carefully.

So what about you guys? Hardcover or Paperback?

Reading Overload

So…I’m reading 3 books at the same time. Never, ever in my life have I tried this. I’m usually an “on-book-gal” and proud of it. Already with the amount of articles that I have to read for work, is hard for me to follow everything that’s happening in several articles at a time, imagine with books. But then, a lot happened. 

I don’t have an order for the books that I want to read during this year, so I decided to go for “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison after I finished “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” by Seth Grahame-Smith. 2 reasons lead me to that decision: First of all, The Book Lady starting the Tony Morrison day and second the fact that I recently joined the Read the Nobels blog. So I thought, why not? However, one of TBL advices when reading Tony Morrison is to NOT read it before going to sleep. Now, she looooooves Tony Morrison, and I have never read a book from her, so I decided to follow her advice. Problem is, I cannot go to bead without reading. I just can’t! 

Someone came to my rescue without knowing it, since I got a copy of “The Super Spud Trilogy” by Michael Diack, which became my bedtime book. So far so good, 2 books, I can do this right?. 

And then…and then I got a call from my local library. They got the last part of “1Q84” by Haruki Murakami waiting for me. Well, not really, they got an edition of the book that has the 3 books, whereas I finished an edition that only has the first 2. What to do? I couldn’t let that book go, because who knows how long would it take for it to come back to me and I really, really want to know what happens at the end (Murakami does that to you, apparently). At the same time, I couldn’t leave the Trilogy behind, someone is waiting for a review, and I’m enjoying the Spuds…and I can’t leave The Bluest Eye behind because…well, I’m really liking the story, hard as it is. 

So here I am…reading 3 books at a time, trying at the same time to start packing and no to cut completely my social life…while off course keeping ahead at work…ha…Hopefully I won’t get lost in between so many different stories!.

So what about you? What’s your record for books read at the same time? How do you manage to keep the stories straight?

Places to read

These past 2 weeks have been quite challenging at work…basically, because they are challenging my patience. I went into science knowing that not every day I would be getting results, lately it seems like I hit a closed alley in my project. Anyway, I was in a revealing room, and I had 3 minutes to wait before actually revealing and what did I do? I took my book with me. There I was reading in the room, air filled with fixer smell and a tiny machine doing noises in the back. And a thought came to mind: Is this the weirdest place I’ve found myself reading? I’m not sure!

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve always been an adept reader. So much that I annoyed one of my cousins, and one day she put me inside of a closet to stop me from reading (she was 10 and I was 8, so it was just a kids thing, don’t worry). It didn’t work…when she came to see me 10 minutes after, I stayed in the closet, but I was reading through the crack of the door. I remember her face almost saying, I give up. 

You see, I just can’t help it. I need to read, I’ve read under the covers, in the bathroom, in the tub, walking to the bus stop (looking up at every coma, you know safety first), in the bus (any moving vehicle really, since I do not drive them). I remember once, I was probably 14 or so, and I was reading Alexandros…while in history class. Let’s just say that the teacher didn’t appreciate that one much. I’ve read in a restaurant, either if I’m alone or while waiting for someone, not while eating (that would be rude). At parties (I’m not that social, I will admit), while waiting for my gym class to start, while in the station bike at the gym, at the line…anyway

I realize a lot of those places are not “weird” places to be reading (at least I don’t think so), but it makes me wonder if I’m the only one with this urge to be reading.