What are You Reading is a weekly dailykos series hosted by plf515. Mojo Friday is a feel-good chatty diary hosted by TexDem. I am pleased to guest host this combined edition. I believe both regular authors will return next week.
cfk hosts Bookflurries on Wednesday evenings - Atlantis was this week's theme. Although I am still very fond of the dragons from two weeks ago.
Goodreads is a place to keep track of your reading, and share with friends. Beware of emails from authors though ;-), some seem to email the entire community to request "friendship". My uid there is Jlms, and I will be your friend.
Two weeks ago I overwhelmed myself (and perhaps some of you) with a plethora of beloved children's books. This week is completely different, I promise.
Please share what you are reading, and over the flip, I'll share what I'm reading, why I'm reading it, and how to acquire books.
WAYR
Before I discovered Bookflurries and WAYR here at dkos, I had slipped into reading science fiction/fantasy - mainly Star Wars, Star Trek, and Harry Potter. Since last fall, I have branched out into nonfiction, literature and better fiction, and during Lent I even "fasted" from science fiction.
Right now I am reading Jeffrey Toobin's The Nine, about the Supreme Court. It is quite frightening so far, to see the changes in the court under the influence of the far right religious folks.
The Glenn's latest book, Great American Hypocrite, is my other serious read right now. mcjoan has had two excellent front page stories on this book here
and here. So far I have learned that John Wayne is the prototype for the modern-day Republican, and Matt Drudge is king of media.
These are the first serious political books I've read in a long long time, if ever. And though they are frightening, I want to be "armed" and "in the know" - the better to fight for progressive causes and truth.
For fun, I have a couple Star Trek novels, and I started "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Heinlein.
How to Acquire Books
Buy, Borrow, Trade: The progressive thing to do is to support your locally owned bookstore. I have The King's English within walking distance, although I do not walk in there as often as I should. We also have a B&N close to where we do a lot of other shopping. I bought the Glenn's book at the local B&N - I decided late-ish one night that I just had to have it. I very rarely buy hardcover books new, though dkos has been a bad influence on me in that respect, especially mcjoan. ;-)
I have some opinions on on-line bookstores. Amazon has everything, they have great prices, free shipping blah blah. Barnes & Noble in addition to having the big box presence in our neighborhoods has almost as many books in stock as Amazon. I hear that those big companies support political parties in various percentages that I may or may not agree with.
Powell's Bookstore is a real local bookstore in Portland, (OR) and they use a percent of profits to support literacy. Which of course is a good thing.
The smart, frugal thing to do is to borrow from your local library! We are blessed to live in a city with a fabulous, award-winning main library, and we have a local branch about .5 mile north of our house. The Nine is from the library, and I am on the wait list for Shock Doctrine by Naomi Wolf. I also found a darling little knitting book I hope to share in a WAYWO soon.
Bookmooch is a way to trade books for the postage. When you send someone your book, you get points. Then you use those points to have someone send you a book.
Mojo Friday
Mojo Friday needs your recommendation and at least one comment per viewer! This will increase our impact on jotter's list, which is our next goal! We are slowly taking over the most-comments in a diary list. Other than that, here's the boxes:
Mojo Friday Guidelines
1. If you comment you have to recommend all comments. (in order to recieve mojo you have to give mojo. It's only good mojo manners.)
2. Everything you say may be taken as a joke (so if you ask a question, expect a silly answer)
3. You must recommend the diary (and pimp it unapologetically)
4. You don't have to comment to recommend. You should make one comment, however.
5. You can't steal my idea (right, like that ain't goin' to happen)
6. Please, no pictures or YouTubes until after 300 comments
7. Mojo mojo mojo mojo, mojo mojo mojo
Mojo Friday Goals:
A. at least 300 different commenters and 1000 comments by 1:30 PM EST and 1500 by 5:00 PM EST Friday Night that it's posted.
B. 100 recommends for each comment, at least.
C. Stay on Recommend List at least five hours (this requires some strategic planning by you guys, refer to guideline #3)We did this last week, woo hoo!!
D. At least 200 diary recommends. 300 would be better, spread the word.
E. And always, fun fun fun.
F. Have at least 75% average participation rate as seen here in the Mojo Friday Postgame Show by goffnews.
G. (New) Have at least 30 kossacks over 90% participation (see here for some tips).
H. Overload the servers with recommends, not to mention dominate Top Comments Mojo list. (we do tend to mess with the site with all of our recommends at one time)(also, to dominate the Top Comments Top Mojo we need at least 50 comments with over 100 recommends, see guideline B)
I. That's enough for now. (Have a suggestion? Post it.)
MOJO FRIDAY SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS!!!
ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY next FRIDAY! TexDem's baby turns 1! Please bring gifts, balloons, drinks, cakes, and all that good party stuff!
anotherdemocrat rides in the Hill Country Ride for Aides tomorrow! We all must give her best wishes and good lucks and prayers and that stuff! See her diaries or a link in her siggy for details! She is a fabulous fundraiser!
Regular Announcements
MKinTN posted a diary to help everyone achieve greater success called How to Succeed at Mojo Friday Without Really Trying.
Remember; Support the Troops, Buy Mojo Friday Apparel, proceeds got to support Ninepatch and her endeavors. Some of you have yet to purchase your Tees or mugs etc., what are you waiting for? Sales have slowed a bit, let's go.
Final Announcement: Please make ONE comment about What you Are Reading!
Please do not make any comments whatsoever regarding the Democratic presidential candidates. Let's keep the peace. Thank you very much, and mojo on!