Really Random Tuesday #14: CSN Winner and Random Posts

Congratulations to Mami2jcn, the randomly chosen, lucky winner of a $75 gift certificate from CSN stores. I will email you the details soon. Enjoy your shopping spree with CSN!

If you didn't win this time, don't despair. CSN is extremely generous and hosts many other giveaways online, and I have terrific book giveaways posted on the right side of my blog, so you might just try your luck again.



Christmas (and several family birthdays) have kept me ridiculously busy lately, and so I don't have a long post today. Instead, I'll list some of the most recent Really Random Tuesday posts (in no particular order) published by other book bloggers for your browsing pleasure.

Leslie from Under My Apple Tree:
First Day of Winter and a Wovel
Winners and Potatoes

Veens from Giving Reading A Chance!!!:
A Day Early with a Gush Fest!

Naida from the bookworm:
NYC, lots of tasty treats and Jane Austen
24 inches of snow and the top 10 books of 2010

Avis from she reads and reads:
Another Snow and Kitty Pic
Snow and Kitty Pics

Vivienne from Serendipity:
Really Random Tuesday

I'm appreciative of all the book bloggers who have done this meme over the past year. Really Random Tuesday is a way to post odds and ends--announcements, musings, quotes, photos--any blogging and book-related things you can think of. If you're inspired by this idea, feel free to copy the button and use it on your own blog. Leave a link in the comments if you’re participating and I'll add it to this post.

Thanks for reading!

First Lines 2010

As 2010 draws to a close, we are about to start a new decade. This year has gone by too quickly, and I'm thankful to have at least recorded bits of my reading life in this blog. About a year ago, I discovered a fun meme for the end of the year on Kate's Book Blog. This meme is by Melanie from The Indextrious Reader. The idea is, in Melanie's words, "to take the first line of each month's first post over the past year and see what it tells you about your blogging year." I did this, skipping over quotes from books and other sources, to form a collage that represents my blog in 2010. To read any post in its entirety, click on the month of the post.

January
When was the last time a book made you cry?

February
Admittedly, I have a problem.

March
Want to play?

April
The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli is the story of a brave, young woman, Helen Adams, an untrained but talented photojournalist who travels to Vietnam during the war years, determined to somehow understand more about the death of her brother, who died as a soldier there.

May
My mailbox pales in comparison to certain book bloggers out there (you know who you are), but I'm not complaining.

June
Alaska!

July
I'm back!

August
When I first started blogging about books in May of 2008, I only dreamed of the day when I'd be sent books in the mail.

September
I almost feel like a child boasting about Christmas gifts!

October
Oh, happy day!

November
Welcome to another edition of Really Random Tuesday!

December
'Tis the season. . .already?


Having done this meme for the first time at the end of last year, I was more conscious of my first lines throughout the year, and even though I wasn't sure I'd do the meme again, I did put more effort into my opening lines (with varying degrees of success). If you'd also like to create a collage of your blog posts from the past year, why not try this meme yourself?