Everything But the Kitchen Sink

I've been meaning to post about some things going on (or that already went on) in the blogging world.  So, in order to consolidate things, here they all are together.  

First, I wanted to mention the excellent Utah Book Blogging Social that took place last Saturday.  It was (as usual) fabulous.  While I didn't meet too many new bloggers (I really should have, though) I did get to chat with some old friends and get introduced to some new-to-me authors.  I will send you to look at Suey of It's All About Books' post with pictures.  This is very brave of me, since her photo of me is dreadful.  I'd love to list a bunch of the folks I met, but perhaps instead I will send you to look at the list that Natasha has created of us.  That will give you an glimpse at our numbers! Can't wait until February when we will hopefully be doing it again.

Being a librarian, I couldn't help myself from signing up for Steph Su's Banned Books Reading Challenge.  Obviously, the point is to read some books that have been challenged or banned to bring attention to them or to censorship in general.  I'm hoping that I'll be able to get in at least two challenged books between now and October 15.

1. The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
2. Blubber by Judy Blume
3. Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. by Judy Blume

And I've decided to throw myself into another new challenge.  I loved Lenore's Dystopian August, though I didn't get to appreciate it as much as it deserved while I was on vacation, and so I was super thrilled when Darren announced he was hosting the YA dystopian challenge.  I'm going for a level three wherein I hope to read at least five dystopian books between October 1st and December 19th.  We'll see how that goes!

1. Matched by Ally Condie
2. The Scorch Trials by James Dashner
3. Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness
4. Hunger by Michael Grant
5. Sapphique by Catherine Fisher

Next up, we have another Dewey's 24-hour Read-a-Thon coming up on October 9th.  I've kind of been in a reading slump, not taking much pleasure in what I read, but doing it anyway for the sake of accomplishing something (and not falling farther behind in my review books).  I'm hoping this will help me get excited again (and not send me over the edge of insanity).  Either way, I'm probably going to take it easy and not attempt too much.  But, I still love to participate!

And finally, I was super excited to see that the Cybils are getting ready to start again.  Last year, I got to be a judge for the MG/Elementary sci-fi and fantasy category and I simply loved it!  I haven't signed up to be a potential judge again (yet), but I am thinking about it long and hard.  I don't know if I can stop myself!  Either way, you can head to the Cybils main page for more info on the award and on volunteering to judge.   

I think that about does it for me!  Hopefully you survived all that info and are not catatonic.  If so, quickly go read a book or a book review or something. 

And remember that at least I did not include my kitchen sink.