Writers: Enter BookSwim's 2009 NaNoWriMo Competition
Now announcing BookSwim's 2009 NaNoWriMo Competition. Submit your NaNoWriMo novel and have a chance to see your novel in BookSwim's catalog! Send in your work or nominate a friend's.
Hey out there in internet land. In the course of one’s life, one may find the compulsion to say to oneself: “Boy, I wish I had a Literary Life podcast to listen to right now. Where did Chip & Eric go?”
Sorry for the radio silence, folks. As fate would have it, we’re here scrambling like mad with the great work: the Sistine Chapel of graphic design; the iPod of site functionality, speed, and grace. You know what I’m talking about: the relaunch of BookSwim’s website.
We’re currently scheduled to unveil BookSwim 3.0 in the first week of May. In the meantime, expect a limited return of the Literary Life with silly surveys on Tuesday and blogging on Thursdays. And if this doesn’t quite fill your Literary Life needs, fear not; we’ll return in force after the site relaunch.
Well, the votes are in and the BookSwimmers have spoken. The Top Ten Cheesiest Romance Novels as nominated and voted on by you are as follows:
1. Twilight - Stephanie Meyer 30%
2. The Choice - Nicholas Sparks 23%
3. Confessions of a Shopaholic - Sophie Kinsella 17%
4. The Harlequin - Laurell K. Hamilton 10%
4. Rogue - Danielle Steel 10%
6. Change of Heart - Jodi Picoult 3%
6. Disturbance of the Inner Ear - Joyce Hackett 3%
6. Collateral Damage - Fern Michaels 3%
9. Shelter Mountain - Robyn Carr 0%
9. Devil May Cry - Sherrilyn Kenyon 0%
Some are surprising and others relatively expected, but our dear sweet Sherrilyn Kenyon has been vindicated since none but the nominator found her books to be “cheesy”. Stephanie Meyer, on the other hand, has cut the cheese for sure. Perhaps if she were to come on our show, our her ratings would be a little higher.
What question should we pose for March’s Top Ten? Your suggestions in the comments section below.
The nominations have poured in by comments and e-mail and we at The Literary Life are now thrilled to open up the voting for this month’s Top Ten: Cheesiest Romance Novel.
This month we’re trying something a little different: you can vote for all of your favorites, instead of just one. So take your time, consider the options, cast your vote and maybe even add a few books to your Rental Pool for a little guilty pleasure-reading.
And while you’re at it, don’t forget to vote in this week’s Silly Survey and check out the Podcast with your favorite people named Chip and Eric.
Did your favorite Cheesy Romance Novel not make the list? Is it not in the lead? Debate it in the comments section, below.
It’s February and you know what that means, right? No, not frostbite or hypothermia. Love!
This February, we’re asking you, the BookSwimmers, to come up with your list of the best (read: cheesiest) romance novels of all time. Whether it’s classic literature, paranormal, Danielle Steele, or honest-to-God cheddar, we want to know your favorite cheesy romance book.
Next week, we’ll take your top ten submissions and put them to a vote, letting you, our faithful readers, rank the titles you love to be embarrassed caught reading the most.
Nominate below, in the comments section, and take a moment to vote in this week’s Silly Survey, as well.
Welcome to this month’s Top Ten. Here, we sit down with you, our readers, to figure out the definitive top ten list of various categories of books. Last month, you helped us compile a list of the top ten books that will help you meet your New Year’s resolutions.
This month, though, it’s the month of Valentine’s Day we’re looking for something a little more romantic. This month’s Top Ten will be…
(antici… pation!)
…the Top Ten cheesiest romance novels in the catalog!
What do we mean by cheesy? Could be many things: the one with the least believable characters, the hammiest dialogue, the most contrived plot, or the most outrageous love scenes. Everything that makes romance novels a guilty pleasure. Whether it’s the latest Nora Roberts or one of the latest vampire love stories that takes itself too seriously, we want to find the hammiest, cheesiest, most over-the-top love stories of our catalog!
Do you know a few titles that fit this description? Hit the Comment link below and tell us– we’re eager to know! After two weeks of gathering your nominations, we’ll compile a poll for everyone to cast their final votes and uncover… the ten cheesiest romance novels of all time. Or at least February.
Okay peoples. You have nominated and you have voted and a winner has emerged. We here at The Literary Life posed the question to you, the BookSwimmers: What book will you read to help you accomplish your New Year’s Resolution?
With so many self-help and guide books from which to choose, with 23% of the vote, you decided that ANY book would do. That’s right, so many of you have made the New Year’s Resolution to simply read more.
Well then it’s a good thing that you have a BookSwim membership, because you can read more without spending more. You’re so thrifty!
Any suggestions for what category we should pose next Friday for February’s top ten?
Despite the fact that FOX News is already hard at work trying to elaborate less than a week into the full first 100 days (patience, everybody…patience), the year is still new, and most of us have yet to give up on our New Year’s resolutions.
But hey, why be so cynical? Why not read a book to help you on your way, instead? It’s been one week since we tallied your nominations and began the voting and with the votes pouring in, we offer you fabulous BookSwimmers one more bite at the proverbial apple (well, seven, if you count it by days) to vote for which book or books you’ll be reading in the coming year to help you accomplish your New Year’s Resolution.
Remember: voting closes at 9am on Friday, January 30th, when we formally announce the Top Ten ranking, so get your vote in now!
Finished voting? Still have the urge to go vote for something but don’t have the patience to wait for the 2010 interim elections? Try casting your vote in this week’s Silly Survey!
We’re halfway through the month of January– it’s decision time for determining whether those resolutions you made two weeks ago were for that night or 2009. The nominations are in, and we’ve compiled a list of honorees with a collection of the most popular books in our catalog. Which book would help you most in pursuit of your goal?
For those of you who haven’t read them all, here are the nominees with short descriptions from their pages:
–The Alchemist: “Like the one-time bestseller Jonathan Livingston Seagull, The Alchemist presents a simple fable, based on simple truths and places it in a highly unique situation. And though we may sniff a bestselling formula, it is certainly not a new one: even the ancient tribal storytellers knew that this is the most successful method of entertaining an audience while slipping in a lesson or two.”
–The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous, and Broke: “If you are tired of struggling to make ends meet but don’t know a 401(k) from Special K, this book is for you. Aimed specifically at “Generation Broke”–those in their twenties and thirties who are working yet buried in credit card debt and student loans–this user-friendly guide offers a clear introduction to practical investing and money management techniques that can turn even a dismal financial situation around.”
– Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: “Author Barbara Kingsolver and her family abandoned the industrial-food pipeline to live a rural life—vowing that, for one year, they’d only buy food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it.”
–The Classics: A Farewell to Arms, Lolita, Moby Dick– like vitamin pills, you know they’re all good for you.
– Outliers: The Story of Success: “Now that he’s gotten us talking about the viral life of ideas and the power of gut reactions, Malcolm Gladwell poses a more provocative question in Outliers: why do some people succeed, living remarkably productive and impactful lives, while so many more never reach their potential?”
–Why We Suck: A Feel-Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy and Stupid: “In Why We Suck, Dr. Denis Leary uses his common sense, and his biting and hilarious take on the world, to attack the politically correct, the hypocritical, the obese, the thin–basically everyone who takes themselves too seriously.”
–Hot, Flat and Crowded: “In his brilliant, essential new book, Friedman takes a fresh and provocative look at two of the biggest challenges we face today: America’s surprising loss of focus and national purpose since 9/11; and the global environmental crisis, which is affecting everything from food to fuel to forests.”
–The Audacity of Hope: :With his second book The Audacity of Hope, Obama engages themes raised in his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, shares personal views on faith and values and offers a vision of the future that involves repairing a “political process that is broken” and restoring a government that has fallen out of touch with the people.”
–The Snowball: Warren Buffet and the Business of Life: “The legendary Omaha investor has never written a memoir, but now he has allowed one writer, Alice Schroeder, unprecedented access to explore directly with him and with those closest to him his work, opinions, struggles, triumphs, follies, and wisdom. The result is the personally revealing and complete biography of the man known everywhere as “The Oracle of Omaha.””
–Or is your goal simply to read as many books as you can rent?
Thanks to everyone who nominated. Cast your vote, and after two weeks we’ll find out– the Top Ten resolution-keeping books!
Another year over, and a new one just begun. The new year brings us a chance to make resolutions about how we want to change our lives for the better. In the vain of art imitating life, it happens in books time and time again.
So what’s the best book to help you start your life over? What book will you read in the new year to help you accomplish your new year’s resolution?
1. Twilight - Stephanie Meyer 30%
