End of Year List #1- New things I've discovered in 2011

So, this week is going to be full of lists to do with 2011 and 2012 and possibly other things...

So to kick it off, here’s a list of five  awesome new things that I’ve discovered in 2011.
1. Dystopia. I was reading dystopia a little before, such as The Hunger Games, but only in 2011 was I aware that it was an actual genre, that more people were writing it, and that it was awesome!  It also helps that there’s been a tonne of new stuff out this year, such as Divergent, Delirium and so on.
2. Indie authors.  I knew they existed, but never cared about them, due to the fact that I never spent my life on the computer reading/doing booky related things, so I never looked beyone the books that were in my library, to see if there was a sequel, and to then force the library to buy those books. Now I know about these, I now read a lot more stuff. And cost the library a lot more. Dear Bethany (woman who I think is the person who deals with item requests), thank you!
3. The joy of book trailers. I still don’t understand why a book (paper based) would have a video (multiple picture based) promotional tool, but i do watch them sometimes and think how the director has seen it differently, something quite interesting.
4. Goodreads. Actually, I discovered Goodreads ages ago, when I was playing around with my hotmail account and found there was something called goodreads. And so I signed up, spammed my friends who also had hotmail with the information that I wanted to read all these books, then didn’t understand why you’d put as you were reading it that you were reading it, and forgot about it. Then, when I started blogging, I realised this would be something useful, so I signed up again, and used it properly. And I don’t know how long I’ve spent my life on that site...
5. How amazing you guys (the blogging/publishing community) are! You’re all so nice and welcoming and willing to talk and be friends and so on. when I started, I wasn’t really sure as to how we’d be perceived- two teenagers that read weird stuff and feel the need to have a grim reaper at the top of our blog. But you guys are all so nice, and it’s been a great year!

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Our Trip to the British Library

This is kind of a more personal post, chartering last Friday. Why? Because, Katy, me and the rest of my "book club" went to the British Library. And I'm going to tell you what happened. You ready?


Well, technically this isn't at the British Library, but to start with, we spent 20 minutes walking from school to the train station. As we were crossing the bridge above the tracks, we saw the train coming. So what did we do? Caused a stampede. And then we accidentally got on the train in the QUIET ZONE. Quiet. Right. Actually it was quite fun. Me, Baka, Mimz and Katy wrote on paper and to eachother and actually stayed quieter than could be expected.

So we got off at Marylebone station. And then we were told we would have to WALK to the library. Cue complaining. A lot of it. So we walked, in the freezing cold, and we got fairly excited about the fact that there was real grass in a block somewhere. We are easily excited.

Finally, we got to the library. And we took photos and we blocked up the entire pavement.
There, we waited in the courtyard. Now think. Book club + biggest library in England. What were we excited about? Yep, you guessed it. The fact there was somewhere selling warm stuff.  Warm food. After complaining about the fact the parent supervisors were getting coffee and we weren’t, we went inside.

And got overexcited about a bench. Because it was a seriously cool one. It was in the shape of a book with a metal chain. And then we went downstairs to where there was a locker. And the thing that caught our attention most. It was this art thing, 3D, when looking at it from a certain angle looked flat with the most amazing perspective work in it. We spent most of our time walking back and forth looking at it from different angles. Paradoxymoron, go look it up. It is amazing.

Then Julian Walker met us and took us round the lower bit. We saw a printing press and he explained how it worked. Then we all had a  go at folding paper so that all the pages were in the right order. We weren’t told until we were halfway through it that it wouldn’t be readable as the fold at the top was closed.

Then we went up to the gallery with lots of original manuscripts. I can’t begin to describe how awesome it was to see these things that we’re somewhat familiar with in the author’s own handwriting.

Then we were told to go and look at one case in particular and see what we could learn from it. Katy and I chose the music case and realised that our own composing in Sibelius were totally readable compared to the originals of things like Handel’s Messiah. We also learnt the Beatles couldn’t read sheet music.

Another group of four told us about the technology of books. We decided scrolls were cool, and that stone slabs were useful for hitting people around the head with. Of course the day was productive.

After a final get together with the whole group and Julian, we got to the most important, and looked forwards part of the day. Lunch. We went a little crazy (crazier) in the lunch room, before being chucked out as the next school wanted to come in.

Then it was time for the shopping, and we all jsut stood around and wrote in Narcissa’s copy of Mess. So now, whenever she opens it, it falls open at the right page for her to lose the game.

Finally it was time to go home. Back to school. As we ended up on the train a little earlier than expected, we sat and waved out of the window at passers by.  It was a good day.

Yep, we do have photos. And yes, we do have videos. But you can't see them because we'd rather you didn't track us down. And as a final note, names have been changed to protect the not-at-all-innocent.

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Challenges, Competitions, Chemistry and other stuff...

So...a lot of things have been happening in the past week full of Japanese Young Adult Novels. Did you enjoy it?  Caroline and I certainly did.

So, here's what I want to say has been going on round here...

CHALLENGE

I'm going to participate in the 2012 TBR Pile Reading Challenge. I need to. And because I don't know exactly what is on my TBR pile, then I'm going to go for level 1, a firm handshake. But hopefully I'll get further than that.
Here's all the rules from Evie....

• This challenge will run from Jan 1, 2012 - Dec 31, 2012.
• As we would like to see quality reviews linked up to our monthly wrap-ups, only bloggers can enter. Sorry about that!
• Any genre, length or format of book counts, as long as it is a book that's been sitting on your shelf for some time now. Only books released in 2011 and earlier! NO ARCs and 2012 fresh-off-the-press releases allowed!
• You can list your books in advance or just put them in a wrap-up post. If you list them, feel free to change them as the mood takes you.
• When you sign up in the linky, put the direct link to your post about joining the 2012 TBR PILE Reading Challenge (You need to include the info + host list + challenge button. You can also grab the button code and add it to your sidebar!)
• You can move up levels, but no moving down.
• Sign-ups will be open until Dec 15, 2012, so feel free to join at any time throughout the year.
• At the end of each month one of the hosts will post a wrap-up. Every wrap-up will have it's unique theme, a mini-challenge, a giveaway and place for you to link up your reviews from this month. For each review you link up, you will get one entry in a drawing of one book of choice from Book Depository. It's open to INTERNATIONALS. For participating in the mini-challenge you will get +1 entry.
• If you miss a wrap-up post + giveaway, you can link up your reviews next month. Do not, however, try to link up one review twice - we will be checking ;)
• December is a wrap-up for the whole year. All the book reviews you linked up January-November + the ones you'll link up in December will be entered into a HUGE giveaway - 12 books, 12 winners, INTERNATIONAL.
• You don't have to follow all the hosts to join the challenge, but you do have to follow all of us to be entered in giveaways!

Look interesting? I know I've got tonnes of stuff on my top shelf that has been completely neglected....but I'll probably forget to  do wrap up posts. Oh well.

And if I can find another challenge to do, I'll probably join that too...

COMPETITION

Do you want to win a manuscript critique from someone already established in the industry? 

Book Wish Foundation is giving you the chance to get it from one of six somewhat-known authors and agents if you write a 500 essay about a short story in the anthology, What You Wish For. You can enter many times, so you could win all six.

For more details, go to the Book Wish website.

STRANGE CHEMISTRY
You might not know it from what I review, but one of my favourite imprints is Angry Robot, the side that deals with "SF, F and WTF" (the reason I haven't reviewed much of their stuff is cos it's somewhat inappropriate. And the final part of the description I think fits perfectly). Guess how happy I was when I heard there's going to be a subset of AR dealing specifically with Young Adult of that stuff! It's called Strange Chemistry and will get properly going in September 2012, publishing both in England and America. Looks good? I think so.

OTHER STUFF

• Katy and I went to the British Library on Friday with our "book" club. A full account will come soon....
• I have a lot of catching up to do in terms of commenting on your blogs. Sorry.
• Less than two weeks till Christmas! Have fun in the run up, the day, and in the new year!

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