Category Archives: Culture

Book Forests, Commandments, and Voracious Readers

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Christi

This past week, I’ve run across a few pretty cool things, and I wanted to let you all in on these catches:

Have you heard about the ridiculously awesome Book Forest book swap in Berlin?  The Book Forest combines two of my favorite things — books and nature! 🙂  It’s a book swap set up by BauFachFrau Berlin that is arranged to look like actual trees clustered together.  Each tree has a few cut-outs that function as shelves.  Apparently, it was originally supposed to be a temporary installation, but the community loved it so much that they couldn’t part with it.

Check out bookriot.com’s The Ten Commandments of a Righteous Readerly Life.  Number one is my favorite, but I won’t list it here, or I would be breaking Commandment #10, “Thou shalt not spoil.”

Goodreads is up to 20 million reviews.  The community of voracious readers is expanding rapidly!  Check out the original post on the Goodreads blog here.

goodreads 2012 infographic - novel conclusions - writing blog

goodreads 2012 infographic

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The 10 Most Read Books in the World

Posted on January 1, 2013 by Christi

This post contains affiliate links that help this blog continue to be awesome.

Happy 2013!!!  Today is the first day of Lucky 13.  Are you excited?  I can’t hardly wait!

I thought this would be a good time to start out the new year with a super fun infographic from Business Insider, The Top Ten Most Read Books in the World:

Most Read Books - Novel Conclusions - writing blog

Top 10 Most Read Books Infographic, via Business Insider

I’ve read at least part of every book on this list except for Mao’s little red book (and I think it’s fairly safe to assume I can continue on just fine without reading that little Communism handbook).  2 things struck me about this list:

1.  These books are dramatically different.  This is great as it means that there’s lots of room at the top!  As a reading public, we aren’t stuck inside any one genre — we read lots of different things.

2.  Some of these books are relatively recent, which means that this list is ever-changing.  In a few years, your book could be on the list!

Have you read any of these “most read” books?  Which were your favorites?

P.S. Speaking of the new year, there’s a great new year’s resolutions post over at bottledworder.

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Falling in Love with Writing

Posted on December 25, 2012 by Christi
Glade Jul - Happy Christmas - Novel Conclusions - writing blog

Glade Jul. Viggo Johansen. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

First of all, a very Merry Christmas to everyone!  I love the holiday season and getting to be with family from all over the country, even if just for a little while.  This is also part of the reason I haven’t been actively blogging as much this month — the holiday prep monster has been greedily eating my time in huge chunks.  I need to work on getting as organized as my amazing friend Casey, who has three adorable young kids and an awesome craft business and still blogs constantly.

Anyhow, in all the Christmas madness this morning, my mother gave me a fun writing book.  I picked it up after all my little cousins had gone down for naps or to attack each other with Nerf guns, and it opens with the author reminiscing on his love affair with books.  This made me think of my own fall into writing as a kid — because it truly was a fall, with no hope of coming back.

As a little kid, I LOVED books, and around age 5 or 6, started writing all the time, though not quite as much as I was reading.  However, this writing was more like little drawings of characters and a paragraph about them.  In second grade, I graduated to writing a “book” on that big paper that kids learn to write on.  It talked mostly about my class and how we wanted to go on a field trip.  Plot was a bit thin on the ground, I’m afraid.  I was able to include every kid in my class in the story, though, which was quite a popularity bump.  In fifth grade, we had to write a story with our vocabulary words every week, and each week, I wrote a brief story about sisters Julie and Natalie, who managed to get into some pretty crazy adventures.

What has always drawn me into writing (and into reading, for that matter) is finding out the stories of interesting characters.  Interesting characters fascinate me even now.  What drew you into writing?  What keeps you going now?

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Dreaming of Endless Books

Posted on December 6, 2012 by Christi
Ever after library - Novel Conclusions - writing blog

Ever after. Imagine the library down the hall. Courtesy of Google Images.

Earlier today, I was chatting with my better half, Beau, and I mentioned how I would love to have a library in our future house (which does not exist yet).  He didn’t quite see eye to eye with me on this one:

ME:  Can we have a library in our house someday?

BEAU:  We already have a library.

ME:  What are you talking about?

BEAU:  If a library is a room full of books, Library #1 is our living room.  Library #2, the bedroom.  Library #3, the office.

ME:  (dreamily) It would be all tall, gorgeous shelves full of books with comfy overstuffed chairs.

BEAU:  And maybe the bathroom is Library #4.

ME:  Hmph.  Not what I meant, punk.

This got me thinking about beautiful libraries.  I love libraries, and beautiful libraries are even better.  The first one that popped into my my is the gorgeous library at the monastery in the movie Ever After.  I can’t find a picture of that exact library, but it is multiple floors and open to the working area where the monks are making new copies of the books (this Cinderella movie is set hundreds of years ago).  Danielle, our Cinderella, lights up as she tells the story of falling in love with the book Utopia by Sir Thomas More.

Harry Potter Hogwarts Library - Novel Conclusions - writing blog

Hogwarts Library. Courtesy of Google Images.

The omnipresent library of the Harry Potter books (and movies) also deserves a nod.  Major props go to JK Rowling for working the library into every book in the series.  Harry’s good buddy Hermione manages to find out something important from a book that moves the plot forward in every story in the series; the library is practically a character in the books.

Beauty and the Beast library - Novel Conclusions - writing blog

Belle in the town book shop. Courtesy of Google Images.

There are also a couple of fantastic libraries in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (side note: I can’t believe this movie is more than 20 years old).  As a kid, the fact that Belle adored reading made me love her more.  Who could forget the charming town book shop or the luxurious library at the Beast’s mansion?

For some real-life beautiful libraries, check out this slideshow of twelve stunning libraries.  Which libraries (real or imagined) do you think of when you think of libraries?

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A YA Book for Every State!

Posted on November 21, 2012 by Christi

I saw this infographic on Short Librarian’s Blog, and I also thought it was pretty amazing.  I had to share.  You can also find the original post at EpicReads.  Each state on this map is represented by a book that takes place in that state.

This map reminds me how many deserving YA books are still out there that I have yet to read — and also how many YA novels I’ve forgotten about that merit a second look.  I’ve read a chunk of these books, but this definitely adds a few to my list.  I remember reading Jean Craighead George’s Julie of the Wolves years ago and becoming immersed in the Alaskan setting.  More recently, Veronica Roth’s Divergent took me a to a completely different world and made it real for me.  I love discovering new reads!  Not only do they make us better writers, but they’re so much fun to read!  Have you read the book for your state?

YA Books Map -- Novel Conclusions -- writing blog

Courtesy of epicreads.com

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