Views from the Reader Side: giveaways

I have a fairly large blog reading list. My blogs range from the geekish (like GeekDad and Slice of SciFi) to the bookish (like Tor.com and The Book Vixen) to the crafty (like The Steady Hand and Bursts of Bubbles) to parenting blogs (like Do Sweat the Small Stuff and The Mom Pledge) and a whole host of others*. I love learning cool stuff from these awesome blogs and the bloggers behind them and sharing a bit with them.

One of the thing that many (though not all) of the bloggers that I read have in common is giveaways. Many of them come from the ranks of the book bloggers that I read, in an effort to help authors promote their latest work. Good books are too awesome not to share, and keeping mum about book giveaways that I know about would be almost criminal (even if it might increase my chances slightly of winning something myself. ;))

So I'll be starting a feature here on Views from the Reader Side where, once a week, I'll share with my readers links to the great giveaways that I've found among my blog perusing. (If you're interested in non-book blogs, you can check out my Giveaways and Goodies feature over at Sanity's Overrated.) Along with the giveaways, I may pass along a few other bits of book-related info that I come across. (Though not reviews. There are so many great reviews, I'd be typing for days.)

Without further ado, here are the giveaways, listed by date so you know which ones you need to check out sooner rather than later.

January 16, 2012

Happy Chaos by Soliel Moon Frye at The Writer Revived

January 17, 2012

From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant by Alex Gilvarry at Roof Beam Reader
Angel Fire, The Darkness Gathers and Darkness, My Old Friend by Lisa Unger on Facebook

January 18, 2012

Author Interview with Misty Provencher and giveaway of eBook copy of Cornerstone at Book Passion for Life
The Dreaming of Books Giveaway - There are over 200 bloggers giving away books. Follow the link and you'll find the home-linky with all the bloggers listing books. I haven't entered many yet, but I will be over the next several days.

January 19, 2012

Demons at Deadnight by A&E Kirk (2 giveaways, 1 paperback copy, US only, one Kindle edition) at The Unread Reader

January 20, 2012

Switched by Amanda Hocking at Mission to Read (US only, sorry!)

January 24, 2012

Author Interview with Cynthia Hand and giveaway of Team Tucker theme pack at The Story Siren

January 26, 2012

Destiny by Laura DeLuca at Hanging Off the Wire
Word Catcher by Phil Cousineau at Hanging Off the Wire (US and Canada only, sorry!)
Author Interview with Jaye Frances and giveaway of the Kindle version of The Kure at The Book Vixen

January 27, 2012

Random Obesessions by Nick Belardes at Hanging Off the Wire (US and Canada only, sorry!)

January 29, 2012

Beyonders by Brandon Mull at Cami's Books

January 30, 2012

The Fear Index by Robert Harris and Start Shooting by Charlie Newton at KnopfDoubleday

January 31, 2012

Author interview with Shelly Crane and giveaway of her eBook, Significance at Book Passion for Life

February 29, 2012

Book Passion for Life's The Book Depository Affiliates Giveaway #2 (Three winners will win one of eight (8) books)

And, as always, don't forget the constant stream of giveaways on Goodreads.com. I've won close to 30 books through them and am finally starting to dive into them. Look for reviews in the upcoming weeks.

And now for some goodies that I've found through my blog reading that I thought my fellow readers would enjoy.

Right now, you can vote in Tor.com's 2011 Readers Choice Awards. The voting ends January 20, 2012, 11:59 PM.
Abe Books' Reading Copy Book Blog talks about a book from 1928 called Plotto by William Wallace Cook. It attempts to list all possible book narratives. It's a short article but an interesting read.
For Harry Potter foodies, Amy Kraft reviews Molly Weasley Comfort Cooking at GeekMom. I suspect even a non-cooking geek like myself could find some goodies to make in this one!
At Writer's Blog, you can find the American Dialect Society's Winning Words of 2011. The word of the year? "Occupy"
Though it encompasses all forms of media, there are a lot of great book quotes on GeekDad's 100 Quotes Every Geek Should Know. There isn't a huge showing of books, but one of my favorites is number 12 "WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE - God, So Long and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams. Another of my favorites is number 96. "Daddy would have gotten us Uzis.", said by Samantha in Night of the Comet (one of my all time favorite Camp movies). Many other favorites in there too. Which are some of yours?
Finally, for those who are trying to write as well as read but find themselves stymied, Tor.com passes along the information that you can get writing prompts from famous authors over at Figment. Two that they mention giving prompts are Lev Grossman and Aimee Bender. I've signed up over at Figment, but haven't had a chance to check out the prompts yet. Maybe (hopefully) tomorrow or Sunday.

So that's it for this week. I'm hoping to have more goodies next week to share, as well as a few new books to review and anything else that I may find to catch your attention. Thanks for stopping by!

* No offense to the many other blogs that I read and enjoy for not including you here. If I included all the great blogs that I read, I would never get to my actual post.

People Who Don't Know Me Think I'm Somebody by Mike Parish

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

People Who Don't Know Me Think I'm Somebody is another win from GoodReads First reads. By the title, I wasn't sure what to expect of it - depression poetry? Existentialism? Randomness? Well, it was a bit closer to the last.

But what it wasn't, at least by my definition, was poetry. Instead, it seemed more like random thoughts, posts to Twitter or Facebook, brief glimpses into the mind of the reader. As I read the thoughts written, I had the feeling that I was reading the thoughts of teenager, dealing with the crap that becoming an adult throws at him every day.

While it hit far of the mark of what I was expecting, it was an interesting read for what it was. I like to look into the thoughts of others and these brief, sentence or two bits, gave me a nice view into Parish's head at the time he wrote them. It had very much a sense of immediacy, as some of the portions talked about his desire to publish these bits of "poetry".

I also must applaud Mr Parish for the way he sent this. Like a few other reviewers have commented, he used the booklet (white paper, saddle-stitched) itself as the envelope. My address was written clearly on the back and the pages were held closed with a clear sticker. While some may have received theirs damaged because of this, mine came in pristine condition.

In closing, I'd say that if you were looking for poetry, look for something else. But if you like to glance into the mind of someone else in small bites at a time, check it out.

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