I'm baaaaaccckkkk!!! .... Black Friday Read a Thon #BFRaT

Yes!  I knowwwwww, it's been a long time since I last posted to this blog.  And I will not make promises about a frequency at this point, but what I did come to say and share is that THIS Friday I will be participating in a Black Friday Read a Thon hosted by Du Livre, Mocha Girls Read, and Books and Sensibility!

See full details HERE.

Synopsis:

Friday, November 24th from 12 a.m. - 11:59 p.m., there will be challenges throughout the day to win prizes, and you set your own reading criteria.

My GOALS for this Read a Thon:

1. Read, Read, Read :-)

2. To read from a hard copy book.

3. To "read" listen to an Audible book.

4. To read from an electronic book.

5. To enjoy some great quality tea.

6. ENJOY MYSELF!

I hesitate to make a specific number of hours as a goal, but I will focus on getting in as many hours as possible.  Do you want to take a guess at how many hours it will end up being?  Go ahead, guess in the comments below.  The closest guess within 2 hour range will win a prize.

What are you currently reading and/or recommend? 

Reading Challenge: Mocha Girls Read

Every year I set a reading goal through GoodReads.com Reading Challenge. This year, in addition to my usual challenge, I've committed to completing the Mocha Girls Reading Challenge. The goal is to read books that spell out MOCHA GIRLS 15, by selecting books or authors that start with the corresponding letter and/or number.

I'm a bit of an FREE eBook fiend and tend to download a lot of books. Some that I want to read sooner, rather than later get added to my "to-read" list. Therefore this year I'll combine the MOCHA GIRLS 15 challenge with my attempt to get to some of these older books on my "to-read" list by only choosing books for the Mocha challenge from books already on my reading list (If possible. Currently I have 8 out of 12 that I can pull from my list.  The remaining will come from a pre-ordered March 2015 release and other books I have in inventory, but not on my "to-read" list yet).

Just as a planning measure I'm pre-selecting books from my list I plan to complete according the criteria set forth, but may change if needed. My overall reading goal for the year is twenty-five (25) books so this Mocha Girls Challenge will consume twelve (12) of those slots.

M - Believing God Day by Day: Growing Your Faith All Year Long by Beth Moore
O – Outside (Outside #1) by Shalini Boland (Goodreads Author)
C - Day-Day (Chop, Chop #2) by L.N. Cronk (Goodreads Author)
H - The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
A - The American Lady ((The Glassblower Trilogy Book 2)

G - Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Imagine by Max Lucado
I - I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb (Maybe, this is an extremely long book)
R -Retirement Planning Checklist: The Ultimate Guide by Natalie Johnson (Goodreads Author)
L - Love and Respect: The Love She Most Desires; The Respect He Desperately Needs 
      by Emerson   Eggerichs
S - The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois

1 - One More Winter: A Short Story by Rebecca K. O'Connor (Goodreads Author)
5 - Five Days in May by Ninie Hammon (Goodreads Author)

So there you have it! A sneak peak at some of the books I plan to read this year. I try to mix it up and not choose all the same type books. The remaining books will be chosen randomly and/or depending upon what "My Girls" and I decide to read this year for book discussion.

I'll be updating this post throughout the year so sign-up to Follow me to keep up with my progress and reviews I'll write.  :-)

What's on your reading list? Any great suggestions?

***********************************************

Audiobooks: Are they really the same as reading?

Back in January I wrote the post "Reading Goal": Do Audiobooks Count?  Today I found this article from the Chicago Tribune that speaks on the subject as well and thought I'd share it.

Audiobooks: Are they really the same as reading?

I'm seriously considering re-signing up for an Audible.com account because I really enjoyed it. 

Do you have any audiobooks to recommend?

Do you have a favorite narrator?

Google Reader: I'm addicted

I know Google Reader has been around for like FOREVER, but I've just recently begun using it on a daily basis to keep up with the ton of blogs I'm following. 

You know you are addicted to blog reading when you choose to do that over watching TV and/or you browse blogs while watching TV and have to pause the TV show to read a particularly good post.  Yes, I do that.  :-)

Still being fairly new to the blog world I was frustrated with how to best keep up with blogs I was following.  I used to go to my dashboard and click on individual blogs that were at the top of my list since those had the most recent updates.  That was too time consuming and didn't allow me to get through most of the updates. 

One day I happened to notice the "View in Google Reader" link and WHA-LA! My eyes were opened to a whole new method for tracking, reading and even sharing blogs with others.  I'm not sure if reading blogs in this manner allows the bloggers to know their blog has been read by recording it as a "page view" though.  So on post that are particularly interesting to me I will click on them and go to the actual page so that it's counted and oftentimes, those are the ones I leave comments on.  Hmmm...if only Google Reader would add "Leave a Comment" to the main reader page would be awesome!!!  

How do you track the blogs you are following?

I received my 21-Day Challenge Badge!

I'm so excited to have completed this Bible reading challenge by YouVersion.  It's one thing to say you are GOING to do something, but its a WONDERFUL feeling when you actually COMPLETE it.  Here's the badge I received for it.

Of course there was an incentive to complete this; an iPad or Kindle Fire could be won.   However, even if I don't win one of those items I'm still a WINNER.  Statistics indicate that it takes 21-days to make something a habit in your life.

This is a HABIT worth having!

Black History Month: Reading

In honor of Black History Month this year as part of my reading goal I will focus on reading books by and/or about African Americans of a historic nature.  Here are the books I currently have on my "Black History" to-read list on Goodreads.com.

Cateyesmd's bookshelf: black-history

Bicycles

by Nikki Giovanni

tagged: to-read and black-history

The Souls of Black Folk

by W.E.B. DuBois

tagged: to-read and black-history

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

by James Weldon, 1871-1938 Johnson

tagged: to-read and black-history

Up from Slavery: an autobiography

by Booker T. Washington

tagged: to-read and black-history

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

by Harriet Ann Jacobs

tagged: to-read and black-history

Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present

by Harriet A. Washington

tagged: to-read and black-history

Today I started on Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and so far I'm really enjoying it.  It is actually written by the slave girl and apparently was not not heavily edited for grammar in order to keep the true first person writing style from an uneducated slaves perspective.  The surprise is that, while I'm only about 25% into the book the writing of this "uneducated" slave girl is very well done considering the time period it was written.  I'm really looking for to finishing this book and sharing my full review with you.

Next up on my list will be Medical Apartheid.  I anticipate that due to the length and what I assume will be some really technical writing I will read this book while reading others through the month.

I anticipate 4 books being my limit for the month and even though I have more than four on my list now I would love to hear your suggestions for some great reading pleasure.  Leave our recommendation in the comments section.  Thanks and stay tuned for my review of Same Kind of Different as Me!

Paying It Forward Pt. 2: I was a recipient, WOW

I had planned to do a Part 2 to the Paying It Forward post I did on on January 9th and share with you ways I pay it forward that weren't listed in my first post.  However I wasn't expecting to be the recipient of such measure.

At 1:05 PM I TWEETED that I had just put a book on my Kindle Love Wish List.

I just wished for: 'Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans... via @amazon amazon.com/wishlist/KIJMG…
— CateyesMD (@cateyesmd) January 23, 2012

I was sharing that information as a means of sharing the title of the book with others.

At 1:13 PM I received an email from Amazon indicating I had received a gift from one of my friends who had obviously seen the TWEET.


AT 1:19 PM I then TWEETED the following:

Touched! TY "Friend" 4 this GIFT: 'Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans amazon.com/dp/B0010SEOYE/…
— CateyesMD (@cateyesmd) January 23, 2012

Of course I sent a personal thank you as well, but wanted to share with others that in this day and time, there are still very nice people around who believe in Paying It Forward.  My "Friend", who holds a public office in the District of Columbia has certainly secured a donation to their next run for public office, should they choose to run again.  Not that that was the intent, but that's how this process works  :-).
Seriously though, I was truly touched at their generosity and can only imagine the feeling it gave me is shared multiple times over when I donate BLOOD and/or PLATELETS through the American Red Cross.  I have been donating blood for many years and platelets for about the last 2-3 years.

You may be asking yourself the following 2 questions now:
(answers from http://www.psbc.org/programs/platelets.htm)

Who Needs Platelets?
Many lifesaving medical treatments require platelet transfusions. Cancer patients, those receiving organ or bone marrow transplants, victims of traumatic injuries, and patients undergoing open heart surgery require platelet transfusions to survive.

Because platelets can be stored for only five days, the need for platelet donations is vast and continuous.

Platelet transfusions are needed each year by thousands of patients like these:

• Heart Surgery Patient, 6 units
• Burn Patient, 20 units
• Organ Transplant Patient, 30 units
• Bone Marrow Transplant Patient, 120 units

Who Can be an Apheresis Donor?
If you meet the requirements for donating blood, you probably can give platelets. Apheresis donors must:

• be at least 18 years old
• be in good health
• weigh at least 110 pounds
• not have taken aspirin or products containing aspirin 48 hours prior to donation.

IMAGINE THIS!

If you began donating blood at age 17 and donated every 56 days until you reached 76, you would have donated 48 gallons of blood, potentially helping save more than 1,000 lives!

How many lives are you willing to save?

Book Review: Water for Elephants

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Just a quick snippet until my full review...

I started this book and quickly began to wonder if I was going to enjoy it. It wasn't until I was about half-way through the book that the yearning to complete the book and find out how it ends finally developed in me. At this point I couldn't wait until I could read(listen) more without distraction.

I used my Kindle "Text to Speech" feature to listen to the majority of this book, but would occasionally stop to read and/or reread some sections that I had gotten distracted on. I'm actually toying with the idea to read this book through a second time.

I really enjoyed how it ended and was surprised at the end because you have an expectation of how it's supposed to end and then you see that what your THOUGHT happened...well read it! :-) 

So, It's just January and I've got two (2) books completed towards my reading goal for the year so far.  I'm currently reading the third book: "Same Kind of Different As Me: A Modern-Day Slave, and International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together" by Ron Hall, Denver Moore and Lynn Vincent (Collaborator). Whew...that's a mouthful!  I hope to complete this book before the end of the month so stay tuned for that review.  You can see more of my 2012 planned reading in my "Reading Goal": Do Audiobooks count? post.

What are you reading?

True Words by Dr. Seuss

Well said Dr. Seuss! 

When I was growing up I always enjoyed reading.  I enjoyed visualizing the various places I read about.  I'm not 100%, but I think I was probably in my early teens when I realized that while the book I was reading may have been fiction (books that aren't true stories), sometimes places and things in the book were REAL!

In light of this revelation this quote by Dr. Seuss made complete sense to me.  As I continued to READ more and MORE I realized I was not only enjoying the story, but learning about real PLACES, THINGS, and or events that that have occurred.

This resulted in me LEARNing and KNOWing about PLACES and would possibly GO later in life.  Even if I didn't go physically I was able to go "mentally" which served me well in my adult years as I began to associate with people from various walks of life and was able to relate when conversations would come up about topics I had read about.

Just a little memory I wanted to share.  

So, go read, read, read!

"Reading Goal": Do Audiobooks Count?

I'm a member of Goodreads.com and this will be my second year signing up for the Reading Challenge.  You can track my progress in the left panel.  Last year my goal was 12 books, which meant I had to read 1 book a month minimum. That's a very doable goal for a busy person like myself.  Here's a snapshot of what I "read".

Sometime during July, 2011 I activated a membership with Audible.com through a $1 for 6 months offer I received on my Kindle with Special Offers and so began my journey and I'm not ashamed to admit a love for listening to audiobooks.  This was a steal of a deal because I received 1-credit per month and 1 credit would get you one audiobook.  (The math: I received 6 audiobooks for $1).  So then the BIG QUESTION popped into my head -- Should I count audiobooks towards my goal of books "Read".  I decided to include them. :-)  Of the fourteen (14) books I completed only 5 were in audiobook format.  I know you're wondering, I thought you received 6 credits so why didn't I get 6 books, right?  I decided to GIFT an audiobook to a dear friend of mines. :-)

Today I decided to google the question "Do audiobooks count towards your reading goal?" and was pleasantly pleased when I saw others had the same question and the overwhelming response was "Yes, audiobooks should be counted".  One response I especially liked was that audiobooks should be counted if "unabridged", meaning the book is read in it's entirety and not shortened for the audiobook.  Unabridged books take a considerable amount of time to listen to with the average listening time being between 10-12 hours.  Interestingly, it would probably take the average reader only about 6-8 hours to actually read the book in print.

Taking this into consideration I am planning to increase my reading challenge goal to specifically include more audiobooks.  I primarily listen to audiobooks during my commute to and from work and while at home doing things such as cooking, cleaning and hobbies like sewing and crocheting.

Do you have an opinion on this subject?  Weigh in via a comment below and let me know your thoughts.

Check out some of the books on my To-Read List.  It will be interesting to see which ones I get to this year.  If you have a book recommendation for me please feel free to leave that in a comment below.  Thanks!

Cateyesmd's bookshelf: 2012-challenge

The Women of Azusa Street

by Estrelda Alexander

Selling My Soul

by Sherri Lewis

A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World

by Paul E. Miller

Freedom from Performing: Grace in an Applause-Driven World

by Becky Harling

In the Line of Fire: How to Handle Tough Questions...When It Counts

by Jerry Weissman

Water for Elephants

by Sara Gruen

Same Kind of Different As Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together

by Ron Hall

Soon After

by Sherryle Kiser Jackson

Taylor Made

by Sherryle Kiser Jackson

Reinventing Rachel

by Alison Strobel

HEYYYYY!!!

Did you notice that my reading goal follows the SMART Goal technique?  Check out my other posts about goals:

5 Ways to Succeed at being YOU!

A New Year: A New Challenge!

The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography by Sidney Poitier
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this audiobook in the beginning. While I knew this work was not a chronological, blow-by-blow description of Poitier's life, I didn't quite expect it to jump around the way it did. Poitier does an excellent job reading this book and it gives you the feeling of sitting around casually as he tells you stories about his life. Hearing how he consistently stayed true to his values and morals in life was so refreshing.

View all my reviews

Am I a Grammar Nazi?

Good Grammar vs. Bad & Slang



This is really a huge pet peeve of mine. Where should the line be drawn?  Now let me first say that I'm not perfect in this arena, but I strive to speak and write in accordance with the "arena" I'm in without overusing the ever popular slang talk.  Am I alone in this frame of thought?  I think NOT!

Just this morning I was reading some tweets and one in particular caught my attention so I clicked on over to read the referenced article.  I thought "WOW, this is so true.  I'll retweet it when I'm done.", but then I noticed a grammar error.  No problem, its minor.  Then another, and another.....STOP....I can't retweet this because it has too many grammar errors.  I decided that I would instead TWEET about my annoyance with the use of bad grammar and in the process, before I could post, I came across another tweet from AdviceToWriters with a quote admonishing us to:

Read Bad Stuff  Source: http://www.advicetowriters.com/home/2011/10/25/read-bad-stuff.html       

"If you are going to learn from other writers don’t only read the great ones, because if you do that you’ll get so filled with despair and the fear that you’ll never be able to do anywhere near as well as they did that you’ll stop writing. I recommend that you read a lot of bad stuff, too. It’s very encouraging. “Hey, I can do so much better than this.” Read the greatest stuff but read the stuff that isn’t so great, too. Great stuff is very discouraging."

EDWARD ALBEE

Did I just get "served"???  -->>
             SMH = Shaking My Head




Well, not completely, but enough to make me reconsider my TWEET.  The quote above is really about challenging those of us who choose to write, whether professionally or casually, to broaden our scope of reading in order to learn, not just from the masters of writing, but those that are up and coming "masters" as well. 

 I recall reading a few articles about this very subject over the years, did some online researching and found one in particular that I enjoyed.  This article, The Importance of Good Spelling and Grammar, sums up my viewpoint pretty well and gives some great examples.

In closing, 6 Things to remember and consider when writing and speaking, whether it be for a web site, a blog (business or personal), posting on FaceBook, Twitter or even the casual YouTube video poster:

1. Know your audience.
2. Appeal to the masses and not your own personal style when it's going to be public.
3. Use slang AND "texting abbreviations" in moderation.
4. Proof read.
5. Proof read (again).
6. Have someone else PROOF READ your writing before posting if possible.  :-)

Feel free to comment and voice your thoughts on this subject! [or even point out a typo or error :-) , I'd appreciate it and correct it.]