Book Week round-up

Book Week has now come to an end. I’ve really enjoyed it, though it’s taken a lot more time to pull together than I thought it would. Fortunately, work has been calming down a bit, so I’ve been able to fit it in without sacrificing sleep or child time – may have sacrificed a little husband time, so sorry about that Chris, I’ll make it up to you next week. Despite the hard work, I’ve enjoyed it so much, I’m going to do it again in a couple of months (see the end of this post for more details on that), but this time I’ll be just a little bit more organised and not expect to be able get everything written, collated and scheduled in one weekend (one weekend where my actual spare time totals about 8 hours if I’m lucky).

What I’ve enjoyed most is reading the guest posts and discovering new blogs, new books and fellow bibliophiles. I’ve also enjoyed exploring my own feelings and habits and likes and dislikes about, in and for books, reading and writing. If you haven’t read it all yet, here’s a summary of what’s been going on here.

Monday – Writing

There were posts on novel writing (how not to do it from me, how to do it from Emily Carlisle and a post about NaNoWriMo). Then there were a couple of fascinating posts about non-fiction publishing – one from the blogging pair who wrote Cocktails at naptime and one from Frances Evesham all about publishing for Kindle (the most-read post of the week).

Tuesday – Learning to read

My thoughts about learning to read (mostly centred on Rosemary’s experience) was followed by a number of informative guest posts. There were tips from a teacher on helping your child learn to read, tips from an early years consultant on preparing children for learning to read (the second most-read post of the week) and tips from a retired tutor on teaching teenagers and adults how to read. And there was also a post about how to help children to enjoy reading.

Wednesday – Libraries

I explored my experiences of libraries and there was a moving post from an expectant mum on whether her baby will like libraries and an informative post about setting up a library book group.

Thursday – General book love

My post was about the magic of books. There was a lovely poem about reading and a personal exploration of a life of reading.

Friday – Children’ books

There were two posts from me – one looking at Eleanor and Rosemary’s current favourites and another kicking off Walker Books’ Picture Book Picnic blog tour with a review of Hello Tilly by Polly Dunbar. There was also a round-up of some great pre-school books.

Saturday – Fiction, fiction and more fiction

My first post of the day explored my journey through reading and how my tastes have changed over the years – I loved writing this post and being reminded of some of the books I used to love. There was then a guest post about the urban fantasy genre. And finally there was a post about one of my favourite authors, Joanne Harris, which included a mini-interview with her.

Sunday – Mother’s Day

I wrote a brief bit about mumlit and then there was a round-up of some parenting books, a post about a blog-to-book eBook, and three posts about some of the giveaway books (The Baking Pocket Bible, How to Afford Time off with your Baby and When Will I Sleep Through the Night?) and finally the big giveaway post, with eight books to give away (closing date Sunday 10 April 2011).

Links we missed

As the week progressed, my ability (and time) to sift through the links I’d been sent waned considerably (I promise next time I will do these things well in advance) and I missed quite a few. Here are the links people sent me that got missed out (if you sent me some and I’ve missed them out here, too, let me know and I’ll put them in, or if you have any you’d like to add now, I’m happy to add them over the next couple of weeks):

Thank you very much to everyone who sent in links.

Next Book Week

This will be held on the week of 4 July to 10 July and it will have an overall theme of Summer. I don’t have a complete schedule planned yet, as I’d like to take on board suggestions from you, but I’d like to include:

  • Summer holiday reading recommendations
  • Books to entertain and educate children through the holidays
  • Non-fiction books to read in the summer (e.g. gardening, camping, barbecues…)

I’m thinking about including:

  • Writing in the garden (guest posts from published and as-yet unpublished authors on where they like to write)
  • Taking the eBook reader on holiday (a look at digital publishing)

I’d also quite like to do a proper carnival, if there’s enough interest. And I’d like to do another end-of-week giveaway, so publishers and authors please let me know if you have books coming out around then that you’d like to include (or already-published books that fit the theme, perhaps).

If you’d like to write a guest post, leave a comment here to let me know (you don’t have to commit to anything concrete right now) or send me an email (address on the Who am I? page) and, once I’ve pulled together a more definite schedule, I’ll let you know so you can commit more firmly. I will be asking for posts a good time in advance – a month in advance for most of them – I should warn you, so that I can really get as much as possible prepared in advance. And if you think you’d be interested in joining in with a carnival, let me know too.

Thanks again to everyone who’s joined in with Book Week, whether writing posts, sending in links, tweeting or just reading. I hope you’ve enjoyed it.

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I am mum to two lovely (most of the time) girls, RoRo (7) and LaLa (very nearly 4) – (they are now known by nicknames at the request of the eldest). I’m married to Chris and, after a brief interlude working in-house, I'm shortly going to return to working from home. I will again be working alongside Chris, running TAG Publishing Services, providing services to educational publishers. I am also pushing forward in the illustration and surface pattern design side of my life/career and you can visit my illustration blog to my drawings and patterns. I'd love you to follow me on my Google Profile+ or on the WAHM-BAM! Google+ page.

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