Merry Wanderer of the Night [Search results for collage] 

The second mini challenge for the Summer Break Reading Challenge was to create a wordle collage for a book series you have reviewed. One of my favorite series I have found since I started blogging is The Luxe series by Anna Godbersen- and since I'm reading the third book in the series as part of the challenge I thought it was only fitting that I did my collage for that series.

The character names are really clear in this but so are the words romance, time, 19th (century), love, and family. I think those are all great words to sum up the Luxe series. All of these words were taken from the reviews I did of the first two books.

Hey everyone! I have Carlyle here with us today as a guest!! Carlyle does like to be secretive, so we have an avatar, not a picture, but let's still make Carlyle feel welcome! Lots of comment love!:) (Note, I did change some of the links in this post. Anything in () is mine. I changed any url left into a link)

My favorite Childhood book of all Time.

Introducing: Jock of the Bushveld by Sir Percy Fitzpatrick

I read Jock of the Bushveld when I was about nine. This book has stayed with me thought out my life. This is the tale of Jock and his owner. It rings so true to man's best friend analogy. Jock saves his owners life, guides him though the danger of the South Africa wilderness. Comes up against a lion, and many more. In this book I found love, adventure, comedy, heartache, friendship and adventure. To date one of the best books I had ever read. This book is significant to me because I have walked where Jock and Sir Patrick once walked. I have smelt and breathed in the air of the bushveld that brought about the writer in me. Jock of the Bushveld is a legend in South Africa for his courage, loyalty and bravery. (in my blog to read the original tale!)

Jock of the Bushveld is set in the 1880s of Southern Africa, a tale of the wilderness years of the land as the discovery of diamonds and gold began to rapidly transform the political and economic dynamics of the Southern African landmass. It began as stories told to Fitzpatrick's own children of his adventures in the veld with his dog Jock and only later becoming the publication we know so well.

The most interesting part of Jock is the exploration of the open spaces of the veld of Southern Africa and its wildlife, which is done through the vehicle of the relationship between Fitzpatrick and Jock and their adventures together, mostly in the form of hunting wildlife. The particular atmosphere of both the highveld and the lowveld are so well conveyed. This is the treasure of the book and a profound impression of the land, this very land, in the blood of its people that is the core to understanding South Africans. The hunting episodes remind us of the wealth of the land (the author came to the land in search of gold and this remains a submerged vein to the story) both in its fauna and flora, amidst the collisions of its different peoples.

A true tale of friendship

This piece comes at the most appropriate time for me, as it is just been released on the big screen. Jock of the Bushveld is back as SA's first 3D animated film: (in my blog to watch the trailer.)

And as always the film only picks up on some of the aspects the book holds. After you have taken the kids to watch this film, get the book. It will soon become the kids favourite bed time story. Unlike many fairytales this book does not have a happy ending. But the lesson learnt and the story between man and dog will stay in your heart for all time.

You can read more about this amazing story on my blog, Carlyle on The Broken Series.

You can also find me on twitter @CarlyleL

I was born in Johannesburg South Africa during the terrible fashion decade of the 80's. My first poem was written in the heart of the bushveld wilderness amongst the Elephants, Giraffes and the roaring Lions that I could hear from our camp site at night. I was twelve when my pen hit a random piece of paper and my best poem was written. It is to the majestic environment of the bushveld that I owe the fire to my writing experience. As a teenager I moved onto lyric writing. I started writing my first Novel almost 18 months ago. Received a certificate from the Writing School of SA collage in 2010.My first Novel is due in 2012. I am a amateur writer, blogger and a new Author. I am a mother of two, a wife, a marketing consultant during the day, a reader at night and in my mind I am writing all the time.

I have total confidence that you will love Jock of The Bushveld as much as I did, and still do.

Thank you so much Carlyle for joining us today for Memory Monday! This sounds like such a sweet story!:) I'll have to look it up!

Oh bookmarks...how we love thee. This week, our assignment from Ruth was to discuss bookmarks:

Do you use bookmarks or just grab whatever is handy to mark your page? Do you collect lots of different bookmarks or do you have a favorite one that you use exclusively? If you're not someone who uses bookmarks on a regular basis, have you ever used anything odd to mark your place?

If you make your own bookmarks or have a bookmark collection, please feel free to share some pictures with the rest of us.

Many of you decided to share pictures of your collection:

• part of Hagelrat's collection
• Kim's favorites
• Claire's collage
• Gnoe's reincarnated bookmark (and a link to a photo of her collection)
• Christina's representative bookmark
• Suey's handmade bookmarks
• and just a small sample of nymeth's gorgeous collection

Thanks to everyone for participating and to Ruth for such a fun topic!

For Weekly Geeks this week, I would like to revisit one of my favorites from the past. This particular geeky assignment was posted by Dewey back in November of 2008, just weeks before she died. Here's what she posted then:

This week’s theme is: fun facts about authors.

How to:

1. Choose a writer you like.
2. Using resources such as Wikipedia, the author’s website, whatever you can find, make a list of interesting facts about the author.
3. Post your fun facts list in your blog, maybe with a photo of the writer, a collage of his or her books, whatever you want.
4. Come sign the Mr Linky below with the url to your fun facts post.
5. As you run into (or deliberately seek out) other Weekly Geeks’ lists, add links to your post for authors you like or authors you think your readers are interested in.

As you can see, the task is simple this week! Of course, if you did this one before, pick a different author to write about. If you are like me, and can't choose just one, go ahead and write about two (or three.)

Have fun!

This week Becky opened things up and let participants decide on posting from two options:

Option 1: Write a post (or leave a comment) with suggestions for future weekly geek topics! Share as many ideas as you'd like! Be as creative as you want. Or if you can't think of any "new" topics of your own, consider listing your top five topics from the past, from our archives.

Option 2: Write a post about your genre prejudices or your genre allergies. (I tend to be allergic to westerns, for example.) Are there genres that you haven't read that you avoid at all costs? Are there genres that you don't take seriously? Would you be willing to try something new? (Or someone new!) Consider asking for recommendations and challenge yourself to get outside your comfort zone a bit. Alternatively, you may want to write a post about one of your favorite genres and recommend titles to newbies. Which books would you recommend to those readers who are new to that genre?

Seven geekers took up the challenge this week...and choosing both options was a popular choice:

Gautami provided some great ideas for future posts, including a poetry-focused challenge, and creating a book-related collage (go to her post to see all her terrific ideas). She also shared that her book allergy is YA fiction, and she would like to read science fiction.

Serena also picked both options. Her ideas for future posts included several focused on poetry (I especially liked this one: "Video yourself reciting a poem and post it or find a YouTube video of a poem being read and post that.") - again, visiting her post will let you see all of her suggestions. Serena's book prejudices include westerns, self-help books and nonfiction written like textbooks...

Bookworm's post suggestions were fantastic - one of my favorites: Play Matchmaker and get two of your favorite literary characters together on a date. Her biggest book allergy? Harlequin Romance, followed by Self-help books.

Kimberly shared some of her top favorite Geek posts which included literary tatoos, romancing the tome, and Christmas wish lists. She has a few allergies too: romances, westerns, and mystery novels. She'd like suggestions in these genres which might change her mind. And, she also shared her favorite genres which include fairy tale re-tellings and YA dystopian novels.

Bibliophile talked about "red flag subjects" in her reading...I found her discussion about pirate protagonists interesting (she writes: "I enjoy reading about the lives of real pirates, and will pick up a book where pirates are the bad guys without a second thought, but to me pirates and privateers always invoke the image of violent murderers and robbers and therefore I have never been able to suspend my disbelief sufficiently in order to enjoy a tale in which a pirate is the hero."). Read all her thoughts here.

Becky also chose to address both options. She would love weekly topics that include lists ("lists, lists, more lists. I like topics that give me an opportunity to write and share lists with readers.")...and she listed several other really good ideas, which can be found here. She admits she used to have an allergy to mysteries - but now it is her favorite genre! Becky also gave recommendations for other readers who might want to cure their allergy to mysteries.

Finally, Corey played Weekly Geeks this week by addressing not only her literary allergies (boy fantasy, stream-of-consciousness, and poetry), but gave plenty of recommendations for her favorite genres (Historical Fiction, Books about Books, and Classic Literature). Don't miss her post - it is full of wonderful stuff!

This week had four parts:

1. Visit Save The Word.org to look at all the words that are either not being used enough or are due for a cull probably within the next couple of years. Adopt a word.
2. What is your pet peeve word? – the word that makes you grind your teeth with either it’s over use or being used out of context.
3. What is a word you adore, or a word that you feel is not used enough. Irrespective of meaning or even era it’s a word that you just loveLastly what is your opinon on word culling or the rise in "text speak" that's happening now..

Erotic Horizon hates the word "basically" and the phrase "like totally"... but there are more words she loves including "propaganda" and "giggles."

Naida adopted the word 'Senticous' which means prickly or thorny (I like that word too!). She showed a bit of her romantic side when she listed the following words on her "like" list: Passionate, Unrequited, Adonis, Sweetheart, and Bewitch.

Gigi gave us a wonderful photo collage in addition to answering the questions. She writes:

I’m in favour of words so I have no problem with new and evolving languages. I wish I was better at learning languages as I love to pepper my speech with foreign words but will only do so if I can explain the foreign word or phrase that I am using.
Lit Addicted Brit wrote (in part):

Although I think word culling is sad, I can unfortunately see the purpose. There will always be texts in which you can read the more 'old-fashioned' words and the internet for translating the more obscure. Dictionaries can only hold so much, however, and language must progress. I occasionally encounter 19th century deeds in my day job and am awed by the volume of words used to say the simplest thing! It is elegant and charming but by golly is it hard to make sense of!
Care had a little fun with the word "Satrrify"...she also wrote:

As to text speak? ╰☆╮ I am against all dropping of vowels ✫ for the sake of quick typing-texting. ☆ Then again, I have an old phone and texting is just irritating and I would prefer ☆ to talk or email. (Sigh, I am so old…)
Kristina did not have a pet peeve word, but instead listed some of her least favorite phrases including “it’s a win-win situation” and “just sayin’.”

Quirky Girls Read wrote:

I abhor text speak. I barely like it in actual texts. I write out my words in emails and texts. I find it really scary that characters on tv now are saying things such as OMG! and the like. I am all for the evolution of language, but I’m not really into acronyms and shortening things to nothing. Heck, I’m the person that likes to use a person’s whole name. I like nicknames as terms of endearment; however, I really enjoy the way a whole name sounds and will use it regularly (with the person’s blessing, of course).
And finally, The Diary of a Girl Who Reads Too Much likes the word 'inconspicuous' and is also partial to the word 'chug' (because it's fun to say).

All the participants had a lot more to say about words than I re-capped here ... so be sure to follow the links to read their entire posts!

Make sure to drop by tomorrow for a new Weekly Geeks task!