Friday 5 July 2013

900 Bookworm Celebration

a Rafflecopter giveaway

As Emily Dickinson once wrote:

There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry –
This Traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of Toll –
How frugal is the Chariot
That bears the Human Soul.


And just like a book, this group - this book-loving club of ours - has been a 'frigate' of sorts. It has allowed us to travel to different parts of the world, to become friends with some incredible men and women, to discover new places, new characters and new stories that will live in our heart long after we turn the final page.

And so it is my great pleasure to officially announce that we have a little over 900 bookworms in this group - 900 bookworms whose love of books has made this group what it is, who have allowed this group to flourish and who have given so much not only to the group, but to everyone in it.

You are hard-pushed to find nicer people anywhere...and that makes me absurdly proud! All of you have put up with my choppy attendance rates during the beginning of this year, due to me entering senior year, and I really appreciate the help and effort from all of you. You guys mean the world to me!

If this were a TV show - like The Voice, or American Idol - this notice would have begun with a snazzy ad, or introduction. To compensate, I have (nerd that I am) constructed a script of sorts of whatwould have occurred:

*screen fades from black*

*picture of a bookshelf*
*camera slowly zooms in*

Show Host's Voice: We started off with just ten brave bookworms...

*ten books are placed on bookshelf*

Show Host's Voice: And through 2012, our numbers grew...our friendships growing as strong as our love for reading...

*more books added onto bookshelf*
*camera slowly zooms out*

Show Host's Voice: It is now our pleasure to announce that this year...in 2013...we have reached our biggest number of bookworms yet. Nine-hundred bookworms from all around the globe have come together. Together we are...

*zooms out to show hundreds of shelves, and happy readers looking up at the camera*

Show Host's VoiceTHE NOT-SO AUSTEN BOOKCLUB!

*cue game-show music*
*TV show title - a profile of Jane Austen and the name of the group - appears in a swirl of animation and textual special effects*

Nice huh?!

Well, that's what you get when you have an over-active imagination!

Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone once more. You guys have made being a moderator the most-special role on the entire planet - logging into Goodreads is the highlight of my day! Okay...that's a lie. Because I don't log onto Goodreads. I'm permanently logged in at all times, so I guess checking into Goodreads is the highlight ;)

Keep reading. Enjoy the tales you discover. And may your love of books flourish!

Hugs,
Booknut 101

And yet the books will be there on the shelves, separate beings,
That appeared once, still wet
As shining chestnuts under a tree in autumn,
And, touched, coddled, began to live
In spite of fires on the horizon, castles blown up,
Tribes on the march, planets in motion.
“We are,” they said, even as their pages
Were being torn out, or a buzzing flame
Licked away their letters. So much more durable
Than we are, whose frail warmth
Cools down with memory, disperses, perishes.
I imagine the earth when I am no more:
Nothing happens, no loss, it's still a strange pageant,
Women's dresses, dewy lilacs, a song in the valley.
Yet the books will be there on the shelves, well born,
Derived from people, but also from radiance, heights.
 ~ Czeslaw Milosz