Sunday, January 1, 2012

First-Ever Giveaway and Resolutions (Or: More Reading For Everyone in 2012!)

Happy New Year!  We made it to 2012.  2011 was a pretty good year for me, with some big personal and professional events, but I'm looking forward to even better things in 2012.  First of all: my resolutions.

1) Be more organized about my reading.  I want to keep track of everything I read this year, so that those end-of-the-month Road Trip Wednesdays won't creep up on me quite so much.   I also want to keep track of what I plan to read, since all of my fellow bloggers keep going on and on about dozens and hundreds and ZILLIONS of books that I want to read, and sometimes I lose track.

2) Read more broadly.  This means different genres within YA, as well as genres outside of YA.  Each month I will pick a new genre and try to read 1-3 books in that genre, mixed in with my other reading.  First up:  what I am broadly deeming "personal non-fiction"--memoir, biography, autobiography, etc.  This will start with the Melissa Gilbert memoir my mom gave me for Christmas :)  Recommendations for anything really excellent in this big, vague genre?

3) Stay on top of my writing!  This means blogging for now, but also (after our spring musical goes up in March, I think) getting back to my WIP.  Or, WsIP (Mr. S is a nut for correct internal pluralization).  After the musical--no excuses.  But in the meantime, I will focus on keeping myself to at least 2x/week posting here.  Small steps.


And, in order to put some pressure on myself for #3 and maybe help with the first two as well--I am hosting my first-ever giveaway!    In my last post I laid out a TBR list of already-released books, but I am always trying to add to it.  So for this giveaway,  I will be sending one lucky winner the following:

1) A book of your choice from my TBR list (including the runners-up, for a total of sixteen books to choose from!  If you've read them all, you can always donate one to a school or library near you!)

2) A book of your choice that will be released in 2012, pre-ordered for you from Amazon.com. 

3) A $10 gift card to DonorsChoose.org.  I love this site, and I've used it to get tons of books for my classroom (including sets of Catching Fire and Mockingjay, when I couldn't keep them on my shelves after teaching The Hunger Games!)  I don't even have projects up right now, so there's no ulterior motive--but I would love it if the winner used this to support a teacher trying to get books for his/her classroom.


Entries will be accepted until 12:01 am EST on 1/16/12.  You can earn points by commenting with the book you would want to pre-order and why (mandatory) and by sharing the link to this post on your own blog/Twitter/whatever (totally un-mandatory but very welcome).  I will be using Rafflecopter to draw the winner's name so make sure you use the Widget to enter!  It should prompt you to log in--I need a way to contact you!  I'll also post the winner here within 48 hours of the end of the entry period, so if something goes horribly wrong, you'll be notified on this blog.

Note about eligibility:  Winners must be in the Amazon.com shipping area.  If necessary, I'll spend up to $10 for shipping but more than that gets a little goofy so if you're not sure, you may want to check on Amazon.com to see how much it would cost to ship you two books.  Alternatively, you can win if you are willing and able to accept Kindle versions of the books.  Kindle pre-orders can't be gifted, so if the winner wants/needs a Kindle version I will send the winner Amazon credit in the amount of the pre-order.  I reserve the right to substitute an Amazon.com gift card for the amount of both books in the event that difficulties arise due to geography/stock/etc.  But I think books are more fun, don't you? 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

13 comments:

  1. Wow! This is super generous of you and a wonderful way to ring in the New Year! I like your goal of reading more broadly in 2012. During this past year I read some different types of YA that were new to me, particularly Contemporary Romance. I have Stephanie Perkins and her ANNA and LOLA books to thank for how much I now love YA Romance! I also revisited Paranormal which I had grown seriously sick of, but now feel drawn to again thanks to a few amazing authors. I'm still a pretty big dystopian fan, though:)

    As a dystopian fan, my pre-order choices would have to be Veronica Rossi's UNDER THE NEVER SKY or Julianna Baggott's PURE which are both due out in February.

    Happy New Year! :)

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  2. Just realized I didn't mention which 2012 book I'm most anticipating and why:
    INSURGENT by Veronica Roth, hands down. Why? I loved, loved, LOVED DIVERGENT. It was so well-written and the story was completely captivating. It is the only book that I have ever (in my entire life) read more than once in the same year. That's how good it was.

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  3. Hello Mrs. Silverstein! There are so many great sounding books coming out, it's hard to choose one. But I'm really looking forward to "Incarnate," by Jodi Meadows. The premise reincarnation gone wrong sounds fascinating. "Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi is also on my TBR list, so that would be my choice!

    Thanks for the giveaway, and best luck with your reading goals!

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  4. Ooh, I've seen some people talking about Incarnate! Good choice.

    And Jaime--your post makes me want to re-read Divergent, like, NOW. This is how my TBR list gets so long!

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  5. Great resolutions! I am ashamed to admit that I haven't gotten to PAPER TOWNS or AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES yet. Bad nerdfighter!

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  6. I feel the same way, Rebecca--I can only wax poetic about Looking For Alaska for so long before I have to shut up and read the rest of his stuff, no?

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  7. What an awesome giveaway, and so generous! My most anticipated 2012 release is, like so many others, INSURGENT. I'm also dying for IN HONOR and IF I LIE. Thanks for the giveaway!

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  8. Hello Mrs. Silverstein! I'm a new follower, and you can thank Jaime for that. :D I think that the book I'm most looking forward to for this year is Insurgent by Veronica Roth. It's due to be published May 1st, I believe. I can't wait! You really do need to read Divergent. :D It's mind-altering. I think it'd be a great book to teach to high school students as well. I may even do just that once I have my own classroom. Anyway, thanks for the chance to win something! I'm going to be looking forward to your posts from now on.

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  9. You just stole, like, ALL of my resolutions for the new year. XD

    As to which book I'd like to preorder, I almost said Under the Never Sky, because I've been hearing a lot of buzz about it lately, and I've had this feeling like I MUST get my hands on a copy sometime...

    Then I remembered Insurgent, by Veronica Roth. And that is the book I want. Because Divergent is pretty much tied with Goliath (by Scott Westerfeld) as my favorite book of 2011. And there are no more books coming out in the Goliath series, so... :) Insurgent it is! ^^

    The books on your TBR list look great too. Legend sounds great from what I've heard people saying about it, and I've heard good things about Daughter of Smoke and Bone, too. ^^

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  10. I had a hunch Insurgent would be a popular choice! I did read Divergent, what feels like ages ago...but I think I rushed through it because it kept me so far on the edge of my seat and that can be dangerous on the train! I think a re-read is definitely in order to get myself pumped up for Insurgent--but at this point I think I might make myself wait until closer to May so it's all still fresh in my head.

    Welcome, new folks--glad to meet you!

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  11. When it comes to memoirs my two favorites are Angela's Ashes (all though it's sad, it's still hopeful) and The Glass Castle. I would also recommend her book about her grandmother, Half-broke Horses.
    Daughter of Smoke and Bone is on my TBR list, too. :) I've heard it's amazing.

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  12. I'm so glad you mentioned Angela's Ashes--I'm Irish, and I teach in the NYC public schools, so it's really shameful that I haven't really read McCourt. He goes on the list for sure!

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  13. Guess which book I'm (so far) most looking forward to in 2012? INSURGENT, of course! :) Need I explain why? Something to do with DIVERGENT being so awesome and being my book of the year, perhaps? :)

    Thanks for doing the giveaway. :)

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