World Book Night started last year as just a day to promote a love of reading, literacy and books. Totally up my alley. This year, they expanded into the U.S. (it started in the U.K.) and as part of that they are giving “givers” a box of paperbacks to pass out to non-reading/light-reading/underserved-in-the-literary-department friends/strangers/whoever! Is that not amazing?

I got an email on Friday saying that I was accepted as a giver, so be looking for a fun blog post come April 23rd about me handing out books! From what the email said, everyone that signed up to be a giver was “accepted” and there are still plenty more books to give. They extended the deadline to sign up to February 6th, so get over there and sign up! What could possibly be more fun than getting a free box of books to hand out to people?! Seriously, I cannot think of anything.

Get over to their website at worldbooknight.org and register! You can pick from a list of 30 books and it is hard to pick- the books on the list are AMAZING. It did say in the acceptance email that there was a run on The Hunger Games so not everyone that signed up for it will be getting it… but there are SO MANY other great books on there. I signed up last month and I can’t even remember what I put in my top spot. I had a huge debate over it and I just can’t remember who won! Click here for a little bit on how they chose the books.

Can’t wait to see everyone’s blogs exploding with pictures of them giving books to people!! It will be like Christmas only a little bit better.

Are you signed up to be a giver? Do you remember what book you signed up for? Do you have a give away plan?

So even if you saw it before, watch it again.

Shaun sometimes makes little stop motion videos, so I know the amount of time that goes into just a little 1 minute video on a small scale. Something this long and huge? I cannot even imagine what kind of time they put into this. It is so, so impressive.

I even washed my hair… and got dressed. Before noon. Guys, this is big news.

(If one wasn’t enough, here is Julie’s from Book Hooked!)

There is one thing though that I’m pretty purposeful about and that is making sure that he has a love for books. I, as you guys know, love books, and I attribute that in part to the fact that my mom read to me every single day of my childhood. We had a bazillion books and even though she was a busy, working, single mom she was never too busy to sit down and read a book with us. I have a lot of fond memories of snuggling in beside her in bed while she read to me.

Here she is reading to Izey during her last trip up here. So frigging sweet.

I started reading to Izey the very day he was born and in my memory I haven’t skipped a day. In the beginning it was always initiated by me, but now that Izey is older, he brings me books to read about every five minutes. Sometimes I don’t feel like reading, but I do it anyway. I stop cleaning, blogging, whatever, and plop right down with him and read about the Hungry Caterpillar one more time.

In order to foster his (still young) love of reading, we have baskets of books in every room of the house and a bookshelf of books in his room. When he lays down for his nap, I put a pile of books at the foot of his bed so when he wakes up he can read for a little bit on his own before he hollers for me. Sometimes he is in there for an hour, awake and content to just have 5 or 6 fun books to read.

Another thing that I’ve been purposeful about is letting him touch/explore books that seem “too big” for him- paper picture books from the time he was 4 or 5 months old and I don’t scold him for pulling my books down and flipping through them. I don’t want him to be afraid to look at something that is “too advanced” so I’ve started young letting him think that any reading material is good for him. We started telling him young to “be gentle, it’s a book!” and so far he has not tore up one single book from my shelves and has only tore up one of his.

When he is playing happily and independently or when he is reading on his own, I often pull out the book I’m reading and let him see me reading for enjoyment. Once again, this is just how I was raised. My mom is a big reader and I grew up seeing her plow through books. Even now we are always swapping books and talking about what we are currently reading. Kids love imitating their parents and I think that him seeing me read could only be beneficial.

I’m not saying that I have it all together, I really don’t. I’ve only been doing this thing for about 18 months and I’ve screwed up a lot and will screw up way more as the months fly by… I guess I’m just sharing the little things that I’ve done in these months to try to give Izey the best chance I can to be an enthusiastic reader.

What are you doing to help your kids find a love of reading? What have you found that works/doesn’t work? Does your kid love to sit in a pile of books and flip through them one by one?

…at everything…

I saw these recently, though, and LOVED them. I love that they have a white back and black shelves:

Awesome, right? Not to mention the purple chaise. I die.

Anyway, it got me thinking about bold colored shelves, so I, of course, consulted Pinterest.
Ohhh the treasures I found.

My little head is all full of ideas now…

Click on it for a much, much bigger version.

What is wonderful is that it pegged me as a The Name of the Wind lover in about 2 questions. I answered differently and it always scooted me towards books that I love… and this is amazing because I would by no means call myself a huge sci-fi/fantasy lover.

Fun, fun!

What did NPR recommend for you?

Oh man do I love this. I can totally see this in our house (although are ceilings aren’t half that high).

Now this is will obviously never be in any home that I own, but oh my word. The pink. The books. The iron staircases/railings. Anyone know where this is? I NEED to be there.

This is totally do-able though. The thing that I really love is that it makes sure you have little side tables on either side of the couch too. I actually think that this is brilliant, especially for a house with a really open floor plan. Very cool.

And this one spins. Awesome, right? Well for only SIX HUNDRED dollars it can be yours from PB kids. *snort* If you pay that much for this, I will have no problem calling you an idiot to your face. Seriously though, it is cool, huh?

Have you seen any great bookshelves lately? Please share!!

For the most part, my goals this year are fairly similar to my goals from last year, with a couple added on!

Goal 1 Read 100 books.

Goal 2 Continue my Presidential Challenge by reading 1 presidential biography every month.

Goal 3 Maintain a small TBR pile. Weed out books that I’ve had for a long time and will likely not read.

Goal 4 Continue to make blogging a priority. Post regularly but don’t let non-posting days stress me out.

Goal 5 Catch up on reviews by May and keep my “need to review” list at less than ten books.

Goals 3 & 5 are the ones that I think are going to be the hardest for me, but they just need to be done. I sat a fairly low (for me) reading goal because in August, I’ll start life with two little ones instead of just one. I want to leave myself some wiggle room.

But these seem totally do-able right? Right.

What are you reading-related goals this year?

Without further ado, here is my list in no particular order:

(If you click on the book cover, it will take you to my review of the book!)

The Wise Man’s Fear, by Patrick Rothfuss
This sequel to one of my favorite books from last year absolutely, absolutely blew me away. The story was stunning, the writing was amazing and going to a Patrick Rothfuss signing was one of the best parts of my year. This dude is an amazingly nice guy and he writes like nothing else I’ve ever read. I can’t wait until ol’ #3 is in my hands, but I imagine that that is a long, long way off.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer
Jonathan Safran Foer also made an appearance on my “best of” list last year with Everything is Illuminated, but I’m including this book on its own merit. I may have even liked this one better. It just has a real magical quality to it. Can’t wait to see the movie!

Two Kisses for Maddy, by Matt Logelin
After reading his blog since just about day one, I wondered if there would be much in the book for me. Oh my lands. This is a warm, honest look at his life with his wife and then that heartbreaking year after she died. It is amazingly well done and I knew as I was reading it that it would be one of my favorites.

Stones from the River, by Ursla Hegi
A beautifully written historical fiction book about misfits and family binding together during WWII? This one has “Jacki” written all over it. My loving this was no surprise to anyone, so I’ll move on.

Cane River, by Lalita Tademy
Another really well done piece of historical (kind of) fiction. I love genealogy and finding more out about my family’s history and I just love that Lalita Tademy did this and then used her incredible writing skills to fill in the blanks and give her ancestors real life and personality. The result was something really beautiful that I still think about all the time.

American Lion, by Jon Meachem
I made myself only pick one of my Presidential Challenge books, even though I really loved reading all of them. It was a toss up between this and John Adams, and while I liked John Adams, I think that American Lion made a more lasting impression on me. As I’ve read a lot of the other biographies, I can really recall a lot of the stuff that was talked about in American Lion and for that reason alone (not to mention the fact that I have a little history-crush on Andrew Jackson) I chose this as one of my favorites.

Lover’s Dictionary, by David Levithan
I posted about this book several times throughout the year because it was just absolutely amazing. This is the only book this year that I flipped over and read it again right after I finished. It was that good. Love it.

Anna and the French Kiss and Lola and the Boy Next Door, both by Stephanie Perkins
These books are both a bit out of my usual-reading-line-up, but oh my word am I glad I gave them a go. They are the most lovable, huggable, warm, cozy books that I’ve read in a long, long time. Not to mention that Decatur Book Festival and meeting Stephanie Perkins was one of the greatest parts of the whole year for me.

Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson
I’ve been on a memoir-and-biography kick this year and this one really stood out. We are, admittedly, part of the Apple Cult, but even beyond loving the subject I thought that the writing was amazing. This was just a well done, unbiased biography AND one of the only books that Shaun read this year, so that’s a pretty big deal!

The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Of all the books I read this year, this is probably the one that I’ve recommended to the most people. My copy is totally dog-eared and loved because I’ve loaned it out to no fewer than five people since reading it in August. It’s just that good.

So there ya go. My top ten (well 11….) of 2011. Did any of these make your list too?