Do you remember, some time ago, when I put forth the call for new contributors? Well. The time to announce the new folks has finally arrived. Are you the most excited?!?!
I have been working with everyone to create a monthly feature, and I’m really excited about what’s to come. For now, I have a little get-to-know-you survey that I’d like to post from each of the new contributors; plus, I’m going to reveal their shiny contributor banners. (Except, I don’t have Mandy’s done yet? So hers will have to be a surprise. Sorry, Mandy!)
Please say hi, talk to ‘em on Twitter, and make them feel at home! (Which, erm, they probably already do because they totally all read this blog on a regular basis.) Without further ado, I present you with the new booksluts!
Name: sj
Website/blog: Snobbery http://booksnobbery.wordpress.com
Twitter handle (if you have one): @popqueenie
Favorite book(s): Erm, there are too many to list. At the moment, I’m most passionate about Lord of the Rings and A Scanner Darkly
One book that you’d recommend to anybody, and why: The Collected Stories of Philip K Dick, Vol. I: The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford – I think there’s something in here for everyone. It doesn’t matter if sf isn’t normally your thing, this was before PKD started doing all the drugs, and there’s nothing TOO terribly weird in this volume, but it’s a nice place to start if you’re at all interested in reading his work.
Book character you’d most like to punch in the face, and why: Severus Snape. That’s why Meg and I use his name as an expletive. I still don’t buy his whole “Oh, I did it for Johnny!” line. Blergh.
Any hobbies that aren’t reading: Listening to/collecting music.
One thing you’d like for us know about you: I like red wine.
Name: Tony Bird
Website/blog: Your Friend Tony (yourfriendtony.wordpress.com)
Twitter handle (if you have one): @TheRealTonyBird
Favorite book(s): Oh, this is a tough one! It’s a toss-up between The Lord of the Rings, The Dark Tower series, and Harry Potter. A Song of Ice and Fire might get thrown in there too if the ending ever gets written and it doesn’t suck.
One book that you’d recommend to anybody, and why: The Old Man and the Sea. It’s short, it’s epic, and it’s brilliantly written.
Book character you’d most like to punch in the face, and why: I recently read Serpent’s Bite and the character Courtney pissed me off so much that I wanted to choke-slam her. She was such a heinous bitch, and all she cared about was getting her inheritance.
Any hobbies that aren’t reading: Aside from reading, writing, and blogging, I have a slew of unusual hobbies (http://yourfriendtony.wordpress.com/category/miscellaneous/unusual-hobbies/), some of which include community theater, foreign languages, and ukuleles.
One thing you’d like for us know about you: I’ve got a lot of kids.
Name: Laura Confer
Website/blog: The Two R’s http://www.thetwors.com
Twitter handle (if you have one): @_thetwors
Favorite book(s): Because I have so many, I do this High Fidelity style and make up lists. So I have a Best Books to read in the Car list (all the Xanth books by Piers Anthony), Books I Took to the Hospital When I Had a Baby (Little Earthquakes by Weiner, Up Island by Siddons), Books That Make Me Feel Good (No One Belongs Here More Than You by July, My Life in France by Child, O Pioneers! by Cather), and Books I Like to Read Again Every Year (Jane Eyre by Brontë, The Handmaid’s Tale by Atwood, The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway by, um, Hemingway). The lists go on and on and are ridiculously complicated, but that’s the only way I can ever keep these things straight!
One book that you’d recommend to anybody, and why: Beloved by Toni Morrison is almost the perfect book; it’s literary in the sense that Morrison’s writing is tight, inventive, and skillful, but it also provides that kind of sensational emotional journey that formula book readers seek. That book just grabs on and demands you finish it immediately.
Book character you’d most like to punch in the face, and why: Victor Frankenstein gets me all riled up in Frankenstein. He is so self-obsessed that he totally ignores the Creature and THEN wonders why the hell the Creature with severe daddy issues is on a killing spree. His inattention makes the story happen, but there still would have been a story there without Victor’s self-centered tunnel vision.
Any hobbies that aren’t reading: On the side I photograph, knit cozy little things, write, cook, and ride my bike all over town.
One thing you’d like for us know about you: I have monkey feet. Seriously. I can pick up all kinds of stuff with my toes. It really should be on my resumé.
Name: Neal Call
Website/blogs: English Major versus the World: http://englishmajorversustheworld.blogspot.com/
Raised by my daughter: http://raisedbymydaughter.blogspot.com/
Twitter handle (if you have one): don’t have one
Favorite book(s): All the Pretty Horses, The Road, Moby-Dick, Never Let Me Go, Maniac Magee, The Giver, The Corrections
One book that you’d recommend to anybody, and why: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, by Thomas Kuhn. It’s perhaps not the most current, but it really opened my eyes to the realities of opinion and compromise and idiosyncrasy and damn stubbornness within scientific paradigms.
Book character you’d most like to punch in the face, and why: Katniss Everdeen. Because her endless inane internal monologues turned a passable story into an obnoxious chore. Also, maybe Howard Roark from The Fountainhead. Arrogant prick.
Any hobbies that aren’t reading: Hiking, art, obstacle courses, pranking my toddler
One thing you’d like for us know about you: I’ve never had a cavity
Mandy (Banner coming soon)
Name: Mandy
Website/blog: Adventures in Borkdom http://borkadventures.com/
Twitter handle (if you have one): @borkadventures
Favorite book(s): IT by Stephen King, A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin, and Bleak House by Charles Dickens
One book that you’d recommend to anybody, and why: 1984 by George Orwell: I’ve come to realize that this book has really shaped my thinking and has shown me how to look critically at society and the information/facts presented to me. I think it is hugely important to gain mastery of critical thinking, and this book is an important textbook in that kind of education. It also happens to be one of the best (if not the best) examples of Dystopian fiction, so any fans of The Hunger Games and/or Divergent should really check it out.
Book character you’d most like to punch in the face, and why: Daisy Buchanan. I hate her, I hate her friends, and The Great Gatsby is probably one of my least favorite books of all time (next to the works of Dan Brown and Dean Koontz). Daisy is a destructive twit, and I’d love to elbow her in the temple.
Any hobbies that aren’t reading: I also enjoy playing RPGs, fishing, hiking, camping, and watching really bad movies.
One thing you’d like for us know about you: I prefer the company of my 12-year-old students and their immaturity, over the politics and drama of my adult co-workers. What I mean to say is that I’m a very silly and immature girl-woman.
The new booksluts’ posts will start going up in September (mostly). Look for literary playlists, new book reviews and op-eds, posts about the classics, bookish comics (!), and other fun stuff! WOO!
Don’t forget to say hi in the comments!
Yay for new booksluts!! Welcome to all of you. I can’t wait to start reading your posts :-)
Welcome, to all of you! Looking forward to reading your posts. :)
Hello new booksluts! This is most exciting. I love the variety of perspectives we’re going to be getting here. When can we start bugging Neal about getting a twitter account?
As far as I’m concerned, you can start more or less immediately. I don’t know how Neal feels about Twitter, but I guess we can find out :D
Twitter…twitter…let me dredge my memory…isn’t Twitter something they use under oppressive regimes to topple dictators? I mean, Obama’s got a funny name and all, but he’s not annoying me THAT bad.
My experience is mostly laughing really hard with strangers on the internet. We’ll be gentle, I promise!
Did you change your commenting system? If so, I like it.
I am so excited about the Bookslut crew! What a fantastic group of people. Congrats!
I did! Sorta. WordPress upgraded the Jetpack plugin (it’s how we self-hosted types get to have the WordPress.com functionality) and it gave us a new commenting system. I kind of don’t know if I like it! It seems like it’s taking awhile to load.
Hmmm… it pops right up on my phone. The Twitter sign-in took longer on my end.
Awww! Warm fuzzies (and I haven’t even had any wine yet!).
I feel to compelled to exclaim ZOMG THE NEW BOOKSLUTS ARE HERE!
Oh, what a GREAT lineup! I can’t wait to read everyone’s reviews, and to start pestering the living crap – er, getting to know, yeah, that’s it, “getting to know” – everyone that I haven’t already started twitterstalking!
KATE! Are you still overseas? I miss you!
I JUST got back. Email forthcoming!
A big welcome to the new booksluts! Looking forward to reading the new content. Now I’m off to stalk their blogs, mwahahahahaha!
Welcome, new bloggers! So excited to be working with you all! YAY!
NEAL GET ON THE TWITTERZ ALREADY.
Thanks everyone! I’m so excited to be here!
Neal, seriously – join the twitter fun!!!!
See, I’ve thought about it, but do I have to learn how to text first?
Not if you use a computer :D
Ah, interesting. See, I’m learning all sorts of new things here. My technology prowess looks a lot like Forest Gump before he kicked off his leg braces
Run, Forrest, run!
So Laura, I’ve just been looking at your site and ignoring my daughter who wants me to “fly her like a plane,” and noticed you’re from “The Deep South of Alabama.” Me too. What does it mean that the two of us from Alabama are trading Forrest Gump references?
Welcome new booksluts. Looking forward to seeing what book sluttery you come up with!! No pressure, right?
Whoo! Thanks for the warm welcome everyone! I’m thrilled to be here.
MOAR SLUTS. I like that the sluts represent all genders as well. Inclusive booksluttery (booksluttitude?) makes me happy. Bring it on, new sluts. But that’s not to say the old sluts should slack on the booksluttificationalizing. No.
DAMN! You have uncovered my plan to gradually turn IB over to everyone else so I can relax in Mexico with a margarita on the beach. Or in my backyard with a 40.
Love the bookslutty lingo! Bring on the booksluttitude!
Wow! All the banners look awesome! I’d only seen mine before this. I’m way excited to see all the other contributors’ booksluttery, and I’m naturally very excited that these poor suckers are letting me write for my favorite blog!
zomg, Tony – I just laughed at your one thing you want us to know. We have the same number of kids, let’s never hang out. It would be horrible.
Dang, almost all of our new contributors have kids, actually. I think Laura has four, and I know Neal has a child/children. My biological clock feels left out.
Just one, but she’s plenty for me at the moment.
I thought it was just one, but I didn’t want to say “a child” and then be wrong :D
Well there was that moment when her head turned all the way around and she announced, “we are legion!” So there’s room for confusion.
Wait, Laura has four kids, too? HOLY CRAP, let’s never do a booksluts picnic, ‘kay?
I’m just gonna say, a booksluts picnic sounds amazing! When kids are playing together and not bugging the grownups, it’s a great opportunity for grownup sanity time! The kids of smart people all hanging out together is the perfect justification for people who have kids and the perfect birth control for people who don’t!
Tony, I think our 5y/olds would get on quite well.
Hahahaaahahhahahahah I do NOT have four kids! I just had a heart attack, though ;)
I have two little girls, 4 and 16 months. I know how Susie got there though, and it’s legit; see, I was all bragging on my kids’ names, and I put all four – their first and middles names. Major, major LOLing at the thought of my brain on four kids! I don’t know how you guys do it!
I take as many naps as I can and drink lots of wine when they’re in bed.
Wine and naps – that’s a plan I could get behind :)
My secret to success is that I spend a lot of time at work.
HA. I think it was the punctuation–I must not have noticed where the commas were. (Sometimes I don’t comprehend reading so good.) Plus, with sj and Tony having four, I didn’t even bat an eyelash at the thought of having four :D
It was me, I was totally confusing, and I forgot that both sj & Tony had that many. It was so funny to look back at the post first thing in the AM and see that. Amos and I were both laughing :D
Hi Mandy, Neal, Tony, Laura, and sj! Pranking toddlers sounds like an adorable new reality show. Like some sort of Candid Camera Jr. Edition.
It’s exciting to see all the new faces! Although I strongly encourage you to develop a no Snape-hating policy on your blog. Hate hurts. And he’s a hero. Stop hating on The Snape, sj! I die a little every time.
Yay! And I can totally relate to preferring the company of 12-year-olds over that of adults, too.
–You had me on BOOKSLUTS.
I too, am a slut. With books, that is.
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