Jenga for Book Lovers

Jenga is one of my all time favorite games. It couples just the right amount of skill and tension (please, please, please don’t fall!). And now some every so thoughtful folks have combined my love of books with Jenga for the Jenga: Book Lovers Edition. How cool is that?

Jenga_Book_Lovers

Each block has a question on it, which you are to answer if you successfully remove the block from the teetering tower.

Questions have things like:

“What literary character would you like to be?”

“What’d your favorite children’s book?”

I am sure that if I was a true booknerd that I’d have some pithy quote about ‘books being the building blocks’, yadda, yadda… but I just want to play this game!

No doubt this would be fun to kick off a new book group or library event and if you have a booknerd on your list to buy for, then I imagine this would be a good fit.

Have you ever played Jenga: Book Lover’s Edition?

Booklandia.tv

The online book world just got a little more fun thanks to the launch of Booklandia.tv. This site is a bit of a social experiment and a bit of classroom project as the videos are produced by 20 University of Oregon journalism students.

Booklandia.tv launched in April 2015 and has 23 videos posted so far and all of them focus on books, authors and readers. The site seems to be going for a more social-share vibe rather than straight up journalism. I think there may only be one or two videos over two minutes in length. So it’s definitely designed to snack on and share.

I can already tell that one of my favorite segments will #JudgeItByTheCover bit where they stop a passerby and ask them what they think the book is about based solely on the front cover. It’s pretty fun.

There is also the What’s on Your Nightstand, where they chat with folks out on the street,  Q&A’s with authors and even a kids segment called Kid’s Corner. The “About” tab says they have a partnership with Powell’s, but I can’t figure out exactly.

Booklandia_TwitterIt’s been fun skimming through the videos. They also have a direct YouTube page and are @BooklandiaTV on Twitter as well.

 

So if you’re hungry for some snack-sized book content to watch check out Booklandia.tv. I can tell it’s only going to get better and more creative.

 

Buzz Book 2015

The folks over at Publisher’s Lunch have released this year’s Buzz Books. These annual FREE ebooks offer excerpts and background information for a few dozen not-yet-released books.

This year there is the Buzz Book 2015 and the Buzz Book 2015 – Young Adult (YA) edition.

The Buzz Book 2015 features 35 books covering both fiction and non-fiction books. What’s neat about this year is that there are some lesser-known authors in there as well as some names you’ll probably recognize.

While the YA edition features 20 books.

BuzzBook2015

Both editions are available through kindle, nook, Google Play, iBooks, and Kobo. Sorry no PDF version this year.

And a hat tip to BookChase for posting about this a couple of weeks ago. Leave a comment if you grab a copy of the free ebook and stumble across a new read that you want to check out. Lot’s of good books slated for the Fall it seems. Just what my TBR pile needs. . .

Watching BEA from Afar

Last week Book Expo America 2015 was held in New York City. It’s an industry-only event best described as if a giant bookstore and Mardi Gras had a baby. Is that too weird?

This year (as last) BEA backed up into BookCon. Which is an event for book fanatics, fans and the general public. It’s more as if a giant bookstore and a Hollywood red carpet had a child. If you like celebrity sightings then it’s certainly your cup of tea.

I didn’t get to go this year (all these photos are courtesy via BEA), but had a blast watching via the bookterwebs. If you know where to look you don’t have to dig too far before you virtually bump into an author or publisher you admire.

BEA15_authors

So while there are no free books or ARC’s here , here is a quick rundown of the more notable highlights that are worth a read-through if you’d like to catch up:

Let me know if you know of something I missed out on. I have so many links and articles to read through as I dig deeper into some really great reads coming out later this year. Maybe I can get through them all before BEA descends on Chicago in 2016.

BEA15_Lines

Books, Publishing and Birmingham