And the September genre is…

Hope you’re all in the mood to read some FANTASY!

There you have it, everyone!  For September, we’ll be reading fantasy books!

Quite honestly, fantasy is a genre I don’t usually read.  That’s a good thing, though–first month, and I’m already outside my comfort zone!  Anyone else?

I have no idea what to vote for, personally, so I’m counting on everybody who reads the blog and who is considering participating next month to step up and vote for books!  And for those of you who, like me, are not sure what books to vote for–investigate!  I’ll give you some help:

Top 100 Fantasy Books
Another Top 100 Fantasy Books
Top 25 Best Fantasy Books

If you have any good lists that you think should be posted on the blog, send them to us at heymanletsread@hotmail.com, or reply to this post in the comments with the link!

Voting for books will be open until 9 pm EST on August 20th!  We need five books, one for each week of September.  The weeks will go like this:

Week one: August 29 – September 4
Week two: September 5 – September 11
Week three: September 12 – September 18
Week four: September 19 – September 25
Week five: September 26 –  October 2

Each Sunday, we’ll be posting videos, blogs, comments, what-have-you–all of them discussing the book we read that week!

Alright, everyone!  Submit your votes for books by posting your choices (up to 10) in the comments on this blog, at your facebook page, in an email, or in a tweet @heymanletsread!

Today is the LAST DAY to vote!

Hey, you!  Yeah, I’m talking to you.  You are the one who reads this blog and is thinking about participating in the Hey, Man! Let’s Read challenge, but who hasn’t voted on a September genre because you are not planning on doing the first month.

Well, that’s just silly.

To everyone, I say: VOTE!  If you check this blog regularly, VOTE!  If this is your first time here, VOTE!  If you are note sure you’re going to read more than one book with us the entire year, VOTE!  If you’re going to try and read every book, VOTE!

All you have to do to vote is write the name of a book genre you like in a comment and post it here!  If you’re a fan of us on Facebook (and if you’re not, you should be http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hey-man-Lets-read/132214543523937), feel free to vote on our page there by just writing the genre you’d like on our wall.  You could even send us a tweet @heymanletsread, or even email us at heymanletsread@hotmail.com.  It’s that easy!

Voting for which genre of book we’ll be reading in September is open until 9 pm EST.  Tomorrow, Emily and I will announce which genre was picked, and everyone can start to vote for what books they’d like to read WITHIN that genre.  Need a few days to think about the books?  That’s fine, too.  Voting for books will be open until 9 pm EST on August 20th!

 

Can’t wait to see these last minute votes!

Two days left!

Today is August 8th, which means that there are only TWO DAYS LEFT to get your vote in for September’s genre!  Have you been thinking about the kind of books you’d like to read?  Have a particular genre in mind that you’ve thought about trying but always put off for “another time?”  Let us know by casting a vote!  All you have to do is leave a comment here on the blog, post on our facebook, send us a tweet or email–whichever way suits you best!

Remember, as soon as the genre is announced, you can start to vote for books you’d like to read within that genre!  Voting for books will go until August 20th, and we start reading on Monday, August 29th!  You should aim to finish the first book by Sunday, September 3rd.  If you don’t, no big deal–but keep an eye out on the discussions going on at our various pages anyway!

 

 

In talking with a Hey, Man! Let’s Read participant, I’ve learned that some people were expecting and waiting for a poll to come up on the blog to vote for their genre.  The confusion is my fault, and I apologize.  I didn’t even think of including a poll in the voting process–although it makes sense for a lot of reasons, I didn’t want anyone to feel as though they HAD to pick from a few select genres.  I want everyone to feel free to vote for whatever genre their hearts desired, and I thought if I put up a poll, there were a few I was bound to miss.  That goes double for voting on books!

If we get a lot of participants in the future, and it becomes a bit too cumbersome to track votes (which would be awesome, so tell all your friends!), then we’ll definitely switch to polls.

Also, if you would prefer to use a poll rather than voting in comments, then let us know!  HM!LR is for everyone, and I want it to run in a way in which it serves its participants.  So do me a favor and leave Emily and I a quick message here on the blog (or our Facebook page/twitter/email, as always) letting us know what genre you’re interested in for next month, and whether or not you’re okay with the current system.  I want to hear from you, and suggestions are always welcome!

 

Can’t wait to hear the last few votes and see what genre comes out on top!  Emily and I are really excited for September, and we hope you are, too!

–Kelly

VOTING STARTS TOMORROW!

Hi everyone!

Kelly, here!  So, after living in a tent for a few weeks and moving 1500 miles across the country, I am finally settled down and ready to get back into the swing of things!  A HUGE thanks to Emily, for all her help during my absence.  She’s awesome, right?

So, I’m not sure where all of you are from, but where I live, there’s only a few more hours until August 1st.  As you’ll remember, tomorrow is the beginning of Hey, Man! Let’s Read!

From August 1st until August 10th, we will be voting on which GENRE we’d like to read in September!  It can be whatever you want–fantasy, thriller, non-fiction, classics, what-have-you!  You can vote by posting a comment here or on the facebook group, sending us a tweet @heymanletsread, or emailing us at heymanletsread@hotmail.com.  On August11th, I’ll post the winning genre here on the blog, and we’ll start picking out books!

I’m sorry that I was away from the blog for so long, but I am very excited to be back!  I hope all of you are looking forward to seeing what our first genre will be as much as Emily and I are!

Remember, if you are considering reading any of the books throughout the whole year, go ahead and vote!  You don’t HAVE to read all fifty-two books in the year to participate in voting or posting your thoughts on any of the books you DO read.  Obviously, a book a week for an entire year is a difficult task–it’s a challenge for a reason!  Should life get in the way and you only get to read a couple of books, or every other books, or just one book, that’s fine!  Vote, interact, and stay with the community.

Can’t wait to see all of the votes tomorrow!

Movie Adaptations

There are plenty of movie adaptations out there of books, what are some of your favorites? Here are a few upcoming/recent ones.

The Help

 

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (American version) 

 

The Hunger Games

 

Water for Elephants

 

And of course…. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

What do you think of movie adaptations? Do you think they can ever actually get it right? And what is your most anticipated movie adaptation?

We’re all over the place now!

Do you belong to GoodReads or Library Thing? you can find us there now!

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/50844.Hey_Man_Let_s_Read

Library Thing: http://www.librarything.com/groups/heymanletsread

There are discussion forums in both groups. Please feel free to discuss any books you are reading now or any you plan to read in the future!

You can also now find us at http://sites.google.com/site/heymanletsread/home.

–Emily

Book reviews!

Hey, everyone! Kelly, here. There’s some cool happenings going on with HM!LR, and I wanted to let all of you know what was up.

First of all, my good friend Emily has graciously agreed to help me with this project! Because I’ll be spending a good portion of July in a tent, I thought I should bring in someone to keep the blog going and stimulate the conversation here, on the Twitter account, and the Facebook fan page. She is a HUGE help, and also, she’s a librarian, so you know she pretty much rules.

I hope all of you will join me in welcoming Emily aboard!

Secondly, because voting doesn’t start until August, Emily and I thought we should have something fun going on in the interim. So…(drum roll, please)

Continue to check the blog throughout July for guest book reviews! These reviews will encompass a variety of genres and will hopefully inspire all of you to check out something new, even before the actual Hey, Man! Let’s Read challenge begins.

Because the date I am supposed to be living in a tent was pushed back a bit, I will be around for the first few days of July. That’s excellent news–I’ll be able to participate in the book reviews!

The first review will be posted by me in the next few days–and hopefully, it will come to you in the form of a Youtube video! If you haven’t already, subscribe to the HM!LR Youtube channel and keep an eye out!

The challenge starts in one month! I hope you are all as excited as I am. Start thinking about genres you would like to read–or perhaps that you’ve never read, but have always been curious about. Remember, this is an opportunity to push yourself out of your intellectual comfort zone!

Keep spreading the word and look out for the book review video coming your way in just a few days!

–Kelly

And for those who haven’t already done, so here are some links for you to check out:

Facebook fan page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hey-man-Lets-read/132214543523937
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/heymanletsread
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/heymanletsread

What are you reading?

Are you reading a dog-eared copy of your favorite romance novel? Or a brand new hardcover non-fiction book? Show us! While we work on getting the voting and reading underway in August and September we want to hear from you!

Post a picture and your thoughts (or just thoughts if you don’t have a camera handy) and let us know about your book. What are you reading now? Why are you reading it? Do you like it so far? We want to get a conversation started and we want you to be a part of it.

Jump over to our Facebook page, tweet with the hashtag #heymanletsread, write a blogpost, or do a video! Comment here with any links you want to share.

Happy Reading!

— Emily

More info/links!

So, this blog has existed for less than week, and you can already StumbleUpon it. Whoever worked that for me: you are so rad, and we are best friends. Forrealsies.

Not too much to update on, just wanted to post a few clarifications on the timeline and some links for you guys to check out when you have the time!

Because September 1st does not fall on a Monday, it seems kind of silly to start that day. The timeline will therefore go like this:

August 1 – 10: Voting on genre
August 10 – 20: Voting on books
August 29: Start reading!
September 4: The first video goes up on youtube!

Obviously, you should keep checking the blog, but if you would like to interact with Hey, Man! Let’s Read in the meantime:

Twitter username: heymanletsread
Facebook Fan Page name: Hey, Man! Let’s Read

Keep an eye out on this blog, check out those links, and email me any questions (heymanletsread@hotmail.com) if you have any questions!

The Challenge

Here’s the challenge:  one book per week for an entire year.

Incredibly difficult?  Yes.  Impossible?  No.

 

The goal to start this project is September.  Why so many months in the future?  Because I thought of this idea at a really inconvenient time.

Hi, everyone.  My name is Kelly, I’m a 23 year old former English major (now English degree-holder), and I love books.  A lot.  I’ve always wanted to belong to a book club, but I could never find one would challenge me the way I wanted it to–so I decided to make my own.  Unfortunately, my book club idea doesn’t exactly coincide with my current work schedule.  My job requires me to do a lot of traveling, and in a few short days, it will also require that I live in a tent for almost a month (long story).  August includes a lot more moving, but also (hopefully) a lot more regular access to the internet, so it should be easier to get things going from that point.

 

Each month of the year will be assigned a genre.  Voting for the genre will start the month before and be open for ten days–for example, voting for the September genre will open August 1st and be available until August 10th.  You can vote by posting a response here or by emailing me at heymanletsread@hotmail.com.  After ten days, voting will close, and the most popular genre will be announced on this blog.

For the next ten days, voting will commence for books in that genre.  Vote for up to ten books.  The most popular books will be announced at the end of ten days (either four or five, depending on how many weeks are in the month), as well as the order in which we’ll be reading them.

The remaining days of the month will be used to get your hands on the books.  Check out bookstores, used book shops, yard sales, and (of course) your local library.

Each Sunday, I’ll start us off by posting a video about the book we read that week.  Everyone is welcomed (and encouraged!) to post a response video, write a blog (send me a link, and I’ll post it here), or just leave a response comment on this blog or on YouTube (username: heymanletsread).

What I envision is an online community who comes together to challenge themselves not only by reading A LOT, but by reading new genres and styles and by pushing themselves to think critically about books they otherwise might have avoided.

It’s not a contest.  You’re not going to get in trouble if you skip a book, or if only participate sometimes.  Heck, it’s my idea, and I’m not even sure I can do it!  But I really want to try, and I hope others will be willing to give it a go, as well.

Dudes, it’s going to be SO AWESOME.

 

 

Voting for the September genre will open up in a little over a month, on August 1st.  So, if you’re so inclined, use this time to help me spread the good word!  Let’s get the challenge out there, and get as many people involved as possible!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment here, or to email me at heymanletsread@hotmail.com.  I’ll try to create some sort of FAQ, but please be patient if it’s not up right away.  Remember: I’ll be living in a tent for a month (long story).

 

Hey Man! Let’s Read 2011 will commence very shortly, so get excited!  This is going to be fun, and I can’t wait to share the year with whoever is willing to join me on this (admittedly kind of insane) journey.

 

Until next time–

–Kelly


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