I’ll be volunteering both days at the LA Book Festival at USC. Will you be attending this year? If you are, come by and say hello!

I have three midterms tomorrow and American Literature will be one of them. Ten identification and three short essay responses. Shouldn’t be too bad.

→ The Greatest Books of All Time, As Voted by 125 Famous Authors

David Orr offers a litmus test for greatness:

If you’re putting together a list of ‘the greatest books,’ you’ll want to do two things: (1) out of kindness, avoid anyone working on a novel; and (2) decide what the word ‘great’ means. The first part is easy, but how about the second? A short list of possible definitions of ‘greatness’ might look like this:

1. ‘Great’ means ‘books that have been greatest for me.’
2. ‘Great’ means ‘books that would be considered great by the most people over time.’
3. ‘Great’ has nothing to do with you or me — or people at all. It involves transcendental concepts like God or the Sublime.
4. ‘Great’? I like Tom Clancy.

What are your greatest books? 

(Source: brainpickings.org)

I’ve been working on an inspiration wall for Spring. It’s set up right above my desk so I’m constantly looking up at it when I’m writing and it doubles both as a visual of what I’d like to wear during Spring. Loose shirts, loose hair, braids, white shirts, and dark wash jeans. Light to no makeup will be the goal and I’m working on reading and writing more often that I did last year. Do you have an inspiration wall? 

Out of all the books I received in that box I decided to keep these. I have all the Harry Potter books but I didn’t have the heart to donate them because I’m a selfish Potter fan. I haven’t read the Lord of The Rings trilogy to its entirety so I’m excited to start over and read the ones I have. I picked the Stephan King books because…it’s Stephan King. I’ve never read any Godfather books so I’m excited! Woo! 

This box of books was a gift from some family friends and it is still lying on my bedroom floor. I picked out the books I was interested in and I’m donating the rest. I’ll post a picture of what books I kept a little later. Anyways, books are my favorite gifts so I was pretty ecstatic when I got this at my doorstep. Have you ever done a book swap? Or given books away to a friend? I’ve loaned a book before and I wouldn’t mind doing it again.

→ The Edgar Nominees

So many great books are nominated, check them out! 

→ Organizations that promote reading

I compiled links to some organization’s websites which sole purpose is to promote reading. I thought it would be helpful for anyone wanting to be more charitable this year but not knowing where to begin. I’ll be adding more links as I come across new websites and I will also be taking suggestions. 

I’m really enjoying the Tiffany & Co. True Love Picture Gallery on the What Makes Love True website. Check them out! 

The Gallery will be updated so keep checking back for new shots. 

→ World Book Night

“World Book Night launched in the UK in 2011 and saw passionate readers across that beautiful country, give 1 million books to light or non readers to spread the joy and love of reading. Reading changes lives and at the heart of World Book Night lies the simplest of ideas and acts - that of putting a book into another person’s hand and saying ‘this one’s amazing, you have to read it’.”

I heard about this charity when it blew up all over in the UK so I’m really excited and looking forward to participating now that the US has become involved! Will you be participating in this?