Banned Books Week 2015: A Photo Challenge!

Banned Books Week is coming up at the end of the month, and I'm celebrating with my third annual Banned Books Week photo challenge! :)



I'm changing the hashtag to #bbwphotoaday this year (#bookphotoaday seems to have been appropriated by other forces), and I hope to see many of you join in on Instagram and Twitter! As usual, I'll be featuring my favorite photos on my Instagram account and here on the blog. Please feel free to share the above image on your blog or Instagram if you plan to play along!

What is your favorite banned book?

P.S. — If you love Instagram and books, check out these fun bookish hashtags while you wait for this photo challenge to begin!

Best of: #bookphotoaday

Thank you to everyone who participated in my little #bookphotoaday challenge last week! I've collected a few of my favorites to showcase here on the blog:

Clockwise from top left: @dairecharlotte, @hello_mimi, @dairecharlotte & @writerjmriley

And, of course, a quick recap of my "bookish" photos from last week (including two libraries and only one book). Unfortunately, my phone camera hasn't been working since it took a trip in the river during my triathlon in July (more on that in another post!), so my Instagram presence has been sorely lacking lately. Sigh.... Just counting down the days until November 18 when I can upgrade my phone to one with a working camera!

Banned Books Week 2014: A Semi-Charmed Photo Challenge

Good evening, friends! I write to you tonight from Seattle, Washington, where I am spending the next few days attending orientation for my Master of Library and Information Science program. Woohoo! During our introductory lecture today, our program chair had a few great quotes that I had to write down, including:

"We're all better off when people can read and think freely."

Well said. Naturally, this got me thinking about Banned Books Week, which I then looked up and realized is next week! Last year, I hosted a photo challenge for Banned Books Week, which I found to be quite entertaining and received some positive feedback on. Therefore, I am turning this into an annual challenge!

Instead of providing specific prompts for each day this year, I decided to leave it open to all of you to post any bookish photos you wish throughout Banned Books Week (September 21 - 27). Please tag your photos with #bookphotoaday, and I will curate my favorite posts each day and feature them on my personal Instagram at @mcstroup and also here on the blog!

Please feel free to share the above graphic on your own social media and/or blog to encourage others to join the challenge! I hope to see your bookish posts on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr next week. :)

Linking up with Nicole for Treat Yo' Self Thursday.

Currently: recapping my banned books week photo challenge

Happy Sunday, everyone! I promised you last Sunday that I would recap my favorite entries in my Banned Books Week photo challenge last month, but I broke that promise. So, I'm recapping today! First, though, I want to share my current goings-on for siddathornton's The Sunday Currently link-up.

image via @mcstroup on Instagram

reading | The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Holy cow. Expect more thoughts on this book during the Literary Junkies link-up on Tuesday. I hope to be finished with it by then!

Banned Books Week: A Semi-Charmed Photo Challenge

I already announced this photo challenge in a Book Chat post a few weeks ago, but I wanted to dedicate a special post to make the rules/details easier to find. :) It's only two weeks away now!

The Book Chat: Chick Lit

Image via styles on the go

My first thought when I saw this week's Book Chat topic was, "But I don't really read chick lit." As usual, Jessica read my mind and wrote this in her newsletter: "You've probably read more than you think." She also included a link to this Goodreads list, which got me thinking about all the chick lit I've read. I was a little surprised to find titles like The Time Traveler's Wife and The Help on the list, as well as some Nicholas Sparks titles, so I did some research on "chick lit." Wikipedia says:

Chick lit is genre fiction which addresses issues of modern womanhood, often humorously and lightheartedly.... Although it sometimes includes romantic elements, chick lit is generally not considered a direct subcategory of the romance novel genre, because the heroine's relationship with her family or friends is often just as important as her romantic relationships.

Makes sense! The first two books I mentioned above are not what I would call lighthearted, which is probably why that threw me off. And Nicholas Sparks is definitely all about the romantic relationships; there aren't enough friends and family relationships in his books for me to call them "chick lit." After this meticulous research on the definition of the genre, I'm reading to give you my list. :)