TWITTER GIVEAWAY 2010

So, first thing's first. That giveaway that I've been promising since *cough* the end of August is FINALLY HERE. 

The giveaway is fairly simple. From September 18th to the 25th I will put up a tweet every day with the book that is up for grabs and a request for a random number. At the end of the day, I'll head over to random.org, pluck a number from the randomizer and the one closest to that number will win the book! Most of these are going to be galleys I acquired from ALA 2010, but I have a few purchased and new books that I will be giving out as well. Also, I thought it fair to mention that any books that have already been released, but that I acquired as galleys are not up for the giveaway. :) Please feel free (in fact, be encouraged) to link to this post and spread the word. The giveaway starts Saturday, September the 18th!

Secondly, my schedule is still taking some adjusting to and I've been spending every spare minute at work and at home doing school/home work. It's a little sad. AS SUCH, my blogging schedule may be a little erratic and will eventually switch to Mondays and Wednesdays since I have the most theoretical free time then. I may also post a second time today depending on how the world feels about me and I about it. 

Happy Thursday, everyone! 

SEPTEMBER 18 & 19

• To win a copy of BEAUTIFUL DARKNESS by Kami Garcia and Magi Stohl reply to @theravendesk with a number between 1 - 100. 
• To win a copy of SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson reply to @theravendesk with a number between 101- 200. 
• Winners will be drawn after 8PM EST. (The winners are @thmafi and @karlaerikacal) SEPTEMBER 20

• To win a copy of THE FRENZY by Francesca Lia Block reply to @theravendesk with a number between 1 - 100. 
• Winners will be drawn after 12AM EST. (The winner is @miahayson)

TWITTER: YOURE DOING IT WRONG

So. I have been remiss in posting regularly on the blog. You would think with all my free time at work that I would be posting left and right. But I always find that either someone has already talked about what I want to talk about or there IS NOTHING TO TALK ABOUT AT ALL. It's quite sad.

But. I've discovered something wonderful to ramble on about. Something that I love. And that something is TWITTER.

Twitter (for those of you who don't know) is this very spectacular networking tool. In less fancy terms, it's an amazing way to meet and chat with people who are also amazing in 140 characters or less. I'm not saying whether you should or should not use it; that's up to you and how comfortable you are being on it (believe or not some people are not comfortable on Twitter).

So. Yes. Twitter. I want to tell you things about Twitter. How to use it. How to not use it. How to not bug the hell out of the people nice enough to follow you. I will be using a list.

1. If you are tweeting 'via web' you are doing it wrong. The Twitter interface (no offense to the people who made Twitter. You guys are awesome!) is going to drive you insane. Especially if you're following more than a hundred people, all of whom tweet regularly. My advice is to get a Twitter app, my preferred being Tweetdeck. Tweetdeck is really easy to use, and lets you update not only Twitter, but Facebook. Also, it has scheduled tweets, can auto-shorten tweets that are too long and lets you separate different Tweeters into different columns so that not everyone is in one long list together. 
2. If you are only tweeting links to your own blog, articles and retweeting things that other people have said, you're doing it wrong. People follow other people because they're interested in what they have to say. They're interested in you. A link doesn't say much and what other people say doesn't reflect on you at all. 
3. If you're not engaging with other people, you're doing it wrong. Reply to peoples tweets. Often times, for me, this is what gets me to follow other people back. You'd be surprised by how many people you come to like through conversations on Twitter. Have conversations. Joke around. Seriously. 
4. If you're following to get followers, you're doing it wrong. There's this myth that you  should autofollow who ever follows you. I don't think it's necessarily true. In my own (humble) opinion, Twitter isn't about followers. It's about connecting. It's about meeting people of like mind. Twitter is no fun if all you have is a really big number to stare at. 

I thought I would have a lot more to say, but...yeah. These are the things that really jump out at me. I hope you guys are all having a wonderful first week of June! And that all the good news that has been soaking through the YALit community keeps soaking through! 

Now. To find my bed....

THE FREAK OUT: PART ONE

So I've just started my read through of The Scion. The first one. Please refer below for an idea of how it went. (Also, regular, intelligent semi-intelligent posts will resume soon. Promise.)