Archive for the ‘events’ Category

The London Book Fair 2013

April 19th, 2013 Vicky

Ohai, I’m back! *hugs laptop and grins* So, as you know, last Sunday I jetted off to London for an impromptu blogger meetup and to attend the London Book Fair. Many of you asked me to show you some pictures of my trip and tell you how it went and what the seminars were about, so… here goes. :)

Day 1

Celine and me

After a 30-minute delay at the airport, the most frightening landing I’ve ever experienced, a mad rush at Luton and a chaotic train journey to central London I arrive at St Pancras just after 3 p.m. I send a quick text to Celine (who I was sharing a hotel room with) to say I’m here, yet it takes me at least 10 minutes to find her at the station. Er… yes. By this time poor Celine had been waiting for me for at least two hours. Just for the record, Celine and I have never actually met before. And the first time we finally do, I make her wait ages. Embarrassing much?

Celine and I finally reunited, we make our way to our hotel. Or so we think. Three minutes after our first meeting each other, we draw the first conclusion of our trip: our sense of direction is beyond rubbish. The hotel is a relatively short, 8-10 minute walk away from the station. I checked Google Street View before I left and Celine has a map, yet we manage to get lost twice. But, despite the gusty wind, the weather is lovely and the sun is out so it’s all good. Even if we haven’t the faintest idea where we are.

After successfully finding our hotel in 30 minutes, we have a cuppa tea, manage to open the window together (we’re both short, skinny and weak, you see) and head off to Waterstones Piccadilly for a quick book shopping before closing time and to meet up with Faye and Ellie. At this point, we draw the second conclusion of our trip: all book bloggers seem to be short. I’m only 5’4″ but I seem to be the tallest among the four of us. Which doesn’t normally happen. Hurray! :D We quickly swap books (and chocolate) and decide to go to an Italian restaurant at Leicester Square for dinner. After dinner we meet up with Katie (who happens to be short as well!) and head off to Costa for coffee. By this time Celine and I (but especially me) must look embarrassingly zombie-like after all this getting up early and travelling malarkey, so belated apologies guys!

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Posted in events Tags: , 48 Comments »

Dewey’s Readathon {October 2012}

October 12th, 2012 Vicky

Dewey's Read-a-Thon

I can’t believe it’s that time of the year again – it’s October, which means that Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon is finally back! What is Dewey’s 24-Hour Read-a-thon? For 24 hours, we read books, post to our blogs about our reading, and visit other readers’ blogs. We also participate in mini-challenges throughout the day and chat to fellow readers on Twitter. It’s a wonderful opportunity for us to make a dent in our TBR pile, have fun and make friends at the same time.

This is actually about the second or third time I’ve signed up for this read-a-thon but due to university assignments, I’ve never been able to participate for more than a few hours before. BUT! The great news is, I have a week off uni next week so this year’s event just couldn’t be better timed. I will finally be able to join the fun and stay from start to finish, which I’m really excited about!

I’ve been reading an awful lot of dramas and classics for my classes in the past few weeks so this weekend will be a great opportunity for me to relax a little bit. I’ll curl up in bed with a steaming mug of tea, lots of snacks and I’ll be reading one of my own books for a change. I’ve about 7 review books I need to read in the next few weeks but I decided to go with a relatively short (well…362 pages) and easy read this time. I know long books are a big no-no for read-a-thons so this one should be just perfect.

Dewey's Read-a-thon

The book I’ll be reading this weekend is Meet Me Under the Mistletoe by Abby Clements, which is out on Oct 25th. As you can see I already have some biscuits, popcorn and tea ready for tomorrow’s event, so all I need is a warm blanket and I’m ready to go.

I’ll try to read as much as I can but as always, I’ll post regular updates on my Twitter page @bookswithacuppa and will be chatting to you all. :) One of the things I like the most about read-a-thons is the fact that there are so many participants from so many different countries. I’ve met some fantastic people during similar bookish events and I hope I’ll make some new friends tomorrow. Anyway, if you’re on Twitter feel free to say hi – I’d love to meet you! Also, I’ll be updating this post with mini-challenges and some general updates along the way.

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Posted in events, Read-a-thon Tags: , 43 Comments »

Bout of Books 4.0

May 12th, 2012 Vicky

Bout of Books Read-a-Thon

Yes! It’s that time of the year again – Bout of Books 4.0 is here! What is it all about, you ask? Bout of Books is a week long read-a-thon, run from 12:01am on Monday, May 14th through 11:59pm Sunday, May 20st in whatever time zone you are in. It is totally low pressure, meaning participants are only asked to push themselves to read more than they normally would during any given week. There is no competition between readers. How much time a reader wants, and can commit, to read, tweet, or network with fellow bloggers is left to individual preference.

I’ve actually done this read-a-thon before but my life got in the way and I didn’t manage to participate as much as I would’ve liked to. So here’s to a successful read-a-thon! :)

My plans:

I know I’m going to sound really boring here but my aim for this read-a-thon week is to catch up with my uni reading. I have two exams coming up which require tons of books to be read in the next few weeks. They’re mainly for American Literature which (sorry guys) is not my cup of tea, but it has to be done. It’d be a great opportunity and a great motivation for me to finally catch up with myself and be productive for once. So anyway, since I won’t be able to join in the RAT until Tuesday evening and I’ll probably be busy with birthday celebrations, my aim is to finish 2 or 3 books that week. I’m a slow reader but I hope I’ll manage two books at least.

The books I’m going to read are:

The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger
Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
Seize The Day by Saul Bellow

I’ll try to post updates as frequently as I can but I’ll probably tweet them instead of putting them on the blog. I’m not sure whether I should review them, though? Do you guys review books you read for uni? Or if you’re not in uni/college, are you interested in books like these? Do let me know! :)

Also, if you’d like to sign up for this event, make sure to do so here. Anyone else joining in? x

Posted in events, Read-a-thon Tags: , , 24 Comments »

#DaemonInvasion 2012

April 28th, 2012 Vicky

Over the last few days, I’m sure many of you have seen several tweets and status updates about an upcoming event called Daemon Invasion. I’ve been really busy in the past few weeks but when one of my bookish friends, Anjana from Kindle and Me asked me if I wanted to join her team and take part in the #DaemonInvasion, I just couldn’t say no. It’s going to be EPIC!

What is it about, you ask?

Author Jennifer L. Armentrout was/is looking for Lux fans who want to be a part of an elite street team who will help promote all fun things related to the Lux series. As a member of the Lux Street Team, people will have access to exclusive swag, gift cards, exclusive content and much, much more. Our tasks start on May 15th and we’d really appreciate all your support for Team DaeVision! Yes, that’s us.

Our kick-ass team includes:

That’s our little team – I hope we get your support! I’ll keep you updated as soon as #DaemonInvasion starts :) Until then, make sure to enter the giveaway of Obsidian at Kindle and Me! If you haven’t read it yet, here’s your chance to win it.

Posted in events Tags: 7 Comments »

Bloggiesta!

March 17th, 2012 Vicky

Bloggiesta is a completely new event for me – I have been invited by a fellow blogger on Goodreads and I thought, why not? I love bookish events and getting to know you all so I had to sign up for this. What is Bloggiesta, you ask? In short, it’s a blogging marathon revolving around ticking off those items on your to-do list and improving your blog while in the good company of other awesome bloggers doing the same thing.

I have been extremely busy in the past few weeks/months and even though I haven’t completely abandoned my blog, there are things that I’d like to improve and work on during these couple of days. Bloggiesta runs from 30 March to 1 April (next weekend) – and you can still sign up by clicking here if you’d like to join in the fun.

My aims:

  • Get to know some fellow bloggers
  • Make new friends
  • Re-write my review policy
  • Reply to my comments 
  • Visit as many blogs as I can and comment on other people’s reviews
  • Take part in challenges
  • Schedule some discussions for the following weeks
  • Schedule 5 WoW posts for the following weeks

Is anyone planning to take part in this event? Do let me know! :)

Posted in Bloggiesta, events 20 Comments »

Review Copy Cleanup: Sign Up

February 17th, 2012 Vicky

Welcome to the 2012 Review Copy Cleanup!

My bookish friend, Celine from Nyx Book Reviews and I were getting swamped in review books. We decided to make it all a bit more fun and are challenging you all to read your review copies with us! Clean up that big pile of books this March and join the Review Copy Cleanup. We have lots of fun challenges and tons of prizes in store for you guys, so make sure to join us on a quest to clean up our review copy pile and to have some fun in the process.

Challenge guidelines:

✦ This challenge runs from 1 to 31 March, 2012
✦ Sign-ups are open until 15 March 2012. After that the linky list will be closed and participation in the challenges and giveaways won’t be possible for anyone who hasn’t previously signed up.
✦ To sign up, just fill in the Mister Linky form below. Link to your sign up post directly, please! The Linky is the same for both our blogs, so you only have to sign up once.
✦ When you post your sign up post on your blog, either include the challenge button with your post or link it back to this article so that people know where to sign up. Thank you!
✦ Every book you received for review counts towards the challenge, both ebooks and hard copies, including all genres and lengths.
✦ You don’t need to follow the two hosts in order to be able to sign up for the event (although it’s appreciated), but you do have to follow us in order to be able to enter our giveaways. In order to be entered in the giveaway, simply complete the given challenge and add the link to your post in the linky list.
✦ Challenges will be posted every week on Fridays and will last throughout the week until Thursday the next week. Every challenge ends with a giveaway. To enter in the challenges and giveaways, simply add the link to your challenge post in the Linky list in the main challenge post. It will be posted on both blogs.
✦ At the end of the event we will host our Massive Giveaway. This contains tons of prizes donated by awesome authors. All you’ll need to do in order to enter this giveaway is to fill in a Rafflecopter form – as simple as that. :)
✦ Most of our giveaways will be open INTERNATIONALLY but you’ll find all the relevant info about each giveaway when we post the challenges.
✦ Feel free to use the #RCCleanup hashtag on Twitter for your RCC related tweets or join in the Twitter party at http://tweetchat.com/room/RCCleanup and meet lots of lovely bloggers :)

Challenge schedule:

✦ March 2 – Show Off Your Pile
✦ March 9 – Cuddle Up With a Book
✦ March 16 – Don’t Be Such a Tease!
✦ March 23 – Mysterious Meet-up
✦ March 30 – Love Will Find a Way

Button for the event: (feel free to grab the code)

Make sure to sign up below in order to participate in the Review Copy Cleanup:

Posted in events, Review Copy Cleanup 4 Comments »

2012 TBR Pile Reading Challenge – SIGN UP is now open!

November 13th, 2011 Vicky
“We all have those books. We buy them, win them, they’re gifted to us.. Then we put them up on a bookshelf and there they stay, collecting dust, waiting for the time when we’ll finally decide to pick them up..
Join us on a quest to dust off your TBR Pile and read all the books you’ve been telling yourself you’ll read next time you’ll get a chance.. This is your chance! And we’ve got PRIZES!!! :D ”

Come and join us during this challenge! As some of you might know, I’m one of the 10 hosts which means that I’ll host a mini-challenge in November AND I’ll throw international giveaways during this event! If you’d like to win some fabulous prizes, have fun and read then make sure to read the challenge guidelines below and sign up at the bottom of this post!

If you have any questions about the event, the mini challenges, about how you can take part in the challenge or anything else, feel free to drop me a line or tweet me @alouetteuette !

Challenge guidelines:

  1. This challenge will run from Jan 1, 2012 – Dec 31, 2012.
  2. As we would like to see quality reviews linked up to our monthly wrap-ups, only bloggers can enter. Sorry about that!
  3. Any genre, length or format of book counts, as long as it is a book that’s been sitting on your shelf for some time now. Only books released in 2011 and earlier! NO ARCs and 2012 fresh-off-the-press releases allowed!
  4. You can list your books in advance or just put them in a wrap-up post. If you list them, feel free to change them as the mood takes you.
  5. When you sign up in the linky, put the direct link to your post about joining the 2012 TBR PILE Reading Challenge (You need to include the info + host list + challenge button. You can also grab the button code and add it to your sidebar!)
  6. You can move up levels, but no moving down.
  7. Sign-ups will be open until Dec 15, 2012, so feel free to join at any time throughout the year.
  8. At the end of each month one of the hosts will post a wrap-up. Every wrap-up will have it’s unique theme, a mini-challenge, a giveaway and place for you to link up your reviews from this month. For each review you link up, you will get one entry in a drawing of one book of choice from Book Depository. It’s open to INTERNATIONALS. For participating in the mini-challenge you will get +1 entry.
  9. If you miss a wrap-up post + giveaway, you can link up your reviews next month. Do not, however, try to link up one review twice – we will be checking ;)
  10. December is a wrap-up for the whole year. All the book reviews you linked up January-November + the ones you’ll link up in December will be entered into a HUGE giveaway – 12 books, 12 winners, INTERNATIONAL. 
  11. You don’t have to follow all the hosts to join the challenge, but you do have to follow all of us to be entered in giveaways!
Levels:

1-10 – A Firm Handshake
11-20 – A Friendly Hug
21-30 – A Sweet Kiss
31-40 – Love At First Sight
41-50 – Married With Children

Due to the fact that I’ll have lots of exams at uni and I’ll be working on review copies as well, my aim is to achieve the Friendly Hug level. :)  

Hosts (their blogs & Twitter accounts)

Evie from Bookish - @SeoEvie
Nicole from All I Ever Read – @Nicoleabouttown
Bonnie from Hands and Home – @HandsHomeBlog
Donna from Book Passion For Life -  @BookPforLife
Caitlin from WatchYA Reading -  @caitlingss
Rie from Mission To Read -  @missiontoread
Vicky from Books, Biscuits & Tea - @alouetteuette
Christa from Hooked On Books -  @ChristasBooks
Jenna from Fans Of Fiction -  @fansoffiction
Angel from Mermaids Vision -  @mermaidvisions

Wrap-up POST Schedule:

January - Donna (Theme: Let It Snow + Book Cover Challenge)
February – Nicole (Theme: Un-requited Love/Love Gone Wrong + Advice Column Challenge)
March – Rie (Theme: Green or Pinched + Green Cover Challenge)
April -  Bonnie (Theme: Easter + Mini Challenge)
May – Christa (Theme: MayDay – Disaster Books! + Cover Disaster Challenge)
June – Jenna ( Theme: Camping + Sentence Challenge)
July – Rie (Theme: International Day + Cover Comparison Challenge)
August – Angel (Theme: Summer Memories + Send Your Fav Character On Vacation Challenge)
September - Nicole (Theme: Life Changing Books + Mini Challenge)
October – Caitlin (Theme: Thanksgiving Theme + Share-A-Book Challenge)
November – Vicky (Theme: Spooky Halloween + Book Puzzle Challenge)
December – Evie (Theme: Xmas Bliss + Book Bachelor Challenge)

The books I’m planning to include in the challenge and read in 2012:

  1. Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher
  2. Ghost Children by Sue Townsend
  3. Things I Want My Daughters to Know by Elizabeth Noble
  4. Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella
  5. The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie
  6. The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
  7. Under Gemini by Rosamunde Pilcher
  8. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
  9. The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
  10. Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Fallon
  11. Jenny Pox by JL Bryan
  12. A Home for Christmas by Deborah Grace Staley

I’ll probably add some more later on though, but these are the ones I know for certain at the moment. :)

Challenge button

2012TBRPILEChallenge


Challenge SIGN UP:

Posted in events 9 Comments »
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