Classic Words of Wisdom Winners!

Hi everyone!

Had a small issue with my laptop booting, thus the delay in posting winners for my mini-challenge. First, a huge thank you to everyone who participated! I'm still trying to visit everyone to see your wonderful posts, but it'll take me a little bit.

There were 128 entries linked up, so I entered that into random.org.

Our winner is....number 59, Jessica Barnes! She chose a wonderful quote by C.S. Lewis. I will try and get in touch with you about getting you your Penguin Clothbound of choice!

I also decided to pick a second winner because I just can't help myself.

Congratulations to number 103, Amanda at Fig and Thistle! She chose a quote from To Kill a Mockingbird. :)

Thanks again to everyone who entered and participated. I hope you enjoyed the challenge and happy reading!

This Side of Paradise Winner!

I'm here to announce the winner of This Side of Paradise! The publisher has donated a copy and will be sending it to my lucky winner...

Congrats to Lori of The Coffee Girl!

I will be e-mailing you shortly to get your mailing information.

Thank you to everyone for entering!

Winners for the Oldies but Goodies Mini-Challenge.

First, I want to apologize that I am announcing my winners so late-I was out all day with my husband and just got home a little while ago.

I had a great time reading through your entries! I went to random.org to pick my winners and you'll see them here in reverse order. Since I had over 100 entries, I am adding a third winner!

First up is our winner of ONE PEL title....Congrats to...

Meredith of Boats Against the Current!

The second winner get their choice of THREE PEL titles. Congrats to...

Laura of Devouring Texts!

Last is our big winner who gets to choose FIVE PEL titles. Congrats to...

 Nomad Reader!

Winners-I will be sending you an e-mail soon to touch base about your titles!

Thank you all for entering. I will give you a hint and let you know that I will be doing a holiday themed giveaway with PEL titles as well. Make sure to come back and visit me! :)

Keep on reading!

Austen in August Giveaway Winners!

Austen in August is well underway! I am currently reading Mansfield Park in honor of the event (and loving it!). I hope that all you other participants are also enjoying some lovely Austen titles.

I'm here to announce the winners of the giveaway I hosted last week to help Adam kick off the event. Up for grabs were 6 Austen titles-1 of each of her big novels!

I should let you know that no one entered for poor Pride and Prejudice! I would like to send it off to a good home, so if you want a copy, comment below. The first person who claims it can have it. :)

As for the winners...

Emma: Heather M. (no blog linked)

Mansfield Park: Jenna

Northanger Abbey: Donna

Persuasion: Missy

Sense and Sensibility: Logan E. Turner

Congratulations to the winners! I'll send you an e-mail later tonight to get mailing information, but if you see this first, feel free to e-mail me instead. :)

Enjoy your Austen reading!

A Victorian Celebration Wrap-up and Giveaway Winners.

Wow. I have been so impressed by the response to my little Victorian event. There are almost 230 posts on the Master Post! That's simply amazing! And if you still have a lingering post, feel free to add them in the future. I know that I have quite a few posts that I never found the time to add. :)

I have to admit that I am a bit sad the event ended and that many of us will be moving on to other books. For me, the hyper-focus on Victorian literature was a good and a bad thing. Good because I managed to read a lot of great Victorians, but bad because I burned myself out just a little bit. I know I will bounce back as soon as I get sucked into the next great book. But now, I can just look back and be happy with the titles I managed to read in June and July. Here is what I finished:

• The Lifted Veil by George Eliot
• The Warden by Anthony Trollope
• Middlemarch by George Eliot
• Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
• Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
• Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
• The Dickens Bicentenary
• And half of Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope

So, all in all, I had a great two months!

I'm hoping you enjoyed the event. I love hosting things like this, and have rough plans in mind for a few more monthly themed projects in the future (probably not in 2012, however). I am looking for some feedback and suggestions for the future. If you could take a few minutes to fill out this feedback form, I would greatly appreciate it!

Feedback Form

I also have some unfinished business to take care of-mainly, some giveaway winners! I got a little lax about announcing winners in the last couple of weeks (sorry about that), but here are winners from the last few giveaways...

The winner for the copy of Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone...

Annette of Impressions in Ink!

The winner for the copy of Charles Dickens' David Copperfield...

Andi of Estella's Revenge!

For the Bronte giveaway, no one entered for poor Emily, so I am going to give away one for a Charlotte entry and two for Anne (mainly because I read my first Anne this month!)

The winner for a Charlotte title is...

Athena of Aquatique! 

The two winners for Anne are...

Terri-maree of Bibliophilia and Adam of Adam's Bibliomania!

Lastly, the winner of Anthony Trollope's The Warden...

Faith Hope and Cherry Tea!

I am also sending a Victorian book of choice (up to $15 in value) to Becky of Becky's Book Reviews (because she read a TON of books) as well as a book to Claudia of Lit Hitchhiker (for being a random number I pulled off the master list) and O of Delaisse (again, random number pulled from the master list). 

Winners, I will be contacting you via e-mail at some point today. If you see this before I get to you, feel free to shoot me an e-mail first!

Thank you all for participating! I had a wonderful time and I hope you did too!

Giveaway Winners!

I have a few giveaway winners to announce from the last couple of weeks for things pertaining to A Victorian Celebration.

The first winner is for the copy of The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy. The winner is:

Melissa from Avid Reader's Musings!

The second winner is for the edition of the Dickens Bicentenary Edition. The winner is:

Kate from Second Edition!

The third winner is for the copy of Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. The winner is:

Jillian from A Room of One's Own!

And, I also have a random winner from the master list. Since I chose between 1 and 50 last time, this winner comes from between 51 and 100. The winner will get to choose a Victorian of their choice that I'll send them from the Book Depository. :) The winner is:

# 57: Kristi Loves Books and her review of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Phew! Thank you everyone for entering! You should see an e-mail in your inbox sometime today (or you can e-mail me first) so that I can get your mailing information to send your book on your way!

Remember-there is at least one giveaway per week. Right now, there is a guest giveaway going on at Kristi's blog and a giveaway for The Moonstone!

Weekly Giveaway Winners.

Last week I had two giveaways up for participants of A Victorian Celebration. One was for a copy of George Eliot's Daniel Deronda and the other was for Charlotte Bronte's Shirley. I pulled both winners after the contests closed at midnight, and here are the winners:

The winner of Daniel Deronda is Michelle from The True Book Addict!

The winner of Shirley is Adam from Roof Beam Reader!

Congratulations winners! I will be e-mailing you to get mailing information.

Remember that there is a giveaway each week. This week's giveaway is for a copy of The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy. You can enter to win at this post.

Random Post Giveaway Winner! (A Victorian Celebration).

I decided to take a gander at the number of crazy posts you guys have made on the Master Post. Wow! You guys have been reading a TON!

In celebration of all the reading you've been doing, I pulled a random number and that person (as soon as they see this post) gets to e-mail me their choice of a Victorian Classic to be sent to them from the Book Depository.

Congratulations to number...43! Bex from An Armchair By the Sea for her review of Anne Bronte's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

Shoot me an e-mail (my e-mail is on my profile page) by Friday so I can mail you your new book of choice! :)

Keep up the great reading everyone!

(*hint* There will probably be another random giveaway once we hit 100 links on that Master Post!)

Giveaway Winners (A Victorian Celebration).

There were two giveaways for A Victorian Celebration that ended last night. I'm here to announced the winners for the Thomas Hardy giveaway (a new copy of Far From the Madding Crowd) and the international giveaway for the winner's choice of classics.

The winner of the new Thomas Hardy title is...

Jean! 

And, I held a special giveaway for my international participants. Congrats to...

Cassandra!

And, for kicks, I am going to tack on a second winner for the international giveaway, just because I love you guys so much. Congrats to...

Cat!

Congrats to the winners. I will be e-mailing you shortly to get mailing information. 

Everyone else, there are still giveaways in progress! Go enter!

• Copy of Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
• Copy of Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
• Karen is giving away your choice of 22 titles!

Thanks for entering everyone. Keep up that great Victorian reading!

North and South Giveaway Winner!

Just a quick post to announce the winner for the North and South giveaway which ended last night. Congratulations to...

MJ at Wandering in the Stacks!

I'm going to be e-mailing you to get your mailing information, so watch for that. ;)

For everyone else, thank you for entering! There will be a giveaway every week, so make sure to keep an eye out. I launched this week's giveaway last night-a copy of Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd.

Melissa's giveaway is also still open, so make sure to enter if you're interested!

Anne of Green Gables Giveaway Winner!

My mom has been hounding me to pull a winner for the Anne of Green Gables giveaway I posted a couple weeks ago. And since the giveaway was sponsored by my mom, it almost makes sense that she was harassing me, right? ;) I jest.

I really enjoyed reading about all of your memories. They were really touching. I know my mom enjoyed reading the entries as well. We all have some awesome females in our lives!

The winner is receiving a pretty copy of the new Puffin edition of Anne of Green Gables, seen below:

I went to random.org and it spit out a number...

Congratulations to:

Diana of Autobiography of an Anglophile!

I am going to e-mail Diana to get her information. If I don't hear back from her in a couple of days, I'll pull another winner. :)

Thank you all for entering!

Shakespeare Reading Month Wrap-up and a Winner.

Welcome to the wrap-up for Shakespeare Reading Month. It was my first time organizing and hosting an event of this magnitude, and while there were a few kinks and glitches, I think it was a great success!

What I love about events like thius is seeing how a vast and varied group of people interpret works by the same writer (or the same piece). While some of us love the Bard's comedies, others found a deeper connection to his poetry, histories, or tragedies. Based on my own reading list for the event, I'm leaning towards his tragedies. :)

Nevertheless, I think we can all agree that William Shakespeare, whoever he was, has had a lasting impact on literature and popular cultire. As I read, I couldn't help but notice all the phrases, words, and ideas that we still reference and use today. Without his work, would we have ever had them? THAT is something to think about.

More than anything else last month, I was struck by the power and endurance of his work. It is almost hard to believe that these plays and poetry, written 400+ years ago, retain a universality in theme. The same things found in Shakespeare's work-racism, infidelity, identities in crisis, love, and a constant quest for power, are all things we still battle with on a daily basis. That timelessness is what marks a classic, I think, since it allows us to feel, understand, and contemplate the same issues as those who saw his plays performed in the Globe on the banks of the Thames.

I also love that his work is ageless. Earlier today I subbed in a classroom where the students read Jacques' "All the world's a stage" speech from As You Like It. We talked a bit about Shakespeare and the play before reading, and after we read and I broke down the speech for them, the majority decide that "Old Will' was a pretty good writer. :) I am also reminded of when I was in Florida, reading Shakespeare poolside (because I am that cool), when a couple of older gentlemen stopped by to talk to me. My mom had just gone back to the room, so she missed the exchange, but they stopped to talked about Hamlet with me-and that they were rather delighted to see a "young thing" reading old "fuddy-duddy" books. :) It made me smile, but it also goes to show that literature is powerful and bridges generations. That is why I am glad that so many of you participated in the event. Because while Will might be "old" or "fuddy-duddy," we all know that he matters.


I again want to thank everyone who participated. You guys made this event a roaring success! And while I am still commenting on posts from the master post, I appreciate everything you guys had to say about the Bard and his work. It does my classics-loving heart some good to see I'm not alone. YOU ROCK!

If you are interested in going back to read some other posts from the event, please visit the Master Post for all the links. There is some great stuff! I would also appreciate any suggestions or comments to improve future events of this caliber. :)

Last but not least, I went to random.org to pull a number to win the clothbound edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets (seen at left). There were 83 links left, and since I couldn't win, the first qualifying number random.org spat out at me was....

#38: The Tempest post by Carol of Carol's Notebook!

I am going to notify Carol and give her 48 hours to respond. She can also choose to pass along the prize if she is disinterested to someone else and I will repull a number. :)

Thank you all again!

And so you know, I am planning a Victorian event, structured similarly to this one, for June and July. Keep an eye out if you're interested!

Shakespeare Reading Month Sign-up Winner!

I'm pleased to announce that I pulled a winner for the two lovely editions of Shakespeare plays seen at left (As You Like It and The Comedy of Errors). Anyone who signed up on or before the 15th of December was entered-those of you who already owned these plays were not included if you specified).

The random winner was....

Anne! from The Book Garden!

Congratulations! I'm going to see if I can hunt down some contact info.

The winner has 48 hours to respond/contact me; if not, then I will pull another winner!

Thank you for signing up-I'm looking forward to discussing some Shakespeare come the first of the year!

Giveaway Winners.

I had every intention of posting winners earlier this week. But, with school starting Tuesday, things have been a little insane around here. I haven't even been online in the last few days! So, I sincerely apologize for making you all wait!

I just pulled winners for each of the giveaways, and here they are, in order:

Giveaway #1 (Penguin Clothbound copy of Dracula):

Eva (A Striped Armchair)

Giveaway #2 (Diana Wynne Jones Titles):

Jenn (Books at Midnight)

Giveaway #3 (International):

Darlyn (Your Move, Dickens)

Giveaway #4 (Willa Cather Novels):

Meg (A Bookish Affair)

Giveaway #5 (Penguin Clothbound of The Odyssey):

Edie (Silence in the Library)

Giveaway #6 (Fun pack of 4 titles):

Lindsey (Literary Lindsey)

Giveaway #7 (Fun pack of 3 titles):

L.L.

Congrats to all the winners! I am in the process of writing you an e-mail, so please respond!

Thank you to everyone who entered!

"Oldies but Goodies" Mini-Challenge Winners.

Ummm....wow you guys. I am impressed by the number of entries (155!) and the fact that you all seemed to love talking about these old books that I hold so dear to my heart. It has been an absolute blast reading through your comments and I have added a LARGE number of titles to that massive TBR list I have. It also made for good reading while sitting in the doctor's office this morning. :)

It is great to see that at some point, these books we call "classics" have impacted everyone. I suppose that is why we call them classics, hmm?

Reading through all of your entries and your cries of, "How can I pick just one?" had me thinking about which books I would label my favorites. It came down to 1 story out of a million that I wanted to share.

When I was coming up with the premise for my blog and developing my book list, challenge requirements, and naming my blog, I took a good long look at what I was trying to accomplish. I wanted a name to speak to what I was going to do and years long project it was going to be. That is when my eyes glanced over Homer's The Odyssey on my list. It had been a couple years since I read the story, but I was drawn to the name. I loved the struggle of Telemachus finding himself and his role in society, I loved the drama of Odysseus finding his way home. No matter what obstacles were in their way, both men met those challenges and conquered them.

The name of my blog was born and The Odyssey was the first book I read and discussed on my blog. And whenever I get low or frustrated, I can look at that blog name and remember.

Cheesy? Probably.

Anyway, I know why you're all here and that is for the names of the WINNERS.

I chose two winners randomly through random.org. They are:

#41: Savs (having a hard time finding your blog!)

and

#125: Simplerpastimes

And since there were so many entries....I randomly picked one more winner (again, from random.org):

#20: Amanda

Congrats to all the winners! You have until the end of the read-a-thon to contact me through my blog e-mail (you can find it on my profile page).


But wait....


My husband was so impressed with your response and shocked by the outpouring of your responses that he wants to pick one more commenter. I let him read through the comments and he selected one more person to win based on this comment:

"You rock, Allie Cat.

My favorite classic? Gone With the Wind, Gone With the Wind, Gone With the Wind!!

Because it is about a woman's struggle through war, and societal expectation, and an insane sort of upbringing.

Because it was my first classic. (I was sixteen the first time I read it.)

Because I share a love of the book with my mother. She doesn't adore much literature, but it was she who kept nudging me to read Mitchell; when I finally did, I fell in love, with reading, with history, with Atlanta, with the story of the American Civil War.

Because my grandmother was from Atlanta, GA, and I hope to move back there, some day. I'm pulled to my history in Atlanta. My people were in Georgia for generations.

Because all of my love, for everything above, is rooted in Gone With the Wind.

And Margaret Mitchell? She is my literary best friend."

Congrats Jillian! Now my husband is calling me Allie Cat. :)

Thank you all for entering. Winners, contact me by the end of the readathon so I can be in touch with you about picking which title you want (that way I can order you your lovely and get it on the way)!

Oliver Twist Giveaway Winner.

Hey all!

I wanted to pop on real quick to announce the winner of that lovely Penguin clothbound for Oliver Twist. I put all the entrants' names into one of my husband's hat and had him pull the winner.

I would like to congratulate Katy F. from A Few More Pages on winning a pretty new book for her shelves! I am going to go search for your e-mail, but if there is nothing in your inbox when you see this, my email is listed on my profile page. :)

Thank you all for entering! Please keep spreading the word so we have more participants!

Penguin Clothbound Winners!

Wow! I was so excited to see that so many of you wanted to win one of the lovely Penguin clothbounds I put up for grabs! There were 66 entries, which is far more than any other giveaway I've hosted. And I know I said that once I hit 25 entries I would select another winner. And I mean to.

But I got to talking to Matt (the husband) and since I was so astonished that there was so much interest, I'm tacking on another winner. So yes, you read that right, I am going to buy three lucky winners the Penguin clothbound of their choice!

Here are the winners! (Again, all three numbers were taken from random.org)

Entry #28: Adam from Roof Beam Reader

Entry # 55: Jessica from Firefly Book Loft

Entry #18: Christina from Reading Thru The Night

I am so excited to be sending the three of you your lovely Penguin clothbound from Bookdepository.com. Look for an e-mail in your inbox from yours truly so I can get these lovelies to you as soon as possible!

For the rest of you, thank you for entering. I will be hosting another (similar) giveaway in the very near future, so please enter again!

Read-A-Thon GIVEAWAY WINNERS!

I do want to say I'm sorry for announcing winners on Sunday. Life has been a little chaotic since then, as I have been catching up on all that sleep I lost and working.

But, in any case, I decided to announce the winners of my giveaway this morning before I head off to work.

As I said on Saturday, the winners will have 48 hours to get back to me so we can plan out which books will be on the bracelet, or featured on your bookmarks.

I drew all of the names through random.org's generator, and Matt was my witness.

So here are your winners:

The winner of the the customized bracelet is: AliBird

The winner of the five customized bookmarks is: Jessica

The winner of the three customized bookmarks is: KarenLibrarian

Congratulations to all of you! If you see this before I get a chance to e-mail you tonight, feel free to e-mail me (aliteraryodyssey (at) gmail (dot) com). Each of you has some thinking to do about what you want made!

And I have some books I am going to be giving away in the near future (mainly doubles of books I already have). They are classics (mostly) so keep your eyes peeled!

Mini-Read-Along Giveaway WINNERS!

Well, it seems as if most of the books in the poll had no chance of winning. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell and Gulliver's Travels by Jonathon Swift seemed to run away with the win from the beginning! I did feel bad for poor Cyrnao de Bergerac with only one vote, but perhaps in the future he will get some attention too!

For those of you who entered the giveaway, odds were in your favor! Even though 35 people voted, only 11 people entered the contest. I used Random.org to generate 2 numbers and the winners are...

#5: dkm1981

and

#7: Irisonbooks

I will be e-mailing you both in a few minutes to get shipping information from you, as well as to figure who will be getting which book.

Thank you everyone for entering and stay tuned for another giveaway coming up soon!

Carrie Ryan Giveaway Winners!

I just figured out who the winners are for my Carrie Ryan Giveaway!

For full details about the contest, click here to read about the great signing I went to!

If you don't remember, first place is winning the following: Hardcover copy of The Forest of Hands and Teeth (signed), Hardcover copy of The Dead-Tossed Waves (signed), The Forest of Hands and Teeth bookmark, and an "Eat. Prey. Love." sticker.



And second place is winning the following items: The Forest of Hands and Teeth bookmark, The Dead-Tossed Waves bookmark, "Eat. Prey. Love." sticker, and CD full of videos and information about The Dead-Tossed Waves and other YA novels and sequels.





Anyway, without further ado....

First place goes to...

Lydia from The Lost Entwife!

And second place goes to...

Lauren from Lauren's Crammed Bookshelf!


CONGRATULATIONS!

I will be contacting you both via e-mail. Please get back to me in the next 48 hours or I will have to pick another winner!