Weird Things From Google Alerts

Okay, I was listening to Natasha on That’s How I Blog! when my connection, or blog talk’s, not sure, crapped out.  I was going to have to listen to it a second time anyway, since the kids decided to have a screaming match and wanted me to referee.  NOW, now that I’m NOT listening… they’re angels.  Better not type too loud, they’ll be in here fighting and fussing and chasing me off the computer!

*sigh*

So, during Bloggiesta, there was a mini-challenge about setting up the Google alerts.  I set up about 4 or 5, and then I get an email once a day with detailed web traffic that used the terms I put in.  So far, most of them link back to either my posts, comments or tweets.  Or they simply link to posts that happened to contain all the words, but not together. “Reading the other team’s stats, the Welsh rugby team has a challenge ahead of them!” has Welsh, Reading, and Challenge, but has NOTHING to do with the Welsh Reading Challenge.  Silver lining, I suppose, I’m learning a LOT about rugby… lol

But once in a while, it turns up a treasure.  There’s a blog out there named Scaling Mt. TBR and I felt an immediate kinship.  She reads a lot of historical romances and not as many books as I, but we rode the same wavelength.  She even has a Mountain pic in her header, like I do, but hers is massive and snowy and intimidating.  I like my green and trees and lake with the mountain.  There’s LIFE around my books.  I like her pic, too, but I like mine better 😉

I’ve also discovered the Welsh Reading Challenge is sponsoring the Left Coast Eisteddfod.  It’s posted on the Hiraeth page, as well as being in a widget, but I didn’t think of it as sponsoring, since I didn’t give money.  I thought I was only spreading the word.  I do support the event, and would go if I could.

Then there’s Wuthering Expectations.  I had to laugh when I read this:

As a side note, see here for the brand new Welsh Reading Challenge.  Now we just need an Irish challenge, and a Jersey and Guernsey challenge, a Cornish challenge, an East Anglian challenge, etc., etc.

I commented that actually, if we just went with Celtic Reading Challenge, it’d take in Irish, Scottish and Welsh, and the rest didn’t matter anyway 😀  I think Care said she’d like a Celtic one, too, so it’d work out.  I want to read Anam Cara (suggested by a good friend), and I could do that with a Celtic challenge.  Ah well, next year…  By the way, Amateur Reader at Wuthering Expectations is hosting a Scottish Literature Reading Challenge, but I don’t completely understand the instructions.  I do know this, though:  If it’s not Scottish, it’s crap!

So, do you use Google alerts?  Anything interesting come up for you?  Have you ever discovered you were linked somewhere and didn’t know it?  Was it a good or bad thing?

Crashing the Unexpected Party

In case you didn’t know, I love fantasy.  And before I started blogging, I had read The Hobbit and had started reading The Fellowship of the Ring, put it down to read something else, and forgot to pick it back up.  I’ve been wanting to re-read the first and read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy for a bit, but just not done it.  And with all the ARCs, it doesn’t look like something I’m going to just do on my own, at least not this year.

So when I read BethFish’s Lord of the Ring readalong post the other day, I was reminded I had meant to join in.  But I’m beginning to think that if I don’t say it publically, I’ll forget to do it.  So here’s my public announcement:  I’m doing to the Lord of the Ring’s Readalong.

I’m joining in halfway through the first month, and am just a little behind on The Hobbit, which is the January book.  Here’s the schedule:

January: The Hobbit at A Striped Armchair

February: The Fellowship of the Ring at The Literary Omnivore

March: The Two Towers here at Shelf Love

April: The Return of the King at Just Add Books

I think I’ll do a bit of reading before doing an update.. lol, I need to have something to update.  Right now, I’m just listening to the audio book from the library, but I think I’ll probably go borrow the hard copy later.  I seem to get the most out of books when I listen to AND read along with them.  I kinda wish I hadn’t mooched away my copy now.

So are you doing the readalong? Have you ever read Tolkein?  Have you watched the movies?