Archive for the ‘fun’ Category

Monday, November 7th, 2022

SantaThing 2022: Bookish Secret Santa!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year: the Sixteenth Annual SantaThing is here at last!

This year we’re once again focusing on indie bookstores. The pandemic has been a disaster for independent bookstores, even as it sent Amazon sales to new heights. So we picked a few of our favorite indies from around the United States. You can still order Kindle ebooks, we have Book Depository for international orders, and also stores local to Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland.
» SIGN UP FOR SANTATHING NOW!

What is SantaThing?

SantaThing is “Secret Santa” for LibraryThing and Litsy members.

How it Works

You pay $15–$50 and pick your favorite bookseller. We match you with a participant, and you play Santa by selecting books for them. Another Santa does the same for you, in secret. LibraryThing does the ordering, and you get the joy of giving AND receiving books!

SantaThing is a joint effort between LibraryThing and Litsy. When signing up, you can opt to give and receive from members of only one community or the other, or either.

Even if you don’t want to be a Santa, you can help by suggesting books for others. Click on an existing SantaThing profile to leave a suggestion.

Every year, LibraryThing members give generously to each other through SantaThing. If you’d like to donate an entry, or want to participate, but it’s just not in the budget this year, be sure to check out our Donations Thread here, run once again by our fantastic volunteer member, mellymel1713278.

Important Dates

Sign-ups close MONDAY, November 28th at 12pm EST. By the next day, we’ll notify you via profile comment who your Santee is, and you can start picking books.

You’ll then have a week to pick your books, until MONDAY, December 5th at 12pm EST (16:00 GMT). As soon as the picking ends, the ordering begins, and we’ll get all the books out to you as soon as we can.

» Go sign up to become a Secret Santa now!

Supporting Indie Bookstores

To support indie bookstores we’re teaming up with independent bookstores from around the country to deliver your SantaThing picks, including BookPeople in Austin, TX, Longfellow Books in Portland, ME, and Powell’s Books in Portland, OR.

Once again this year, we’re also offering international deliveries through Book Depository. And after last year’s success, we’re bringing back the following foreign retail partners: Readings for our Australian participants, Time Out Books for the Kiwi participants, and Kennys for our Irish friends.

Kindle options are available to all members, regardless of location. To receive Kindle ebooks, your Kindle must be registered on Amazon.com (not .co.uk, .ca, etc.). See more information about all the stores.

Shipping

Some of our booksellers are able to offer free shipping, and some are not. Depending on your bookseller of choice, you may receive $5 less in books, to cover shipping costs. You can find details about shipping costs and holiday ordering deadlines for each of our booksellers here on the SantaThing Help page.
» Go sign up now!

Questions? Comments?

This is our SIXTEENTH year of SantaThing. See the SantaThing Help page further details and FAQ.
Feel free to ask your questions over on this Talk topic, or you can contact Kate directly at kate@librarything.com.
Happy SantaThinging!

Labels: events, fun, holiday, santathing

Monday, November 8th, 2021

SantaThing 2021: Bookish Secret Santa!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year: the Fifteenth Annual SantaThing is here at last!

We’re focusing on indie bookstores again this year. The pandemic has been a disaster for independent bookstores, even as it sent Amazon sales to new heights. So we picked a few of our favorites indies from around the United States. You can still order Kindle ebooks, we have Book Depository for international orders, and also stores local to Australia and New Zealand this year!

» SIGN UP FOR SANTATHING NOW!

What is SantaThing?

SantaThing is “Secret Santa” for LibraryThing members.

How it Works

Even if you don’t want to be a Santa, you can help by suggesting books for others. Click on an existing SantaThing profile to leave a suggestion.

Every year, LibraryThing members give generously to each other through SantaThing. If you’d like to donate an entry, or want to participate, but it’s just not in the budget this year, be sure to check out our Donations Thread (to come), run once again by our fantastic volunteer member, mellymel1713278.

Important Dates

Sign-ups close MONDAY, November 29th at 12pm EST. By the next day, we’ll notify you via profile comment who your Santee is, and you can start picking books.

You’ll then have until FRIDAY, December 3rd at 12pm EST to make your picks. As soon as the picking ends, the ordering begins, and we’ll get all the books out to you as soon as we can.

» Go sign up to become a Secret Santa now!

Supporting Indie Bookstores

We’re teaming up with independent bookstores from around the country to deliver your SantaThing picks, including BookPeople in Austin, TX, Longfellow Books in Portland, ME, and Powell’s Books in Portland, OR.

Once again this year, we’re also offering international deliveries through Book Depository. New to this year are retail partners Readings for our Australian participants and Time Out Bookstore for the Kiwi participants. Kindle is available to all members, regardless of location. To receive Kindle ebooks, your Kindle must be registered on Amazon.com (not .co.uk, .ca, etc.). See more information about all the stores.

Shipping

» Go sign up now!

Questions? Comments?

This is our FIFTEENTH year of SantaThing. See the SantaThing Help page further details and FAQ.

Feel free to ask your questions over on this Talk topic, or you can contact Kate directly at kate@librarything.com.

Happy SantaThinging!

Labels: events, fun, holiday, santathing

Wednesday, December 4th, 2019

6th Annual LibraryThing Holiday Card Exchange

Our 6th annual LibraryThing Holiday Card Exchange is here! Inspired by ALA Think Tank and Reddit, we’re so excited to continue the tradition that spreads joy throughout the holiday season!

How it works is simple:

Mail a holiday card to a random LibraryThing member.
You can mail a hand-made or store card. Add a note to personalize it.
You’ll get one from another member. (Only that member will see your address.*)

Sign-ups for the Card Exchange closes Tuesday, December 10th at 5:00 PM EST. We’ll inform you of your matches within an hour or so. Send your cards out soon after.

» Sign up for the LibrayThing Holiday Card Exchange

Questions? Join the discussion on Talk.

* In order for the cards you receive to be addressed to your real name, you must include your name in the address box.

Labels: card exchange, events, fun, holiday

Thursday, December 13th, 2018

12 Days of LibraryThing: Holiday Scavenger Hunt

Happy Holidays! This year we’re trying something new, 12 Days of LibraryThing: a scavenger hunt around the site. Starting today, we will add one clue per day through December 24th. Each clue refers to a page on LibraryThing, which is marked with a pear icon when you go to it. Gather each day’s pear to be entered into drawings for prizes!

» The clues are here!

How it works:

New clues launch at midnight EST. There will be one new clue each day from now through Dec. 24th.
Decipher the clues and visit the corresponding LibraryThing pages to find the pears.
If a page has a pear, you’ll see a banner at the top of the page.
There is a new clue each day. We encourage you to find as many pears as you can, but you only get credit for the daily prize if you find the pear on the day it was posted.
Come and discuss your pear hunting and exchange hints on Talk.

Win prizes:

Any member who finds a pear on the day it was posted will be awarded a pear badge ()
Each day, we’ll randomly select a member who found that day’s pear to receive a set of our LibraryThing/TinyCat coasters.
Members who find all twelve pears will be entered into a drawing for a LibraryThing tote bag. We will pick the lucky tote bag winner on December 31st.

Questions or comments? Join the discussion on Talk. Happy pear gathering!

Labels: fun, holiday

Friday, November 30th, 2018

5th Annual LibraryThing Holiday Card Exchange

Our 5th annual LibraryThing Holiday Card Exchange is here! Inspired by ALA Think Tank and Reddit, previous years have brought holiday cheer to many, so we’re doing it again!

The idea is simple:

Mail a Holiday card to a random LibraryThing member.
You’ll get one from another member. Only that member will see your address.*
You can mail a hand-made or store card. Add a note to personalize it.

Sign-up closes Friday, December 7th at 5:00 PM EST. We’ll inform you of your matches within an hour or so. Send your cards out soon after.

» Sign up for the LibrayThing Holiday Card Exchange

Questions? Join the discussion on Talk

* In order for the cards you receive to be addressed to your real name, you must include your name in the address box.

Labels: card exchange, events, fun, holiday

Monday, November 19th, 2018

SantaThing for Litsy Members

Every year LibraryThing members participate in “SantaThing,” our Secret Santa for book lovers.

This year we’re inviting Littens to join in!

The idea is simple: You sign up and pay $15–50 and choose your favorite bookstore. We match you with someone to pick books for, and someone else will pick books for you. We try to match people with similar reading tastes, and members help each other out with suggestions. LibraryThing staff does all the ordering and everyone gets surprise books for the holidays!

LibraryThing/Litsy takes no cut: this is a community project, not a money-maker. And it’s a lot of fun.

The first 20 Littens to sign up for SantaThing will get a free Litsy mug!(1) Mugs will be coming to the LibraryThing store soon. But you’ll get them first of anyone.

To participate:

Go ahead and Link your Litsy account to a existing LibraryThing account, or create a new one.
Follow the link there to Sign up for SantaThing

Wait, what? Link your account? Yes. You can now link a Litsy and LibraryThing account. At present, it does almost nothing but enable SantaThing and give you a web page that summarizes some of your Litsy reading. It will do more soon!

Questions about SantaThing? You might find this post about SantaThing helpful.

Hoping to see you in SantaThing this year,
Tim, Loranne and the Litsy/LibraryThing Team

1. We’re defining Litsy members as members who posted to Litsy at least once in the last 14 days—this to favor regular Litsy members, not LibraryThing members who signed up for Litsy once upon a time. If there aren’t enough of these, we’ll open it to any Litsy member.

Labels: events, fun, holiday, Litsy, santathing

Wednesday, November 14th, 2018

SantaThing 2018: Bookish Secret Santa!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year: the twelfth annual SantaThing is here at last!

What’s SantaThing? SantaThing is “Secret Santa” for LibraryThing members.

Done this before?

» SIGN UP FOR SANTATHING NOW!

HOW IT WORKS

You pay into the SantaThing system (between $15–$50), and pick your favorite bookseller. We match you with a LibraryThing member, and you play Santa by selecting books for them. Another Santa does the same for you, in secret. LibraryThing does the ordering, and you get the joy of giving AND receiving books!

Even if you don’t want to be a Santa, you can help by suggesting books for others. Click on an existing SantaThing profile to leave a suggestion.

Every year, LibraryThing members give generously to each other through SantaThing. If you’d like to donate an entry, or want to participate, but it’s just not in the budget this year, be sure to check out our Donations Thread, run once again by our fantastic volunteer member, mellymel1713278.

IMPORTANT DATES

Sign-ups close WEDNESDAY, November 28th at 12pm EST. By Wednesday evening, we’ll notify you via profile comment who your Santee is, and you can start picking books.

You’ll then have a week to pick your books, until THURSDAY, December 6th at 12pm EST. As soon as the picking ends, the ordering begins, and we’ll get all the books out to you as soon as we can.

» Go sign up to become a Secret Santa now!

WHAT’S NEW THIS YEAR?

Every year we tweak SantaThing a little. This year, we’re thrilled to be partnering with Print as our official local SantaThing store once again. Print is a great indie bookstore located in Portland, ME (not far from LibraryThing HQ!). Other new additions: Amazon.de has expanded their free shipping options, which is good news for all. Sadly, Audible still doesn’t allow for the gifting of individual audiobooks. I know that was a big disappointment last year. If you’d like audiobooks, be sure to say so in your SantaThing profile, and your Secret Santa can select CD copies of those from your store of choice.

Just like last year, the Kindle option is available to all members, regardless of location. So long as your Kindle is registered on Amazon.com (not .co.uk, .ca, etc.), you can elect to receive your SantaThing gifts as Kindle ebooks. See more information about Kindle and SantaThing here.

SHIPPING

Go sign up now!

QUESTIONS? COMMENTS?

This is our TWELFTH year of SantaThing. See the SantaThing Help page further details and FAQ.

Feel free to ask your questions over on this Talk topic, or you can contact Loranne directly at loranne@librarything.com.

Happy SantaThinging!

Labels: events, fun, holiday, santathing

Monday, July 30th, 2018

LibraryThing Movie Night: Jurassic Park

Break out the popcorn—it’s time for another LibraryThing Movie Night!

So far, we’ve screened Never Let Me Go and Stardust, the latter to go along with our group read of the Neil Gaiman novel. But if the box office has taught us anything, it’s that there’s no time like the summer time for a good ol’ action/thriller flick.

Join us Wednesday, Aug. 8th at 9pm EDT to watch the 1993 film adaptation of Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park.

Details

Synchronize your watches for Wednesday, Aug. 8th, at 9pm EDT (US). That’s when we’ll start the show. Jurassic Park is available to stream on Netflix in the US (along with other countries), or you can rent it on Amazon, Google, or iTunes, among other platforms.

You can see the trailer for the movie on YouTube.

Talk about it

Talking during the movie is highly encouraged! Join the discussion on the Talk thread during or after the movie.

We ask that you keep discussion spoiler-free until we’re all watching together. Yes, this one’s been out for a while, but if you’ve read the book or seen the movie already, don’t ruin any surprises!

Questions, comments, or suggestions for other movies you’d like to watch with LTers? Post ’em on Talk.

Labels: events, fun, movie event, movies

Thursday, May 31st, 2018

Group Read/Movie Night June 2018

Last week, we asked you to vote on a slate of four candidates for our next One LibraryThing, One Book read, along with an accompanying film adaptation, which will be our next LT Movie Night. Thanks to all of you who voted!

Our Winner

With 164 members in favor, Neil Gaiman’s Stardust made the final cut (with Atonement and The Price of Salt coming in close together. Meanwhile, Into the Wild got more votes against than for!

Originally published in 1998, Stardust will be our first fantasy book we’ve taken on for OLOB. The story follows an young man on a quest to bring back a star to win the (romantic) favor of a particular young woman. Of course, it turns out the star has other ideas, which lend themselves to quite an adventure.

The book also has a graphic novel version, featuring art by Charles Vess. Folks reading along are welcome to choose which edition they’d prefer to read.

The film of the same name was released in 2007, and is available to stream on Netflix in the US. Both the book and film should be readily available at most local libraries, too!

Details

If you haven’t joined us for One LibraryThing, One Book before, I encourage you to stop by the introductory blog post to catch up on the basics.

Official discussion for the book will begin Monday, June 25th, at 12pm EDT. But that doesn’t mean it’s too early to get started! If you’d like to get a jump on talking to your fellow readers, “Introduce Yourself” thread. Have you read Stardust before, or want to get discussion going while it’s still in progress? Share your (spoiler-free) thoughts in the “First Impressions” thread.

Movie Night

We’ll post reminders as the date draws near, but our 2nd-ever LibraryThing Movie Night will take place Friday, June 29th, at 9pm EDT. By that point, book discussion will be well underway, and this will add more to it!

We hope that everyone who voted (particularly those whose top pick won!) will join us for the read! General questions or comments about One LibraryThing, One Book, are, as always, welcome here. Stay tuned to the One LibraryThing, One Book group for updates!

Labels: fun, movie event, One LibraryThing One Book

Wednesday, May 23rd, 2018

Vote for June’s group read & movie night

This June, we’re gearing up for a double feature: we’re back for another round of the site-wide group read, One LibraryThing, One Book (OLOB) plus, we’re combining this with the next LibraryThing Movie Night—we’ll be reading a book together, as well as watching the film adaptation. And we need your help picking which book/movie combo to discuss!

LT Staff got together and came up with a slate of four books and film adaptations—we think we’ve got a group with a little something for everyone. On to the nominees:

The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith / Carol (2015)
Atonement by Ian McEwan / Atonement (2008)
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer / Into the Wild (2007)

Stardust by Neil Gaiman / Stardust (2007)

Vote!

Voting will remain open for one week—from now until Thurs., May 31st, at 12:00pm EDT.

» Go vote for your favorites now!

We’re using LibraryThing’s own poll system this time. This allows members to vote “yes,” “no,” or “undecided” on each book/movie pair, so you can express both your likes and your dislikes. We’ve assigned point values to each response, and the book/movie with the most points at the end of voting will be our selections.

Then what?

We’ll announce the winner as soon as voting ends on May 31st. We want to give everyone ample time to acquire and read the book, so discussion will start on Monday, June 25th. LT Movie night for the accompanying film will be later that same week, on Friday, June 29th.

If you’re unfamiliar with One LibraryThing, One Book, or want to see what we’ve read in the past, check out our OLOB blog archive. You can also see our last LT Movie Night selection here.

Questions? Comments? Feel free to post them on Talk, or drop me a line at loranne@librarything.com.

Labels: fun, movie event, One LibraryThing One Book

Archive for the ‘fun’ Category

Monday, November 7th, 2022

What is SantaThing?

How it Works

Important Dates

Supporting Indie Bookstores

Shipping

Questions? Comments?

Monday, November 8th, 2021

What is SantaThing?

How it Works

Important Dates

Supporting Indie Bookstores

Shipping

Questions? Comments?

Wednesday, December 4th, 2019

Thursday, December 13th, 2018

Friday, November 30th, 2018

Monday, November 19th, 2018

Wednesday, November 14th, 2018

HOW IT WORKS

IMPORTANT DATES

WHAT’S NEW THIS YEAR?

SHIPPING

QUESTIONS? COMMENTS?

Monday, July 30th, 2018

Details

More

Thursday, May 31st, 2018

Our Winner

Details

Movie Night

Wednesday, May 23rd, 2018

Vote!

Then what?

More

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