Posts tagged giveaway

We just wrapped up a round of bookfaces, quotes, thoughts, and reviews on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby at Read Hard!, and now we’re moving on to another classic. This time we’re taking a stab at a modern one made into a celebrated film by none other than Stanley Kubrick. It’s not Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey nor is it Stephen King’s The Shining. It’s Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange, which beat out Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and Lois Lowry’s The Giver as Read Hard! members’ choice of dystopian novel to be pulled off the shelves for our little online discussion. This puts the number of my currently-reading books to a formidable five: Personal Days by Ed Park. Take a look at the Amazon page of Joshua Ferris’s Then We Came to the End and you’ll see this as one of the books that most people who bought Ferris’s wonderful novel also bought. I can see why. It’s funny, it’s smart, and it’s about people like me. The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan. I’ve been reading this for so long that the phrase, “currently reading,” may not be applicable anymore. It’s basically Percy Jackson minus Percy Jackson plus a lot of weird Egyptians. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Today is the 19th of July, so I’ll be re-reading Chapter 19 tonight. The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White. The only book I’m always currently reading. Besides The Catcher in the Rye, of course. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. I’ve had my minimalist copy for months. I accidentally purchased it at 80% off during a big sale in a big bookstore late last year. It wasn’t supposed to be discounted, but I bought it together with armloads of books on bargain and the poor cashier mistook it for one of them. Lucky me, I guess. And speaking of so-unbelievably-priced-off-they’re-as-good-as-free books, here’s round two of my Powerbooks Power Sale book loot bullet points: The Clothes They Stood Up In by Alan Bennett. Yes, this is indeed one half of the two-books-in-one The Clothes They Stood Up In and The Lady in the Van that I bought during round one. Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger. Well, duh. Prelude by Katherine Mansfield. Virgina Woolf on Mansfield: “I was jealous of her writing—the only writing I have been jealous of.” Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. I’m inclined to buy physical copies of novels which are readily available in the public domain only if I like their covers. Bite me. Clark Gifford’s Body by Kenneth Fearing. My first ever New York Review Books Classics novel. Morte D’Urban by J.F. Powers. My second New York Review Books Classics novel. The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder. Don has promised to give me his copy, the same edition as this one, and I’ve also found a smaller, older edition a couple of weeks before, but I still ended up buying this. Sue me. Love-Lies-Bleeding by Don DeLillo. I am not a huge fan of Mr. DeLillo, remember? The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens. This novel’s cover looks Kafkaesque, but pleasingly so. And the book’s a Man Booker Prize winner. Sounds important. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster. Another TIME 100 novel, but it’s one I am almost certain I won’t read anyway on account of its daunting length and yawn-inspiring title. Attention. Deficit. Disorder. by Brad Listi. Yes. Where was I? Citizen Vince by Jess Walter. My second copy of probably the only piece of crime fiction that I greatly enjoyed. I intend to give it away. Any takers?

We just wrapped up a round of bookfaces, quotes, thoughts, and reviews on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby at Read Hard!, and now we’re moving on to another classic. This time we’re taking a stab at a modern one made into a celebrated film by none other than Stanley Kubrick. It’s not Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey nor is it Stephen King’s The Shining. It’s Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange, which beat out Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and Lois Lowry’s The Giver as Read Hard! members’ choice of dystopian novel to be pulled off the shelves for our little online discussion. This puts the number of my currently-reading books to a formidable five:

  • Personal Days by Ed Park. Take a look at the Amazon page of Joshua Ferris’s Then We Came to the End and you’ll see this as one of the books that most people who bought Ferris’s wonderful novel also bought. I can see why. It’s funny, it’s smart, and it’s about people like me.
  • The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan. I’ve been reading this for so long that the phrase, “currently reading,” may not be applicable anymore. It’s basically Percy Jackson minus Percy Jackson plus a lot of weird Egyptians.
  • To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Today is the 19th of July, so I’ll be re-reading Chapter 19 tonight.
  • The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White. The only book I’m always currently reading. Besides The Catcher in the Rye, of course.
  • A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. I’ve had my minimalist copy for months. I accidentally purchased it at 80% off during a big sale in a big bookstore late last year. It wasn’t supposed to be discounted, but I bought it together with armloads of books on bargain and the poor cashier mistook it for one of them. Lucky me, I guess.

And speaking of so-unbelievably-priced-off-they’re-as-good-as-free books, here’s round two of my Powerbooks Power Sale book loot bullet points:

  • The Clothes They Stood Up In by Alan Bennett. Yes, this is indeed one half of the two-books-in-one The Clothes They Stood Up In and The Lady in the Van that I bought during round one.
  • Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger. Well, duh.
  • Prelude by Katherine Mansfield. Virgina Woolf on Mansfield: “I was jealous of her writing—the only writing I have been jealous of.”
  • Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. I’m inclined to buy physical copies of novels which are readily available in the public domain only if I like their covers. Bite me.
  • Clark Gifford’s Body by Kenneth Fearing. My first ever New York Review Books Classics novel.
  • Morte D’Urban by J.F. Powers. My second New York Review Books Classics novel.
  • The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder. Don has promised to give me his copy, the same edition as this one, and I’ve also found a smaller, older edition a couple of weeks before, but I still ended up buying this. Sue me.
  • Love-Lies-Bleeding by Don DeLillo. I am not a huge fan of Mr. DeLillo, remember?
  • The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens. This novel’s cover looks Kafkaesque, but pleasingly so. And the book’s a Man Booker Prize winner. Sounds important.
  • A Passage to India by E.M. Forster. Another TIME 100 novel, but it’s one I am almost certain I won’t read anyway on account of its daunting length and yawn-inspiring title.
  • Attention. Deficit. Disorder. by Brad Listi. Yes. Where was I?
  • Citizen Vince by Jess Walter. My second copy of probably the only piece of crime fiction that I greatly enjoyed. I intend to give it away. Any takers?

readhard

Good afternoon, Agent 00000. The image you are looking at is a screenshot of the result of the list randomization performed within the last ten minutes to determine the winner of a recent competition giving out a copy of The Bourne Trilogy by renowned conspiracy theorist and couples counselor Robert Ludlum. The operation was a mild success, with your name, Agent 00000 aka Thunderbed, coming out on top of the resultant list, a spot arbitrarily chosen to be the position of the winning entry. Your mission, Thunderbed, should you choose to accept it is to inform me of your coordinates by leaving a message here. The package will be delivered to your specified address within the next 168 hours. Unfortunately, this post will not self-destruct in five seconds. It will instead link to this clip from the acclaimed 2008 spy-fi film, Get Smart, a clip showing a scene which may or may not be an accurate depiction of your reaction upon reading this slightly congratulatory message.

Good afternoon, Agent 00000. The image you are looking at is a screenshot of the result of the list randomization performed within the last ten minutes to determine the winner of a recent competition giving out a copy of The Bourne Trilogy by renowned conspiracy theorist and couples counselor Robert Ludlum. The operation was a mild success, with your name, Agent 00000 aka Thunderbed, coming out on top of the resultant list, a spot arbitrarily chosen to be the position of the winning entry. Your mission, Thunderbed, should you choose to accept it is to inform me of your coordinates by leaving a message here. The package will be delivered to your specified address within the next 168 hours.

Unfortunately, this post will not self-destruct in five seconds. It will instead link to this clip from the acclaimed 2008 spy-fi film, Get Smart, a clip showing a scene which may or may not be an accurate depiction of your reaction upon reading this slightly congratulatory message.

It’s been ages (four weeks, to be precise) since my last book giveaway, and I’m feeling particularly generous right now on account of a certain kind soul who has just promised me (well, I kind of talked her into it) a copy of Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth as an early birthday gift, so I thought it’s time I give away another book to my dear followers and readers (yes, all eighteen of you). For the last couple of giveaways that I had, I decided to share my extra copies of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Ilustrado with the winners. This time I’m putting an impossibly heavy copy of Robert Ludlum’s Bourne Trilogy up for grabs, even though it’s the only copy I have. I got this for free from the good folks over at Fully Booked almost three years ago. A collection of all three original Bourne novels (The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum), this costs quite a fortune, but I’m afraid that with my disinclination towards spy fiction and my evergrowing pile of to-be-read non-spy fiction books I’ll never get around to reading it. Also, given its massive weight, it’s a pain to carry every time I move house. I’m letting go of this book, not without rue, in the hope that whoever wins it will actually read it and devour all 1400 purportedly thrilling pages of it. If you think you have the fortitude to do so, or if you like the Bourne film trilogy starring Matt Damon and want to read the books they’re based on, or if you just fancy owning a two-inch thick doorstop, your mission is to head on over to this Secret Agent Name Generator site then come back here and reply, reblog, or leave a comment with your smashing secret agent name. All secret agent name entries will be randomized via Random.org at the end of the month to determine the winner, and the book will be shipped to the winner’s secret headquarters (Philippine addresses only, please) within the first week of next month. End of transmission. P.S. The name’s White, Cole White.

It’s been ages (four weeks, to be precise) since my last book giveaway, and I’m feeling particularly generous right now on account of a certain kind soul who has just promised me (well, I kind of talked her into it) a copy of Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth as an early birthday gift, so I thought it’s time I give away another book to my dear followers and readers (yes, all eighteen of you).

For the last couple of giveaways that I had, I decided to share my extra copies of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Ilustrado with the winners. This time I’m putting an impossibly heavy copy of Robert Ludlum’s Bourne Trilogy up for grabs, even though it’s the only copy I have. I got this for free from the good folks over at Fully Booked almost three years ago. A collection of all three original Bourne novels (The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum), this costs quite a fortune, but I’m afraid that with my disinclination towards spy fiction and my evergrowing pile of to-be-read non-spy fiction books I’ll never get around to reading it. Also, given its massive weight, it’s a pain to carry every time I move house.

I’m letting go of this book, not without rue, in the hope that whoever wins it will actually read it and devour all 1400 purportedly thrilling pages of it. If you think you have the fortitude to do so, or if you like the Bourne film trilogy starring Matt Damon and want to read the books they’re based on, or if you just fancy owning a two-inch thick doorstop, your mission is to head on over to this Secret Agent Name Generator site then come back here and reply, reblog, or leave a comment with your smashing secret agent name. All secret agent name entries will be randomized via Random.org at the end of the month to determine the winner, and the book will be shipped to the winner’s secret headquarters (Philippine addresses only, please) within the first week of next month. End of transmission.

P.S. The name’s White, Cole White.

When the author’s life of literature and exile reached its unscheduled terminus that anonymous February morning, he was close to completing the controversial book we’d all been waiting for.

Miguel Syjuco, from the prologue of Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco

So it goes. The book I suppose you’d all been waiting for. I copied all the notes from the Ilustrado giveaway post, pasted them on the entries box over at the lists section of Random.org, removed the ones from those who are living abroad (save for the one from someone who wants to give the prize to one of her siblings here in the country) and the one from someone who said, “Not joining the draw, but I had to ‘like’ it since the covers are so pretty,” but retained the ones from those who I know already have their own copies on account of my trusting they’ll have the charity to give the prize to one of their friends if ever one of them wins, and clicked on the Randomize button.

And the winner of my extra copy of Miguel Syjuco’s Ilustrado is whoever’s at No. 1 in the image below.

Congratulations to the winner and thanks to all who joined. :]

Miguel Syjuco’s Ilustrado is all the rage lately. So are giveaways! After buying The Dark Knight Returns, I thought I’d stay in the store for a little while longer last night and browse the non-graphic novel shelves. As a habitué of the store, I had practically memorized what books are in a particular aisle and can quickly spot the new arrivals therein—save for the shelves in the large-format section, which is home to books whose size and price more often than not keep me at bay. But for some reason I found myself taking a look at the books in said section last night and was surprised to see a copy of the Picador edition of Ilustrado (pictured right). The brilliant cover by Jon Gray, who also designed the cover of the smaller, cheaper, and more common Farrar, Straus and Giroux edition (left), a copy of which I had purchased several weeks back, caught me off guard. As much a collector of book covers as a collector of books, I bought it right there and then. Now, I have two copies of the novel, and I’m giving one of them (the smaller and cheaper one) away. Similar to the tiny set of rules I specified for my first book giveaway half a year ago, all you have to do to win is to like, reblog, or reply to this post. Also, lest I risk ponying up a ridiculous amount of money for international shipping, you need to be a resident of the Republic of the Philippines to qualify. The winner will be determined via random draw on May 30, 2010. So what are you waiting for? Hit that heart button or buzz in with your thoughts and be one step closer to being enlightened. But wait! There’s more! If you want to earn an additionally entry for the draw, just photo reply to this post with your favorite book cover design. I expect to see more works by Jon Gray and maybe a little bit of Milan Bozic, Peter Mendelsuhn, David Pearson, and Chip Kidd, but I bet I’ll be delighted at your choices all the same. Ilustrado, by the way, is Syjuco’s debut novel. He won the Man Asian Literary Prize and the Palanca Award in 2008 for the manuscript of Ilustrado. Syjuco was born in the Philippines and currently lives in Montreal. He is therefore ineligible to join this giveaway.

Miguel Syjuco’s Ilustrado is all the rage lately. So are giveaways!

After buying The Dark Knight Returns, I thought I’d stay in the store for a little while longer last night and browse the non-graphic novel shelves. As a habitué of the store, I had practically memorized what books are in a particular aisle and can quickly spot the new arrivals therein—save for the shelves in the large-format section, which is home to books whose size and price more often than not keep me at bay. But for some reason I found myself taking a look at the books in said section last night and was surprised to see a copy of the Picador edition of Ilustrado (pictured right). The brilliant cover by Jon Gray, who also designed the cover of the smaller, cheaper, and more common Farrar, Straus and Giroux edition (left), a copy of which I had purchased several weeks back, caught me off guard. As much a collector of book covers as a collector of books, I bought it right there and then.

Now, I have two copies of the novel, and I’m giving one of them (the smaller and cheaper one) away. Similar to the tiny set of rules I specified for my first book giveaway half a year ago, all you have to do to win is to like, reblog, or reply to this post. Also, lest I risk ponying up a ridiculous amount of money for international shipping, you need to be a resident of the Republic of the Philippines to qualify. The winner will be determined via random draw on May 30, 2010.

So what are you waiting for? Hit that heart button or buzz in with your thoughts and be one step closer to being enlightened.

But wait! There’s more! If you want to earn an additionally entry for the draw, just photo reply to this post with your favorite book cover design. I expect to see more works by Jon Gray and maybe a little bit of Milan Bozic, Peter Mendelsuhn, David Pearson, and Chip Kidd, but I bet I’ll be delighted at your choices all the same.

Ilustrado, by the way, is Syjuco’s debut novel. He won the Man Asian Literary Prize and the Palanca Award in 2008 for the manuscript of Ilustrado. Syjuco was born in the Philippines and currently lives in Montreal. He is therefore ineligible to join this giveaway.