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(As of April 2017, I unfriended any LJ that hadn't updated since before 2016, but if you start up again, I'd be happy to re-friend you!)

A friend of mine from school has entered a radio station contest to try to get some dental work paid for. He was in a car accident awhile back that messed up his teeth, but his wife has MS and they have a young child, so his health has always come last.

It's basically a popularity contest, whoever can get the most people to vote the most often. It's open until around 10am EST on October 30th, so if you can vote multiple times, that would be awesome. The link should go directly to his entry, but in case it doesn't he's #327 (be aware, the link contains a picture of his teeth and it isn't pretty).

If he's a finalist, there's another round of voting from Nov 9-Nov 13.

>>crossposted to dreamwidth

Responses to the poll: 35
5 have read none of those books.

Top responders:
*cgbookcat1 79
*vierran45 53
*blue_ant 53
cissa 48
usa_p 34
agentclaudia 31
sassy 30
jorghes 30
*attolia 29
*tortoise 28

*Top responders in a previous year as well.

cgbookcat1 again gets the (non-existent) prize for having read an amazing number of the books I read - well over half.

Most read books:
25: The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
22: The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
19: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
18: The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
17: A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

13:
The Lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne Jones
Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde
The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde

12:
His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik
Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones

Least read books:
0:
Machine by Jennifer Pelland
Alias: Disappeared by Lynn Mason
The Fox Inheritance by Mary E. Pearson
The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson
The Last Days by Scott Westerfeld
The Mallet of Loving Correction by John Scalzi
Cat Nap by Claire Donally

I recommend all of the top-read books with the exception of A Study in Scarlet, which I found, frankly, boring. And I don’t really recommend any of the least-read books. Maybe Bloody Jack, if you’re particularly interested in YA historical fiction with a main character who crossdresses to become a ship’s boy (but if you are, I’d recommend Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld first). (it turns out someone has read it :)

The list is in the order I read them (with the duplicates removed), so there are lots of series that are not together and so on. There are:

*New reads (anything without an asterisk is a reread)
^Non-fiction (I don't read much non-fiction)
&Books I read twice this year (I try not to do this, though most this year were once in paper and once in audiobook)

( Very long poll withinCollapse )

Responses to the poll: 33

Top responders:
*cgbookcat1 67
alasen 54
*vierran45 41
*blue_ant 40
stfg 36
*otterevil 36
*nessreader 30
*lisa_bee 29
*tortoise 26
*nwhyte 22

*Top responder in a previous year, too. cgbookcat1 wins something for having read half of the books I read this year. Wow!

Most read books:
12:
Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones
So You Want To Be A Wizard by Diane Duane

11:
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley

10:
Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny
The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley
The Lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne Jones
*Witch Week by Diana Wynne Jones
Sunshine by Robin McKinley

Least read books:
0:
*No Such Thing As Dragons by Philip Reeve
*Varjak Paw by SF Said
*The Sarah Jane Adventures: The White Wolf by Gary Russell
*Changeling by Nancy Jane Moore
*The Lexical Funk: a triumph of words (the little ebook edition) by Daniel Clausen
*The Secret History of Fantasy, edited by Peter S. Beagle
*Sign of the Dove by Susan Fletcher
*Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins
*A Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn
*Spells by Aprilynne Pike
*Academy 7 by Anne Osterlund
*Charitable Getting by Sam Starbuck
^*The Great Fat Fraud by Mike Schatzki
*Not On My Patch by Diane Duane

(Frankly, I wouldn't recommend most of these anyway. Varjak Paw is cute, Not On My Patch is great, after the first 50 pages Charitable Getting is a lot of fun, and Secret History of Fantasy is a good anthology - but skip the rest.)

Stuff that is probably not interesting to anyone but me :)

Total books: 135 (last year: 144)
Total new books: 68 (last year: 62)
Total pages: 29599 (last year: 39517)
Total audio book time: 2d21h50m (last year: 65h20m)

F/SF rereads: 56 (last year: 79)
F/SF new reads: 59 (last year: 56)
Fiction rereads: 11 (last year: 11)
Fiction new reads: 6 (last year: 2)
Nonfiction new reads: 3 (last year: 3)

Doctor Who and related series books (mostly audio): 13 (last year: 24)

Average pages per day: 81 (last year: 108)
Unique books: 133 (last year: 131)
Books read twice during 2011: 2 (last year: 12)

The list is in the order I read them (with the duplicates I found removed), so there are lots of series that are not together and so on. There are:

*New reads (anything without an asterisk is a reread)
^Non-fiction (I don't read much non-fiction)
&Books I read twice this year (only a couple this year)

( Very long poll withinCollapse )

Are old jewelry/beading magazines worth anything? I don't mean can I sell them at a profit and become rich, I mean would anyone ever be interested in anything like that? I just found a stack of magazines, the one date I noticed was in 2003. Of course any pricing info and so on is way out of date, but patterns and suchlike could still be useful.

Or should I just toss them? I'm okay with tossing them if they're not of use to anyone - I'm certainly not interested in hanging onto them - but I thought I'd ask if anyone had any other suggestions first.