#readchabon, all along TELEGRAPH AVENUE

Photograph of author Michael Chabon at a book signing at WonderCon in 2006. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When I receive galleys that aren't associated with a set review date, I have a bad habit of letting them languish well past their publication dates, no matter how excited I was to get them in hand in the first place. I was pretty darn excited about getting a galley of Michael Chabon's September 2012 novel Telegraph Avenue when he spoke at one of the BEA Book and Author Breakfasts last spring...but I was getting it without a set review obligation. Pub date came and went. 2013 came, and 2012 went. And I still hadn't opened that galley.

Telegraph's time has come, along with something better than a fixed review obligation--friends who will read and discuss the book at the same time! Kim was there when I got that galley, and since neither of us has managed to read it yet, she proposed a buddy read earlier this year. Lu is planning to join us, too. How about you? Want to read along?

Here's the publisher's description of the novel:

As the summer of 2004 draws to a close, Archy Stallings and Nat Jaffe are still hanging in there—longtime friends, bandmates, and co-regents of Brokeland Records, a kingdom of used vinyl located in the borderlands of Berkeley and Oakland. Their wives, Gwen Shanks and Aviva Roth-Jaffe, are the Berkeley Birth Partners, two semi-legendary midwives who have welcomed more than a thousand newly minted citizens into the dented utopia at whose heart—half tavern, half temple—stands Brokeland. 

When ex–NFL quarterback Gibson Goode, the fifth-richest black man in America, announces plans to build his latest Dogpile megastore on a nearby stretch of Telegraph Avenue, Nat and Archy fear it means certain doom for their vulnerable little enterprise. Meanwhile, Aviva and Gwen also find themselves caught up in a battle for their professional existence, one that tests the limits of their friendship. Adding another layer of complication to the couples' already tangled lives is the surprise appearance of Titus Joyner, the teenage son Archy has never acknowledged and the love of fifteen-year-old Julius Jaffe's life. 

Telegraph Avenue is an intimate epic, a NorCal Middlemarch set to the funky beat of classic vinyl soul-jazz and pulsing with a virtuosic, pyrotechnical style all its own.

And here's our reading schedule, with the dates for check-in posts and discussions (which will be posted here at The 3 R's Blog):

• April 15: Section I (through page 124)
• April 22: Sections I and III (through page 250)
• April 29: Section IV (through page 381)
• May 7: Section V (through page 465)

We'll also be talking about the novel on Twitter as the mood strikes, using the hashtag #readchabon. Read Telegraph Avenue with us, and join the conversation!

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Status Report: Book Blogger Buddy System Matchmaking in Progress!

Sign-ups for the initial round of Book Blogger Buddy System matchmaking closed on October 12, and there was a terrific response--almost 50 people are willing to take the plunge! That may not sound huge, but considering that I'm doing all the matching by myself, it's a nice number--big enough to be gratified by the level of interest, but still at a level where just one person can manage it!

That said, I had no time to manage it for the first week after sign-ups closed! I'm at work on it now, though. Here's a little status report, with my apologies for the delay.

To me, the most interesting thing about the book bloggers who've signed up so far is that over half classified themselves as "elders" who have been blogging for at least four years, and almost half of that group expressed a preference for a buddy with a similar level of experience. Maybe I shouldn't be so surprised by that, though, because I'm pretty much in the same place--still liking it enough to want to keep going, but wanting to build up the sense of connection that keeps it worth doing. It will present a few interesting challenges, though...not the least of which is that I know of some of the existing blogger friendships among this particular subgroup, and I'll have to balance that with trying to make new connections between them.

The #BBBSys Connection Form asked participants about their matching preferences in three areas: level of blogging experience, book interests/blogging content, and tech/blogging platform used. Although I will make my best effort to sync up all three preferences, my plan is to apply those preferences in that order. If all goes well, I'll hit more marks than I miss--wish me luck!

It's my goal to have e-mails out to all participants by the end of October, giving them the names, e-mail addresses, and blogs of their new buddies (and that includes one poor unfortunate who'll end up being matched with me!). Once those go out, I'll ask participants to do these things:

• Contact your buddy via e-mail within 3-5 days to make introductions and start a discussion about what each of you want from this (chances are that it'll fall through the cracks if it's not done fairly soon). 
• Start reading one another's blogs, if you don't already, and follow each other on social media.
• Please remember that you've been asked to maintain this buddy match-up for six months.

There really aren't any other "rules" for this. Once the match-ups are made, I'll be stepping out of the equation (except with my own Buddy, of course), and each set of Buddies will determine for themselves how they want the arrangement to work.

If you signed up for the Book Blogger Buddy System, please watch your inbox during the next week for your match information! And if you missed the initial round, the plan is to open it up again next spring, so watch for that announcement in April...unless this whole thing goes down in flames, of course! (Fingers crossed that it won't.)

Thanks to The Estella Society for supporting this project!

Participants are under no obligation to blog about their membership or experiences in the Book Blogger Buddy System, but if you choose to do so, please feel free to use this photo emblem in your posts and/or add it to your blog's sidebar!

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Once More, With Changes: Please UPDATE YOUR FEED SUBSCRIPTION (now powered by FeedBlitz)!

UPDATED INFO AS OF OCTOBER 1, 2012

If you changed your feed-reader subscription to The 3 R's Blog to Feedcat per my post last week, it will no longer work after today, because it really wasn't working anyway. If you didn't resubscribe then, please do it now! Based on good reports from other users, I've joined the exodus to Feedblitz. Sorry to have to ask you to do this crazy thing one more time, but if I've made the right call this time, I hope I won't ask you again!

Odds are that you've seen a few blogs post during the last week or so asking you to resubscribe to a blog's feed due to the eminent departure of Feedburner. This is one more. I apologize for having to ask this of you, but it should be quick and mostly painless!

Google, which own Feedburner, is apparently on the verge of shutting down the service, although they  stillhaven't officially informed users of it. It appears that Feedburner feeds still work for now, but word on the street puts their end date at October 20. (Is it all part of their super-secret sneaky plan to lure everyone to Google+?)

The blog feed is now set up through Feedblitz. If you prefer to read posts from The 3 R's Blog in your favorite feed reader, please click through to www.3rsblog.com and click the little blue button in the sidebar--left side, right near the top, you can't miss it!--to get your Feedblitz subscription options:

• Regular RSS in your feed reader of choice
• E-mail
• Mobile RSS (optimized for smartphone/tablet reading)

New posts will no longer be sent to the Feedburner feed, so please update your subscription as soon as possible!

Chances are that the Feedburner feeds will just stop on their own, it's probably not necessary to unsubscribe from those, but I'd suggest you go ahead and add the new feeds as soon as possible--not just for this blog, but for everyone else who's asked you to do so!

Other ways you can keep up with the blog:

Follow my Twitter feed

"Like" The 3 R's Blog on Facebook

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Funny Business: The Shirley-You-Jest Book Awards!

Something funny is going on--the Shirley You Jest! Book Awards are coming! And yes, that name was inspired by just the exchange that you think it was:

AIRPLANE!  (1980)
Rumack: Can you fly this plane, and land it?
Ted Striker: Surely you can't be serious.
Rumack: I am serious... and don't call me Shirley.

The SYJ! Awards will honor books that “bring the funny.” Between June 1 and August 1, authors are invited to submit their works of comedy and humorous fiction and nonfiction for consideration by a panel of independent judges. Four finalists in each category (fiction and nonfiction) will be selected by the end of August, and the four winners (first and second place, fiction and nonfiction) will be announced on November 1, National Authors’ Day. More information about eligibility, submissions, the judging process, and the prizes is in “The Contest” section of the SYJ! website. Please check it out, and feel free to encourage your favorite funny writers to submit to judgment!

They may be submitting to my judgment, actually. I’m excited to share that I’m one of the first-round judges for Nonfiction, and I’m looking forward to some fun and funny reading coming my way this summer...hich I will do my best to review in an appropriately amusing manner.

The Shirley You Jest! Book Awards are presented by Liz D Publicity and Promotions, and I appreciate being invited to participate in them.

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Sunday Salon: A sneak peek at Armchair BEA 2012!

(Updated to correct a major grammar error in the post title, which will unfortunately live on in the permalink--color my face red, y'all!)

When we started Armchair BEA in 2010, we had such a great time with it that all of us on the organizing team vowed that even if we had the opportunity to go to the real BEA, we'd still want to Armchair. This year, four of us--Danielle, Emily, Pam, and I--will be in New York City during that first week of June, but that doesn't mean we're any less committed to making Armchair BEA the best it's ever been! Meanwhile, Chris, Michelle, and Tif will be keeping everything rolling along from their respective armchairs computers throughout the week--those Twitter parties don't host themselves, you know!

Speaking of Twitter parties: there will be three of them this year, on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday! Details will be announced next week...and sign-ups for this year's event open tomorrow at Armchair BEA Central, so make sure you're there! Besides the Twitter parties, there will be themes to fuel your blogging every day of the week, with link-ups to make it easy to visit other Armchair-ers; guest posts; on-site updates from our team members in NYC; giveaways; and more. Here's a quick peek at the plans, which are posted in advance so you can prep and schedule your posts. That'll give you more time to visit other players during the big event!

Monday, June 4: Introductions First!
The interview swaps have been one of most popular features of Armchair BEA, but there's just not enough time to visit all the participants. This year we're changing it up with self-interviews; we'll ask you to post your answers to five questions we'll be providing, and then to visit as many participant blogs as you can.

Tuesday, June 5: "Best of" Giveaways Everywhere!
Tuesday is Armchair BEA's big Giveaway Day! If you're hosting a giveaway for Armchair BEA-goers on your own site, this is the day to post about it and link it up! And if you're not hosting a giveaway, share some of your favorite books so far this year, and/or the the books being promoted at BEA that you hope will end up among your favorites for the year!

Wednesday, June 6: Networking...In Real Life?!
On Wednesday, Armchair BEA-goers will be invited to share a positive "real life" experience with books and other people who love them: your own partnership with a bookstore or library in your community, a book signing you went to, or a get-together with fellow book bloggers. Armchair BEA Central will host guest posts from our team members Emily of Emily's Reading Room, Tif from Tif Talks Books and Pam from Bookalicious about how they've worked with their local bookish communities.

Thursday, June 7: Beyond the Blog
Blogging's not an end in itself for some folks.Thursday's topic is "getting beyond your blog" --writing for other sites, making your blog pay, and making online connections outside the book-blog community. I'll be the day's guest blogger at Armchair BEA Central, talking about freelance writing (you know, that thing that's caused me not to post here so frequently...).
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Friday, June 8: The Future of Book Blogging
On the final day of Armchair BEA, we'll be sharing tips on keeping book blogging exciting and unique to your vision for your blog. The theme is "Ask the Experts"--post your burning questions and/or best advice for your fellow book bloggers, link up, and visit other Armchairers! Armchair BEA Central will feature a guest post from Pam at Bookalicious with her views on the future of blogging.

Will you be joining us for Armchair BEA 2012? Come on, say yes! And since you're signing up, maybe you could "like" Armchair BEA on Facebook, too?

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