Friday 25 February 2011

Persephone Reading Weekend: Welcome


Welcome to the start of Persephone Reading Weekend. Claire and I are very excited to be hosting another blogging extravaganza celebrating our love of the dove-grey covered volumes published by Persephone books. This is the third time that we've run an event and hope that you will have fun joining in, whether it is your first time or third!

The format of the event is simple, in order to participate all you need to do is read a Persephone Book and tell us about it! If you have a blog, you can write a blog post, if you are on librarything, you can review it there, or you could write about it in the comments on this post or on Claire's welcome post. Claire and I will be writing round-up posts at various points over the weekend and to make it easy for us to share all of the posts, if you write a review on a blog, or on librarything, if you could put the link in the comments to either the welcome post on my blog or on Claire's blog. Please feel free to use the button above on your posts!

Nicola from Persephone Books has kindly provided us with a number of seconds to use as prizes over the weekend. There are 10 on offer - here are which ones and how to win them! This is a bit complicated, mainly because there are so many prizes, so bear with me - I thought it was best to have them all written down in one place.

1. First book giveaway: William; to kick off the giveaways, the first ever Persephone book. We will make a random draw from everyone who links to our blogs over the weekend
2 + 3. Roundabout giveaway: Two copies of Family Roundabout are up for grabs - one for people commenting on this welcome post and one for people commenting on Claire's welcome post.
4+5. Favourite post of the weekend. We will be awarding a duo of books to the person who writes our favourite post of the weekend - one of the most recent Persephones, The winds of heaven, along with There were no windows (which is apparently one of Nicola Beauman's favourites!)
6+7. Clare's temporarily missing competition: Claire's competition will be announced later today and there will be two copies of Still missing to be won.
8. Verity's photo competition. At lunchtime I'll be posting my photo quiz with a chance to win a copy of Mariana.
9. New Persephone Reader Giveaway #1. Persephone Classic edition of Miss Pettigrew lives for the day for anyone who doesn't own a Persephone book - details of how to enter coming up on Saturday morning on my blog.
10. New Persephone Reader Giveaway #2. Persephone Classic edition of Little boy lost giveaway, to be drawn from anyone who is reading their first Persephone this weekend (just mention that when you post)


*disclaimer* please note that the books we are giving away are remainder copies so may have some defects - the majority of these are un-noticeable but some are slightly grubby. But they are all in need of a loving home :) Competitions are open internationally, but we will be posting the prizes by the cheapest method available.

We'll also try to get round and visit your blogs - unfortunately I'm not going to be able to do this as much as I would like, as I have been suffering from RSI symptoms in my fingers and am having to limit my typing out of working hours at the moment. It won't stop me reading the posts, but it may stop me commenting - I'm very sorry! I always love how I discover new blogs as part of these events.

31 comments:

  1. No worries about commenting! So looking forward to the whole weekend :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am so excited too! I can't wait to visit everyone taking part.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I've borrowed a copy of They Knew Mr Knight by Dorothy Whipple (thanks Simon) and am loving it. Will blog about it by the end of weekend. Great idea -- exciting!

    ReplyDelete
  4. So sorry about your RSI. Hope it doesn't affect you holding a book.
    I've Miss Buncle quotes up today...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Don't worry about not commenting, we love you anyway for just doing this for us, gathering us together for one amazing event once again. I will be reading The Fortnight in September and will put up a post later today. How generous of Persephone to be so supportive through the giveaways. Very exciting!! Happy reading to all of us!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a bumper event! The competitions and prizes are awesome :-)
    Sorry to hear about your RSI... don't worry about not commenting as much. We all appreciate your efforts in getting such a great event together.
    Enjoy your reading!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Aw Verity I hope the symptoms calm down with a bit of rest. I use the computer a lot at work and find if I knock out the laptop at home for three days a week it limits any signals that correspond with developing RSIs. Looking forward to the weekend and seeing what everyone is reading :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. The only thing missing from my enjoyment and captivation with Persephone novels has been the lack of more people with which to share the joy. It will be so nice to check this weekend and see what others are thinking. I am on my sixteenth book....I love each and every one that I have read---only wish they were easier to get in the states.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'm really looking forward to seeing what other people are reading. Thanks for co-hosting this event!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thank you so much for hosting this event again. I do hope you get relief from your symptoms soon!

    ReplyDelete
  11. So sorry about your RSI - what unfortunate timing! But at least you can still read! Thanks so much to you and Claire for hosting this weekend, I'm really looking forward to it!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I do hope you don't need to clikc a lot, so as not to worsen your RSI. At the same time, I hope the weekend will be a big success once again :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Looking forward to this as new to persephone books.

    I have posted already and need to get on with some reading!

    ReplyDelete
  14. I've just stumbled about this event (and your blog)by accident - what a great idea! Funny, I've started reading my first ever Persephone book today without knowing about Persephone reading weekend :-) I'm reading 'Good evening Mrs. Craven'. Off to post now and then back to reading!

    ReplyDelete
  15. This is so much fun! Thank you for hosting and putting so much effort into it!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Sorry to hear about the RSI, I hope it improves. At least you can keep reading, if not commenting. I've just reviewed Still Missing on my blog,
    http://tinyurl.com/4gzsflu
    Thanks for hosting the weekend, it's a great idea.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I'm so looking forward to this weekend and to - hopefully - winning my very own Persephone! :o)

    ReplyDelete
  18. Now that I'm reading my first Persephone, I understand why the special weekend -- in addition to the great list of books available, they are gorgeous! I'm about half way through Saplings and looking forward to seeing everyone's comments and reviews. Thank you and Claire for sponsoring this event. Susan E.

    ReplyDelete
  19. This event just gets better and better! Thank you so much for hosting again. And take care of that hand! Let the rest of us do the commenting this time around. :)

    ReplyDelete
  20. What's better than a weekend, simply an ordinary weekend? A Persephone-stuffed weekend. I'm still choosing my Persephones for the event, but that's a big part of the fun, the petting and leafing and musing. Thanks for hosting, Verity! (Please don't enter me in the draws.)

    ReplyDelete
  21. It's been a great weekend so far. Thanks again for hosting! I've just published my first review of the weekend... finding it hard to read as much as I want to when there are so many good blog posts to read too!

    ReplyDelete
  22. Thanks for hosting this, Verity. I'm really enjoying the weekend so far. I've reviewed Little Boy Lost and have posted the link on Claire's welcome post.
    I'm sorry to hear about your RSI - I hope it's getting better with rest.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Oo, Family Roundabout was my first and remains my favourite Persephone, but I don't have a Persephone copy...

    ReplyDelete
  24. Hi again Verity. I have just put up a post about the aesthetics of Persephone
    http://rochester-reader.blogspot.com/2011/02/aesthetics-of-persephone-persephone.html
    Busy reading 'High Wages' and am really taken with it :-)

    ReplyDelete
  25. Thanks for co-hosting/organizing this event! I'm really enjoying reading all the posts around the blogosphere, as well as discovering new-to-me book bloggers. Needless to say, my Google Reader has been growing quite rapidly! :)

    ReplyDelete
  26. Hi Verity,

    Huge thanks to you and Claire, this weekend is such a treat. I am looking forward to working my way through all the Persephone posts over the next week. A great feast.

    ReplyDelete
  27. I forgot how much I love this week! So many great books to read. Thanks for sponsoring it!

    ReplyDelete
  28. How wonderful! I'm so grateful to y'all for pushing me to actually read my first Persephone. Here's to a future of many more great books!

    ReplyDelete
  29. Sorry to hear about the RSI, that's no fun at all.
    This weekend has just flown by and I've got just a few pages left to read in Every Eye, my second Persephone.

    I look forward to going through the posts and adding many titles to my wishlist. Thanks for co-hosting this, and past Persephone events, with Claire. It's thanks to both of you that I read my first Persephone last year!

    ReplyDelete
  30. I finished my first! It was absolutely LOVELY.

    Here is my review:
    http://aliteraryodyssey.blogspot.com/2011/02/review-mariana-by-monica-dickens.html

    ReplyDelete
  31. Oh dear--I see from your latest post that I have missed the weekend, being right around the other side of the globe from you! Here in Oregon it is only 8:30 on Sunday night, but it is the first time I have been able to get online all weekend. So I have posted a review on my blog anyway--www.littlebookroom.blogspot.com, and have more Persephone-related posts to go up soon. I'm very disappointed to miss the giveaways, since I don't own any Persephones yet (mine are all from the library), but I'll look forward to the next time. Thanks again for hosting!

    ReplyDelete

Do leave a comment - I love to hear from people who read my blog.