Dawid Piaskowski

Ways To Ask Someone to Be Your Bookish Valentine

“Is love an art? Then it requires knowledge and effort.” 
― Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving

Valentine’s Day may be the most bookish of holidays. Think about it. What other holiday encourages people memorize Byron, compare each other to a summer’s day, or sweat over the syntax of a note scrawled on a Pokemon themed card pack from CVS? (Who wouldn’t want to spend the Eevee-ning with you?)

February 14th gained its modern day romantic roots from the Father of English Literature during the High Middle Ages. Geoffrey Chaucer didn't only tell bawdy tales and write poetry about mating birds, but also encouraged a bit of courtly love that evolved into the flowers, chocolates, and little notes we're all familiar with today.

So, if the above quote is to be believed, where better to gain knowledge and bond with someone special than over a book? Stories not only help us discover ourselves, but learn a little about each other. Who hasn’t evaluated a potential love interest based on a furtive glance at their bookshelf? 

In honor of its literary roots, here are some ways to ask that special someone to be your bookish Valentine. 

Slip a note into the book they’re reading

Simple but effective. Be sly. Ask to see the book that they’re reading and use some sleight of hand to slip in a little note with check boxes for “yes,” “no,” or “maybe.” If you’re in a pinch, place the note into your own book, feign illiteracy, and ask them to read a passage you’re “struggling” with. 

If you really want to be smooth, make copies of your note and put them in all of your books. Then ask your potential Valentine to pick one, any one. It’s like a magic trick that never fails to amaze. 

Carve out an old book to hold chocolates

How dare ye desecrate a sacred tome?! All is fair in love and homemade V-day gifts.

Hollow out those pages in the name of romance and confectionery delights. Combined with the previous suggestion, your special someone can start collecting the whole romantic series.

Note on the photo: Don’t be a jerk and use a library book.

Make a dozen paper roses from pages of their favorite novel

A bit of personal handiwork never goes unappreciated on Valentine’s Day. Download a pattern from the internet, quick draw that glue gun from its holster, and get crafting. 

Again, you have my permission to desecrate a book in the name of love. Just, don’t destroy THEIR copy.

Track down their favorite author and ask them to sign a book with a special V-Day message

This one takes a bit of long-term planning and a whole lot of luck, but if it works, you have a bona-fide Valentine’s Day miracle sure to get you a peck on the cheek. Just make sure the note the author leaves doesn’t sound like THEY’RE asking out your prospective Valentine’s Day companion. Things might get a bit awkward.

Are they a fan of detective novels? Give them a series of clues to find their way to their femme/homme fatale

Just, take it easy on the red herrings. An easy riddle to lead them to the location of their secret admirer works wonder. Maybe circle words on a page to get your riddle across. Avoid the whole letters-cut-from-a-magazine approach since it might send the wrong sort of message.

K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid) so they can solve the mystery and reward you with a real smooch.

Dress like a character from their favorite romance novel cover and serenade them at their window (e.g., Fabio singing Mmmmm Bop)

For this you’re going to need:

1. A low cut shirt (this applies to both men and women)

2. High velocity fan

3. Long hair or a wig to flow in the wind created by aforementioned fan

4. Musical instrument/boombox

5. An ocean of confidence and no shame whatsoever It’s also imperative you pick the right song. If they don’t like it, you may end up like Fabio and get hit in the face with a high velocity goose.

A long coat and ghetto blaster are your last resort. Castle backdrop is optional.

With a little courage, knowledge, and effort, you’ll tumble into that romantic ravine with your Valentine whispering “As you wish.”

If they say “Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya; you killed my father; prepare to die,” no amount of paper roses and dewey decimal sorted chocolates is going to save you.

In case you missed the best books lists we're reminding some of the Top Books Lists created by BookLikes book bloggers. Let's see which book were the most popular among BookLikes' book bloggers in 2014.

Best Books of 2014! by Char's Horror Corner

First the authors that each had two books on my list:

The Cormorant and Wakening the Crow by Stephen Gregory. This was my favorite author discovery of the year and The Cormorant my favorite book.  Mr. Gregory is an author of stunning prose and originality. I will faithfully purchase whatever books he puts out for the rest of my life. (A big thank you goes out to Valancourt Books for this discovery!)... read more & see all top books

Best of 2014 by E.

Not everything on this list was published this year. Not everything on this list will be to your liking. I'm not doing a Worst Of List this year, because who needs all that negativity, really? You can click on the title of each book to read my review. If you would like a rundown of all the books... read more & see all top books

Best Books of 2014: Non-Fiction by Literary Ames

Here are my top 12 non-fiction reads of 2014, covering health, politics and feminism... read more & see all top books

My Top 14 YA Books of 2014 by KARIN'S BOOK NOOK

#1: GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE by Andrew Smith

Sixteen-year-old Austin Szerba interweaves the story of his Polish legacy with the story of how he and his best friend , Robby, brought about the end of humanity and the rise of an army of unstoppable, six-foot tall praying mantises in small-town Iowa. To make matters worse, Austin's hormones are totally oblivious; they don't care that the world is in utter chaos: Austin is in love with his girlfriend, Shann, but remains confused about his sexual orientation... read more & see all top books

Best Paranormal Romance Reads 2014 by Cat's Books: Romance

I adore Paranormal, Science Fiction and Fantasy Romance. I adore it so much I feel like a a plate spinner at a middle school talent show just trying to keep up with all my series and the new good stuff. I know I missed a lot of great reads from new to me authors and ones for which I have long standing love. I hope to catch up next year. Here are my best Paranormal Romance Reads of 2014... read more & see all top books

5 Star Reads of 2014 by Jessica (HDB)

In the world of Jessica, five star ratings are not given lightly. I'm lucky if I find one or two books a month that really blow me away, and make my "I'm going to shout love for this to the ends of the Earth" list. This year I devoured 200 books and, of those, only 29 made the cut. Out of those, I've chosen a few to highlight. Let's take a look, shall we?... read more & see all top books

Some Of My Favorites From 2014 by Bookfanatic

I stopped at 10 and I tried to stay away from series because well that would have created a whole other problem as in a really, really long list. I read a lot of books in 2014 that I really, really loved. I started out thinking that I could make myself pick just one and in my mind one quickly became 5 and 2 books into this list 5 became 10. So this is where I make myself stop... read more & see all top books

Favorite Reads of 2014 Part I: Interesting Facts and My Top Ten by The Reading Perusals of Rose Summers

So, in total for this year, I've read 168 books (maybe slightly more because there were some I didn't mark, but I know it was less than 200), which is way, way less than my total from 2012 (which was 365 books), and far less than the goal I set for myself this year (450)... read more & see all top books

Best Book Covers and Book Titles in 2014 by HFK

You should never judge a book by its cover, but it happens. This year I bought lots of books with beautiful covers, but unfortunately only read few with covers that I would label as doable... read more & see all top books

Books I Read and REALLY Liked in 2014 by Batgrl: Bookish Hooha

I've been enjoying everyone's end of year summings up (in various fun forms) and thinking on making one of my own - and I couldn't quite come up with a way to rank anything. Which is I suppose what happens when you end up reading a variety of random things. Anyway, there's no order to this - except I have a particular fondness for the first book mentioned. History wins out this year, which isn't always the case... read more & see all top books

My Top Books of 2014 by hippieed perceptions

As I was going through my read book list, I realized that this year kind of sucked for reading for me.  The few that I loved, I really really loved though, so I guess that is something.  I did kind of cheat because I added Geek Love even though I'm not quite done.  When you know, you know though... read more & see all top book

My Top Books of 2014 by YA FANATIC

As I near my 200 book goal I want to share with you my top books of this past year. I've read many not so great books but have also found some new favorites. I also started listening to audiobooks, several of my favorites are because I listened to them. These are in no particular order (except maybe the first one). Enjoy... read more & see all top books

Books Read in 2014 by Ani's Book Abyss

As it stands, it isn't easy to narrow 150 books down to a Top Ten list.  And so I chose to re-format my list just a little bit.  I also needed to account for the fact that I like Young Adult novels differently than I like Adult and non-YA novels--Yes, there is a difference in how I perceive a book dependent on target audience. Without further ado, and in no particular order... read more & see all top books

Top 14 Reads of 2014 by Book Sand Worm 

Keep in mind that by “favorite”, I mean this list is very subjective. In looking back, these are the ones that I enjoyed the most even though I read a lot of very good books this year... read more & see all favorite books

Top Ten Reads of 2014 by Unabridged Chick

I read about 50 books for 2014, which is a huge drop from my typical year (almost by half!). Pregnancy, and the resulting baby, are to blame, and while I'm a little disappointed, the aforementioned baby -- our Little Reader -- is so frickin' cute, I kind of can't care. I still walked away with some stellar reads for 2014, and once again, had a challenging time identifying the top ten of this year.  In the end, I picked the books I still talk about obsessively, that I purchased (for myself and/or others), and that I want to reread or force others to read... read more & see all top books

Best of 2014 - Part 1 - The Reliables & Part 2 - The Overachievers by Tina's Reading Books

Part 1: My 2014 reading year was much better than my 2013 reading year.  Not in volume, because I read about the same number of books.  But In quality. In 2013 I  had a massive reading slump and was down 75% in my total reading for the year as compared to 2012.  Nothing seemed to work for me past a few strong installments in long running series and  couple of new-to-authors that came out strong. In contrast, 2014 started out strong... read more & see all top books

Part 2: So as I look over my reads this year and compare them to the physical books I've amassed over the last 30-ish years on my shelves, I am struck by the difference in page lengths. Which in a round-about way brings me to this segment of my Best of 2014.The Overachievers are the two authors whose works this year was so good that I had to include two of their books in my top ten.  A rarity for me... read more & see all top books

You may also want to have a look at: 

•  The Highlights, The Favourites and The Flops of 2014 by Scarlet's Web
• Favorite Reads of 2014 - TOP 10 by MAY'S BOOKS
• Rose's Favorite Reads of 2014 - Part II: Superlatives by The Reading Perusals of Rose Summers
• 5 Best Mystery Books Of 2014 by New Books and More
• Best of 2014 - Part 3 - The Newcomers by Tina's Reading Books
• Best of 2014 - Part 4 - The Honorables by Tina's Reading Books
• Worst Reads in 2014 by HFK
• Nonfiction I Liked in 2014 by carriemesrobian
• 89 Books for 2014 by LOVE ME SOME BOOKS
• BEST OF 2014 by IT'S A MAD MAD WORLD
• Top 14 of 2014 by Too Fond Of Books
• Best reads of 2014 by Lora's Rants and Reviews
• A Selection of Recommended Books of 2014 by Reading Rainstorm
• Top Sellers from 2005 to 2014 by VALANCOURT BOOKS
• A round up of my reading year, my 2014 5* Reads and what's on for 2015 by Kitty Horror
• Best Books of 2014 by Wit and Sin
• Best things I've read and watched in 2014 by Familiar Diversions
• Worst things I've read and watched in 2014 by Familiar Diversions
• Year in Reading 2014 by The Fish Place
• 2014 Wrap Up by Bookworm Blurbs
• My 2014 Reads by Susana "Lost in Fantasy Land"
• My Top Reads in 2014 (Excluding classics and rereads) by Jennifer's Books
• My Top Book of 2014! by Miles Exchange
• The books I enjoyed most in 2014 and the ones I'm already looking forward to in 2015 by Audio Book Junkie
• Best Books of 2014 by sunsetxcocktail
• Bookish Personalities of 2014 by A GREAT BOOK STUDY
• Favorite Reads of 2014 by Tackling Mt. TBR

• 2014 Top 14 Books by SlowReader's Kingdom

If we haven't included you top list, share it or add a link to your blog post in the comments box below. 

We’ve received many questions about BookLikes mobile app and the answer to this request is always the same: Yes, of course, there will be a mobile app. Definitely. Since the question is still present in BookLikes community I’ve decided to present you several challenges we’re dealing with and what we’re working on right now to resolve your doubts and to assure you that it’s something really worth waiting for.

BookLikes is an unusual company, our development isn’t just based on my and my team’s concept, it is an ongoing process which is also based on BookLikes’ members requests and suggestions. We’re not only creating BookLikes for book lover but with book lovers, with all of you guys. Knowing your opinion is something extremely valuable for me and for the BookLikes team, it has showed us many new paths and introduced great solutions that we’ve implemented. You feedback, options and requests have also guided us in what direction we should be developing in the near future.

The notion near future is crucial here, our regular members know that we release a new feature -- a new functionality available for all BookLikes members every week -- on Thursdays. Those special Thursdays became our traditions and we definitely don’t want to give up on them, however, the weekly releases have a big impact on the process of development and maintenance of the mobile app.

What we care about the most is the quality and the functionality. Those two characteristics are our guidelines for building BookLikes and cannot be ignored when we refer to BookLikes mobile app. The thing is, we still have many awesome ideas to show, numerous exciting releases to launch -- I’m talking about unique, innovative and special releases, not seen on any other book-social sites -- but if we decide to introduce a mobile app now, at this very stage, it would mean we should stop or at best limit the Thursday releases.

For us the most important question isn’t Will BookLikes introduce the mobile app? (the answer is Yes) but rather What BookLikes mobile apps will include? The process of preparing apps for various systems (Android, Windows, IOS) is a necessity as well as including all BookLikes functionalities and this results in major changes for BookLikes.

With an active mobile app we won’t be able to launch new feature every Thursday and update the app on the weekly bases as it requires extra time and resources which we cannot spare at this very moment. We would have to freeze the process of BookLikes development in order to adjust all BookLikes functions to the mobile application because the maintenance of the functional, high quality app with weekly updates would be extremely difficult. This would result in holding back the development of new options and improvements on BookLikes, and in consequence this would also mean introducing the incomplete and not fully functional app. It’s definitely not something we want to set up.

The app should be like a gift with an exciting inside and a breathtaking wrapping. Both of these elements need to be complete in order to present a full package of options to make BookLikes mobile experience total, fun and enjoyable.

We’re super excited about the features we want to introduce during the upcoming Thursdays and I think you’ll be also thrilled about the things we’ve prepared. For this reason I was looking for the best solution for BookLikes that would allow us to develop BookLikes, launch new weekly releases and present the mobile friendly design, and I figured out that the best solution would be a responsive design.

This way, we’ll be able to give you the Thursday candies and provide a webpage perfectly adjusted to your mobile devices. The implementation of the responsive design won’t happen overnight but it will be executed much faster than an app, plus nor the BookLikes team, nor you - the BookLikes members - will have to resign from our weekly surprises and new options for BookLikes community. And they are really worth a wait.

The BookLikes mobile app will be of course introduced, and we promise that it will be much more than just a blogging/book-cataloguing app. Just wait and see :-)

Who will win this book?

;-)

This is old news by now, but I was driving home from Indianapolis during the ceremony and haven't had a chance to post it yet. To make up for that, I'm providing links again (to the piece/excerpt/description of winning works, as applicable, and the website or interview of winning people), and a link to the ballot statistics.

BEST NOVEL - Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie (Orbit US / Orbit UK) [Excerpt]

BEST NOVELLA - “Equoid” by Charles Stross (Tor.com, 09-2013)

BEST NOVELETTE - “The Lady Astronaut of Mars” by Mary Robinette Kowal (maryrobinettekowal.com / Tor.com, 09-2013) [If you aren't familiar with the events referenced in the intro, here is a link.]

BEST SHORT STORY - “The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere” by John Chu (Tor.com, 02-2013)

BEST RELATED WORK - “We Have Always Fought: Challenging the Women, Cattle and Slaves Narrative” by Kameron Hurley (A Dribble of Ink)

BEST GRAPHIC STORY - “Time” by Randall Munroe (xkcd)

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, LONG FORM - Gravity written by Alfonso Cuarón & Jonás Cuarón, directed by Alfonso Cuarón (Esperanto Filmoj; Heyday Films;Warner Bros.)

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, SHORT FORM - Game of Thrones “The Rains of Castamere” [links to wiki summary of episode, spoilers, duh] written by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss, directed by David Nutter (HBO Entertainment in association with Bighead, Littlehead; Television 360; Startling Television and Generator Productions)

BEST EDITOR, SHORT FORM - Ellen Datlow

BEST EDITOR, LONG FORM - Ginjer Buchanan [links to interview excerpt with the recently retired Buchanan]

BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST - Julie Dillon [note: still a few hours left to back her KickStarter]

BEST SEMIPROZINE - Lightspeed Magazine edited by John Joseph Adams, Rich Horton, and Stefan Rudnicki

BEST FANZINE - A Dribble of Ink edited by Aidan Moher

BEST FANCAST - SF Signal Podcast, Patrick Hester

BEST FAN WRITER - Kameron Hurley

BEST FAN ARTIST - Sarah Webb

JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD FOR BEST NEW WRITER - Sofia Samatar

As behind as I am, I see quite a few winners haven't yet updated their websites with the news. Somehow that makes me feel better about the world.

Ballot Statistics for each place in each category, and with a list of nominating votes that extends beyond the ones on the ballot.

Some thoughts on that link:

 - Ancillary Justice didn't just win - it freaking destroyed the competition. Remember this next time someone declares a subgenre dead, claims women don't write science fiction, or dismisses the idea of a significant fan base existing for stories not staring white dudes. This novel has been racking up the awards, and I couldn't be happier.

 - Fandom voted No Award over Beale's story. Enough said.

 - Shining Girls only just missed being on the novel ballot. Holy shit. Actually, only one of the novels I nominated didn't make the list included in the report. But this one was 2 votes short of the final ballot!