Wednesday and Thursday were officially Project for Awesome on youtube!
John and Hank Green, as they had done the previous year, gathered the Nerdfighter community together to support their favorite charity. Many Nerdfighters made videos supporting their favorite charities. Then, those who made videos, as well as those who didn't (*raises hand*) commented, rated, and favorited like mad to bring those those videos to the top of YouTube's lists. All the while, John and Hank were on BlogTV encouraging the Nerdfighters to continue taking over YouTube!
Last night we officially took over the first page of the most discussed page and many more top spots were filled with the Project for Awesome videos (easily spotted with this years Project for Awesome thumbnail).
So, if you are feeling generous this season, check out the amazing videos and donate to one of the awesome charities represented.
Meg Cabot because of the release of the final Princess Diaries book, will be at the New York Public Library January 9, 2009. Tiaras made by some amazing celebrities will also be on sale online afterwards to raise money for the library. (Meg will also be stopping by here, Miami, February 7! Which we're all excited for.)
Sarah Mlynowski will be at the Books & Books in Bal Harbour for the Parties & Potions release party! We'd love to see everyone there!
Books that come out this week:
Persistence of Memory by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
What If . . . Your Past Came Back to Haunt You by Liz Ruckdeschel and Sara Jame
Falling Hard: 100 Love Poems by Teenagers by Betsy Franco
Dr. Sigmundus: The Cracked Mirror by Brian Keaney
Books that come out this week:
December 16- Kissed by an Angel by Elizabeth Chandler
In honor of John Green's birthday, the Nerdfighters banded together in order to get John Green to New York Times bestseller status and they did! Paper Towns will be #5 on the list. Congrats John! We all agree it's completely deserved.
The 2008 Teens' Top Ten has been announced. Congrats to all the authors!
Sarah Dessen posted the cover for her new book, Along for the Ride, that comes out next year on her blog.
Movie News:
The movie based on the first three books in Darren Shan's Cirque du Freak series that is coming out sometime in the next year will have it's trailer premiered on the big screen with the Twilight movie on November 21.
Paper Towns by John Green has been optioned by the same producers and studio that made Juno.
Books that came out in the past week:
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
Twilight (Mass Market) by Stephenie Meyer
Bogus to Bubbly: An Insider’s Guide to the World of Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
Books that come out in the next week:
October 28: The Twilight Companion: The Unauthorized Guide to the Series by Lois H. Gresh
October 28: Headlong by Kathe Koja
October 28: Guardian by Julius Lester
October 28: Everything Beautiful in the World by Lisa Levchuk
Sorry for the abnormally long post, but we had to fit all the awesome in. Brought to you by Erika. (With comments by Lorena in red), (Brigitte in yellow) (And Julie in green)
There’s only one word to describe last night: AWESOME! I protest, no words can describe last night.
Meeting John Green was just about everything we hoped it to be. (and more)
I’ll fast-forward the day to when we arrived at Books & Books. Lorena and Brigitte were already there and so were some Nerdfighters! (This was about 5:30; the event started at 7.) People kept pointing us in the direction of the event room and we kept pretty much yelling that we were working there. Then, we ran into Jeanne (the lady in the Children's room) and she mentioned that she had been on the site a couple of times (yaaaaay!).Yup and some of the Nerdfighters have been on this site -happy dance-. We all changed into our t-shirts and jeans in our typical hog the bathroom fashion. Yeah except there was someone in the bathroom so we had to wait a little unlike it usually is.
Then, we signed the card I made John (in a gold pen), after my failed attempt to draw evil baby Hitler, picked a charity for our swear jar (so totally my idea) (not just if you swore, just to donate money to decrease world suck). We ended up picking The Children’s Home Society. During this we were running back and forth between the children's room and the register because apparently we just had to buy more and more copies of Paper Towns. We just couldn't stop buying. Oh, and we played "In my Pants" with the children's books. Which I can proudly say I started AND won.
Time went on and we attempted to figure out what to say for our introduction… Lorenathen realized that she hadn’t taught Julie and I the time warp yet. So, we went to the children’s section next to the table and began learning. Once we did it once, the door to the staff room opened and who stood there in the middle of putting our hands on our hips… Emily… and John Green! I'm being completly honest here is was like one of those time stopped moments, it may have been the awkward stance we were in (I mean it literally looked like we were waiting out there for him (which we weren't)) but everyone was just dead silent in an unannounced staring contest.
Lorena casually tried turning the hands on hips motion into a wave and said hello. You have to admit that was completely and utterly the most slick thing I've ever pulled.Because Lorena is never slick. He was wearing the same color green shirt as us with jeans! It was an awesome coincidence! Although, it may have looked like we were really stalking him. (I’ll take this opportunity to describe the shirts… Each of us on the back had a letter spelling DFTBA, Emily, me, Julie, Lorena, and Brigitte respectively. Though the B was backwards because of my horrible ironing skills and there also was need for sharpie to make the F black again since I turned it brown... The fronts were all different Nerdfighter/John Green references.) It was insaaaane!-swoon-
Emily introduced us, and then they went to go figure out the Internet in the event room (we followed). We walked into the event room and everyone stared cheering but John was saying things like "Not part of the show, this never happened." But Nerdfighters took pictures anyway.Afterwards, we all, John included, went to the café, sat down, and began randomly talking. Well, they did. I could barely string two words together the entire conversation. Yes, John Green is just that awesome. Amazing no? Usually I can never get her to shut up.
I can’t even remember all that we talked about… But it was very entertaining and we (well, I) were definitely nervous. For the most part we started discussing the authors that we had helped at their events before, John pointed out we've met pretty much most of his author friends. Then it went into self publication, when it seems like a nice thing, and when it's just unnecessary. Mitchell came in a few minutes later and joined in our conversation; John just kept complimenting the store. Apparently we were the reason he came to Florida. YAY INDIES!No, YAY BOOKS & BOOKS!
Soon it was 7, so we went out to begin the show. We were in a single file line in letter order and John following at the end into a packed room. (It probably did look like we planned the matching shirts.) (Or stalked him)
The four of us gave a horrible introduction, thank goodness for Lorena or it would have been a thousand times worse… Okay more like, the four of us minus Lorena stayed quiet while Lorena had to try and make up an awesome speech that revolved around the words "awesome" and "jokes" which she failed miserably at doing.Well, I laughed so it wasn't that bad. And I did help; I got John Green to laugh along with several knowledgeable Nerdfighters. We turned around to reveal our DFTBA, which made it slightly better, and then John then took the podium and turned it into awesome.
He went on at first just talking (which included the first public announcement that he's a New York Times bestseller! We're honored that it was at our event! Congrats John!), then read the famous page 23 (you can watch these ten minutes on Alan’s recorded BlogTV show), then it went into a Q&A question Tuesday style.
This included his happy dance! [Thanks to: Teresa (ImperfectlyPerfect2)]
When there was no more time for questions, Emily went up and then said, we had one more question for him. Lorena asked him if he would do the time warp with us. (When we sent him a short Q&A posted here, he had said he could), but he said he didn’t know how. Disappointment ya know?Kind of like being promised presents on Christmas and then ending up with a bag of coal sort of disappointment.
Here’s how that played out (Thanks to : Epiphany131)
We then did the time warp ourselves and Lorena and Brigitte argued over which way to turn… See basically everyone went left, and I went right on instinct. That caused quite an eruption of laughter from the audience (though I think the arguing just made it worse) (If someone recorded that, please send it to us, though Lorena and Brigitte may not be too happy. It was hilarious.) Yeah, yeah I'm sure it was. I would be happy, it just supports me being right.I didn't even get to see the collision due to the fact I was on the end and turned the right way.
John then began to sign books. We went on post–it duty. Once that was done we just basically stood in the center of the room watching the long line slowly shrink.
Since our poor swear jar was getting no attention, Brigitte took it upon herself to go down the line and beg. I do not beg. I ask prettily.Basically all the money in it so far was hers since well lets face it, she puts sailors to shame. I'm so lucky I'm here to defend my honor. And since Nerdfighters are awesome, they donated! (We collected a grand total of $29.62) GO NERDFIGHTERS!!!
After a while, we went and brought all out stuff to the center of the room, sat on the floor and post-ited our own books. (Most of them said "Erika")
Eventually there was only one group of people left. We waited and then once they left, we got our own books signed. I myself had 6 books… Paper Towns ARC, Let it Snow, Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns (Happy Margo), and 21 Proms [Which John thinks I may have the copy with the most authors signatures (5) and that he likes me better than the others do lol :) ] Stupid Melissa De La Cruz signature -grumble-.
We then made him take multiple pictures with us…
He thanked us repeatedly for making the shirts and he offered all those in the room the candy left over from the bag he was given of the towards-the-end-of-Paper Towns-gas-station-shopping-spree. I got the Nerds! (Which may possibly be the same ones John is holding in this video.) I got Snickers! I got Grandma's cookies! You can never go wrong with Grandma's cookies.I got to share Erika's Nerds!
Michael (the manager of the Books & Books in Bal Harbor) asked John to sign his manual typewriter. John was spazzing out from the authors that had previously signed it, repeatedly stated he couldn’t ruin it (he wouldn't ruin it but simply add to its majesty), but then gave in when Michael continued to insist.
We then all had to leave. Though we didn’t want to leave John we had to (I had a ton of homework to finish… ended up going to bed at 1:30am, but it was worth it).
Thanks so much John for making the night possible! And to all those who came that made it even more awesome! If anyone has any pictures or videos they’d like us to share, feel free to e-mail us the link and we’ll add them in! Well Erika's nice, but I'm not, so I'm demanding you send them. Just kidding :), but please do send them. Brigitte demands pictures! Pictures would be awesome!
It's finally here! John Green is coming to Books & Books tomorrow, October 22 at 7pm!
Books & Books
265 Aragon Avenue
Coral Gables, Florida
"When Margo Roth Spiegelman beckons Quentin Jacobsen in the middle of the night-dressed like a ninja and plotting an ingenious campaign of revenge – he follows her. Margo's always planned extravagantly, and, until now, she's always planned solo. After a lifetime of loving Margo from afar, things are finally looking up for Q . . . until day breaks and she has vanished. Always an enigma, Margo has now become a mystery. But there are clues. And they're for Q. With Paper Towns (Penguin, $17.99), Printz Medalist John Green returns with the trademark brilliant wit and heart-stopping emotional honesty that have inspired a new generation of readers"
Read our Post Made of Awesome which has a short Q&A with John and Erika's review of Paper Towns!
Come and enjoy the awesomeness! We look forward to seeing whoever can come! And if you can't, don't worry, we'll recap it all and have plenty of pictures and video to share! Plus it will most likely (as long as there are no technical problems) be broadcast live on Alan's BlogTV channel!
John Green is made of awesome. (Now if you find yourself scratching your head and wondering what the heck that means, you must not be a Nerdfighter. But, don't fret, if you’re reading this blog, you're well on your way to becoming one.)
So, today’s post is all about John Green and his awesome books and will be brought to youin three parts:
Part 1 - Q&A with John Green
Part 2 - Paper Towns Review
Part 3 - Special Information about his Book Signing at Books & Books
A Short Q&A with John Green:
Who pwns everything?
I'm a big believer in checks and balances, so you can't have a single individual who pwns everything, or else it would inevitably lead to a totalitarian state.
If someone suddenly threw a wad of twenty thousand dollars at you, how would you respond?
Well, that all depends on the currency involved. If someone threw 200 100-dollar bills at me, I hope I'd have the courage to hand it over to malaria research. If someone threw two hundred thousand dimes at me, I would probably die beneath a pile of dimes.
If 'they' decided to make a movie of your life, which actor would you want to play you? Hank? Yeti?
Fortunately, 'they' won't ever get to make a movie of my life, because I own the rights to my life, and I'm not interested in selling. If 'they' made a movie of my life, it would inevitably lead to me being known by people who I don't want to know me. (I would hate hate hate being a celebrity.) So I think we'll just keep playing ourselves in our little videos, at least until we go broke and sell out.
What's the most random question you can think of? Answer it.
How fast can a one-day-old gazelle run?
23 miles per hour.
Can you do the Time Warp again?
Sure, of course. It's just a jump to the left...
Now that you have experienced a small taste of the hilarity and awesomeness that characterizes this author, are your ready for more?
Erika’s Paper Towns Review
Amazing. Words can barely describe how awesome Paper Towns is. I can honestly say that John Green is a complete genius. Every word and sentence fits perfectly and there isn’t a single line that doesn’t draw you in or make you think.
My own Paper Towns reading experience took place on a plane ride back from Japan and trust me when I say that it kept me entertained for half the flight (which is very hard to do).My sister even got slightly annoyed at me after about two pages. If I see a line I love, I usually say to whomever’s close to me, “Listen to this…” and then read it out loud. In the first two pages of Paper Towns, I had already bugged her three times. The book did not get any less remarkable after those two pages, though I restrained myself from bothering her.
Paper Towns is about a boy who is in love with a girl, but it’s also so much more than that.When Margo, randomly crawls through Quentin’s window one night – like she used to do when they were young – mild-mannered Quentin finds himself whisked away from his warm bed for a night of mayhem and adventure. The next day however, Margo doesn’t show up for school.Quentin is sure something is wrong and sets out on an adventure of his own to try to find her.
A must read for anyone and everyone, even if you’re thinking Paper Towns is not the kind of book you would “usually pick up.”Green’s distinctive voice and captivating story is something everyone can connect with in some way.
Books & Books Paper Towns Information:
Mark your calendars for October 22! John Green himself will be at the Books & Books in Coral Gables to discuss Paper Towns and more. You can R.S.V.P. (but it is not required) on the Facebook page or the Eventful page (click widget on the sidebar).
It’ll be awesome! We’ll make sure of it!
And finally, Hank (John’s brother) decided that for John’s birthday in August he would give John bestsellerdom. (It was supposed to be a surprise, but John already found out, so it’s safe to talk about.) We decided that we wanted to help out. Why? Because John deserves bestseller status and everyone needs to read his books!
So, if you pre-order Paper Towns from Books & Books, which comes out October 16th, you will be entered to win an iPod Shuffle!
If this is the first you're hearing of this "did-we-mention-he-is-awesome" author and want more before October 22nd, watch John and Hank's YouTube vlog and/or go to their website.
Special thanks to John Green for answering our questions, coming in October, and being awesome. We hope to see everyone on October 22nd!
