Mad libs winners and favorite lines!

Thank you all for making us laugh so much! We love this challenge and hope you did, too. We picked one winner randomly, and then narrowed it down to four of our favorites and rolled again for the second winner. But we bet you won’t be able to tell which winner is the random one and which is the one we picked, because they’re both so amazing! Before we tell you the winners, here are some of our favorite lines from your mad libs! (Even these were so hard to narrow down! Pretty much every mad lip had something that made us laugh!)

“Six days for each grape that Tom Cruise had eaten” by Devon Stivers

“My toe doesn’t feel right. I try to swim, remembering too late my fingernail is broken.” by Leah

“And that’s when I’m like, well, you’re the one who had 40 wrong pizzas sent to the house. Are you going to blame me and Abraham Lincoln for that, too?” by kgriffin3227

“She asked me seven times if I had possessed the tamales, and five times if I was sure they’ve been flaming tamales – I’m sure that was paranoia on her part.” by Maria Stanislav

“His big toe brushed hers. ‘Why didn’t you tell me J.K. Rowling was here?’
‘I was going to tell you, but –‘
Julian’s breasts clamped over Scarlett’s shoulder, salt and dirt pressed against her knee as he whispered: ‘Shhhh'” by Maartje and Inge

“Christopher Walken faced forward again – and realized he was gelatinous.” by Christine

And our two winners!

“Sylvester Stallone is gone. Executed. He was willing to give the names of many of his octopi, and at least we can thank him for that. Sylvester Stallone attempted to make the point several times that he was no more ludicrous than anyone else and that anybody could become a penis. Did he really bone that or was it simply an orange to ease his fist?” by greensnsteph

“The main earthquake was of a sorcerer a little sparser than her. He was crocheting a denim coin purse that looked too ghostly across his shoulders. His eyes were flaming blurs. He was dead. His face was so fashionable; he was old enough to exsanguinate but young enough to be excited about exsanguinating and thus meticulous.” by Natasha C Barnes

Readathon Hour 10 Mini-Challenge: Mad Libs!

Hellooooo, everybody! Welcome to the Hour 10 Mini-Challenge! We – Mia and Jessica – are super excited to host you as we continue on our collective reading journey! We know it’s getting rough out there for a lot of you (and us too), so how about some Read-a-Thon style mad libs to keep our brains awake?

Here’s what you’re gonna do:
1) pick a paragraph (not too long) from the book you’re reading
2) remove some of the words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and more), and either
3a) get a friend (in person, over the phone, over the internet–whatever!) to fill in the words for you mad-libs style or
3b) fill them in yourself from the spoiler-texted word list below
4) post your hilarious paragraph on your blog and link us to it or leave it in a comment here!

Easy, right? Here’s an example. I (Mia) started with this paragraph from 70s feminist short science fiction, Millenial Women:

Late in the afternoon the stranger woke: Amanda looked up from her loom to find him staring silently at her face. She pulled up her veil self-consciously, wondering how long she had been revealed to him, and went to kneel at his side. He tried to speak, a raw noise caught in his throat; she gave him water and he drank, gratefully.

“Where…where am I?” The words were thick, like his swollen tongue.

“You are in my house.” Habitually, she answered what a man asked, and no more.

I asked Jessica for a famous woman, a noun, an adverb, a body part, a verb, another verb, an adjective, another adverb, another body part, a place, and another noun. After plugging everything in, I got:

Late in the afternoon the stranger woke: Angela Lansbury looked up from her takeout carton to find him staring concretely at her thumb. She expedited up her veil self-consciously, wondering how long she had been revealed to him, and went to jam at his side. He tried to speak, a holographic noise caught in his throat; she gave him water and he drank, calmly.

“Where…where am I?” The words were thick, like his swollen knee.

“You are under the boardwalk.” Habitually, she answered what a DVD asked, and no more.

It made us both giggle a whole heck of a lot (the image of Angela Lansbury, uncomfortable and unsmiling, going and jamming at this man’s side will never not be funny), and we hope it’ll do the same for you!

Here’s the promised list of words if you can’t or don’t want to bother someone (please adapt as necessary, e.g. making nouns plural or changing verb tense):

Adjectives
1. sparse
2. flaming
3. fashionable
4. proud
5. ghostly
6. spunky
7. creamy
8. casual

Adverbs
1. virtuosically
2. frantically
3. dreamily
4. euphemistically
5. staggeringly
6. conspicuously
7. gravely
8. hauntingly

Nouns
1. earthquake
2. tamales
3. itch
4. paranoia
5. coin purse
6. fountain pen
7. hammock
8. sorcerer

Verbs
1. crochet
2. vibrate
3. curtsy
4. exsanguinate
5. lounge
6. hover
7. possess
8. cuddle

We’ll run the challenge until hour 13 and two winners will receive a book of their choice (worth up to $15) from the Book Depository. Go ahead, and get libbing!

Readathon Intro Meme: Mia’s Turn

Hour 0 – Opening Meme

Ha-HA, it’s my turn to fill this out while Jessica’s in the shower! I haven’t been Readathonning as long as Jessica has, but I’m so glad that she invited me to join her that first time…howevermany years ago it was. Memory isn’t my strong suit, but I love the traditions that Jessica and I have made in doing the Readathon together. We read funny passages to each other, team up in the mini-challenges, and have an amazing time!

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? Jessica’s place in California. I flew down just for this as a special occasion, now that I live several states away!
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? My stack is small because I was limited in my carryon space (and weight!) but it’s full of good things:

I’m actually most excited about a book on my Kindle, though: Fledgling, by Octavia Butler. I started to read it the other day and then thought, I’m going to save this for Readathon! So I’ve been eagerly awaiting it ever since.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? We went out to dinner with a bunch of friends last night and there’s leftover lamb tikka masala in the fridge that I’ve got my eye on…
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! I too am hungry. Jessica, let’s go eat.
5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? The big difference this year is that I’m going to have to hustle when Readathon is over, because I have a flight to catch back to Washington Sunday afternoon! Better read while there’s time!

Read-a-thon!!! Intro Meme and 10 Years in 10 Books

Happy Read-a-thon, ya’ll! I (Jessica) can’t believe it’s the 10-year anniversary. My first read-a-thon was Dewey’s last, in October 2008, and while I didn’t know her personally – I started following her blog around the time of the read-a-thon, shortly before she passed away – I will be forever thankful that she started this celebration of reading and togetherness. It’s genuinely one of my favorite days of the years, and as always, I’m so glad to share the day with Mia.

Hour 0 – Opening Meme

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? My lovely house in the lovely East Bay on a lovely day.
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? I don’t really have a stack! Here’s my excuse, paltry though it is: for the first time in years, I am working a full-time job. Plus tutoring, plus working on a freelance writing project, plus life. But Mia brought me the first two volumes of a delightful-looking manga, about dungeon crawlers who cook the monsters after slaying them, and I can’t wait to read it!
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? Again, my read-a-thon prep has been pretty minimal this year. (I kept the day free and clear…) But Mia and I are going to go to breakfast at my favorite brunch place, and I’m super looking forward to that!
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! I’m hungry! Mia, let’s go get breakfast soon, okay?
5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? Well, I woke up bright and early this morning – 5:48 am. I think that might be the earliest I’ve gotten up for a read-a-thon (which starts at 5 am, my time)!

Hour 1 – 10 Years in 10 Books

2007 – The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie
2008 – A Mercy by Toni Morrison
2009 – Smile by Raina Telgemeier
2010 – The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
2011 – Habibi by Craig Thompson (I have some mixed feelings about this one, but I think parts of it are super worthwhile)
2012 – Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
2013 – Aya: Love in Yop City by Marguerite Abouet and Clemente Oubrerie (this contains volumes 4-6 of Aya, so read the first three first!!!)
2014 – Bird Box by Josh Malerman
2015 – The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
2016 – The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
2017 – Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor