Weekly Geeks: 2009-45: Making a List?

I've been falling behind on the Weekly Geeks lately so this one should snap me back into the swing.

This weeks installment is about Making a gift List:

Do you have a book wish list for the holidays? (Or is that one of those 'duh' questions?) If so, what's on it?

My Book Wishlist is stored on Shelfari. The wishlist is not used exclusively for the holidays or gifts, it's really for myself when I'm ready to locate a new book for my shelf. It's also used for trading books, if someone sees something in my Plan to read or Own shelves that they want, they can look at my wishlist and approach me for a trade. It also came in handy for my secret santa to figure out what to get me.

Some of the books on my wish list are:

Are you very specific when someone asks what you want for a gift? Or do you throw caution to the wind and say, "Oh any book you choose...." Or do you prefer a bookstore gift card?

I also ask for a bookstore gift card if it's from someone who doesn't know where my wishlist is. I hate to ask for a specific book, but I don't like throwing caution to the wind as I may have already read the book they choose. I think a gift card is safest. Now if someone has a book they think I would enjoy, and decides to give it to me, that's even better because it's from the heart.

Do you buy books for people on your gift list? Do you choose books for them that you like and try to influence their reading (or hope they'll loan it to you when they're done)? Or do you get specific titles from your giftee?

I do buy books for people for holidays, I try to find books that I know they will love and do my best to fit their personality and find something they haven't read yet. If it's a book I can borrow, then that's a bonus!

Where do you buy your book gifts? Do you shop at local independent bookstores, or the "big box" stores? or do you shop online?

I look at books in every store that I go to, so I buy them when I see them, unless I know I can get a better deal somewhere else on the same book. I often buy online with a discount coupon as well.

How about you? What are your answers to these questions? I'd love to hear about your lists.

Thanks for reading this edition of Weekly Geeks - check back next Sunday for the next installment.

Weekly Geeks 2009-40: Tools of the Trade

Being new to the blogging world I am finding lots of great sites and helpful information. This week I found Weekly Geeks... What a very cool site! They have all types of fun ideas to discuss on your blog and I've decided to join in this week and hopefully each week have some fun things to post on my blog.

This week's topic is Tools of the Trade and here is Ruth's Post to Weekly Geeks:

Book blogging, as a concept, is essentially pretty simple: If you have Internet access and an opinion about a book, you can be a book blogger. However, actually maintaining a book blog is much more complicated -- our blogs are labors of love that require a lot of time, energy and devotion. For this edition of Weekly Geeks, I want to focus on the little things that make your blogging and/or reading life a bit easier. Do you use sites like GoodReads, LibraryThing or Shelfari to organize your books? Do you swear by Book Darts? Couldn't live without your Book Buddy? Love connecting with other bloggers on sites such as Twitter? Tell us about what makes your blog tick. Is there something specific that keeps you organized or inspired?

For me, I haven't learned that many tools of the blogging trade as I haven't even been up a month on my blog. But one thing I can't live without is Shelfari. I've used Shelfari for quite some time and it is a timesaver, not to mention it's just fun to use, I could not live without Shelfari. I also love the Labels that Blogspot has on each post, so that you can easily find a related story if they are labelled correctly.

I am however very curious to see what other bloggers post as their tools to learn and expand my blogging experience so I will be checking other bloggers answers to this question.