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Read-Along: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins (Week One Update!)

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Yay for the Anna and the French Kiss read-along! I remember reading this book last year and completely falling in love with it! I started it late in the evening and stayed up until 2:00 a.m. finishing it. THAT’s love.

Thank you so much to Molli (Once Upon a Prologue) and Suz (A Soul Unsung) for hosting this fabulous event, which is not only a read-along but 20 days of reading, challenges, secret giveaways, and having fun!

For the schedule, visit Molli’s blog.

me and annaAnna and the French Kiss Questions (Week One)

Anna is afraid to really experience Paris when she arrives. Would you be, or would you look at it as an adventure?

I would be TERRIFIED! I’ve never really been a person who travels alone, so I would have no idea what to do or where to go. I think I’d love to look at it as an adventure, but I would take a while to get my water wings. AND it has been a long time since I took French, so I would be VERY rusty in that department!

Which of the characters we meet – Anna, St. Clair, Josh, Rashmi, or Meredith – do you most identify with? Why?

I think I most identify with Anna because I can be so awkward in new situations and say all the wrong things. I can also get very confused and probably wouldn’t admit it.

Anna is drawn to St. Clair, as well, everyone is. She wants to be “just friends” with him. Do you think this will be possible for her? Can a guy and a girl BE just friends?

I think it’s possible, but at that age it might get tricky. AND one of the first things she notices is his looks and she feels sad when she hears about Ellie, so I think any chance of having just a friendship has gone out the window. And, really, whenever they’re together I start smiling, so I’m hoping there’s some “more than friends” interaction!

What are your first impressions of Anna? Of St. Clair?

Oh, gosh, I LOVE Anna. She’s just so cute! And I love her inner dialogue. (Anna confused.) I do feel sorry for her with her dad being the writer guy who writes the same old stories, tragic romances, and her getting carted off to France. I loved that although she was thankful about France, she still doesn’t want to go — or, she at least would have wanted the option of staying. She’s human!

And St. Clair? *swoons* Is that enough? :)

What’s your favorite moment or quote from what we’ve read so far?

Oh, SO MANY! For starters, the cemetery scene where Anna and St. Clair are with Victor and his victor. So funny! And when they’re at Point Zero and Anna makes a wish and the wind picks up … Is this the beginning of … something?

Of course, each page has gems on it, so I can’t pick just one part or quote I love so much. It seems that I’m either swooning or snorting with laughter on each page!

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My Search for a New Reader

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Unless you live under a rock, you may have noticed the news: As of July 1st, Google Reader will be no more. Seeing as that’s what I use for my blog reading, I was crushed! I had no idea what to do, so I tried a few different readers:

Feedly - Not bad, but I hated all the clicking. I had to click on the folder, click on the post to open a post IN Feedly, then click on it again to open it in another window to comment, then click AGAIN to close the post, and then again to mark as read. Not to mention the commenting on the post page. BUT, this one is pretty awesome for the iPad. It’s so easy for me to go through and read all my blogs, flagging the ones I want to comment on later. I have issues when it comes to commenting on the iPad — for some reason, certain comment forms don’t let me put in my info so I CAN comment.

The Old Reader - I really liked the look of this one, but it was way too slow for me. It seemed to take forever to load anything. AND it was difficult to export and import my feeds from Google Reader. I also couldn’t figure out how to make folders and I NEED folders for my reading habits. I’m still thinking of checking this one out once more.

Pulse - This was a no right from the beginning. I love the look of Pulse and used it a lot as a mobile app, but I couldn’t create any folders and it didn’t seem to like me JUST adding blogs. It wanted me to add interests. Well, screw you, Pulse – I just want to add blogs!

NetVibes - This one looked incredibly confusing AND it looked like I had to pay to use it effectively?

Bloglovin‘ – Simple to import my blogs, to make folders, and it looks nice. I also like that I can read blogs with the Bloglovin’ frame, which lets me go from blog post to blog post; I can like certain posts AND comment right within the frame. The only glitch I’ve found is that the frame sometimes disappears when I comment, so I have to go back and reopen the folder I was looking in. AND it doesn’t have an app for iPad, which kind of sucks.

One thing I’m noticing in my search is that I really want an app for my iPad. I like using it for commenting, but I want things to be EASY, too. It’s nice to read the blogs on it, when I have time, and then comment later. But it seems that there are very few applications that have an iPad app. And, when they do, the version in the browser is either confusing or finicky.

Here are some links to what other bloggers are suggesting:

Have you tried any of the other readers? What have your preferences been?

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