Q&A with a Cannonballer
Original Recipe Cannonballer Brian Prisco stepped into the crosshairs for this month's Q&A. This whole shebang is partially his fault, and we love him for it.
How many times have you participated in CBR?
I kicked off the original. And then I bowed out for a while. I did the last one, Cannonball Read Seven. And maybe possibly probably I will do the tenth one, when it comes around.
Since you're an Original, can you tell us a quick AlabamaPink story?
No. But I can tell you a long one. Because I love to hear myself talk.
A friend of mine was making a list of New Year's resolutions. One of which was "I would like to read 100 books in a year." And so I said, "I think I can do that. Does anyone else want to read 100 books?" And Amanda said, "Hell yeah." And I said, "Oh, great. I literally have to fight someone with cancer. This is bullshit. You monster." But then began our Phileas Fogg-like sprint. We established the ground rules: you had to post a review to prove you read it. None of this Book-It, I wrote five titles didn't I gimme my goddamn Personal Pizza horseshit. And I added the caveat that if someone recommended a book, I had to read it. And then Dustin decided he would post it on the site. And from there it spiraled out of control. It was so much fun, and we would send each other taunts and encouragement back and forth. When we were in Austin for SXSW, we talked about maybe getting some folks together and swinging over to where she was receiving treatment, but then we thought that'd be weird and intrusive and plus, SXSW is sort of a non-stop film-a-thon. So we didn't go. And then Amanda passed. So I trudged across the finish-line, and I thought that would be it.
What you folks have made of this is so much more than I ever could have imagined or envisioned. I kind of dropped the torch and muttered off in a corner like the malcontent that I am. And then Nicole Fuscia took it over for a few years and kept it alive. And then MsWas just sort of made it a real boy. I mean, there's a website. There are hundreds of participants. It legitimately raises money for cancer, and in the name of a pretty terrific woman that I never got to know nearly well enough because she was taken before her time. I can only take credit for starting the fire, but you all, you kept it burning bright and fierce and incredible.
Book club!
Up next: Young Adult! The next book club meeting will be September 1. Don't forget to vote for your favorite selection, lovingly curated by faintingviolet. You have until July 17 to pick one of six YA books.
Watch out, word people: numbers!
Have you noticed that ingres77 has been compiling statistics about our reviews, over on Facebook and now on the main blog? It's pretty impressive, and must be a ton of work.Thanks for keeping us educated about our awesomeness, ingres77! Look for his stats posts at the beginning of every month.
Looking for volunteers
Calling all cartographers! How are your PhotoShop skills? Google Mapping talents? Coding abilities? The choice is yours. Part of the CBR profile page lists location. During CBR6, MsWas made a map showing where our readers came from. Interested in helping to recreate that map with updated info? Please let us know!
Worldwide internet fame could be yours!
We got a great response from MsWas's call for CBR Instagram volunteers. Y'all are so helpful! But now our fearless leader needs stuff to post. Says she, "We are looking to feature more personalized book images on the account, so I would love it if people emailed me any cool book-related photos to share." Take your book on a road trip! Pose your cats with your books! Beaches, hammocks, picnics - we want to see your creative, summery photo ops.
3 is a Magic Number
Yes it is! We've made our third donation to the American Cancer Society, in the amount of $100. That brings us to $475 for the year, already exceeding last year's full total. Find out what else you can do to help our mission to fight cancer.
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