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It's Been Out of This World! Cannonball Read IV Wrap Up

By Mswas Sawsm | Books | January 10, 2013 |

By Mswas Sawsm | Books | January 10, 2013 |


‘You want weapons? We’re in a library! Books! The best weapons in the world! This room’s the greatest arsenal we could have - arm yourselves!’ — “Tooth and Claw.” Doctor Who
The fourth Cannonball Read honoring our warrior queen, AlabamaPink, has reached the finish line. 243 people, including four junior Cannonballers read and reviewed, at best count, a grand total of 3,163 books!

198 book reviews appeared on Pajiba for Cannonball Read IV. Comment count is a bit hard to calculate since Disqus came in mid year, though the group blog had over 1,800 comments. To the best of my knowledge, the post with the most comments was nidaros’s thoughtful (yes, truly) Fifty Shades of Grey review with 48 comments, and there were great discussions on a lot of the reviews. Check out the Best of 2012 and the Worst of 2012 posts to see our most favorite and hated books from the year.

Some of the most exciting comments were from authors themselves. Michael Solomon commented on Captain Tuttle’s review of his book, Now It’s Funny: How I Survived Cancer, Divorce and Other Looming Disasters . Leigh Byrne commented directly on taralovesbooks’s blog with a thoughtful response about her book Call Me Tuesday. Louise Rozett thanked petalfrog, who also got an email from Joy Castro about her book Hell or High Water.

In the twitterverse, we had a couple of authors tweet or retweet us. Henry Winkler retweeted the mother of one of our Junior Cannonballers, joemyjoe, and then tweeted directly to joemyjoe when his review went up on Pajiba.  Other tweets included Margaret Atwood thanking The Fatling and CBR4 for “encouraging this old scribbler,” and Ron Currie, Jr. thanking baxlala for her review.

But the comments that made me most proud were when Cannonballers stood up to defend their compatriots’ efforts and the Cannonball Read. My favorite is Bunnybean’s review of a Phineas and Ferb book.

This was the first year of our Amazon Affiliates account, and just by clicking on the links in the Pajiba reviews, we’ve f***ed cancer to the tune of $170 (raised for the American Cancer Society.) Try the Cannonball Read Buy Hole and see how a book really can be a weapon. Find out more specific details about the donation here.

Not to bury the lede, but Malin was the first of us to make it to 52, which you may have seen when we featured her review (in May!) of Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris. Malin also was the first to make it to a double cannonball of 104 this year, followed by Valyruh, and let’s not forget meilufay who made it to 101. The first Cannonball Read challenge between Prisco and AlabamaPink was 100 books in a year (but no reviews back then.)

So many, many thanks to those of you who read and reviewed your hearts out, those of you who visited the group blog daily, those who shared our Facebook posts and retweeted our tweets, those who commented on pretty much every review, and yes even those commenters who bitched and scathed at these “unprofessional” book reviews. The mere mention of our warrior queen soothed those savage breasts, and I believe one or two have since joined our efforts for Cannonball Read 5. We’re glad to have you.

Here is the list of those who completed whole, half, and quarter Cannonballs, and the honorable mention of those who read and posted 1-12 reviews to the group blog.

Whole Cannonball (or more)

Malin - 104
Valyruh - 104
Meilufay - 101
DragonDreamsJen - 96
Krista - 73
Caitlin - 71
HelloKatieO - 66
Janel - 64
idgiepug - 62
sevenstories - 60
narfna - 59
BoatGirl - 55
Bothari - 55
CommanderStrikeher - 54
Sara Habein - 54
Fofo - 54
pyrajane - 54
Alli - 52
Amanda6 - 52
amurph11 - 52
ambern - 52
Captain Tuttle - 52
ElCicco - 52
faintingviolet - 52
Jen K - 52
Katie - 52
petalfrog - 52
Quorren - 52
Rebecca - 52
Scootsa1000 - 52
taralovesbooks - 52
xoxoxoe - 52

Half Cannonball (or more)

Siege - 47
rdoak03 - 40
sonk - 36
Baxlala - 34
Mrs. Julien - 33
funkyfacecat - 31
Jelinas - 31
lyndamk - 29
Sophia - 29
loveallthis - 28
KatSings - 27
caragwapa - 26
Karo - 26
faquin - 26
Mrs Smith - 26
The Scruffy Rube - 26
Shaman - 26
TylerDFC - 26

Quarter Cannonball (or more)

Competitive Non-Fiction - 24
llp - 23
kemp ridley - 23
Loopyker - 22
Alexis - 20
Bunny Bean - 20
Lurkey Turkey - 19
The Fatling - 18
PerpetualIntern - 17
Rahael - 17
akhirnya - 16
Return of Santitas - 16
Carolyn - 15
Cfar1 - 14
Claus - 14
Robert - 14
Goddess of Apathy - 13
miss kate - 13
Pinky McLadybits - 13

Cannonballers who wrote between one and twelve reviews:
Adrienne
ami
A-schaef
Ashley
BanannerPants
Betsys5Avengers
Brannoa
britface
caitopotato
Captain Steve
Catag
chasitymoody
Chockfullohoot
Count Fosco
CynicalJerk
Doctor Controversy
doodlepants
dsbs
effcubed
El L Cool J
Erin is Scrumtrulescent
Even Stevens
FDBluth
fedres
Figgy
gabe3886
Generic White Girl
gorvitron
hairlikecutgrass
heathpie
Helena
hollydiggity
Iamachaiaddict
ideaofthegirl
Internet Magpie
Jack
jamiepants
Jenniferk525
jim of the lower case
Joe G.!
joemyjoe
Jordan Bravado
Kinda Fancy
kport412
Lapandarouge
leuce7
LSue
Mandazon
me_tiana
Moni
moralla
Nataku23147
NateS1973
nidaros
nosio
notice_evrytree
PartyInTheFace
RachelMarjne
Sassafrass Green
shellbelle
shithousemouse
SJfromSJ
squeakytoy
sunnywithhigh
tamatha
Tereasa
teresaelectro
The Grace Hurricane
the other courtney
thefavoritemuse
toepic
TranscendMatter
trib
Vangie
Vermillion

So stop on by the Cannonball Read V group blog, our Facebook page or our Goodreads group, or follow us on Twitter. Don’t forget to give us your opinions here and on future Cannonball Read posts. C’mon, you know you want to. Viva los Cannonball!