Take a picture of your pile, or just give us a few quick titles.

OR tell us how you pick your books.

Address any or all of these topics: what you are reading, why you are reading it, how you are going to read it.

Find out about our upcoming community events at our Join In page. Coming soon:

• March 2: I Read It! — Link up reviews of books you read at someone's recommendation
• March 9: Children's Classic Mystery Challenge
• March 16: Kids' Picks
• March 23: What's on Your Nightstand
• March 30 (5th Tuesday): New Classics Bookclub — sign up anytime

Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter.

Link directly to your post telling us what's on your Nightstand here. And don't forget to visit around!

Take a picture of your pile, or just give us a few quick titles.

Tell us how you pick your books.

Address any or all of these topics: what you are reading, why you are reading it, how you are going to read it.

Find out about our upcoming community events at our Join In page. Coming soon:

• February 2: I Read It! (Tell us about books that you read at someone's recommendation)
• February 9: Children's Classic Mystery Challenge
• February 16: Kids' Picks
• February 23: What's on Your Nightstand
• March 30 (5th Tuesday): New Classics Bookclub — sign up anytime

Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter.

Link directly to your post telling us what's on your Nightstand here. And don't forget to visit around!

Please link your post telling us "What's on Your Nightstand" below. You can tell us what you just finished or what you hope to read this month. I don't know about you, but I usually read a lot over Christmas. We spend time just hanging out with family, which allows me to read a few pages while others are reading the paper or watching TV. We also drive about six hours, and my husband drives, and I don't get sick in the car — so that's prime reading time.

Things are changing on Tuesdays here at 5 Minutes for Books:

1st Tuesday (starting 1/5)– We are switching "I Read It!" from the 5th Tuesday to the first Tuesday. This is an opportunity for you to link up a review of a book you read on someone's recommendation. Initially we asked for a book that we recommended here at 5 Minutes for Books, but we're expanding it to include a book that anyone recommended to you. Tell us why you decided to read it, who recommended it, and if you agreed with his or her opinion of the book.

2nd Tuesday — Our Children's Classics carnival is changing over to a Children's Classics Mystery Challenge from January – June. See all the details (and the cute button) HERE.

3rd Tuesday — Will still be Kids' Picks. It's sort of the kid's version of Nightstand where we have the opportunity to share a book each month that our child would recommend to others.

4th Tuesday — Of course we will leave Nightstand as is! We love the faithful participation, so we aren't changing a thing.

5th Tuesday (starting 12/29) — We are moving our Classics here to the 5th Tuesday. Each quarter, we will offer you the chance to share reviews of Classics that you've read. You can select your own books, but it's our hope that this will still be a place that those who want to read the classics can find community. On December 29, if you'd like to set a goal for the year you can, or you can simply join in when you read a classic novel and want to share.

Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter.

Link directly to your post telling us what's on your Nightstand here. And don't forget to visit around!

Has the tryptophan from the turkey already kicked in? If you don't know the drill, please read our What's on Your Nightstand page.

Theoretically this should have gone up at midnight (on odd-numbered months), and it goes up at 7:00am on even-numbered months). I think that this is the first time it hasn't been here, so I hope that you old faithfuls as well as newcomers will grant me some holiday grace!

Check out all of our regular Tuesday happenings at our Join In page. The first Tuesday is usually our bookclub, but we're on holiday hiatus, but next week we are going to announce our plans for the Classics Bookclub, so please check in!

Also, the second Tuesday is Children's Classics, and on December 8, our theme is "Books you love to give" so come on over and possibly find a perfect fit for that person on your gift list (I may even share an adult book that I LOVE to give to Mommies).

Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter.

Now link up:

What about you? Is your Nightstand full because you aren't getting to the books you want to read? Or perhaps you keep adding new ones to your pile.

Let us know! Write up a post and tell us what you plan to read this month, or some mini-reviews of what you just cleared off your nightstand.

Are you new to Nightstand? Do you want to know what it's all about? You can find all the information you want to know at the What's on Your Nightstand page.

Also, if it's your first time, be sure to let us know when you link up (on the Linky beside your name). I think that our readers are pretty good about visiting around, but if you are new, we'll give you a little extra-welcoming TLC.

Join in our other Tuesday community events:

• November 3 — Bookclub: Any work by Louisa May Alcott — please join us!
• November 10 — Children's Classics: Holiday books — any holiday, any book!
• November 17 — Kids' Picks

Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter.

Are you new to Nightstand? Do you want to know what it's all about? You can find all the information you want to know at the What's on Your Nightstand page.

If you're new here — welcome! Also, to our regular participants, let me give you a heads-up that we have a bunch of current giveaways going on! We always have at least two current giveaways, but right now there are a whole handful!

But basically, just come here to 5 Minutes for Books on the fourth Tuesday of each month. You can either link up a post that you've written on your own blog about what is on your nightstand (what you plan to read in the upcoming month, what you've just finished reading — your choice!). Then visit around and watch your TBR list grow.

Non-bloggers are invited to participate by visiting the links and commenting on others' posts and can leave their goals in the comment field.

By the way, I know that the uber-popular Fall into Reading Challenge hosted by Callapidder Days starts today. Feel free to link up the post that you wrote for that challenge here, or you can make a separate post and refer to your more comprehensive quarterly list. We would, as always, appreciate a link to this post, or at least to our homepage, so that your readers know where to find other participants.

Check out our new policy:

To make things fair, we'll post it at midnight Eastern on odd numbered months and at 7:00am Eastern on even numbered months.

Now everyone gets a chance to be at the top of the Linky. You East-coasters can remember that your chance to sneak in earlier will come in October.

Join in our other Tuesday community events:

• September 29 — I Read It! (what did you read at our recommendation?)
• October 6 — Bookclub: Rooftops of Tehran.
• October 13 — Children's Classics: Re-read a childhood favorite (I can't wait for this–both to read and read others' thoughts)
• October 20 — Kids' Picks

Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter.

Are you new to Nightstand? Do you want to know what it's all about? You can find all the information you want to know at the What's on Your Nightstand page.

But basically, just come here to 5 Minutes for Books on the fourth Tuesday of each month. You can either link up a post that you've written on your own blog about what is on your nightstand (what you plan to read in the upcoming month, what you've just finished reading — your choice!). Then visit around and watch your TBR list grow.

Non bloggers can participate by visiting the links and can leave their information in the comment field.

Check out our new policy:

To make things fair, we'll post it at midnight Eastern on odd numbered months and at 7:00am Eastern on even numbered months.

Now everyone gets a chance to be at the top of the Linky. We'll start next month (at midnight), but you East-coasters can remember that your chance to sneak in earlier will come on the even-numbered months (first one is October!).

Join in our other Tuesday community events:

• September 1 — Bookclub: Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. Check out the Discussion Questions.
• September 8 — Children's Classics: Back to School
• Kids' Picks
• September 29 — I Read It! (what did you read at our recommendation?)
• October 6 — Bookclub: Rooftops of Tehran.

Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter.

Write a post on your own blog, linking back to this page, telling us all about it. Then add your link (directly to that post, not to your main blog address). Visit others and see what they are reading as well.

If you don't have a blog, you can still leave a comment letting us know a book you loved this month or a few that are coming up in your list.

As always thanks for joining in, and come back for our upcoming Tuesday events:

• Our next bookclub is Rebecca on August 4. It's not too late to join in. Check out our discussion questions HERE.
• August 11 Children's Classics topic is Adventure! (books that recount or inspire adventures)
• August 18 is Kids' Picks — basically a kids' version of Nightstand where they give recommendations on what they like.
• September 1 bookclub is another contemporary pick — Rooftops of Tehran. You can check out my review to see why I loved this book.

Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter.

I THINK that Mr. Linky's troubles are fixed. I think that we are going to still go with leaving links in the comments for our other Tuesday community events to encourage non-bloggers to join in as well, but we need to use the Linky for ease in surfing the links for What's on Your Nightstand.

Link directly to your post below (not to your front page). If the Linky happens not to be there, then please link in the comments.

As always thanks for joining in, and come back for our upcoming Tuesday events:

• Next Tuesday, June 30, is our I Read It carnival. Come back and share your reviews of books that you've read that were featured here or on 5 Minutes for Mom.
• Check in with us on July 7 to see what our very first "comment carnival" is all about.
• July 14 our Children's Classics topic is Field Trips (books that inspire a field trip)
• Our next bookclub is Rebecca on August 4
• We're thinking about using our off-month of September to add in another contemporary pick — this time we're thinking about Rooftops of Tehran. You can check out my review to see why I loved this book. If you think that you might want to join in, leave us a comment. We'll make a decision based on interest.

Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter.

So, if you're new here (or if you've forgotten), here's what we do.

Each month, let us know "What's on Your Nightstand" by sharing a quick review of recently completed novels, or a look at what you plan on reading in the month to come. You can show a picture of your nightstand (or your virtual nightstand — a bookshelf, the sofa end-table, a big pile beside your bed — wherever those to-be-reads reside).

Write it up on your own blog, and link directly to the post in the Mr. Linky below. Please link back to this post (or our home page), so that your blog readers can join in if they'd like. If you don't have a blog, leave a quick comment letting us know something you are reading this month, or something you just finished.

If you want to see what other bookworms are into, click through some of the links and read their lists.

Check out our Summer Fun Giveaway, with new giveaways daily. It runs May 25 – June 10.

Other community events coming up (if you have any questions about these events, see the info at our Join In page, or leave a comment here or send us an e-mail):

June 2: Everyone is Beautiful bookclub
June 9 — Children's Classics — Poetry
June 16 — Kids' Picks (like Nightstand, but recommendations from children)
August 4 — Classics Bookclub — Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

(As always, there is supposed to be a Mr. Linky here. If there isn't, it means he's acting up, and will likely return sometime. If you add your link in the comments, people can read through them, and I am trying to add them into the linky as I see it come up. I'll bet it will be better a little later today).

Subscribe to our feed. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter.

What's on Your Nightstand is our most popular event each month, and we are so happy to host all of you booklovers here on the last Tuesday of every month. If you're a returning participant, you know the drill.

If this is your first time here — welcome! Be sure to indicate that when you sign up so that we can give you a little extra attention.

This is an opportunity to share a little bit about books that you've just recently read OR to share about what you will be reading this month. Just enter the direct link of your Nightstand post in the Mr. Linky below.

It's a dangerous, dangerous place to hang out, since by reading all of these lists, our to-be-read lists grow and grow and grow, but please take some time and visit around. I mean, you can't go wrong with a little book obsession, can you??

Join in our other Tuesday community events:

May 5: Classics Bookclub — The Great Gatsby (see preview questions HERE)
May 12: Children's Classics — Future Classics (books that will be classics)
May 19: Kids' Picks
May 26: What's on Your Nightstand
June 2: Our FIRST contemporary bookclub selection — Everyone is Beautiful

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The fourth Tuesday of each month when I write up this post, I always feel like saying, "By now you know the drill. Link up. Browse the other entries (go spend money on more books)."

However, it seems that each month we have a few new people joining in, and that thrills me!

I want to be sure that anyone who pops in from another post knows what's going on. If it is your first time, be sure to put that by your name when you link up (for example Jennifer–1st time) so that people will give you some extra attention.

Each month, you can participate by sharing your reading habits with us in one of these ways:

1. Give a list (or take a picture) of the stack of books that you are in the process of reading or planning to read (it might be on your nightstand, on a bookshelf, or like me, under your bed).
2. Give short reviews of the book or books that you read that month.
3. Tell about what you are reading and why. I love to read the backstory on books. Did someone give it to you? Are you trying out a new genre at the recommendation of a friend (or website)? Did you stumble across a new author in a used bookstore?
4. Fill us in on your reading habits. When are you reading these books? Is one reserved for bedtime reading? Does one stay in your car to be read while you are waiting? Do you read just one book at a time?

If you write a post and link up here, we'd appreciate a link-back as well. Feel free to grab the graphic (although you don't have to), and either link to this post or our home page.

The post has gone live the last few months at midnight Eastern, but for the next few months, I'm going to post at 8am Eastern (to give the Eastern and Central time zones a fair shake at posting first).

If you love books and reading, please sign up for our feed so you won't miss any of our posts or giveaways.

We host a carnival each Tuesday. Coming soon:
March 31 I Read It!
April 7 Classics Bookclub: Around the World in Eighty Days
April 14 Children's Classics: Dog stories

The third Tuesday, Kids' Picks, is my favorite carnival here at 5 Minutes for Books, but based on participation and enthusiastic comments, this one at the end of the month is yours!

So, you know how it goes:

• You can give us a peek at your nightstand — your "to be read" for the month — either in picture form or text.
• You can also give us some quick reviews of books you read this month.
• If you want to tell us the hows and the whys of how that book made it to your nightstand, that's always fun, too.
• Then write a post on your own blog, and leave the link directly to the post below. We'd appreciate it if you'd like to us, too.
• Finally — visit some of the other participants and see what's on their nightstands!

Also, please remember that we have a special quarterly fifth carnival called "I Read It!" where you can link up a review (or reviews) that you have published this quarter to books that you have read at our recommendation. That will take place March 31.

And next week we'll be discussing Les Miserables in the Classics Bookclub. You can read the preview questions HERE. If you've read it recently and want to join in, there will be a Mr. Linky post up here on March 3 so you can link up your own blog post and join in the conversation.

If you love books and reading, please sign up for our feed so you won't miss any of our posts or giveaways (we give away at least one book each week).

I love everyone's excitement about posting and reading around in this monthly carnival. I know — it's a dangerous exercise, and I appreciate all of you who take the risk each month of exposing your to-be-read pile (which if it's anything like mine, doesn't always adhere to your goals). Even riskier, some of you are willing to read others posts, opening yourself up to finding even more lovely books worthy of attention.

Ah, the perils of a booklover.

So, this is how it works:

• Write a post on your own blog (or leave us a comment here if you're blogless) and tell us a little about what is on your nightstand.
• You could give a mini-review of a book that you're currently reading or just recently finished.
• You can also use it as a goal-setting exercise. Which books do you plan to read this month.
• As always, if you want to share the hows and whys of what you're reading or how it came to be on your nightstand, feel free. We love details!
• Please link back to this page (or our main page) in your post so that your readers can find out more about the carnival.

Link directly to your post and include it in Mr. Linky (sometimes he's temperamental these days, so if there's no Mr. Linky here, leave a comment with the link and I'll add it in when he reappears).

For more info on our other Tuesday community events, including our scheduled bookclub reads, check out our Join In page.

If you love books and reading, please sign up for our feed so you won't miss any of our posts or giveaways (we give away at least one book each week).

It's almost 2009, and here's a chance to think about what you might be reading as the calendar flips over. I know that I have a lot more reading time this month — between driving to Virginia for Christmas (my husband drives; I read), and slower school/activity schedules with the break, not to mention snowy days that keep me homebound!

So, what about you? What are you reading this month? Perhaps you are hoping for a certain book under the tree that you know you'll dig right into. Or you have books that you haven't been able to get to because of the busyness of the season. Let us know.

As always, you can give a brief review of the books that you read this past month as well.

Anything goes — just tell us What's on Your Nightstand?

And if you want some ideas about how to spend some Christmas cash or bookstore gift certificates, be sure to browse the other participants' lists. I'm sure you'll get some great ideas.

Our January Classics' selection is Hamlet. Check out our Hamlet preview HERE as well as reminders about upcoming Tuesday features.

Link up to your direct blog post here:

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