Saturday Miscellany – 1/10/15

Odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• I’m sure you heard that Mark Zuckerberg Aims to Start World’s Largest Bookclub on Facebook — which sounds interesting as all get out, and apparently, When Mark Zuckerberg Likes a Book, Sales Soar and by “soar,” they apparently mean “skyrocket”
• Mark Twain’s grave robbed of bronze plaque — Oh, c’mon people!
• Popular TV Series and Movies Maintain Relevance as Novels — The NYTimes talks tie-in novels
• 10 Books You Should Finally Read in 2015 — The B&N Book Blog makes a good case for this, but . . . yeah, just not going to happen.
• The Problem With Reading Competitively — Claire Fallon makes some really, really good points here about reading goals, etc.
• Interview: Myke Cole, Creator of Shadow Ops — a good interview with Myke Cole. His fourth novel Gemini Cell is one of the books I’m most looking forward to.
• The Joy of Book Blogging — This is a heckuva piece.
• 23 Words For Book Lovers That Really Should Exist — a bit of fun to start off your Saturday
• Our Favorite Fictional Characters Share Their New Year’s Resolutions — from the B&N editors — a grin or to can be found here.

After a few s-l-o-o-w weeks, I’m really looking forward to this batch of: This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Golden Son by Pierce Brown — #2 in The Red Rising Trilogy. Cannot wait to get my grubby little hands on this one.
• Firefight by Brandon Sanderson — The Reckoners #2 is also out — nowhere near as good as The Red Rising Trilogy, but this is a fun series.
• Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch — I’m almost halfway done with this latest adventure of apprentice wizard/London Constable Peter Grant, and am digging it. Perfect change of pace after the game-changing events of the last book.
• The Witches of Echo Park by Amber Benson — I’ve enjoyed Benson’s work in the past, and while I’m not convinced that I’m part of this book’s audience, I want to give it a shot.
• As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley — Flavia de Luce gets up to more misadventure — and probably murder solving while she’s at it

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to 1 SIGFRIDSSON, emily kitta, Dioniso Punk, Maz Halima, and pmitsuing for following the blog this week. Thanks to theeditorsjournal for the interaction.