Saturday Miscellany – 10/24/15

Didn’t get as much done around here this week as I wanted to — alas, sometimes the parts of my life that make this possible (e.g., job, sleep) have to take priority. Just based on the partial posts that got written this week, next week might make up for this one. In the meantime, to tide you over:

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

• Books At Home Tied to Future Reading Skills — Good news for my kids 🙂
• Fewer Americans are reading books, but don’t blame the millennials — clearly, everyone’s parents didn’t have enough books in the house.
• Why the Printed Book Will Last Another 500 Years: The Future of Reading Came and Went — I’m aware that Adam Sternbergh writes things other than the Spademan novels, but I’ve never bothered to read them until this one. Obviously, no near-future hitmen involved, but still good.
• What do writers owe readers in the digital age? — So Joanne Harris churned up a little storm cloud this week talking about the relationship between readers and authors in the Social Media Age. On the whole, I appreciate what she has to say, but I see the point of her detractors as well. Good coverage — which includes her manifesto.
• Reading for Pleasure: A book blogger’s creed — Here’s something I can get behind; one book blogger’s response to Harris’ manifesto. Speaks for a lot of us.
• One of my favorite series, the Eddie LaCrosse novels, has its first novel republished this week . Here’s a nice post about Alex Bledsoe writing it.
• Lending books: share your horror stories — Just in time for Halloween, stories about book lending gone bad from The Guardian. The Horror.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith — If I’m understanding things correctly, this’ll be the last Cormoran Strike for awhile, so she can get some projects related to a kid wizard wrapped up (anyone ever heard of that series?). It’ll be a shame to bid au revoir to the lunk, but I’m looking forward to this.
• The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss by Max Wirestone — a little Veronica Mars, a little Izzy Spellman, a little Ree Ree Reyes — at least, so it seems. I’ll let you know in a week or two. Looks fun regardless.
• The Sword-Edged Blonde by Alex Bledsoe — sorta counts, was republished this week with a snazzy cover to match the more recent releases. A really good book, solid PI novel in a fantasy setting. Get to know this guy!

For those who like to read these kind of things, I did update ye olde Blogroll this week, there are good things to be found at those links. Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Laura@125Pages
and Nightlizard (who has impeccable taste in fictional characters) for following the blog this week — you’ll be seeing a lot about ol’ Laura@125 Pages next year (linked to her in this space a couple of weeks back, too). Many thanks to Fran Wilde for the kind words and signal boost this week, too.