Saturday Miscellany—10/5/19

A brief one this week—but such is the joy of being miscellaneous, right? Here are the 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:

• Growing Number of U.S. Adults Just Don’t Read Books—Really, I’m not sure this is news. But those numbers are depressing.
• The Authoritarian’s Worst Fear? A Book: Governments are spending a remarkable amount of resources attacking books — because their supposed limitations are beginning to look like ageless strengths.—making the previous piece look even worse
• Everybody Loves to Hate a Dirty Cop: 10 Books of Corruption and Greed—Adrian McKinty assembled a pretty impressive list here. Yes, it’s from 2017, but I don’t think I saw it then.
• Fiction Ghostwriting Is Bigger Than Ever—huh.
• What is your #1 Priority when Choosing a Book to Read?: There are a lot of things that could influence why you choose a specific book to read…
• After picking a book, you may need this: The Art of Abandoning Books—wisdom I need to apply more
• and if it’s still not one you like, this could come in handy: Why I Write “Negative” Reviews (And Why You Don’t Have To)—(one of the better of this type of post)
• A Bookworm’s Guide to Removing Stubborn Stickers—I think we all have had a few more of these than we want.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• A Time Traveler’s Theory of Relativity by Nicole Valentine—A nice Time Travel Story for the young and young at heart. Here’s my post about it
• Embrace Your Weird: Face Your Fears and Unleash Creativity by Felicia Day—a promising looking book to help spark (or reignite) your creativity
• Murder in Montague Falls by Russ Colchamiro, Sawney Hatton, and Patrick Thomas—a shared universe collection of short stories. I’ve been seeing Colchamiro talk about this coming for months now, looking forward to dipping into it.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Mohit Malviya, jackiesreadingcorner, and Patrick Lynn for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?