Saturday Miscellany—2/1/20

Okay, I’m back with a mega-list that comes from two weeks of saving ideas. Lots of good stuff to be read in these odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• Your 2020 Literary Events Calendar: For All Your Literary Planning Needs—granted, this would’ve been more useful a month ago, but it still may be of interest.
• Lee Child letting go of his creation is a tale told by other bestsellers—more reaction to the Child announcement (and why others won’t follow suit)
• The Power of Books to Help Us Cope in Our Darkest Times—who hasn’t been there?
• In 2019, more Americans went to the library than to the movies. Yes, really.—I wonder if that has more to do with less of us going to the movies…but hey, it’s a fun stat.
• My Lifelong Love Affair with Libraries</
• 8 Comfy And Cozy Idaho Book Shops To Get Lost In On A Snowy Day—of little use to anyone who doesn’t live in/near Idaho, but it’s a fun list. I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve never been in the one in my own city, but I’ve visited a couple of the others.
• 5 Tips for Tackling a Long Book—should have read this before starting Tom Jones, but I think I’m doing a lot of this anyway.
• Rediscovering the Lost Power
  of Reading Aloud—longer read, but worth it.
• Raising Strong Readers: Strategies for parents and educators to encourage children to read — from infancy to high school
• Writing Tips From the Don Winslow Universe—also serves as a “Features of Winslow’s Writing that Should Make You Interested in Reading Him”
• 5 Reasons Why You Should Be Reading Seanan McGuire—My list would differ and I’m indifferent to some of these, but it’s a good read anyway.
• I enjoyed Chuck Wendig’s tweets about Prequels—as well as the replies from MattOK, Kyoko M., and Dennis R Longo Jr³³º¹.
• One Man Reviews and Discoverability—Harry Connolly looks back on the first month of One Man sales and reviews. My goal had been to read this in January, didn’t happen. February will be tough, but I’m going to try.
• How to Pick What to Read Next: 5 ways to find your next favorite book—for those who don’t have their next 20 reads picked.
• A Beginner’s Guide to Audiobooks
• Paperback Protectors: Book Sleeve Gift Guide—On the one hand, the last thing I need is another accessory to my books. But some of these look really cool. (also, I wouldn’t have torn my The Cartel cover in my desk drawer if I’d had one, I just realized)
• Finding time to read—one blogger’s approach to the problem
• Tricks to Make Time for Reading—this post from Netgalley’s new Bookish blog shares some of the above and adds a couple others.
• 5 Reasons Why Your Reading Goals Don’t Really Matter: Hey, you. Stop worrying so much about how many books you’re reading in a year.—Yes, but…
• Why I’m Not Doing A 2020 Reading Challenge—I totally get this…
• My TBR Monster Is Wounded But Still Alive—I love the strategy here.
• The thing about ‘must read’ lists—Most/all of this seems self-evident, but many of us still need to hear it anyway.
• Four Things I’d Like to See More of in SFF—Good ideas.
• The Do’s and Don’ts of Approaching Book Bloggers with Review Requests—yes.
• People Don’t Have to Read Your Book to Support It—How nice of Publishers Weekly to say this
• I’m Just Going to Leave This Here..—I can relate to so much of this.
• It’s OK to Take a Break.—Hear, hear. (still, not reading for more than a few hours gives me the willies, but I get his point)
• Wrapping up this monster list with a bit of silliness from BookRiot: The Best Bookish Versions of the Dolly Parton Challenge

Some Book-ish Related Podcast Episodes you might want to give a listen to:
• Authors on a Podcast Talking Books Ep. 11 – Marc Thompson—I don’t think I’ve heard an audiobook by him before, but I enjoyed hearing about his process and career. Also, listening to Daria’s Mr. DeMartino reading an Amazon review was wonderful, could just that be a half-hour bi-weekly podcast?
• The Author Stories Podcast Episode 793 | Mike Chen Interview—a great chat with Chen, I particularly enjoyed his Hornby discussion.
• Authors on a Podcast Talking Books Ep. 12 – Mike Chen—much of the same territory as the previous link, but they’re both worth listening to. A lot of bonus Star Wars discussion.

New Releases from the Last Two Weeks that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Slow Bear by Anthony Neil Smith—Noir on an North Dakota reservation, looks brutal, intense and good.
• When We Were Vikings by Andrew David MacDonald—A nice little coming-of-age story. I talked about it some in December.
• High Fire by Eoin Colfer—I typically enjoy Colfer’s stuff and I only needed to read “high-octane adventure about a vodka-drinking, Flashdance-loving dragon who’s been hiding out from the world – and potential torch-carrying mobs – in a Louisiana bayou” to grab it. I’ve yet to read a review, but they seem positive.
• House on Fire by Joseph Finder—The New Nick Heller novel has him taking on one corner of the opiate crisis. Gonna be good.
• Hi Five by Joe Ide—Isaiah Quintabe is back, which is all i need to know. If you want more, Lashaan at Bookidote has a few things to say.
• Buzz Kill by David Sosnowski—a couple of teenage hackers unleash an AI on the world.
• The Bard’s Blade by Brian D. Anderson—a promising looking epic fantasy that I’m trying hard to find time for soon.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to travelingcloak, clareblanchardbooks (no URL, can’t follow-back), Store Of Unicorns, jamesdeeclayton and fluffyluggage for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?