Saturday Miscellany—2/22/20

Running late today, my normal time for assembling this post was taken up by a valiant attempt at a little DYI around the house. The results speak loudly about my fitness to spend my time reading and talking about books and far away from tools.

But from the better late than never department, 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:

• 125 Books We Love—The New York Public Library lists 125 books from the 125 lives they’ve been around “that inspire a lifelong love of reading.”
• How Reading Books Helps Your Brain Recharge
• How to Curate the Ultimate Home Library—There are some really good tips here
• Should You Stay Up Late to Finish Your Book? The Pros And Cons—hmmmm
• Spinning Silver author Naomi Novik to launch epic new trilogy this fall—this one looks pretty cool (no surprise given the source, really)
• Dragons, Wizards, and Other Story Distractions—A. Lee Martinez opines about what really matters in fiction
• The Best Small Presses Publishing Crime Fiction Today: A celebration of the indie presses keeping crime fiction weird.—alas, a few of my favorites didn’t make this list (Fahrenheit Press, for example), but still a good place to start. From this list, I’d start with Down & Out and Polis Books. Haven’t read a bad book from Hard Case Crime, either.
• BBNYA (Book Bloggers’ Novel of the Year Award) – Prizes + Author Interview—Some more info on the BBNYA.
• Are Classics Relevant?—I can’t believe people have to keep saying this, but if we have to, we should do it like The Organgutan Librarian does here. Along the same lines, this week she posted Books That I Think Will Be Future Classics #2. What do you think of that list?
• 7 Reasons why I Love Audiobooks
• My Fictional Dinner Party—just a fun idea for a post.
• AND HALT!: The Things That Get Us to STOP Reading—a good list. Any you’d add?
• When should you buy books?—Beth from BooksNest asks this important question.
• Let Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Detectives Choose Your Next Mystery Read—I’m not sure Holt would enjoy the book associated with him, but I liked the argument. I won’t argue with the rest of this (and have added a couple of things to my TBR).

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode you might want to give a listen to:
• Author Stories Podcast Episode 810 | Roxanna Elden Interview—I read a little about this book a few months ago (as I recall), but had forgotten about it until this great chat with Garner. I really appreciated her take on the audiobook narrator.

This Week’s New Release that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• A Deeper Song by Rebecca Bradley—the newest DI Hanna Robbins, the last two in this series have been among the best procedurals I’ve read in the last couple of years, I expect this will join the list. Bradley’s last novel is still collecting virtual dust on my Kindle, but I might read this one first.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Wednesday Reads, Eamon, Graphic Design Eye and ARJung for following the blog in some format this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?