Saturday Miscellany—5/23/20

Odds n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
          bullet I’ve been starting off with ways to support Indie Bookstores during all the shutdown, etc. I don’t have a broad, all of us can do it, for this week. But here’s what my local store is starting, which is a great idea. Book a Private Shopping Experience at Rediscovered Books—are stores near you doing clever things like this? I’m curious about what strategies individual stores are taking up.
          bullet On the origin of the word “blurb.”—One of those things you didn’t know you wanted to know.
          bullet Why We Need Family Adventure Stories
          bullet Penguin Worlds Book Club: Jim Butcher in conversation with Patrick Rothfuss—A fun chat between the two
          bullet The Great Fantasy Debate continues with What is the Best Fantasy Mode of Transportation? with authors Marie Lu and Naomi Novik
          bullet A lot of people were talking about reviews this week, some of those that stuck out to me are:
                    bullet Markk over on Booklikes asked this provocative question: Why do YOU review books?
                    bullet Why Do I Review Books: An Answer to A Question—Moonlight Reader’s response to Marrk
                    bullet Why Should You Write Book Reviews?—Ramona Mead takes on the topic from a different angle
                    bullet Why I don’t believe in unbiased reviews—Not only does The Orangutan Librarian have some good things to say about the craft (for lack of a less pretentious term), but she includes
          bullet Obligated Reading: A Book Blogger’s Conundrum—I have tried to write a post like this several times, and it just comes out whiny.
          bullet Why I Love Reading Fantasy (Hint: Dragons Are Involved)—a great list

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
          bullet Blood Brothers Podcast Episode 9 with M.W. Craven—I had a lot of fun listening to this one, and am all the more eager for Craven’s The Curator now.

This Week's New Releases That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
          bullet The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins—You may have heard of Collins YA series, The Hunger Games, it got a little bit of buzz a few years ago. Well, here’s the prequel. Which seems to have scared almost the entire publishing industry away from publishing anything else this week.
          bullet One Man by Harry Connolly and Stephen Bel Davies—Connolly’s One Man is out on audio!

Lastly I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Matt Sweeney, indiefan20, Susan and Bookworm Blogger for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

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4 Comments

  1. that article on blurbs was quite interesting.

  2. Thanks for the shout out! Hah, I didn’t even think whether mine would come off as complaining but I think it’s something a lot of us book bloggers struggle with–priorities–so definitely worth talking about. 🙂

    • I don’t think yours did come across as complaining (which I envy), and yeah, it’s so easy to get stuck on the Obligatory reads. Only 3 NetGalley/Edelweiss+ requests? Great restraint!

      • Thanks! It really is! Even self-imposed ‘obligatory’ reads like TBR lists sometimes fill me with guilt but I’m trying to get better about not feeling bad–after all who am I letting down? And things happen! And it’s not like I get paid for this lol. I’m down to one review request left and I feel REALLY good about that (even though it’s due soon.)

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