Saturday Miscellany—7/24/21

Man…I accomplished so little here this week. Those SPAAW posts were supposed to be what I ran alongside new posts about individual books, not the sum total of what I produced this week. I don’t mind, really, except my “to write about” list is now at the despair-inducing length. I did have a good time going down memory lane with some of those books, though.

Part of my lack of production has to do with re-establishing a routine that includes being in the office. I’m not doing well with that, and don’t understand how I worked there for so long and was a productive reader/blogger. I’ll figure it out, I trust. I’m glad to take any tips you have, though.

But you’re not here for that, you’re here for these (I assume):
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 A Guide to Developing a Deep Reading Habit: 7 principles to help you read more and read better—I don’t know why I keep posting pieces along these lines, it’s hard to imagine anyone reading my posts who need them. But you never know… Also, I enjoy reading them.
bullet There’s No Wrong Way to Read a Book—this gets posted despite the idea of bacon as a bookmark, because it’s so quotable.
bullet Our Woke Book Burners: Books are not violence—I would not use many of the words in this piece (or headline), as I don’t think they actually help communicate to those who disagree. But the ideas are important to wrangle with in our cultural moment.
bullet When Writers Cave to Social Media Scolds—Kareem Abdul-Jabbar does a better job talking about related ideas.
bullet Kempt, Couth, Ruth: On the Disappearing Antonyms of “Grumpy” Words: Arika Okrent Wonders Why Negative Descriptors Tend to Outlast Their Positive Counterparts—I love this kind of thing. I was just talking to someone that I took a class along these lines in college—I loved the results of the research but had no affinity for/interest in the work.
bullet We Need More Victim-Focused Narratives—absolutely. Every time I read something that could be described along these lines, it feels like such a breath of fresh air and needed.
bullet Bibliophiles Are Sharing The Most Annoying Book Tropes And I’m 100% On The Same Page As Them—I’m with all of these. However, with the exception of #18, I’ll buy into any of them if the author does something interesting with it.
bullet Self-published Authors Appreciation Week—Witty and Sarcastic Book Club threw a little celebration of Self-Pubbed authors this week, here’s a list of (nearly?) every post that was part of it—I’m still working through the list myself—some really good stuff here, check it out.
bullet For example: Ways You Can Support Self-Published Authors
bullet On a related note, Gabino Iglesias tweeted about the benefits of the various modes of publishing (although his last point needs a little nuance—not that tweets have room for nuance)
bullet Books That Ought to Come with a Box of Tissues—Fun idea for a post.

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4 Comments

  1. Re the “Most Annoying Book Tropes”: #s 4,5,and 10 are proof that all romance and/or gothic novels are basically a re-imagining of “Jane Eyre.” This includes classics like duMaurier’s “Rebecca” and every single Harlequin romance.

  2. WS_BOOKCLUB

    Thanks for helping make sp week so great!

  3. Thanks for sharing my post 🙂 I’m really curious about loads of these- especially there’s no wrong way to read a book!

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