Saturday Miscellany—8/7/21

I was on the cusp of establishing a new reading/writing schedule that would work for me and I just threw it out the window–my last day for my employer of 5+ years was yesterday. For the next few weeks, my commute to my new gig promises to be a giant pain in the tuchus (I hope I’m not too Protestant to use that word), but I think that I’ll have a longer lunch break. What this means for my reading/audiobook listening is up in the air.

But that’s something to tackle over the next couple of weeks. For now, let’s dive into this very miscellaneous miscellany:

that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
A Brief History of Summer Reading: We rarely talk about spring books or winter reading. What is it about summer that inspired a whole genre of its own?—If you subscribe, haven’t read your free article for the month, or use enough browsers to dodge the paywall, this is a great way to spend a couple of minutes (and, yes, you shouldn’t dodge…I shouldn’t, either)
Maybe You Can Have Too Many Books in Your TBR Pile
Typos, tricks and misprints: Why is English spelling so weird and unpredictable? Don’t blame the mix of languages; look to quirks of timing and technology—in a different world, where I followed up on a scholarly whim or two from college, I’d be producing things like this. Instead, I get to geek out over those who do.
The Silver Age of Essay—excerpted from the Introduction to a collection that I’ll aspire to—but probably won’t get around to—reading.
SA Cosby: ‘The holy trinity of southern fiction is race, class and sex’—great interview with Cosby. I’m ready to order his work-in-progress right now.
7 Music Novels to Shape Your Summer Soundtrack—I don’t understand music novels…I just don’t. The two art forms shouldn’t work. But I’ll read and reread and reread a good one. What about you? Anyone read anything off this list? (I haven’t yet)
In the New Era of Social Distancing, It’s Time to Revisit the Genius of Monk: Who’s overreacting now?—sure, this is about the TV show. But Monk’s great enough that I don’t care. And the novels by Lee Goldberg fit what’s said here, and I’ve now turned this bullet point into something about reading, so the uptight voice in my head can shut up.
This Is Why I Love J.R.R. Tolkien – And You Should Too—I appreciate Tolkien, but nowhere as much as Strasser does. But maybe I should.
Books That Made Me Cry Like A Lil’ Baby—I wouldn’t have expected to find any of these books on this list (although, I (inexplicably) haven’t read Bloody Rose, but I can see Eames doing that to me), but I get what Chilcottharry is saying.
Words Have Power — Neurodivergence in Fiction—I’ve linked to a couple of the early pieces in the Neurodivergence in Fiction series (and I feel awkward about dropping the Monk link above given what they said about the show), and you should read them all. But I wanted to call attention to this new entry by Friend of the Blog, Jodie from Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub.
What is Grimdark to Me? by Clayton W. Snyder—Snyder’s post makes me want to read more Grimdark.

That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Bodacious Creed and the Jade Lake by Jonathan Fesmire—in this sequel to the very odd Western-Zombie-Steampunk novel, Creed goes to Chinatown to investigate what (I think) we’d call sexual exploitation aided by technology. Even if I got the wrong idea from the synopsis, this is sure to be a good read.
Grenade Bouquets by Lee Matthew Goldberg—the sequel to the 90’s grunge tribute/coming-of-age novel Runaway Train, tells the continuing story of Nico as she tours with a band over the summer. I should have had the foresight to put this on my 20 Books of Summer list, so I could dive in.

I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Angela, Cristina Monica @ Hit or Miss Books, Amy and Anketsu who followed the blog this week. Don’t be strangers—introduce yourselves in the comments below, maybe pick up another reader?