Wow, I’m about 2 hours behind schedule for the day…so I’m not going to try to come up with anything to lead off this week’s post.

Well, maybe a little…I tend to share a meme or something like that with these posts, just stuff I stumble upon. This week, author R.T. Slaywood created one that made my day–had to be used (as self-aggrandizing as it may be).

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 Will supply chain issues affect the books you want? Depends on what you’re reading.—that last line is a bit ominous, do we have to go through this again? Might be time to buy stock in a bidet company.
bullet Another Pandemic Surprise: A Mini Indie Bookstore Boom—Nunc hoc in marmore non est incisum
bullet PW’s best books of 2021—Is it really time to start these already???
bullet Serial Thinking—I would not have put First Things on my list of places to look for solid takes on the Chet & Bernie books, but John Wilson delivers that, a thoughtful take on “genre” vs. “literary” fiction, and thoughts on the making of serialized fiction—in one short piece.
bullet Goodbye To Goodreads—I absolutely get why authors would abandon the site–outside of opportunities to market themselves anyway. But how many times does it have to be said? Reviews–especially amateur ones–are for readers, not writers. (there are plenty of other reasons to avoid Goodreads, and I’m not trying to defend the site, this just seems silly)
bullet Audiobook History, or: Why Audiobooks Matter!
bullet 8 Things to Do While Listening to Audiobooks—Nunc hoc in marmore non est incisum
bullet A Thank You to The Write Reads Gang—one of those posts that can’t be said often enough.
bullet Do you use bookmarks? I do, just not actual ones. Here are some weird/random things I (and my daughter) use!—there are some very odd things in this list (can’t imagine some are that good for the binding, either)
bullet Books to Video Games—I’m not a gamer, but a couple of my kids are, but I thought this was interesting. While I’ve seen (and purchased as gifts) several books adapted from games, I can only think of a couple of books that have been adapted to games–The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Below the Root (oh, and the obligatory Sherlock Holmes/Nancy Drew—every medium has to have them). The age of both of those games suggests how much of a gamer I am.
bullet Why I’m Keeping My Book Blog
bullet Common Problems Book Bloggers Have and How To Solve Them—good advice
bullet 5 Things I Look for Before Following a Book Blog
bullet Don’t be a Stranger: How to Make Connections in the Book Blogging Community
bullet To All The Books I Didn’t Buy,—loved this.

This Week's New Releases That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet It’s a Wonderful Woof by Spencer Quinn—The first (novel-length) holiday Chet and Bernie book is a great bit of fun. I enthused about it recently.
bullet Best in Snow by David Rosenfelt—Andy’s dog, Tara, literally digs up a new case for him in this holiday themed novel. I talked about it a little a couple of weeks ago
bullet title by soandso—The eBook release of the Audible Original. Shining Smith #2 features a road trip, a handful of battle scenes and some surprising character developments. I had a little to say about it earlier this week.
bullet The Last Time She Died by Zoë Sharp—first in a new series has a heckuva hook. Not one I can do justice to in a sentence or so, better just click the link.
bullet Dust & Grim by Chuck Wendig—half of the reason I’m interested in this book is to see how Wendig can write for MG audience. The other half is that it takes place in a monster mortuary—which just sounds fun.

Lastly I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Carol who followed the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger!