Today was one of those days where I realized, “I really didn’t spend that much time online this week, did I?” I’m not sure what I did instead (work, read, spent time and attention on those people/dogs in my house, I guess). So, this is on the briefer end, hope you still find something worth the pageview 🙂
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:
Support for book bans spreads across Tampa Bay
Amateur sleuths help solve 160-year mystery by decoding Charles Dickens letter—apparently, Dickens had an idiosyncratic shorthand code that it took a crowd-sourced effort to decode.
Are Screens Robbing Us of Our Capacity for Deep Reading?—Like most things Hari writes, I appreciate reading it, even if I wonder about his conclusions/theses. And worry that I’m wrong-headed in quibbling with him. This is worth a read, if only for the final paragraph.
The Power of Music in Fiction: A Reading List—Haven’t—probably won’t—read any of these books, but this is a fun list to read and then come up with your own list along these lines.
9 Fantasy Books from the 1980s You Might Not Have Heard Of—I’ve only read (and reread and re-reread and re-reread) one off of this list, but looked at/considered buying most of the others. You?
A Comparison of Goodreads vs. The StoryGraph—good breakdown
A Sobering (but not suprising) Twitter Thread About Audible’s Royalty practices
A Fantasy Blogger’s Guide to the Trees of Europe—Alex asks, “How often have you read a book that mentions a specific species of tree, or even a whole forest, and you breeze on past, vaguely picturing a bit of greenery as you go?” Every single time. And that’s not going to change, despite Alex’s very impressive post. But it should.
On Redemption Arcs—I’ve been toying with my own thing about Redemption Arcs—approaching it from a different perspective entirely, I should add—but I’m rethinking/reframing it after this post. Thoughts, they were provoked by Peat.
Things I learned from reading this week (that I can’t imagine finding a use for):
Before filming To Have and Have Not, Howard Hawks had Lauren Bacall to see a vocal coach, transforming her high-pitched, nasal voice into the low, husky voice we all know. That boggles my mind–like the first time you hear Stephanie Beatriz out of character as Rosa Diaz, but more extreme. Source: The Goodbye Coast by Joe Ide
This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
All At Sea by Chris McDonald—in the 6th Stonebridge Mystery, Colin and Adam find plenty of trouble on a cruise to Italy. I talked about it yesterday.
Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Friendly neighborhood introvert and Kelly, who followed the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger!
Kelly
Thanks for the shout-out 😊