3 weeks in a row posting in the afternoon? I’m not crazy about this trend… Don’t really have anything to say, just getting that off my chest. Hopefully, I get my act together.
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:
Why We Need Public Libraries Now More than Ever: Who needs libraries, anyway? Turns out, we all do.
The Low Down on the Greatest Dictionary Collection in the World
What Does Being “well-read” Look Like to You? Dismantling Elitism in Reading Spaces—hard to argue against this (although I realize I just invited some to do so…)
Inheritance of Magic – Series Health—Benedict Jacka talks about early sales/reviews of his new series and compares it to Alex Verus
It’s that time of year:
The CrimeReads 2023 Holiday Gift Guide: 30+ cozy, mystery-ish, book-adjacent gifts for your crime-obsessed loved ones!—some interesting ideas here. Incidentally, if any family members are reading this—I would wear both caps very frequently (particularly the one while flying).
33 Bookish Gifts for Every Reader on Your Holiday List—from NetGalley’s We are Bookish
Pay It Forward: Fahrenheit Book Bank—Doing this is just one of the things that makes Fahrenheit one of my favorites
This Week’s Punctuation Power Rankings
The Books That Keep Us Company for Decades—Molly Templeton’s latest
It’s time to check in on #R3COMM3ND3D2023 as it recaps favorites from 2023:
…with Bookstagrammer Louise Geoghegan of LouiseReads_UK
…with Kate of The Quick and the Read
…with Bookstagrammer Lynda Checkley of @lyndas_bookreviews
..with HC, The Irresponsible Reader—who let him opine?
…with Author Joy Kluver
…with Hayley of The Lotus Readers
…with Lynne of Fictionophile
Are you making art or making a product?—a related question for us non-authors: are we reading art or a product?
My Literary DNA—oh, this is good
Short Books You Can Read In A Day
4 years of Spells & Spaceships: the journey so far and my 10 favourite books.—Only 4?
I Am Pro Prologues!—hear, hear!
Ten Books about Books—a nice little list to work through (I’ve read one from this list, so plenty for me to work on )
M&M’s choose my tbr for December—I love this concept
A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
SFF Addicts Ep. 79: Jim Butcher talks The Olympian Affair, The Dresden Files, Mentors, Cats & More—am sure no one is surprised that I enjoyed the heck out of this
An Interview With Patrick Rothfuss—not technically a podcast, but I’m putting this interview from Grimdark Magazine here anyway. Also, I haven’t watched yet–but how can it be anything but good?
This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
The Narrow Road Between Desires by Patrick Rothfuss—I cannot wait to dive into this novella about Bast (the character I’m least interested in from the series), because I will take any new Rothfuss I can get.
The Great Gimmelmans by Lee Matthew Goldberg—”Middle child Aaron Gimmelman watches as his family goes from a mild-mannered reform Jewish clan to having over a million dollars of stolen money stuffed in their RV’s cabinets while being pursued by the FBI and loan sharks.”
The Secret by Lee Child and Andrew Child—back to 1992 to see MP Reacher at work. I’m trying to get hyped about this, but the fact that I’m #80 or so on the Library’s wait list doesn’t bother me at all suggests I just can’t.
The Lost Cause by Cory Doctorow—Something tells me I’m going to have significant problems with some of this book, but the premise (that I won’t try to summarize here) intrigues me
Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Amy Rice, who followed the blog this week. I hope you enjoy the content and keep coming back.
Nicole
I hadn’t thought of the question in that light. Are we reading art or a product? Perhaps this is something that needs further thought.
HCNewton
There are some books that definitely give a “product” vibe (I’ll keep the lawyers at bay at not name names) as I read them, for sure. But, yeah…it’s a thing to think about.
WS_BOOKCLUB
I was a little bummed to find out the The Narrow Road Between Desires is just a slightly (in my opinion) revised short story that was previously published in a Rogues anthology. So, it wasn’t new to me. Not for nothing, but I was hoping for a new- new Rothfuss.
HCNewton
Having missed Rogues, it’ll be new-new to me. But yeah, I get ya.