I’m glad you stopped by for this today, but I really want you to read my earlier post of the day, I had more fun with it than I usually do. So take a moment if you haven’t to check out: The Grandcritter’s First Festivus.
With that out of the way, let’s get to the “serious business” of today.
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:
Reading print improves comprehension far more than looking at digital text, say researchers—Not the first time I’ve heard this, but I do find it interesting. Would you all prefer if I started mailing these so you can understand it more?
‘It’s totally unhinged’: is the book world turning against Goodreads?—pretty sure I’ve posted things like this before, too. One of these days, the death knell may truly ring.
Last week, I linked to the first 20 of these, and now we can read The Biggest Literary Stories of the Year: 30 to 11 The 10 Biggest Literary Stories of the Year—(at least according to LitHub). Some interesting things here…many of which I was previously unaware of. That’s how in-tune with the Big News I am.
Before We Go Blog brings Five Recommended Books for Winter Reading—(or other times of the year, too)
Announcing the Picture Prompt Book Bingo Challenge for 2024—It’s like Dixit or Mysterium mixed with a Reading Challenge.
It’s time for some more 2023 Best Of Lists.I agree with a lot of these (and added more than I should to the overburnded TBR)
The Ultimate Best Books of 2023 List—Lit Hub’s Emily Temple compiles results from 62 published lists to list the best of the best.
Top Five Character-Driven Books I Read In 2023—from Steven Writes
Operation 2023: Success! (Or Favorite Books From this Year)—Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub has some real winners (and you’ll never guess the 2nd book on this list!)
Favourite Series of 2023—from Novel Deelights
CrimeReads’ The Best Noir Fiction of 2023
The Best Books I Read in 2023—from Read Betwixt Worlds
Tiny Elf Arcanist Character Awards 2023
CrimeReads’ The Best Traditional Mysteries of 2023
Why Stories About Stories Bugs Me
This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Death in the Dark Woods by Annelise Ryan—should’ve been mentioned here last week. Moving on from lake monsters, cryptozoologist/bookstore owner Morgan Carter looks into Bigfoot.
Down The Well by Veronica King—this just sounds like a ball. Sentient lamp posts? You can never go wrong with lamp posts in fantasy, making them sentient is a heckuva bons.
Grimdwarf: A Magaine of Fantastic Tales edited by JCM Berne—1. It’s free. 2. It’s good. 3. It’s a quick read. 4. It’s good. I have no idea how/if I’ll be talking about this zine regularly, but for now, I’m just going to promote it when I have the opportunity.
(can’t like back to the creator, since I don’t know where it came from)
JCM Berne
Thanks for the p lug, HC! I do plan to collect The Grimdwarf at some arbitrary point – maybe 25 or 30 chapters into an ebook? So if you want to hold off for that, makes perfect sense (I will NOT structure the story so it peaks or ends there the way one would with a novel). I can’t collect the associated stories, though, so that’s another thing.
HCNewton
I had planned on asking directly at some point