Saturday Miscellany—1/11/25

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:
Can You Guess the Book Titles from These Emojis? Test your knowledge of classic novels and contemporary bestsellers —Let’s start off the week with something silly. It’s also proof that I cannot communicate in emojis. I got none of these.
Why reading out loud is important—something more for the “do audiobooks count?” nonsense (hat tip: booklistfordays)
Craig Johnson’s Next Novel Drops May 27, Was Inspired By Cowboy State Daily Story
There’s a New Version of Hamlet Staged in Grand Theft Auto—I initially rolled my eyes at this (but was going to include it only for the excuse to post the headline), but on third or fourth thought…I’m a little intrigued.
Why I’m making 2025 my year of dead-tree books
Raven’s 2025- The Year of ‘Read Like Nobody’s Watching’… —This is the approach we should all approximate
Bookish Goals in 2025—good, SMART goals
My 2025 Bookish Ins and Outs—wise plans
Presenting the Picture Prompt Book Bingo Challenge for 2025 —After telling myself to cut back on challenges this year, I see this one–which looks like it coule be fun to try.
Five Fantasy Bookstores and Libraries I’d Love to Explore—yeah, I would spend time in these
Plot Pet Peeves—I cannot imagine anyone (other than authors/publishers, apparently) arguing aginst any of Krysta’s points.
The 12 Best Sci-Fi Novels of the Last 10 Years—According to Collider and Reddit, anyway. Although, having read 5 of these, I’m inclined to believe them.
Trying and Failing to Figure Out “Escapism” in Books—some good thoughts from Molly Templeton (as one expects) and others.

It’s the Time of Year for Best of Lists like these to embiggen your 2025 TBRs (or to give you fodder to think about).
Celeste at A Literary Escape listed Favorite Books Published in 2024 and Favorite Backlist Reads of 2024
My Top 10 Ten Books of 2024 and My Top Ten 10 Books for Children 2024—from Left on the Shelf (the latter defintely added to my TBR)
From Worlds Unknown’s 2024 Wrap Up – A Year in Books + What’s Coming in 2025

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Fiction Fans 2024: Year in Review—a fun look back at their year that was
The Conversation with Nadine Matheson M.W. Craven: Luck, Crime Writing and Life Lessons—I would’ve gladly listened to a few more hours of them talking shop.

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week? (a mostly great week for reviewish posts and new releases)
The Gods of Guilt by Michael Connelly
Us by David Nicholls
Food: A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan
And I noted the releases of Golden Son by Pierce Brown, Firefight by Brandon Sanderson, Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch, The Witches of Echo Park by Amber Benson, As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear by Seanan McGuire by Seanan McGuire—The latest Wayward Children book is everything you want, as I tried to say recently.