Category: Saturday Miscellany Page 22 of 32

Today’s post feels a bit further over on the miscellany spectrum than others. And I can never decide if that’s a good or a bad thing. I think I prefer the more scattershot lists. Prefer it or not, it’s what I have today. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

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:
Has Literature Ever Changed the Course of History?
I assume many of you, like me, have been seeing plenty of chatter about book lengths recently. I thought John Scalzi’s reply on a reddit thread pretty useful
8 Unique Libraries in the United States—poor use of “unique” and lack of links/pictures aside, this is an interesting look at some notable U.S. libraries
Humor in Books, and Other Places, Too! An Interview with Peat Long
The Gaiman Guide—a handy-dandy guide to Gaiman for those looking for a way into his oeuvre
How Non-Librarians Imagine a Librarian’s Typical Workday—This isn’t really how it is?
How Lee Child’s Killing Floor Was Transformed Into “Reacher”—Child’s biographer takes a look at the first season
Tips for Writing a Good Book Review—Some handy tips/reminders from NetGalley’s blog
What Should I Write About?—A question most bloggers have asked themselves.
Why Should You Reread Books?—a few thoughts from Ramona Mead.
What really happens after rom coms…—Just in time for Valentine’s Day

Things I learned from reading this week (that I can’t imagine finding a use for):
The first recorded use of “easy peasy lemon squeezy” was from 1983. How is that possible? Doesn’t that seem generations late? (from Jumping Sharks and Dropping Mics by Gareth Carrol)

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

I watched the first two episodes of Reacher yesterday—they weren’t perfect, but they were fun. Also, they used a song by Naked Blue’s album in the second episode, which almost makes up for not using one of their songs as the theme. I probably would’ve inadvertently binged the whole thing, but I have things to do today.

But you didn’t come here for that (maybe in a week or two, I will talk at length about it), you came here for this:

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:
Print Sales Likely to Fall in 2022—The reasoning behind the prediction makes it seem less glum than the headline, but still…
The Inside Story of the Banning of “Maus.” It’s Dumber Than You Think.: I read the minutes of the McMinn County, Tennessee, school board so you don’t have to.—there’s nothing to make this less glum
Or this: Book Bans Are Targeting the History of Oppression
How To Get Teenagers To Read Important Books—Whatever issues I may have with the author (and there are plenty), this was a fun read. Probably optimistic, but I’ll take it.
Growing Up Surrounded by Books Could Have Powerful, Lasting Effect on the Mind: A new study suggests that exposure to large home libraries may have a long-term impact on proficiency in three key areas—I keep telling my kids they were lucky to be raised by me…
Synthetic Voices Want to Take Over Audiobooks—this could really be a dystopic list this week…
Here’s something fun: Sleuth Youths: Enduring lessons from three great junior detectives of literature
Fantasy Focus: Comedic Fantasy- Featuring Claire Buss—there was one in this series yet to post when I pointed to the rest last week, might as well get this one in, too
Humor in Books, and Other Places, Too! An Interview With H.C. Newton—This will not be the best entry in this series on Lockhaven’s blog, but it’s near and dear to my heart.
Alternatives to Goodreads: TheStoryGraph
Reading Tastes Evolve
Part of your evolution may be seen in your take on this: Books Set in the Pandemic- yay or nay?!—I’ve heard authors opine on writing one, but little about readers wanting them. What do you think?
You Don’t Have To Finish That Book You Aren’t Enjoying
Anatomy of a Reading Slump—been a while since I’ve been in one, but there’s little worse (for a reader, that is—there are plenty of things objectively worse)

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Fiction Fans The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams—Every time I’ve listened to a podcast episode about this book, I’ve been annoyed/irritated/cheesed off by some/much of the discussion (well, except the Waterstones episode about the making of it)—and I usually end up talking back to the episode, frequently quoting the book to refute it. I clearly need a different hobby. But Lilly and Sara avoided that, and provided an interesting take on the book.

Things I learned from reading this week (that I can’t imagine finding a use for):
The world’s first ATM was installed in 1967 in London. The US would get one two years later. I was under the impression those came around 15 or so years later.
Source: Go Back to Where You Came From by Wajahat Ali (verified because it made me curious)

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
The Goodbye Coast by Joe Ide—Ide reimagines Philip Marlowe in a contemporary LA. Color me curious.
Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead by Elle Cosimano—Finlay has to keep her husband alive, keep her shenanigans out of sight from the hunky detective, and finish her next book. Should be fun.
The Employees by Olga Ravn, translated by Martin Aitken—The novel “chronicles the fate of the Six-Thousand Ship. The human and humanoid crew members complain about their daily tasks in a series of staff reports and memos. When the ship takes on a number of strange objects from the planet New Discovery, the crew becomes strangely and deeply attached to them, even as tensions boil toward mutiny, especially among the humanoids.”

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

1. This post is brought to you by “hey, I remembered to proofread (seconds before I hit publish)!” Something I frequently forget to do (and only caught out of the corner of my eye while moving the mouse to the button). So this isn’t going up with the 4 missing links and 8 glaring formatting errors that it almost featured.
2. I’d picked the graphic for this far before I read the last post I mention, there’s no connection between them.

Hope everyone had a decent week, and that it ends on a relaxing note—and, hopefully, with a good book.

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:
‘I always be sneaky’: Boise eight-year-old hides self-made book on library shelf—an insanely cute story from a library nearby
The Comics Cavalcade: The rise of a medium—a very brief history of Comic Books
Humor in Books, and Other Places, Too! An Interview With Susana Imaginário—the latest installment in Lockhaven’s series. (I’m really enjoying these, can you tell?)
Witty and Sarcastic Book Club had another fun series this week, Fantasy Focus: Comedic Fantasy, you should check it out.
An Interview with Andi Ewington, coauthor of Campaigns and Companions
An Interview with Sean Gibson, author of The Part About the Dragon was (Mostly) True
A guest post by Kyle Lockhaven, the aforementioned interviewer
An Interview with Bjørn Larssen , author of Why Odin Drinks
A Guest Post by D.H. Willison, author of things like Love, Death, or Mermaid?
Where to start with: Agatha Christie—Janice Hallett provides this handy guide for people like me, who haven’t actually read one of the genre’s greats and want to start.
21 Phrases You Use Without Realizing You’re Quoting William Shakespeare
A Reading Spreadsheet Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated—they don’t?
10 Book Series I Loved Growing Up—a fun post over on FanFiAddict, even if it makes me feel really old because I literally couldn’t have read most of these as a kid
Blogging to Get Free Books: Sometimes Necessary, not Evil—Once again, I have missed a blogging controversy (and I’m fine with that), still a good post.
What I’ve learnt from reading fiction – part 7—I really like these posts
To binge read or not to binge read?

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
The Appeal by Janice Hallett—came out in the U.S., and should not be missed. I talked a bit about it last year.
Accomplice by Lisa Lutz—will get under your skin. I posted about it recently.
Light Years From Home by Mike Chen—a family drama and UFO abduction story, that just might involve an intergalactic war. I hopefully dive into this next week.

I apparently had one of those weeks where I did more reading than blogging/blog prep, I didn’t realize it, but apparently, that was the case. STill did get a post or two up every day, and found some good stuff for this post, just not what I expected to produce at the beginning of the week. Oh, well. Read some good stuff, plugged away at a couple of projects I’m excited to share with you, and…well, I don’t know, there should be a third thing, but who has the energy to write a whole list?

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:
Book bans are back in style
For Booksellers, the Crystal Ball Stays Cloudy: Indie booksellers saw solid sales in 2021 but wonder what 2022 will bring
30 years of Harry Bosch—that’s a mind-boggling number
Humor in Books, and Other Places, Too! An Interview with Armanis Ar-Feinial—I’m really digging this series from K. R. R. Lockhaven.
The Deeply Personal Art of Organizing Your Books—Molly Templeton weighs in on book organization
5 Years of Blogging—Suckerforcoffe looks back on five years of blogging—no mean feat.
What You Need to Know Before You Return a Book on Audible in 2022
I read City of Lies…all of them—I don’t know how I left this off of last week’s list, but I’m glad I did, I’m a little short on material for this week. The Fantasy Inn’s Kopratic read every book called City of Lies around. Brilliant idea for a project

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or four) you might want to give a listen to:
Tales From The Bridge: All Things Sci-Fi Ep.27: A Conversation with Seanan McGuire—I’ve heard a few interviews with McGuire—she’s always entertaining, but she’s in rare form here. Great stuff.
The Thriller Zone Nick Kolakowski, Pulp Thriller Writer—this was a good interview that inspired me to dip into the archives, the episodes with Ace Atkins and Tori Eldridge were worth noting, too. This podcast is going to be in the rotation for a while.

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Robert B. Parker’s Bye Bye Baby by Ace Atkins—This is the tenth and final book in this series for Atkins, and he goes out strong in this story of Spenser protecting a politician from threats and harassment. I tried to get my post up about this yesterday, but it needed a little more time in the oven. Hopefully early next week.

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

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:
Americans Reading Fewer Books Than in Past—pretty sure this is news to no one. Still depressing to see.
Book bans in schools are catching fire. Black authors say uproar isn’t about students.
The 23 most popular books of the past year, according to Goodreads members—huh.
Have We Forgotten How to Read Critically?—Um, yeah?
Ace Atkins bids Robert B. Parker’s Spenser farewell
The Future of Robert B. Parker’s Sunny Randall—I meant to include this last week, but it fits the theme of the previous item.
Some Books That Inspire Me—On the eve of his first novel’s publication, Adam Shaw talks about some books that got him to that point.
Maybe Reading Goals Are Good, Actually—Templeton has some good ideas about reading goals for a self-described “free range reader”
How BOOK IT! Made Reading Delicious—from Mental Floss
Bookish Bucket List—Now this is a good idea…
Misrepresentations of Autism in Fiction—good stuff from The Coycaterpillar Reads.
StoryGraph vs. Goodreads – The Good & the Bad
The importance of book reviews

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
The Jackals by Adam Shaw—Jack Dotson returns to his hometown for a funeral and has to deal with the past he tried to leave behind—and doing so may cause trouble for the rest of his life. (oof, that sounded lame…go read the link, it’s better when not summarized in a sentence)

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

(really quick—I could still use a recommendation or two for the 12 Books Challenge, if you’re in the mood to help a guy out)

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:
Never Donate These Books to Little Free Libraries (or Anywhere Else)—Some of this seems like common sense. Probably those parts need to be emphasized.
Public Domain Day 2022—a list of some of the works that hit Public Domain this year, it’s not just Winnie-the-Pooh.
Noah Hawley Keeps Changing Lanes—a profile of Hawley and his new novel
#R3COMM3ND3D2021 The After Show Party—A look back at #R3COMM3ND3D2021 (a truly impressive number of books got mentioned in these posts—if you’re looking for a 2022 TBR list, you could do worse than working your way through these.
Humor in Books, and Other Places, Too! An Interview with Darran Handshaw—Lockhaven’s series continues—and includes a fire safety tip!
These are probably the last of the 2021 Wrap Up posts (although I might not be the only one taking too long to do theirs), those that caught my eye:
Raven’s Yearly Round Up 2021 and Top 10 Of The Year—plenty of good recommendations here
Bookworm Blues lists their 25 Best Books of 2021
Bookforager’s 2021 Progress Report
The Bookwyrm’s Den brings us something from the other end of the spectrum comes To All the Books I DNF’d (2021 Edition), which is a much nicer way of dealing with this idea than I’d come up with.
2022 Reading Challenge for Overwhelmed Book Readers—for those who need something like this
Why I’m ditching star ratings in 2022—I keep circling back to this idea myself
10 Reasons to Read Indie and Self-Published Books

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
And Your Enemies Closer by Rob Parker—the first (fairly disturbing) book in this Audible Original series was my introduction to Parker, and this follow-up is just as riveting as the predecessor. Former detective DI Foley kicks off a war between criminal factions. (I almost wrote my post about the book right here…oops. No one has time for that right now)
Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire—a non-reading/blogging project this week sucked up more time than I expected, which is the only reason I didn’t start (and likely finish) the 7th Wayward Children book two days ago.
Anthem by Noah Hawley—”An epic literary thriller set where America is right now, in which a band of unlikely heroes sets out on a quest to save one innocent life—and might end up saving us all.” Yeah, that’s pretty vague, but it’s as good as I can do right now.

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

Happy New Year, readers!

I don’t have a lot to say this week—so let’s just get on with things, okay?

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:
What’s the Best Book of the Past 125 Years? We Asked Readers to Decide.—From the NYT. I can’t argue with the results, I guess I could, but I won’t.
The 36 Best (Old) Books We Read in 2021—Not your typical year-end post.
Humor in Books, and Other Places, Too! An Interview with L.L. Stephens—another in Lockhaven’s series on humor.
Building a fantasy world map using Adobe Illustrator—never read Jackson’s work, but this was fascinating
Speaking of maps, this is impressive: Alex Verus Map Project—a valiant Alex Verus fan has created a google map of every location in the Verus novels.
Alcoholic Drinks to Pair With Favorite Fantasy and Horror Books—I attempted a post like this a couple of years ago, this is the way to do it.
The Simple Guide to Netgalley—A Handy Guide from Tales from Absurdia.
Of the making of Year-End Posts There Is No End (well, it just seems that way—there probably will be an end in a couple of weeks). Here are a few more that I found interesting:
The Best Reviewed Crime Novels of 2021—From CrimeReads
The Fantasy Hive 2021 Year-End Awards
FanFiAddict’s Justin’s Top 10 Reads of 2021
Ben from Literature & Lofi’s Favorite Books From 2021
Yearly Roundup & Favourite Books: 2021—from Spells & Spaceships
Reader Voracious has released their 2022 Ultimate Book Blogger / Reader Spreadsheet Template—if you’re looking for a tracker, you should give it a shot
2022 “Support Book Bloggers” Challenge—this seems like a really neat idea
What Book Series Did I Finish Reading in 2021?—quite the feat.
Out of Order Reading Methods—clearly, this is the work of a monster. This is not the kind of thing that should be normalized! (just kidding, this is a fun post)

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Beth Tabler who followed the blog this week.

I cannot believe anyone’s actually reading this today, but stranger things have happened, I guess.

Eh, maybe you need a break from the festivities, here’s a little to occupy your mind. It’s not much, I think everyone was lightening up on content this week.

that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
Libraries enlist states in fight over ebook rules
The Most Popular Books and Audiobooks on NetGalley in 2021
The most popular US library books of 2021
2022 Ultimate Book Blogger / Reader Spreadsheet Template—2022 will be my third year using this template from Reader Voracious—I still don’t use all the features, but those that I do are more than worth it. Even if I wasn’t blogging, I think I’d prefer this to what I came up with on my own.
It was the last week for The #R3COMM3ND3D2021 series over at Damp Pebbles. The posts over the last week were by:
Podcast Audiobookish
BookBlogger Karen Cole
BookBlogger Rae
Author Joy Kluver
BookBlogger Emma—the proprieter of Damppebbles herself chimes in to wrap up the series
A few more installments of this year’s Best Of Lists…
12 Authors Share the Best Books They Read in 2021—from the We Are Bookish blog
from FanFiAddict: Tom’s Top 10 Reads of 2021
Witty and Sarcastic Book Club declares the year a win: Operation 2021: Success! (or Favorite Books from this Year)
Why I’m not seeing a numbered reading goal for 2022…
Blogging VS. Social Media: why having a book blog still matters—I’ve seen a little of this conversation online, but this is a pretty full response to the idea that book blogs are obsolete.
Why Book Blogs are Relevant & Valuable Marketing Tools—okay, the above was a full response, this is…um…fuller I guess.
The Die Hard Book Tag—a holiday-season Book Tag I can get behind.

We’re nearing the end of the year, which means a couple of things for these posts: almost no new releases on the horizon and lots of year-end Best-Of lists. Which I’ll now demonstrate:

that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
‘Interview with a Vampire’ Author Anne Rice Dies at Age 80—I’m not a Rice fan, but it’s more-than-easy to see the giant impact she had on fiction. I read Interview back in college and loved it. At the same time, I didn’t think I needed to read another work by her.
Yanking Books From School Libraries: What the Supreme Court Has Said, and Why It’s Murky—I don’t see my shutting up about this any time soon…
So my Saturday night was ruined last week when I saw Ace Atkins’ tweet about next month’s Spenser being his last. I’ll probably say something in a couple of days about this, but in the meantime:
Publisher’s Weekly tweeted some details about the next Parker series novels.
Blogger/Parker aficionado Gerald So posted a professional take on the news and a personal one.
What’s So Great About Great-Books Courses?—Some thoughts about the state of humanities in universities. (I’ve always wanted to take one a Great Books course)
I’ve put this off as long as I could, but it’s time to start looking at Best Of lists…
I’m not sure that David Rosenfelt’s list was all that impartial. But it was probably the most enjoyable to read.
Over at FanFiAddict, Lord TBR’s Top Reads of 2021 could easily occupy my first quarter of 2022
Kevin Burton Smith‘s list is pretty impressive, too.
The Best Crime Novels of 2021 from Crime Reads
My Top 10 Reads of 2021!from Out of This World SFF
It was the penultimate week for The #R3COMM3ND3D2021 series over at Damp Pebbles. The posts over the last week were:
Book Blogger Catherine Friess
BookBlogger Eva
Book Blogger Ally
Author Jon Ford
BookBlogger Richard Fernandez
Book Blogger Julie Morris
How Many Books Make a Book Blogger?—I didn’t realize this was a thing, but now that I’ve read this, I can see it. Like so many “you have to do X to be Y” in fandoms, the notion that you have to have a number of physical books to qualify is pretty silly. And I say that as someone who’s waiting for his youngest to move out so I can have more room for my collection…

I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to sang, who followed the blog this week. Please don’t be a stranger!

I feel bad not having an introduction of sorts this week (I remember when I didn’t do that at all, but that was a while ago), but I really don’t have anything on my mind today. And then I started thinking that if I’m not careful, I’m going to end up as the bookish equivalent to a recipe blog that makes you slog through a thesis on the history of potpourri or finding just the right pillow for their dog or whatever before getting to the ingredient list. And who wants that?

Oh look, I found an introduction. I never said that I wanted a good one. I’d better shut up and make with the links.

that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
A Double Loss: Ford and Waterman—there were something special about G. M. Ford’s Leo Waterman books, I’ll miss them.
A novelist says fake editions of his works were listed on Amazon as centuries old, with one $7 book going for $1,008—what?
Bookstores are dying. Barnes & Noble’s pricing policy may help explain why.—again, I say, what? (this feels like I’m starting an Amber Ruffin sketch from Late Night)
PEN America Calls Out Texas School District for Banning Eleven Books—you know, I might (might) feel a teensy-weensy bit better about this wave of School Book purges if there was even one book on this list that punched Left.
Of course, it’s spreading…Iowa legislators target books and teachers for upcoming session
The 101 Best Book Covers of 2021—I usually enjoy this list, but the overwhelming majority of these didn’t do anything for me. There are some worth checking out though–and I’ve spotted those in the wild (and have been led to at least read the back of the book)
The Curse of Englishness: Why Every British Thriller Is Also a Black Comedy
How Can You Be A Fantasy Author If You Flunked Creative Writing Class? – An Origin Story by Thomas Howard Riley
Humor in Books, and Other Places, Too! An Interview with Jamie Jackson—Lockhaven’s starting a series of interviews along these lines (I meant to drop a link to the first one, with Camila Sortica AKA Blackbird (@Bbird_26), back when it posted, too).
Exclusive Cover Reveal: The Broken Room by Peter Clines—Nice interview to go along with that reveal, too.
The #R3COMM3ND3D2021 series over at Damp Pebbles keeps chugging along, expanding TBRs of all who read the posts. The posts over the last week were:
Book Blogger Sarah Swan
Book Blogger Lynne aka Fictionophile
Bookstagrammer Zoebeesbooks
Book Blogger David
Book Blogger Anne Williams
Book Blogger Kate
Let’s Talk About Mood Reading
Quotables: Words that Stuck with Me- 2021—This is a great collection over at Witty and Sarcastic Book Club. It’s inspired me to start something in 2022, too, that will absolutely be the most blatant rip-off (but will hopefully be thinly disguised enough that I can get away with it).

That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon. This looks like it’s going to be a slim month for new releases, but at least it starts off promising:
Risen by Benedict Jacka—As I whinged about Wednesday, I didn’t get this on time. So I can’t link to my (expected) tear-filled rave about the last Alex Verus novel, so check in mid-week next week for that. In the meantime, go procure your own copy.
Family Business by S.J. Rozan—a new Lydia Chin/Bill Smith mystery? I’m in, even before reading about it: “The death of a powerful Chinatown crime boss thrusts private eye Lydia Chin and her partner Bill Smith into a world of double-dealing, subterfuge, murder, and—because this is New York City—real estate”
The Liar’s Knot by M. A. Carrick—the follow-up to The Mask of Mirrors is out. I’m honestly a bit intimidated about diving back in to this world, but I imagine it’ll be worth it.

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