Category: Books Page 116 of 161

This has been a strange week, I kept running out of steam in the evenings and was honestly and pleasantly surprised to find that I’d played around on social media enough to actually have anything to post today. How I got anything written this week is beyond me. I did do more reading than I expected to—still, I have a need to be reading 5 books right now rather than writing anything (and I don’t mean reading a chapter or two and then switching, I literally mean reading 5 simultaneously). When I say that I overcommitted for Sept./Oct. I really mean it. (and that’s not counting the two books I pre-ordered months ago that arrived in the last 10 days and are sitting ignored on my shelf).

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this list of odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye—I did:

• Study finds that learning to read enhances the brain in more ways than one: Reading sharpens parts of the brain without overriding the system.
• Why Some People Become Lifelong Readers: A lot rides on how parents present the activity to their kids.
• 50 books, 50 days and a car named Thunder: Columbus native takes cross-country trip to nation’s bookstores—I’m sure there’s a reason why this story is printed twice—once without paragraph breaks—on the page, but scroll down to help your eyes a lot.
• Celebrity Book Clubs Are Actually Selling Books—This is an interesting phenomeon, not one that has much of an influence on a reader like me, but it’s interesting to see. Also, I’m not a Sportsball guy at all, but I do know who Andrew Luck is. Glancing at his book club picks over the last few months, I think I might check back on it from time to time, I like his taste.
• Book clinic: can you recommend modern fiction to replace my love of classics?—I thought this was a rather odd question, but…interesting answer
• Expectation Vs Reality: My Self-Publishing Debut—a fascinating guest post from Off the TBR (love the blog name).
• Where have all the good men (and women) gone? Favourite heroic heroes!—another good list from The Orangutan Librarian
• Author-pay in Tacos per Copy—In response to a tweet about selling ARCs, Kevin Hearne breaks down how authors get paid by the taco (scroll down to see audiobooks and used books)

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode you might want to give a listen to:
• Author Stories’ Episode 724 | Craig Johnson Returns With Land Of Wolves—Hank Garner’s fifth chat with Johnson. Pleasant chat about a great installment in the series (my post about the book will be up soon, I think)

Among an interesting looking crop the this week’s only New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon is:
• Fallen by Benedict Jacka—the tenth in the Alex Verus series is out now, and I’m hoping I can squeeze it in soon. Incidentally, I like the fact that the US covers are starting to be multi-colored. I can’t give an abbreviated single-sentence synopsis, because I like walking into these without any idea what’s going to happen. It’s enough that it’s a new Verus.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Aqsa haleem, OwlBeSatReading, and bryan_lunsford for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

Been a busy, busy day, just now had time to sit down and list off the odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• Let’s start off with: ALA denounces new Macmillan library lending model, urges library customers to voice objections
• and then: ‘What Should I Read Next?’: How publishers’ increasingly restrictive e-book policies could undermine a key public library reference service
• before moving on to more upbeat things, like: Lad Lit: The Subgenre the Man in Your Life Needs—Nice to see Matthew Hanover and Ian Shane get some good press.
• Like many, CrimeReads was horrified by The Princess Bride reports this week, and it led them to thinking about the career of the writer, William Goldman
• Some Of The Best Scottish Crime Writers—The title says it all
• A Crime Author Grapples With the Old Question: Where Do You Get Your Ideas From?—Reed Farrel Coleman describes the inspiration for The Bitterest Pill and others.
• Authors Share The Worst Advice They’ve Ever Received..—There’s some bad advice here…and one very common thread
• How do you write negative reviews?—I’ve shared a handful of “should you write a negative review” posts over the years, I think this is the first to ask “How”. Important question.
• Catching Up On My Review Backlog [or, How I Write Reviews When I Barely Remember the Book]—Nice process piece, and I recognize a few of my own tricks here. Reassuring to see I’m not alone.
• My reading journey: Why audiobooks are lifesavers

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Land of Wolves by Craig Johnson—I’m looking forward to seeing how life is doing for Walt back in Wyoming. After the (IMHO) less-than-successful Depth of Winter, I think this could be a turning point for the series.
• System Failure by Joe Zieja—The Epic Failure trilogy concludes. I’m expecting to laugh a whole lot when I start this (hopefully Wednesday). Some of the best humorous SF, I’ve ever read.
• A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie—the generation after The First Law seems to be just as messed up as their forefathers. Gotta be a blast.
• Kopp Sisters on the March by Amy Stewart—Constance leaves the jail behind and trains for WWI service

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to agnieszkaweiner
(say that fives times fast) and Bill for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

Odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• Why It Matters That Amazon Shipped Margaret Atwood’s “The Testaments” a Week Early—I am honestly indifferent to Atwood’s success and inherently suspicous about the novel (for reasons I’ll leave to myself and I know I’m in the minority about); nevertheless this move by Amazon, and what this indie bookseller says about it, truly disturbs me.
• Almost Everything About Goodreads Is Broken: Despite Amazon’s innovation elsewhere, Goodreads has stagnated for 12 years, and its problems are endless—this is somewhat overblown, and I’ve seen a lot of pushback about it. But, it’s worth a read. What do ya’ll think?
• We asked for your favorite crime-fiction authors. Boy, did you respond.—from The Seattle Times. “Boy, did you respond” made me smile—there’s not a lot to chew on here, but I liked the piece and it pairs nicely with:
• Is crime fiction the new working-class novel?: Perhaps genre books are so popular because they speak to the people who buy them—from The Irish Times
• The Crime Hub—launched this week and I predict I’ll use it frequently
• Eating waffles in San Antonio – with a real-life fictional character—Andy Martin, who has turned writing about Lee Child in to a cottage industry^*, sits down and talks to someone who won one of those charity auctions to get your name in a book.
• The Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Defies Easy Genre Categorization—Yes. I know nothing/next-to-nothing about the works discussed here, but yes.
• Strong Women Are Taking Over the Thriller: 7 Badass Female Protagonists Helping to Redefine Modern Thrillers—A piece from last year that popped up on a social media feed this week, not sure how I missed it last year. Anyway, some decent TBR fodder and one great point about the plethora of “psychological thrillers featuring unreliable female protagonists”
• It’s not recreation, it’s research!—Even if you’re not a fan of Nero Wolfe (I pity you), am sure most people reading this can enjoy the piece and maybe even feel envious.
• How I Fell In Love With Reading || Ft. Bedtime Tales and A Magical Storybook
• Eight Reading Habits to Increase Your Reading Speed Plus Some Bonus Tips to Tackle your TBR!—A fun piece including some decent tips, a couple I’m not sure of and then: “Don’t Purchase Any More Books Until You Are Done With Your Current Ones” because the writer is some kind of monster.
• What Reading Has Taught Me, and Why it’s Still Important Today
• Five things that can make you dislike a good book—#1 is a big one for me.
• Ten Problems Only Booksharks Have—1. I like the term “bookshark,” it may quickly replace “bookwyrm/bookdragon” as my go-to. 2. I’m not sure these are problems, aren’t they just a thumbnail sketch of my personality?
• A Protest Sign I’d Carry/T-shirt logo I’d wear/Bumpersticker my Car Needs

^* Which I heartily endorse and enjoy.

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode you might want to give a listen to:
• Drinks with Tony: Robert Crais – #49—On Facebook, Crais said: ” This is one of my favorite podcast interviews, gang. I think you’ll agree.” I do agree—not just regarding interviews with Crais, either.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Bitterst Pill by Reed Farrel Coleman—Coleman’s (sniff)last (sniff)Jesse Stone (sniff)novel (not the last in the series, I should stress). Opiods in Paradise—a strong one to go out on. Now I live in fear about the state of the series. Here’s what I said about the book.
• An Orc on the Wild Side by Tom Holt—I need to make room for this on my schedule. In the meantime, here’s what Paul’s Picks had to say.