Tag: Miscellany Page 157 of 175

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:

• Stealing Books in the Age of Self-Publishing — This is disturbing.
• Most YA fiction is grown-up fiction in disguise — Things That Make You Go Hmmmm…
• Daniel O’Malley Talks Stiletto, Writing a Razor-Sharp Sequel — Like I needed a reason to want to read this more . . .
• Author Interview: Matthew Norman — nice interview with Norman.
• 34 Compelling First Lines of Famous Books — nice infographic (hat-tip: Lagniappe Literature)
• Every Modernist Novel Ever — Mallory Ortberg scores again

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Infomocracy by Malka Older — post-cyberpunk, political-technological thriller.
• The Bookman by Lavie Tidhar — Angry Robot republished this Victorian adventure that I always meant to get around to. Good reminder.

Lastly, I’d like to thanks to a href=”https://thereadingdesk.wordpress.com/” target=”_blank”>Vijayalakshmi Harish for all the encouragement this week, check out her pretty nifty blog, too.

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Odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them (especially if you read BookRiot a lot), but just in case:

• Why teenagers are so resistant to e-readers — at least one teen’s thoughts
• Economists show that boys who grow up around books earn significantly more money as adults — feelin’ good about my boys’ future
• 4 Times Don DeLillo Predicted the Future — really, I’ll stop talking about DeLillo and his new book soon. Probably sometime after I read it.
• Goodreads Launches New Homepage — eh…less than impressed, but I don’t hate it. You?
• The Stakes of Genre Categorization — Michael R. Underwood talks about Genre Categorization and another way to go about it.
• “The Boxcar Children” and the Spirit of Capitalism — I read many of these books as a kid (several times), I never noticed what this piece from The New Yorker points out. Not sure I totally buy it, but thought it was interesting. Learned some interesting behind-the-scenes info about the books, though.
• Tor.com Publishing Acquires Three Books From Myke Cole — There is no part of this that doesn’t appeal to me.
• How I mourned my sister through the books she left behind
• The 7 Kinds of Reader I Wish I Were — Me, too
• Books & Co. – Ace Atkins — a piece on Atkins from Arizona PBS.
• Play along – Summer Book Bingo — seems like a fun way to track reading…we’ll see how it goes (but who will hear me yell out, “Bingo!” when I win?)

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Cupid Reconciliation by Michael R. Underwood — The bestest
  Genrenaut story yet. I hope you all are reading this series (or at least buying them).
• We’re All Damaged by Matthew Norman — Norman’s follow-up to Domestic Violets is a strong candidate for my year-end list. Probably a stronger candidate if I ever get around to reading it. Still, it looks nice on my TBR shelf.
• The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction by Neil Gaiman — do I really need to say more than just the author’s name?
• Death by Cliché by Bob Defendi — “Death by Cliché is a heartwarming tale of catastrophic brain damage. Share it with someone you love. Or like. Or anyone at all. Buy the book.” The Big Idea about it.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and thanks to Sidney (in case you’re reading this) for the very nice and helpful email this week.

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:

• Science or magic? UK scientists test reality of Harry Potter spells — You have got to be kidding me. People wasted time on this? (actually, the whole Borrowers thing disturbs me even more)
• Why Reading Makes You a Better Person — a nice looking infographic
• In honor of Towel Day a couple of days ago (and yes, I know I failed to post something…been one of those weeks):
  • PW’s The 10 Funniest Books — not so sure I buy this list, but some of them look mildly humorous.
  • Fighting Post-Hitchhiker’s Disorder: 6 Essential Books for Douglas Adams Fans — I may have posted this last October, but it’s worth another look.
  • B&N tweeted this awesome fact
• ‘It needs more public-spirited pigs’: TS Eliot’s rejection of Orwell’s Animal Farm — what a great letter.
• Title Fights: Who gets to name an author’s book? — I love behind-the-scenes stuff like this.
• Along those lines By the Cover: Meet Kirk Benshoff — and another BookRiot post on cover designs
• jay Posey and James L. Sutter tweetedthese important reminders for readers
• The 16 Most Misleading Book Covers Of All Time — this was hilarious (and horrifying).

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• A Mint Condition Corpse by Duncan MacMaster — a geek-centric mystery. Okay. I’ll bite. From Fahrenheit Press, who else?
• The Last Star by Rick Yancey — Loved The 5th Wave, was less into the sequel — but am really looking forward to this.
• Dietland by Sarai Walker — this looks fun. ” Part coming-of-age story, part revenge fantasy, Dietland is a bold, original, and funny debut novel that takes on the beauty industry, gender inequality, and our weight loss obsession—from the inside out, and with fists flying.” Check out the trailer.
• Dark Run by Mike Brooks — a space opera about smugglers, con artists and thiefs. Sounds good to me.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to Senna and Beth from Hello Beautiful Book Blog for following the blog this week.

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:

• 11 best things we saw at BookExpo America 2016 — EW takes a look back at BEA 2016 and a look forward at the rest of the year in books.
• Goodreads Offering Personalized Daily E-book Discounts — I’m not sure this is a good thing or not, I like the deals, but do I really need another email telling me about books to buy?
• No Genre Ever Dies: On Loren D. Estleman and the Pulp Tradition
• Not-So-Civil War, or Embracing Polyfanory — not a shock that I like something Anton Strout says, but this piece is really good.
• The Rook Is a Delightfully Weird Twist on Urban Fantasy — B&N Reads makes the case that you should read (or re-read) The Rook in the month we have until the sequel comes out. Sounds like a solid plan, The Rook was good. Don’t take my word for it, click the link.
• White Noise is an outsider’s look inside small-town Americana — I never turn down an excuse to read about, talk about, think about DeLillo’s book. Neither should you.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• The Highwayman. by Craig Johnson — a Longmire novella.
• Who Killed Sherlock Holmes? by Paul Cornell — the third Shadow Police novel — I can’t tell you how much I want to read this one. If you’re not reading this series, here’s a great hopping on place. Check out his Big Idea post about it.
• This Damned Band also by Paul Cornell and Tony Parker — is out in collected form now. This is a demented looking story.
• Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me: What Pop Music Rivalries Reveal About the Meaning of Life by Steven Hyden — going behind the music to look at pop music’s best rivalries
• The Second Life of Nick Mason by Steve Hamilton — could be the start of a heckuva series, getting a lot of good buzz, too.
• My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix — described by the author as “basically Beaches meets The Exorcist.”

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:

You may remember my post about
• Elphie and Dad go on an Epic Adventure — it was just featured on the Youtube channel Storytime Pup. Very cute.
• HC Starts Bookstore Development Program — There may be a catch to this, but at least at first glance, this sounds pretty nice.
• School Principal Says Reading ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Game of Thrones’ Causes Brain Damage — um, what?
• Dear J.K. Rowling: Stop Apologizing! — I wanted to write something like this when I saw Rowling apologizing for killing characters. The choices she made about character deaths were part of what made the series what it is. But Vanessa Willoughby says it better than I would’ve.
• Ace Atkins talks about SLOW BURN, THE INNOCENTS — because you can never have enough Atkins…

Only One of this Week’s New Releases caught my eye:
• The Vagrant by Peter Newman — I heard Newman recently on The Cornell Collective, and look forward to getting to read this release

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to extraordinarydog for following the blog this week.