Miscellany - The Irresponsible Reader

Saturday Miscellany – 1/18/14

On January 18, 2014

Ugh. 2014 has just not been working the way I expected. Not reading much, (obviously) writing less. What I’ve read has been great, and hopefully I’ve got things figured out on the writing end. Still, here are the latest odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

2014 The Edgar Awards nominees — as much as I like to think of myself as a mystery reader, I don’t recognize much on this list at all. Probably a lot of good TBR list fodder here.
A Snapshot of Reading in America in 2013 — These stats from the Pew Research Council are pretty darn fascinating
The Top Ten Books People Lie About Reading — you guilty of any these?

The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley — the new Flavia de Luce adventure. I predict shenanigans, mischief, murder and restrained sass.
He Drank and Saw the Spider by Alex Bledsoe — How can you not love sword jockey Eddie LaCrosse? Elvis Cole in a fantasy world.
Switchblade by Michael Connelly — a new Harry Bosch short story. Short fiction ain’t my thing, but there are writers I make exceptions for.
The Emperor’s Blades by Brian Staveley — not really looking for a new epic fantasy series, but volume 1 of the Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne looks pretty appealing.

Saturday Miscellany — 1/11/14

By HCNewton

On January 11, 2014

In Books, News/Misc.

Sorry this is late today, stuff at work happened that I won’t get into because: 1. you don’t care, 2. you wouldn’t believe me. Anyway, here are the odds ‘n ends from this last week about books, authors and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

Why Reading Is Important — Well said. I should track down this book
The Decline and Fall of the Book Reviewing Empire — Nice piece on the current landscape of book recommendations/reading/social media
Reading Bingo Challenge 2014</a

16 Books To Read Before They Hit Theaters This Year — handy-dandy little TBR list for those who hate to see movies before they get a chance to read the books. Bonus for me: I didn’t know Hornby’s A Long Way Down was going to be a movie — yay! And what a cast!
The Very Weird Handwriting Of Very Famous Authors — This is why I’m glad we have typesetting
Marcia Clark’s Series May be TV Bound — it’s not my favorite mystery series or anytyhing, but it’s good, solid stuff, and it’d make for pretty good TV

The Baby Boom: How it Got That Way… And It Wasn’t My Fault… And I’ll Never Do It Again by P. J. O’Rourke — should provoke more than it’s share of laughs and thoughts, even if you don’t agree with the man
Fear Nothing by Lisa Gardner — the latest D. D. Warren
Fury of the Demon by Diana Rowland — the newest Kara Gillian book serves as a great reminder how far behind I am with these
Black Arts by Faith Hunter — Jane Yellowrock’s back in action!
Dreams of the Golden Age by Carrie Vaughn — I’m 100 pages into this, and the sequel is every bit as good as the original, if not better. Such a great world Vaughn’s given us.

Saturday Miscellany – 1/4/14

By HCNewton

On January 4, 2014

In Books, Calendar Items, News/Misc.

This is the biggest of my weekly collections of odds and ends (especially years’ ends) that caught my eye. 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:

Reading a novel exercises ‘muscles’ in the brain, researchers find — This is just fascinating — and one more reason to read novels. Another take on the story.
Making Excuses for Science Fiction — Kameron Hurley’s piece is a must read
“A Barkeeper Entering the Kingdom of Heaven”: Did Mark Twain Really Hate Jane Austen? — Emily Auerbach’s article on Twain’s detesting Austen is great.

There were a lotta good reads in 2013, here are a few readers’ takes on the best of the year. I was hoping to have my list ready, but it’ll take another day or two:

Only the Best Sci Fi’s Top Ten New Releases of 2013
SciFiChick’s Best of 2013 (I hadn’t heard of a lot of these)
Fantasy-Faction’s Best Fantasy Books of 2013
io9’s The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of 2013
Cory Doctorow’s favorite fiction debuts of 2013
Sarah Weinman’s Favorite Crime Fiction of 2013
Oline H. Cogdill’s The best mysteries of 2013 and his Dozen Authors to Watch and Read
Ivory Owl Reviews Best Books of 2013
The Well-Readheads’ Year in Review

And a couple of glimpses into 2014:

The 14 Greatest Science Fiction Books Of The Year — from Buzzfeed
10 New Series/Standalones to Look For in 2014 — from Tenacious Reader
title — blah

Twenty Palaces by Harry Connolly is now in hardcopy! Should probably pick up a copy to go with the rest of the series.
Gryphon Precinct by Keith R.A. DeCandido — I enjoyed the first of these, need to get my hands on the rest
That’s it for this week, but next week has a few that look good, 2014’s going to be off to a great start

2014 New Year’s Reading Resolutions

By HCNewton

On January 1, 2014

In Books, Calendar Items, News/Misc.

Since I was 7, books and reading have pretty much dominated my life, so it’s not too surprising that the only New Year’s Resolutions that I can come up with revolve around them. Here are a few to get things kicked off:

Come up with a response for all the people who say things like, “I notice you’re reading a lot of novels lately” — as if they’re a second-class (or worse) thing to read.
Think more about what I read (this blog helps, but I need to do more)
Enjoy what I’m reading more — the process, the moments, the words.
Re-read more. I think I re-read 6 books last year, not even 5% of my total. I’ve got shelves and shelves of things that I want(ed) to read again — I should do that.
Do a better job here — in the reviews/rants as well as in branching out — posts about books/authors, not just about a particular book.

On the more micro-side — books in particular — I still don’t have a “big” aim or goal like I have most of the last few years, but I have a few smaller ones.

Read more Non-Fiction (not a contradiction of the first resolution above, but a realization that I didn’t read a whole lot of Non-Fiction last year)
You know those books I list that I’m excited about at the end of my Saturday Miscellany posts? I need to read more of those
Catch up on the Temeraire Series (a holdover from the last two years)
Finish the Old Man’s War Series (a holdover from the last two years)
Finish the Lost Fleet Series (a holdover from last year)
Catch Up on the Greywalker series
Catch up on the Kara Gillian series
Catch up on the Longmire Series
Catch up on the Ceepak/Boyle Series
Catch up on the Bill Smith/Lydia Chin Series
Stay current with: Harry Dresden, the Iron Druid Chronicles, Toby Daye, Spenser, Carter Ross, the InCryptid books, Jane Yellowrock, Alex Verus, Charlie Fox, Mercy Thompson, Kitty Norville, Peter Grant, Jack Reacher, Andy Carpenter, The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences, Kinsey Millhone, Nick Hornby, Jonathan Trapper, Matthew Norman, Robert Crais, Michael Connelly, Anton Strout, Rick Riordan, Ace Atkins, Rainbow Rowell, Michael Underwood, J. K. Rowling, A. Lee Martinez, and a few others that I’ve left off the list and will feel really bad about soon.
Discover new (at least to me) SF, Mystery, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, and General Fiction writers

… all in 190 books or so.

Enough blather, gotta hit the books.

Happy New Reading Year!

By HCNewton

On December 31, 2013

In Calendar Items, News/Misc.

I’ve really abandoned things around here lately, haven’t I? Between the busy-ness of the holiday season, kids being home from school and demanding attention — and the silly, ego-driven need to read a few more books to meet my year end goal (with a few hours to spare), things were just too busy for me to update this. I did try to do a Saturday Miscellany post last week, but couldn’t find enough to make up a post (not going to be a problem this week!).

Anyway, 2013 was pretty productive for me: 190 books (down from 206 last year) and a few short stories, graphic novels, and whatnot — mostly good, some great, a few not; a whole new blog (this one here, in case you were wondering)’ a bunch of reviews (not as many as I’d hoped). Which basically boils down to a lot of time spent with books — just about my favorite way to spend time.

Thanks for those of you who’ve read this, are following this blog. Hope you’ve had a good 2013, and may we all have a better 2014.

Random Ruminations: Richard Russo and Looking Ahead to 2014

By HCNewton

On December 20, 2013

In Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc.

I’m about at the halfway point in Richard Russo’s The Bridge of Sighs and have just about decided that if I were to find myself in a Master’s program in Literature, I could very easily be content studying the minutiae of his work. I’m sure I could find enough for a few theses at least. Of course, I have no incentive to do more than come up with vague notions and theories, so I’ll have to trust that somewhere out there is an academic with a stronger drive than I and hope I run across their writing.

Besides, if I actually had the chance to do that kind of reading, researching and writing, I’d end up going with Rex Stout, Robert B. Parker or Jim Butcher.

When I finish this book, I’ll be just three books short of most of my goals for the year (10 short of the total I’d hoped to hit — still might make that, but it’s looking grim). I’ll have read all of Russo’s novels at least once; I’m one short of Hemingway’s novels (and a couple of his posthumous works, which I typically don’t do); and 1 to go in both the Stephanie Plum and Kinsey Millhone series to get up to this year’s release (I did that with Jack Reacher this week, and a couple weeks ago totally caught up on the Andy Carpenter books). I’m not sure that actually made sense — hopefully my year-end 2013 post will be clearer.

I’m pretty clueless about what I hope to accomplish in 2014 — get caught up on the Temeraire novels (an unfulfilled 2013 goal), read the rest of the Lydia Chin/Bill Smith and Longmire books. But nothing of a more serious vein. Need to get to work on that — and, as always, I’m open to suggestions.

Which, by the way, is a long way of saying I’m not going to get a rant, rave, or review up today — Russo’s sapping all my attention and energy for the moment, so I could only jot down these few random thoughts.

Have a good Friday, and — always, always — thanks for reading.

Saturday Miscellany — 12/14

By HCNewton

On December 14, 2013

In Books, DVD/Movie, News/Misc.

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:

What Does Your Reading Log Look Like? — a little thought-fodder from Book Riot, think I’ve picked up a tweak for mine.
Warner Bros Slots ‘This Is Where I Leave You’ For September — this is technically more movie news, but it’s close enough. Finally! A Tropper adaptation — have high hopes for this.
James Bond Was An Alcoholic, Say UK Doctors — duh./li>
We need more animations of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy! — this is a nice little collection of animations — but yeah, like the headline said, we need more

Saturday Miscellany – 12/7

By HCNewton

On December 7, 2013

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

Mostly lighthearted odds ‘n ends this week about books and reading that caught my eye — apparently all from 2 sites. Really, I do read other sites.

These Stereotypes About Book Lovers Are Absolutely True, And That’s A Good Thing — HuffPo pays tribute to Book Lovers
20 Things That Happen When You’re a Book Nerd — and so does Book Riot
A Book-Binge Survival Guide — with the holidays coming up, some good advice
Book Marketing Predictions for 2014 — as someone on the receiving end (eagerly so) of this marketing, I found this quite interesting
In Defense of Liking Books — felt a little strange about all my 3 & 4 star ratings lately, but at the end of the day, I like liking things (and have a couple of negative-ish ones coming up as soon as I find the time). This little article helped me remember it’s okay.
Goodreads Best Books of 2013 — how’d your faves do? I think I only backed 3 winners. Only one winner bothers me . . . Inferno, really??

Lost Covenant by Ari Marmell — bah. I’d have saved dusting off the first two in this series until I could post them with the review for this if I’d paid attention.
The Gods of Guilt by Michael Connelly — The Lincoln Lawyer, Mickey Haller, is back! Hearing many, many good things about this one.

Saturday Miscellany – 11/30

By HCNewton

On November 30, 2013

In Books, News/Misc.

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:

C. S. Lewis Reviews The Hobbit, 1937 — A nice blast from the past. He might have been on to something: “Prediction is dangerous: but The Hobbit may well prove a classic.”
Three Weeks Before Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, There Was Dorothy Parker’s. Coincidence? — been a couple of weeks since I mentioned Dorothy Parker here, but Parker + Nabokov? Must read.
6 Ways to Beat Reader’s Block — not something I really battle with all that often, but some good advice

I didn’t see any new releases this week that grabbed my attention — hardly any that didn’t, either. Which is fine — am sure December will be full of them — and I have a lot to catch up on from earlier in the month/year anyway.

Saturday Miscellany — 11/23

By HCNewton

On November 23, 2013

In Books, Janet Evanovich, News/Misc., Stephanie Plum

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:

Psychologists Discover How People Subconsciously Become Their Favorite Fictional Characters — A lot of us have intuited this, but it’s still fascinating to read
American Gods TV Show No Longer in Development With HBO — Disappointing, but I worry about any adaptation working. Still, if it was going to work, it would’ve been on HBO.
Tim Ferris is Starting an Audiobook Imprint — The 4-Hour guru is trying something new, my guess is, it’ll be highly successful.

Takedown Twenty by Janet Evanovich — I’m still 2 behind, plan on catching up on the paperbacks by the end of this year, will probably wait ’til this is out in paperback to read it, but it’s notable the series made it this far.

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