Music Monday’s originated at The Tattooed Book Geek‘s fantastic blog and has shown up here and there since then.
1. Sure, it would’ve been more apropos to post this song yesterday, but then it wouldn’t be Monday, right?
You would not believe how many times I’ve tried to get this posted today…I barely do, and I was there for all of them. But, life has interfered (as it so often does). But it’s still Saturday, so I can live with it (the two posts I also planned on scheduling today, on the other hand are going to wait a week or more for attention).
But you didn’t come here for my whinging. 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:
Wisconsin libraries would have to notify parents about the books their kids check out under GOP proposal—I’m not fond of this, but I’m not sure it’s horrible. The other bill talked about in this story, on the other hand…
When Your Own Book Gets Caught Up in the Censorship Wars—a little BTS action
This Is Your Brain on Books
The big idea: should we abolish literary genres?
Webtoons and Webcomics Keep Scrolling into Print
Do You Believe in Magic? On The Timeless Charm of Children’s Books
It’s getting to be that time of year, isn’t it? Libro.fm’s Top 10 Audiobooks of 2023
S.A. Cosby lists His favorite books of the year—have read a couple of these and have several others sitting on a stack in my office, glaring at me
And looking in the other direction, FFA’s Most Anticipated Reads of 2024
Scaring Myself: The Story Behind How & Why I Wrote CALICO…—Lee Goldberg talks about the background to his latest novel (that I will write about ASAP, but you should read)
The Case for Never Reading the Book Jacket—I thought this was interesting and had planned on putting it here in the first place, and then:
Molly Templeton responded with What Do You Want to Know About a Book Before You Read It?—what are your thoughts?
#R3COMM3ND3D2023 wrapped up this week, so I only have a few more TBR add-ons for you:
…with Donna of Retirement Reflections
…with Rae of Rae Reads
…with Ayo Onatade of Shotsmag Confidential—
…with Sarah Hardy of bytheletterbookreviews
…with Jo of Jo’s Book Blog
Announcing Solstitia: a Fiction Fans Magazine—the brains behind Fiction Fans are launching a zine/litmag. Looking forward to some good reads.
Similarly, JCM Berne is starting up Grimdwarf Magazine—and is worth looking into
Managing my TBR—The Narratess talks about getting her TBR slimmed down. No offense intended, but having read her numbers, I’m feeling better about mine. But still…
Is It Easier to Write Negative Reviews?—Not for me, no. But I can see where Krsyta is coming from.
A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
The Joined Up Writing Podcast 204: S.A. Cosby—Cosby chats about All the Sinners Bleed and much more. I love listening to this guy.
This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Robert B. Parker’s Broken Trust by Mike Lupica—Lupica takes up the Spenser torch from Atkins, and is much better than I assumed. (I’d planned on finishing this today, but, life intervened). PI Fans would be smart to pick this up.
Didn’t See That Coming by Jesse Q. Sutanto—okay, a YA take on You’ve Got Mail with gamers and a private school, isn’t really my cuppa. But I really liked Sutanto’s style at first contact. So, I’m going to give this a shot (as I try to work older books into my schedule, too).
Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Taylor @ Taylor Fenner’s Bookish World, who followed the blog this week. I hope you enjoy the content and keep coming back.
This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.
The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?
Easy enough, right?
I’m reading According to Mark by H.B. O’Neill, and boy howdy, am I going to spend a lot of energy talking about it next year when it’s published. I’m listening to The Bittlemores by Jann Arden on audiobook—which is so much better than I’d expected.
I just finished the incredible Bea Wolf by Zach Weinersmith and Boulet (Illustrator) and the almost-as-good Nerd: Adventures in Fandom from This Universe to the Multiverse by Maya Phillips (Narrator) on audio.
My next book should be Robert B. Parker’s Broken Trust by Mike Lupica, I hope the transition from Atkins to Lupica on the flagship Parker series is smooth. My next audiobook should be Brokedown Prophets by S. A. Cosby, narrated by a full cast—I have no idea what it’s about, really. I stopped reading at “S.A. Cosby.”
So, you may ask your self, “Well, how did I get here?” And then you realize you’re not one of the Talking Heads and instead you want to ask me why I’m posting this Third Quarter Check-In now as we’re almost done with the Fourth Quarter. Well, yesterday, my eldest son and my de facto editor wondered if I wanted a blog post idea. I (foolishly?) said, sure. “Third Quarter Check in: 2023 Plans and Challenges” he replied with a smirk. I explained that I meant to do it, but got distracted with all the October stuff I had going on and forgot all about doing it. Besides—as you will see if you keep reading—it isn’t all that different than the previous check-in.
But it stuck in my craw, and the easiest way to dislodge it was to take a few moments to put this together.
My plans this year focused on the two series that I’ve started—Literary Locals and Grandpappy’s Corner—both of which are going okay (frequently in fits and starts, but making steady progress). Then there’s the perennial, “Cut down on my Goodreads Want-to-Read list and the unread books that I own.” How am I doing on that?
| Audio | E-book | Physical | Goodreads Want-to-Read |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| End of 2022 | 5 | 45 | 42 | 143 |
| End of 1st Quarter | 4 | 44 | 54 | 142 |
| End of 2nd Quarter | 5 | 50 | 56 | 145 |
| End of 3rd Quarter | 5 | 51 | 58 | 151 |
Let’s move right along to see how I’m doing with the rest of my plans and move on to the Reading Challenges…
2023 Book Challenges
Goodreads Challenge
Well, I can’t show you that graphic…but, it would’ve shown me around 230 out of 250.
12 Books
I got behind in March, and I haven’t managed to get any others read. I’m very frustrated by this—I was looking forward to these books. Don’t ask me what happened, or when I’m going to get to them. (well, probably not 2023 for all but one of these…don’t ask me which one).
Do I get any credit for having read and then a few months later listening to Miss Percy’s Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons?
2023 While I was Reading
I made zero progress on this in Quarter 3, but I do believe I’ll have it done by the end of December (I’ve already conquered a couple of categories).
Your TBR Reduction Book Challenge
I’m on-target for this one (as much as I can be), and have even got a couple of the Stretch Goals accomplished.
January – End to end temptation I give you permission to read the most recent book you have got on top of your TBR. For many this is one we only get to read eventually but for now I want you to pick up the newest book in Mount TBR and read it. Can you remember the last time you did that? It’s a good habit to get into and January is all about starting good habits: The Perception of Dolls by Anthony Croix, Edited by Russell Day
Stretch Goal – Read the oldest book in Mount TBR it has waited long enough: Bartleby and James: Edwardian Steampunk Chronicle by Michael Coorlim
February – Short steps For the shortest month of the year I want you to read 28 short stories. This can be a TBR collection, anthology or even backlog of magazines that you have. Life is fast but use this challenge to appreciate the skill of the short story writer. Play your skills right you may get more than one book read this way. eh…I get partial credit for this, Noirville contained every short story I had unread, but it’s only fifteen stories. I did read extra novellas for the Stretch Goal, though. So I’m calling this okay?
Stretch Goal – Read four novellas one for each week of the month. Bad Memory by Jim Cliff, Anna and the Vampire Prince by Jeanne C. Stein, and Broken by Don Winslow (which is six novellas).
March – Fresh Starts This time for the beginning of spring you need to start a series you have never read before. Release this work from Mount TBR! Justice Calling by Annie Belletstr
April – Open and Shut Case For the month named after the latin for ‘to open’ you need to read a standalone book with no sequel or links to any other book. Something new and something you can let go after reading it: The Winter of Frankie Machine by Don Winslow
May – Crowning Glory? the UK has a lot of bank holidays including a coronation this month so suitably let’s pick a book about revolution or a change of those in power. Questland by Carrie Vaughn
June – long reading days or longest nights Irrespective of your hemisphere you have time for reading either in the joys of summer or depths of winter. Your challenge here is to find the largest tale on Mount TBR and finish it. Let that monster get off your back: Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith
July – Holidays are coming! let’s go travelling find a book by the author who lives the furthest from you on the globe. I give you seven months to do the maths! Let’s explore the fiction of places very much not like our own: Eternity Fund by Liz Monument (Australia)
August – Holiday Treats reward time you get to choose the book in your TBR pile no Themes, clues of queries to ask. Just take one off the list!: Lemon Man by Ken Bruton
September – Seven Deadly Tempts read a book linked however you want to one of the seven deadly sins. Booktempting I stress is not one of them. Indulge yourselves: Cash Rules Everything Around Me by Rob Gittins. If that title doesn’t scream Greed, I don’t know what does (the other 6 show up as well in the book)
Beat the Backlist Reading Challenge;
I’ve got 16 of the 24 categories taken care of. So, I guess I’m okay-ish here. I’ll have a few others accomplished by the end of the year, but I think this is going to be an incomplete challenge.
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I wrote this after the end of June, and it’s still true today (literally today, not the day it should’ve been had I posted this on time): Looking over this, it’s good that I take these on for fun, if I was serious about these things, I think I’d be getting a little worried. More than anything, the number of books I listed above that I don’t have linked to a particular post tells me how far behind I am on writing.
(Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay)
Music Monday’s originated at The Tattooed Book Geek‘s fantastic blog and has shown up here and there since then.
(yeah I chickened out with the name, I don’t need those kind of clicks…)
Between Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber-Monday, this seemed appropriate
I’ve thrown this up on a couple of the social media platforms, but I thought I’d ask here, too. I’ve been using Evernote for drafting blog posts, to-do lists, shopping lists, mental notes, etc. for over a decade–but I need a replacement. Any recommendations?
Moving along to the point of this post, the miscellany:
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:
Censoring Kids’ Worlds: Laurie Hertzel on the Danger of Banning Books for Children
Exclusive Cover Reveal of “Loose of Earth” by Kathleen Dorothy Blackburn: We spoke to the designer and the author about the design process for the book—Yup. I’m still a sucker for a look at cover design
Your definitive guide to Goodreads ratings. (Or: why does your favorite book have 3 stars?)—probably my favorite link of the week (no disrespect to any of the others)
Using Popular Culture in Crime Fiction by Lee Goldberg
Audiobooks Have Taken Over My Life, and I Love It—many of us can relate, no?
#R3COMM3ND3D2023 continues, so I continue linking to them (and adding to my TBR):
…with Sam Johnson of My Cosy Book Nook
…with Mags of @magslouisethebookworm
…with Anne Coates, author of the Hannah Weybridge series
…with Karen of Hair Past A Freckle
…with Yvonne of The Coycaterpillar Reads
…with Deb of dds_book_reviews
…with Babs Wilkie of Book Escapes with BabsW67
Vote Now for Fantasy-Faction’s Best SFF Books of 2023!—looking forward to these results
When You Don’t Feel Like a “Real” Bookworm
Let’s Discuss Bookworms vs Readers and Bookish Phobias
A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Patrick Rothfuss interview: Part two (of three)—Grimdark Magazine’s overgrown interview with National Treasure, Patrick Rothfuss
Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to JK Joy, who followed the blog this week. I hope you enjoy the content and keep coming back.
Happy Thanksgiving/Turkey Day/Thursday
(depending on your practice/preference/location)
On this day that has been set aside these U.S. for expressions of gratitude, it’s been my custom to take a moment or two and mention a few of the things that The Irresponsible Reader is thankful for. This is just about my favorite of my annual posts typically, but this year I feel even more grateful than usual.
So, this year, I’m thankful for:
The readers of this blog. If I knew your names, I’d thank you all personally.
The authors who’ve corresponded with me, encouraged me—even promoted this here project.
Those authors, publishers, and/or publicists provided books for me to read.
Books (print, electronic, or audio)—the stories, characters, and/or things I learn are what keep me sane, entertain, and inspire me.
Authors! If not for them, I wouldn’t have the above.
Talented narrators and illustrators—ditto
Coffee (and other beverages both caffeinated and adult)
All the authors who’ve stopped by for a Q&A or a Guest Post this year. I’ve really been blown away by the work you’ve put into making my patch of cyberspace better.
Time to read
The Nampa Public Library, The Caldwell Public Library, (and The LYNX! Consortium)
Rediscovered Bookshop and Libro.fm
My supportive, understanding, and encouraging wife and kids. They all do a pretty decent job pretending to care when this old man drones on and on about what he’s reading or what’s going on with the blog. They’ve also continued to step up on the brainstorming front lately.
Again, all of you who read this page, follow, like, tweet, comment, email, etc.—you have no idea how much every little bit is appreciated.
For my fellow Americans, I hope you have a pleasant day with your friends and/or family. As for the rest of you, I hope you enjoy today and that you enjoy having the same pant size tomorrow as you do today.
It’s a weird week here in the States–a day off on Thursday (for most of us) followed by that “why did I bother to show up?” day on Friday. Thankfully, I have plenty of things to hide in/distract myself with. I hope you all have the same. Or that you live somewhere that the rest of the week is just Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. That seems like a good alternative.
This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.
The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?
Easy enough, right?
I’m reading–and should be finishing soon—Calico by Lee Goldberg, a heckuva stretch for Goldberg—I’m impressed with it (still not sure how much I’m enjoying it) and am listening to the funny, geeky, and insightful Nerd: Adventures in Fandom from This Universe to the Multiverse by Maya Phillips (Narrator) on audiobook.
I just finished Spencer Quinn’s Up on the Woof Top, and Things My Son Needs to Know about the World by Fredrik Backman, Santino Fontana (Narrator) on audio—a quick hit of humor and heart that I really needed after DNFing a mess last week.
My next book should be Evil Valley by Simon Hall, in a (surely vain) attempt to catch up on the series. My next audiobook should be The Bittlemores by Jann Arden, because it looked strange enough to deserve a look.
Music Monday’s originated at The Tattooed Book Geek‘s fantastic blog and has shown up here and there since then.
It’s that time of year…
3 weeks in a row posting in the afternoon? I’m not crazy about this trend… Don’t really have anything to say, just getting that off my chest. Hopefully, I get my act together.
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:
Why We Need Public Libraries Now More than Ever: Who needs libraries, anyway? Turns out, we all do.
The Low Down on the Greatest Dictionary Collection in the World
What Does Being “well-read” Look Like to You? Dismantling Elitism in Reading Spaces—hard to argue against this (although I realize I just invited some to do so…)
Inheritance of Magic – Series Health—Benedict Jacka talks about early sales/reviews of his new series and compares it to Alex Verus
It’s that time of year:
The CrimeReads 2023 Holiday Gift Guide: 30+ cozy, mystery-ish, book-adjacent gifts for your crime-obsessed loved ones!—some interesting ideas here. Incidentally, if any family members are reading this—I would wear both caps very frequently (particularly the one while flying).
33 Bookish Gifts for Every Reader on Your Holiday List—from NetGalley’s We are Bookish
Pay It Forward: Fahrenheit Book Bank—Doing this is just one of the things that makes Fahrenheit one of my favorites
This Week’s Punctuation Power Rankings
The Books That Keep Us Company for Decades—Molly Templeton’s latest
It’s time to check in on #R3COMM3ND3D2023 as it recaps favorites from 2023:
…with Bookstagrammer Louise Geoghegan of LouiseReads_UK
…with Kate of The Quick and the Read
…with Bookstagrammer Lynda Checkley of @lyndas_bookreviews
..with HC, The Irresponsible Reader—who let him opine?
…with Author Joy Kluver
…with Hayley of The Lotus Readers
…with Lynne of Fictionophile
Are you making art or making a product?—a related question for us non-authors: are we reading art or a product?
My Literary DNA—oh, this is good
Short Books You Can Read In A Day
4 years of Spells & Spaceships: the journey so far and my 10 favourite books.—Only 4?
I Am Pro Prologues!—hear, hear!
Ten Books about Books—a nice little list to work through (I’ve read one from this list, so plenty for me to work on )
M&M’s choose my tbr for December—I love this concept
A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
SFF Addicts Ep. 79: Jim Butcher talks The Olympian Affair, The Dresden Files, Mentors, Cats & More—am sure no one is surprised that I enjoyed the heck out of this
An Interview With Patrick Rothfuss—not technically a podcast, but I’m putting this interview from Grimdark Magazine here anyway. Also, I haven’t watched yet–but how can it be anything but good?
This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
The Narrow Road Between Desires by Patrick Rothfuss—I cannot wait to dive into this novella about Bast (the character I’m least interested in from the series), because I will take any new Rothfuss I can get.
The Great Gimmelmans by Lee Matthew Goldberg—”Middle child Aaron Gimmelman watches as his family goes from a mild-mannered reform Jewish clan to having over a million dollars of stolen money stuffed in their RV’s cabinets while being pursued by the FBI and loan sharks.”
The Secret by Lee Child and Andrew Child—back to 1992 to see MP Reacher at work. I’m trying to get hyped about this, but the fact that I’m #80 or so on the Library’s wait list doesn’t bother me at all suggests I just can’t.
The Lost Cause by Cory Doctorow—Something tells me I’m going to have significant problems with some of this book, but the premise (that I won’t try to summarize here) intrigues me
Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Amy Rice, who followed the blog this week. I hope you enjoy the content and keep coming back.
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