Tag: Miscellany Page 49 of 173

Saturday Miscellany—11/25/23

On November 25, 2023

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

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:
bullet Censoring Kids’ Worlds: Laurie Hertzel on the Danger of Banning Books for Children
bullet 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
bullet 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)
bullet Using Popular Culture in Crime Fiction by Lee Goldberg
bullet Audiobooks Have Taken Over My Life, and I Love It—many of us can relate, no?
bullet #R3COMM3ND3D2023 continues, so I continue linking to them (and adding to my TBR):
bullet …with Sam Johnson of My Cosy Book Nook
bullet …with Mags of @magslouisethebookworm
bullet …with Anne Coates, author of the Hannah Weybridge series
bullet …with Karen of Hair Past A Freckle
bullet …with Yvonne of The Coycaterpillar Reads
bullet …with Deb of dds_book_reviews
bullet …with Babs Wilkie of Book Escapes with BabsW67
bullet Vote Now for Fantasy-Faction’s Best SFF Books of 2023!—looking forward to these results
bullet When You Don’t Feel Like a “Real” Bookworm
bullet 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:
bullet 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.

Thanksgiving 2023

By HCNewton

On November 23, 2023

In Calendar Items, News/Misc.

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.

WWW Wednesday, November 22, 2023

By HCNewton

On November 22, 2023

In Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc., WWW Wednesday

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?

What are you currently reading?

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.

Blank Space

What did you recently finish reading?

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.

Blank Space

What do you think you’ll read next?

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.

Blank Space

What are you reading while preparing for/staving off the effects of tryptophan?

MUSIC MONDAY: Alice’s Restaurant Massacree by Arlo Guthrie

By HCNewton

On November 20, 2023

In News/Misc.

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…

The Irresponsible Reader Metallica Logo

Saturday Miscellany—11/18/23

By HCNewton

On November 18, 2023

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

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:
bullet Why We Need Public Libraries Now More than Ever: Who needs libraries, anyway? Turns out, we all do.
bullet The Low Down on the Greatest Dictionary Collection in the World
bullet 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…)
bullet Inheritance of Magic – Series Health—Benedict Jacka talks about early sales/reviews of his new series and compares it to Alex Verus
bullet It’s that time of year:
bullet 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).
bullet 33 Bookish Gifts for Every Reader on Your Holiday List—from NetGalley’s We are Bookish
bullet Pay It Forward: Fahrenheit Book Bank—Doing this is just one of the things that makes Fahrenheit one of my favorites
bullet This Week’s Punctuation Power Rankings
bullet The Books That Keep Us Company for Decades—Molly Templeton’s latest
bullet It’s time to check in on #R3COMM3ND3D2023 as it recaps favorites from 2023:
bullet …with Bookstagrammer Louise Geoghegan of LouiseReads_UK
bullet …with Kate of The Quick and the Read
bullet …with Bookstagrammer Lynda Checkley of @lyndas_bookreviews
bullet ..with HC, The Irresponsible Reader—who let him opine?
bullet …with Author Joy Kluver
bullet …with Hayley of The Lotus Readers
bullet …with Lynne of Fictionophile
bullet Are you making art or making a product?—a related question for us non-authors: are we reading art or a product?
bullet My Literary DNA—oh, this is good
bullet Short Books You Can Read In A Day
bullet 4 years of Spells & Spaceships: the journey so far and my 10 favourite books.—Only 4?
bullet I Am Pro Prologues!—hear, hear!
bullet 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 )
bullet 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:
bullet 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
bullet 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:
bullet 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.
bullet 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.”
bullet 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.
bullet 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.

LITERARY LOCALS: An Evening at Idahope

By HCNewton

On November 16, 2023

In Literary Locals, Non-Fiction

Literary Locals and ICW logos

One of the most rewarding—and most surprising things—about doing these Literary Locals interviews is seeing how many writers there are in the area, plugging away at the craft—and how many different groups there are of them working together in one way or another. I’m not alone in this, either, some of the authors/leaders of these groups are surprised to see how many others there are.

I can only assume if this is true for Southwest Idaho, there’s a decent chance that it’s similar wherever you are. Go look for them. Even if you’re not an author, aspiring author, possible aspiring author. I met someone this week who’s a board member of one of these groups who just wants to support the writers in her community while not being a writer—how cool is that?

I met—and had the beginning of a conversation that could’ve gone on for hours in another setting—her at the monthly meeting of Idahope (I interviewed the Secretary and President about their recent relaunch last month). I’d been invited/suckered into coming to talk to them about how to participate in an author interview—and, most importantly, how to come across as non-boring or generic in them. (hence my recent surveys about them—which I’m going to try to turn into something for the blog soon. So, maybe February)

My bit went okay (I think)—sure, I forgot a couple of the points that were in my mental outline for weeks (remembering them once I left the parking lot), and too many jokes fell flat (I’m sure it was the delivery. Or the material. Not the audience). But we had some good discussion and most of those in attendance didn’t seem to mind my blathering. Also…I somehow only talked for more than 10 minutes and only dropped in references to two books, which is a personal record.

But that’s not what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to talk about the meeting—we started out going around the table talking about our current projects and whether we were participating in NaNoWriMo. Only one person was doing a modified version of it, if you can believe that. I’m not 100% certain it’s allowed for a group of more than 6 independent writers to get together in November without multiple NaNo participants present—I kept waiting for some NaNo Agents to burst through the wall like the Vegan Police in Scott Pilgrim and start issuing fines and forcing Chris Baty material into our hands.*

* I guess the NaNo people could’ve been home getting their daily counts in. Maybe that’s why the authorities were lenient on us.

Once my prattling on was done, we all did a writing exercise—which resulted in some wonderful turns of phrase and the display of some…shall we say, interesting…imaginations. I really want to read some longer works by everyone around that table (even from the self-professed non-writer). This includes some novels and children’s books that are in various stages of creation mentioned throughout the night that I’d love to read when they’re done.

But for me, the best part was just seeing this group of people at various stages in their writing/creative careers come together to talk and share a little bit and support each other. It sounds good on paper, but I got a little buzz off of it in reality. It’s an infectious spirit and I can see me coming back for another hit or two of that, at least and maybe becoming another member just to support the work of the group.

Also, in the room next to us, an Improv Class was in session. Other than the fact that they were occasionally distractingly loud, I loved that. I don’t know how many there were in the class, but I think it’s safe to say that in that building there were at least 20 people out on a chilly Tuesday night to talk about and work on their art/craft/passion in one way or another. How great is that?

I don’t have a conclusion here, and I really should. I guess I’ll just encourage you all—your tribe is out there to help you on your creative way. Go find them.

Literary Locals logo

WWW Wednesday, November 15, 2023

By HCNewton

On November 15, 2023

In Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc., WWW Wednesday

I’d expected to come home last night excited and full of energy so that I could write up a post or two, catch up on comments and whatnot. Instead, I came home and went to sleep early. So, only step 1 of my plan was achieved (probably the most important one). Tomorrow will be different!

Probably.

But for now…let’s just get this WWW taken care of and I can start thinking about other things…

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?