I can’t tell you when this became a (largely) annual thing for me to post, but it was on a blog that pre-existed this one. As always, seems like a good day to post it.
Tag: Miscellany Page 93 of 181
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:
How to make reading a regular habit—I’d say this is a shorter version of the usual thing written on this topic, but it is from Reader’s Digest, so I guess it’s about standard. Also, Reader’s Digest is still a thing?
The Summer of Ree!—Michael R. Underwood is re-releasing the series that started it all for him this summer—including in paperback this time! A great time to pick up this fun UF series.
The Art of the Book Recommendation
8 Types of Audiobook Listeners—I’m the last 3–okay, I’ve become too lazy to be all 3, I’m the last 2 types. But I should be the last 3.
Starting a Home Lending Library Has Made Me a Better Friend
Interview with Literature & Lofi and Announcement—Self-Published Authors Appreciation Week will be back this year, read here to see what Literature and LoFi and Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub have to say about it.
Against Sub-Genres—this comes so close to what I’ve been thinking lately, it’s kind of creepy.
This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Amongst Our Weapons by Ben Aaronovitch—I finished this new Rivers of London book yesterday, and it’s so good!
The Cutting Season by M.W. Craven—This quick Poe & Tilly novella pulls no punches.
Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir by Wil Wheaton—Wheaton’s put out a new edition of his memoir, with added material–including annotations on his original material, casting whole new lights on it. Sounds like a great idea.
Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Brothers Campfire , who followed the blog this week. Check out their blog, folks.
This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.
RULES:
Grab a book, any book.
Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
Find a snippet, short and sweet.
Post it.
from Page 56 of:
The Cutting Season by M.W. Craven
Poe was dragged feet first out of the van. His skull cracked against the wet concrete. He ran his tongue across his teeth. One of his fillings had come loose.
Great, he thought.
He was pulled to his feet and pushed into a building. It immediately got colder. He was still wearing a hood and his nose felt like it was full of broken glass, but Poe knew where he was. The smell of raw meat and the sudden drop in temperature meant he was in the meat warehouse the Hole in the Wall Gang had bought twenty years earlier. It was where they cured and air-dried the pork and beef and game meats they served in Battista’s Bar and Grill and the other restaurants they owned. It was where the sausages were made.
Poe knew it was also where the gang disposed of anyone who bothered them. The turf wars of the eighties were long over, but all gangs squabbled from time to time. A building whose only purpose was the processing of meat was also perfect for making humans disappear without a trace.
I don’t know how things are where you are, but we’ve had “third winter” hit here this week–a lot of cold and a lot of much-needed rain (not enough by any means, but that’s a whole different post). It’s good reading weather, though, so I’ll take it. But enough blather, why don’t we see what’s going on on this WWW Wednesday.
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’ve got two print works running at the moment: the unexpectedly fun, Blessed Are the Bank Robbers: The True Adventures of an Evangelical Outlaw by Chas Smith, and the newest adventure of Peter Grant and The Folly, Amongst Our Weapons by Ben Aaronovitch. I’m also listening to How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question written and narratoed by Michael Schur (with Kristen Bell, D’Arcy Carden, Ted Danson, William Jackson Harper, Manny Jacinto, Marc Evan Jackson, Jameela Jamil and Todd May) on audiobook.
What did you recently finish reading?
I just finished A. Lee Martinez by Constance Verity Destroys the Universe (and will hopefully get a post about that up anytime now) and Meat is Murder by Chris McDonald, Stephen Armstrong (Narrator) on audio.
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What do you think you’ll read next?
My next book should be Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger and my next audiobook should be Force of Nature by C. J. Box, David Chandler (Narrator).
How are you spending the days before the dreaded April 15th?
I don’t look at these posts on my phone–almost ever. But something led me to an old one yesterday, and ugh. These Saturday Miscellany posts just do not look right on them–I made a small tweak today that should help. If you read this on your phone/tablet, will you let me know if this looks better than usual? Also, my apologies.
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:
Congress Investigates Book Banning in Schools—Oh good. Congress is getting involved. That’ll help.
ALA Releases Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2021—I don’t know much about the majority of this list, but I’ve read a couple of these and the noted complaints about them are pretty baseless. Can only imagine the rest of the list is similarly meritless.
Will George R.R. Martin Ever Finish A Song of Ice and Fire? (And Does It Matter Anymore If He Doesn’t?)—The penultimate paragraph is pretty much were I am.
Treasuring the Books No One Else Seems to Love—I think most of us can find ourselves in this
How to Read More Books! 7 Tried and True Tips—Shelf Centered weighs in on this evergreen topic. Some handy tips.
Buying Secondhand Books
My Top 36 Fantasy Series/Books—As I demonstrated yesterday, I don’t think I could pull off a list like this. My hat’s off to Peat Long for doing so. Also, I’m coming back to this next time I’m in the mood for a fantasy read.
Why I Love To Read… Middle Grade
The 10 types of book reviewer!—Do you see yourself in one/more of these?
PSA: Honesty and Book Reviewing—I may have linked to this last time Bookstooge posted this. I probably did. Still, it’s worth reading again.
A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Blood Brothers Episode 87 with Ben Aaronovitch—a discussion with Aaronovitch on the eve of the next Rivers of London book. Aaronovitch was on his game here, very fun podcast.
Fiction Fans Storm Front (Dresden Files) with Literature & Lofi—Ben from Literature & Lofi and the hosts talk about Butcher’s Storm Front, I’d quibble with some of the discussion, but on the whole, it was a decent look at the book/teaser for the series.
This week, there were no New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon. So I won’t be tempting you (or be tempted myself). Time to catch up on what you already decided to read!
This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.
RULES:
Grab a book, any book.
Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
Find a snippet, short and sweet.
Post it.
from Page 56 of:
Under Lock & Skeleton Key by Gigi Pandian
This isn’t the family curse, Tempest told herself as she backed away from Cassidy’s body. It doesn’t really exist. Magic could be a dangerous profession if you weren’t careful. Before her grandfather’s eldest brother had died while performing an underwater escape, Ash hadn’t believed in the Raj family curse. But with the tragic death of his brother Arjun Raj, the whispers of a curse that had begun two generations before turned into a full-fledged legend.
The eldest child dies by magic.
Tempest couldn’t know what exactly had occurred over the past 150 years. What she did know was that a month after she nearly died on stage, her stage double was dead—and presented to Tempest like one of her own seemingly impossible illusions.
This prompt was submitted by Julie @ Stepping Stone Book Reviews:
Are you able to choose your favorite books?
Um, er…yeah.
Sure.
Maybe?
I need some parameters, or we’re going to be here for a while. Quite a while.
How many can I pick? My desert island, all-time, top-five? Favorite Books in _____ Genre? Favorite Books from a certain year/decade/century? Favorite books by an Author?
And even then…an hour or so after I gave you my list, I’d have to revisit it.
And then a month later, and….you know what?
No. No, I am not able to choose my favorite books. I even tried to come up with a partial list, 2-3 books, with a few alternatives and I just quickly realized that I was going to spend more than an hour on the joke. A not-very-good joke.
Rats.
What about you?
This WWW Wednesday doesn’t look quite like I expected, which is a good thing. I’ve had a little more time on my hands this week than I expected, so I’m about a day ahead of schedule–I’ve found myself at the top of the reserve line for more books than I expected lately, so I’m glad to get ahead.
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 Under Lock & Skeleton Key by Gigi Pandian –it’s starting slow, but I think it’s about to take off and knock my socks off. I’m listening to Fight and Flight by Scott Meyer, Luke Daniels (Narrator) on audiobook–I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to get back to this series, and I’m a little annoyed with myself.
What did you recently finish reading?
I just finished David Rosenfelt’s Citizen K-9, hopefully my post about it has gone up by now (we’ll see how productive I got last night). My last audiobook was 20/20 by Carl Goodman, Louise Brealey (Narrator), which is not your typical police procedural (and yet really is).
What do you think you’ll read next?
My next book should be the long-awaited Constance Verity Destroys the Universe by A. Lee Martinez and my next audiobook should be Dead in the Water by Chris McDonald, Stephen Armstrong (Narrator).
Hit me with your Three W’s in the comments!
This prompt was submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer:
Do you ever get burnt out from reading?
Theoretically, yes. It’s been years since it happened, though–I honestly can’t tell you how many. At least 5, maybe 10. This blog has kept me from it, I think, I just don’t have the opportunity for it.
At the same time, for 40 years now, reading has been my escape, a haven from whatever is going on in my life. Even when life is good, I need a way to disengage from it all and recharge. My need for that seems to be increasing, too. I’m not sure if that’s a commentary on my life/mental state or the world around me (a quick glance at headlines suggests the latter is likely). So getting burned out is difficult–how do you need a break from your break? (ask anybody at the end of a long vacation, and they probably have some ideas)
Now. I do get burnt out with individual books–or reading for the purposes of blogging (i.e., for tours or because I’ve accepted a book from a publicist/author). If I do too many “obligation” reads in a row–no matter the quality (but a string of “how do I say something nice about this?” books makes it harder)–it starts to take a toll on my attitude. This is the major contributing factor for my cutting back the last couple of years. Even with these reads, however, within a couple of minutes of starting a reading session, the psychological effects kick in, and I get over it. It’s really the effort to get started where I notice the burnout/”blah”-ness/Carter-esque “malaise.”
Usually that burnout lasts no longer than a book or two (if I scheduled smartly, I don’t read two of those in a row).
What about you?
Well, this was a humbling post to work on. I’ve got work to do!
One of the few concrete plans that I shared back in January was “Cut down on my Goodreads Want-to-Read list and the unread books that I own (a perennial project, but I made some strides last year).” How am I doing on that?
| Audio | E-book | Physical | Goodreads Want-to-Read |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| End of 2021 | 9 | 45 | 42 | 144 |
| Current Total | 7 | 47 | 43 | 145 |
I’m doing a little better with the rest of my plans. A little.
Let’s move on to the Reading Challenges…
2022 Book Challenges
12 Books
I’m on track for finishing this one with no effort–. I still need 1 more recommendation, by the way. (hint, hint)
2022 “Support Book Bloggers” Challenge
I decided to nix this one–I’m working on all the things mentioned here, but feel a little uncomfortable doing it because of a checklist–and even more awkward about discussing it.
(still think it’s a good idea, just not for me)
2022 While I was Reading
I’m doing okay on this–as usual, I’m not really planning the books for this challenge. When October hits, if I haven’t read everything on the list, I’ll get serious about hunting.
- A book with a question in the title.:
- A book of non-violent true crime.: I have an idea or two about this one.
- A book with a cover you don’t like.:
- A historical fiction novel not set in Europe.:
- A book with a character’s name in the title.:
- A book featuring paranormal activity (fiction or non.):
- A book with a number in the title.: Citizen K-9 (starting it this week, which is Quarter 2, but eh…)
- A food related memoir.: I have no idea
- A book that’s won an award.:
- A middle grade novel.: How to Save a Superhero by Ruth Freeman
- A book by an author who shares your zodiac sign.:
- A book that’s a combination of genres.: Bloodlines by Peter Hartog (I also used this for the next challenge, so I’ll probably replace this on the final list)
Your TBR Reduction Book Challenge
I’m hitting the target on this one–I even managed 1 Stretch Goal. You’ll note how this isn’t helping that much with my reduce the TBR plan.
January – New Beginnings I give you permission to read the most recent book you got on top of your TBR.: Bloodlines by Peter Hartog
Stretch Goal – Read the oldest book in Mount TBR it has waited long enough: Nice Dragons Finish Last by Rachel Aaron
February – Valentine’s Day Gift
Is there that book by an author you love you picked up and still haven’t read because you do not deserve it just yet? Other items got in the way? You have for this challenge to pick that book up and read it: Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith
March – Fresh blooms
For the beginning of Spring I want you to open a book in the TBR pile by an author you’ve never read before: The Part About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True by Sean Gibson
I’ve already started planning the 20 Books of Summer Challenge, mostly books that I told myself I’d read in January/February.
(Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay)