Tag: Saturday Miscellany Page 34 of 62

Wow. Everyone really took advantage of the holiday week. I found practically nothing for this post. Oh, well—it gives me a chance to focus on other bloggers, not the pros. Thanks to The Write Reads where I got most of the 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:

• Constable to publish Lee Child’s authorised biography—looking forward to getting The Reacher Guy next year.
• What I’ve learned as a book blogger—If she learned this much in the first 6 months, I wonder what Meredith Rankin’ll pick up after two years…
• To Track or Not To Track? – Progress While Reading—Anyone out there track progress? I really can’t be bothered most of the time (also, I tend to read too quickly to bother)
• Favourite Books Without 5 Stars—It always surprises me every year when I do my “Best Of” lists that I skip past some 5 Star books to complete them. It shouldn’t, as The Narratess helpfully points out

A Book-ish Related Podcast you might want to give a listen to:
• I don’t have a particular episode to point to, but I listened to a few episodes of this new-ish podcast this week: Under a Pile of Books—It focuses on SF and Fantasy. Sometimes it’s just the host, sometimes he chats with a blogger or author. It’s pretty good and I can see it falling into my regular rotation, check it out.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• One Man: A City of Fallen Gods Novel by Harry Connolly—A Fantasy Thriller, is the best way I can encapsulate it. Connolly describes it as: “big, odd, ambitious book about crime and magic and a screwed-up guy who has one last chance to do something decent in this world.” It’s his first novel in four years, and it’s driving me crazy that I can’t get to it for at least a week and a half. If there was one Fantasy/UF author that I could convince the world to notice, it’d be Connolly, and this looks like his most ambitious novel to date.
• Evil Valley by Simon Hall—After One Man, I’m diving into this one. I was lamenting recently that FP had seemed to stop with these TV Detective books, I’m so glad I was wrong!
• The ABCs of Metallica by Metallica, Howie Abrams, Michael Kaves—An Alphabet Picture book that pays tribute to the Metal Band. I talked about it some yesterday.
• The Hero by Lee Child—Child explores the concept of hero and narrative from pre-history to his own work. I gobbled it up on Thanksgiving to talk about it.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to overtherainbowbookblog and simplyclaudianicole for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

Phew. It’s been another week where I’m surprised that I’ve surfed around enough to have any fodder for this post. Clearly I need to work on self-awareness. There’s some good stuff here, chums.

Here are the 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:

• The First Annual Book Bloggers’ Novel of the Year Award!—was announced this week. This is an international “competition for indie authors (both self-published and published by small indie presses).” Both bloggers and authors should check it out!
• I stopped reading novels last year. I think you did too.—this brought out my inner-Sherman T. Potter — “That is grade-A, 100% bull cookies!” A primer on fallacies could be written from this one source.
• B&N Cuts Freelance Writers from Its Teen and SFF Blogs—I saw a number of people tweeting/retweeting about losing their gigs from this. I feel bad for them, but am interested in seeing what happens to the site next.
• ‘Your throat hurts. Your brain hurts’: the secret life of the audiobook star—One of my favorite reads this week. Thanks to Portable Mistletoe for this one!
• The Best Thing You Can Do to Support a New Book—from Lifehacker.
• Best Strategy to Support a New Book—Ilona Andrews differs.
• A Word Museum Is Opening In Downtown D.C. Next Spring—I dig this idea.
• Why You Should Re-Read Paradise Lost—hmmm…maybe.
• How to be a Book Blogger…and not lose your mind—There’s some really good stuff here (some things I should heed, too).
• Why Should We Read the Classics?—Like, maybe, Paradise Lost? I’ve posted a few things along these lines lately, but Ramona makes a point or two I don’t think have been covered.
• 10 Up and Coming Indie Fantasy Writers to Watch Out For—I’ve only read one of these, and probably should get to at least 3 others.

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode you might want to give a listen to:
• Once & Future Podcast, Ep. 201: Cherie Priest—Live from Gen Con 2019.
• NovelSuspects’s podcast—Okay, I haven’t listened to anything from this new podcast yet, but there are some really good looking episodes here that you’d probably enjoy.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon — a couple of these helped me have a great reading week:
• Robert B. Parker’s Angel Eyes by Ace Atkins—Spenser returns to L.A. and gets to work with Sixkill again. And, yeah, everything you remember from Spenser and the City of Angels is discussed and old friends/allies are visited. I’ve read it and will be saying some very positive things about it soon.
• The Lights Go Out in Lychford by Paul Cornell—The fourth Lychford novella is a high-point of the series, as I talked about this week
• Going Rogue by Neil Lancaster—the follow up to Going Dark is a fast-paced mix of procedural and action-hero thriller. I said a little more about it here.
• The Dead Don’t Sleep by Steven Max Russo—Another great thrill-ride. I talked about this last month. By the way, I have a Q&A coming early next week with Russo that you should definitely check out.
• Twenty-one Truths About Love by Matthew Dicks—It’s been a few years since I’ve read a Dicks novel (nothing against him, I just haven’t gotten to them), this looks good enough that I’m going to dip back in.
• Firefly: The Sting by Delilah S. Dawson and a pack of artists—Yo-Saf-Bridge teams up with River, Zoë, Kaylee and Inara? Say no more.
• Sabbath by Nick Mamatas—An 11th Century warrior in modern Manhattan to save the world? What could go wrong?

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to tracy cole, lidija.biskup, Notes Kecil, Beth Tabler, and R. for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

Good reads, but just a few 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:

• Publishers Should be Making E-Book Licensing Better, Not Worse—EFF weighs in. Not the most in-depth analysis, but a good one (and the internal links are groovy).
• Why Seth Meyers Loves Having Authors on His Show—I thought this was fun, and particularly liked his comments on shelf organization.
• Why I Always Read the Acknowledgements—do you skip these? I tend to skim the lists of names, but focus on the parts describing why the name was listed.
• Femmes Fatales and the Shattering of the Capitalist Dream: Reconsidering a 20th century crime trope, and what it says about the evolution of noir.—I’d differ with the politics undergirding Kolakowski’s piece, but I appreciated the look at the fiction.
• The 10 Commandments of Reading—I should get these framed.
• How To Read a Book PROPERLY—well, yeah.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• You Must Have A Death Wish by Matt Phillips—Phillips’ Know Me from Smoke was so good that I don’t care what this is about, I’m excited. (oh, it’s about a rookie hitman, if you must know).
• Action At A Distance by Andrew Cartmel, Ben Aaronovitch, Brian Williamson, Stefani Renne—the newest Rivers of London comic paperback looks into Nightingale’s WWII past.
• Paradox by Jeanne C. Stein—It’s been six years (wow! six years??!?) since Stein has published an Anna Strong novel. Can’t wait to see what brought her back.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to babblingstories, Zoé O’Farrell and kerrimcbooknerd for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

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:

• The Strange Things You Find on Authors’ Websites
• A Simple Solution for Bookish Forgetfulness—This (and the article it references) are pretty good reads, and there’s some good ideas within.
• On The Casual Sociopathy of The Traditional Mystery: Should There Be Such Thing As A “Comfortable” Murder Mystery?—I’ve wondered about this a little myself lately. Not as articulately, I note.
• The Joys of Rereading Books on Audio—This is my experience precisely.
• “Who is your favourite fictional detective?”—Novel Heights compiles answers from various authors.
• The Veracity and Heart of Modern Action Thrillers: Infusing Esoteric Fact and Heritage into Fast-Paced Crime—Good piece. And (as it was intended to do), makes me want to read Eldridge’s new book.
• (At least) Two New Twenty Palaces Books!—Someone else is as excited as I am about these upcoming books.
• #R3COMM3ND3D2019—I can’t believe I forgot to mention this last week. Damppebbles has brought back their series where authors/bloggers/etc. get a chance to talk about 3 books from the last year they’re excited about. You need/want TBR ideas? Great place to find some.
• Why I Reread Books—Witty and Sarcastic Book Club’s got a great post on this (also ties into some of the earlier pieces this week).
• Canon fodder: Please, I am begging you, stop telling me which good books are actually bad.—Good stuff.
• The importance of endings—Really well done.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Maxine Unleashes Doomsday by Nick Kolakowski—Post-apocalytic heist novel (well, more mid-apocalyptic), is just a blast. I tried to titlesummarize my thoughts about it yesterday.
• The Ocean at the End of the Lane (Illustrated Edition) by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Elise Hurst—I got this a few days ago, it’s just gorgeous. I don’t need another copy of this fantastic book. But I don’t care. This trailer gives you a feel for the illustrations.
• The Ninja Daughter by Tori Eldridge—”An action-packed thriller about a Chinese-Norwegian modern-day ninja with family issues who fights the Los Angeles Ukrainian mob, sex traffickers, and her own family to save two desperate women and an innocent child.” How do you say no to that?
• The Last Dance by Martin L. Shoemaker—An investigation into space mutiny. Looks like a winner.
• Made Things by Adrian Tchaikovsky—I’ve been wanting to try Tchaikovsky for a while now, this might be the one that gets me.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Tom Gamache, proofreadingebooks (the name is making me nervous about my content), Yvonne and Fragilistic for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

This week’s list seems a bit more miscellaneous than usual, but that’s cool. I honestly didn’t think I’d spent enough time online this week to cobble together a post. Thankfully, I was wrong.

Here are the 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:

• 10 Famous Authors With Surprising Day Jobs: Or, 10 reasons to hang on to that office job
• Should We Pay to Enter Bookstores?—The cheapskate in me balks at this, but really, not a bad idea.
• The Most Popular Books In Libraries, July–September 2019—It’s sort of a pain to read, but if you skip around by headings, this is some pretty interesting stuff.
• 7 Crime Tropes We Really Could Do Without: It’s time for a genre full of cliches to clean up its act.—Yes. But, no. If the right author can make any of these tropes work really, really well. They are overdone, but if pulled off juuuuuust right, I love ’em.
• Atmospheric Pressure: The Big Sleep at Eighty: 80 years ago, Raymond Chandler reinvented crime fiction with a novel that valued atmosphere—and style—above all else.—Case in point.
• How Objective Are Your Reviews?—This is possibly the best post I read this week, we all like to think our evaluations are objective (we might not admit it, but we like to think it), but yeah…they’re not. Unless we’re talking about the end of Harris’ Hannibal, or Dan Brown — because, really, we have to have some standards.
• Dragons of Autumn Twilight Read-Along—I tried to shuffle my schedule so I could do this, but I just couldn’t manage it. But this novel was one of the Big Ones in my development as a reader, you should follow along with what’s produced this month.
• 3 Reasons to Quit the Book You’re Reading—She makes it sound so simple…
• Dear authors, I can dislike your book if I want to! – My Ity Opinion.—but if you don’t quit it, feel free to sound off

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Shattered Bonds by Faith Hunter—Jane Yellowrock is back in the aftermath of the devastating 12th novel to find that things can always get worse. I rambled on about it this week.
• Blue Moon by Lee Child—Jack Reacher. ‘Nuff said.
• Nothing To See Here by Kevin Wilson—I’m not even sure how to summarize this without reading it. Just click the link.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Lee, likeherdingcatsblog, caffeinefocus, intentforcontent, entertainingly nerdy, The Awesome Dad, and juniorgareth42 for following the blog this week (gotta catch my breath for a moment, that was a long list). Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

So I saw a pretty decent bump in traffic this week thanks to The Write Reads featuring one of my posts as their Review of the Day, if you’re reading this because of them–hi! Thanks for stopping by. I’ve been meaning to say this for a few weeks now, but I keep forgetting—if you’re not following The Write Reads feeds on Twitter/Facebook/Instagram, you really should be. Their Post/Review of the Days are some of the best reading you’ll see from Book Bloggers out there. Sure, you’ll end up having too much to read (either posts or the books they talk about), but it’s worth it.

Anyway, here are the 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 follow The Write Reads), but just in case:

• Every Child Can Become a Lover of Books: Michelle Martin, a professor at the University of Washington, helps librarians create spaces that are welcoming to kids of all backgrounds
• 7 Author Pseudonyms That Were Cracked—and 6 That Haven’t Been (Yet)—Who doesn’t love a good pseudonym?
• Beowulf: Epic Adventure or Tale of Loss?—I just love the fact that there are people blogging about Beowulf.
• All the *WARNINGS*!!!—The Oranguatan Librarian sounds off on Trigger Warnings. As per the usual, it’s a good read.
• Fearless, free and feminist: the enduring appeal of Jack Reacher—Lest any reader be put off by the title (yeah, I’m talking about you), there’s very little feminism in this piece (I expected more, anyway). What there’s a lot of is good analysis of the series, the character and why so many like them.
• The Evolution of Dragons in Western Literature: A History—Hic sunt dracones, do you need me to say anything more to get you to click?
• We Need Noir—Because the Truth Is Dark, Messy, and Sometimes Ugly
• Fantasy: A Plethora of Choices—The Witty & Sarcastic Blog takes a look at types of Fantasy Novels (particularly handy for those not sure where to wade into the genre).
• 5 of the Most Useful Animal Sidekicks in Fiction—I’m only familiar with one of the 5, and there’s a part of me that wants to respond with a much longer list. But…how do you not recommend anything that talks about Falcor? Quick poll: how many of you have read the book The Neverending Story? Without getting into the merits of it, were you better off just watching the first movie?
• Judging a book by it’s cover…—I love stories about cover design (as long-time readers know and maybe regret), here’s some gorgeous examples of what a cover can be.
• How Do You Read Series?—I think I would go insane if I lived like this reader (that’s not a criticism, it’s a bit of “how do you manage that?” said with incredulity tinged with awe). What about you?
• Book Blogger Spreadsheet Template—my own spreadsheet is getting unwieldy and overly-complicated (it’s still a lot better than it was!), I think I might abandon mine next year for this one. It’s a work of art.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon — or, if I had more time, I’d get to (the last four of these fit into this category. I can’t see finding the time for them, but I bet it’d be worth it):
• Famous in Cedarville by Erica Wright—a small-town mystery that leads to Hollywood in all it’s glory and vice. My post about the book.
• The Night Fire by Michael Connelly—Bosch. Ballard. Haller. ‘Nuff said. I have 2.6 books to go before I get to this one. Yeah, I’m counting down already.
• The Girl with No Face by M. H. Boroson—an Urban Fantasy set in 19th Century San Francisco’s Chinatown? Fantastic idea.
• Ghoster by Jason Arnop—I’ve seen this title a lot this week, this social media satire/thriller looks like a good way to spend some time.
• From Hell to Breakfast by Meghan Tifft—I’m not even going to try to summarize this one—click the link read more and get as tempted as I am.
• Lifestyles of Gods and Monsters by Emily Roberson—Percy Jackson meets Reality TV?

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Anthony Day Grandin, Donald Wilson, lisasbooksgemsandtarot (say that five times fast), Adrianna and Scarlett Backus for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

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:

• One for the books: the unlikely renaissance of libraries in the digital age—Obviously, things for us Yanks are a little different than the Sydney Morning Herald’s audience, but there’s some good overlap
• Who Decides Which Books Are “Great?”: The concept of “Great Books,” the historian Tim Lacy explains, developed in the late nineteenth century as an attempt to foster a “democratic culture.”
• Along those lines, here’s a nice little post from The Orangutan Librarian that I somehow overlooked last month: In defence of classics- again!
• Michael Connelly reveals how ‘Bosch’ was born and other tales of his humble rise to fame
• The 15 most iconic Harry Bosch haunts across L.A.—I’m not one for traveling, really, but I would gladly organize a vacation to L.A. around this.
• Removing the Mystery From Mystery Writing: 13 Tricks Used by Acclaimed Novelists—geared more toward the writer, but there’s some interesting behind-the-scenes nuggets for readers.
• The 40 Best Novels of the 2010s—Paste magazine compiled a list of their editors’ favorites.
• The Ultimate Print On Demand Guide for Nonfiction Authors—another one pointed at the writers in the audience (or would-be writers). I find this kind of thing interesting even as a reader, tho.
• The 21 Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Series Ever—at least according to Thrillist. Hard to argue against these though (as much as one might want to argue for others)
• A Book Bloggers Guide to Book Blogging – A Resource Guide—A very handy little “guide to help with some of the confusing things found in book blogging” from Before We Go Blog
• 4 Things About Blogging That Seem Scary, But Really Aren’t That Bad
• DNFing Books – A Discussion—I’m Fully Booked weighs in on the practice
• Top Ten Tuesday – Character Traits I Love—Caffinated Fae provides a nice little list.
• STET! Dreyer’s English: A Game for Language Lovers, Grammar Geeks, and Bibliophiles—This has been out for awhile, but I just saw a link for it this week. I’d love playing this (although I’m afraid I’d be wrong too often for my ego)

This Week’s New Release I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon (I probably missed a few, but…):
• Ghosts of You by Cathy Ulrich—this flash fiction collection is compelling, haunting, and thought-provoking (and includes some really good reading, too). My post about it describes the book better.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to kbbookreviewer, _forbookssake, thelostwoman, amanja and Steven Colborne /a> for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

Yeah, I’ve been quiet this week, I’ve been running on fumes for most of it, I’m not sure why. Given the number of Book Tour Stops I’ve got scheduled for next week, I’ll be a little noisier (or, I’ll have a few tour organizers and authors not speaking to me).

But that’s for another day (at least Tuesday). For now, here are the 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:

• Diary of a small town sensation: how the Wimpy Kid author built his dream bookshop—I’ve linked to stories about this before, but (no matter what you think of Kinney), this is a cool story to revisit.
• Books are good for your brain. These techniques will help you read more.: Turn yourself into a bookworm.—I”m sure none of you need this, but maybe you know someone who does
• Fascinated to Presume: In Defense of Fiction—a nice piece by Zadie Smith
• 10 of the Best-Selling Authors of All Time—from Mental Floss
• Philip Pullman on Children’s Literature and the Critics Who Disdain It: Don’t Let Anyone Tell You What You Should or Should Not Be Reading—am not a fan of Pullman, but there’s good stuff here
• Further Thoughts on Smell in Literature, or The Dog as Watson—focuses on one of our favorite Watsons: Chet.
• Celebrating Elmore Leonard’s “Rules for Writing”: The master craftsman gave us more than just the 10 rules—and they’re all good ones.—In honor of what would’ve been his 94th birthday, Crime Reads gives us this — the “official” list and some other good ones.
• 5 Authors Who Loved Their Screen Adaptations (And 5 Who Loathed Them)
• Extra special bumper cover reveal(!!) with Steph Broadribb & Orenda Books—the cover of the new Lori Anderson is revealed, plus new versions of the previous 3. Which are almost enough to convince me to buy new copies. Almost.
• Defining Terms: “At Times…”—a new entry in Paul’s Picks’ series, and something I employ, too.
• Books I Had To Read In Secondary School And College—I wonder if I could compile a similar list…
• Modern Fantasy Trending Away From Fictitious Races by Ross Hughes
• The Library Of Life and why I prefer physical books.
• Battle of the Book Covers…Who Wore It Best?—great idea for a post
• Bookworm Memes That Are Too Relatable—from the good people at Bookidote
• My Top 5: Bookish Pet Peeves—yup
• No book lover has all three—I don’t have any of them

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode you might want to give a listen to:
• Once & Future Podcast, Ep. 200: Felicia Day—Anton Strout celebrates his 200th episode with this great chat with Felicia Day (I’ve got to make time for this book)

This Week’s New Releases include one book I’ve already read and three that sound like they’d be up my alley, but I don’t know if I’ll manage to get to (make sure you click the links to get the full blurbs on these):
• The Princess Beard by Kevin Hearne, Delilah S. Dawson—high seas adventure, hijinks, many jokes, many elf butts and personal growth are featured in this concluding Tale of Pell. My original post is here.
• Look Both Ways:
  A Tale Told in Ten Blocks by Jayson Reynolds—a novel told in ten stories about what happens after the school bell rings and people walk home. There’s also a bus falling from the sky that no one notices.
• How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse by K. Eason—a mix of Fairy-Tale and Space Opera
• Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia—a dying billionaire sends one woman and a cast of dreamers and rivals on a treasure hunt.

Lastly, yesterday I posted a couple of things with a new bullet style (in case you’re one of the 2% that noticed), today, I’m back to ol’ reliable. What do you think—are those others too much for a post like this? Would it just make things too noisy?

A brief one this week—but such is the joy of being miscellaneous, right? Here are the 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:

• Growing Number of U.S. Adults Just Don’t Read Books—Really, I’m not sure this is news. But those numbers are depressing.
• The Authoritarian’s Worst Fear? A Book: Governments are spending a remarkable amount of resources attacking books — because their supposed limitations are beginning to look like ageless strengths.—making the previous piece look even worse
• Everybody Loves to Hate a Dirty Cop: 10 Books of Corruption and Greed—Adrian McKinty assembled a pretty impressive list here. Yes, it’s from 2017, but I don’t think I saw it then.
• Fiction Ghostwriting Is Bigger Than Ever—huh.
• What is your #1 Priority when Choosing a Book to Read?: There are a lot of things that could influence why you choose a specific book to read…
• After picking a book, you may need this: The Art of Abandoning Books—wisdom I need to apply more
• and if it’s still not one you like, this could come in handy: Why I Write “Negative” Reviews (And Why You Don’t Have To)—(one of the better of this type of post)
• A Bookworm’s Guide to Removing Stubborn Stickers—I think we all have had a few more of these than we want.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• A Time Traveler’s Theory of Relativity by Nicole Valentine—A nice Time Travel Story for the young and young at heart. Here’s my post about it
• Embrace Your Weird: Face Your Fears and Unleash Creativity by Felicia Day—a promising looking book to help spark (or reignite) your creativity
• Murder in Montague Falls by Russ Colchamiro, Sawney Hatton, and Patrick Thomas—a shared universe collection of short stories. I’ve been seeing Colchamiro talk about this coming for months now, looking forward to dipping into it.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Mohit Malviya, jackiesreadingcorner, and Patrick Lynn for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

This has been a strange week, I kept running out of steam in the evenings and was honestly and pleasantly surprised to find that I’d played around on social media enough to actually have anything to post today. How I got anything written this week is beyond me. I did do more reading than I expected to—still, I have a need to be reading 5 books right now rather than writing anything (and I don’t mean reading a chapter or two and then switching, I literally mean reading 5 simultaneously). When I say that I overcommitted for Sept./Oct. I really mean it. (and that’s not counting the two books I pre-ordered months ago that arrived in the last 10 days and are sitting ignored on my shelf).

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this list of odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye—I did:

• Study finds that learning to read enhances the brain in more ways than one: Reading sharpens parts of the brain without overriding the system.
• Why Some People Become Lifelong Readers: A lot rides on how parents present the activity to their kids.
• 50 books, 50 days and a car named Thunder: Columbus native takes cross-country trip to nation’s bookstores—I’m sure there’s a reason why this story is printed twice—once without paragraph breaks—on the page, but scroll down to help your eyes a lot.
• Celebrity Book Clubs Are Actually Selling Books—This is an interesting phenomeon, not one that has much of an influence on a reader like me, but it’s interesting to see. Also, I’m not a Sportsball guy at all, but I do know who Andrew Luck is. Glancing at his book club picks over the last few months, I think I might check back on it from time to time, I like his taste.
• Book clinic: can you recommend modern fiction to replace my love of classics?—I thought this was a rather odd question, but…interesting answer
• Expectation Vs Reality: My Self-Publishing Debut—a fascinating guest post from Off the TBR (love the blog name).
• Where have all the good men (and women) gone? Favourite heroic heroes!—another good list from The Orangutan Librarian
• Author-pay in Tacos per Copy—In response to a tweet about selling ARCs, Kevin Hearne breaks down how authors get paid by the taco (scroll down to see audiobooks and used books)

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode you might want to give a listen to:
• Author Stories’ Episode 724 | Craig Johnson Returns With Land Of Wolves—Hank Garner’s fifth chat with Johnson. Pleasant chat about a great installment in the series (my post about the book will be up soon, I think)

Among an interesting looking crop the this week’s only New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon is:
• Fallen by Benedict Jacka—the tenth in the Alex Verus series is out now, and I’m hoping I can squeeze it in soon. Incidentally, I like the fact that the US covers are starting to be multi-colored. I can’t give an abbreviated single-sentence synopsis, because I like walking into these without any idea what’s going to happen. It’s enough that it’s a new Verus.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Aqsa haleem, OwlBeSatReading, and bryan_lunsford for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?