Tag: Saturday Miscellany Page 51 of 54

Odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye (a strangely short list compared to the last few weeks). You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

• E-Books Are Damaging Your Health: Why We Should All Start Reading Paper Books Again — over at Medical Daily, Lecia Bushak goes on a rant about the health benefits of dead-tree books over e-books. Maybe it’s just me, but this seems to needs to be read with a salt lick nearby.
• Is there an ideal age to write a masterpiece? — Blinkbox Books put together an infographic showing when authors wrote their most famous works
• Kitty Saves the World & an announcement — Carrie Vaughn announces that she’s wrapping things up in the next book. I figured this was coming, but I thought it’d take a few more books. Wanted a few more books first. It’s time, but going to be sad to see this one go.
• Ernest Cline writing 2nd Ready Player One novel — words fail me. I don’t know if I’ve ever been as tempted to use that “Shut up and take my money!” line.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Near Enemy by Adam Sternbergh — a worthy, and entertaining, successor to last year’s Shovel Ready
• The Way Into Magic by Harry Connolly — Book 2 in Connolly’s Epic Fantasy series, hearing nothing but good about this series. Need to get to it, soon. It’s on my Kindle, but I’m no longer sure I should use it after reading that Bushak piece 😉

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to whatshesreadingnow, Crossroads Reviews, and Curlydaz for following the blog this week. Thanks especially to whatshesreadingnow for the very kind description of this blog that she gave to her readers.

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:

• I’m sure you heard that Mark Zuckerberg Aims to Start World’s Largest Bookclub on Facebook — which sounds interesting as all get out, and apparently, When Mark Zuckerberg Likes a Book, Sales Soar and by “soar,” they apparently mean “skyrocket”
• Mark Twain’s grave robbed of bronze plaque — Oh, c’mon people!
• Popular TV Series and Movies Maintain Relevance as Novels — The NYTimes talks tie-in novels
• 10 Books You Should Finally Read in 2015 — The B&N Book Blog makes a good case for this, but . . . yeah, just not going to happen.
• The Problem With Reading Competitively — Claire Fallon makes some really, really good points here about reading goals, etc.
• Interview: Myke Cole, Creator of Shadow Ops — a good interview with Myke Cole. His fourth novel Gemini Cell is one of the books I’m most looking forward to.
• The Joy of Book Blogging — This is a heckuva piece.
• 23 Words For Book Lovers That Really Should Exist — a bit of fun to start off your Saturday
• Our Favorite Fictional Characters Share Their New Year’s Resolutions — from the B&N editors — a grin or to can be found here.

After a few s-l-o-o-w weeks, I’m really looking forward to this batch of: This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Golden Son by Pierce Brown — #2 in The Red Rising Trilogy. Cannot wait to get my grubby little hands on this one.
• Firefight by Brandon Sanderson — The Reckoners #2 is also out — nowhere near as good as The Red Rising Trilogy, but this is a fun series.
• Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch — I’m almost halfway done with this latest adventure of apprentice wizard/London Constable Peter Grant, and am digging it. Perfect change of pace after the game-changing events of the last book.
• The Witches of Echo Park by Amber Benson — I’ve enjoyed Benson’s work in the past, and while I’m not convinced that I’m part of this book’s audience, I want to give it a shot.
• As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley — Flavia de Luce gets up to more misadventure — and probably murder solving while she’s at it

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and welcome to 1 SIGFRIDSSON, emily kitta, Dioniso Punk, Maz Halima, and pmitsuing for following the blog this week. Thanks to theeditorsjournal for the interaction.

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:

• J.K. Rowling’s ‘Cuckoo’s Calling’ to Be Part of BBC One TV Series — looking forward to this.
• Speaking of Rowling, Dear J.K. Rowling, Here’s What We Want for Harry Potter Christmas
• As I predicted last week, a few more best-of-2014 lists
  • Publishers Weekly Best of 2014
  • Shelf Awareness’ Our Best Books of 2014 — blah
  • Electric Literature’s 25 Best Novels of 2014 — blah
  • Best mystery novels of 2014 — Oline Cogdill compiled a list of the best 15 mysteries, and 6 of the best debuts. Finally, a list I feel competent to comment on! I like a lot of his choices, and have added to my TBR list from the rest.
  • Judging Books by Their Covers — 2014 Best Book Covers from Bookish
• Author Of ‘Bridge To Terabithia’: Messages Are Poison To Fiction — I remember nothing about Paterson’s books, even Terabithia, I do remember being knocked for a loop by it. Anyway, really enjoyed what she said about messages here.
• Bookish Things That Should Exist — A nice little list from BookRiot.
• Lastly, I can’t remember who retweeted something that introduced me to the twitter account @CelebrityOxford, which surveys various celebrities about their stance on the Oxford Comma. Meanwhile, John Scalzi went on a little twitter rampage about Oxford Comma fans. Read a lot more yesterday about the Oxford Comma than I woke up expecting to.

I didn’t see a single new release this week that interested me, continuing the general sluggishness of the month, and giving many of us a chance to play catchup.

Categories: Books, News/Misc.
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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:

• Unpublished Raymond Chandler work discovered in Library of Congress — and, naturally, it’s “a witty, Gilbert-and-Sullivan-inflected libretto for a fantasy-tinged romance”? Say what?
• Don DeLillo’s Annotated “Underworld” — oh man, would love to spend a few days with this.
• What Kids Want to Read: An Infographic — sure, you could spend a lot of money on a survey, or…I don’t know. Talk to just one kid. Really these the least counter-intuitive survey results ever.
• It’s that time of the year, when people are looking for gift ideas, here’s a few:
  • Literary Aces Playing Cards
  • Some favorite gifts for book lovers that aren’t books — nifty ideas, but…wouldn’t books be easier?
  • 16 Fantastic Gifts For Lit Lovers Who Have Enough Books — similar, but not the same list. And I’ve got the same substitute suggestion.
• 10 Reasons to Shop at Your Local Indie Bookstores This Holiday Season — keep this in mind this season — and all year long
• It’s also that time of year for the making of lists. I imagine I’ll be posting a few more of these (and, I hope, making one of my own).
  • 2014 Goodreads Choice Awards — Not all my choices won — actually, only two did. But I did okay, and am really only confused/annoyed by a couple of the wins.
  • Best science fiction books of 2014 — According to The Guardian, anyway. There’s a distinct national accent to this list — which is understandable, and maybe deserved.
  • The 22 Best Lines of 2014 — Familiar with the source or not, this is a fun list of lines
  • Was 2014 the Year of the Debut? — a bunch of great debut novels
• Four Things My Family Learned From The Boxcar Children Books — I dug these books so much when I was a kid — most of my kids dabbled in them, but they never were as grabbed as I was. Glad to see there are still some big fans of the Aldens out there.

Only one New Release caught my eye this week — in what looks to be a slow month. But it should be a good one:
• Bryant and May and the Bleeding Heart by Christopher Fowler — the eleventh installment in the series featuring the weirdest batch of detectives you’ll run across in fiction.

First off, on this week of Thanks — I wanted to say thanks for everyone who has read, followed, and liked this blog. And to those who’s commented, retweeted, interacted with me about this here blog. Those authors/publicists who’ve made contact with me because of this? Mind blowing and I cannot thank you enough. Seriously, I am grateful.

Anyway, on to the small list of 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:

• title — Ursula K. Le Guin won the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters at the 65th National Book Awards last week, and gave this thought-provoking speech.
• Why has the imagination been sidelined in literature? are some of the thoughts it provoked in Damien G.
• Reading Together Even While Reading Alone — Bryan VanDyke gives us a look at his development as a reader and more.
• 8 Books To Read Before They Become Movies In 2015 — I’ve read one of these (The Martian), quit another one (American Sniper), and am undecided on the rest. Nevertheless, a handy list.
• “Wisp of a Thing” — based on the wonderful novel by Alex Bledsoe, this song might as well have been written by one of the Tufa.

This Week’s New Release that I’m Excited About:
• Endsinger by Jay Kristoff — Book 3 of The Lotus War — the YA Japanese Steampunk/Mythology mix. I’m looking forward to this, but something tells me there’s a lot of pain and suffering ahead for the characters (and country!).

A pretty light load this week, it’s like there’s a holiday around the corner or something. Bet things pick up next month.

Still, there were 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:

• James Patterson: “Amazon could actually dedicate itself to saving books and literature in this country” — I’m not Patterson’s biggest fan. But his pro-bookstore, pro-reading campaign is pretty appealing.
• Michael Connelly Takes Detective Harry Bosch From Page to Screen — a nice interview with Connelly about Bosch on “TV” and in print.
• Authors Give Advice to Younger Selves — Over on Suvudu this week, several SF/Fantasy writers shared the advice they’d want to give to themselves years ago. Fun stuff.
• 23 Things I’d Rather Read Than Another Think Piece On What’s “Wrong” With Children’s Literature — This list would work for many thing, not just “what’s wrong with Kid Lit”, but it’s pretty good in that respect, too.

This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
• Agatha H. and the Voice of the Castle by Kaja Foglio and Phil Foglio — the third novelization of the webcomic. I’ve only read the comics up through the 2nd novel (no, there’s no good reason for this), so this will be all new material for me. Looking forward to it.
• The Job by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg — Evanovich. Goldberg. Fox. O’Hare. That’s all I need to know.
• Superheroes Anonymous by Lexie Dunne — looks to be an entertaining take on Superheroes

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:

• Some great news for Jim Butcher fans. This is enough for me for the week. The rest is just bonus.
• ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ author R.A. Montgomery dies — And then some sad news. Yeah, the Choose Your Own Adventure books weren’t the greatest things I read — but growing up I didn’t know anyone, including all those kids who only read when forced to by a teacher, who hadn’t read a handful. I’m sure his cultural impact (for good or ill) is much more wide-reaching than any of us realize.
• Goodreads Doesn’t Care If You Read the Book You Reviewed — from the “Things that Make You Go ‘Hmmm'” file.
• 33 thoughts on reading — One Reader’s Manifesto. Some good stuff here, things I should remember. #8’s a bit controversial, “I will not finish books I don’t like.” As seen here:
• Reading Is Not A Chore: On Quitting Books — I’ve read a lot of people talking about this lately — quitting books they don’t enjoy — enough so that I know I’m not alone in feeling compelled to finish every book they start. I see their point.
• I see their point, however, you’ve got things like Why I Finish Books — blah
• or, the more developed: Finish That Book! — and for the moment, I can’t help agree.
• One Man’s Diary of a Month-Long Library Closure — my local library is gearing up for a month-long closure as it moves into a new building. This one resonated with me. And no, I don’t know what I’m going to do for that month.
• Rex Stout on You Bet your Life — haven’t had a chance to listen to this yet, but the NPR show “Tuned To Yesterday” features Rex Stout.
• The Official Bosch Trailer — thought the pilot was great, love the source material…can’t wait for this one.

This Week’s New Release I’m Mostly Interested In (next week looks like a strong/wallet killing week):
• Sons of Anarchy: Bratva by Christopher Golden — I’m mostly over this show, but I’m curious about the tie-in idea, and this one features Trinity and Opie, so I’ll end up giving it a shot.