Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Links, Links and More Links

It's that time again. Today, I'm posting a handful of bookish links for your perusal.  I hope there's something here to capture your attention.

  • First up, from Book Riot we get this article on Boats, Trains and Barns:  Bookstores in Weird and Wonderful Places. How awesome would it be to own a bookstore not just filled with wonderful books, but in some novel and interesting setting?  I'd like a chain of bookstores in treehouses or on beaches.
  • Harper Collins posted 16 Bookstores You Have To See Before You Die on Buzz Feed Books. I'm sure you've seen at least a few of these around the internet.  But, I never get tired of looking at rows and rows of books in such interesting settings.  How can print ever die when there are places like these selling books?
  • Josh Corman posted 5 Bookish Merit Badges I'd Be Proud to Pin on my Chest at Book Riot.  I'd be a Book Scout, or whatever more sensible sounding title someone could come up with for a scouting group of bookish types.  I was a Girl Scout for two years, a junior, which comes after Brownies.  It was 4th and 5th grades. Actually, I met the age requirements, but my mom was the Scout.  I had every possible combination of uniform, pants, shorts, skirts, skorts, dresses, blouses, you name it.  I also racked up badges constantly.  The other girls complained, but I regularly went back to meetings with a note from my mother explaining all the things I had done to earn another handful of badges.  I'm sure I probably helped her, but they were really her badges.  And, as soon as I'd get the next baggie of badges to be sewn on my sash, my mom would get them affixed in their proper places.  She was a great Scout, and she didn't even have to go to the meetings.
  • Have you ever seen a sculptural 3D book?  
  • We live in a society where almost no one leaves the house without a computer.  We've got them from desktops to smartphones and every size in between.  I'm reading M.T. Anderson's Feed right now and feeling a little creeped out by just how much time I spend using a computer.  I'm pretty sure that most authors are using word processing programs to write their books.  But, if you are wondering about the favorite writing tools of famous authors, there's a nice glimpse into just that at Flavorwire. The Writing Tools of 20 Famous Authors highlights Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway and Neil Gaiman among others.  
  • A Buzz Feed community member put together this list of 10 Fantasy Authors Who Fight the Patriarchy, Gender Stereotypes and Possibly Dragons.  I'm sure you can think of a few more who fit the bill. Of course, you know that you won't find good old Orson Scott Card on the list. 
  • Fall is fully here.  Are you all caught up on your series books?  There are plenty of new installations out now and in the near future.  Over at Bookish you'll find this article on How To Catch up on Must Read Thriller Series before their Fall Releases.  Sorry, better late than never, right?  I'm a huge fan of the Kinsey Milhone alphabet series by Sue Grafton and Stephanie Plum is totally my girl.  I've only read Nesbo's The Snowman, but I've got to say that I find Harry Hole a pretty great character.  As far as James Patterson and Patricia Cornwell are concerned, I'm so very very over their works.  
  • Last up today, this Buzz Feed Books article, 15 Classics Authors Who Need to Be Taken to the Burn Unit.  After reading this, I don't feel quite so bad for hating on some of the books I read.  Any authors who I've insulted or offended with my negative thoughts on their works can take comfort in the fact that plenty of really incredibly famous authors and some very well known works really got savaged in their day.  I mean, seriously, look what they had to say about Wuthering Heights, and Anna Karenina.  
That'll do it for the moment.  You know I've got tons more to share, so prepare yourselves for the next batch of book links coming your way.

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