More Bookish Link Love

In my non-reading hours, those hours that I spend waiting until it's time to start my reading hours again, I spend a lot of time surfing the internet and reading about books and bookish things.  Most days, the folder that I store the bookmarks for these online posts is filled to bursting with bookish thoughts.  So, once again, I am going to share with you some of the many many links I've curated for your clicking pleasure.  

• First up is an article from Buzz Feed Travel.  When I first clicked through and started skimming What It's Like When a Harry Potter Fan Makes the Journey to London I was thinking it might have been just another waste of time.  I did like that the author showed the places in London where the Potterverse would overlap, if it were really there.  I wasn't sure if it was just going to be someone who is all sour grapes because Harry Potter's world isn't where they expect to find it.  But, that's not what this is about.  Instead, the author, Dan Oshinsky, looked at the real places that inspired, or represented the fictional places Rowling created in her books.  Then, it got even better, he went on a walking tour, which I would totally do and enjoy, given the chance.  But, that isn't all, he also took the Warner Bros. studio tour and saw the sets and the costumes, got to truly immerse himself in the Potterverse.  I found more surprising things, even in Mr. Oshinsky's disappointments than I expected.  I've got a passport and the jones to travel, if I had the cash, I'd be following in his footsteps.
• It's NaNoWriMo and you can't throw a rock without hitting a frustrated novelist.  Unless you come to my house, where the thought of trying to write a 50,000 word book in 30 days makes every idea in my head dry up instantaneously.  Maybe next year, I'll be able to do enough of the preplanning to gear up for National Novel Writing Month, and see how far my story ideas can take me.  Until then, I'm going to be looking into these 9 Books on Reading and Writing as provided by Maria Popova at Brain Pickings. I guess I should start with How to Read a Book and the equally helpful sounding, How to Write a Sentence.
• Flavorwire is commenting on Buzz Feed Books with an article titled, BuzzFeed Books Won't Kill Literary Criticism -- But Book Snobbery Might..  I feel like I've been seeing a lot about book reviews and who they are intended to serve.  The general consensus is that book reviews are written for readers, not authors.  The new editor at BuzzFeed Books wants a positive spin on the books reviewed.  For me, it all boils down to how honest the end result is.  I've read books that are great, could be great, are considered great by other people (but not me) or, are so awful they make me sad.  Often, books just don't work for me  because I am who I am. Or, even, because I was who I was when I read it.  
• Have you seen this one at Flavorwire?  It's Neil Gaiman's thoughts on writers who inspire him.  I don't think you have to be Neil Gaiman to be inspired by any of these authors.  
• This map must be seen to be believed.  For a bookworm like me, I could totally make that home.   I think I'd like to be near Northanger Abbey and The Lady of the Lake.
• For over a decade, I've been making a point to read all the books that I hear about being banned and challenged.  Have you perused the ALA's lists of the most frequently challenged books?  I rarely considered the books that weren't stories for my purposes, and there are always a handful of those.  Of the remaining books, I found some that I thought weren't very good, but that's my opinion and certainly not cause to keep someone else ( or as the challengers wish, everyone else) from reading them.  So often, the people challenging the books haven't read them, only heard bad things about them.  Josh Corman wrote this post for Book Riot  entitled, What I Said When They Came for The Handmaid's Tale. In it he details, how he wanted to handle the situation, how he did handle it and what he wrote to defend his stance should someone question the book again.  I wish there were more teachers like him and more administrators like the one he wrote defending his selection of the text.
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