Bookish links 20 Nov: magical reading, apocalyptic nostalgia, new adult fiction & more! - Read in a Single Sitting - short books, page-turners, and books you cant put down

RIASS stuff:

Elizabeth Camden: Romance readers will always judge a book by its love story'(do you agree?)

Narrative layers and Barbara Shapiro's The Art Forger'Rating:

On reading and memory: is it possible to read too much?

Other bookish stuff:

An interesting follow-up to my recent post about whether its possible to read too much and the subsequent effect on our brains: an article saying that we may indeed be processing too much information, and potentially with dire consequences (ie, our brains are going to turn to dust!)

Ive been discussing new adult fiction and what it means with some of my Twitter buddies of late, so its good to come across a handy little primer that helps define the genre as well as offer some title examples. Despite its slightly misleading name, which seems to suggest that its for readers who are younger than YA readers, new adult is actually aimed at twenty-somethingsthose learning how to be an adult.

The Kindle has turned five, and my, how the reading world has changed in the meantime. Do you own a Kindle? Do you read/buy books any differently because of it? I have one, but to be honest I only use it on holidays, as its way cheaper than paying excess baggage fees. Otherwise I tend to read in hardcopy or on my phone using the Kindle for iPhone or iBooks apps.

An interview with Alden Bell'Many post-apocalyptic stories are too nostalgic for my taste. They are origin stories that concern themselves with how the world came to this sorry state ' focusing on characters who are driven by grief and nostalgia over the lives they have lost. Instead, I've always been fascinated by what post apocalyptia would look like once it has been around long enough to become normalised.'(see our review of'The Reapers are The Angels)

Kate Forsyth on stuttering and roonerspisms. Erm, spoonerisms.'As an adult, I have often been deep in serious conversation with someone Ive highly respected, and seen them roll an eye as my mouth has mangled yet another magnificently conceived, clumsily articulated sentence. In my mind, the words are mellifluous as honey. In my mouth, they are shards of glass. Like Kate, Im prone to spoonerisms, although not to the same degree.

Have you checked out Ted Gioias year of magical reading? Ted has been looking at a different magic realism book each week.

I had a bit of a giggle at this 10 writers under 10 to watch article (a parody of the recent 20 under 40 feature). Imposing those limits, from the garage door to the end of the curb, is what inspired the novel and allowed it to function. In the end, the fact that I'm not allowed to cross the street by myself turned out to be completely inspirational.

Sara Lunsford on how working as a corrections officer helped her writing'I learned how to read people and anticipate their reactions to different stimuli. People-watching wasnt just a pastime; it was a survival skill. Knowing how someone would react to something could mean the difference between going home or to the morgue. Thats given my characters a sharper edge and made my writing stronger because the conflict is more real.

Sourcebooks new childrens books put readers in the story'I have to say Im not really a big fan of this ideaand I never have been. It seems to defeat the purpose of reading, which imagining yourself as someone different, somewhere different, and at a different time.

Bookish nail-polish ideas. I am afraid that I am far too lazy to do this to my nails.

Editor Mallory Kass on the Baby-sitters Club'As I grew older and began exploring other sections of the bookstore, I supplemented my BSC [Baby-sitters Club] reading with other discoveries'L.M. Montgomery, Louisa May Alcott, Frances Hodges Burnett, and then onto Bronte, Austen, and Wharton.'But I never would've become the type of kid who read'The Age of Innocence'in high school had I not fallen in love with reading at an early age.

Michael Anton on Tom Wolfes California'Without Wolfe, we would not understand California'or the California-ized modern world. At the time of his most frequent visits, the state was undergoing a profound change, one that affects it to this day and whose every aspect has been exported throughout the country and the globe. Both have become much more like California over the last 40 years, even as California has drifted away from its old self, and Wolfe has chronicled and explained it all.

Beautiful book design from Vintage Books. Just because.