RIASS stuff:
Book Review: The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro'Rating: 
Interview: JI Baker on whodunnits, cultural myths and Marilyn Monroe
Book Review: Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles'Rating: 
Giveaway: Pearl Verses the World by Sally Murphy'(open to all)
Other bookish stuff:
Check out this awesome symmetrical alphabet
How having kids changed this readers reading life'This is something I often think about, actually, given that Ill be looking at having kids in the next few years. I read walking to work, walking back from work, and pretty much all evening. I wonder how a shift in the time I have to read will change'how I readwill I read more ebooks? More audiobooks? Will I struggle to read books about evil kids, or about evils done to kids?
Top ten circulated books at Grade 5 and 6 level'Diary of a Wimpy Kid is certainly popular at this authors school.
The Lure of a Good Book: the DNA of a successful book, and whos reading what.'Takeaway points include women being 50% more likely to finish a book than men, and men being 10 times more likely to read a book featuring a male protagonist. Also, 30% of people will have stopped reading a book by page 50.
If its not stories about people wearing goggles and leather corsets, what exactly is Steampunk?'Basically its alternate history with good hygiene, plenty of brass and a colonialist bent.
On finding names for your characters'The author notes that its important to find a name that fits your characters, and suggests a variety of different types of names: layered names, which may include ironic names, phonemically suggestive names, symbolic and connotative names; and plain names, which are just normal names. Not mentioned here, but theres also Scriveners spiffy name generator, which comes up with some zany stuff. As a MG author, I get to have lots of fun with names (my novel on submission is called Spatterbaum and Zitherbother), but other genres are a little more restrictive (unless youre Jeffrey Eugenides, who seems to have a lot of fun here). My personal pet peeves are books filled with names that are plain Jane and obviously white, and also YAs filled with trendy names.
The 10 Types of Writers Block (and how to overcome them)'For me, its read lots, indulge in word play, talk stuff over with my husband (whose logical brain works oh so differently from mine), and get out pen and paper to work through a pressing plot issue. Also coffee.
The shortlist for the 2012 Inky Awards has been announced
What should you expect from a developmental editor?
Howard Jacobson: everyone wants to talk about books, but no one wants to read them''Jacobson goes on to add, Your guess is as good as mine, but what if the literary event is poised to take over from actually reading a book, and what if the feverish output is the final paroxysm before decease? To be honest, I think he has a valid point about literature as an event. If you look at some of todays runaway bestsellers (not naming names here), one suspects that a lot of the popularity is more to do with participating in some sort of reading event than it is about reading an actual book. Not to mention that its easy to rock up to a session or presentation on books without having actually read them. Its sort of like taking out a gym membership: thats half the effort already made right there.
Get Readings 50 Books You Cant Put Down 2012
Harry Potter Periodic Table of the Elements!
Need somewhere quiet to write? How about a jail cell?
An interview with John Glusman about digital publishing, authors as marketers, reading habits, and agents and acquisitions.'Authors are key to marketingthese days we expect all of our authors to have interesting, lively, up-to-date websites, and to be active in social media. It's essential that they be our partners in publicity and promotion and make the most of their contacts and expertise.
John Banvilles Quirke novels (written as Benjamin Black) to be a BBC1 drama starring Gabriel Byrne
XKCD on star ratings. Yeah, pretty much. (See also this.)
I laughed out loud when I saw the lowdown on star ratings! The piece on how reading changes when you have kids was interesting since I have two little munchkins of my own running mad around the house. Since having kids I definitely appreciate a quality childrens picture book and early readers. To please the children and the parents at the same time is hard to do!
Thanks, Sonia! The star rating pieces are spot on, I think!
I definitely agree with you about good quality childrens picture books and early readers. I have a little sister who is currently reading PBs (and is just starting to move into early readers), and, oh, theres some ordinary stuff out there! Im always delighted to come across a beautifully designed, cleverly written PB or ER. Given that the adult is there (re)reading them as well, its always nice to have something thats worth coming back to.
oh yeahwhen the little baby dies, its much much sadder when you have your own! And yes, there is less time to read, especially when they are toddlers. But on the other hand, you get to read Winnie the Pooh outloud, which is nice.
Oh dear. Im a big sap as it isI sniffled through Where the Red Fern Growsso Im going to have to stick to happy books!
I do love reading books aloud, though. Some books are just perfect for being read aloud. :)
I do love that XKCD strip and the other graph you found on ratings. Also beware of Yelp! (not sure if you have this in Australia) but the ratings on that are also bought. When I was in college I took a social statistics course, and basically I learned that every graph with more than 30 participants should be a bell curve, anything outside that is an outlier (if I remember correctly). Therefore I skip all 5 stars and 1 stars and look at the middle stars to read who actually wrote why they did or did not like something.
I also found that article on Steampunk interesting. I have to agree, one of the main appeals for the genre in my book have been the feisty female protagonists. Quite lovely.
Im very leery of sites such as Yelp, as Ive come across so many ads on the internet asking people to write a positive review for certain businesses in return for payment.
I think there are a few reasons behind this whole purchased reviews thing. For authors its a matter of getting ones name out therewith so many hundreds of thousands of books out there, discoverability is a huge thing. For businesses, on the other hand, I think its more likely that the bought reviews are designed to mitigate the negative reviews that theyve received. People, after all, are generally more likely to take the effort to set up an account to *complain* rather than heap effusive praise on something. So I think those reviews naturally skew more negatively.
Of course, theres also the fact that people will rate down a book for poor design, proofreading, slow shipping and so onthings that are unrelated to the quality of the narrative (which is what people typically associate the star rating with), but have more to do with the publishers/merchants offering their services.
Have you heard of Adrienne Kress, Jami? I love her work, and she has a new steampunk novel coming out at the end of the year. Im dying to read it!