I’ve had a couple of small disappointments in my social calendar – the one that blends my online social-media life with my admittedly sparse offline social life – this year. I didn’t make it to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books in April, which has been the site of some great book-blogger meet-ups for the last couple of years (although I’ve heard hardly anyone else made it either, so that reduced any sense of […]
I know I’m not the only person who’ll be attending Book Expo America and/or the Book Blogger Convention for the first time next week – and probably not the only one who’s a little anxious about it, either! For me, knowing as much as I can about what I’m getting into is helpful in managing that anxiety. Fortunately, there are plenty of more experienced BEA-goers who are more than happy to share their knowledge with […]
As some readers know, my blogging habit is to write my posts in advance and then schedule them to publish. I didn’t have one written for today and had thought I’d skip this week’s Salon, but as I skimmed my Reader this morning and saw others’ posts popping up, I felt the urge to join in. This will probably be relatively short; it wasn’t a big week for reflection. It wasn’t a bad one for […]
For those of you celebrating, best wishes for a Happy Mother’s Day! I’ll be sharing my thoughts on the holiday tomorrow, but there are no particular plans for it around here. My gift to myself will be a clean house, which I’ll finish working on this morning; then we’re off to the movies to see Thor (the dad’s pick, to be honest, but I’ve been warming up to it – and it’s based on a […]
One month from today is the first day of BEA! This will be my first trip to Book Expo America, and I find myself wavering between eager excitement and anxiety with a touch of crankiness as I anticipate it. This is actually not an unusual reaction for me as I prepare for a conference, and at this stage, the anxiety – which makes me cranky – seems to be running a little ahead of […]
No, this is not the “Four Things” meme (not today, anyway). I actually have a proper Week-End Review to post tomorrow, so here are some Thursday Tidbits to mention. Sign-ups are open for the second year of Armchair BEA! Over 200 people have already signed up, and even though this virtual conference has no capacity limits, what are you waiting for? If you’re not going to be in New York City next month for Book Expo America […]
Last weekend, I set aside the book I was reading on my Kindle for this month’s Faith ‘n’ Fiction Roundtable in order to tackle some “fresh” reading for the 24-Hour Readathon. That went well; I started and finished two books that day. However, I still have not finished the FnFRt reading! However, I’ve read enough to participate in the group discussion of Philip Yancey’s What Good Is God?: In Search of a Faith That […]
One thing that hasn’t been going on much during the last week is reading, I’m sorry to say. I had thought that my 4-day birthday weekend would afford me a nice amount of time for both reading and writing, but I got in sadly little of either. Combine that with an extra-busy time at work, and complicate that with shortened work days due to my physical-therapy appointments (now down to two times a week instead […]
As my participation in the book-blogging world has expanded to include more industry-oriented blogs and newsletters, I’ve become aware of the concept of “handselling” books, in which booksellers talk up book recommendations to customers. In some respects, when we promote books on our blogs with our favorable reviews, I suppose we’re doing a form of it ourselves. I am not a person who wants to be “sold” to – in fact, I’ll actively avoid […]
The current Weekly Geeks theme revisits one of Dewey’s original topics for the meme: Ten Things About Books and YOU. Here are mine: The current population of TBR Purgatory is 326. I give up book-buying for Lent every year, and this year it’s been surprisingly easy to stick to it. For one thing, I’m getting better about wish-listing books so I won’t forget I’m interested in them, but I think the bigger factor is that I’m […]
Does anyone still read the Sunday papers? (We just cancelled ours.) I have news to share about some things they wouldn’t tell you there. After a successful inaugural year, the Independent Literary Awards are poised for growth in their 2011 edition with the addition of three new categories. The genres and panels for this year’s awards were announced a few days ago. Many of the 2010 panel members are returning to serve again, and the […]
Image by minifig via Flickr I’ve seen many book blogs come and go in the almost four years (as of next week!) that I’ve been here. Some have made a big impact, and some have just quietly kept going. Some have formally called a halt to things, while others have simply drifted away, disappearing without leaving a forwarding address. Some have become nurturers and leaders of the community, while some cheerfully court controversy. Some thrive […]
