Hello, everyone! Thanks for the good wishes last week — my grandmother’s operation went okay, and she seems quite well, all things considered. Hope you’ve all had good weeks too!
Bought
Suddenly, I’m mad about Phryne Fisher. Even considering watching the series, if it’s on the UK Netflix! I’ve read a bunch of these already.
Library
Yes. Uh. As I said.
Comics
I’ve been looking forward to this one since I first heard about it!
What’s everyone else been getting?
You’ve probably seen a headline like this on Twitter; the particular one that broke this camel’s back is from CTV News Vancouver. On a light note, I’d like to point out that Canada are reporting paper book sales up just after I had a trip to Canada and filled my suitcase and my partner’s with new books from Indigo and various non-chain bookshops. Coincidence?
Well, yes, but I like it anyway. Even though I was in Calgary, not Vancouver. And made some of my purchases in Edmonton. You’re missing the point.
Anyway, I’m getting pretty sick of these headlines, which inevitably come with lines about how reading a “real” book is more satisfying. More interesting, perhaps, are the articles which I’ve seen that show teens are not big adopters of ereaders and ebooks. I’d love to see more about that, because this is a generation that has grown up reading from screens all the time. Maybe it’s because when we’re reading, we want to escape from the everyday world. When screens are your everyday world, maybe you want something that creates a bit more separation, and has no extra bells and whistles to let you know that you just got five emails.
Maybe it’s because many teens just aren’t that interested in books, and therefore won’t invest in an ereader, and teen purchases of books tend to be one-offs, in paperback. I don’t know; I’d love to see studies on why teens aren’t adopting ereaders/ebooks — link me, if they exist!
But what I really don’t get is the way people are crowing over the “failure” of ebooks. I walk into the eye clinic I volunteer at, and I clock at least three Kindles in each 2.5 hour session. They’re great for making books accessible. Large print books are usually not cost effective: the library I volunteer for have a collection of older ones, but I don’t think we’ve added a new large print title in years. They’re just not available for reasonable prices. But you can choose your own font size — uniquely calibrated to your needs and preferences. You can pick your own font, too. Some ereaders even have the font designed for dyslexic readers as an option.
I’m not seeing the failure here. People are choosing what works for them. Ebooks constitute 17% of sales in Canada, for example. That’s not nothing, or a failure. It’s people choosing the technology they’re comfortable with, and which suits their needs. The stats don’t even tell us anything about whether people use both.
For me, it doesn’t matter. I’m not “more satisfied” reading one way or the other. I love my ereader for the access I get to ARCs and the way ereaders create opportunities for short fiction and serialisation. I love paper books because, yeah, I like the smell of the pages, I like to own things. I like my ereader because it has a backlight which adjusts to current lighting conditions, and I can get new releases cheaper. I love paper books because they make my room look lived in. I love my ereader because I can travel, with all the books I want still at my fingertips. Kindle sales can be amazing, but there’s also the satisfaction of carrying home a nice stack of books.
It’s weird how invested people get in the “death” of ebooks, in how “artificial” they are or how they’re “killing” the book industry. Nope, Amazon across all book sales is much more of a threat than ebook sales as a whole, including non-Amazon sources.
I have no big investment in how other people read. Ebooks, paperbacks, hardbacks, audiobooks — whatever floats your boat. Just read, I don’t care in what format.
This week’s prompt from The Broke and the Bookish is “10 Wishes I’d Ask The Book Genie To Grant Me”.
Well.
I could probably keep going for a while on this topic…
Good afternoon, everyone! It’s almost time for the readathon, so I thought I’d get my progress post up and running. All my updates will be in here, unless the post starts getting ridiculously long, in which case I might start a new one. Let’s start by showing off my stack (or, you know, some of it).
Of course, who knows whether I’ll stick to that, because I am a contrary creature…
Here’s the introductory meme!
1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? Cardiff, UK. And since I’m Welsh, you can expect some squealing about the rugby as well, I’m afraid.
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? I don’t know, I’m quite looking forward to rereading Old Man’s War. Or maybe Magic Slays; Ilona Andrews’ work is always fun.
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? Salted caramel chocolate Cadbury fingers. Mmmm.
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! I’m a ghostwriter and will be looking with interest to see if anybody’s reading books I’ve had anything to do with… not that I can tell you if you are.
5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to? I’m pretty in the swing of it, now. I’ll sleep if I have to and read joyously if not, and not beat myself up too much about either outcome.
13.31: Well, I’ve started with Miss Phryne Fisher Investigates. I actually tried to read this before and did not get on with it, so I’m a little surprised to find myself enjoying it.
14.24: Just did the Cover Escape challenge, and now it’s back to curling up with Phryne. Yeesh, it’s cold here in Wales!
15.26: I’m strangely slow at reading, today! I thought I’d easily get Phryne polished off in two hours. Ah well, enjoying it.
16.34: Now finished my first book! Not sure what’s next, being social a little bit first.
17.44: Have started reading Hollow City. Accidentally spoilered myself about the end, oops. About 1/4 of the way through.
18.27: More than halfway through Hollow City now. Break for dinner! Wales lost in the rugby, sigh.
21.02: Whoops, where is the time going? (Cue some Sandy Denny!) Listening to music to liven me up again and taking a break to chat. I’m 1/3 of the way through Murder Past Due, and 3/4 of the way through Hollow City — I was flagging a bit, so I changed it up for a while.
22.07: Finished Hollow City! I think I’m going to see if I can have a bath… books to go in with me: The Moonspinners (Mary Stewart) and Murder Past Due (Miranda James).
01.07: Well, I read The Moonspinners in the bath, completing my third book. But now I feel a bit sick, and I have work and book club tomorrow, so I’m going to get some sleep now. Back in the morning!
09.39: I’m back! I actually ended up reading over half of another book till I could fall asleep, so I’m now halfway through Dark Entries (Robert Aickman).
10.59: Finished Dark Entries. Now I’m going to settle back down with Murder Past Due, and see if I can finish a fifth book this readathon.
12.19: Now I’ve finished Murder Past Due. I’m wrapping up with some organisational stuff rather than reading more.
This has been an unexpectedly busy week again, since friends have been super nice to me (particularly Lynn and Robert), and Mum ended up with some Amazon vouchers from surveys! Which is really nice, because it is a stressful time. This week my grandmother’s going to have her operation for cancer, so I would really, really appreciate good thoughts sent her way.
Anyway, back to the books!
Won
I liked The Errant Prince a lot, so yay for this! Looking forward to reading it. Thank you, Sasha L. Miller!
Dead tree books
I was instructed to get something light and escapist and easy, and Magic Slays will be exactly that for me. And research, since paranormal romance is a genre I ghostwrite in… Dark Metropolis apparently has a bunch of LGBTQ characters, including an ace character.
Ebooks
A rather random mix, really! A few of these I’ve been meaning to read for a while.
Library
Another mixed bag, really! My Brother Michael and The Grand Sophy are rereads grabbed for the readathon this weekend (post coming soon).
What’s everyone else been getting?
This week’s theme for Top Ten Tuesday is picking authors you would like to see write together. I’ve taken a somewhat random approach, just throwing favourite authors together in some cases. Also, I’ve kept dead authors in the equation, because you never know. If anyone could find a way to talk to a dead author, it’d probably be another living author.
This was actually a really hard one to come up with. I’ll be interesting to see what other people have thought up!
Oops. This week has been one of wild indulgence. Granted, some of these were preordered — it’s been a heck of a week for books I wanted coming out! There’s one or two more I don’t even have, like Empire Ascendant by Kameron Hurley. Yeesh.
(Well, some of these I didn’t preorder, just picked up as soon as I could, with new money coming into my account for the start of the month. It hit me rather harder than I expected!)
Bought
Uh. Yes. Quite the haul, I know. And I actually won Mythmaker, but putting it there stops there being one book hanging out on its own.
(Yes, I quite literally have OCD, I know this.)
Library
How I wish these numbers were the other way round and I had gone nuts at the library instead! Ah well. I have lots of reservations due in next week…
How’s everyone else been doing? I’m feeling pretty worn out and run down at the moment; there’s family stuff going on, and sometimes I think I might just need a good hug. Books make it a bit more bearable, though — coming out of the library with an armful of new pocket universes to hide in is a heady feeling.
Don’t forget to link me to your hauls! Direct links are helpful and save me having to track you down to return the comments.
This week’s theme from The Broke and the Bookish is ‘Ten Bookish Things I Want to Quit’. Wait, there’s things about books that people might want to quit?!
Kidding, kidding, I totally have a list too.
Anyone else resemble these remarks? Heh.
Last Saturday I was at a convention, and there was a dealer’s room and a swap table, sooo… yeah, unsurprisingly, I have some new additions!
Bought
I’ve been meaning to read the first two for ages, and the latter involves Arthurian references, so I couldn’t resist.
Swap table/freebies
Sadly, I didn’t really have anything to contribute to the swap table, since I didn’t know it was there in advance, so I am paying it forward by using Bookcrossing to send some books on a new journey.
ARCs
I’m surprised I was allowed access to Armada, since it’s definitely out and has plenty of buzz, but I’m not arguing! And I need to read the first two books in Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear’s series first, but I’m excited to do so!
Library
Mostly a grab bag of my favourite comfort reads. My grandmother’s not very well, so I feel like I deserve it!
How’s everyone else doing?
I’ve been excited to get started on this — I think I’ve got a great line-up for this month. I’m enjoying switching the categories up a bit, and will probably do that every month, even if ‘ARCs’ and ‘library’ are probably gonna be a constant.
ARCs
Library
Series
Tor.com novellas
Comics
Challenge
Wildcards
It shouldn’t be too busy this month, so I’m hoping to really chew through the list. I think I’m gonna end up with a couple books left over from September, but I’ll stick them in wildcards if I get round to them.
ETA: I’ve gone wildly off-script because it’s a difficult month. Still hoping to finish a few more of these, though!