Oh My God, I'm going to be late for work!

I’m going to blame atmospheric pressure for the fact that I didn’t put up anything yesterday. I had plenty of links, thoughts, and the start of a mental diatribe that would transfer well to paper, but I just felt bleh. Unmotivated. This doesn’t affect my work because there are people there, demanding my attention, asking questions, there’s no time to feel bleh. But at home?

Blehness indeed. Especially when I take into account that I have a huge amount of cleaning to do.

This half-assed apology has nothing to do with today though, where though I feel like the recently reanimated dead (zombie anyone?) I have many links and other fun things to share with you. Go buy grocercies? Hah! That can wait another day. Cleaning? Why? Nothing here has killed me yet.

Um, anywho…

The newest scandal to breach the internet waters is the fact that the website Absolute Write was taken down, apparently due to a vindictive agent on their 20 worst agents list. Teresa Hayden of Making Light has the heads up on this folly as well as some solutions (in the comments section).

Christopher Moore saves Prom! Yep, you heard me. Meg Cabot covers the whole thing on her blog (towards the bottom of the post). And then, to make it even better, he posted his “I do not read” essay on his website (and you people wonder why I love this man). This essay is the perfect example of not only why some people shouldn’t do their own readings (it’s not a requirement), but some of the humorous ways you can deflect doing a reading. Yes, he did have to read this, but he looked pained the entire time. In a funny way, of course.

Yet another blog is becoming a book, says GalleyCat, and this time it is David Lorenzo who wrote Career Intensity. I don’t know if this bothers me less because it is a business book, or because I’m just getting so run down by the blog to book transitions that I don’t care anymore. As long as it isn’t My Space to books…I would hate to have more Myspace Junkies running around (thanks to Fuse#8 for the link).

The Written Nerd continues her BEA information relay (okay, yes, I did just want that to rhyme, I told you that I’m zombie girl today), with a blog entitled, “Blogs, Books, and the Anti-Indie Backlash.” This column is thought-provoking and thoroughly distracting because it hits on stuff that I’ve been thinking about (due to the articles she mentions, your reactions in the “Authors Behaving Badly” column where you talked of booksellers—indie and chain—behaving badly, and my own interactions with different chains and indie bookstores).

Colds, Memoirs, Characters and Link'o'lation

I woke up this morning to a stuffy head and sore throat. Had I been to a bar last night this could have been explained away by too much alcohol and secondhand cigarette smoke, but I have not been near a bar (when it’s operating in bar function) in weeks. I came home from working the closing shift last night and had a glass of milk, so no wild party there. This leaves only two other possibilities: it’s my allergies or it’s the horrible cold/flu my coworkers have been passing around.

I’m picking up some Theraflu before I had off this morning as well as some cough drops and throat coat.

And I’m crossing my fingers that this is just allergies.

I had planned to address the WSJ article, “Publisher’s Solution to Slow Sales: My Story (And His, Too),” but instead I’ll ask your opinion (if you don’t think this article has been beaten to death throughout the blogosphere already). Do you think the WSJ thought this out, or that they are just looking at the result of books picked up before James Freyed the memoir world? How do you like your memoirs (if you like them at all): the more horrible the life the better, straight up give me the truth, or where did all these people with horrible lives come from?

Then on my way to work yesterday, before muzzle-headedness set in, I was thinking about my Calculus professor. Actually that’s not true. I was thinking about books, and about how sometimes people remind us of characters in books, and that’s when I remembered my old professor. He was a tall, balding, very angular man. He had one of those faces where the skin looked like it was just tightened across the bone, all hollows no pillows. I remember sitting in class the first day, after the whirl of orientation week, and just staring at him: the height, the big nose, the big ears, the stooped shoulders. All these things that would have made him look like a lurch except they were off-set by the most gentle personality. And I remember thinking that he reminded me of someone.

He reminded me of the BFG, one of my favorite Roald Dahl character.

I must have whispered it because no one else heard my epiphany except the girl next to me who said, “You’re right. I loved that book.”

He never blew any dreams into my ear that semester, but he did cram my head full of calculus equations, which resulted in some math involved nightmares. Still love him though; you can’t hate the BFG personified.

Have you ever met anyone who reminded you of a character in a book? Good, bad, it doesn’t matter; I just want to make sure that I’m not the only one.


Also, if you’re bored here’s some great links to check out:

Meg Cabot has an interesting post on Writer Dos and Don’ts. Check it out and let us know if you agree or disagree.

I found Fuse#8 via Rosina and I think I’m in love (in a totally plutonic way of course). If you’re interesting in the life and times (and book picks) of a children’s librarian then head on over.

Diana mentioned him on a comment a while back and I forgot to tell her that I’ve been following Joseph’s blog for awhile (but haven’t gotten around to adding a link since I need to reorganize all my links). Go see the pretties (and the opinions) at Book Covers from the NYT Book Review.

On oversleeping, work and reviewers

I have approximately ten minutes to get ready for work, which means anything that I planned to write this morning (and oh, there were plans) and anything I planned to fix this morning (that lovely list of YA book recommendations, so y’all still have time to get in more titles or reasons for why you picked the titles you did). So instead, building on the theme started with my link over to HelenKay’s early this week (which had to do with Dayo’s response to Chick-Lit in general), and the thoughtful article that the Written Nerd wrote in response to the snarkiness over the Tournament of Books, I ask you this:

Is there anything wrong with reading for pure enjoyment and escapism? Should you also read things that you may not enjoy or is life too short?

And specifically on the topic brought up by the Written Nerd, should reviewers get a grip and realize that there are high and low points to every book, and that no one outside of a select few “elitists” pay attention to what they are saying unless there is a full-on reviewer dog-pile on the book?

There are books that I’ve read that I didn’t enjoy, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t still recommend them to people. Take the Egyptologist, for example. Phillips does well with the macabre and combination of fact and fiction, but I felt that the epistolary style limited him in the end (making the book falter), and that he short-changed the readership where some characters were concerned. Overall I was disappointed, but I still offer this book up to people in book clubs because I think there are limitless discussion possibilities, and I’m sure that others will like it just fine. Should a reviewer not do the same?


So what are your thoughts?

From Tween to Teen and the Sex In Between

In Sunday's NYT Book Review, Naomi Wolf shared her thoughts on the popular books in the teen market. The article entitled, "Young Adult Fiction: Wild Things," takes to task Gossip Girl, the Clique and the A List for promoting sex, drugs and a materialistic culture, while desecrating the importance of parent/child disciplinary relationships. Read the article, check out Lady T's response "Is Naomi crying Wolf over Teen reads?" and then head back here and share your thoughts. I'll be back with my own thoughts after I get back from work, but I will share with you this:

Wolf says in her opening paragraph that:

They [the books] feature sleek, conventionally beautiful girls lounging, getting in or out of limos, laughing and striking poses. Any parent — including me — might put them in the Barnes & Noble basket without a second glance.

My response is what? What are you doing picking up a book for your kid without at least reading the back? Aren't the words Clique, Gossip, and A-List representative enough of what they are about? When have those words (with the possible exception of the A-List) had positive connotations?

Let's here your thoughts on Naomi's teen reads. Oh, and while you're at it, go vote.

Sugar, we're going down

Amistad is waiting to see if their new video promotion for Lolita Files' book Sex.Lies.Murder.Fame. is going to go viral on the internet. Booksquare beat me to the announcement and has provided the links so you can check it out. Does it work? Are you interested? Do you think we'll be seeing this more in the future?

And if so, do you think there will be better camera work and more extras?

Let's here your thoughts.