Once upon a time, on a different blog, I did a weekly book review post. I never really thought of myself as a book reviewer, I just pointed out the things I liked about the books I'd read. And yeah, I'd usually find something nice to say about the book. If I took the time to read it, then there was probably a reason why, even if it meant looking beyond the poor writing or formatting. And the best part was, I had people wanting to send me free books to read and review, although I'd only accept them if I was actually going to read them.
This is not a book review post, this is just me sharing what I've been reading lately, and in some cases how long it's been taking me. But I'm still getting people offering me free books, and some of these books look pretty darn interesting. Maybe in the new year I'll do a proper book review post once a month. :-)
Anyway, NaNo's over now and I'm finding more time to read. Actually, I found some time to read during NaNo. You know, when I needed to procrastinate. ;-)
Electronic Books
You know, I checked George a couple of times just to make sure he was holding his charge or I didn't accidentally turn him on and run his battery down, but I didn't actually turn him on during the month of November. Poor neglected George.
That's not to say I didn't download any e-books during the month, I just didn't read any.
Tree Books
While I'm pretty sure I read a new tree book, I can't for the life of me remember what it was. It was one of those buy it and read it in the same day deals, and I didn't leave it out to remind me to list it. See, this is where keeping up-to-date with Goodreads would come in handy. I promise I'll do better with it next year. :-D
Re-Reads
Oh . . . we're seeing a lot of action in this category. :-D
I finished Sisters in Fantasy, edited by Susan Shwartz and Martin H. Greenberg. It's an anthology I started way back when. There were too many long stories at the beginning, which made me think twice about picking it up a couple of times, but they were all really strong stories by women fantasy writers.
I had a couple of days where I really went to town reading Hunting the Corrigan's Blood by Holly Lisle. I really like this book - scif fi at its best, and even though the odds are against the two main characters, I'm really rooting for them. This isn't a romance novel, however, and I don't believe it's part of a series, so there's no guarantee how it's going to turn out.
I also started to re-read both The Best of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine Volume 1 and Volume 2. The title is pretty self explanatory. Marion published her own fantasy magazine from 1988 through 2000, and these two collections of the best of that magazine.
On a whim I pulled a couple of books off my shelf by a friend of mine who writes under the name of Annie Ottilie. These were The Lion in the Desert, her first book, and Further Than Beyond which was about her eighth book. There are no links to them because she prints up the books herself and sells them once a month at the local farmer's market.
They were quick reads, and if I'm perfectly honest, not very well done. She's a hobby writer, which means she has no interest in learning new things or improving her writing. Her books, novelettes really, have a niche market with the local seniors who get as big a kick out of being able to say they know a real writer as they do the books themselves, and the tourists that pass through our fine town looking for something to pass the time on the beach without straying too far from the waterfront.
As both a writer and an editor it's sometimes hard to keep my mouth shut when I know with just a little work she could have a book worth reading. But as my daughter would say, it's not my circus and it's not my monkeys. ;-)
So . . . what about you? What have you been reading lately?
No comments:
Post a Comment