Saturday, October 25, 2008

Well, I'll be...

I was fascinated by an author's proposal to give away her first book on the eve (well, two week window) of her next novel's debut. I know JNJ and I have both read The Reincarnationist, but it seems now may be the time for anyone else to follow, as you could read it for free!

http://www.mjrose.com/books/reincarnationist_free.asp

It turns out you can follow the instructions to either download it free to your computer or Kindle until Oct31. What a great marketing idea--and very twenty-first century.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Too current

I guess I shouldn't find this so jarring, but twice in the last few weeks I've been surprised by finding something that seemed overly current in the books I was reading, though on reflection neither was particularly new.

First was the advance reading copy of Cornelia Funke's Inkdeath. Before each chapter is an epigraph; they come from various sources, and one was from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Okay, okay, after my first feeling of surprise I realized that it has been more than 10 years (!) since the first in the series came out.

But then, on the first page of It Sucks to Be Me by Kimberly Pauley, there is a reference to Stephenie Meyer. Twilight was published in 2005, so it's hardly brand-new either, but it still seemed a jolt. Maybe it was the thought that these works are becoming (or have already become) so much a part of the cultural fabric. Or maybe they seemed more current because the last book in each series was published more recently? I'll have to ruminate upon this.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

What page # are you on?

Is it just me or does the page # tracking feature on Goodreads seem a little Big Brother-y? Do you really want to know that I am on page 114 of Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice? If so, please also realize that I will probably stay on that same page for a long while because I've been lured away by other more escapist fare.

I think I'm on page 53 of Stalin's Ghost by Martin Cruz Smith. However, should I change that number tomorrow when I'm on page 73 . . . or page 54? If I read 100 pages, am I a "good" reader or was I just procrastinating a whole lot?

Just asking.

I guess I love making lists but I'm not so big on counting.