The Book Diary

The semi-anonymous book blog of a story addict.

[abooklady]

Oh no.  The old people have learned how to use our store Pandora station.

[abooklady]

These are the kinds of emails I get in the general inbox

"I thought you might like to know that my novel, IN THE HIMALAYAN NIGHTS just won a Great Northwest Book Festival Award"

That was the entirety of the email.  That and a bad link.

[abooklady]

Ok.  Deadpool is ordered.  Ironman is next.

[abooklady]

Giving customers the plague today.

[abooklady]

Finally gave up on Hounded after the 2nd godess to be introduced had the same personality as the first and randomly had sex with the main character.

[abooklady]

Read "Texts from Dog" at the register last night.  Way funnier and less lame than I thought it was going to be.

[abooklady]

Ordering Deadpool comics and reading them at the cash register.  I get paid for this.

[abooklady]

Just heard a customer refer to the New Release Hardbacks table as "Old people on tour."  Nearly lost my shit.

[abooklady]

Doing a super detailed survey of the SF/Fantasy section at my store and I might have to read Elizabeth Bear.  Her stuff sounds pretty cool.

Also, apparently Hounded has REALLY good reviews on Amazon.  Damn.

[abooklady]

Reading Assignment: Joe Golem and the Drowning City

Absolutely wonderful!  I blasted through it in just a few days (without much time for reading so you really know it was engaging) and just loved it.  It's a slow paced Lovecraftian Noir that takes part in a half sunken New York with a little magic and a little mad science thrown in.  How funny that the story combines so many different elements but was so much better than Hounded.  The writing is better, the choice and use of words is better and the different elements were blended much better than the other book.  Maybe I'll expound later but for right now, it's onward and hopefully upward!  Though I really should give Hounded another shot since the author is coming to the store next month for an event :\

[penguinteen]

Whatever it is, we want to eat it too!

Become a fan of Gayle Forman’s JUST ONE DAY and JUST ONE YEAR on Facebook!

[abooklady]

HAHAHAHAHAHA

Oh man Penguin.  You should have run this one by a teenager before posting.

[abooklady]

Extra Credit Reading: blush

Oh my god shut up I'm going to cry.  That everything I wanted it to be and now I'm only sad because it's published through CreateSpace (amazon's publishing arm) so my bookstore probably won't carry it.  Big, gay sigh!

[abooklady]

Pulled an arc off the arc shelf today. 

Read: "I should not have even been there.  I felt overwhelmed with meloncholy.  This expression is modest by design to soften the pain still present following the recent death of my father." 

Put the arc back on the arc shelf.

[abooklady]

Extra Credit Reading: blush

So I usually don't get through more than two lines of a promotional email before skimming to the bottom and hitting the trash icon but I got one today that just called to me.  Mostly I read Science Fiction/Fantasy but I love a good biography and anything with gay men.  And I have a strange relationship with makeup.  I don't wear it, I don't care one way or another about it, but I can sit for hours and watch makeup tutorials on youtube.  The promotional was for a book called 'blush: the unbelievably absurd diary of a gay beauty junkie.'  Oh my god.  I read the entirety of the LONG email complete with a short bio and excerpt from the book and was already in love.  Then I checked the attachments and found the entire book tacked on in PDF format.  I've been reading for 8 hours, am more than halfway through and this book is every bit as wonderful as promised. <3

[abooklady]

Reading Assignment: Hounded

It feels so weird to hold a standard size book after GRRM!  Read the first chapter on the train home this evening and I'm not terribly impressed.  Very wordy and expositiony.  I'm not a fan of heavy exposition 'frontloaded' (as my husband would say) into a narrative but it can be done well, or at least passably.  Here it feels like too many concepts being tossed at the reader in seven pages with no more than a cursory glance at each.  Let me see if I can expand on that a bit since it's a concept I'm writing about for the first time. ;)  

Good beginning exposition: It's like our world except this.

Moderate - decent beginning exposition: It's like our world expect this and this.  And maybe this.

Hounded: It's like our world except for this dude who's an ancient druid who looks like he's 21 and the fae are real and don't like him and occult magic and gods (of all beliefs) walking the earth and portals to the fae in some parts of the world but not others, an ancient grudge, an iron elemental and, oh yeah, vampires.  

All of which sounds very interesting but is a bit much to drop on a person in seven pages.  The chapter also includes a well choreographed fight scene and the lead in for the main story.

In seven pages.

But ANYWAY, despite my main objection there were things that I liked and found interesting.  I do like Celtic flavoring.  The main character sounds like a doll.  I love the Sidhe and I'm pretty much a sucker for any mention of Coyote (thanks to Gunnerkrigg Court).

So initial reaction:  It's not terrible but it's not anything special either.  

I think I'm going to change my mind and read Joe Golem and the Drowning City next instead.

[abooklady]

Reading Assignment: Storm of Swords

FINISHED.

Finally finished yesterday and thank god.  Love it though, even if it is forever long!  Analysis to follow and even though it feels like I can finally move on with my life and read other things, I'm already craving the next book.

[abooklady]

Bluh, being sick sucks balls.