( What I've been reading this summer )

Alyssa Rosenberg has an interesting piece about yesterday's Supreme Court decision regarding violent video games and how two of the justices writing opinions on the decision, Scalia and Thomas, end up essentially arguing with each other about children's and YA literature. It's kind of fascinating (and one of the very few times I've ever agreed with ( Read more... )

I do not like working six days a week! I understand there are people who have to do it all the time, whereas I only have to do it for five weeks a year, but I still do not like it, and I cannot wait for Christmas to be over.

On to more pleasant things! I see that several people have done a Books Read in 2010 post today, even though 2010 is not ( Read more... )

I briefly thought parasols might be the new trend in romance novel covers:

( Examples )

Has anyone else seen the commercial for the V-Reader, which appears to be an e-reader for children? This is the opening voice-over of the ad ( Read more... )

Forbes lists the highest paid authors. James Patterson comes in at #1, having made $70 million in the past year. Seventy million dollars. I? Have never once been compelled to read a James Patterson book so I will refrain from snarking about him too much, but I do find it strange that the Forbes article claims he writes out all his books in longhand ( Read more... )

Earlier this week, I had a bad reading experience. I've been reading a lot of "fluff" lately: romances and YA and fantasy of the Charlaine Harris variety. I don't mean to denigrate these books by calling them fluff; I LIKE them (that's why I read them!), but sometimes I crave something with a little more depth. So I went with a book called The ( Read more... )

angearia had a post about books that I left a few recommendations on, where I also mentioned that if she was interested, I might be able to offer some romance novel recs. A couple of people seemed interested in that, so I figured I would turn it into a post rather than leave a long-winded comment. So if romance novels, specifically historicals, aren't your ( Read more... )

Now that virtually every aspect of Jane Austen's life and work has been mined for fiction, it appears that the Bronte sisters are going to be the next hot trend in publishing. ( For example )

It's always entertaining when someone's ego becomes so outrageous that it's apparently eaten away all sense of reality. Thus is the case with this jaw-dropping interview with author Nicholas Sparks, who wrote The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, and Dear John. Here's the money quote:

"A romance novel is supposed to make you escape into a fantasy of ( Read more... )