It’s been a while since I did a straight-up booklog post here, but most of what I’ve been reading lately hasn’t really demanded one. I picked this up the other day after seeing a pile of them in the front of a Barnes & Noble, though, and it does deserve comment. Dog On It is… Continue reading Spencer Quinn, Dog On It [Library of Babel]
Category: Books
The Dark Art of Blurbing
Tom Levenson’s series about the writing of his Newton and the Counterfeiter continues with a piece on the getting of blurbs for the cover: Newton and the Counterfeiter (Amazon, Powells, Barnes and Noble, Indiebound) is by far my best-blurbed book, boasting enthusiastic and generous praise from a very diverse crew of luminaries — (David Bodanis,… Continue reading The Dark Art of Blurbing
New Adventures in Retail
Over at Tor.com, they’ve unveiled the new Tor.com store, enabling you to buy your books via your favorite SF publisher. It’s pretty bare-bones at the moment, so the most worthwhile feature is probably the special picks feature, where they collect together lists of books recommended by their most popular bloggers. Such as, for example, Kate’s… Continue reading New Adventures in Retail
Academic Novels and a Comment Experiment
Female Science Professor is revisiting an old topic, namely, the academic novel: I was thinking about the general topic of academic novels because I was looking for some books to read and was looking through the lists in the links above. And then I wondered: Why do I want to read an academic novel during… Continue reading Academic Novels and a Comment Experiment
Book Promotion Ideas
Tom Levenson has another post up in his ongoing series about the writing and publishing process of his new book, this one about generating publicity. At this point, he’s gone past what I’ve experienced so far, but this is fortuitously timed, as I got a note from my editor yesterday saying that the bound galleys… Continue reading Book Promotion Ideas
Hugo Nominees: Longer Short Fiction
A little while ago, I griped about the Short Story nominees for this year’s Hugo Awards. I’ve now finished the nominees in the Novella and Novelette categories, so I thought I’d comment on them as well. As a general matter, I’d just about be willing to contribute money toward a fund to buy supporting memberships… Continue reading Hugo Nominees: Longer Short Fiction
Kissing and Comic Books
Two things that are worth a plug beyond the Links Dump level: 1) Over at the Intersection, Sheril Kirshenbaum wants you to look at pictures of people kissing. This is for Science, so stop giggling, and tell her what you think of the pictures. 2) There’s a new blog, Ecocomics, dedicated to exploring the burning… Continue reading Kissing and Comic Books
Writing Is Easy, Except When It Isn’t
Tom Levenson has another excellent piece in his series on the writing of his forthcoming book on Newton, this one on hitting a wall: The one bit of history specific to the Newton and the Counterfeiter project came when I hit a wall. I had written about a quarter of the manuscript by the autumn… Continue reading Writing Is Easy, Except When It Isn’t
The Physics of NASCAR by Diandra Leslie-Pelecky
When this first came out, I didn’t pick it up, despite a glowing recommendation from Jennifer Ouellette, because NASCAR is one of the few things on ESPN that interests me less than baseball. I didn’t really think I’d be interested in reading a whole book on the subject. I saw Jennifer and Diandra on Bloggingheads… Continue reading The Physics of NASCAR by Diandra Leslie-Pelecky
Wanted: Better Hugo Nominees
I’m eligible to vote for the Hugos this year, as a paid-up member of Anticipation. As such, I got the free packet of nominated works that they put together for the voters, and have started working my way through the short fiction (I’ve read all the novel nominees that I’m going to). Whether you’re eligible… Continue reading Wanted: Better Hugo Nominees