15 Day Book Blogging Challenge/Day 6 - (Shopping!)

I came across this awesome idea on Good Books and Good Wine.  The 15 Day Book Blogging Challenge.  April came up with these awesome bookish exercises to get our creative juices flowing, to remind us why we blog in the first place and for fun!

I've been so busy lately and I've been out of town so I feel that my blog has been seriously lacking.  Truth be told, it's been hard to get back in the swing of things.   When I saw this Challenge, it lit that blogging flame again.  The nice thing is, you don't have to do all 15 challenges.  Just do what you can.  You also may want to visit the other participating blogs and see what they have to say.

For complete details please visit the starting post HERE.

Describe how you shop for books.

Bookstores:  I wander the aisles and look at the books on the shelves until a title or a book cover catches my eye.  Then I'll read the synopsis.  If it interests me, I'll read the first sentence or so.  Then I'll start my inner monologue which goes something like this:

Do I really need this?
When will I need it?
After the other 100 books I still have to read?
Will I really start it right away?
Wouldn't it be better, cheaper and more environmentally responsible to simply get it from the library?
But what if in a few days I want to start it?

Of course, no one watching would know I'm having this discussions with myself.  It simply looks like I'm looking at the book, twisting my mouth, hefting the book in my hand as if I'm weighing it.

Online: I usually go to Amazon and repeat the above.  Sometimes I'll get lost in the internet root system. You know, where you keep clicking and clicking and clicking until you don't even remember the first item you clicked on.  Then I'll put things in my cart or on my wishlist.  When I look at the cart and see how much all my purchases would be, I'll either just move the books to my wishlist or log off entirely.

I'd love to hear if any of you do the above?  Or maybe you have another method of shopping for books.

15 Day Book Blogging Challenge/Day 4.

I came across this awesome idea on Good Books and Good Wine.  The 15 Day Book Blogging Challenge.  April came up with these awesome bookish exercises to get our creative juices flowing, to remind us why we blog in the first place and for fun!

I've been so busy lately and I've been out of town so I feel that my blog has been seriously lacking.  Truth be told, it's been hard to get back in the swing of things.   When I saw this Challenge, it lit that blogging flame again.  The nice thing is, you don't have to do all 15 challenges.  Just do what you can.  You also may want to visit the other participating blogs and see what they have to say.

For complete details please visit the starting post HERE.

What's the last book you flung across the room?

(Contains Spoilers!)

I may get in trouble for this, but I was so angry with Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning, I tossed it across the room.   I NEVER literally fling books no matter how annoyed I am, but this one, I did.  Not hard, but enough to have it land about 5 feet away.

I know this is only the first book in the series, but it frustrated me to no end.  It left me with more questions than answers.  Sure we found out who killed Mac's sister, but we know nothing about him.  We know his name (if that's even real) and we see him, but that's about it.  We don't even know who Jericho really is!  I have suspicions, but again more questions and dead ends.  I also felt the end was kind of rushed to pave the way for the next book.  I'm happier when a book, even if it's in a series, answers enough questions to keep you satisfied and leaves enough open to want more.

Maybe another reason for my irritation is that everyone absolutely gushed about this series and about Mac and Jericho and their relationship.  Don't get me wrong, I liked it, but not like everyone else did so that just added to my frustration.

I was told to keep reading because the series gets so much better.  I plan to, but haven't yet.

Do you think I'm nuts for not loving this book?  Has this ever happened to you?  If you've flung a book across the room, which one and why?

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge/Day 2

I came across this awesome idea on Good Books and Good Wine.  The 15 Day Book Blogging Challenge.  April came up with these awesome bookish exercises to get our creative juices flowing, to remind us why we blog in the first place and for fun!

I've been so busy lately and I've been out of town so I feel that my blog has been seriously lacking.  Truth be told, it's been hard to get back in the swing of things.   When I saw this Challenge, it lit that blogging flame again.  The nice thing is, you don't have to do all 15 challenges.  Just do what you can.  You also may want to visit the other participating blogs and see what they have to say.

For complete details please visit the starting post HERE.

What is your bedtime reading ritual?

I like reading to be the last thing I do before I go to sleep.  It helps me unwind and it is my "treat" in a way.  My reward for getting through the day and doing chores around the house.  (Okay, sometimes I don't get to all the chores.)

I simply get ready for bed, make sure I have a glass of water or iced tea on my night table and dive into what I’m reading.

What about you?  Do you have a bedtime reading ritual?  I'd love to hear it. 

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge/Day 1.

I came across this awesome idea on Good Books and Good Wine.  The 15 Day Book Blogging Challenge.  April came up with these awesome bookish excersises to get our creative juices flowing, to remind us why we blog in the first place and for fun!

I've been so busy lately and I've been out of town so I feel that my blog has been seriously lacking.  Truth be told, it's been hard to get back in the swing of things.   When I saw this Challenge, it lit that blogging flame again.  The nice thing is, you don't have to do all 15 challenges.  Just do what you can.  You also may want to visit the other participating blogs and see what they have to say.

For complete details please visit the starting post HERE.

15 Book Related Confessions:

1.  I judge people by what they read (but I've gotten better).  People who gush over books that I find silly or ridiculous - I feel like I can't have conversations with them.  I know it's mean and awful, but I feel like there are so many other better books out there.  I met a woman who did like one of the offending books and she expressed that she doesn't like to talk about those kinds of books specifically because of people like me.  She said that she enjoyed the book and she doesn't want to have to apologize for it.  Touche.  And let's be honest, the people who have read War and Peace and all those literary classics that I can't discuss coherently probably think the same thing about me.

2.   I judge books by their covers.  If it looks too romancy or just boring, I probably won't pick it up to even see what it's about.

3.  I always try to check out what people are reading on the bus, subway, airplanes, cafes, etc. to the point where I'll try to squint and read a sentence or two.

4.  In the above situation I desperately always want to discuss what they are reading and contemplate how to strike up a conversation about the book without seeming like a lunatic.

5.  I often feel like a reading failure because I haven't read a lot of books that my blogger friends are so familiar with.  I still have no clue what the Black Dagger Brotherhood is and it took me forever to read the first of the Cat and Bones and FaeFever series.

6.  Pertaining to the above, I often feel when I finally do get to said books that everyone has gone ga-ga over, I don't love them like everyone else.  Too high expectations?

7.  I dislike series.  Maybe that's another reason I haven't read many of the above mentioned.  I don't mind cliffhangers to a point, but when they get frustrating I get annoyed.  I feel cheated and I feel that author is just trying to get me to buy the next book.  (Disclaimer:  I know that this isn't really the case. Sometimes it's just the vision the author has and sometimes it's the editor/publisher.)

8. I don't usually mind when a main character dies.  I think it adds depth and realism. Maybe it's the type of books I've always read where no one is "safe."  (Thanks Stephen King.)  Sometimes when a main character, or any character for that matter, lives through a hail of bullets it doesn't ring true.  Death of a main character adds a bit of that dark tragedy that reflects real life.

9.  I've never read anything by Lovecraft! (Ducks.)

10.  I try to rope my friends into participating in my blog.  I've succeeded with one, but I'm always asking my buddies to do a guest post or if they're reading something I suggest they write a review.  One reason is to have more content because I feel like my blog always needs more.  Another reason is just to have more points of view.  And finally, because I want to get them as hooked as I am.

11.  Even though my favorite books are Horror, I feel poorly read in that genre.  There are just so many other books that distract me.  Then when I read a good Horror blog or cull through Goodreads groups, I realize all the authors and books that I need to read up on.

12.  I love physical books.  The smell, the cover, the feel of the pages.  I think Joe Hill mentioned that a physical book is "the whole package."  (Just to clarify I do read e-books too.)

13.  Although I have read Romance in the past, I will probably never read another book where the main goal is a relationship again.  Just not interested.

14.  If a book is hyped too much I become resistant.  I don't want to read it because it couldn't possibly be as good as the masses have said.

15.  I don't look at authors as sex symbols.  I think they're rock stars, but my favorite authors are just too transcendent and too high on a pedestal to think of in "that way."



Image credit: ivaleksa / 123RF Stock Photo

World War Z.

Title/Author: World War Z by Max Brooks.

Narrated by: Ensemble Cast.

Genre: Horror, Speculative Fiction, Dark Fiction.

Publisher: Brilliance Audio.

Source: Purchased.

Favorite Character: Christina and Jessica.

Synopsis:  The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result.
 
This invaluable chronicle reflects the full scope and duation of the Zombie War, but most of all, the audiobook captures with haunting immediacy the human dimension of this epochal event.  Facing the often raw and vivid nature of these personal accounts requires a degree of courage on the part of the listener, but the effort is invaluable because, as Mr. Brooks says in his introduction, “By excluding the human factor, aren’t we risking the kind of personal detachment from history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it?"

Note: Some of the numerical and factual material contained in this edition was previously published under the auspices of the United Nations Postwar Commission. ~Product description.

My Thoughts:  World War Z is a re-imagining of the world if a zombie apocalypse occured. Not just the world around a few characters or the world in one town.  But the entire world. Different countries, towns and citizens have different issues and deal with the outbreak in various ways. 

What makes this book very unique is the way it is executed.  Told in varying perspectives from politicians to soldiers to the commoner it encompasses not just personal accounts, but political, socio-economic, and cultural impacts.  Zombies simply make civilization as we know it break down, but the catalyst could have been anything - disease, natural disasters - which I guess one could argue that zombies are a disease and a natural disaster as well.  Although I didn't understand all the political ramifications, I felt the outcomes were very thorough and detailed. 

World War Z is not just a zombie book.  It's a look at how our world could change from the comforts and perhaps even some of the hardships that we are familiar with.  It's a glimpse into a realistic future that we may not all survive. 

My favorite characters were the two women in the story, yeah call me biased or maybe it *is* just a coincidence.  Christina Eliopolis is a pilot who bugged out of her plane and had help in her survival via her walkie talkie.  Her story has a supernatural or psychological twist, depending on how you view it.  Jesika Hendricks told the story of her childhood experiences during the outbreak, which included sorrowful and gruesome details.  

Narration: The cast that portrayed the characters did a very good job.  Again the women who spoke for  Christina and Jesika are very engaging and so are most of the narrators.  Notably the bodyguard.  Alan Alda and Rob Reiner have wonderful voices to begin with and portrayed their characters nicely. 

All in all: An interesting look at the world if faced with a zombie apocalpyse.  The different narrators and shorter accounts kept things interesting.

And yes, I saw the movie and enjoyed it.  It has echoes of the book, but as I'm sure you've guessed it is very different.  I didn't love the movie as much as some of my friends however.  I wonder if I'm desensitized to zombie shows/movies.  

BEA 2013 Coverage - Day 3 (Neil Gaiman!)

What: Book Expo America
Where: Jacob Javits Center, NYC
When: Saturday, June 1, 2013.


On the last day of BEA, I was very anxious to go see Neil Gaiman speak, but honestly, I never thought I'd be able to get in.   So Maria from Serpentine Library and I decided as soon as we got to BEA we would take one look around the floor for any drops and then go to the room where Neil was speaking.  We managed to get seats and I was able to sneak up front for a photo or two...or three.  Neil talks like he writes, thoughfully and lyrically.  And really, everything he says is so prolific it's like poetry.  The accent doesn't hurt either.

On why he feels Fiction is dangerous: "Fiction lets you into other people's heads.  It let's you have empathy.  The world doesn't have to be like the one you live in and that's very dangerous."

His worst fear: "That no one will tell me if it's a dud."  To which his editor replied, "I will."

Proudest of: "My kids.  And they baffle me."

On if he still feels doubt: "Yes.  It hasn't been 30 years of sucess.  Not everything works.  I'm arrogant and have self doubt."

On Ocean at the End of the Lane: "It's not a Fantasy at all.  It's about memories...I started writing a short story then it was a novellette.  Then I kept writing and it was a novella."  When he handed it in to his editor he included a note, "I think I've written a novel.  I hope you don't mind."  He felt writing this story was like driving at night with one headlight out in a thick fog.  He could only see a little bit ahead.  It's an organic story.  It's a story about stories. 

On writing: "You learn to write the one you're on.  Each book is it's own discovery."

After the Gaiman excitment, it was a pretty quiet day.  Yes it was still full of signings and long lines, but there weren't as many people on the floor.  It had a much more laid back vibe than previous days.

Mary Higgins Clark.  I snapped the picture when I was on another line.

I was told this book is about "Mommy issues." So I had to get it.

I enjoyed Saturday because I discovered authors that I may not have heard of.  Afterwards, Kate, Maria and I went out for lunch back on our home turf because we were too exhausted to stay in the city and explore.  Plus, we had plans to go to Chinatown the next day so we needed to rest up. 

Hope you enjoyed my BEA wrap up!  I'm looking forward to next year. 

Book Blogger Confessions-Author Interactions (Monday, July 1, 2013).

Book Blogger Confessions is a meme that allows book bloggers to discuss issues unique to what we encounter in the blogging world. Every 1st Monday of the month we will post a question and invite you to answer, comment and discuss opinions and different views.

Please keep the dialogue courteous. No bashing!

If you would like to participate in this meme sign up below and please feel free to to grab the button to include in your post with a link to For What It's Worth Reviews or here at Midnyte Reader.

Question:
Have you ever e-mailed an author to tell them you loved/disliked their book?  As a book reviewer, do you think we should cross that line? 

Do you mind when authors re-tweet or comment on reviews? Does that intimidate you in any way in regards to review writing, knowing that they may be reading it?

Do author interactions - both pro or con - change how you view their work?

Answer: 
I've never e-mailed an author one way or the other about their book.  But I have tweeted them if I've liked/loved it.  I would not e-mail or tweet an author if I did not like their book.  I know a lot of people do it, but really I think it would be unkind and what would be the point?  It's enough if I'm reviewing it.  I'm getting my thoughts out there.  I'm telling my fellow readers my opinion.  If the author happens to read a less than stellar review I feel bad, but I've never had any problems (knock wood).  Also, if I don't love a book, I won't tweet about the review as much as when I do love it.  However, this is just me.  If someone wants to e-mail an author that they didn't like their book, that is their business. 

To be honest, I do get a little freaked out when an author comments on a negative review.  I guess I get worried that it will turn into a "thing."  You know, a meltdown, a scandal or something similar.  But then again, I don't think that my blog or my opinion has that much power to put an author over the edge.  One author did tweet me that his next book would be better or that I might like it better.  I was kind of like "yipes."  But I have to remember that I only write (or say) what I would tell that author personally if they were in my writing class.  I'm very happy when authors re-tweet a review because it's validating. 

Author interactions definitely change how I view their work.   If an author has a meltdown or is somehow involved in poor behavior, I probably won't read their books.  It just turns me off.  I have enough books to read as it is.  On the flip side, when I meet an author and like them, I'll be more likely to pick up something they have written.  I think this is especially true when I see them speak and they talk about their characters or their writing process.  It is as if knowing them, even in a public forum such as a signing or on Twitter, allows me to see a little slice of their brain and that is intriguing. 

How about you?  How do you view author interactions?