Book Blogger Hop – Aug. 10

I can’t breathe through my nose. Help me. My head is going to pop! I hate being sick. I think I’m loopy from too much cold medicine. Perfect time for the Book Blogger Hop!

Our question this week is: Who is your go-to author when you are in a reading rut?

Gee, I don’t think I have one. Being in a rut usually means I’ll try something off the wall to break out of it. I’d be more likely to try someone I’ve never heard of than an author I’ve already read. I have favorite authors I go back to because I really enjoy them but that usually means I’ve read all their books and love them enough to reread them. I’d go for Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, or Sarah Addison Allen. (I still have to read The Peach Keeper.) If I’m in a rut it’s time for a good old ramble through the library and to pick something different off the shelves. I’d look for an awesome cover or some odd title and hope it paid off.

Book Blogger Hop – Aug. 3

Now for Jen’s Book Blogger Hop from Crazy for Books!

Our questions this week is: When a book goes “viral” (Hunger Games, Fifty Shades, Twilight), do you rush out to read it like everyone else, even if it’s not in your typical genre?

No. Actually, it’s good way to guarantee I’ll never touch that book with a ten foot pole. The books are never as good as people are building them up to be and while good reviews will get me to read a book, tsunami like gushing will repel me. (Fifty Shades of Grey is porn, people, and badly written porn at that. I can get better porn off the internet. We won’t even speak of Twilight.) I read the first couple Harry Potter books when the movies started coming out but my interest trickled off when they began to become really popular and the books ballooned into ridiculous sized monsters and, for me anyway, lost their flow. I won’t read the Hunger Games because teenage angst just annoys me. If it’s not something I would normally read, I won’t be swayed by any hype.

Book Blogger Hop – July 13

I usually pick and choose which Friday blog hops I’m going to do but since I liked this question, I’m also going to do Jen’s Book Bloggers Hop too. I don’t want to spam readers with a bunch of meme stuff. Oh well. You’ll all live, I’m sure.

The question is: How long does it take you to read a book?

Depends on the book. I’ve been known to devour books in an afternoon. A lazy Saturday and the right book and I can be done by dinner. It’s been awhile since I’ve done that though. My recent favorite book, Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake, took me three days to read. Last year’s favorite Witchlanders by Lena Coakley took about the same. But full-time jobs can do that to a person. I read those during the week. (I don’t like to be caught reading a book at work. It gives the wrong impression. I’ll read back in the lunchroom but even if it’s dead still in the office I won’t read at my desk. I’m paranoid.) Normally, it takes about a week for me to finish a book. Longer if I’m just not that into it. I’ve been trying to read The Night Circus by Erin Morgestern for a month and a half now. It’s not that it’s badly written, it’s beautiful, but it’s just not drawing me in. (shrug)

I normally read books that are just shy of 300 pages and up to 400 pages. Anything bigger has a habit of dragging and I lose interest. I know me. I have the attention span of a gnat sometimes. A book 400 pages long is pretty much my limit. The longest it ever took me to read something was the Lord of the Rings books the second time but that was because the second read-through was for research purposes and I was highlighting and taking notes. I have a whole notebook with information about events, locations, and characters from the Lord of the Rings. That took me several weeks because I was a teen and it was summer. (I have told you all I have an obsessive personality, right? Because I’m crazy like that.)

Also, Happy Friday the 13th everybody!

Book Blogger Hop – BEA & upcoming releases.

Ah, Friday! This week has felt like forever and we weren’t even at work on Monday. But we’ve come to the end of the week again without bloodshed (I hope) and it’s time now for the Book Blogger Hop from Crazy for Books.

Our question for this week: BEA Edition – What upcoming releases are you most looking forward to?

(sobs) I want to go to the BEA Bloggers Conference! But I know I’ll never get out to New York. I’m such a scaredy cat. I’m so jealous of everybody going and all the bloggers are going to come back and put up awesome posts about the conference and I’m just going to read them and sulk like a big sulking thing. Great, now I’m in a mood. (sniffle) I need chocolate.

Heavens! There are a lot of upcoming releases I’m looking forward to. I’m still looking forward to the Alice in Wonderland inspired Splintered by A.G. Howard.

The sequel to my LGBT favorite Witch Eyes by Scott Tracey, called Demon Eyes, is coming out this October.

The Peter Pan inspired Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson comes out July 3rd 2012.

The Summerkin, the sequel to Winterling, by Sarah Prineas is scheduled for publication in 2013.

The Cloak Society by Jeramey Kraatz is coming out October 2nd 2012. I adore stories told from unusual view points and what better than a story about the evil genius?

And my “super cannot wait for it, I’m going to die before it comes out” book is the sequel to my current favorite book, Anna Dressed in Blood, the upcoming Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake coming out August 7th 2012.

Oh boy! Look at all these awesome books!

Book Blogger Hop – Negative Reviews?

It’s Friday, I have only five hours of sleep because the internet ate me last night, and I’m stuck doing phones all day as the regular receptionist is on vacation. This does not bode well for my patience. Doing the phones is annoying and frustrating for me. I don’t like it. I get overtime because I have to be here at 7am because I also answer calls coming from the east coast. That’s right. We get calls for offices and people not even in the same time zone as us. Then I get bitched at when calls go to voice mail because I’m in a different state and can’t actually see if these people are at their desks or not.

Okay, okay. Breathe. Breathe and do the Book Bloggers Hop.

Our question for this week: How do you handle the writing of a negative review?

I believe a good review will highlight both positive qualities and negative qualities in a book. But sometimes a book is just that bad and there’s really nothing you can do about that. I’ve yet to not write a review for a book since I started blogging and I don’t intend to leave off a review just because it’s a negative review. However, I often feel self-conscious because I know that the authors sometimes do searches for their books and then I’ve gotten emails and comments from just readers that have reacted extremely to a negative book review I’ve posted. I’ve been called “mean” and “too negative” for my reviews before. Perhaps they are right but the whole point of having a book blog is so I have a place to share my opinions, both positive and negative. Honestly, I think that people who react like that are wound a little too tight. If I think a book warranted a negative review, then that’s my right. When I write a review I try to be honest, even if that results in a negative review.

Book Blogger Hop – # of books?

Something smells in this office! I don’t know what but it’s giving me a headache. I can’t wait for the weekend to start. I took Monday off because I’m fried and I need two long weekends in a row to sleep in. But, it’s Friday! Lovely, lovely Friday and that means it’s time for a few hops. This is the Book Blogger Hop hosted by Jen at Crazy for Books!

Our question for this week is: How many books do you own? This can include books in your to-be-read (TBR) pile(s) and books you have already read that are on your keeper shelf.

I don’t own a great many books. (Not compared to some of the true book fanatics I’ve meet over the years.) (We’ve been over how I’m cheap and get most of my reading material from the library, right?) It has to be a truly great book for me to buy it. I bought my 2011 favorite book, Witchlanders by Lena Coakley. I have about 20 books from the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. (Hardcover ones that I won in the most nerve wreaking Ebay auction of my life.) I have several books by Neil Gaiman, including Stardust and The Graveyard Book. I have a set of leather-bound children’s classics from my Grandmother. (Of which the copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is my favorite.) I have several creature books that I collect because I love the art. There are about 20 more books that were given to me as gifts over the years. Then I have my non-fiction reference books that I have to buy because I have an obsessive need to highlight and scribble in the margins. (I’m like the crazy old sorcerer up in his tower, only, you know, a girl.) All told I probably have just under 100 books, give or take, that I own.

Book Blogger Hop – Fav Character?

It’s been some time since I did the Book Blogger Hop over at Crazy for Books. (When did Jen’s layout change? It looks very nice. Very clean and modern.) There was a gap where Jen wasn’t posting the hop but it seems she’s revamped and started up again. Since the Book Blogger Hop was my first hop when I started blogging, I thought it would be great to once again do a hop post.

Our question this week is: Who is your favorite book character?

Fudge. What a horrible question to ask a book lover! A recent character I adore is Anna from Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake. My favorite 2011 book Witchlanders by Lena Coakely had Ryder and Falpian. I have an unnatural love for Elrond from Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. There’s Granny Weatherwax from the Dicsworld book by Terry Pratchett. (Really all the witches from the Discworld series are favorite characters of mine.) Sophie from Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. My vote for most favorite is probably Elrond from the Lord of the Rings. I’ve read the trilogy and The Silmarillion and I just bought the Hobbit. He’s not even a main character but for some reason my brain has fixated on him. I find the half-Elven Lord of Rivendell fascinating. (And I like Hugo Weaving.)