Bloggiesta Finish Line

Due to some unforeseen computer difficulties and a very hectic schedule this weekend, I didn't get to do quite as much for the Bloggiesta as I had hoped. That being said, I did manage to complete a few mini-challenges and put some thought into how I will go forward with my blog from here:

Writing Your Blog To-Do List (hosted by The Blog Improvement Project) - I've come up with some short-term goals (some of which I've done already) and some long-term ones that will hopefully improve traffic and content (which will therefore drive more traffic and better content... it's a cycle, see?)

It's All About the Numbers (hosted by There's a Book) - I already had Google Analytics installed (I've been tracking all you people, you know), but learned a few new things about how to use it with this mini-challenge

RSS Mini-Challenge (hosted by Puss Reboots) - My RSS feeds are set-up in the top of my sidebar, and now my new goal is to learn how many people subscribe to them.

So that's three mini-challenges, not my intended five, but it will have to do!

I did have more success with culling my Google Reader to a more healthy level (following the steps from last year's Bloggiesta mini-challenge "Get Out From Under the Feed Reader" at The Book Lady's Blog). I trimmed blogs I no longer read (nothing personal, I swear, I used Rebecca's recommendation of the Google trends tab to determine which ones I don't read as often). I also broke my blogs into better folders to make them a bit easier to follow.

I didn't get a chance to discover too many new blogs, but I'm aiming to do that this week. Taking recommendations!

Thanks again to Natasha at Maw Books for hosting the Bloggiesta challenge, and getting me focused on what I'm doing with the blog.

Bloggiesta Starting Line

I've just signed up for the Bloggiesta challenge (hosted by Maw Books). Over the next three days (in between packing apartments, helping my mother shop for a dress, and planning a move), I'm aiming to give the blog a little TLC through a series of mini-challenges. Hopefully this will mean a better blog: better layout, better tracking, better content, the works.

I'm aiming to complete at least 5 mini-challenges, get myself a bit more organized, cull my Google reader (which is totally out of control), try to discover new blogs to follow in place of a few I currently follow but rarely read, and, somewhere in between all that, sleep a little bit.

I'd love to hear feedback if you notice any of the changes!

Weekend Reading

I'm taking a brief hiatus from my "Great Friday" series (while I ponder up more great book-loving nick nacks) to bring you a great collection of essays on weekend reading today.

To celebrate this week's launch of HarperWeekend (which will be republishing previous titles and aiming them toward the "cottage and armchair crowd"), Canada's The Globe and Mail ran an article called "The Art of Weekend Reading," featuring four writers from the new Harper imprint on the joys of weekend reading.

The picture on the Globe and Mail article alone makes me want to run away to a secluded pier at dawn somewhere. But beyond that, these writers make important distinctions between reading for work vs. reading for ourselves; the need to escape to a new environment in order to truly appreciate a new book; the importance of indulging in interrupted days of literary devourings.

I recommend all four essays, but I particularly enjoyed Martin Walker's, which includes the following sentiment:

"There's something about the doubled syllables that murmurs comfort and promises long lazy hours stretching out into wide acres of self-indulgence. It's a time for easy chairs and kicked-off shoes, for hammocks and eyeshades and books that nuzzle their way into your affections like furry puppies. It's a safe bet that most peoples' favourite books were first encountered on a weekend afternoon."

Spot on, Walker.

Book Review: Isis by Douglas Clegg

A few weeks ago, I read Douglas Clegg's Neverland for a review on Bookgasm. This was horror writing as I always wished it could be, standing on its own two feet sans gimmicks and hooks and cliche plot twists. Creepy, haunting, well-written, imaginative, the works.

So of course, I scanned my shelves for something to satisfy my new desire for more horror and came across a galley copy of Isis, part of last year's BEA haul. It's signed to me and everything.

Isis: A Tale of the Supernatural is a slim volume, ranking more as a novella than a novel, with line illustrations by Glenn Chadbourne, who also did the artwork for Neverland.

The back-cover text for the book asks, "If you lost someone you loved, what would you pay to bring them back from the dead?" A perfect tagline for this charmingly creepy little book. As a child's game becomes deadly and the characters of Isis and Osiris become a reality, Iris Villiers finds herself asking that very question. Ignoring the warnings of their loyal family gardener, she turns to the occult and the family Tombs to change the course of life.

Bottom line: Chadbourne's illustrations fit Clegg's text perfectly, and both combined have created an atmosphere of impending doom that starts on page 1. This is the kind of book that makes you feel unseen eyes watching you at all hours, and will leave readers satisfyingly full of more questions at the end than the beginning.

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Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher at BEA 2009. And I also met the author there, albeit briefly as one in a long line of fans requesting signatures.

The Literary Tastes of Book Thieves

According to an article in The Guardian last week, book thieves not only account for a large chunk of cash lost by booksellers each year, but they have distinguished tastes, too.

Bookseller Anna Goodall of Britain observes that in her store, book thefts tend toward the intellectual end of the spectrum, citing The Paris Review Interviews Vol. 2 and Crime and Punishment as a particularly high-brow haul. According to her, New York booksellers report a trend toward beat authors as prime theft targets: Bukowski, Kerouac, Burroughs.

At first site, I found these results rather astounding. Like Goodall, I didn't really consider book theft as a major part of a bookstore's operations. Sure, I'm not naive enough to believe it didn't happen, but to such an extent? At Hard Bean, we had mirrors posted above the shelves so employees could "keep an eye" on customers in the back of the store from behind the computer, but in reality, we rarely, if ever, looked in the mirrors (except to catch some kids making out in the bio section). I don't really recall any major book thefts - chocolate bars from next to the register were a much larger target.

But given the fact that bookstores do suffer from regular thefts - a sad fact, but apparently a true one - maybe it isn't so surprising that it's the intellectual high-brow lit that gets swiped. After all, who but a true booklover would take the time to steal from a bookstore? Aren't there easier - and more profitable - targets? These people can't be stealing for monetary gain; there just isn't enough of a high-profit market for gently used books. So if they are stealing for themselves - either because they can't afford the books, don't think they should have to pay (that seems to ring well with the Beat-theft trend) or are getting a thrill from the theft itself - I can almost wrap my mind around the fact that Penguin Classics and Paris Review titles go before the Jodi Picoults and Nicholas Sparks of the world.

Now, my sleep-deprived and over-worked mind is trying to figure out if there is a link between the fact that most classics are public domain, and therefore available for free (especially electronically) or very cheap (i.e. B&N Editions) and the fact that these same books are the ones disappearing from the shelves. Thoughts?

Huffington Post Presents Overlooked Books

Saw this on Twitter yesterday and thought it worth sharing. Last week, Huffington Post listed 12 books by great authors that are often forgotten. In response, readers were invited to submit their own opinions on great overlooked books.

With the exception of the three Gabriel Garcia Marquez titles mentioned (Autumn of the Patriarch, Of Love and Other Demons, and The General in His Labyrinth), I have read exactly none of the overlooked books... I guess I've overlooked them myself. Several are already on my want-to-read someday list (Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London, for example), and some I'd never heard of, which I always love in lists.

Enjoy!

Book Review: One Day by David Nicholls

I started David Nichol's One Day during my reading slump last week - I had recently read a good bit about it on the Dewey Divas blog and figured I might as well give it a try. Lucky me! It did the trick.

One Day is, in brief, the story of two college friends - Emma and Dexter - and the ways their lives continue to overlap through the years. With some of the most epic bad timing I've seen in characters recently, they continually need each other, miss each other, find each other, love each other and lose each other in a veritable plethora of combinations.

The premise sounds simple, and rather chick-lit-esque, at that, but I assure you, it is far from it.* Nichols' story is heartbreaking, touching and important in every way.

The genius of Nichols' writing lies in his presentation: each chapter is July 15th - St. Swithin's Day, apparently - of a proceeding year. And so the reader is told the story of Dex and Em, Em and Dex in snapshots of one day over the years. The title, therefore, is fitting, both because of this unique writing style and for other reasons that I won't explore here in fear of spoilers.

The initial buzz for the book - first released in the UK (it's a British book,** so be prepared for British spellings and the like) - calls the book "roaringly funny" (The Guardian) and "funny" (The Times). I couldn't disagree more, but maybe that's a difference in British vs American humor (humour?). I would, however, agree that it is "heartbreaking" (Tony Parsons) and "wise... perceptive, compassionate and often unbearably sad." (The Times again).

Bottom line: The lack of (understandable) humor and substantial amount of heavy subject matter is in no way a detraction from the value of the book. Nichols has crafted a poignant, lingering story of love, friendship and life in his unique novel. One Day would qualify (to me, at least) as ideal beach reading, perfect distraction, easy to put down and pick up again, and yet substantial, satisfying, and not a throwaway of time and energy. Highly recommend.

* Note to marketing personnel: You need to work on the back cover copy for the ARC. The copy floating around the internet on Amazon and Indiebound is better, at least, but the back cover blurb I read before picking this up almost convinced me not to read it.

** Originally published in England, the book is out in the US (as a Vintage Paperback) this month.

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Note: I received a review copy of this title from Random House when at the offices for a sales meeting.