My Guilty Book Habits

  There are probably as many attitudes about fiction writing as there are people, each with their own nuances. My perception, however, is that there are two main attitudes towards fiction as a genre. On one hand, we have those who love fiction and read it willingly. Then there are the others who for a variety of reasons have deemed fiction superfluous.  I can certainly understand some of the reasoning people may have to reach these conclusions. There are those who feel that with our limited time on Earth, we might as well spend it learning everything possible to achieve our goals and aspirations.  It's certainly a very lofty goal, and on the surface seems quite admirable. We can read about any subject from Math to how to be better business managers or partners. We can improve our sales skills, conversation skills, and even parenting skills to name a few.  We have much to gain and appreciate from non-fiction. There are also the many inspirational tales of people's ver...

There's a lot to unpack with both the written version of The School for Good and Evil , as well as the Netflix adaptation. If you watched it on Netflix, but haven't yet read the book I strongly encourage you to get the book as soon as humanly possible.  I'll be transparent about the fact that I may write multiple posts about this, just because there's so much worth discussing. It's not so much that I could just talk about the book forever--though I'm quickly learning that is a possibility--but rather that the book is full of fun concepts, interesting characters and messages worth contemplating.  One of the things that is interesting in the book, is that the author uses common tropes or stereotypes and weaves them into the characters. For instance, as humans we are drawn to aesthetically-pleasing things. Beauty has inspired music, poems, art, and action. It is a part of the universe, but the author of The School for Good and Evil takes this blind love of beauty ...

There's nothing quite like taking an extended break from a hobby you like, and then going back to it later. It's a sort of homecoming, and it makes you really appreciate the hobby all over again. My break from reading was necessary, my brain had other things to work through, but coming back to the world of reading and jumping right back into it has been amazing!  I'll assemble another post about my newest books that I've read, but for this post I just wanted to talk about some upcoming books that I'm excited about. I'm not sure if/when I'll get to read them anytime soon, but I definitely will try to read them at some point in the future.  So, without further ado, here are the books I'm looking forward to reading:  1. Amari and the Great Game   by B. B. Alston - This is the second installment in the Amari series. If you haven't read Amari and the Night Brothers yet, you should get on it. It's such a wonderful book, and I'm really looking forw...

 I've managed to finish another couple of new books (and re-read a few others), so I'll give a generic opinion about the two I finished reading recently. I'm sleep-deprived at the moment, so I'm just going to jump right into the post. What was the last book you read, and what did you think of it?  The Color of Magic , by Terry Pratchett     If you have read Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy , and enjoyed it, then this book may be perfect for you. The tone is satirical and overly-dramatic in appropriate space opera fashion. This book was originally published in the 80's apparently, so there are some sexist attitudes about women, but it seems as if it's meant to poke fun of people who don't think women are capable. It's not prevalent in the book, just a few bold over-the-top statements that I believe are meant to point out how stupid those stereotypes sound.  Overall, it's a very interesting book. It's a playful tone, whic...

 For a very long time I didn't want to look at books. I didn't want to think about them, and I couldn't even stand to think about doing any of my own writing. My brain had too much going on to let much of anything else in.  Now, it's been a few years and I finally felt the urge to pick up a book, and I've been working on my own writing as well. I feel like it's better not to read other people's work when you're writing your own, so part of that non-reading time was due to my own creation. It's in the editing stage, working on the 6th revision, but I can see where it can potentially get so I'm excited to see if I can figure out how to get it to that golden spot of potential.  In the meantime, it's been nice to be able to pick up some books. I'm going to need to provide some comparisons for my work, and while I know it's not great to pick the most popular books (nor could I, since my work is quite different), I honestly am not sure what...

Life can get pretty crazy sometimes, am I right? Well, for me, it's been way too long since I had that burning desire to sit down with a good book. Luckily, I'm getting back to that love of reading and have read more in the past few months than I think I have in the past three years combined. Not that I've read a ton, just that it seems that way in comparison to the reading drought of the past few years.  Here's a few that have struck me as interesting reads, that were a breath of fresh air. The underlined titles are links to Barnes and Noble in case you want to pick up a copy for yourself. It's just for convenience, I don't get anything from it...well, except for the joy of sharing a good book recommendation with others.  Skin of the Sea , by Natasha Bowens This watery masterpiece was a delight to read. The material is heavier in nature as it combines some historical elements (slavery) with the fantastical elements. This is the first book of a series, and I...

I have too many blogs. So what does a person do when they have too many? They obviously start another one. I swear, blogs are like tattoos: once you get one, you want a whole bunch more. I have a few encouragement, and writing-based blogs because that is the main journey that I'm currently undertaking. I'm trying to get published, and hone my writing skills. The only down-side is that those blogs are dedicated to a somewhat different flavor of topic that I don't want to derail with talk of things that are more specific.  My writing and reading passion, is fiction. I love facts and there's nothing wrong with a great non-fiction book. Some biographies and auto-biographies are great, and I can enjoy them but they don't fill my soul the way fiction does. I'm hoping to try this blog out as a way to nerd out about everything to do with fiction, fantasy, sci-fi and the concept of storytelling in general. There may be other genres I chat about from time to time but fant...