Month: October 2015

Halloween is Here

John Guillen18 Comments

I’m not a fan of Halloween. Mostly because it gives people an excuse to be stupid.

Last year was the first time I “celebrated” the day since middle school. But I didn’t really do anything. I just wore a costume to the gym. It was funny and several people asked for pictures. But today I’ll be working. So you know what that means, right? I’m wearing a costume to work!

All week long we’ve been encouraged to wear a costume if we wanted to, and I do. But I’m not sure which one I should wear. Maybe you can help? I have a hot dog suit and a Gumby suit. Which should I wear?

How are you celebrating today?

#LiterarySwag is Supposed to Make Reading Stylish?

John Guillen10 Comments

Wait, what? So there’s a guy on Instagram who’s been taking photos of people with books or reading for some time now. He also started #LiterarySwag. Evidently he’s done these things to make reading more accessible to those who don’t like to read.

Except there’s a major flaw to his entire project. There’s nothing wrong with people who don’t like to read just like there’s nothing wrong with someone who reads 100 books a year. There’s some fashion aspect too, but it’s entirely irrelevant. What does it matter if someone is really into fashion and likes to read or if they are really into sweatpants and romance novels? It doesn’t.

Reading doesn’t have to be stylish or cool. It’s just like any other thing. Some people like it and some don’t. So let’s all post pictures on Instagram of ourselves with books with #LiterarySwag so we can show how stylish we are and say we’re part of some stupid movement.

Ugh.

A Woman Reviewed Over 30000 Books on Amazon

John Guillen24 Comments

Yikes. Looks like this woman is already well known, but I’d never heard of her until her recent death. So if you’ve been following her reviews, well, there won’t be any more forthcoming.

But I want to talk about the actual number of books she reviewed and how she reviewed them. It looks like her total number of book reviews is just above 31000. I mean, whoa. And guess how many books she gave three stars or less? None. Every book she reviewed on the site is rated as four stars or higher. That’s ridiculous.

I could read 20 books in a given amount of time and I imagine several would be rated as less than four stars. I think this woman should be part of the conversation people like to have about reviews on Amazon. 31000 books is way more than I’ll read in my lifetime, and perhaps she did read them all, but I think a single person reviewing that many books on the site and only leaving four or five stars for each is somewhat outrageous.

Y’all know I don’t read book reviews. But y’all also know that plenty of people do. I don’t know how many times her reviews have been read by others, but there’s a pretty good chance that her reviews influenced potential buyers in many instances. And that’s unfortunate. Her reviews may not have been dishonest per se, but you can’t sit there and say that they were completely honest either.

What do you think of someone reviewing 31000 books and rating all of them as four star reads? I think it’s a joke, and a mockery of others who actually put some thought into the reviews they post.

Using Real Events for a Story

John Guillen15 Comments

I’m not talking nonfiction. And I’m not talking about simply using one’s life experience. I’m talking about particular events. Kind of like the TV show Castle. He uses real crimes (in the show) and writes books about them.

I think it’d be an interesting thing to do, but I doubt I’d ever even try it. It would lead me to ask myself why not just write nonfiction instead? If an author really wants to focus on real events, then why not REALLY focus on them?

For example, one of the most notorious crimes of my lifetime was when Andrea Yates killed her five children in Houston. I’m certain that there are plenty of books about this, but I think it’d be better to go ahead and write some true crime rather than a novel when it comes to something like that.

I don’t know if this actually happens, but I do think authors may hesitate to go from fiction to nonfiction or vice-versa if they’re already well known for one or the other. Makes sense. Don’t want to confuse readers. But what do I know, right?

Do you ever use specific events from real life in your stories? Things that didn’t necessarily happen to you.

I’m Writing a Children’s Book Series

John Guillen21 Comments

I’m not talking about easy chapter books. I’m talking about books for younger readers.

The other day I told a co worker of mine that we need to collaborate on a kid’s book series. He immediately started brainstorming potential book titles. The first is my favorite. The Piggy who Didn’t Want to be Bacon. 😂 Okay, I haven’t looked it up to see if someone has already written it, but I thought it was hilarious. He then proceeded to come up with several more titles mostly around animals.

Am I really going to start work on this? Probably not. But have you seen what some of those hardcover kid’s books retail for? It’s kind of ridiculous when you see how many pages there are and how few words are written. But hey, people will pay what they’ll pay.

I think I’ve already found an illustrator for my potential new blockbuster series. What do you think?

Authors Owning Bookstores

John Guillen39 Comments

Did you know that mega bestselling author Jeff Kinney owns a bookstore? I didn’t. Until recently. And no, he’s not the only one.

I obviously don’t have a definitive list of authors who also own bookstores, but there’s several who do. But I think the idea is pretty great. Obviously this isn’t something that just any author can do. He’s said that his building cost millions to build. It’s state-of-the-art and rather large. So I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I could afford (or get) that kind of loan with my current finances. He also hosts author events for authors he knows personally. Again, this is probably not something you or I could do.

But I think it’s a cool idea. Obviously authors who do this want to make money from their investment, but bringing people together who love books and making some money from it (after taking all the risk) isn’t the worst thing in the world.

I think authors owning bookstores could become something of a trend. We know there aren’t as many bookstores as there used to be, so this could be a way to attract people into indie stores. They could potentially meet one of their favorite authors just by going in. What do you think of authors owning their own bookstores?

On Biographies

John Guillen9 Comments

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a big fan of biographies. Mostly because there aren’t too many people I want to read an entire book about. Singers, movie stars, and athletes are all writing books nowadays, but I just can’t picture myself getting excited to read about a single person.

There are some exceptions, of course. Such as people who are actually important. A former president’s book (which isn’t necessarily biographical) would surely be a good read. Or perhaps someone like Churchill or FDR. Nelson Mandela. People who made a real difference in the world in which they lived. I don’t put celebrities into that category. And I imagine most people don’t, though some might when you see how many celebrity books are bestsellers.

My take on biographies is that I can mostly do without them. What’s yours?

No, These Book Series are not the Same

John Guillen37 Comments

A few nights ago I was working a closing shift, right? Which generally means it’s pretty slow toward the end of the night. But then I was awakened by a comment a co worker made. She said Twilight is the same as The Hunger Games. You can imagine my reaction to this.

I couldn’t believe it. And she was quire serious. Though another worker did immediately tell her that she was quite incorrect, I was the only one there who’d actually read any of the books around Katniss. So no one could really jump in with me.

Anyway, sure both series are obviously young adult, but to say that they are the exact same thing is outrageous to me. And disrespectful toward Suzanne Collins. Ugh. Have you ever heard anyone compare two books or series that don’t belong in the same sentence?

What’s the Difference Between Comics and Graphic Novels?

John Guillen18 Comments

Okay. I’ve been pretty open about the fact that I don’t read comics. And recently I started thinking of the difference between comics and graphic novels. And I can’t seem to find one.

We sell both at my store and the only difference I can see is that graphic novels often come in hardback and are priced extremely high. Which is so unnecessary when they’re less than 100 pages. I’ve looked through a handful of both comics and graphic novels and still don’t know the difference. All the characters you can think of seem to appear in both. I don’t know.

So what’s the difference between graphic novels and comics? I haven’t a clue.

Writing Cursive

John Guillen57 Comments

I don’t write handwritten letters often. No reason to. I write in cursive even less often than that.

Most things I write are for me, and rarely is it anything substantive. Why put something down on paper when I can just as easily remember it? It’s pretty easy to remember important things.

But I remember in second grade learning to write in cursive. I remember thinking it was so cool and such an important thing to learn. Now I don’t. I’m not sure I can think of any reason to write in cursive at this point. I know what you’re thinking. What about my signature? Nope. Not even that. I basically just scribble. There are a couple of things I do that make it mine, but there’s nothing overly particular about it.

What do you think about writing in cursive? Do you ever do it?