Recently went to my local Books A Million store and boy was it a bit eye-opening! Take a look and see why!
Tag: bibliophile
How do I decide which books to buy?
I was wandering my local Barnes and Noble on Sunday when I was asked this question. I thought about it. Then thought some more and realized I have no idea.
That’s only partially true. If I’m reading a series I’m enjoying, then I just continue. There’s the Amazon list of 100 books everyone should read. Sometimes there’s a ton of hype surrounding a book. Some are heavily recommended. And most rarely I’ll just find myself in the bookstore waiting for something to catch my eye. All this to say I have no set way of deciding which books to buy. This likely explains why I have so many books I haven’t yet read. I buy them in a moment of interest and then once the moment passes, so does my willingness to read them.
How do you decide which books to buy?
Top Five Wednesday: Incorrect Ratings
Top Five Wednesday is hosted by…I have no idea. But you can find the Goodreads group here. Today’s topic is incorrect ratings, which is essentially about reading a book and realizing no one agrees with you.
Which books fall into this category for you?
Half Price Books Mini Haul
Recently went to my local store and somehow managed to make it out without buying the entire store. Have you bought any new books recently?
Amazon can sell whatever it chooses to
Last week there was a bit of “uproar” over Amazon’s decision to no longer sell certain books on its platform. Several US Senators had sent a letter requesting additional information regarding this decision. Amazon’s lengthy response stated rather clearly that the company would no longer sell books that label LGBTQ identity as mental illness.
Personally speaking, this is another great move within the book industry. Knowing books like that are being written reminds me of where we were as a society a hundred years ago when seemingly every ailment or condition was treated as a mental illness.
But that’s also not the point. The point is Amazon is a retailer. Retailers decide what they will or won’t sell on their platform. Every retailer makes this decision. So it should come as no surprise that Amazon made a decision about products listed on its site, though many would have you believe this is akin to censorship. If I own a bookstore down the street and decide to only sell romance novels or audiobooks or erotica, that’s my choice. Just like it’s Amazon’s choice here.
Review: The Tattooist of Auschwitz
My intention when I finished this book a month ago was to do a video on it. I’ve now changed my mind due to the delay and the fact that I have other things to deal with now. The review was written immediately upon finishing the book.
Lale Sokolov is the tattooist of Auschwitz. He meets Gita Furman one day during the course of his work tattooing the incoming prisoners, and over the following three years builds a loving relationship in hell on earth.
I have several issues with this book. Most notably is that its depiction of life in Auschwitz borders on misinformation. The book makes Auschwitz seem livable and hardly focuses on any of the negative. Sure this is meant to be the story of Lale and Gita, but in telling the story through this lens there is almost no mention of the brutality and horror of life in the camp. It seems extremely disingenuous to write a story set in Auschwitz in this manner. When reading I thought of Elie Wiesel’s Night. The books are polar opposites. One aims to give the reader the true experience of life in the camp. This book does not.
The book lacks any depth or detail. It spans more than three years and is written in the span of roughly 260 pages. Again, this tells me the author made no attempt whatsoever to tell an accurate account of life in the camp. It’s a nice love story found in the absolute worst place on earth, but a love story isn’t reason enough to gloss over every other detail that could provide insight into the camp.
This fails on so many levels and should not be considered historical fiction. 1 star.
Have you read this book? What did you think?
Snow Day Reading
Much of the US is in the midst of a cold snap right at the tail end of winter. Houston is no different. Today is the third time I’ve gotten to see snow in person. But it’s the first time it hasn’t melted away almost immediately.
Do you have any preferred snow day reads?
Puzzles, puzzles
This likely won’t be a revelation to some, but just last night I started working on a jigsaw puzzle I recently bought. I have very limited experience with puzzles. I can really only remember completing one in 2017 and none since. Well circumstances are always changing.
I’d previously purchased a 1000 piece puzzle of A Starry Night. I still think it’s a great one, but there was little chance I’d actually be able to finish it with my experience. More likely I’d throw the pieces at the wall and give up. So I downsized. I found a 300 piece puzzle of bookshelves I like. I started working on it last night.
I can imagine you reading this far and wondering how this relates to books in any way. Well it does and it doesn’t. What I realized last night after devoting about an hour to making progress on it is that I felt the same feelings of relaxation and calmness that I do when I read. When reading it’s difficult to multitask. Either you’re focused on the book or you aren’t. It’s similar with a puzzle. It’s not something you’ll finish if you’re mind is occupied by 5 other things.
Debut novel sells for how much?
First, it’s always great for a debut author to be given the chance to publish their work. It’s not a chance many are given.
Last week it was reported by multiple outlets that TJ Newman had agreed to a publishing deal for her debut novel and an additional book. It isn’t often that this would be newsworthy. But the difference here is it was a 7 figure book deal. Before a single reader has read a page (the first book is forthcoming) a bidding war began for the right to adapt the debut novel. Not one copy has been sold. Not one review written. But an unproven author gets this kind of money and media treatment. My curiosity took over. I looked her up on Twitter. Less than a thousand followers, so no one can say she has a large following expected to increase sales.
When reading about the author it made me wonder if any of this happens for the same person who is Black or Hispanic. I think we know the answer. Publishing has been one of the slowest institutions to improve diversity among its ranks. It’s great that this author will experience the joy of her books being published. The idea of an unknown and unproven author getting this type of publishing deal just doesn’t make much sense. But what do I know?
Books are back?
Most of 2020 was clouded with bad news, but maybe there’s a flicker of good news mixed in. Across the board all genres of books saw sales gains from the previous year. According to Nielsen Bookscan the total number of books sold was 751 million. This was the best year for book sales since 2010!
Just writing that is amazing. The top selling book of the year was former President Obama’s A Promised Land. Unsurprisingly. There are several factors at play here and who really knows what will happen in the coming years, but people are buying and reading books, and there’s not a single negative when that happens.
The bestselling books of 2020:
A Promised Land – Barack Obama
Midnight Sun – Stephenie Meyer
Dog Man: Grime and Punishment – Dav Pilkey
Too Much and Never Enough – Mary Trump
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes – Suzanne Collins
Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens
Untamed – Glennon Doyle
The Deep End – Jeff Kinney
White Fragility – Robin DiAngelo
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse – Charlie Mackesy
Did you read any of these last year?
Johnny Reads 