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D is for Disclosure–A Response to the #fridayreads Freak-Out
2011 at 2pm Posted by Rebecca Schinsky
Over the last few weeks, a conversation about #fridayreads erupted on Twitter. For those of you who are unfamiliar, #fridayreads is a weekly meme wherein people share what they’re reading using the hashtag. It was created by Bethanne Patrick (@thebookmaven) about a year and a half ago and began as an endeavor to build community around books on Twitter. This post addresses some of that eruption and can most definitely be classified as shop talk. My feelings won’t be hurt if you’ve already decided Twitter shitstorms are silly and prefer to move on. I generally agree and stay out of them unless I am being personally attacked. Alas, we’ve reached that point. Oh joy!
I have been a supporter of #fridayreads from the start and love that it pulls people from all kinds of genre circles together to form new relationships over a shared love of reading. Last winter, publishers began approaching Bethanne with requests to sponsor giveaways, and she created a monetization model to support the time and effort that go into maintaining the #fridayreads community and hosting Twitter Book Tours. Information about the paid giveaways has been publicly available on the FAQ page of the FridayReads website since then, and Bethanne has discussed the business model in several interviews, including this video and this new blog post. In short, it’s no secret. Read more
HANDBOOK FOR LIGHTNING STRIKE SURVIVORS Giveaway Winners
2011 at 9am Posted by Rebecca Schinsky
No, the cartoon doesn’t have anything to do with the post, but it is entertaining in light of LOL and OMG being added to the OED, and everybody knows that giveaway winner posts tend to be boring. So there.
Now for the three lucky winners of signed paperback editions of The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors and book club or Skype visits from author Michele Young-Stone are:
@heathmocha
Bex at An Armchair by the Sea
Congratulations to the winners (whom I’ve emailed already) and a big thanks to my pal Michele Young-Stone for sponsoring this exclusive giveaway.
Share a Discussible Book and Win $100!
2011 at 10am Posted by Rebecca Schinsky
My friend Barbara Mead is the brains (and beauty! Hi, Babs.) behind the superfabulous readers’ resource that is Reading Group Choices. RGC provides book recommendations, discussion guides, and about a zillion other useful tools, lists, and ideas for readers and book groups. And now they’re giving away money! Seriously.
All you have to do is talk about your favorite discussible book of 2010 in the Reading Group Choices survey. And when you complete the short survey, Reading Group Choices they will enter your name into a random drawing for $100 to jazz up your next get-together! Tell all your reading group friends – 5 lucky groups will win!
Complete your entry by March 20th, and Reading Group Choices will announce the winners in their April e-newsletter.
Good luck!
Two years later and Stephenie Meyer still sucks.
2011 at 11am Posted by Rebecca Schinsky
Has it really been two years since Stephen King proclaimed that Stephenie Meyer “can’t write wroth a darn?” My blog archives confirm that indeed, it has.
Have my opinion on the Twilight books changed? No. Am I glad that *someone* found a way to get teens interested in reading big books again? Yes. Do I wish all the Twihard teens were reading something with more substance and fewer anti-feminist messages? Well, of course.
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
Thank you, Walt Whitman.
Why am I thinking about this, anyway? You can thank Peggy Orenstein, Reasoning with Vampires, and these impressively awful rings from Hot Topic.
At least they’re not beating around the I’ll-do-anything-to-make-the-boy-love-me bush?
The Bare Necessities—Elizabeth Brundage (A STRANGER LIKE YOU)
2010 at 5am Posted by Rebecca Schinsky
The Bare Necessities is a series in which writers and book industry professionals share annotated reading lists of the books they love.
Elizabeth Brundage is the author of several novels. A Stranger Like You was published August 2010 by Viking.
There are many books that have influenced me along the way and there are so many worthy novels and stories out in the world that it would be impossible to choose the “best” books. Therefore, my list isn’t really about best or worse, but which books have stayed with me longest, perhaps – books that I have never been able to forget.
I fell in love with fiction in second or third grade when I read The Boxcar Children. As an adopted child trying to understand what it meant to be adopted, the novel about four orphans wandering the countryside made an impression on me. Later, I read The Outsiders which had a similar impact, and I started carrying around a yellow pad of paper on which to write my thoughts – I discovered that I loved using words, feeling empowered by them. I read Oliver Twist and Great Expectations by Dickens and felt emotionally connected to those characters. When I read Them by Joyce Carol Oates, I experienced an epiphany: I was going to become a writer. Read more
