Clock Rewinders on a Book Binge is where Tara @ 25 Hour Books and I shamelessly plug each other, share the fantastic posts, giveaways, or whatever else we’ve found and loved by other awesome bloggers (or authors!) during the week, and talk about the books we plan on reading in the coming week.
Announcements
My birthday is in TEN days! Not that I’m counting or anything. Instead of doing a review on my birthday (since it falls on a Wednesday), I’ve got an extra special post scheduled where I answer all your questions about me. Haven’t asked your question yet? There is still time!
On a Book Bender Recap
- Audiobook Review: Beauty Queens by Libba Bray (10) – It is both ridiculous and poignant.
- Top Off Tuesday — Nips and More!
- Review: Maximum Witch by Jodi Redford (8) – I so absolutely adore this series! (and BONUS! there is a giveaway happening on Goodreads for a physical copy of this book)
- Doin’ It Dirty: Sign Up — Come read smut with us on July 20th!
- Joint Review with Ruby: Devil’s Gate by Thea Harrison (8) – Perhaps the best ER novella yet.
Meanwhile, in Amanda’s World
- Anne @ Creativity’s Corner interviewed me as part of her blog birthday celebration!
- My mp3 player refused to turn on, so I’m now without a way to listen to audiobooks in the car. This makes me sad, sad, sad. Also, on a related note, I understand that Payphone by Maroon 5 is a catchy song, but hearing it five times on four different radio stations in a hour is ridiculous.
- Teaching is OVER! Next week there is testing, meetings, and graduation, but right now the hard part is OVER. And for that I am thankful.
Around the Book Blogging Community
- Ilona (of Ilona Andrews) wrote a post about the whole librarians versus bloggers debate.
- Kelly @ Radiant Shadows talks about indie authors and editing. I read a book this week that I rated very low because of poor editing. But it was poor editing that caused confusion about key plot points and characters, which destroyed any enjoyment I could have had. And honestly, this is something that as an editor, I could and would have fixed. Seriously. If you want to self-publish, DO NOT skip a quality editor. I know we cost money. But your book will be better in the end. I should never EVER find a your/you’re mistake in a book that’s been published. Finding two is unforgivable.
- Chelsea @ Vampire Book Club posted about our love-hate relationship with cliffhangers.
- Alissa @ The Grammarian’s Reviews had two great discussion posts this week: how to overcome a reading slump and receiving & leaving comments.
- Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal wrote about her FATAL FLAWS when it comes to blogging.
Search Terms
does karin slaughter tweet — No, not that I know of. She does post on Facebook frequently, though.
“joke” “grammar check” — Yes, grammar check is a joke.
bender giraffe — o.O
i’m addicted to books — So am I!
bender penis blog — Come on now. It’s not like that here. Yet.
book cliffhanger meme — This is an interesting idea!
Goodreads Stats
Read in 2012 (68)
- Red Glove by Holly Black (7)
- Criminal Promises by Nikki Duncan(2)
- I wanted to like this one, but the main characters’ actions didn’t make sense to me (hero would tell himself to stay away from heroine, then a couple minutes later would kiss her silly), the bad guys got mixed up at a crucial moment (two names were used, and who I thought was the bad guy helped later, and someone else ended up dead and I’m so confused about what happened), and there were too many typos and grammar errors (though take that with a grain of salt).
- With Good Behavior by Jennifer Lane (8)
- Really liked this one and read it in a day. Read my review GR because, again, I am too damn lazy to write a full review, which makes me feel bad, because I think this book deserves it.
Own-Must-Read (183)
- Wilder’s Mate by Moira Rogers
- A RAK from Lilly @ Lilly Road (thank you, Lilly!). I can’t wait to get started on this one!
Amazon Wishlist (58)
- The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Edition
- Yes, I seriously want this. It would be invaluable for my editing business!
- A Bloody Good Secret by Sierra Dean
- Kelly’s review of the 4th book made me want to try this series again.
All Series, All Summer Progress
I have to admit that this week wasn’t such a great week for AS,AS. Well, I guess I did complete one series with Red Glove (and yes, I know I still need the next) but that was it. On the plus side, I didn’t add any books to my list, either.
For next week, I think I’m going to focus on reading books for the Profiling Mysteries event that Kelly, Felicia and I are doing. That means my AS,AS books will likely be left untouched. Especially since the Doin’ It Dirty read-a-thon is on Friday, so I’ll do all kinds of touching of those books.
Mary @ Book Swarm July 15, 2012 at 3:33 am
Busy, busy week! I agree, a cliffhanger meme/feature would be kind of cool. Wish I could join you for the dirty readathon but, lucky me, I’m having sinus surgery Friday. Woot?
Amanda @ On a Book Bender July 15, 2012 at 10:29 am
Oh, ugh. That doesn’t sound fun. You can always watch our progress on Twitter. I bet we will something entertaining. ;)
PS. Good luck with your surgery!
Kristilyn (Reading in Winter) July 15, 2012 at 7:54 am
I hear you about the MP3 player woes! If my iPod refused to turn on, I’d be lost — especially in the car. I’m a huge music lover, but I despise most public radio. The station my husband listens to replays songs over and over again. Sometimes I’ll hear one I like and he’ll be like, “I’ve heard this TOO MANY TIMES!” It’s new to me! I never listen!
YES! About the editors! I’m always hesitant about reading self-published books for this reason — I just like how put together published books are, with their easy to read context, great plot lines, and pages free (mostly) of errors. It can get really distracting if there are too many errors in a book!
Hoorah for teaching being over! May you have lots of relaxing days. :)
Amanda @ On a Book Bender July 15, 2012 at 10:35 am
I have a tendency to listen to top 40 stations, so yes, there is a lot of repeat. But then, my car only has a radio, so I’m kind of stuck with it.
The thing is I can and have forgiven a few typos. I’ve seen them in published books. But sometimes there are consistency errors (like in the book I read this week) that can confuse the heck out of people. And this is what people mean about self-published books getting editing, I think. They are missing that painstaking process of tons of edits that published books go through. You have the development edits, the copy edits, and then the proofreads. A lot of self-published authors may only have one professional editor look at it. And while yes, people you know can catch some mistakes, you kinda need to have a professional. And I’m not just saying that because I am one. lol.
Amy @ bookgoonie July 15, 2012 at 7:57 am
Glad you have a bit of a break. So excited about the Doin it Dirty on Friday. I’m trying to decide how I want to set my goals, like in pages? What would be a reasonable #?
Mary is right. A cliffhanger meme sounds interesting. I don’t run into them all the time, but I notice that Karen Marie Moning sure loves them in the Fever series.
Great links about. Fixing to go check out.
Amanda @ On a Book Bender July 15, 2012 at 10:36 am
My goals are pretty simple: read lots, have fun. I don’t really want to set any other goals. lol.
Stephanie July 15, 2012 at 9:09 am
Thanks for the great links! I really don’t understand all this hate going on all over the web (as far as reading is concerned).
Yay for school being over! It’ll be good to have a nice break.
Amanda @ On a Book Bender July 15, 2012 at 10:37 am
I think it’s a natural process of the book blogging community getting bigger. I think drama is inevitable, it just changes in severity with the number of people in the community. If that makes sense.
Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal July 15, 2012 at 9:12 am
You’re going to be touching all the dirty books? Niiiiiiice!
EEP! You didn’t tell me you got Wilder’s Mate! I LOVE WILDER! He’s got the dirty going on! Mmm. Wilder.
Teaching is doooooonnnnnne! Let’s go create a twisted world of magic and science and then kill people in it! Boo-yah!
Amanda @ On a Book Bender July 15, 2012 at 10:37 am
Yes, caught that, did you? I will touch all the dirty books.
Hey Kelly! Guess what! I GOT WILDER’S MATE! =P
Alissa July 15, 2012 at 9:45 am
Yay for teaching being over! Now this hellish semester can be put to rest.
I feel bad for saying it, but a lot of the time I don’t enjoy indie reads because of the lack of editing. It’s one of the things I can’t seem to overlook. :/
Amanda @ On a Book Bender July 15, 2012 at 10:45 am
Well, I have to make it through more stuff this coming week, but I can do that. The worst is over.
Everyone needs to face the facts: you cannot skimp on editing. It’s a necessary part of publishing (whether a publishing company does it or you do it yourself) and books suffer when they don’t go through enough editing. Yes, it costs money. But you have to spend money to make money. As in, if your book is edited well, more people are going to read it. And more people reading means more sales.
Smash Attack July 15, 2012 at 11:19 am
Yay for teaching being over for now. I hope you don’t have to go back to it and can focus on your business.
I’m getting my list of Doin it Dirty books together! Maybe I’ll do a bunch of novellas…
Amanda @ On a Book Bender July 15, 2012 at 11:37 am
People keep asking me if I’ll be teaching in the fall, and my response is always, “I hope not.” I’ll give my business a few months (maybe until the end of the year) before I start looking for other jobs if I can’t support myself through editing.
I think novellas are going to be the way to go with this. At least to get more books read. ;)
Ruby July 15, 2012 at 1:11 pm
I must have missed that you were reading the Curseworkers trilogy. I really enjoyed them, though I’m not sure how I felt about the ending. Do you plan on reading Black Heart at some point?
YAY for teaching being over!
Amanda @ On a Book Bender July 15, 2012 at 3:53 pm
Oh yeah, I’ve been listening to them. They’ve made appearances in my currently reading section a couple times. I will probably pick up Black Heart eventually.
Natalie @ Mindful Musings July 15, 2012 at 4:32 pm
NOOOO!!! MP3 players are NOT ALLOWED to die. Neither are computers, or cell phones, or tablets. When will they finally understand that?!?
Amanda @ On a Book Bender July 15, 2012 at 4:33 pm
The worst part is that it’s NOT that old. I got it as a Christmas present last year. Mp3 players are supposed to last longer than seven months.
Natalie @ Mindful Musings July 15, 2012 at 4:52 pm
Boo. Dislike. :(
Amanda @ On a Book Bender July 15, 2012 at 6:08 pm
*sniffles* *hiccups*
Sarah (saz101) July 15, 2012 at 8:17 pm
Oooooh, the Illona Andrews post about Bloggers vs. Librarians was brilliant… But UGH. I wish there wasn’t any of this ‘versus’ thing at all. We all love books. We all want to promote them. People behave badly everywhere and… *sigh*
drama drama :)
Amanda @ On a Book Bender July 15, 2012 at 8:18 pm
Right. I think Ilona makes a good point about how it should be about books. I mean, that’s why we’re all here, right?
I’m getting sick of all the drama. =/
Sarah (saz101) July 15, 2012 at 8:20 pm
Yeah, but it’s just… it’s sad, really. We should be work together, not against each other… and that a librarian got offended by what was obviously a videod IMM… le’sigh. Misunderstanding… and I DO think the affronted librarians have a good point, but… yeah :/
Amanda @ On a Book Bender July 16, 2012 at 6:06 am
It would do us all well to stop and think things through before we react.
Logan July 15, 2012 at 11:33 pm
Maybe for Doin It Dirty I can finally read 50 Shades! I’ve heard that one has some pretty poor editing as well.
Thanks for pointing up Alissa’s post on the comments thing. I’m glad to see so much discussion on the issue! And WP has vastly improved my replying habits. :)
Amanda @ On a Book Bender July 16, 2012 at 6:07 am
I have to admit that WP does make replying (and continuing conversation) a heck of a lot easier.