Another Laker victory, another Sunday, another stash…
(And yay for the Bulls victory! You know how I feel about Boston.)
Around the Blogosphere:
There’s been an interesting discussion floating around Book Review Land over the past week, concerning authors and the effect author comments may have on facilitating or ‘chilling’ discussion of a book. It all started here with Ana’s review of Peter Brett’s The Painted Man, which in turn inspired Peter to write this post. The exchange spurred Jessica over at Racy Romance Reviews to write the much-talked about article on the effect of author comments, and has since spawned a number of comments and opinions across the web. (Check out Peter Brett’s response, and blogger opinions over with Tia at Fantasy Debut, or James at Speculative Horizons)
While we here at the Book Smugglers love it when authors come by to chat with us and readers in our posts and comments, and firmly believe that anyone – including authors – should be able to participate in discussion, we’re interested to see these other opinions. Where do you, as a reader or author, stand?
Reviewing Reviewers:
Harry, the awesome blogger that runs Temple Library Reviews, has begun a massive undertaking into uncharted new territory. Here’s the rundown:
You can review a whole lot of things with intellectual value, starting from books and then moving to all other forms of fiction, comic books, movies, albums and TV shows. But I have yet to encounter an extensive review of a review blog, so as people say I am moving through uncharted waters. The main point here is that these reviews are not to decide the quality of the blog, but more or less to serve an informative purpose to potential readers [if I do get a sizeable traffic for that matter] and other reviewers as well [which hopefully will pay any kind of attention, while “Reviewer Time” is going].
The first guest, Teresa (aka SQT) of Fantasy and Sci-Fi Lovin’ News and reviews is up today! Of course, yours truly will be guests over for Reviewer Time in the near future, so stay tuned!
This Week On The Book Smugglers:
We have another big week ahead for y’all…
April 28th is a HUGE week for book releases. On Monday, Ana reviews Dayhunter, book 2 in Jocelynn Drake’s Dark Days series. Ana loved Nightwalker; will she love book 2?
On Tuesday, Thea reviews the highly anticipated third book in Lisa Shearin’s Raine Benares series, The Trouble With Demons. Thea is a huge fan of the Raine Benares books, and has much love for Lisa Shearin, so her expectations were running high for this newest Raine adventure…
Wednesday, Ana reviews The Laurentine Spy by Emily Gee. Ana fell in love with this book at first sight of synopsis.
On Thursday, in honor of the release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, you KNEW we were gonna do something, right? We’ll share the origins of our love for Wolvie, along with hopes for the movie, fun linkage, and other X-Men ponderings. We’ll also have a poll and hopefully a review for the film on the weekend too…
Friday, we close out the week with another author talking inspirations and influences, as Julie James comes over with her writerly thoughts.
Phew. Well that’s about it for now! See ya tomorrow, bub.
~ Your Friendly Neighborhood Book Smugglers
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9 Responses to Smugglers Stash and News
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Not everyone is going to enjoy every book – I see this a lot on LibraryThing, particularly when I rate something a 4 or 5 and see some 0.5/1 ratings. “What?!” I think, “How could they not think this book was teh awesome?!” Conversely, when I give a book a low rating, I look askance at the 4/5 ratings and wonder how they can be so deluded.
I’ve only received author comments on my blog when I’ve posted an unenthusiastic review, and I have to say that their defensive comments have not changed my perspective in a positive fashion. The most likely outcome of such a comment? I’ll stop reading them entirely.
You guys are so bad for my TBR list.
Wolverine *rowl*
I know what I’ll be doing tonight – reading all about The Painted Man
And The Laurentine Spy sounds interesting. I love the cover! Looking forward to the review…all the reviews
As Jacqueline said, you are both really bad for my TBR list *grin*
Hey! Is the Emily Gee book #2 in the universe that started with ‘thief with no shadow’ (I think it was called – eep!) I’ve been wondering about that!
[...] my blog and inspired posts by Tia at FantasyDebut, James at Speculative Horizons, and Ana/Thea at Booksmugglers, which was the site where the whole mess started in the first place. [...]
Maya M. as far as I know The Thief with no Shadow and The Laurentine Spy aren’t set in the same universe.
Concerning the discussion whether authors should post on blogs I have mixed feelings. On one hand I liked the comment from Peter V. Brett. On the other hand I think a blog is place for blogger and their readers. A lot of authors have their own blogs. That means they can pick up discussions and comment on their blogs. In order to share information I like the way Peter V. Brett is going with his pingback.
Anyway I have to come back this week because I’m interested in Lisha Shearn, Emily Gee, Wolverine
I guess reviewwing reviewers can be a good thing, as long as it’s constructive criticism.
The Laurentine Spy looks good. I’ll have to check that out.
Wow, the new Rampant cover is already up on the sidebar? Quick on the uptake, guys! Thanks!
As far as responding to reviews, I’m of the “thanks for reading!” mindset. I don’t like to respond to criticism, but I see nothing wrong with the occasional “I’m glad aspect X appealed to you” or “Sorry aspect Y didn’t work for you.”
If someone asks a question, like “I wonder if this is the first of a series,” and no one in the discussion seems to know the answer, I might volunteer the info. But I don’t feel any obligation to do so. Reviews are for readers.
I think the only time I responded critically to a discussion of my work was when someone was posting links to pirated versions of my books. Then I got mad.
I am more likely to have conversations about my work when it’s on my own website, like the spoiler thread I open for readers for each book. But that’s my site.
It’s an interesting question, whether or not an author’s presence stymies discussion. Even if they stay out of the conversation, they’re often, if not usually, aware it’s going on. Don’t feel weird — all those people who write critical Amazon reviews don’t, and you KNOW the author sees those!