Scary, Creepy Music + Book Cover = Good Trailer

Just watched this book trailer. I’ve been avoiding romance trailers, not because I don’t read romance (I do!), but because I don’t need to hear sappy music and see half naked men. This romance book trailer has neither – but it does have creepy music (especially when you’re home all alone, and it’s dark, and it surprises you) and shows the author and her book cover.

I think showing the cover of the book is the most effective aspect of book trailers – it’s what’s going to make readers connect the video to the physical item in the store.

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The Life of a Reading Coward

I recently decided that I’m a coward when it comes to reading. I’m not adventurous, or brave, or intrepid in any way at all. Instead, I often stick to the same genres, same authors, same series, etc. I am one of those people who read the same book over and over and over, but (to quote from You’ve Got Mail) do I do it because I like it, or because I haven’t been brave?

In my book marketing class the other day, we were discussing the efficacy of book blurbs on the back cover…do we buy books based on the description? I answered yes, of course, but the truth is that I buy books based on whether I’ve heard of the author, read another book by that author or in that series, and whether I like the genre of that book.

I honestly don’t often venture into the Fiction section of the bookstore or the library. I stick to the areas I know: fantasy and science fiction, YA, cooking, mystery, etc. I like these sections, but I think it’s more because I am overwhelmed by the number of books and authors I don’t know in the fiction section. I’ve been reading the other books for so long that I’m familiar with many of them, and I feel comfortable there.

I don’t know why I’m so reluctant to venture forth from my tidy little hobbit hole of reading habits. One of my favorite things about the library is that I can bring a book home, read five pages, and then return the book if I dislike it. Part of it, I think, is that I started reading very young and read several books that I shouldn’t have read until I was older. I read The Color Purple, for example, when I was in fifth grade – way too young to be reading about the subjects covered in that book – and so now I have this fear of somehow reading something that will traumatize me.

Which is just silly for a grown woman. I read a fantasy book recently where the main character has a very vivid nightmare about being raped, and I stopped reading. Apparently I’m one of those people who cannot handle the harsh realities of literature. Fiction is too “real” for me.

But I’m going to try harder to venture out of my comfort zone, to try and read books by authors unknown on subjects as yet unexplored. I owe it to myself, and to the authors, and to the art of writing – books aren’t always meant to be cozy and happy. Sometimes we all need to read something unfamiliar and uncomfortable, and it’s those kinds of books that help us most to grow. I don’t remember a lot of the books I read in childhood, unless the plot disturbed me in some way, and I think I remember those books because they taught me something or made me think. Which isn’t a bad thing at all…so why have I been avoiding it?

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I Want to Host a Salon

Remember during the Renaissance when people would hold amazing salons and discuss topics from the arts to sciences to philosophy? Me neither, but, man, I would have loved to live during that period. I would, of course, have been beautiful and rich and brilliant. And the most amazing painters of the day would have been my retainers.

Well, I just read Sage Cohen’s Tip of the Day (for yesterday) and he suggested hosting a salon to allow friends to share their poetry. Honestly, I can’t write poetry and I often finding hearing my friends read their poetry to be torture. BUT! I think my next party will be a salon where I will invite all my friends to come and read creative essays that they have written instead.

Creative non-fiction is one of my favorite forms of writing, probably because I was a journalist for my undergrad newspaper and it was always the creative pieces that stumped me. I mean, churning out another piece about an event or new faculty or reviews can all be pretty formulaic. But an opinion piece, or a features story, had the potential to be so funny or moving or whatever.

Anyway, I shall now go plan my salon. I need the following:

Lots of French hors d’oeuvres (think caviar and escagot)
One artist, probably drunk, to paint my friends
A big, fancy dress with pink lace and cranberry stripes as wide as I am tall
Small, spindly chairs that look like they will break when people sit on them
At least forty men in white wigs, with tights (We’re men in tights, TIGHT tights!)

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Flashlight Worthy Lists

Growing up, I read in bed every night. This wouldn’t have been a problem except that I always fell asleep mid-read. Meaning: my glasses didn’t come off, but would hang lopsided from my face, my light wouldn’t turn off, but would continue to shine above my head, and my dad couldn’t just go to sleep, but had to get up and turn off my light and put my glasses on the bedside table. Thanks Daddy.

Now, I still do the same thing. On nights my boyfriend goes out, I often read on the couch of oursmall apartment, coffee in one hand and blanket secured around my legs. Luckily, I seem to drift off after I’ve finished the coffee. Then, my boyfriend comes home and gently picks my book off the floor from where’s it’s fallen out of my hands, and, like my dad, turns out the lights so I can continue to sleep the sleep of the well-read.

This is just an introduction to the actual purpose of this blog posting: I just found a site called Flashlight Worthy. As a huge advocate for reading until falling asleep, whether under the covers with a flashlight or not, I think this is a great site. It’s actually a very appropriate find because I just posted a couple reading lists myself yesterday. And that’s the main purpose of Flashlight Worthy: to give readers lists of similar books.

Here’s three intriguing lists I found that I now plan to incorporate into my almost daily HOLDS ritual on the Multnomah County Library website:

1) A Practical Fiction List for Surviving After the Apocalypse
2) Creepy Houses That Must Be Explored
3) The Most Romantic Young Adult Books of All Time

Anyway, GREAT site, great lists – and I’ll probably post more lists as I discover them. If you’ve read any of the books on these lists, be sure to let me know. 🙂

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Reading Lists:

Last year, my friend Kyle and I gave each other lists of 10 books to read over the summer. Here was his list for me:

1. Cry, the Beloved country-Alan Paton
2. Battle Royale-Koshuea Takami
3. Starship troopers-Robert A. Heinlein.
4. Kafka on the shore-Haruki Murakami
5. The city of dreaming books-Walter Moers
6. The painted Veil-W. Somerset Maugham
7. The Forsyte Saga-John Galsworthy (Just the first one. totally stand alone.)
8. I capture the castle-Dodie Smith
9. Open Secrets-Alice Munro
10. Portnoy’s Complaint-Philip Roth
11. Underworld-Don Delillo
12. To say nothing of the dog-Connie Willis

And here was mine for him:

1) Notes from Underground by Dostoevsky (Fic)/
2) A History of Love by Krauss (Fic)
3) A Wizard of Earthsea by Le Guin (Sci-fi) (first in a series, but a great stand alone)
4) Paradise Lost by Milton (Epic Poem)
5) Tell Me by Addonizio (Poetry)
6) Whale Talk by Crutcher (YA)
7) Lolita by Nabokov (Fic)
8 ) She Who Is by Johnson (Non-fic)
9) Tangerine by Bloor (YA)
10) The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley (Sci-Fi)

I think reading lists are great – you can learn a lot about someone and their literary taste from the reading list they might provide. Plus, then you don’t have to worry about what you’re going to talk about when you next see your friend, because you can talk about the books! Go forth and make your own lists!

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Graceling Book Trailer…Yeah…

I loved this book, Graceling by Kristin Cashore, but this trailer leaves something to be desired. Regardless, though, still enjoyed it. 😛

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My Resistance to Twitter is Getting Weaker

While I’m still skeptical about Twitter’s ability to sell any books for publishers, I can’t really deny that Twitter is supporting the “cult of personality” type following that authors now enjoy. It seems like an author’s book doesn’t matter as much as their online presence and persona. If publishers could make money every time someone read the Twitter or Facebook posts of their authors, perhaps they wouldn’t be so worried about financial problems.

But, since everyone’s following the authors anyway, here’s a list of the most popular:

50 Best Book People to Follow on Twitter

There are some great authors on this list, including Neil Gaiman, Eoin Colfer, and J.K Rowling, as well as some publishers, book reviewers, and publishing news sites.

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Oprah’s Book Club SHOW?

Oprah just announced that she may be hosting a book-club show on her new network. I think this is a great idea, because hopefully it will encourage people who usually sit around watching television to go out and buy books (whether paper books or e-books) instead of sitting on their butts. Reading = awesome = brain power.

I know Oprah’s Book Club has gotten a lot of attention and criticism over the years, but I like it! First of all, while I might not buy a book solely because her name is on it, I’ve been impressed over the years with many of the Book Club choices.

Over the years, I’ve enjoyed The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, etc. – all thanks to Oprah. I’ve read several of the other books on the list, too, but these I remember reading specifically because of the little Oprah sticker.

When I worked at Borders, we had a joke that if Oprah’s name was on a book, it would be a bestseller. It’s funny because it’s true! If Oprah puts her name on something, it’ll get publicity and it will sell. And it will sell WELL.

I kind of wish her book club people would choose more up-and-coming authors, instead of well-established authors like Cormac McCarthy. She should use her huge influence for good- and by that I mean the good of the authors, and the good of the publishing industry. But in general, I think Book Clubs are awesome, Oprah’s pretty cool, and her books are worth reading.

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