I love this bookish Christmas card!

(Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore - read it here)

Do I return it and put why in comments or is there some specific way to report it? I was really enjoying this but it was only £0.66 so I'm not bothered about a refund. Three pages missing though.

Thank in advance. 

'The man spends about 20 seconds watching our hero reading her book (which Jones suspects is Claudia Rankine’s Citizen), seemingly contemplating what he should do about this grave situation. Finally, he makes the decision to tap her on the shoulder and speak his mind, all with the fervent support of his lady friend. The three go on to have a full on argument in the middle of Trump’s speech. The altercation ends with our hero triumphantly returning to her book.

 

Hero lady, who are you? Were you, in fact, reading Citizen? Where does your unabashed lack of fucks originate from? Why were you even there? How is this real? And most of all: Thank you.'

BTW, the book is awesome. 

Out of the shadows and into the light
With secrets and lies,
Conspiracies and spies.

The government plays deadly games.
The people pay for their childish mistakes.
As the soldiers take their aims,
The players raise the stakes.

Who will win?
The cheaters of course.
The story will spin
And the guilty will feel no remorse.

This is how the game is played.
It’s a tough world out there
With the cards undisplayed.

*Written when I was 16/17 c. 2003 about the ‘war on terror’ in Iraq.

^{Image: GabrielSaldana/Flickr}

O life, simple life!
When does it end, if ever?
The corruption
The dishonour
And the squalor.

The inequalities:
The rich and the poor
The dominant and the subdued
The minority over the majority
The unfairness
The injustice
When does it end, if ever?

Will it end in death, sweet death!
Or will death lead to another hell like this one?
Will there ever be peace and an end to all suffering?
Or will that be when we exist no more?
We are self-destructive after all
Imperfect.
Faulty.

Is our passion to blame?
Our innate anger
Love
Hate
Jealousy
It gives us life … emotion.
Without emotion, we are drones with no purpose
But what sort of life do we live, in a place so negative and without compassion?

How do we survive?
By succumbing?
Or do we fight?
Do we choose or are we chosen?

So will it end in Armageddon?
Will there be peace in the end?
Or can we redeem ourselves?
But will it be too late?

*Written when I was 16/17 c. 2003.

^{Image: Zoriah/Flickr}

Today is Super Thursday, the day publishing houses release their (mostly hardcover) books into the wild for frenzied Christmas consumption in order to boost dead tree sales in bricks-and-mortar bookshops. Last year saw over 300 titles released in a single day, paling in comparison to today’s 503.

But despite Super Thursday being widely publicized along with bookshops’ participation in the Books Are My Bag campaign, there’s still a distinct lack of a list containing all these books. Instead, news sites are highlighting their bestseller predictions. How are potential customers supposed to find out if any of these books interest them? Bookshops havelimited shelf space for new titles while still stocking the Harry Potters and Pride and Prejudices.

Andrew Furlow, sales and marketing manager at Icon Books, said: “We’re quite deliberately pushing books back to avoid the Super Thursday crush . . . it’s difficult to get attention.”

Refusing to be the odd publisher out by adding even more titles to the ‘crush’ is tantamount to a literary stampede. In the battle for shelf space, priority is likely to be given to the biggest of names and former bestselling authors to maximise revenue. Well-known authors who aren’t superstars like James Patterson and Stephanie Meyer will inevitably lose out. Amazon, once again, is one of the few retailers who can provide access to all 503 books. Oh, the irony of Amazon benefiting from a publishing campaign to boost bookshops.

Assumptions that buyers of Christmas presents start their spending in October is a misnomer. Many shop for presents all year round in order to spread the cost, with some completing their purchases well before Halloween and Black Friday. Publishers would be better off staggering their Christmas releases between September and November to gain a better chance of exposure. Or, perhaps even earlier for non-famous debut authors and subjects.

Commentators arguing that Waterstones’ decision to stop selling Kindles due to declining sales means the dead tree book is on the rise again like a phoenix out of the ashes are wrong. If you’ve bought a Kindle, then you’ve no need to buy another for a few years.Physical UK book sales are decreasing while sales of ebooks are growing every yearand are still the cheaper option over the hardcovers released today even with the seasonal half price promotions.

^{Image: bagelmouse/Flickr}

After the disastrous ending to my birthday trip to New York, I haven’t been feeling like reading, reviewing or blogging so this post is a little light. On top of that I realised my cursed car is caught up in the VW diesel emissions scandal and I’ve been having a terrible time trying to cut through bureaucracy to schedule an operation that should’ve happened weeks ago. Sigh.

OPINIONS

• 8 Tips for Decluttering Your Home
• Disabilism – The Ugly Face of Disability Hate Crime (BBC)
• Planes, Trains and Automobiles: A New York City Birthday

NEWS

• New Logo, New Theme
• Bookshop offering refunds for Go Set a Watchman
• What Pet Should I Get?: Dr. Seuss’s Go Set a Watchman

REVIEWS

The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 2: Fandemonium
Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie
★☆☆☆☆

Those Left Behind
(Serenity #1)
Joss Whedon & Brett Matthews
★★☆☆☆

Better Days
(Serenity #2.1)
Joss Whedon & Brett Matthews
★☆☆☆☆

Alex + Ada, Vol. 1
Jonathan Luna
★★★★☆

Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama
Alison Bechdel
★★★☆☆

The Stars Never Rise
Rachel Vincent
★★★☆☆

Green Eggs and Ham
Dr. Seuss
★★★★☆

Hug Me
Simona Ciraolo
★★☆☆☆

Good Milk
(Pregnant and Paranormal #1)
Arla Coopa
★☆☆☆☆

But I Really Wanted to Be an Anthropologist
Margaux Motin
★★☆☆☆

I got:

78% accuracy

Pretty Damn Judgey

You may know what you like,
but you sure as hell know what you don't
like. Which is a lot, apparently.

What I've learned: Most Goodreads books are rated between 3.5 and 4 stars. Those rated less than that tend to have low-quality covers, although there are the outliers that are great books with crappy covers.

via Independent

This course started today, you have still got time to join in even it might put your reading time down. I gotta say, it looks so interesting now after the first material.

Awhile back BrokenTune - Reviews & Rants informed us about the Free Online Course:

Identifying the Dead: Forensic Science and Human Identification

As said, the course is free and global, will last 6 weeks (starting 7th of September) and requires 4 hours per week. Joining in the course also provides you a free story from Val McDermid. You can find more info and sign up here.

I also set up a private group for people who will take a part in it, there is already bunch of us. If you will join in the fun (sign up that is), let us know by leaving a comment either Broken's original post or this post, and I will gladly send you an invite. 

My favourites:

• Put the devil into hell (1616)

• Ride a dragon upon St. George (1698)

• Horizontal refreshment (1863)

More here.

^{Image: Cupid and Psyche (1817) by Jacques-Louis David}

After scraping some money together and an awful lot of planning, I managed to take a trip to NYC for my birthday. Actually stepping on that plane was something I never thought would happen. Two weeks earlier my mother’s arthritic pain had reached a new high and she was due a knee operation. To ensure she’d be safe on her own for a few days, I put certain things in place and people to call should she have problems. Continue reading →