Saturday 3 August 2013

My week in books (#3)

My week in books is a feature where I share things I've found interesting from the past week that concern books, literature and all things book blogging.

I have so many things to share this week, I'm not quite sure where to start.

I guess with something everyone's been talking about - the cover reveal for Cress by Marissa Meyer, which you can see here. This is a beautiful cover, and definitely my favourite from The Lunar Chronicles so far.

The Atlantic did an interesting article on why children's books matter about the New York Public Library's exhibition on children's books (here). I've always been a firm believer that you shouldn't discriminate against literature because of who it's aimed at, so it was lovely to see this piece, the introduction of which should be a manifesto of sorts for children's books:
"A good children's book is a young person's earliest exposure to art and design, a conduit for parental bonding, a means to teach individual and social lessons, and these days, possibly the last vestige of printed matter for the next digital generation as it weans itself from ink on paper to pixels on screens."
I can't tell you how much I agree with the above statement.

I saw lots of lists this week that I loved:
There was lots of great advice being offered to bloggers and authors this week, from all sources. Some of the best include:
  • Trish at Between the Lines is doing a great series on marketing for bloggers, which is full of sage advice. You can find the first post here.
  • The Guardian did a piece here on why authors need to join the PR circus.
  • Asti at A Broken Heart shared her tips on having a breakout blog, and similarly Chris Hill over at songofaseagod gave advice on how to get more views.
This week I also followed some great publisher Twitter accounts, my favourite of which was @HodderFiction, who spent the week running great competitions (disclaimer: I won a book from them!).

And finally, it's not quite about a book, but the British government is trying to stop a ring belonging to Jane Austen leaving the country, as it was won at auction by Kelly Clarkson. What do you think? The Guardian debates here.

Did you spot anything this week you wanted to share? Let me know in the comments.

12 comments:

  1. Lots to look at! Great post :-)

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    1. Thanks. Enjoy reading all the links, there's so much good stuff out there!

      Sarah

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  2. Thanks for the link up :) There is loads here that caught my eye, thanks for rounding them all up for us! Really enjoyed The Atlantic article and I would never have found it on my own.

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    1. I wish I lived in New York and could go and see the exhibition the article talks about.

      Sarah

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  3. That is a lovely cover, too bad I didn't like the first. I need to try again in a nother mood

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    1. I was afraid I wouldn't like Cinder because of all the hype, but actually ended up enjoying it, although I preferred the sequel (unusually). I can see why it's not everyone's cup of tea though.

      Sarah

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  4. I agree that the Cress cover is by far the best one in the series. I still need to read Cinder and plan on doing so. Most of the people I've talked to enjoyed it quite a bit. Thanks for all the links to interesting lists, etc. I love the quote from the Atlantic. I feel like if the ring can't leave the country then it should never have been at auction. It only seems fair to let her have it now that she's bought it. I couldn't care less about Kelly Clarkson and can understand why the government wants to keep it in the country, but they should have thought about all that before it was made available to be bought by somebody out of the country. What do you think?

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    1. I agree that the ring should never have been auctioned, but I really don't want to see it leave the country. I guess at the end of the day, it's not like it's a manuscript or something, so if the government can't make the money, they should let Clarkson have it. If it was something literary associated with Austen, I'd say we should definitely do all we can to keep it. As it is, it's a piece of jewellery.

      Sarah

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  5. I'm not sure what to make of that Jane Austen story. It seems strange that the government can halt the sale of something that was apparently legally purchased. I'm wondering why they didn't step in beforehand.

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    1. The government can do all sorts, they just often do it too late! I think because it can be classified as a national treasure or some such, they're allowed to step in.

      Sarah

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  6. i really, really like the cover for cress too. it's just so vibrant and lush! cinder is still my favorite cover in the series since it was just so unique but cress is a close second.

    -michelle @ Michelle & Leslie's Book Picks

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    1. I like that the covers are quite minimalistic without being sparse. They're a good representation of the characters in the novels.

      Sarah

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