My week in books (#14)

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.

First up, we've probably all played Would You Rather? at some point or other. Here on Book Riot is a version for book nerds, giving you dilemmas such as: 

Would you rather...never be allowed to read the last chapter of a book but be able to read as many books as you want OR only be allowed to read one book a year, but be allowed to finish it?

Decisions, decisions.

Also on Book Riot, here is a collection of sweatshirts inspired by books. I love them all.

Flavorwire has a gallery here of the scariest monsters in children's literature. I agree with them all, but I'd also add in the witch from The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, and the spiders from Harry Potter and from the Lord of the Rings. What would you include?

Anna Reads has a great post here about gifts for people who love books. I'm a particular fan of the clothing she's highlighted (who doesn't want a Pride and Prejudice scarf?).

I love, love, love shoes, so when I saw this shoe, which is inspired by books, I fell in love.

And finally, if you haven't seen it yet, here's Jamie's (The Perpetual Page-Turner) annual end of year book survey. Go complete it, and let me know when you have.

My week in books (#13)

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.

Natalie over at Natflix&Books mentioned last week that she'd acquired the new Sarra Manning novel, Adorkable, which sent me on a spiral remembering how much I loved Manning's Diary of a Crush columns, which were printed in J17 magazine when I was a young teenager. I already follow Manning on Twitter, so I went looking for her website, and had a great time reading about her writing. Ahh, memory lane.

With Catching Fire out this week (still haven't seen it, boo), here's a post from Gotcha Movies about 13 Young Adult Adaptations to Look Out For. Some of these look good, others I'm apprehensive about in case they spoil books I love (anything by Maggie Stiefvater).

Flavorwire has a piece here about 10 Great Books Contemporary Culture has forgotten, which is full of authors and books I've never heard of.

Book Riot has a really interesting piece here about the problem with gendered reading. I'm a big advocate of getting kids reading, and there's a particular problem with getting young boys into books. 

Hopefully that problem will be given a good kick with the selection of books for World Book Night 2014 UK and Ireland, which you can see here (a selection are also pictured below). In an effort to reach more non-readers, there are a bunch of quick reads on the list, and books chosen to specifically appeal to males (Robert Muchamore's The Recruit is a brilliant choice). You can also sign up to be a book giver on the night - I'm off to go do my application.

If you've seen anything interesting this week, share it in the comments.

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My week in books is a feature where I share things I've found interesting from the past week (usually) that concern books, literature and all things book blogging. - See more at: http://girlreporter.blogspot.co.uk/#sthash.rOrsYgk1.dpuf

My week in books (#12)

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. - See more at: http://girlreporter.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=my+week+in+books&max-results=20&by-date=true#sthash.MjqfjZq9.dpuf

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

I haven't done one of these in a while, so I've been saving up the links for a while.

I'm pretty obsessed with cookbooks. They're just so pretty and full of yummy recipes. To celebrate their newest release, Penguin came up with a quiz here, where you can find out which (Penguin) celebrity chef you are. I'm a Jamie Oliver (I wanted to be Mary Berry or Nigel Slater), let me know who you get.

I loved this Buzzfeed post about the places you need to read in, although I'm not sure what my favourite is.

I've recently acquired a couple of books by Jon Rance, and this piece he wrote about creating female characters is a brief and interesting insight into the process.

I've forgotten if I've linked to this post from The Stylist before, but who cares? It's the 100 best last lines from books, and you can create your own lists as well.

Here's a great article from The Guardian about Edgar Allen Poe and how he's been dividing readers for centuries.

A lot of people are taking part in NaNoWriMo at the moment, so these top 10 tips on writing from legendary crime writer PD James may prove useful.

The Fiction Dreams blog has a great interview here with Joanne Harris, who is one of my favourite authors. I'm very excited about her new work, which is a retelling of Norse myths through the eyes of Loki, who I'm obsessed with (okay, maybe I just like Tom Hiddleston).

For Books' Sake has a piece here about Mills and Boon, which I thought was a great read. I'm still not sure I'll be reading any Mills and Boon in the future though.

And finally, I've had this link open on my browser for months. For those of you into crafts, you can learn how to make your own funky monster bookmarks. They're really easy, and if you want to do something more grown up you can adapt the design by taking away the eyes and teeth and using different types of paper. I've made quite a few, and they're a hit.

My week in books (#11)

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 did something a few weeks ago when Seamus Heaney passed away. Since then his publishers, Faber & Faber, have set up a website here, collecting tributes, memories and more.
 
Two of the best books I've read this year have been Cinder and Scarlett by Marissa Meyer, and I'm hugely excited about Cress, which comes out early next year. Here's an interview with Meyer, where she talks a little bit about what we should expect in Cress, as well as other things.

Also speaking this week was Andy Serkis, who talked about The Bone Season film. TheOneRing.net have an interview here.

As well as being a lover of books, I'm also a bit of a spelling, grammar and punctuation nerd, so I loved these mugs, which are both funny and helpful. For those who prefer their literary gifts to have a bit more flair, here is a gorgeous book-inspired Kate Spade scarf (there's more available in this range).

And finally, if you're hungry, don't look at this Tumblr post, which is a collection of images of meals from literature (think Heidi's cheese on toast).

Have you found anything interesting this week to share?

My week in books (#10)

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.

Last time I did one of these I mentioned Roald Dahl Day, which was earlier this month. There's a great Pinterest page here, with pictures of the Dahl inspired lunches people made to celebrate Roald Dahl Day. Brilliant.

One of my favourite authors is Neil Gaiman, who recently released Fortunately, The Milk... (great book with lovely illustrations, go read it if you haven't already). To celebrate, his publishers Bloomsbury asked people to put together videos raising a glass of milk, which you can find here. There are some inventive and funny ones in there.

This next one is technically not to do with books, but it is to do with writing, so I figured I could include it. Huffington Post did a round up of punctuation marks we no longer use, which you can find here. I'm a geek, so this really fascinated me.

I saw a trailer for The Book Thief recently, and it looks amazing. Here's a piece from Hollywood about how the book was turned into a film. And here's the trailer if you haven't seen it...

Here's a piece from The Guardian about a previously unknown Ian McEwan short story being discovered.

It may have been a week since news that the Man Booker Prize was going international was released, but people are still talking about. Here's a piece from The Atlantic about how the decision is a good thing.

And finally, I know nothing about Tone Almhjell's The Twistrose Key, apart from that it has a beautiful website, here.

What have you found over the past week that you've enjoyed?

My week in books (#9)

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.

Roald Dahl Day was this week, celebrating the work of one of the best children's authors ever. Here, Huffington Post put together a list of 10 fantastic quotes from his work (and you can read my favourite moment from Dahl's work here). And you can test your Roald Dahl knowledge in this quiz from The Guardian. Let me know how many you get (I got nine out of 10).

Another one from the Huffington Post, here's a list of the nine most sympathetic villains from literature.

This collection of images by Simon and Schuester on Buzzfeed is one of the cutest things I've seen recently. It's 15 types of reader, as told by cats and dogs.

To celebrate the end of New York Fashion Week, Flavorwire compiled a list of the most stylish people in literature, which you can find here.

Geek Girl by Holly Smale is on my list to read. For those of you who have already read it, here's an extract from the next novel, Model Misfit.

The League of Extraordinary Writers had a post from Marissa Meyer this week on her top 10 cyborg upgrades, which you can find here.

What have you seen this week that's caught your attention? Let me know in the comments.

My week in books (#8)

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.

Firs up, I saw a new trailer and a clip from the upcoming film about American poet Allen Ginsberg, Kill Your Darlings. The film stars Daniel Radcliffe as Ginsberg. You can see the trailer here, and the first clip here.

A lot of people are heading back to school this week, and to mark the occasion Penguin have done a list of literary teacher and pupil mash-ups, which is here.

Penguin was inspired to do its list by Roald Dahl Day, which is on September 13. You can find out more here about a live webcast hosted by Michael Rosen to celebrate the occasion.

If you're looking for a literary inspired/pop culture gift for someone, then there's an artist on Etsy, Karen Hallion, who has done some gorgeous notecards where she puts the TARDIS from Doctor Who into various fairytale scenarios. Here's the Snow White one, and you can see the full collection here.

Who best to give advice on how to write than a group of professional writers? Instead of asking writers to give a lecture, Wolford College asked a bunch of authors to write their advice on their hands. I adore this, and you can see all the images here.

The February 2014 Quick Reads list has been announced, and you can find it here. Quick Reads is a project to reach adults who don't usually read by introducing them to short, sharp fiction.

And finally, this Vine shows how anitcipated Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam has been. It made me laugh. Don't worry, no one was hurt in the making of the video.

What have you found this week? Let me know in the comments.

The Sunday Post (#21) and Showcase Sunday (#7)

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer, and Showcase Sunday is hosted by Books, Biscuits and Tea and inspired by Pop Culture Junkie and the Story Siren. They're a chance to share news, a post to recap the past week on your blog, highlight our newest books and see what everyone else received for review, borrowed from libraries, or bought.

Book stuff this week on Girl!Reporter
Top 10 Tuesday (#13) - most memorable secondary characters
Review - The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence
My week in books (#7) - a magnificent library, funniest fictional families, summer reading and Seamus Heaney

Books I added to my shelves

From the library I picked up Elmore Leonard's Djibouti, which looks fascinating. And from Books, Biscuits and Tea I won Talking to the Dead by Harry Bingham, which has a cool double cover (thanks Vicky!).

What have you been up to this week? 

My week in books (#7)

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.

If you were 16 again and ordered by teachers to read this summer, what titles would you be unlocking on your Kindle or Nook? That's the question being answered here in an AARP post about reading lists for 2013. Let me know what you read/are reading at school in the comments.

You can't choose your own family, but you can definitely choose the fictional ones you hang out with. Here, author Jeremy Strong picks his top 10 funniest fictional families (yes to Matilda's weird family and to the Funnybones!).

You might have heard about the new Library of Birmingham. Rather than cutting back on library services, the city has invested millions in a huge building to house books and computers and DVDs and all sorts of other things. It opens on September 3, but you can take a peek here now.

Lisa Tuttle writes in The Guardian here about her favourite fantasy novels for 'people who don't like dragons or sexy vampires'! 

Vicky over at Books, Biscuits and Tea posted a review here of a cute Kindle cover that looks like the cover of a Jane Auten novel.

And finally, this week we lost another literary great - Seamus Heaney. His publishers, Faber, released a statement here, and they also published Digging, the opening poem from the first collection they published of his, Death of a Naturalist, here. Among my favourite lines by Heaney are the following, from The Cure at Troy (Heaney's version of Sophocles' Philoctetes), which seem a fitting way to end:

Human beings suffer,
they torture one another,
they get hurt and get hard.

My week in books (#6)

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.

It's a bank holiday weekend here in England, and for once the weather's going to be good apparently. At the moment, it's a bit grey and drizzly (although not cold), which is great reading weather, so I'll be immersing myself in some good books this weekend. What's your preferred reading weather?

If you want to test yourself a bit over the next few days, Buzzfeed has a quiz here on opening lines from books. Some are very obvious, others not so much. Let me know how you get on.

I'm a massive advocate for getting children reading as early as possible, since I read lots as a child and firmly believe it helped me academically, as well as just expanded my world and gave me an escape. Schoolrun.com has a piece here on how to get children to read.

For those who love Roald Dahl, TruffleShuffleBlog has teamed up with the Roald Dahl Literary Estate for a fantastic competition here. You've only got until August 28 to enter, so get going!

A couple of things to help you get inside the minds of authors:

• I meant to link to this ages ago, but New York Magazine did a good piece on Samantha Shannon a while back, which you can find here.
• There's a great interview on Goodreads here with Matthew Quick, who answers questions from members of the site.
• MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood is released soon. To tide you over until it's out you can buy a t-shirt here, or watch this video interview with Atwood.
  

Kirsty Gunn at The Guardian has done a piece here about ultra long books coming back, and what that says about us as readers.

And finally, an amusing little amusing gossip piece here from Axegrinder about Harper Collins future office move.

Have you found anything interesting you want to share? Let me know in the comments.

My week in books (#5)

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.

First up, I posted last week about getting Chris Colfer's The Land of Stories: The Enchantress Returns (which I reviewed here) and there was lots of love for the gorgeous cover and the spine. Well, the guy who illustrated the cover, and did the drawings inside, was the wonderful Brandon Dorman. You can see more of his lovely illustrations on his official website here.

Some lists (because you know I love lists):

• Buzzfeed did 15 books banned for the most absurd reasons. There's some unexpected ones in there, and my jaw dropped at the reasons giving for banning these novels at various times. 
• Also on Buzzfeed, a contributed post by Harper Collins on 16 bookstores you have to see before you die. My goodness, some of these book shops are amazing. If you know of any that aren't in the list, let me know in the comments.
• Talking of bookshops, The Guardian has an interactive directory here of independent book shops across Britain, and you can add any that are missing. 
• The Guardian is also liveblogging from the Edingburgh international book festival, so if you can't get there yourself you can keep up with what's going on here.
• Ginger over at GReads! did a list of sweet summertime back to school reads which you can find here. 

It can be difficult to buy presents for book loving friends, since they may already own too many (is there such a thing?) books, but I saw something else that is perfect for bookworms. The Literary Gift Company is selling this gorgeous literary map of Britain, which is just stunning.

Pan Macmillan this week featured a piece by one of their authors, David Jackson, on the ups and downs of being a crime writer. It's amusing and honest, and you can find it here.

I'm currently reading All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill and can already tell I'm going to have a book hangover after I've finished, a concept that's defined in lovely fashion here.

And finally, although not strictly a book thing but it does involve characters from literature as well as other mediums, Sophia McDougall wrote a great piece for the New Statesman here about why she hates Strong Female Characters. It's not what you think, note the caps.

Let me know if you've come across anything you want to share.

My week in books (#4)

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.

There's not long to go until Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas is released (you can read my review here). In the meantime, Maas has written a couple of novellas which are being exclusively published by bloggers. First up is The Assassin and The Princess, set between Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, and 12. The second one, The Assassin and The Captain, starts here.

You have no idea how much I love a good infographic, and this week Ruby over at Feed Me Books Now combined my love of infographics and books by creating an amazing infographic about dystopian novels. (Could I have used the word infographic more in the previous sentence?) Here's the original post, and here's the large version of the infographic, which you can zoom in on. Go look, and leave her some praise in the comments.

This week I discovered that the estate of Roald Dahl has a Twitter account - @roald_dahl. They publish lots of cool quotes and tidbits from the novels, as well as news and information, and plenty of illustrations by the amazing Quentin Blake.

Also on Twitter is @BooksOnTheBBC, a campaign to get a regular book programme/slot on to one of the BBC's television channels.

Daniel D'Addario wrote a piece in Salon this week (here) about what makes a novel literary as opposed to chick-lit. It's an interesting read.

The Independent on Sunday announced this week that it will launch a new arts and books section on September 8, concentrating on features, interviews, essays, previews and comment rather than reviews. In a time when many publications are cutting back on arts and books coverage, it's good to see a newspaper trying to do something different rather than just shutting something down.

And finally, some pretty pictures. I popped in to Waterstone's the other day, and spotted some gorgeous Harry Potter covers I'd not seen before (they didn't have all the books)...

Have you spotted anything this week you want to share? Let me know in the comments below.

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:

• Marie Claire did 15 classic books you have to read at least once, which you can find here.
• The Guardian looked here at six self-publishing surprises, and discovered some really unusual books.
• Buzzfeed had some fun here and came up with six perfect ice-cream flavours for book lovers. Let me know in the comments if you come up with any.
• I found lots of lists on Stylist, from 100 best opening lines from children's books, to 100 best closing lines from books, to the 50 most romantic lines in literature. They've got lots more, and you can create your own lists on the site as well.

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.

My week in books (#2)

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

This week the longlist for the Man Booker Prize 2013 was released, featuring both established authors and new kids on the block. Aside from anything else, it's given me a new list of books I want to read. The full list can be found here.

Radio 4's Saturday Review had a really interesting discussion this week about Tampa by Alissa Nutting. I've not read it, but it's attracted attention for its explicit descriptions (which start on page one) and documents the relationship between a female teacher and her 14-year-old male pupil. I was really intrigued by the discussion - at one point one of the reviewers said the book is so bad it would not have been published had the teacher in the novel been male and the pupil female, but publishers have been desperate for a Lolita-like novel with the male and female roles swapped for so long that it got the green light. You can listen here (the discussion about Tampa starts roughly 17 minutes in).

Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer posted a helpful list of 12 websites this week that are invaluable when blogging. You can find that here.

And finally, Bloomsbury, to promote Canada by Richard Ford, are asking people to share their favourite first lines from books. They've made a cute little video here, and you can share your favourite lines on Twitter @BloomsburyBooks using the hashtag #firstlines. I wouldn't know where to start with this, so would love to hear your favourite first lines in the comments below.

Have you discovered anything new this week when it comes to books? Share in the comments.

My week in books (#1)

My week in books is going to be a new semi-regular feature where I share things I've found interesting from the past week that concern books, literature and all things book blogging.

First up, I don't know about anyone else, but I'm really excited about the new Veronica Mars film (sneak peek here). If that wasn't exciting enough, it turns out there are going to be two new Veronica Mars books to tie in with the film. You can find out more here.

For those of you seeking some inspiration for what to read this summer, The Guardian and The Observer released a list of best holiday reads 2013 this week, which you can find here. A series of well-known novelists and writers give their suggestions, recommending everything from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to Mike Power's Drugs 2.0, which according to columnist Owen Jones is "a clever and witty take on how drug deals have gone from shady alleyways to the click of a mouse".

I'm attempting to read more non-fiction this year and not doing too well, so this piece from MindShift about getting children interested in non-fiction was fascinating, and really resonated.

And finally, we're all busy people, so this post from The Selkie Reads Stories about Android and iOS apps for book bloggers was very, very useful.

Have you discovered anything new this week when it comes to books? Share in the comments