Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Hi everyone!

Actually getting a check in done in a timely fashion!

Still wrestling with house stuff, hopefully it'll wrap up soon!

I've spent most the week finishing Fall, or Dodge in Hell - ATY book for something new. It's Neal Stephanson's newest, and i bought it new. It was pretty good, but not my favorite of his books. I think there were a lot of good ideas, but it didn't really become something cohesive for me, and I feel like a lot of stuff didn't really get explained adequately, in spite of it being 800+ pages.

I also knocked out The Trouble With Vampires because I needed a break. It was just some vampire smut, fairly average.

QOTW:

I'll borrow from popsugar this week: Do you buy/read books based on the cover ever? Avoid books with ugly covers?

I find that I'm more likely to pick up a book if either the cover catches my eye, or if the title's interesting. But I won't actually read it if the description isn't at least somewhat interesting. Same sorta goes for ugly titles. I probably won't just grab an ugly book, unless it's so eye searing I have to see what's going on. But if a bunch of people say I should read something, or I need a book to fill a challenge or whatever, the fact that the title's ugly wont' deter me.

This week on my couch: less reading in the evenings and more vacation planning for our Florida trip in December. Why does Disney make things so stinking complicated???

Finished up Terminal Alliance. After so many of you recommend this one, I was super bummed that I didn't really love it. I enjoyed the plot once the author got things moving, but as a whole it just never clicked with me- the characters were just too shallow for me to emotionally invest in them, and the naming scheme continued to be incredibly distracting. Hines definitely gets points for having a terrific story concept, though!

Am mostly finished with Salt: A World History, I love a good juicy micro-history, and this has been far more fun and interesting than 400 pages on the social and economic history of salt has a right to be. So much of how international history unfolded was evidently tied in some way to the control of salt (who knew????), and Kurlanski has a light, readable, and often wryly humored way of making it all come alive. I definitely plan to look into some of his other writings.

QOTW-
I make most of my ultimate reading choices based on description, since so many recommendations come via word-of-mouth or from you guys, and not from browsing shelves at a shop or library. However an attractive book cover, especially in "my" colors will definitely get my attention and encourage me to check out the description. In the same way, an ugly cover or bad typography will make me less likely to further investigate it. Beyond just the cover itself, a book that's physically beautiful in its construction will definitely get a second look from me, and make me more likely to purchase I book that I've already read and enjoyed, and even one that I already own.

As a whole, people tend to not want to seem shallow by admitting to judging a book by its cover, but ultimately there's a very real reason that it's such a critical and influential part of the publishing industry.

This week was pretty slow for me.

I finished Wicked Saints. I rated it a 3, but it was more somewhere between a 3 and a 3.5. I liked it well enough and I'm interested to read the next.

I finally finished the great Fruits Basket manga read with Fruits Basket Collector's Edition Vol. 11 and Fruits Basket Collector's Edition Vol. 12. I had read most of the series before, but never finished it, so now I can watch the anime reboot safely. :)

Right now, I'm reading Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray, which is book 3 in a sci-fi YA romance/adventure. I really like this series so far.

QOTW: I rarely just browse the shelves at either physical bookstores or libraries anymore, because I read so many ebooks now from the library. I get so many recommendations from FoE, favorite authors, book bloggers, and Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ that covers are definitely less important to me now.

Mostly the only place I see the covers is on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ or in the Overdrive/library app. If the description/back cover text doesn't grab me, I probably won't read it, but a good cover (and maybe more so a good title), even here on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ, is enough to pique my interest and get me to take a closer look.

I haven't checked in since... *checks back* my birthday O_o

I've gotten a fair share of reading since then:

A Dance with Dragons and The Art of Asking; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help, which filled my last two prompts for the Golden Trio reading challenge. 52/52.

I'm not as intent on finishing other reading challenges, although I have been tracking a few, so I've been picking up books from my TBR list much more randomly.

As a result, other than Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, it appears that plodding through the last of the GoT novels has temporarily put me off fiction for a bit, since recent finishes include On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, How to Be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life, and Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly.

Not sure what the next read will be. I'm enjoying the freedom :)

QOTW: I don't know that covers have the ability to attract me, but they certainly have the power to dissuade me from picking up a book, usually through low quality or cliché/overdone presentation. I love to browse in bookstores, but I get most things from the library, whatever the format.