Category: Uncategorized
Discussion: The Most Underrated Book (For You)
Last week we talked about books that get way too much attention in the mainstream media as well as the blogosphere. So this week I want to talk about books that you think don’t get nearly enough hype/attention!
For me personally, I think Graceling by Kristin Cashore is the most underrated book I’ve read in recent years that has been traditionally published. You hear people praising Cassandra Clare’s work to the heavens and the Twilight series gets so much attention, but you never hear about a book in a series that is actually incredibly well written. In Graceling, I see everything that I love about fantasy: an organic relationship, a kick-butt heroine, fantastic worlds and insanely fast plots.
Come to think of it, another fantasy like that would be Crewel by Gennifer Albin. It’s not famous because the world-building is pretty complex and the twist behind the dystopia is so not what you’d expect. And Adelice, the main character is amazing compared to most YA dystopian characters: she knows how to (gasp!) hide her emotions and cloak her actions. I know, it’s incredible! A protagonist that can act is such a novelty that I don’t stop recommending this book, even though I read it almost a year ago.
So which books for you personally are the most underrated? Why?
Discussion: The Most Overhyped Book (For You)
I’ll admit that sometimes I get caught up in the publisher’s hype of new releases and immediately buy or request them. Or, I’m browsing through some of the blogs I read on a regular basis and I notice that everyone is giving five stars to this one new book. Either way, I do end up getting swept up into the hype of a book on occasion.
For me personally, most of the time I find that an overhyped book is good, but that it’s not the greatest novel ever written like some people say it is. It’s very rare that a book lives up to its hype. Perhaps I’m just overly critical, though. There are certainly hyped books that were worth the hype for me, like Graceling or Mira Grant’s Feed.
By contrast, there are books like If I Stay by Gayle Forman (which I read before the movie came out). That’s probably one of the most overhyped, overrated books I’ve ever read, not counting some ridiculous ‘classics’ like The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory was certainly disappointing as well. It was supposed to be an entirely new take on a rather forgotten woman, Mary Boleyn, but it just ended up being the TMZ of the Tudor period. Gregory took the most scandalous accusations of the time and didn’t bother researching much to slap together a novel purely designed for shock value instead of realism.
Those were some of the most overhyped books I’ve ever read. What are some of yours? Were there any books that have absolutely lived up to the ridiculous hype for you?
Discussion: Your Experience with ARCs
(I won’t be here most of the day but I will reply to discussion comments later this evening.)
ARCs are simply advanced reading copies of novels from publishers or authors. They’re actually pretty simple when you think about it but they seem to cause a lot of controversy and drama in the book blogging world. One blogger gets a coveted ARC, another doesn’t, you know how it goes. But I don’t want to talk about drama today. I’m going to be facing middle school girl drama most of the day already (I’m refereeing a volleyball tournament).
What I want to talk about is your personal experience with ARCs as a blogger. Do you ever get physical ARCs in the mail? Or are you all digital now? Which is your preference? And of the ARCs you’ve received, which is/are your favourite(s)?
My personal favourite is one I just got, The Tiger Queens by Stephanie Thornton. I had reviewed and loved her Daughter of the Gods so when the tour for her latest book came out I immediately jumped on it. To my surprise, I got a personalized, signed ARC in the mail with the coolest note in a little scroll. Stuff like that really shows an author cares about their readers, you know? And I really do appreciate that.
If you’re an author, what has your experience been with sending out ARCs? Did they get a good reception? Was it worth it from a publicity point of view? And, finally, would you do it again?
“Yes I Can Do” and Other Weird Search Terms
Hooray, it’s time for another weird search term round-up! I don’t have any really freaky ones this time around, but some of them are just way out there:
yes i can do
dj mainwolf
mad track chellenge
justice road
not every important lesson in life can be learned from books
cleopatra was a sociopath
game of thrones hot girls
game of throne characters nude and dressed
sightless skew
And, the crowning glory:
astrophysicists who are familiar with asteroids who have died
I don’t recall ever talking about astrophysicists or really much about asteroids, let alone about dead astrophysicists who studied asteroids. That search term was almost as puzzling as ‘sightless skew’, which I have no clue about. The weirdest one by far was “yes i can do”. Why would you search that phrase? And, more importantly, why did it land that person on my blog? Ah, the great mysteries of life.
So what do you guys think of these search terms? Can you explain some of the weirder ones? And have you personally received any weird search terms lately?
The Best and Worst of August 2014
This month was very bad posting-wise but now that the summer rush is done at work I think you guys can reasonably expect me to go back to my regular routine of daily posts. I just need to get back in the hang of things, starting today. As a consequence of my irregular posting, my stats were significantly lower than they were in July. I only received 5,308 views as opposed to 6,344 but I expect things to go back to normal this fall as everyone falls back into their routines (myself included).
Here are the top posts this August:
1. Why Girls Hate Game of Thrones—A Rebuttal
2. How to Read 100 Pages in an Hour
3. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
4. Discussion: Your School Reading Experiences
5. The Mad Reviewer 1,000 Follower Giveaway
None of these are all that surprising, really. They’re either previously popular posts that have maintained their popularity for months (or sometimes years!) or they’re posts that naturally would attract a lot of attention like reading in school or $50 giveaways. I’m definitely expecting my Hunger Games article to rise in popularity as kids start to do novel studies on the book this fall but I’m still predicting that Game of Thrones will reign supreme.
So what were my worst posts this month?
2. Living with Your Body and Other Things You Hate by Emily Sandoz and Troy DuFrene
4. The Fires of Merlin by T. A. Barron
5. The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer
As usual, my reaction to the worst list is ‘meh’ at best. None of these have featured before and they’re either outdated posts like the first one or books that aren’t necessarily bestsellers at this point in time. There will be a new line up of ‘worst’ posts next month so I’m not going to lose sleep over any of these particular ones appearing here.
So how was your August? Did anyone go anywhere interesting on holidays?