Category: Uncategorized
Discussion: Re-Reading Childhood Favourites
In the past few weeks I’ve re-read both Angeline and A Girl Named Disaster, both of which I read when I was quite young and absolutely loved. Of course books that you liked as a child aren’t usually as good as you remember them, but I was surprised that Angeline was still pretty darn good. A Girl Named Disaster was sort of a disappointment in that I have no idea how I finished it when I was eleven or twelve because it bored me to tears this time around.
So re-reading childhood favourites can be disappointing, but it can also be a great experience as you rediscover some of that childhood magic. What I want to know is this: Do you re-read some of your favourite books from when you were a kid? If so, how did you like them this time around? Or do you try to avoid re-reading childhood favourites because you have the feeling they’re not as good as they were the first time around?
Look What Just Arrived! (#17)
It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these posts and some of you will recognize that I’ve already reviewed Crystal Deception and In a Treacherous Court but I haven’t had much of a chance to get new books lately. Since this is a truly awful picture here are the titles from left to right:
- In a Treacherous Court by Michelle Diener
- Keeper of the King’s Secrets by Michelle Diener
- After the End by Amy Plum
- Crystal Deception by Doug J. Cooper
- Along the Watchtower by David Litwack
- The Lion and the Rose by Kate Quinn
- The Exiled Queen by Cinda WIlliams Chima
- Dreamless by Josephine Angelini
- Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers
- Mistress of Rome by Kate Quinn
All of the books you see on the top level were sent to me by both authors and publishers. After reading and loving In a Treacherous Court I can’t wait to start on the second book, Keeper of the King’s Secrets. It promises to be exciting now that John and Susanna are married! After the End was sent to me by HarperCollins Canada after I requested it and I’ve actually read it already even though my review won’t be posted until April 30th. Of course I’ve already read and reviewed Crystal Deception but Along the Watchtower just arrived today! Since I did enjoy David Litwack’s previous work I’m very excited to see how he’s improved.
All of the books on the second layer are ones I ordered online from The Book Depository. The Lion and the Rose is the second book in Kate Quinn’s Borgia Chronicles and I can’t wait to see how Giulia’s story turns out. The Exiled Queen has me excited too because of the huge cliffhanger at the end of The Demon King. Dreamless was sort of disappointing because I really, really, really hate the cover of this edition. I much prefer the North American cover, but the story is the same and I can’t wait to start it. The only book out of a new series I ordered was the last one, Mistress of Rome by Kate Quinn. I love her Borgia Chronicles so I figured I’d see how she is at writing about ancient Rome. It should be exciting.
So what are you guys reading lately? See anything here that you like?
Discussion: ARCs
For those of you who aren’t hip to the book community lingo, ARC stands for advanced reading copy. Basically, before books are published authors send out a certain number of copies to reviewers to generate hype for when the actual release date is. Bloggers seem to love them, publishers like giving them out to a certain extent and most self-published authors are eager to send them. But not everyone seems to like them.
From a blogger’s perspective I do like ARCs. It’s nice to get physical copies in the mail because, hey, free books. It’s also nice to get ebook ARCs from my favourite self-published authors because it’s very hard to wait until the actual release date for a book you’re excited for. Some bloggers say they feel pressure to get and review ARCs but personally I’ve never really felt that pressure. Maybe I just have too much of a “I don’t care what most people think” attitude.
What I want to know now is: If you’re an author, would you say there are substantial benefits to sending out ARCs to bloggers? What are some of the benefits? As a book blogger, do you feel pressure to seek out and review ARCs? Do you like the idea of ARCs in general?
The Best and Worst of March 2014
It’s been one heck of a month here at The Mad Reviewer. For 30 days straight I’ve had over 200 views per day, a personal record. Which also means that I beat my previous page views per month record of 8,228 in January 2014! The final tally is 8,941 views in all of March, which shatters the previous record. Far more important to me are the 58 new followers I gained during this traffic surge. That brings the total number of followers of this blog to 788, meaning that if my traffic stays high I’ll be having a very special 1,000 follower giveaway soon!
When I looked at the 5 best posts this month I had to laugh. Before I explain, here they are:
1. Why Girls Hate Game of Thrones—A Rebuttal
2. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
3. How to Read 100 Pages in an Hour
4. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
5. Some Thoughts About Book Blogging & Statistics
I honestly had to laugh at the Game of Thrones rant article being number one because it was number one by such a large margin. Of the 8,876 views I received this month 2,962 views were from that article alone. That’s insane and hilarious! I guess it might have something to do with the fact Game of Thrones Season 4 premieres on April 6 (yay!). The other ones are pretty easy to guess why they’re #1. They’re all popular books, articles kids use for school or semi-controversial ones that garnered lots of comments.
Okay, so which articles were the worst during this record-breaking month?
1. Emperor: The Death of Kings by Conn Iggulden
2. Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey
3. Desired by Shadow by Cynthia Luhrs
4. Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception by Eoin Colfer
5. Lost in Shadow by Cynthia Luhrs
As usual I’m not too concerned about these reviews being the lowest ranked in terms of hits. They’re all either older books or books that aren’t exactly the most popular, even if they were excellent. Next month we’ll see different books on the bottom 5 and life will go on. It’s just interesting to see how the ‘worst’ posts rotate every month.
April Kindle Fire Giveaway
Didn’t win last month’s Kindle Fire giveaway? Neither did I! So below is your chance to try again for April. And, as always, have fun!
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Enter to win 1 of 2 great prizes. Winner’s choice of a Kindle Fire HDX or $229 Amazon Gift Card or $229 Paypal Cash!
The first prize is available via the rafflecopter below. The 2nd is available only to bloggers who post about this giveaway. You can find info on how to enter the 2nd giveaway in the rafflecopter.
Win a Kindle Fire HDX, Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash ($229 value)
The winner will have the option of receiving a 7″ Kindle Fire HDX (US Only – $229 Value) Continue reading