Tuesday Thingers

First, a reminder to pop over to Pop Culture Junkie for today's Noontime Chat about Miles From Nowhere. It starts at noon in Alea's time zone, which I think might be in an hour and a half. You can also catch yesterday's chat on J Kaye's Book Blog. And now...

The question: Do you review every book you read? Do you just review Early Reviewers or ARCs? Do you review only if you like a book, or only if you feel like you have to? How soon after reading do you post your review? Do you post them other places- other social networking sites, Amazon, etc.?

The answers: No, I don't review every book I read. Sometimes a book is just okay. I could dig it apart and analyze why it was so-so instead of great, but I'm not sure who that benefits, if anyone, and I'd rather just move on to the next book. If it's a review copy, I'll make sure to mention it on my blog, but I won't write a full review.

I do review every book I read that I have something to say about. If I love the book, the review goes up within a couple of days--or even before I've finished reading! If I didn't love the book, it takes me longer to sort out why and put it into words that are honest but (hopefully) kind.

Normally I post the full review on my blog and then when I get around to it I'll transfer part of that review to LibraryThing. If I happen to be reminded of GoodReads around that time, I'll post it there, too.

As for Amazon: if I take the time to post a partial review there, it's a huge compliment to the author. Think of it as me acquiring 10 copies of the book on consignment and selling them out of the back of my car.

Book series

It's been a while since I've managed to do a Tuesday Thingers question, so let's give this one a try: Our hostess Marie, of Boston Bibliophile, asks, "Do you collect any series? Do you read series books? Fantasy? Mystery? Science fiction? Religious? Other genre? Do you use the series feature in LT to help you find new books or figure out what you might be missing from a series?"

I'm a big fan of series in kids' books, because once my kids and I find something all three of us enjoyed reading together, we love knowing that there are several more books where that came from. We plowed our way through the Harry Potter series, and have also enjoyed the first part of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series, all of Angie Sage's Septimus Heap books. It feels like ages ago that we were reading the Magic Treehouse books together, and there were several other series that we relied on back in those days. Oh, and I can't forget the Little House books--we read them all in a row.

For adult books, I'll let my track record speak for itself: I started the Outlander series at a friend's recommendation, enjoyed the first two books. Smack in the middle of book 3, I was done. I read a few Mitford books, liked them, but after 2-3 I was ready to move on to other things. And after I finished Twilight, I decided to pretend it was a stand-alone book.

Maybe I just haven't found the right series for me. How about you, do you have a favorite series?

I'm cheating. It's not really Tuesday.

Today's Question: Favorite Authors. Who do you have named in your LT account as favorite authors? Why did you choose them? How many people share your choices? Can you share a picture of one of them?

I didn't even realize you could pick favorite authors on LibraryThing! Upon adding a few to my profile I found that I'm the only LT member with Ron Carlson as a favorite. How can this be? Okay, the short story isn't everyone's favorite format, but he's an absolute master of them, and his recent novels are excellent. The man has the dubious honor of being the subject of Worducopia's very first post. It blows my mind that he's not more well known. So, here's his picture.

Other favorite authors include:

Michael Cunningham (shared by 30--only 30???--readers)
Christopher Moore (shared by 211 readers, two of whom also have Cunningham as a favorite)
Sara Zarr (I just finished her book Sweethearts, which raised her from great author to a favorite author--shared by only 3 readers but she's relative new and only has 2 books so that's oka)
Dick Francis (shared by 72 readers, one of whom also has Christopher Moore as a favorite. I'm not a big mystery fan but I've been reading his since I was 14 and discovered a dusty shelf of his books in an old farmhouse in Tuscany)

Now, go read some Ron Carlson. Unless you happen to be Ron Carlson, in which case: Get off the internet, professor. No you don't need another cup of coffee. Stay in the room, and write.

LibraryThing Authors

The question of the week from my Library Thing group is, Who are your LibraryThing authors? What books of theirs do you have? Do you ever comment on an author's LT page? Have you received any comments from an author on your LT account?

I had no idea.

Well, I knew Sara Zarr was on Library Thing. Though I've never communicated with her, I loved Story of a Girl and am looking forward to reading her newest book, Sweethearts, soon, in fact I think it's waiting for me at the library right now.

The other author listed on my LT profile, at first I didn't even recognize the name. I clicked on it, and didn't recognize the names of any of his books, either. So I did a search of my library, and sure enough, not only did I read one of his books, not only did I review one of his books, but I'm the only review of that book on LT. And, well...it's a 2 1/2 star review. Yeah, I panned the guy.

I try not to waste my time reading books that I know I'll hate, but every once in a while I'm fooled by the cover and the blurb on the back. If there were no internet, I would've taken the book back to the library and completely forgotten the experience. Instead, I took 10 minutes to write 170 words down to remind myself why I don't want to read this guy's books anymore. But I had no idea he was a LT member. Sorry, author!

Finding a good book

The question of the week: how do you find out about the books you want to read? (The full question is at Boston Bibliophile's blog). Answer as a comment or on your own blog and post a link here if you'd like.

My book choices generally go in the following order:

1) If a friend recommends a book? Top priority.

2) Read a book I love. Hooray! Zero in on that author until I read one I don't like. Then the honeymoon's over.

3) A topic sticks in my head. I hunt down novels on that topic, usually with my library's subscription to the NovelList database. For example, recently I decided I might want to write about a homeless teen, so I checked out every novel and memoir my library owned with that subject. There weren't that many. And, unfortunately most of them weren't great and got returned to the library half-read. (Which probably means I really need to write that book).

4) YA books, I just grab off the teen "new book" shelf on the library, and yes, I judge them by their covers. These go high on the list because they're usually quick reads so I stick them in between heavier or longer books.

5) Lists like the New Classics, I love stuff like that. (But it still goes back to #1--I want to know which of those books my friends have read and liked).

6) When a how-to-write author recommends something I usually seek it out and end up with either a really great or a really awful read.

7) I read the book section of my local Sunday paper.

8) I see mention of a book and look it up on Amazon, and whether or not that book resonates with me I often end up hopping from book to book through their "also-bought" links.

9) Occasionally I go to Librarything's recommendations, but the fact is it's very rare that I need to seek out book recommendations. Numbers one through eight tend to keep my bookshelves overflowing!

10) When a book comes in the mail waiting to be reviewed! I put this as #10 because it's never happened yet, but I got two emails this week saying books are coming! Those books will go to the top of my to-be-read list.

Book swapping

Question from The Boston Bibliophile: Do you do book swapping?

I do book swapping all the time: that is, I bring all the books I've finished back to the library and swap them for new ones!

I've never been a collector of books. I've probably bought fewer than 5 books so far this year. I love the freedom of checking any number of books out from the library, knowing that, love them or hate them or never get around to reading them, they wont be taking up shelf space for long. Every one of my "library" of books on Librarything is a library book. In fact, one of the things I love about Librarything is that it's a way to hold onto the books I've read after I've passed them along to the next library patron.