Gah, I'm a bad blogger I haven't posted for about a week... Uni got the better of me for a while, but I'm swimming instead of sinking now. Let's talk about bookish podcasts!
In my last Babbling about Books post I talked about my love for audiobooks. I haven't been listening to any audiobooks for the last couple of weeks as I've been too anxious to properly enjoy them. I keep zoning out and making a mountain out of a molehole about somethings and whoops, what happened in the last chapter again??
So recently I've been listening to a couple of bookish podcasts in lieu of audiobooks, as they're shorter, are less daunting to me at the moment and are relatively new to me. Here's what I've been enjoying:
Fangirl Happy Hour is hosted by Ana from Book Smugglers and Renay from Lady Business. It's a biweekly podcast where they discuss the latest happenings in fandom, whether it be books, comics, movies, TV shows, songs etc. The conversation between the hosts is thoughtful and their banter is hilarious! There's only four episodes so far - not hard at all to catch up on.
Rocket Talk is a podcast by Tor.com which is hosted by Justin Landon. Each week Justin interviews one or two guests (such as authors and bloggers) about their involvement in the science fiction/fantasy community. I've found out about a lot of intriguing books via this podcast that are up near the top of my TBR. Every now and again a short story published by Tor is featured instead of an interview.
Do you listen to any bookish podcasts? I would love some recommendations!
Showing posts with label babbling about books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label babbling about books. Show all posts
Saturday, 14 March 2015
Saturday, 28 February 2015
Babbling about Books (3): Why I Adore Audiobooks (and you could too!)
I've mentioned briefly in a couple of posts before that last year I fell in love with audiobooks. Due to a busy, stressful final year of high school I'd fallen off the reading wagon, which sucked big time. Fortunately a teacher suggested that I try to listen to audiobooks and I've been hooked ever since!
Here are five reasons why I adore audiobooks:
1) They make my commute more enjoyable
Starting Monday I'll be busing to Uni for about 4 hours a week and walking to and from work about 3 hours. That's seven hours where I can't avoid the commute or get there any faster. Just as well I've found a way to enjoy it!
Listening to audiobooks during that time makes me feel productive and gives me some of my reading fix Especially in the mornings it wakes me up and forces me to start focusing for the day so I don't miss any important details. Most importantly to me, I feel that audiobooks make my daily commute pass faster.
2) I'm making (minimal) progress on my TBR
Many readers like myself have a ridiculous amount of books they want to read ASAP, but sadly we can't read all the things at once. Audiobooks helps me chip away at my staggering TBR list on Goodreads, which I'm extremely grateful for. I'm a slowish reader and there's only so much reading my eyes can take before I get headaches for a week. Now I can wear my ears out too! ;)
3) I love being read to
I miss when my parents read stories to me when I was little. It was really soothing and comforting to hear. Now that I'm older I can listen to even more stories being read to me with (dare I say it) narrators who are more skilled at doing the different voices.
4) Audiobooks are available for free
As I'm a savvy student I love that audiobooks are avaliable for free from my local library in two formats: on CDs and on my personal device. I use the latter as I can download them onto my iPad mini via the app Borrowbox for two weeks and listen to them while I'm commuting. If your local library doesn't have eaudiobooks accessible on your personal device, sites such as Open Culture and LibriVox have a whole range of them for free.
5) I can listen to my favourite books in new formats
I often wonder whether I should go back and reread more books that I know I love instead of reading a bunch of new ones that I don't know I will love. Almost always the latter wins out as I could make a wonderful new discovery. Now with eaudiobooks I can do both at the same time!
At my local library I'm able to revisit The Mortal Instruments Series, The Keys to the Kingdom Series and The Chaos Walking Trilogy via eaudiobook. As I haven't read any of these from the start to the end for donkeys years I'm pretty excited to get onto that. I'm also curious how they'll sound with someone else narrating them to me instead of reading it in my head.
Have you ever tried audiobooks before? Why/why not?
Here are five reasons why I adore audiobooks:
1) They make my commute more enjoyable
Starting Monday I'll be busing to Uni for about 4 hours a week and walking to and from work about 3 hours. That's seven hours where I can't avoid the commute or get there any faster. Just as well I've found a way to enjoy it!
Listening to audiobooks during that time makes me feel productive and gives me some of my reading fix Especially in the mornings it wakes me up and forces me to start focusing for the day so I don't miss any important details. Most importantly to me, I feel that audiobooks make my daily commute pass faster.
2) I'm making (minimal) progress on my TBR
Many readers like myself have a ridiculous amount of books they want to read ASAP, but sadly we can't read all the things at once. Audiobooks helps me chip away at my staggering TBR list on Goodreads, which I'm extremely grateful for. I'm a slowish reader and there's only so much reading my eyes can take before I get headaches for a week. Now I can wear my ears out too! ;)
3) I love being read to
I miss when my parents read stories to me when I was little. It was really soothing and comforting to hear. Now that I'm older I can listen to even more stories being read to me with (dare I say it) narrators who are more skilled at doing the different voices.
4) Audiobooks are available for free
As I'm a savvy student I love that audiobooks are avaliable for free from my local library in two formats: on CDs and on my personal device. I use the latter as I can download them onto my iPad mini via the app Borrowbox for two weeks and listen to them while I'm commuting. If your local library doesn't have eaudiobooks accessible on your personal device, sites such as Open Culture and LibriVox have a whole range of them for free.
5) I can listen to my favourite books in new formats
I often wonder whether I should go back and reread more books that I know I love instead of reading a bunch of new ones that I don't know I will love. Almost always the latter wins out as I could make a wonderful new discovery. Now with eaudiobooks I can do both at the same time!
At my local library I'm able to revisit The Mortal Instruments Series, The Keys to the Kingdom Series and The Chaos Walking Trilogy via eaudiobook. As I haven't read any of these from the start to the end for donkeys years I'm pretty excited to get onto that. I'm also curious how they'll sound with someone else narrating them to me instead of reading it in my head.
Have you ever tried audiobooks before? Why/why not?
Saturday, 21 February 2015
Babbling about Books (2): Why don't I read more short stories?
I'm going to start University in less than two weeks and let me tell you: I am TERRIFIED. Not just about up with the coursework and making friends. Those aren't the only issues here. How on Earth am I going to fit in my reading time!?! Of course, I'll be doing a lot of reading my papers, but I also like to appreciate books solely for enjoyment's sake.
In retrospect the idea of reading more short stories seems amazingly obvious. After all, they're quicker to read, are a good way to sample authors' writing styles and I could easily access them from places such as in anthologies at the library or published in online magazines.
I can't remember the last time I read a short story. Maybe one written by Neil Gaiman in Fragile Things a few years back?? Which is rather apt as it was a friend pointing out a passage in his latest short story collection Trigger Warning that inspired this post:
"This is my third collection of short fiction and I know just how lucky I am... The wisdom in publishing is that short story collections don't sell. All too often short story collections are viewed as vanity projects or are published by small presses, are not seen as real in the way that novels are real."
I confess, I've never paid for a short story, a short story collection or a short story anthology. Being a savvy student I tend to utilise the library and if I want something that's not there put it on my birthday/Christmas list for my relatives which I may or may not get. The latter has always been novels as there's ALWAYS a trilogy/series for me to catch up on/finish off and debut authors to check out... It's a rather relentless cycle which I need to sort out.
Also, I've never heard anyone in real life get hyped about short stories. For me, books on my never ending TBR pile go up to the top when I hear people gush about them. Internet, I adore the book community, do not get me wrong! I love reading book blogs, watching Book-tubers, interacting with fellow book lovers in the comments etc. I also think it's beautiful experiencing peoples' thoughts and reactions to what they've read first hand.
To go back to the benefits of short stories, Gaiman mentions one I had forgotten about:
"For me, the short stories are the places I get to fly, to experiment, to play. I get to make mistakes and to go on small adventures."
When I get the courage to write creatively, I challenge myself to craft short stories for the same reasons as Gaiman. (Well, that and I have no idea how to write a book...) I don't mind rereading my work when I edit them as it's pure fun. 'Nothing's going to come of it, no one's going to ever read it,' I tell myself. 'It's just a short story!'
But see, that's where I'm wrong. Short stories and short story collections and short story anthologies are still around. In fact, Tor.com is launching a novella imprint. Fanzines are reinventing themselves as semiprozines to give this story form new avenues.
So short story writers and readers, keep letting me know you're out there.
I'm coming to join you!
In retrospect the idea of reading more short stories seems amazingly obvious. After all, they're quicker to read, are a good way to sample authors' writing styles and I could easily access them from places such as in anthologies at the library or published in online magazines.
I can't remember the last time I read a short story. Maybe one written by Neil Gaiman in Fragile Things a few years back?? Which is rather apt as it was a friend pointing out a passage in his latest short story collection Trigger Warning that inspired this post:
"This is my third collection of short fiction and I know just how lucky I am... The wisdom in publishing is that short story collections don't sell. All too often short story collections are viewed as vanity projects or are published by small presses, are not seen as real in the way that novels are real."
I confess, I've never paid for a short story, a short story collection or a short story anthology. Being a savvy student I tend to utilise the library and if I want something that's not there put it on my birthday/Christmas list for my relatives which I may or may not get. The latter has always been novels as there's ALWAYS a trilogy/series for me to catch up on/finish off and debut authors to check out... It's a rather relentless cycle which I need to sort out.
Also, I've never heard anyone in real life get hyped about short stories. For me, books on my never ending TBR pile go up to the top when I hear people gush about them. Internet, I adore the book community, do not get me wrong! I love reading book blogs, watching Book-tubers, interacting with fellow book lovers in the comments etc. I also think it's beautiful experiencing peoples' thoughts and reactions to what they've read first hand.
To go back to the benefits of short stories, Gaiman mentions one I had forgotten about:
"For me, the short stories are the places I get to fly, to experiment, to play. I get to make mistakes and to go on small adventures."
When I get the courage to write creatively, I challenge myself to craft short stories for the same reasons as Gaiman. (Well, that and I have no idea how to write a book...) I don't mind rereading my work when I edit them as it's pure fun. 'Nothing's going to come of it, no one's going to ever read it,' I tell myself. 'It's just a short story!'
But see, that's where I'm wrong. Short stories and short story collections and short story anthologies are still around. In fact, Tor.com is launching a novella imprint. Fanzines are reinventing themselves as semiprozines to give this story form new avenues.
So short story writers and readers, keep letting me know you're out there.
I'm coming to join you!
Sunday, 8 February 2015
Babbling about Books: I fear Big Books and I cannot lie
That's right: I'm an avid booklover/total bookworm who shies away from the chunkier reads.
It's not that I don't like longer stories - some of my favourite books of all time including A Song of Ice and Fire Series and The Inheritance Cycle are massive! There's more room to delve deeper into the characters and world building. You get to spend more time with aspects of the book you love. If you buy them you might get more value for your money than buying a smaller book for the same price. And it looks awfully impressive to people when you show them what you're reading! ;)
But personally I tend to see more downsides to big books. I read quite slowly and am often strapped for time, so I get really discouraged by my lack of progress. There's always piles of books clamouring for my attention. Should I really be devoting so much time to one big book when I could read three in the same amount of time? Often big books come in a series, each bigger than the last. All of this can seem terribly daunting to me.
However, right now I'm reading Fall of Giants by Ken Follett, which is a whopping 864 pages. The concept of World War One being told by five families of different nationalities sounded too good for me to resist. I started two weeks ago and am about a third of the way through it. So far I'm enjoying it too much to get negative about its size.
So in the hope that after reading Fall of Giants I might start embracing big books more, here are five massive ones I've been dying to read.
First in the Warbreaker Series
688 pages
Sanderson has such an array of Adult Fantasy books and after listening to The Rithmatist, I"m eager to read his backlist. The premise of Princesses and Gods in a world where magic is obtained from common place objects sounds promising.
The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons
First in The Bronze Horseman Trilogy
656 pages
Russian history fascinates me. Although I know a lot about the country's 1905 and 1917 revolutions, I know next to nothing about what happened there in World War Two. Plus I always have a soft spot for star crossed lovers.
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
First in The Kingkiller Chronicle
676 pages
I raved on about wanting to read this book for so long that Mum brought it and read it herself! She's read the first two books back to back so I know they're good.
First in The Outlander Series
850 pages
I admit it was the trailer of the TV series that drew my attention to this. I mean, time travel and the Scottish - what's not to like?? I've been putting off watching the TV seriese until I read this - motivation!
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
848 pages
Standalone
I think this is the big book on this list I'm most ashamed of not having read. A Manbooker prize winner from my own country! I need to read it ASAP.
Do you like big books? Why/why not?
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