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Tag: book talk

When and Why I Read Romance

I think I’ve blogged before about friends who grabbed and shook when I said, somewhat ignorantly, that I didn’t read romance. I’m happy to report that I have good friends. I was corrected, firmly and often, until I saw the error of my ways. Now I don’t regularly read romance, because it’s not what I regularly want. But when it is what I want? Absolutely. Delighted to take recommendations. Gimme those good books. What I didn’t get back then, and I what I do get now, is that sometimes we just need to know that it’s all going to be okay. For me, at least, if I can’t get that in the real world (don’t look around if you haven’t lately. Trust me.) then I need it in my distractions. So, romance. Or stuff I’ve read before, but I’ve been doing a lot of rereading. So. Romance. Last week (or the week before, honestly it’s hard to keep track) I read my way through the Brothers Sinister by Courtney Milan. Also in that read-a-thon somewhere were the Langham Line books by Amanda Pahorst. Romance is not, though, my favorite genre. There’s tons of good fantasy and SF I haven’t read! So I’ve been wanting to venture out of the safe haven of romance. I still want my happy endings! I just wanted…more of what I like. I was thinking of picking up the Murderbot series. Or finishing, at long last, Temeraire. Or the Wheel of Time! –okay, not the Wheel…

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I Would Like to Be Neil Gaiman

My significant other recently brought me home a copy of Neil Gaiman’s The View from the Cheap Seats from the library, which is a collection of speeches he’s given or essays he’s written on various topics, because he was listening to the audiobook version and thought I would like it. This book is massive. I am not getting through it terribly fast. But what’s currently hitting me is that not only is Neil Gaiman asked to talk to people on a fairly regular basis, he can seemingly do so while being profound and not suffering from a nervous breakdown or imposter syndrome or crippling self doubt. That sounds very lovely. Of course, maybe once one has several decades of successful career behind them, it gets easier. Who knows? Not me. I’m participating in my library’s local author showcase on Sunday (for City of Hope and Ruin) and 5 minutes in which to present myself and the book, and I’m a nervous wreck. 5 minutes! In front of probably not that many people, because I did one for Shards and, like, 10 people came. It’s not the end of the world if it goes badly. But still… It doesn’t help that my notes from Shards (which I was going to copy the formatting on) have disappeared into the nether.  Oh well. But a little confidence boost would be a huge help. Done talks? Have suggestions?  

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