Category Archives: On Reading

Contest! Win a Free Book!

On Reading 10 Comments

I’m excited to announce that I’m giving away a copy of Jeffrey Overstreet’s Auralia’s Colors, a book I enjoyed tremendously. If you would like a chance to win, send me an email (superfastreader -at- gmail -dot- com) or use the contact form below. Please put AURALIA in the subject line. I’ll be accepting entries until October 4th at midnight EST (that’s GMT -4), and I’m welcoming entries from anywhere in the world. The winner will be announced on Friday, October 5th with an even more…

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Books In Movies

On Reading 9 Comments

No, not books TO movies, books IN movies, used as props or set dressing. Whenever I see a character reading, I want to know what they’re reading. All too often you can’t tell, but when you can, it’s usually informative. The AMC series “Mad Men” has had some fun book cameos. Set in the 1960s New York City advertising world, the show consciously references books and films of the time. I noticed in the first episode that the main office set appeared to be an…

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Some Changes Under the Hood

On Reading 6 Comments

I upgraded to WordPress 2.3 this morning, and after a few hours of hacking I think I managed to get everything up and running smoothly. If you’re interested: You’ll now find tags at the bottom of each post, instead of at the top. I am still using Categories as a section in the sidebar. I use these for Genre, Century, and Author’s Nationality. The tags have individual authors, titles for trilogies and series, and some quirky, intuitively created classifications that could be fun to browse.…

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Eaten by the Monster of Mooch

On Reading 24 Comments

Thanks largely to BookMooch, I have accumulated quite a massive TBR stack, which I thought I’d share with you in honor of the book I read for work today, which was a good story but just made me want to reread Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. But no re-reading for Superfast anytime soon… If you’ve read any of these books, please tell me if it was love or hate! I really need help figuring out what to read next. The List:

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Reeling and Writhing

On Reading 3 Comments

Two work reads in one post–one a horror manuscript that managed to be plotless and scary at the same time, the other a YA adventure manuscript. So I’m copying off of Dewey and posting the same two memes in one post. A meme about reading: My Reading: Like Dewey (and probably many of you), I read every single day of my life. I even brought books on my honeymoon. Total Number of Books Owned: Librarything tells me I have 708 books. This does not count…

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Random Advice on Random Topics

On Reading 11 Comments

I participated in the recent Daily Blog Tips writing project, contributing a post on Crafting Effective Criticism, in the hopes of winning a prize. All of the participants are posting their favorite posts, and the posts with the most mentions are eligible to win. So, here are my five favorite posts from the contest. None of them have anything to do with reading, but there’s more to life than books, right? (Oh, who am I kidding…?) Top 7 Tips for Brand New WordPress Blogs –…

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Sign Up for the Read-a-Thon

On Reading 2 Comments

SATURDAY OCTOBER 20TH, starting at 2pm GMT, hosted by Hidden Side of a Leaf. Here are the different ways to get involved: Sign up to spend 24 hours reading and blogging. Sign up as an official cheerleader and host a mini challenge for participants on your blog. Promote the Read-a-Thon on your blog. Save the date and follow along with all the readers. You can find all the details here. I will definitely be following along and commenting on the entrants’ blogs.

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Comfort Food (Booking Through Thursday)

On Reading 18 Comments

Be sure to visit the original post at Booking Through Thursday for links to all the other entries–they are really fun to read. Okay . . . picture this (really) worst-case scenario: It’s cold and raining, your boyfriend/girlfriend has just dumped you, you’ve just been fired, the pile of unpaid bills is sky-high, your beloved pet has recently died, and you think you’re coming down with a cold. All you want to do (other than hiding under the covers) is to curl up with a…

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5 Tips for Crafting Effective Criticism

On Reading 25 Comments

As you may be aware, I currently have a part-time job analyzing books and screenplays for a production company. I read the material, provide a detailed synopsis, and then offer my opinion as to whether the material has promise as a feature film. Last night’s work read was an especially challenging one, offering a strong premise but weak-to-infuriating execution, and as I had just given some notes to a writer friend of mine on how to improve her (already-wonderful) work, I got to thinking about…

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