The Book Tower
debut novel coming soon

Variations on this meme have been doing the rounds, although I first saw it at Stainless Steel Droppings.

Science Fiction, Fantasy or Horror?

Anyone reading my recent posts will know that I’m currently juggling all three of them, but horror probably wins as my favourite.

Hardback or Trade Paperback or Mass Market Paperback?

Hardbacks when I can, trade paperbacks when I can’t. Hardbacks if I were a rich man.

Amazon or Brick and Mortar?

Amazon is always easiest, until you get home from work and you’ve had a missed delivery, or a parcel is soggy from being left in the rain. Trips to bookshops are more exciting, especially when you don’t quite know what you’re going to come away with.

Barnes & Noble or Borders?

Borders, and my daughter enjoys our weekly visit.

Bookmark or Dogear?

Bookmark. Show some respect! People who dogear are also the type of people who borrow books and never return them. They are also the people who tear the last chapter out of a really long book they are reading to take on holiday.

Alphabetize by author Alphabetize by title or random?

Sounds nerdy, but often by genre, or keeping new fiction in one place and classics in another.

Keep, Throw Away or Sell?

Keep forever. My wife is always threatening to clear out lots and lots of books. My solution is to buy an additional bookcase.

Keep dustjacket or toss it?

Keep forever.

Read with dustjacket or remove it?

Keep forever. If I’ve gone to the trouble of purchasing a hardback I will want the dustjacket to go with it. Removed dustjackets remind me of when I worked in a library and always wondered where they’d go…

Short story or novel?

Novel I guess, although I’d like to make the effort to read more short stories.

Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket?

Harry Potter I’m afraid, although I’m growing increasingly bored with him. I didn’t like the Lemony Snicket film, but I suppose that isn’t a proper introduction. After all, I think the Harry Potter films are terrible.

Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks?

I always try to get to chapter breaks, unless I fall asleep, but then maybe I shouldn’t be reading a book that does that to me. The sign of a good book is when you keep saying just one more chapter.

“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”?

A dark and stormy night, as it usually is.

Buy or Borrow?

I always feel nervous about borrowing books, probably because I hate lending them. Let’s face it, you rarely get them back. True confession: I once stole a book back.

Buying choice: Book Reviews, Recommendation or Browse?

Recommendation, which for a long time was only a trickle of books per year. Until blogs came along. Also browsing, and I’ve found some real gems in secondhand and charity shops.

Collection (short stories by the same author) or Anthology (short stories by different authors)?

Anthologies of different authors (when I get round to reading more short stories).

Golden Age SF or New Wave SF?

Increasingly New Wave.

Tidy ending or Cliffhanger?

Ambiguous ending. Did they get away with it or are they going to slip off the edge of the cliff.

Morning reading, Afternoon reading or Nighttime reading?

I have a slight visual impairment so I need lots and lots of natural light. I’m best at morning reading, although I never find the time. Ditto for afternoon reading, so the most reading I do is at night. By then my eyes are tired and I struggle with lights and lamps. Sigh.

Standalone or Series?

I like a good series, a trilogy to indulge yourself in like His Dark Materials. I’m currently wading through the Gormenghast novels. You might have noticed!

New or used?

I love brand new books, although there is nothing better than an old but lovingly cared for book. Read and cherised by a bookmark and not dogear reader…

Comment

Sometimes people come up with ideas so good that you just wish you’d thought of them yourself. The Christmas Blogswap is the brainwave of Jack Pickard, where bloggers can have a little fun and exchange posts.

This is a Christmas guest post by Dan Champion. Dan can usually be found at Blether, and sometime in the new year you’ll also find him at the new book-related Revish.

Continue reading Blogswap: Alternative Christmas Message [2]

From The Pickards, who found it at Very True Things.
The idea is to take the first line from your first post for every month of 2006. My results aren’t very revealing, so I have followed this meme with another.

June

I only started this website six months ago, so you might expect the first line of the first post to be Hello World! It isn’t:

I was listening to Radio 1 this morning and noticed that they kept saying ‘mp3 player’ instead of ‘iPod’.

Truthfully, I’ve unpublished my very first post. It was called First Post and the first sentence was Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. I’m not sure if this is the default test post for Textpattern, or that I’m just very very boring.

July

My cartoon phase:

August

Salesmen.

September

I recently watched a television documentary on the great Samuel Johnson.

October

I got scared.

November

Whenever the 1960s are mentioned in BBC documentaries, you can guarantee that the same stock footage is going to be used followed by the same Talking Head.

December

Christmas is the time for a classic ghost story.

So here’s the other meme, which I’d been saving up for an appropriate moment:

As the time of year is approaching for reviews and looking back over the past twelve months, I thought it might also be time for a blog review meme. Eight short questions about blogging. Your blog review of the year. Post your answers on your own blog or just post a comment here.

Are you still enthusiastic about blogging? Will you still be here this time next year?

Yes – and hopefully. When I started this website earlier this year I gave myself six months to see how it would go. Now those six months are nearly up, I’m surprised how much I’ve enjoyed it. I’ve always loved writing, but I didn’t expect to make contact with some interesting people along the way.

Have you learnt anything about blogging in the last year? Any Dos and Don’ts you’d like to share?

Be careful. I posted a futoshiki puzzle for fun back in September and I just wasn’t prepared for the interest it generated. My hit rate was suddenly in the hundreds and people were chasing me for new puzzles! As soon as the interest began to wane I was able to kill futoshiki off, but it’s scary how a readership can momentarily sway you.
Also, I’m now less inclined to post about my family life and my job and I only mention non-blogging people by name if they’re comfortable with it.

In general, how much time do you spend blogging? Do you think you are spending more or less time blogging as time goes on?

Probably more than’s healthy, so I definitely won’t be looking to increase the time spent blogging. I’ve realised that it’s not just writing things, but it’s also keeping up with the blogs you read and seeking out new and interesting ones. I find that if I’m away for just a few days the blogosphere has already moved on and left me behind. And – although it shouldn’t be in the great scheme of things – that’s scary.
I always argue that I usually spend less time blogging per week as I would if I watched all of the soaps on TV. So it’s only really a few hours, and it’s much less depressing.

What blogging platform do you use? Are you happy with it?

Although I’ve moaned about Textpattern, it is sheer magic when you get used to it and I’ve found some brilliant plugins. It also produces watertight html and the Textile element appeals to the nerd in me. What more could you want?

Any good discoveries in the last year?

I was late to del.icio.us and I like using it. More so for keeping myself organised than for sharing or looking at other people’s links.
My best discovery was Bloglines, which makes it so easy to keep up to date with your favourite blogs. I couldn’t live without feeds. Technorati is useful too.

When you visit other blogs, are you a commenter or a lurker?

Both! I find commenting strange sometimes, mostly with new blogs I’ve found. There’s always that nagging doubt that you’re only commenting because you really want people to follow the link back to your blog! So I feel more comfortable with the bloggers I’ve got to know slightly, where I can comment without any of those nagging doubts.

Any big plans for your blog next year? Are you planning a new design or direction, or are you happy to keep going as you are?

I’ve gone more in the direction of a literary blog, which wasn’t a conscious decision. It just happened gradually, probably because I’ve found the most interesting memes and challenges in book blog circles.
I’ve noticed that I’ve virtually stopped writing about web technology and accessibility. Probably because there’s no many other bloggers out there who do it better!
I think I’ve tinkered with the design enough for the time being. The only thing on the horizon is a possible change of name, but I’m in no hurry over that.

And finally: Blogging – does it get any easier?

No I don’t think it does. There’s certainly an art to it, but I haven’t mastered it yet. Sometimes I can’t think of anything to say (is this called blogger’s block?), but usually I’m lucky that I’ve saved a few posts up, or a meme comes to the rescue.

Continue reading A Meme and a Meme [1]

I’m sorry, but I’ve just put this one off for too long. A James Bond meme. They’re easy questions and only short answers are required.

Continue reading the James Bond Meme

A Christmas meme from The Pickards.

Continue reading That Luzar and Jim Time of the Year