Tuesday News: Historical London suburbia; Simon & Schuster and B&N make up; Funny Amazon reviews
Ideal Homes: Suburbia in Focus – Carolyn Jewel tweeted out this link to a website that provides maps, photographs, and other details that explores “the origins and significance of suburbia as revealed through the history of South East London.” It’s a great resource for historical authors and it is interesting from a reader’s point of view. Ideal Homes
Simon & Schuster ends its stand off with Barnes & Noble – Simon & Schuster has finally come to terms with B&N. If you recall, the two companies have been at loggerheads (thank you historical romance novels) over coop, or money that S&S would be required to pay to support B&N. S&S has not had any substantial orders from B&N for nearly a year.
Lauren Graham’s novel is being adapted for TV – There are more and more opportunities for fans to get together with other fans and meet their favorite authors. Last weekend there was the Naughty Mafia, a large indie blogger and indie author event in Vegas, as well as Authors After Dark. But for others, they attended Debbie Macomber’s fan retreat in Nashville, where “400 women gathered for a weekend of tea, knitting and literary friendship” and found a comforting camaraderie between fans of the author’s best-selling books. Random House is planning several more similar author retreats, NPR reports.” USA Today
Funny reviews – There are some funny people who review on Amazon (and some ridiculous products sold there). Amazon compiled some of the “best of the best” and posted them. “What can I say about the 571B Banana Slicer that hasn’t already been said about the wheel, penicillin, or the iPhone?” Mrs Toledo Amazon
17 Problems Only Book Lovers Will Understand – HarperCollins produced a very funny sponsored post over at Buzzfeed about the 17 problems book lovers will understand. Whoever put together these gifs must be a reader because I related to every one of the 17. Like 5 and 6. Hee! Buzzfeed.
Loved the 17 Problems. My favorite GIFs were 2, 14, and 17, but I relate to them all.
Definitely 14. In fact I’m in that position right now with Stuart McBride’s Logan Macrae series– and Cherryh’s upcoming Foreigner #15, and well, a whole list of authors really.
But I’m more likely to be laughing hysterically in public when reading a book than crying.
Spoilers? I’m in that group that doesn’t care about them.
I think I have all those problems and I think 3 and 4 have actually made me a little fearful now whenever I hear rumors that a book I love might be made into a movie. I should think of how great it would be for the author or how awesome that the book will get a bigger audience but instead I just think “NO, there is no way they can get a certain character right and they will ruin it”
I can’t get the Simon & Schuster/Barnes & Noble link to work for me.
whoops. there is no link. It just came in my inbox.
@Jane: I see, thanks.
Those Amazon reviews are hilarious but the laptop steering wheel desk is such a bad idea. What will they think of next? Television screens on the windshield?
@DS: You scared me for a moment, mentioning Stuart MacBride and I had to check number 14 immediately. Whew. OT: Do you ever listen to his books, especially those he narrates himself? DI Steel gets the best lines, but they’re all hysterical (when they aren’t shocking and heart-breaking).
Love the Amazon reviews. Oh, to be that clever.
in the buzzfeed, similar to #1: When you are being interviewed for a job, mention that you read a lot, and they ask what is your favorite book or what are you reading to right now…. HAVE AN APPROPRIATE ANSWER READY BEFORE GOING TO THE INTERVIEW!! Considering the business world’s biased view about romances, I had to lie!! **hangs head in shame**
I see that Amazon did not include the Veet for Men reviews. A couple of those had me in tears, struggling to breathe. And George Takei (Star Trek) has a series of humorous reviews.
The GIFs were great. My horror is #9–when an author quits writing in the middle of a series. I actually think it’s more often the case that the publisher quits publishing–and then I want to shout, “Self-publishing is your friend!” I just found out that another series I like was apparently dropped mid-stream and I’m in a total pet over it.