I received an email from someone offering his book for review, unsolicited. I’m not a book reviewer, I’m a writer, and if I find something I like, I’ll review and contact the author for an interview. And my TBR/discovery list is long enough without unsolicited submissions. I even wrote on Goodreads that I DON’T want recommendations, and luckily they stopped coming from there. I try to read as much as I can, but my priority is still writing, so don’t ask me to check your book, thank you.
I’ve seen Goodreads Authors delete all their shelves or decide NOT to review other indie authors as it might backfire, and I understand their backing out. I won’t do it, because I still want to spread some love for books I enjoy – but I’m not a book reviewer and this is not a book review blog. It’s read mostly by writers, and you don’t want to pitch your book to other writers. I doubt anyone has bought a book because I recommended it (but please feel free to tell me if I’m wrong).
At the moment I’m reading an old book my mum wanted to throw away, something I probably asked for when I was 10 because it’s about a ballet dancer. “Irène à l’Opéra” by Lorna Hill is even illustrated, but I remember nothing of it – I probably read it only once. Of course reading it at 46 means I’m not taken by surprise by anything (I’ve become a cynical reader, haha!), but I get nostalgic at the setting: telegrams, anyone? And when phone calls were hard to do especially out of your hometown? I might not have been alive when you needed an operator to get through, but in the 1980s in Italy it was still very expensive to call outside of town (I still remember the ad for the “teleselezione”) and my parents balked every time a long-distance phone call lasted more than two minutes.
Can you believe a YA book can be so dated by such tiny things that are no longer in use in the 21st century? And that originally it wasn’t labeled YA, and was probably in the children’s Bibliobus that came to our village every week (there were two, one for adults and one for children)? Oh, I can’t believe the Bibliobus still exists, by the way… here’s the 21st version of what we had in the mid-1970s! 
Those Swiss… 
Another thing that makes me love my Kindle while I’m reading this and another book from mum’s shelves (same collection – Hachette pocket book with hard cover): the smell. My nose hates all strong scents, be them perfume, food or stinky things. The strong smell of dusty paper of these 40+ pocket hardcovers forces me to keep them away from my face to avoid sneezing or coughing my way through them. I never really liked the smell of paper books, especially old ones. I hated the smell of some glossy magazines as well. So I really welcome the odorless Kindle for my future readings. I look forward to get through those 20+ dead-tree-books I have left, and from now on I’ll look for the electronic version, if available at a decent price!
AND I will still do the print version of mine, so this weekend I’ll hop to Lulu for S.K.Y.B.A.N.D. 10 & Omnibus 2. I’m also studying how to format it for Kindle and Nook/iPad, but I still think comics and graphic novels are better read on paper. And then with whatever is left on my prepaid card I’ll go to Amazon for a DVD shopping spree, whoot!
Hiroyuki Sanada tribute "then and now" on S.K.Y.B.A.N.D.10
I have my Bollywood list, of course, but I also want to watch more of Hiroyuki Sanada‘s works. For Christmans I had the box set of the TV series that introduced him to me (boy, he was cute at 18! ) and now I want to have a closer look at his evolution. I’ll probably skip The Last Samurai (can’t stand Tom Cruise), but I enjoyed The Twilight Samurai (and mostly his interview in the DVD extras) and I still have to watch Sunshine on a decent screen (I saw it in flight…) And of course I look forward to 47 ronin! 
Off to reading and writing again… I think I’m falling behind with blog reading, but I’ll get there, eventually. Especially next week when I go back to Day Job!
Anna Lowenstein
/ January 27, 2012You could see it as a compliment that someone is hoping you’ll review his book. That shows your opinion matters to someone! In any case, even if you don’t have time to read it, I hope you’ll turn him down kindly. We all hope our books will be reviewed, and maybe we’re all guilty of bothering someone who’s got better things to do.
Barb
/ January 27, 2012I’ll see it as someone who hasn’t done his homework… but that’s just me!
It’s like writers sending their queries to all publishing houses. You don’t. You select the publisher or agent or whatever.
Same with reviews. You look for someone that 1) offers reviews and 2) reads the genre you’re writing in.
Flooding all book review blogs (and this isn’t a book review blog…) doesn’t work. You’re just another author spammer.
Miss Rosemary
/ January 29, 2012Oh no! I love smelling books, especially old ones. Don’t get me wrong, Kindle and I are on a first name basis, but there is no smell on earth I love more than books.
Barb
/ January 29, 2012You obviously have a younger and nicer nose than mine!
Smells have always been a problem for me! 
Ina &hersecretbollywoodlife
/ January 31, 2012off topic, I looked at your samurai movie list and it reminded me of my attempt to expose my then about teenager aged two boys to foreign film. I used to drag them to the city every other weekend to see French movies about lost cats (mom, do you realize that the whole movie was about this woman looking for a cat? two hours long??) and other excruciatingly boring movies for them, one I remember was Saura’s artsy attempt to make a great movie about Flamenco. I remember by kids bursting out laughing watching this singer close-up contorting while emitting sounds only known to us from haunted houses and ghost movies, first hush hush chuckle chuckle into their seats, pinching each other, and then how it is with those infectious suppressed laughs it went from one to the other, before we knew it we and the whole audience bursting out loud. So, anyway, then I had the Japanese movie fixation for a while and I watched every possible DVD in our library. And when I saw a samurai movie being released in the City, I dragged the boys and two of their two korean friends (they had to come along, otherwise no dibbs, as they told me in no unclear terms…) so here we get to this small movie theater on the lower East Side. I was kinda surprised at the reaction of the cashier when I bought the tickets and her slightly puzzled look. While having pre-movie snacks, we were watching mostly couples come in, some walking hand in hand, which was so sweet especially since they were all males. Nothing set in until halfway into the movie when I realized it was a GAY samurai movie, thankfully not too explicit just in sentiment. I remember my son turning to me as we were leaving saying “mom. this was the last time we come with you” but it wasn’t. the very last foreign movie we all saw together. that was the Japanese movie The Eel, where a man kills his wife and her lover in the first minute of the movie and then befriends an eel in prison, taking him home after the prison term ends..Yeah, I think that was the last foreign film I could get them to see with me…It always comes up for some reason when the boys are discussing with their friends whose mom was crazier….Thankfully my attempts to introduce my children to world cinema didn’t leave lasting scars. But I still can’t get them to come with me and watch my Bollywood movies..:-) I wonder why…
Barb
/ January 31, 2012I don’t think I’d have appreciated world movies when I was younger!
OK, I liked French movies because I came from France (growing up there, not born), I liked all those John Hugues teen movies of the 80s, and never really enjoyed the “classics” or any other award-winning movie.
People change… they grow up, change tastes, grow curious about the world… and as long as it’s entertaining and it has some sort of plot, I’m OK with it!
The Amazon shopping spree was limited to Bollywood DVDs, though… as the only non-Bollywood movie that I want at the moment is not out in DVD yet (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1772424/).
Ina &hersecretbollywoodlife
/ February 1, 2012that looks like a good movie