Discussion: Technology and E-Books

I recently came across an article in the Wall Street Journal, Your E-Book Is Reading You (found the article through On The Media).  In a nutshell the article is about how Amazon/Barnes & Noble/Google are able to track your reading habits when using with an e-reader and then what they are doing with that information.

It's kind of interesting.  But also kind of scary and 1984-ish.  From a marketing and PR prospective I think it's genius.  Publishers using this information to better suit their target market and sell more books?  Awesome.  Knowing the average time it takes someone to finish a certain book and how many times they picked the book up?  Being able to get this type of information is mind-blowing.

But then on other hand, I fear that publishers (and maybe even authors) will start using this data too much.  Instead of using the information as a tool they might abuse it and only publish what the trends are (like the ever growing vampire/paranormal books that seem to take over the YA section of bookstores).  Also, book series and trilogy's seem to be a huge trend in the book world right now.  I love reading a good series every now and then.  Getting to really know the characters and getting lost in their world is amazing.  But standalone books are just as amazing sometimes.

I'm undecided with how I feel about being tracked by our e-reading habits.  It's kind of cool knowing the average time it takes someone to finish The Hunger Games (seven hours, according to the WSJ article), or the point when most people put down a book and never pick it back up again.  Then at the same time it's just like leave me alone already.  But I suppose that's the technological world we live in now.

Fellow bookworms, I want to know what YOU think publishers tracking your reading habits.  For it?  Against it?  Going to read more books on your Nook or giving up your e-reader entirely?

Daisy Reviews the Love By Numbers series by Sarah MacLean

Title/Author: Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake, Ten Ways to be Adored When Landing a Lord and Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke's Heart (Love By Numbers #1, #2 and #3) by Sarah MacLean
Publisher/Date published: Avon, 2010, 2010 and 2011
How I got this book: borrowed, received through NetGalley and then BOUGH THEM ALL

You guys, historical romance is one of my guilty pleasures. They're such relaxing, fun reads for me and the ones that are done well make me feel ALL THE THINGS. And make me cry cause I'm a romantic sap like that.

And the Love By Numbers series ranks among the best in my humble opinion. Sarah MacLean has a way with words that just has me hooked. The heroes are swoonworthy, the heroines are girls you just can't help but love and root for and the romance is HOT!

Basically, this is everything I want in a historical romance. And because I don't think they get enough credit and attention, I decided to do a series review on them.

And she never fails to make me cry, like, every other page. I'm constantly right there in the moment with the characters and just getting so caught up in the story up to the point where I'm shushing the boyfriend when he attempts to communicate with me while I'm reading one of these novels.

I decided to buy the series, as I just couldn't resist owning these amazing books and upon arrival I immediately starting rereading all my favourite parts.

I think that Nine Rules is my favourite of the three. Gabriel and Callie are just meant for each other and I get all goosebumpy remembering their story. I think I love Gabriel the most of the heroes, there's this one scene from Ten Ways to be Adored where he's talking with his brother Nicholas:

'"Of course she loves you," he said imperiously, as though he could make it so simply by being the Marquess of Ralston.
"She doesn't."
"They always love us."'

AND I LOVE IT!! (Also, while looking up the exact wording of the scene I just reread the last part of Ten Ways to be Adored...) He's arrogant and entirely too handsome for his own good and also loving and just a wonderful man. All the characters in these novels are flawed and real and just so extremely lovable!

Basically, if you like the genre AT ALL or if you want to give it a try, I highly recommend this series! I also really love the first book in her new series A Rogue By Any Other Name, but these are even better.

I hope Sarah MacLean doesn't stop writing gems like this for a loooooong time, even though I could just reread these over and over again and be blisfully happy as well.

My rating: 5+ stars

A Cocktail & Conversation With The Folks At TB&TB

 

Every Wednesday here at the Broke & The Bookish is going to be A Cocktail & Conversation time. We'll pose a question to 2-3 members of TB&TB crew about books, life, music, etc and then they'll answer and we can converse about it. So grab a cocktail & cozy up for some conversation. It's 5 o'clock somewhere, friends. 

This week: What is your most favorite genre and why?

Tahleen says: My favorite genre changes constantly depending on my mood, so I wouldn't say I have a favorite genre. But my (somewhat) guilty pleasure is inspirational fiction. It's fluff, but I like it and in between the harder reads. For example, I just finished The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth, which is excellent and award-worthy but cannot be accused of being light reading, and I think I need something a bit lighter right now. Onto inspirational fiction!

Daisy says: My favourite genre is fantasy. I don't read nearly enough books in this genre, but I love it! I love getting lost in a world with magic, swordfighting and heroes (both men and women). I love the idea that just about anything can happen. Also: DRAGONS!

Jamie says: This question is so impossibly hard because I pretty  much read and can enjoy every genre. But the one I think I always go back to and LOVE the most is contemporary (YA and adult). I love getting caught up in a fantastical world or a chilling dystopian but sometimes I find myself feeling stronger connections to the contemporary stories. I've really been more into contemporary YA books lately and I've read some of the most beautiful and heartwrenching stories along with some really fun and lighthearted ones. I always feel some sort of oneness with humanity when I read contemporary. I just love stories about people that could be my neighbor or a friend or the stranger I'll meet next week.  

So readers...what is your favorite genre and why? 

Top Ten Posts I Think Give You The Best Glimpse of ME (Jamie!)

Learn more and check out the TTT schedule now available through November!

This week is basically all about pimping yo bad self out. We're talking about all those posts you wish everyone who ever visited your blog could see so they could get the WHOLE picture of you -- the reviews that highlight your style, posts that give more insight into YOU, those posts that show off your awesome personality, etc. So, I'm going to share with you some posts on my personal book blog, The Perpetual Page-Turner, that are the essence/epitome/what-have-you of ME. For better or for worse. I'm probably an acquired taste.

Reviews

I don't think I have a review style by any means so it's always tricky if someone just stops by at random on a review because I'm not always sure it's indicative of my reviewing VOICE as a whole. I'm a mood reviewer, I think. If a book got me so stinking excited, I fan girl. If I think a book was so touching and beautiful, I might write a more serious review to convey those feelings. But I think my voice, if you've visited the blog enough, transcends whatever kind of review I may write. It's always been about writing reviews that feel like you've settled in to talk with a good friend about a book.

1. Review of Lola & The Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
You could classify this as a rambly, semi-coherent keysmashing review that borderlines on the type of fangirling that happened in the times of boy bands like BSB, Hanson & Nsync. I say things such as "If I were my 13 year old self, I’d be bedazzling shirts proclaiming the awesomeness that is Stephanie Perkins and making a shrine in my room dedicated to her" or try to talk about my fears of reading this after loving Anna in terms of replacement goldfish. These fangirly Jamie reviews almost make you wonder if I wrote this whilst drinking a few too many cocktails. 

2. Review of Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard: Proves I can write an enthusiastic review that isn't too rambly and crazy. Still conversational but more a more "proper" review, I suppose. I still do say stupid things like "I just wanted to pluck them out of the book and smash their faces together causing them to smooch like I used to do with Barbie and Ken. YOU KNOW YOU WANT IT!"

3. Review of Eve by Anna Carey: I think this is a good example that I can articulate things things I like/really didn't in books. I'm definitely an honest reviewer but I try to be specific about what didn't work for me personally.

Blogging Style Type Posts

4. My Blogging Manifesto -- I feel like this post really lays out my intentions for my blog and what you can expect from my blog. I often look back at this post when I feel discouraged or lose focus. 

5. Letter To My Younger Blogging Self-- I feel like I'm constantly learning and evolving as a blogger and I'm not afraid to be honest about it. 

6. 3 Lessons My Mom Taught  Me That I Apply To My Blogging Life: I don't do a ton of blogging help sorts of posts (actually these three are mostly the extent of it really) but I tend to genuinely share things that are helpful to me rather than rules. And this one is special to me since, if you read my blog often, you know that my mom passed away from brain cancer in 2006 and so this post does share a big piece of my life with you.

Fun/Ridiculous Sort Of Bookish Posts

7. Book Inspired Dates: Who does this? lol. ME. I have so many more posts a comin' too! I don't take myself too seriously obviously.

8. A Rant About Bookish Stereotypes: Sometimes I get heated, friends! But mostly it renders a great discussion.

9. Why Fictional Characters Might Make Better Wedding Guests: Seriously. I wish I could say I don't remember writing this post. But these are the sorts of posts that can happen when I'm a little too cozy with my readers. I may just show my true weirdo tendancies. And I love it. I am unabashedly ME and I can honestly say what you see on the blog is what you get in real life. This post is crazy and weird and really quite pointless but I had fun and these are the things my brain mulls over late at night...along with more serious things like world peace and feeding all of the children.

Posts That Help You Learn More About ME!

10. Top Ten Quotes From Books: I think you can learn a lot about a person from their favorite quotes. Truly. Oh also, here's my other post about quotes.

And a #11 because it sort of doesn't count -- Lastly, this might sound silly and obvious but... MY ABOUT ME PAGE. I feel like it gives a pretty darn good picture of me in some bullet points.

So, go ahead and ask all the bloggers that have met me. I bet they'd agree that these posts are a very good compilation of the whole picture of my blog. I pour a whole lot of myself into everything I do on The Perpetual Page-Turner. I'm honest, genuine, love to read, love to interact, like to have a WHOLE lot of fun and I care a lot...about so many things. As I say in my About Me regarding my blog: "It’s conversational, there might be swooning, there might be CAPS LOCK, !!!!! & keysmashing or I might pour my heart out to you." Although, it's probably not a lot of people's cup of tea!


What posts do you think give you the best glimpse into other bloggers??

Bookish Deals (1)

Here at The Broke and the Bookish, we have decided to start a bi-weekly feature of Bookish Deals. I have a feeling over the first few weeks it will grow and evolve, but the general gist is scouring the internet and bookstores to see what deals we can find and give to you.

Today I have some eBook deals to share.

The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli - $3.99
AZ | BN

A unique and sweeping debut novel of an American female combat photographer in the Vietnam War, as she captures the wrenching chaos and finds herself torn between the love of two men.
On a stifling day in 1975, the North Vietnamese army is poised to roll into Saigon. As the fall of the city begins, two lovers make their way through the streets to escape to a new life. Helen Adams, an American photojournalist, must take leave of a war she is addicted to and a devastated country she has come to love. Linh, the Vietnamese man who loves her, must grapple with his own conflicted loyalties of heart and homeland. As they race to leave, they play out a drama of devotion and betrayal that spins them back through twelve war-torn years, beginning in the splendor of Angkor Wat, with their mentor, larger-than-life war correspondent Sam Darrow, once Helen's infuriating love and fiercest competitor, and Linh's secret keeper, boss and truest friend.

Tatjana Soli paints a searing portrait of an American woman’s struggle and triumph in Vietnam, a stirring canvas contrasting the wrenching horror of war and the treacherous narcotic of obsession with the redemptive power of love. Readers will be transfixed by this stunning novel of passion, duty and ambition among the ruins of war.

Daughters of the North by Sarah Hall - $0.99
AZ | BN

In her stunning novel, Hall imagines a new dystopia set in the not-too-distant future. England is in a state of environmental crisis and economic collapse. There has been a census, and all citizens have been herded into urban centers. Reproduction has become a lottery, with contraceptive coils fitted to every female of childbearing age. A girl who will become known only as "Sister" escapes the confines of her repressive marriage to find an isolated group of women living as "un-officials" in Carhullan, a remote northern farm, where she must find out whether she has it in herself to become a rebel fighter. Provocative and timely, Daughters of the North poses questions about the lengths women will go to resist their oppressors, and under what circumstances might an ordinary person become a terrorist.

This last one I just stumbled on right now while trying to find something else to feature. It is only at Amazon from what I can tell. I've actually read this one, and while I had a little bit of eye rolling and rants, I enjoyed it :)

Scarlet by .C. Gaughen - $2.99
AZ

Many readers know the tale of Robin Hood, but they will be swept away by this new version full of action, secrets, and romance.

Posing as one of Robin Hood’s thieves to avoid the wrath of the evil Thief Taker Lord Gisbourne, Scarlet has kept her identity secret from all of Nottinghamshire. Only the Hood and his band know the truth: the agile thief posing as a whip of a boy is actually a fearless young woman with a secret past. Helping the people of Nottingham outwit the corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham could cost Scarlet her life as Gisbourne closes in.

It’s only her fierce loyalty to Robin—whose quick smiles and sharp temper have the rare power to unsettle her—that keeps Scarlet going and makes this fight worth dying for.

And to end it, for those of you who still read the paper books (and I admit to being one of them), I love trolling through Barnes and Nobel's Bargain Summer Bin. It's such a grab bag!


All summaries taken from Goodreads

Bookish Jobs for Bookish People: Rosie the Student Librarian

As a blog run by college aged kids, the thing most on our minds, aside from books, is what the heck we are going to do with our lives. We all joke and dream about having a job where we could read or blog all day and feel pangs of jealousy when we encounter someone who does just that. In my (Jamie's) job search, I've realized that there are so many different types of bookish jobs out there that I had never even thought about. In college I never thought I could be in the book industry because I never wanted to be an author or an editor or a publisher. I didn't think there was anything else out there. I've come to realize that there so many types of bookish jobs out there for people of varying strengths and abilities and I want to spotlight these jobs... and thus began our feature--Bookish Jobs for Bookish People.

Hey everyone. Julia here. Today we are going to switch up this feature just a little bit and feature someone quite close to my heart, my younger sister Rosie. Rosie is just starting her senior year of college and thus that dreaded job search is impending, but throughout her college career, she has been lucky enough to be surrounded by books in her student job at the campus library. Today we feature: Rosie, the student librarian.

Job Title: I don't really have a title. But I am the only student worker in the cataloging department at my university.

What is your major?
Japanese with a minor in business administration and multiage education.

How long you've been in this position:
Since I was a freshman, and I'm now a senior. I also work a few days a week over the summer.

How did you get the position? How hard was it to find?
Early on, I applied for a position at the library, and they pretty much told me that I’d be working in the cataloging department.

Describe what a typical day looks like for you:
Well, it can be pretty open-ended. I have a list of things that need to eventually get done. Most of the time it consists of labeling new books for the reference desk or circulation department; relabeling old books; changing books to a different call number; fixing discrepancies, like if I am going through the card box and I find that something has the same call number, then I go and change one of the books; sorting and organizing the card catalogue; and jacketing books that need it. And labeling juvenile books. And repairing old books. I do a lot of stuff. Plus, currently we are moving books to different departments so there is a lot of relabeling.

Wait, did you say card catalogue?!
Yes! It’s not open for students to use, but it is still actively used for the records in the back. It’s a good idea.

Three qualities/skills you should have to excel at this job are:
Organization, patience, listening comprehension… oh and learning to use a typewriter. I regularly use my IBM Sectric Typewriter. Changing the ribbon is fun… not.

What is your least favorite aspect of your job?
Uh… What do I not like? The fact that book jackets pile up very quickly, meaning I will do ten book jackets and then there will be thirty more. There is always a book needing a jacket.

Biggest perk of your job:
The flexibility during school time. I can work to my schedule. And the fact that the people I work with are awesome.

Tell us one of your best or funniest memories on the job:
One of the people I work with likes Dunkin Donuts, so she brings in coffee and doughnuts once in a while. The Chai Tea used to keep me awake during my accounting classes. Saving grace.

What do you think the biggest misconception is about your position/industry at a college library?
That it's boring. A lot of people, especially guys from what I have seen, get bored quickly. I think it's fun! We have a good time. I think is easy to multitask; I can talk about school while labeling a book. It's not just stuffy people sitting behind a desk all day. It's people doing something they like and having fun doing it. It's good wholesome work that is flexible and fun.

Complete this sentence. This job is not for you if... you get distracted easily.

What advice do you have for people who are interested in working in the library in college?
Apply quickly. This really applies for any college job. There are a ton of students all looking for the on campus work. If you don’t apply quickly, you don’t get a job. The end.

And now let's end on something fun! Our Top Ten Tuesday this week was 'Book Characters You Would Switch Places With for 24 hours'.  Which book character would you switch places with?
Hermione Granger, because I would get to learn about awesome, smart, cool Harry Potter things.

Thanks Rosie, for stopping by and sharing your college library work experience. Check out the other Bookish Jobs Post: Erica from Harper Perennial: Marketing Manager, Jen: Children’s Programmer, SR. Library Assistant, and Tom from Harper Teen, Book Designer.

With Our Last $20 - The August Edition

We've decided to start a new feature here at the Broke and Bookish wherein we answer the prompt of which book we'd purchase with the last $20 left in our pocket for each month -- be it new releases or older books..basically which ever book we'd be so excited to read that we'd be willing to spend the last $20 in our pockets on. I mean, we are The Broke and the Bookish after all. We'd no doubt live up to our name.

 Jamie's Pick: Rift by Andrea Cremer

I've only read Nightshade but when I had listened to Andrea Cremer talk about this book on a tour stop for Breathless Reads I KNEW I had to have this one. It's a prequel to the Nightshade series and is set in the 15th century..which RIGHT THERE made me giddy. It sets up a lot of the world and how it came to be in the Nightshade series. There is swords, magic and knights...and more! It kiiiinda makes me a little too excited!! I'm hoping I can read this one without reading the rest of the Nightshade series or else I'm going to  have  a binge reading night to finish the series so I can start Rift.

Julia's Pick: Undone by Lila DiPasqua

 I have been staring at this book on my TBR list for a few months now, desperately itching to buy it. It is a retelling of Rapunzel in a more historical romance novel type of way then a blind love looking for his baby momma type of way. I really don't know what I am waiting for. In fact, excuse me I need to go to the Nook Book store...

 

 

Tahleen's Pick: Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail by Cheryl Strayed

I know this is Oprah's newest pick, but that's not why I chose it. It's about a 22-year-old woman who, feeling lost in her life and with nothing to lose, embarks on an epic hike on the Pacific Coast Trail (spanning most of the west coast of America) on her own. What really attracts me to this book is 1) it's a memoir, which I really enjoy, 2) I really like reading about the American landscape and how people experience it, and 3) it's about a woman who thinks she's lost everything and does something about it, for herself. I like true-life adventures, and this sounds like it could be a great read.

Paula's Pick: A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin

I've been making my way through A song of Ice and Fire series this year. And I finished Book 2 back in June. I've heard Book 3 is a pretty heartbreaking read- but I think I'm ready for it. If I get any where near a book store this month I will definitely be purchasing it and it will be skipping everything else on my to-read list.

Jana's Pick: The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella

I read I've Got Your Number earlier this summer, and adored it! Sophie is hilarious. I've heard great things about this one of hers, and I really can't wait to get my hands on it!

Daisy's Pick: The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey

It's described as an homage to and modern variation of Jane Eyre. COUNT ME IN!!! It sounds like just my kind of novel!

Jen's Pick:  The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

I actually got this book from the library a couple months ago, started reading it...but then life got busy and I had to return it before I was even close to finishing!  I've heard such great things about the book and really enjoyed the little bit I was able to read.