All posts tagged: rambles

The evil scientist trope, why it’s doing real world damage to scientists, and why authors need to stop.

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I may be a book blogger by night, but by day I spend my time as a scientist, specifically a tumour immunologist. You may assume that due to my vocation, scientific inaccuracies in books would drive me crazy. Mostly, they don’t (Okay, sometimes they do, but within reason), but the one type of inaccuracy that I have thoroughly reached my tolerance level for is the portray of scientists as amoral, ethically bankrupt, animal-torturing jerkfaces. You may think Why does it matter? It’s only fiction! or even, well yeah, scientists are amoral, ethically bankrupt, animal-torturing jerkfaces, but the problem is that it’s completely untrue, and this fictional view of scientists does shape peoples’ opinions of science and scientists in the real world. Well, today, gentle book lovers, I’m going to tell you a little bit about what it’s like to actually be a scientist. And I can tell you, it’s very different to how it’s portrayed in books (there’s generally a lot more crying). This will also be pretty specific to medical science, as that’s what I am …

#BRINGBACKTBSCOVERS

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So, in case people are not aware, there is a travesty of publishing about to happen… THEY ARE GOING TO CHANGE THE COVERS FOR THE BONE SEASON SERIES BY SAMANTHA SHANNON. YES! These beautiful covers: Anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely LOVE this series to bits. The most exciting moment of blogging EVER was when I got to the release the first official teaser for the third book, The Song Rising. So naturally, I love Bloomsbury, because they gave me that absolutely incredible opportunity to be part of one of my favourite series. And I’ll always love them for that. I review books for them frequently (and hope I continue to do so), and I have a fairly good relationship with the wonderful people working there. But I am pretty damn cranky with this proposed cover change. These are the proposed new covers: What the f**k guys? Seriously? This is the worst cover change I’ve seen since the Across the Universe cover change. And you know what, I never bought the third book in …

Dear Australian publishers,

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I’ve seen so many posts about saving Australian Literature (see here) and it’s really amazing that so many people, even those who aren’t Australian, care about this issue. With so many people coming out to support the Australian publishers, I hope that the government realises that it should not pass these new laws that would significantly harm authors (Australian publishers are doing enough to harm themselves without anyone’s help), but I want Australian publishers to stay in business, because I want authors to be able to make a decent living off their books, and I want all the lovely people I’ve dealt with from Australian publishers to keep their jobs and keep doing great things. I do buy a lot of books from Australia, Dymock is my happy place, and my Dymocks Gold loyalty card will attest to the fact that I do buy a lot of books in the country. But I buy far more from overseas. I hate to be the bearer of bad news and I would love Australia to have a thriving publishing …

Why does YA have to be about teenagers? Why do books about teenagers have to be YA?

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There seems to be some rather apparent inconsistencies in the definition of the YA genre. Particularly with whether it is books about teenagers, or whether it is books aimed at teenagers. I find that it is usually always defined as the former, as every YA book I have ever read features a teenage protagonist, although a number of exceptions exist that do revolve around children. Now I do understand that readers like to read about protagonists they can relate to, that struggle with the same issues that they do. That’s perfectly understandable. Teenagers are not adults. They are teenagers. There is a vast amount of psychological data that shows teenagers are different to adults in many capacities. It’s why we, as humans, have such a long period of adolescence, which is absent from almost all other animals. Almost all other animals reach maturity quite young. But because of the huge amount of information humans need to learn, we go through a prolonged period of childhood, followed by a very distinct period of adolescence. There are profound …

Book Slumps: Heat = No Reading

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I have to admit, I didn’t really understand how people really got into reading slumps until recently. I’ve heard people blame reading slumps on a number of things, from reading really good books, to reading really bad ones. But it was never really a problem for me. I’d been in tiny reading slumps before, but they usually didn’t last more than a few days. So I never really got why everyone seemed so plagued by the dreaded reading slump. What could be so bad about just not reading for a couple of days? Honestly I thought you were all just a bunch of babies. Lovable, cute, adorable babies, but babies. But now I totally understand… READING SLUMPS ARE THE WORST. They are worse than Britta. AND THEY ARE SO HARD TO ESCAPE! A few months ago when I started writing my thesis and my reading progress went completely downhill. This was completely understandable as I was spending about 14 hours a day writing. But since I took a break from writing, my reading hasn’t picked …

Book Blogger guilt

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Being a book blogger is awesome, but not all the time. I’ve found that along with the receiving free books, and the excitement of getting books before they are released to the peasants of the public, getting to participate in blog tours (and knowing that authors actually know you exist!), there can be a lot of guilt. Last month for example, I committed to writing a post about ebooks, and in return for this post $40 was to be donated in my name to Books for Africa. I did not write that post. Poor children in Africa did not get that donation, and I feel terrible about it. I did have a good excuse (what with my father being gravely ill – He is back in hospital unfortunately), but I still feel terrible about it. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. So I have decided to list all the things that make me feel like a guilt factory when it comes to blogging, and how I avoid dissolving into a puddle of …

Are you a bookshelf stalker?

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So I have this habit… every time I go to someone’s house I inevitably find myself gravitating towards their bookshelves which I then must scan at length, and ask them about every single book that interests me. I absolutely cannot stop myself from doing this. I can see myself doing it and I know that I should stop, but I just can’t… I see bookshelves and I am no longer in control. Now, my friends who know me and love me (and all love books as well) have come to accept this habit, and some of them actually enjoy the obligatory conversation about every single book on their shelf, which must take place before any other matters can be possibly be considered for discussion, but when going to someone’s house for the first time, this can sometimes be perceived as a bit odd and even a bit obnoxious. I understand that there are a number of reasons why people would find this habit a bit annoying: they are self-concious of their reading choices they have other …

Reviewer aspirations? Things you should know about Netgalley.

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Netgalley Starting to review books can be a bit daunting, and so I thought I might impart a bit of wisdom that I’ve gained during my time as a book blogger. I may actually make this into a series, focusing on a different aspect in each post. Today I thought I would cover Netgalley, the website that bloggers use to obtain ARCs from publishers. It can be a bit confusing, and I’m still not completely fluent in their ins and outs myself, but here are some things I’ve noticed. Netgalley is probably the most frequented site by book bloggers to obtain their ARCs. Netgalley has an extensive catalogue of books available for review. Some are openly available (you can find these by selecting the ‘Read Now’ filter). Read Now books are great for someone just starting out because they don’t require approval. To gain access to most books available on Netgalley you will need to be approved by the publisher. Once you obtain a book from Netgalley, you simply read it, review it, and send your feedback to the …

The Pros and Cons of being a Book Polygamist

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There are definitely two types of readers:  The committed reader who gives their heart away to only one book at a time. The wavering, indecisive reader who has a hundred books open at once, constantly moving between them. I can see them now. The Book Monogamist sitting at a neat table, a freshly brewed cup of tea, hair and clothes neat, rose-scented candle burning, reading peacefully while Pines of Rome plays softly in the background. A single tasselled bookmark sitting next to the book. And then I see the Book Polygamists. I see them hunched over their desk, messy hair, still in their pyjamas despite the approaching lateness of the day, six mugs of varying ages of coffee, surrounded by piles of books, pages dog-eared and marked with receipts, teetering backwards and forwards while A Night on Bald Mountain heralds their impending suffocation under the pile, where they will lie until they are eaten by stray cats. Okay, so I clearly have a slightly warped view of reading habits, and clearly admire the ability of those in the first category …

Goodreads Trolls getting you down? my personal story, but also a solution!

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So, I have a self-published book, well two actually. A friend and I wrote them together, self-published them, and eagerly frequented the Goodreads page to see what people thought. To our surprise, we received mainly 5-star reviews. We weren’t expecting them, as I really don’t think our book is perfect. There is a lot I would change and I think the sequel is a huge improvement (and yeah I’m pretty proud of that improvement). But anyway, I digress… One day while checking how our book was going I saw one review that just said something along the lines of “What a crock. These reviews are obviously paid for.” I was shocked by this, as firstly, I didn’t know that paying people for reviews was actually a thing people did, or that someone would make such a damning claim without any evidence what-so-ever, besides the fact that we self-published our book. Anyway, understandably upset, I did the stupidest thing you can do. I defended myself (although very politely). Bad Idea. Very bad idea. This Goodreads user …