Weblog Love on Wednesdays

Here are this week's goodies for your perusal:

1. Fun and General Bookishness

Think you love reading? Check out this fantastic article by Gregory Kemp on 5 Minutes for Books about learning to read in another language. Beautiful stuff.

I'm nearly wetting my pants with excitement because the ladies at Stacked are doing a series on the reading habits of guys. I don't know why this topic gets me so excited, but it seriously does. Check out the first installment. (And then subscribe to their blog so you can follow the whole discussion.)

It seems as if every great blog in the world does some type of cover-redux/controversy blog series or posts. It's amazing to me the power that book covers can have to impact us and our willingness or resistance to reading a book. Also (in a related note to the above topic about male reading habits), it's interesting how different genders approach book covers in terms of their wants/needs/interests. Books on the Nightstand, this topic of gender reading habits is a podcast in the making, Ann-versus-Michael-style, I tell you.

2. Book Reviews/Features

Sarah Vowell is getting some play in the book-related media because she is "smart" (per Jon Stewart) and not just attractive. I read a bit more about her and it makes me want to snatch up all of her books and read them. There is something beautiful about what the internet is doing for authors--allowing people to have more access to the authors themselves, getting a feel for them, doing publicity on the cheap (i.e., virtually or virally) and getting into a lot more households. It's kind of beautiful, right?

Speaking of authors getting out there, Anonymous (you know who you are) took the time to comment on last week's Weblog Love on Wednesdays post to hype Ghostnapped by debut author Ashley Howland. I don't particularly read Middle Grade fiction yet (keep your fingers crossed about my MLS program application), and I'm sure "Anonymous" is just a fancy cover name for Ms. Howland and/or a publicity-related associate of hers, but I like to give debut authors a big thumbs-up, and give them play. Especially when they (or someone in their camp) are doing the hard work of connecting with blogs and bloggers.

I posted previously that my heart broke at the idea of Diablo Cody adapting the venerated 80's/90's classic YA Sweet Valley High books for the big screen, but Forever Young Adult has bounced back with vigor. They promise to systematically re-read all 181 SVH books (which excludes the SVT, SVU, etc. series) and post reviews on their site. Awesome!

3. Publishing Industry Tid-Bits

So there was a little "blow up" in the book blogging community recently because the Federal Trade Commission has handed down some regs (and fines) for book bloggers who receive ARC copies for review (considering it compensation), saying that responsible bloggers need to disclose the source of the book. The Boston Bibliophile hosted a very helpful guest post by a Boston-area attorney, if you're interested in avoiding fines and being above the law. The nitty-gritty highlight of the post (in my opinion): "Accordingly, the FTC may find that a blogger violates Section 5 [of the regulations] if the blogger (1) posts a positive review that does not represent their honest experience with the product or service; (2) makes misrepresentations about key features of the product or service; or (3) fails to disclose a 'material connection' [i.e., free copy of the book] or compensation arrangement related to the review."

Kassia Krozer highlights a pretty awesome new "thing" in publishing, "Tor.com is one way in which [publishers are] talking directly with readers, listening to what they have to say, and [publishers are] finding out a lot about them." If you like SciFi/Fantasy/Steampunk, etc., check out Tor.com because it's a really sweet blog for the SF/Fantasy imprint for Macmillan publishing.

Check out The Rejectionist's thoughts from this week about the (sardonic) perils of the publishing industry.

But in glass-half-full industry news: check out this guest post on the Miss Snark's First Victim blog. The blogger at MSFV does awesome contests for aspiring/editing writers. Check her out because she's "giving back" and "helping out."

4. Book Blogger Highlights

I really enjoy reading the Book Nerds blog for two big reasons: 1) They are a sister duo (and I love sister duos) who are unashamed book nerds; and 2) They've pimped their blog out for Halloween. Check it out.