Category Archives: site updates

Book Review Hiatus

This summer is going to be extremely busy, so I have decided not to accept any new books to review between now and September 1, 2011. I will, of course, read and review the books currently in my possession, but I simply cannot accept any new ones for the time being. If you have any questions, comments, or really good jokes, please don’t hesitate to contact me. There’s a form on the About page. Thanks!

Humbly Requesting Your Assistance

On August 22, this blog will turn 8 years old. Well, technically, I started on Blogger and didn’t migrate everything over to Zoiks until 2009, but my blogging went uninterrupted, so I’m counting it as one continuous span of time. Don’t be too impressed – I’ve already hit a decade over at LiveJournal, and have been using “melydia” as my primary online handle since 1993. This all makes me something like 237 in Internet Years. (Get off my lawn!)

Despite all this, I’ve never really been part of the blogging community. I read a lot of blogs, sure, but it took me ages to bother with things like Google Friend Connect, BlogHer, or Ning communities. My site design is intentionally sparse. I don’t hold giveaways or host interviews or blog tours. Then again, I also don’t need to have a good cry if no one comments on my posts – that is, blogging has never been a purely social activity for me. It’s enough that it’s out there and being appreciated, whether or not folks are being vocal about it. (Don’t get me wrong: comments totally make my day.)

That said, if I had no interest whatsoever in what my readers thought, I would keep all this stuff to myself rather than posting it where the world can see. Once in a blue moon I look at my blog and I think, “I wonder if there’s something different I could be doing with this.” That’s where you come in. In the past I’ve invited people to comment on what they’d like to see, but I think there are probably a fair number of lurkers who don’t feel comfortable making suggestions on a blog written by someone who doesn’t know them from Adam.

Aside: the internet is funny about lopsided friendships. Take Cleolinda Jones, for example. I read her blog regularly, to the point where my sister commented that she kept forgetting I’d never met Cleolinda in person. On the flip side, I am 99% sure that Cleolinda has absolutely no idea who I am.

As I was saying, a lot of people are timid about leaving their first comment on a blog, so I decided to experiment with an alternate method of getting feedback: an anonymous poll. Fill it out, have your friends fill it out, fill it out multiple times, whatever, just please spread the word. I’m looking for a general consensus, and the more data points the better. Keep in mind that I won’t know who you are unless you tell me in the comment field.

One last thing before we get started: the fact of the matter is that I’m not going to reduce the number of book reviews. It is what it is. However, I’d like to sprinkle in a fair number of posts on other things, too. So if you’d like to help me decide what those things should be (please please please!), then click this link:

Take the Survey!

(Thank you!)

Aaaaaand We’re Back!

As promised, the 2011 BookCrossing Convention is over and my blog hiatus has come to an end. Didja miss me? :)

2011 BookCrossing Organizers crrcookie, melydia, and KateKintail
Photo copyright thebiblioholic

Hiatus Announcement and Links to Tide You Over

Okay, this is getting out of hand. I hereby declare a blogging vacation until after the BookCrossing Convention. If I review any books, the posts will be scheduled for after I get back on April 18. If you are waiting for a review by me, I will email you when I finish it, since all my reviews end up on GoodReads and LibraryThing as soon as they’re written (as opposed to being scheduled so I only have one post per day, like on this here blog).  If there’s anything especially timely I want to post, I’ll post it, but for the time being don’t expect anything new here until mid-April.

For those of you still on the fence about the BookCrossing Convention, we’re now offering day passes.  It’s going to be so much fun – you don’t want to miss it!

To tide you over, I have a meme: a list of speculative fiction reviewer blogs. Yes, I’m listed. To add your own blog, visit Grasping for the Wind.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Romanian French Chinese Danish Portuguese German

A


52 Weeks of Geek
7 Foot Shelves
The Accidental Bard
A Bibliophile’s Reverie
A Boy Goes on a Journey
A Dribble Of Ink
Adventures in Reading
A Fantasy Reader
A Fantastical Librarian
The Agony Column
A Hoyden’s Look at Literature
A Journey of Books
Allan Bard
All Booked Up
Alexia’s Books and Such…
The Alternative
Andromeda Spaceways
Anomalous Thoughts
The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.
Ask Daphne
ask nicola
A Southern Fried Weirdo
Audiobook DJ
aurealisXpress
Australia Specfic In Focus
Author 2 Author
AzureScape

B


Barbara Martin
Babbling about Books
Bees (and Books) on the Knob
Best SF
Bewildering Stories
Bibliophile Stalker
Bibliosnark
Big Dumb Object
BillWardWriter.com
The Billion Light-Year Bookshelf
Bitten by Books
The Black Library Blog
Blog, Jvstin Style
Blood of the Muse
Book Addict
The Book Bind
Bookgeeks
Book in a Series
Book Love Affair
Bookrastination
Book Series Reviews
Booksies Blog
Bookslut
Books on the Knob
The Book Smugglers
Bookspotcentral
The Book Swede
Bookthing
Book View Cafe [Authors Group Blog]
Brain Harvest
Breeni Books
Brenda Loves Books

C


Calico Reaction
Cheaper Ironies [pro columnist]
Charlotte’s Library
Circlet 2.0
Civilian Reader
Cheryl’s Musings
Club Jade
Cranking Plot
Critical Mass
The Crotchety Old Fan
Curling Up By The Fire

D


Daily Dose – Fantasy and Romance
Damien G. Walter
Danger Gal
Dark Faerie Tales
It’s Dark in the Dark
Dark Parables
Dark Wolf Fantasy Reviews
Darque Reviews
Dave Brendon’s Fantasy and Sci-Fi Weblog
Dazed Rambling
Dead Book Darling
Dear Author
The Deckled Edge
The Discriminating Fangirl
The Doctor is In…
Dragons, Heroes and Wizards
Drey’s Library
Drying Ink
Dusk Before the Dawn

E


Enter the Octopus
Erotic Horizon
Errant Dreams Reviews
Eve’s Alexandria

F


Falcata Times
Fantastic Reviews
Fantastic Reviews Blog
Fantasy Book Banner
Fantasy Book Critic
Fantasy Book News
Fantasy Book Reviews and News
Fantasy By the Tale
Fantasy Cafe
Fantasy Debut
Fantasy Dreamer’s Ramblings
Fantasy Literature.com
Fantasy Magazine
Fantasy and Sci-fi Lovin’ News and Reviews
Feminist SF – The Blog!
Feybound
Fiction is so Overrated
The Fix
Flying off the Shelves
The Foghorn Review
Follow that Raven
Forbidden Planet
Frances Writes
Frazzled Book Nommer
Free SF Reader
From a Sci-Fi Standpoint
From the Heart of Europe
Fruitless Recursion
Fundamentally Alien
The Future Fire

G


The Galaxy Express
Galleycat
Game Couch
The Gamer Rat
Garbled Signals
The Geeky Bookworm
Genre Reviews
Genreville
Got Schephs
Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review
Grasping for the Wind
The Great Gnome Press Science Fiction Odyssey
a GREAT read
The Green Man Review
Gripping Books

H


Hasenpfeffer
Hero Complex
Horrorscope
Hot Cup of Coffee
The Hub Magazine
Hypatia’s Hoard of Reviews
Hyperpat’s Hyper Day

I


I Hope I Didn’t Just Give Away The Ending
Ink and Keys
Ink and Paper
The Internet Review of Science Fiction
io9
It is the Business of the Future to Be Dangerous

J


Janicu’s Book Blog
Jenn’s Bookshelf
Johnny Oops
Jumpdrives and Cantrips

K


Kat Bryan’s Corner
Keeping the Door
King of the Nerds

L


La Bloga
Lair of the Undead Rat
Largehearted Boy
Layers of Thought
League of Reluctant Adults
Legends of Fantasy
The Lensman’s Children
Library Dad
Libri Touches
Literary Escapism
Literary Musings
Literaturely Speaking
Little Red Reviewer
ludis inventio
The Luminous Page
Lundblog: Beautiful Letters
Lupines and Lunatics

M


Mad Hatter’s Bookshelf and Book Review
Mari’s Midnight Garden
Mark Freeman’s Journal
Marooned: Science Fiction Books on Mars
Martin’s Booklog
MentatJack
Michele Lee’s Book Love
Missions Unknown [Author and Artist Blog Devoted to SF/F/H in San Antonio]
The Mistress of Ancient Revelry
MIT Science Fiction Society
Mithril Wisdom
Monster Librarian
More Words, Deeper Hole
Mostly Harmless Books
Multi-Genre Fan
Musings from the Weirdside
MyBlog2.0
My Favourite Books
My Overstuffed Bookshelf

N


Neth Space
The New Book Review
NextRead
Not Free SF Reader
Nuketown

O


OCD, Vampires, and Rants, o my!
OF Blog of the Fallen
The Old Bat’s Belfry
ommadawn.dk
Omphalos Book Reviews
On A Pale Star
Only The Best SciFi/Fantasy
Ooh…Books!
The Ostentatious Ogre
Outside of a Dog

P


Paper Spaceships
Paranormality
Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist
Patricia’s Vampire Notes
The Persistence of Vision
Piaw’s Blog
Pink Raygun
Pizza’s Book Discussion
Poisoned Rationality
pornokitsch
Post-Weird Thoughts
Praetor Naturam
Publisher’s Weekly
Punkadiddle
Pussreboots: A Book Review a Day

Q


R


Ramblings of a Raconteur
Random Acts of Mediocrity
The Ranting Dragon
Ray Gun Revival
Realms of Speculative Fiction
The Reader Eclectic
Read. Breathe. Relax.
Reading Fairy Tales
Reading the Leaves
Rememorandum
Review From Here
Reviewer X
Revolution SF
Rhiannon Hart
The Road Not Taken
Rob’s Blog o’ Stuff
Robots and Vamps

S


Sacramento Book Review
Sandstorm Reviews
Satisfying the Need to Read
Science Fiction Times
ScifiChick
Sci-Fi Blog
Sci-Fi Bookworm
SciFiGuy
Sci-Fi Fan Letter
The Sci-Fi Gene
Sci-Fi Songs [Musical Reviews]
SciFi Squad
Scifi UK Reviews
Sci Fi Wire
Scribbler to Scribe
Self-Publishing Review
SF Diplomat
SFFaudio
SFFMedia
SF Gospel
SFReader.com
SF Reviews.net
SF Revu
SF Safari
SFScope
SF Signal
SF Site
SFF World’s Book Reviews
Shawn Lazarus
She Never Slept
Silver Reviews
Simply Vamptastic
Skull Salad Reviews
Slice of SciFi
Solar Flare
Speculative Fiction
Speculative Fiction Junkie
Speculative Horizons
The Speculative Scotsman
The Specusphere
Spinebreakers
Spiral Galaxy Reviews
Splashdown Reviews
Spontaneous Derivation
Sporadic Book Reviews
Stainless Steel Droppings
Starting Fresh
Stella Matutina
Stomping on Yeti
Stuff as Dreams are Made on…
The Sudden Curve
The Sword Review

T


Tales from the Black Abyss
Tangent Online
Teens Read and Write
Tehani Wessely
Temple Library Reviews
Tez Says
Thinking About Books
things mean a lot
Tor.com
True Science Fiction
Tyrion Frost’s Fantasy Blog

U


Ubiquitous Absence
Un:Bound
undeadbydawn
Urban Fantasy Land
Utter Randomonium

V


Val’s Random Comments
Vast and Cool and Unsympathetic
Variety SF
Veritias Omnia Vincula
Vons Books

W


Waiting for Fairies
Walk into Mordor
Walker of Worlds
Wands and Worlds
Wanderings
Wendy Palmer: Reading and Writing Genre Books and ebooks
The Weirdside
The Wertzone
With Intent to Commit Horror
The Wizard of Duke Street
WJ Fantasy Reviews
The Word Nest
Wolfe and Raine
Wordsville
The World in a Satin Bag
WriteBlack
Writing About Reading
The Written World
The Wry Writer

X


Y


Young Adult Science Fiction

Z


Romanian


Cititor SF [with English Translation]

French


Elbakin.net
Mythologica

Chinese


Foundation of Krantas
The SF Commonwealth Office in Taiwan [with some English essays]
Yenchin’s Lair

Danish


Interstellar
Ommadawn.dk

Portuguese


Aguarras
Fernando Trevisan
Human 2.0
Life and Times of a Talkative Bookworm
Ponto De Convergencia
pós-estranho
Science Fiction Made in Brasil
Skavis

German


Fantasy Seiten
Fantasy Buch
Fantasy/SciFi Blog
Literaturschock
Welt der fantasy
Bibliotheka Phantastika
SF Basar
Phantastick News
X-zine
Buchwum
Phantastick Couch
Wetterspitze
Fantasy News
Fantasy Faszination
Fantasy Guide

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Romanian French Chinese Danish Portuguese German

Hat tip to On a Pale Star.

Ready, Set, Let’s Fiesta!

That’s right, kiddos, it’s Bloggiesta! Most of the mini-challenges don’t really apply to me this time around, so instead I’ve made a list of tasks I’d like to tackle this weekend. I don’t expect to get all of them done, but it’s nice to have ideas. I have a number of sites and pretty much all of them need attending in some fashion or another.

This here blog

  • design a blog logo
  • link to 2010 reading list on hobbies page
  • make list of popular blog posts (blogging tips, book review guidelines, etc.)
  • reply to recent comments
  • posts to write
    • book organization
    • death from the skies review
    • graveyard book review
    • waterford
    • q-bert pyramid
    • swag
    • abandoned building
    • katoctin church
    • childhood toys
    • my bookcrossing history
    • bookcrossing con ads
    • repainted toys
    • art-i-fax journal

Sine Fine Films

  • color scheme
  • fun & games
  • hulde youtube
  • update magic inc cast list
  • fix stranger link

BCinDC

  • Chancellorsville post
  • Markeroni post

And no, I don’t expect most people to understand what all of these tasks actually mean. Don’t worry, I’m on top of that. :) I have no idea how much of this I’ll actually achieve, but I’ll check back in again on Sunday. Happy blogging!

Hiatus

This week’s a wash.  I’ll be back Monday, probably.  Maybe not, but probably.

Nothing momentous or tragic has occurred; I’m just really worn out and in need of a break. I’ll be back when I’m feeling better.

Edit: Okay, I’ll probably be back for Bloggiesta, provided I get some more sleep between now and then.

2010 Stats

Does anybody really read these? I don’t, but since blogs are all about celebrating narcissism, I’m going to do some year-end navel-gazing for my own amusement. Enjoy.

From a stats point of view, it’s been an interesting year. I received an substantial bump in hits this fall, probably because that’s about when I started branching out into art journaling and my notebook obsession. I’m still primarily a book blogger (not something I set out to do, but reviews do make up the vast majority of my entries) but it’s fun to post about other things too. This was also my first year as a “real” book reviewer – that is, where I am contacted more or less regularly by people seeking a review.

My top page, as should come as a surprise to no one, was my list of writing prompt websites. It received almost three times the hits as my main page. This is awesome, by the way: I’m happy to provide a service that so many find so useful.

My most popular review in terms of page views was, oddly enough, Number the Stars. I guess people were looking for help on their homework.

Lastly, I am sad to announce that not a single person from Iceland visited my blog all year. Clearly I am doing something terribly, terribly wrong.

Okay, that’s enough of that. What would you like to see more or less of in 2011?

Happy Holidays, y’all.

melydia: queen of holiday fashion

I’d like to thank the Academy…

Well, here’s something pretty nifty: I’ve been nominated (by someone who is not me, believe it or not) for some Blogger’s Choice Awards for 2011. Care to vote for me?

My site was nominated for Best Blog of All Time!My site was nominated for Best Hobby Blog!My site was nominated for Best Pop Culture Blog!

(Also, be sure to scroll down to the bottom of this page to vote for the charming and talented Laura.)

On Reading and Reviewing

At some point I became a book reviewer. I’m not sure when this happened, exactly, but I now receive review requests every month. Which is fine, of course: as a book lover I certainly am not going to complain about people giving me books. And lately authors have been really good about offering me books I actually might want to read. I have, however, fallen behind on my reading. I warn anyone asking for a review that it could be several months before I even crack open their book, and so far that’s dissuaded no one. I take this as a good sign, especially since my reading habit has dwindled as of late. It’s not that I don’t enjoy what I’m reading, just that I often find myself doing kakuro puzzles instead.

While I’m here, I’d like to share some random tidbits about my reading/reviewing life:

  • My complete to-be-read list is online and regularly updated. With very few exceptions, these are the books actually on my shelves at the moment, waiting to be read. The yellow is what I’m currently reading. The gray is something I am considering never reading.
  • Lately (since the beginning of September) I’ve also been keeping a list of the top of the TBR pile, which are the books I plan to read next. When books arrive, I tell the author/agent/publicist where they are on the stack. Please note that this does not include audiobooks, which I plow through every other week or so, meaning you can’t just count reviews on my blog and expect yours to show up.
  • Sometimes, regardless of what’s listed on the top of the TBR pile, I will just grab some other book off the shelf and read that instead. I figure I’m doing no one any favors if I start resenting my reviewing obligations. But this is an extremely rare occurrence.
  • I do not generally mention on my blog whether the copy I read is one I received for review or not. The way I figure it, I’m not being paid to do this, and books fall into my hands in many ways other than me specifically seeking them out, including random strangers (read: BookCrossers) sending them to me out of the blue.
  • I also don’t always mention if a book I’m reviewing is the audio version. Since all the audiobooks I earread are unabridged, I don’t feel a need to mention it unless there’s something notable about the reader.
  • The vast majority of my reading is done in bed before turning out the light. Occasionally I also read in the recliner in my study, but that inevitably results in a nap, especially if there’s a cat on my lap.

Maybe over the holidays my reading will pick up speed again. I think the first step is tossing that kakuro book.

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