Random book bits

[thistlechaser]

I look though lots and lots of books when searching for ones to read. When I find something odd, cool, wacky, or WTFish, I usually just frown or chuckle at it, then move on. However, after posting about that women who credited her dark side as a co-author, I thought now and then it might be amusing to post a collection of odd things I find while looking for new books to read.

Things that will keep me from reading your book: Having your cat edit it. "Edited by the outspoken and fearless Timothy the Talking Cat..."

Things that will tempt me to read your book: A nice cover. (Though I passed on this one anyway. Summary was generic dreck, and it's from Smashwords.)



But not so much odd covers. Linked for size and NSFW? And this one: Linked for size, utter WTF-ness, and total NSFW.

It's nice when a summary shows a complete lack of professionalism, making it easy for me to pass up on a book:

Set in a distant land, a boy grows into a man as he learns about the gifts of his ancestral blood from a mysterious mentor. And then, on one fateful day, he learns that some knowledge comes with a price.
* Attention: this is not a story about werewolves/lycans/whatever you want to call them *

(Out of curiosity about what kind of story it was then, I googled it. It doesn't seem to even have an Amazon page at all, just Smashwords. Also, no ready answer, and I don't care enough to put more time into searching.)

Summary #2:

Meet Mark . . . a man who has everything, a life that is perfect and a woman who honors his every desire. And if he has it all, why do the visions . . . the uncertainty . . . the demons . . . invade his mind and chase him into what could be his own personal hell?

. . . the ellipses . . .

Added bonus, the title/author of Summary #2 is: T.H.E.i. by T. Duncan Butler.

And then there are books that I just know will be bad, but I cannot resist them:

Pet Noir by Pati Nagle
Overview: Can a lowly gumpaw hope for love with a girl who rides in a jewel-encrusted carrier?

Feline investigator Leon, with opposable thumbs and the ability to talk, is possibly the most dangerous cat in the galaxy. Indentured to the Security department of Gamma Station until the cost of his creation is paid off, Leon alternates between harassing his human partner/roommate Devin and fighting sleazoid criminals, yet still finds time to flirt with the lovely Leila, an exotic Burmese who lives in the swankiest level of the station. Will he win her heart, and more important will he win his freedom?


Bad photoshop? Image choice? All-around bad cover design:

(Took me forever to make out that she must be riding, wearing white pants.)

Sometimes a book seems to come together. Attention-grabbing title "The Girl With Glass Feet", interesting cover:

When that happens, I hit up Amazon to check reviews and such. Unfortunately this one didn't have very good ones, so I'm skipping it. Still, kudos for the title and cover!

Another interesting title, though the book wasn't for me: A Fierce and Subtle Poison

I had really bad luck with my book hunt today. I looked at more than 1,700 titles and authors, clicking links to read summaries and look at cover when the title/author caught my attention, more than three hours combing through them, and only came up with a total of three new books to read. One will likely be bad (the Pet Noir one), one sounds interesting but comes from Smashwords (Shadows of a Superhero so it will likely be bad, and one I have hopes for (The Gaslight Dogs). Usually after this much time I have 12-20 new ones to read.

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

Oh my god that WTF/NSFW cover. WHAT. WHY.

The last cover really is very pretty! and an intriguing title, too.

I've not read Gaslight Dogs, but I read a trilogy of books by Karen Lowachee a couple of months ago, and she's a really good writer, I think (even if those particular books were rather dark for my taste). I hope Gaslight Dogs proves to be a good one! (I've been thinking about checking it out, too.)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I keep looking at the WTF one. It's so crazy!

Is it the Warchild trilogy? I was eyeing those too. I love dark things, so maybe that would work for me! I'll have to grab a copy.

[hamsterwoman]

Yes, Warchild!

If you're OK with reading about first-person POV of children in very abusive situations and the trauma they deal with after that -- in the context of space adventures and some fairly interesting worldbuilding -- they are definitely worth checking out. Oh, and if you're OK with second-person POV for a little bit -- the prologue of the first book features that, and then it goes away for ever.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I just grabbed a copy of the trilogy, thanks! Looking forward to trying it.

Just finished Ant-Man, and you were right. The second half is as good as the first! What a great, fun movie. :D

[hamsterwoman]

I hope they work for you! The second one is my favorite, but all three are good, and each is doing something new in the context of the larger series. And I think book 4 is coming out in the not too distant future, even.

And, yay, glad to hear you enjoyed Ant-Man all the way through! (That train set! :D the tank! :D the messed-up looking dog! :D Kirk Douglass straight-faced saying "I need you to break into a place and steal some shit." :D So many great moments!)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I think that's part of what made the movie for me: there were so many funny moments. It felt a lot like Guardians (like I think you had said). I loved how it fit in the whole Marvel universe, but was a smaller story. (Ha. Smaller story. Ant-Man.)

I loved the more minor characters, like how when that one guy told stories, all the people in them spoke in his voice. That cracked me up every time! (Though I'm sorry to say, the two cops we kept seeing were annoyingly stupid. The one and only issue I had with the whole movie.)

I'm glad I guessed wrong. While the battle was going on in the daughter's bedroom, I worried she'd end it by smushing the bad guy, that would have been a let down (though funny).

Both clips in the credits were great (yay adult daughter gets to be Wasp!). Man, what a difference that is. When I was watching one of the animated Avengers series, I liked Wasp even less than Ant-Man, which was saying a lot.

[jeane nevarez (from livejournal.com)]

That's a LOT of titles to peruse and only end up with three books to read. I have the opposite problem- my TBR list grows waaaay faster than I can keep up with it. And I screen books via amazon reviews, too. But I find most of my reads nowadays through other book boggers- what they say about a book can tell me a lot more about if I'll like it or not. Do you follow a lot of other readers who have the same reading taste...?

I did look at the second cover you linked to as well. Aaaaagh. It's like a hideous hallucination of Hieronymus Bosch. When he was mentally ill.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Isn't it? About three-quarters of that number were under the "science fiction" heading, and the last quarter under "young adult," so I usually do much better at finding ones I like. I almost wonder if making this post at the same time is what reduced my numbers -- maybe I was looking more for amusing things to post than things I might like to read...

Do you follow a lot of other readers who have the same reading taste...?

Some, but not a lot. The 50bookchallenge community and your blog are where I get most of my recommendations. That's probably a good thing to look into building upon, then I won't be shooting in the dark as much...

[jeane nevarez (from livejournal.com)]

Often when I'm done reading a book I search for other bloggers' reviews of the same. Then I poke around their blog and if I like it, add it to my feed reader. Or sometimes I visit blogs I already like and see if they have a link list on the side of blogs they follow, which I look through. Great ways to find more kin!

If you use the biggest search engine, it can be hard to find bloggers' reviews anymore. They did away with the specialized search function that focused just on blogs several years ago, but you can still access the archives of it. Use this: https://cse.google.com/cse/home?cx=017997935591651423304%3A5fpbgt6-tou&hl=en

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Oooh handy! Thanks! I'm going to bookmark that once I'm on my home machine.

[jeane nevarez (from livejournal.com)]

Oh! PS- there IS one great book "authored" by a cat- The Silent Miaow by Paul Gallico. It's not really a story- more of a manual for cats, how-to-live-with-a-human and it's great. Not much like Jenny/The Abandoned, either.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I need to read more from Paul Gallico, I have a few of his books in my To Read pile. I liked the one book I read from him.

[tersa.livejournal.com]

STUFF.

Meet Mark . . . a man who has everything, a life that is perfect and a woman who honors his every desire.

THAT phrase is what would have me not slowly backing away but running away screaming. The fact that the author equates 'a woman who honors his every desire' to "a life that is perfect" needs to DIAF.

And then there are books that I just know will be bad, but I cannot resist them:

Pet Noir by Pati Nagle

I went--"WAIT."

Yup. Pati Nagle is a member of the Bookview Cafe author's co-op, which I think means she's a traditionally published author, or has been in the past.

So it may not be as bad as you fear. Or it might. Who knows. :D

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ha! Yeah, that phrase made my eyebrows raise, too. So many reasons to hit the backbutton on that one...

And good catch on Pati Nagle! She seems to be a long-time author "Her fiction has appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction...". Hopefully you're right and that one will actually be good. Woot!