Hi. Well, I haven’t been posting much because I haven’t been reading much. I know! Shocker! But I’ve been writing a lot, plus I’m trying to do the content for my new soon-to-be released website (www.joelleanthony.com). I did, however, find out that one of my articles, Tough Love, came out in the new SCBWI bulletin (mine always arrives late) and that at the bottom I mentioned this blog. I thought I better post something in case someone new visits!

I did read the first book in a three-book series of nonfiction called A LONDON CHILD OF THE 1870s by M.V. Hughes. This book was pretty great. It was memoir written in the thirties about growing up in London in the 1870s (as the title suggests). I found it fascinating. I also found it very, very interesting that some elements from it showed up in Elizabeth Enright’s fictional series The Melendy Quartet (I just read those and you can find my comments on those books back in the January archives). I am curious about this because Ms. Enright was writing her series right at the time this nonfiction series was VERY popular… I’m not saying she lifted the things, but it certainly looks like it. For all I know though, they were friends and they discussed it. Or it was just a coincidence. Here’s an example. In The Saturdays, there are four siblings and they have a whole floor of the house to themselves that they call “The Office”. In this book, there are five siblings who have a whole room, similar in description, that they call “The Study”. There are more coincidences too.

Anyway….I liked this very much but decided to read fiction before going onto book two. I picked a book that I think shall remain nameless for now because I’m really not that into it. I did love the author’s previous book, but I’ve found myself reading magazines rather than going back to this one…I’m about half way through, but I’ve been reading it for a week, which is silly for me. The length is one that would normally take me 1-2 days tops. I’m concerned that I’ve burnt out on reading a bit too. I have had an unusually long string of books that I’ve started and not finished lately. I would say that normally happens with about 1 out of 15 books, but there have been a lot lately. I am pretty bleary-eyed after writing all day, so it may just be that.

Read anything good lately?

Great news for us YA writers!

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/books/306531_teenlit08.html

Hi. Well, I don’t read a lot of adult fiction, but someone recommended that I read these books because they said my writing reminded them of hers, especially my manuscript about cooking. These are murder mysteries and a caterer is the main character. I pretty much liked them. I especially liked the food parts and the mysteries were good. I can’t say I would’ve picked them up on my own, but that’s more because I’m just not aware of adult fiction too much. If you like a mystery with a fun leading lady, you might give these a try.

My week of reading deprivation ended on Sunday and by Saturday I’d started reading a blog or two, but I stayed away from novels, magazines, newspapers, etc. I think on one hand it was a much needed break, but I don’t think it was the BIG ENLIGHTENING EXPERIENCE it was the first time I tried it (years ago).

What it did allow me to do was get a lot more done. There were plenty of times when I had half an hour before I had to do something and I normally would’ve read or even flipped on the TV for a few minutes, but I wrote instead. And it saved my eyes a bit. Overall, I think that cutting down on blog and internet reading was good, but to write, I’m still going to need to read fiction (and want to). It was a good week. I’ll probably do it again in some form, maybe one day a month. Or even one day a week.

Today I succumbed to Miss Snark and reading the cover of AAA magazine in the bathroom. I didn’t open the magazine though…

Yesterday’s need_to_read post got posted on my other LJ, need_to_write if anyone cares. http://need-to-write.livejournal.com/

I am a big fat 0 for 3 this week in the reading department. Yep. I started with an American YA…lost my interest long before page 70 when I finally just couldn’t be bothered anymore. Then I picked up a British YA. Blah, blah, blah…not a very likeable character, same old same old problem…got to page 30. Last night I tried a Canadian YA. Confusing, dark, depressing…and the main character is 22. That’s kinda weird for a YA, but not weird enough to make me not want to read it. In fact, I kept going as long as I did just in case it was going to get interesting…oh, well. Maybe I’ll read a Betsy-Tacy book.

Well, truth be told, I’ve mostly been writing, so even though I haven’t posted in a while, I don’t have a lot of books to write about.