Project Announcement: Finding Hope in the Histories of the United States
Hope is hard to come by these days. The pandemic continues to take lives by the thousands, the U.S. political system is (at best) totally broken, Americans left and right hate one another and seem frequently incapable of agreeing on even the most agreeable things, and the various aspects of Civil Rights have not been realized. For many Americans, it all seems…hopeless. These are the same feelings I’ve experienced since 2016 on an almost daily basis. There’s this never ending sense that we live in a dystopian nightmare for which there is no end in sight. This is not helped by endless news cycles of terror and apathy and political punditry, by our social media cycles of misery, or even at the local level of politics. Hell, my small town made the news for being one of the first cities to vote to ban refugee resettlements. But is it really that hopeless? Is hope truly dead, or is there a a trend of hope throughout U.S. history that we’re ignoring? I’d like to find out.
The A-Z Book Survey: Or, Now You’ll Know My Secrets
The blog adventure continues. Today, I’m taking on the A-Z Book Survey, which I found on The Perpetual Page-Turner blog (run by Jamie!). It’s an oldie, but since it appears on the Blog Challenge Project masterlist, I figured fun should override currency. Below, you shall find some vaguely amusing insights into my reading interests and habits. You may use this information for nefarious purposes if you so choose. Here goes:
Why I Generally Dislike Ebooks
Remember when ebooks were a strange Internet phenomenon that lacked the critical infrastructure to make them viable alternatives to paper books? I do. And I remember the great push to make them accepted in the halls of publishing, something which many publishers fought against. Today, ebooks are ubiquitous. Nearly every paper book is released alongside an ebook of some kind. While they haven’t taken over the industry as some predicted — and it is possible their invention helped increase the amount of piracy — many readers seem to love them. They have likewise become a staple of the independent (self) publishing market, supported by phone apps and dedicated eReaders. In short, ebooks have had a huge impact, and they’re not going anywhere. Despite their ubiquity, I don’t read ebooks all that often. In fact, I only do so when recording a podcast interview or when I am roped into something in which ebooks are the only option. In fact, I personally can’t stand reading ebooks, and here I’d like to talk about why.
Port and Books: Dow’s 2011 Late Bottled Vintage Porto
Recently, Camestros Felapton shared some beer/book pairings as part of the Blog Challenge Project. I’ve wanted to do something similar in the past for beer or tea, but given that we’re still in a pandemic of uncertain conclusion, my beer and tea access is relatively limited. Small town and all. And so I turn to another alcoholic beverage I rather enjoy and almost never talk about: port! What books go with port? Well, that depends on the port, I suppose! Today’s port is Dow’s 2011 Late Bottled Vintage Porto, which, like all ports, sounds fancier than it probably is. (I will preface all of this with the fact that I am not a fancy pants alcohol consumer or reviewer. I know maybe 3 or 4 fancy terms, but mostly I just care if something tastes good.) Here goes:
The Bookening: New Reads in the Abode of Awesomesauce
There are an absolutely bonkers amount of books in my house, and I’m making that even more bonkers by getting more books. The Rule of Five continues this week with a nerdy, literary, and certainly fantastic collection of additions that I’m sure will make my day…when I am able to read them! What nifty books do I have to share this time? Here they are:
The Bookening: New (At Bay Press) Reads in the Region of Rumblings
Time for more books! This evening, I’m going to highlight some books from a lovely Canadian small press: At Bay Press. A lot of the work ABP releases crossing genre boundaries, as you’ll see from the books below, which wander through poetry, weird fiction, short fiction, graphic novels, and more. Also: these books are gorgeous and have a delightful feel to them (I like touching them). So what did I get?