MYSTERIES in PARADISE: weekly geeks

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2 April 2011

Weekly Geeks 2011-12: best books so far in 2011: crime fiction

This week's Weekly Geeks task asks us to celebrate the arrival of spring (well autumn, here downunder) by looking back on the first quarter of 2011 in books, as well as our anticipation for the beginning of the second quarter of the year.

My reading is going remarkable well. I've read 49 books so far and if I keep going this well, I'm hoping to hit 200 by the end of the year.

At the beginning of 2011 I reorganised my blog and created a number of pages accessible from the header of each page.

The pages make it easy to see what my top reads have been, even though it means that as I add a review, I have to be careful to add it to each of the relevant pages.

My top crime fiction reads so far for 2011 have been

5.0, BURY YOUR DEAD, Louise Penny
5.0, THE RULE BOOK, Rob Kitchin
4.9, THE BRUTAL TELLING, Louise Penny
4.9, BAD INTENTIONS, Karin Fossum
4.8, CROOKED LETTER, CROOKED LETTER, Tom Franklin
4.8, BOUND, Vanda Symon
4.8, THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE, Alan Bradley
4.7, DYING GASP, Leighton Gage
4.7, PRIME CUT, Alan Carter
4.7, WYATT, Garry Disher
4.7, THE MAN WHO WENT UP IN SMOKE, Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo
4.7, WHERE MEMORIES LIE, Deborah Crombie
4.6, STARTED EARLY, TOOK MY DOG, Kate Atkinson
4.6, THREE SECONDS, Roslund & Hellstrom
4.6, SARAH'S KEY, Tatiana de Rosnay
4.6, THE JANUS STONE, Elly Griffiths

6 February 2011

Weekly Geeks - 5 : Blurry Book Disorder

This week's Weekly Geeks task asks

how we avoid BBD.: B.B.D. (Blurry Book Disorder) : When one can no longer keep characters and storylines straight. Often brought on by reading multiple books from the same genre in a short period of time.
and secondly how we avoid reading ruts.

First of all I must say that I am never really conscious of being in a reading rut, despite my tunnell-visioned devotion to the crime fiction genre. Perhaps from another's point of view it looks like a reading rut, but I find that there is so much variety within crime fiction that I am certainly never bored, although occasionally I do get characters and plots a little muddled. One ploy to avoid a reading rut is to join Reading Challenges which push me outside my comfort zone.

On the other hand, to avoid BBD is just one of the reasons why I decided initially to establish a database of my reading. In it I record brief descriptions of the plots of every book I read. The current record count is 750 and I've been doing it now for over 6 years. What I record is not particularly detailed but it does help me see at a glance what books I've read and what I thought of them.

But then I decided to go one step further and to write a review of every book I attempt to read. Hence MYSTERIES in PARADISE came about.
Again I focus on not including plot spoilers so I don't include lists of characters or plot points.
But the process of writing and explaining what I thought about a book helps me to clarify my ideas and also cements what happened in the book into my brain just a little further.
So now there are 370 reviews on MiP. You can see them all on the page All Reviews (ranked)
A mere drop in the ocean! - you might think. But from little things big things grow.

So does all this help me avoid BBD?
Well, even though I am often reading a hand held book, either a made-from-paper one or an e-book on my Kindle, at the same time (but not simultaneously) as an audio book, I very very rarely get their plots and characters muddled. On the other hand, if you ask me about a book's plot 12 months after I've read it, I'll probably only have a very general idea of the plot. I probably won't be able to name too many characters, or tell you about plot devices.

Does that worry me? Not a lot! I read for immediate pleasure. I don't have to remember all the detail and I can always use my records or even internet searches to help me with more.
If you don't believe me, have a look at my Friday's Forgotten Books posts, where I explore titles that I have recorded in my little green book that dates from 1975. It contains the titles of over 3000 books.

15 January 2011

Weekly Geeks: 2011-2: Crime Fiction awards that matter to me

This week's Weekly Geeks post used the recent American Library Association awards as it's starting point.

I thought I'd base my post on awards that I watch annually.
These are all crime fiction awards and I find their longlists, shortlists, and winners useful for indications of books to look out for.
Sometimes I participate with others in reading books on the shortlists and trying to predict winners.

I won't cover them all here but here are some. I've taken some from my various blog posts last year:

Australasia

Ned Kelly Awards: this is Australia's premier recognition of crime fiction and last year I blogged about the longlist, the shortlist, and the winners. The Ned Kelly awards are usually given out at Melbourne Writer's Festival in August.
Australia's Sisters in Crime Davitt Awards: These awards are for Australian female crime fiction writers and are again handed out during the Melbourne Writer's Festival
Ngaio Marsh Award - last year saw the creation of the initial Ngaio Marsh Award for excellence in New Zealand crime fiction.
2010 Australian Prime Minister's Literary Awards Shortlist

British Awards

US Awards

Others of interest

4 December 2010

Weekly Geeks 2010-39: Plans for 2011

This week's Weekly Geek task suggests we think about the challenges we might join in 2011.

Share with us which challenges look tempting to you! (You don't have to "officially" join any of the challenges for this weekly geek. Just let us know which ones you'd be most interested in.)

It prompts me to think about why we join challenges. As a reading colleague is won't to say, it is not really a challenge if the task you set yourself is easily accomplished. A reading challenge should push you towards the achievement of a task and push you to breaking new ground in your reading.

People who decide not to commit to challenges talk about how they feel that challenge-reading puts them in a bit of a strait-jacket. For me though the challenges make me seek out books to read, so I think they actually broaden my reading horizons.

I've already committed myself to 3 challenges.

The Agatha Christie Reading Challenge:
in 2011 I hope to read at least another 12 titles in my quest to read the novels and short stories of Agatha Christie roughly in the order in which they were published. This is a challenge that I manage, in conjunction with a monthly blog carnival.
The 2011 Global Reading Challenge:
I have committed myself to reading 21 titles, all crime fiction, 3 titles each from 7 "continents"
The Canadian Book Challenge 2010-2011:
I'm currently sadly lagging in this one. I have to read to 13 books by Canadian authors by 1 July 2011. So far I've read 3.

So I'm committed to 43 books there, with not much overlap.

The Weekly Geeks post pointed participants to a wonderful resource A Novel Challenge which lists all sorts of book reading challenges and as a result of browsing there I've more or less decided I will join the following:

Booklover's 2011 Aussie Author Challenge:
I need to increase my reading/reviewing of Australian crime fiction. I joined this challenge in 2010 and completed FAIR DINKUM level of 8 books fairly easily.
I'm glad to see that in 2011 there is TRUE BLUE level of 12 books by Australian authors (at least 9 different authors), so that's what I'll sign up to.
I'm tempted to join the Ladybug's e-book reading challenge at obsessed level of 20 books.
In 2010 I've read 32 books on my Kindle, so it should be achievable

Other challenges I think I'll consider (if you have suggestions I would be glad of them)

something in the line of historical mysteries - maybe a target of about 6 for the year.
something related to Scandinavian crime fiction - again 6-8 titles all from different countries.
The What’s in a Name challenge (or similar) which Reactions to Reading describes today
100+ reading challenge, but I might set my own target of 130. I think I'll make 125 fairly easily this year.
maybe something related to translated books - similar to Lost in Translation. In my case it would be crime fiction titles, and I would be aiming for about 12 books.

I would be looking at some overlap I think - the ability to count some of the books for more than one challenge.

14 November 2010

Weekly Geeks 2010-37: Where Did That Extra Hour Go?

This week's Weekly Geeks task really asks us how we find time to do our reading.

Here down under we took on daylight savings on the first Sunday in October, so we are getting used to the longer days. They will continue until the first Sunday in April.

I am one of those people who just has to read. The day doesn't feel complete, and never has, if I don't read before going to sleep. I listen to books in the car, read a book on the bus, and love travelling in a plane just because it gives me extra reading time. I even try to snatch some time at lunch time too.
I try to read as the family watches TV too, but that doesn't always work.

In truth I probably spend far too much time reading.

7 November 2010

Weekly Geeks 2010-36 Readers Advisory

This week's Weekly Geeks task has prompted me to release, a couple of days early, a meme that I was going to run anyway where I invite readers to suggest crime fiction books we could give for Christmas.

This meme, called Give Books for Christmas 2010, invites you to add links to a "Mr Linky" for books you've read or reviewed and have no hesitation in recommending to others, or to a page on your blog where you have a list of recommendations.

For myself, I'll probably just link to my "books read" in 2010, where my list is ranked in rating order, so there is no doubt about which ones I thought are the best.

My own suggestions for Give Books for Christmas 2009 were really just my best reads for the year.

If you look in the right hand side of my blog you'll see that I have linked to this post to help you find it easily in the future once you have decided what you can add to Mr Linky. And there is no limit to how often you can come back and add a link!

31 October 2010

Weekly Geeks 2010 - 35: The books you waited too long to read

This weekend, Weekly Geeks host EH asks about books we have waited too long to read.
I think,in my case, this should be called the great book shuffle.

This is actually a game I play on a regular basis with my library.
I have several sources of books, and the library is one of the peaks in my TBR (to be read) mountain range.
My local library is very generous really: they allow me 20 books at a time, and each can be borrowed for a month. As the due date approaches I am able to go online and renew them if no-one else has requested them.
In reality I am never going to read 20 books in a month, considering the other book sources I am also juggling and shuffling.

The end result of all this shuffling is that often the ace in the pack gets moved out of the TBRN (to be read next) list and may even have to be returned to the library at least once unread.
That's what happened yesterday when I realised that my library copy of UNSEEN by Mari Jungstedt was 10 days overdue and had to go back if I was to be allowed to renew some of my other "holdings". AsI put it into my library bag I realised, a little uneasily, that this was the second time I had returned the book. Of course I have put it onto my request list yet again. I'll read it eventually.

26 September 2010

Weekly Geeks 2010 - 32 : Overly Critical Reader

This weekend, Weekly Geeks host Tara asks if we are OCRs:

O.C.R. = Overly Critical Reader

Symptoms:

not liking characters in the beginning

needing the main character to prove themselves before you'll respect them

rolling your eyes while reading

needing things to be completely realistic

shouting things such as "WTF?!"

needing every plot twist and turn to be foreseeable

Certainly book blogger/reviewers can be a critical lot, but often I think I am not critical enough.
I had an example of this yesterday when I was adding my most recent review SILK CHASER by Peter Klein to Library Thing. There was another review already posted by someone I know that gave the book a rating of 2/5. She made a criticism that never occurred to me. I gave the book 4.5.

There are some reading audiences where members see it as their obligation to be supercritical.
Newspaper book critics often take their "critical" role very seriously, and almost inevitably shoot books down in flames.
In some online communities that hold regular book discussions, to host a discussion of a book you have enjoyed can be the equivalent of being lined up in front of the firing squad, where some members see it as an obligation to point out in painstaking detail what was wrong with the plot, the characters, the print, and anything else they can think of. The final arrow is the DNF and the imputation that anybody who wasted their time in finishing this book must be somehow an idiot. By association the person who first suggested it for discussion must therefore also be an idiot.

I rate all the books I read.
I have a rating scale of 0-5 and it is possible to score anything in that range.
My general benchmarks are

5.0 Excellent
4.0 Very Good
3.0 Average
2.0 Poor
1.0 Did Not Like
0 Did Not Finish

See my review guidelines

However if you check the list of reviews I've posted so far this year, you'll see that I have very rarely resorted to giving anything below 4. Even in my full list of reviews, those scoring less than 4 don't even come to 10%, and you'll see that there are at this stage only two DNFs.

So what are my explanations?

First of all, I am basically reading books that I expect to enjoy. They come as a result of recommendations from those with similar reading tastes. In addition they are often the "cream of the crop", they have often featured on award shortlists.
Secondly, I am probably a bit more tolerant than most in my reading. I'm always cognisant of the fact that the book that I am reading was 12-15 months in the writing, and I am reading it in less than a week. When I chatted with Michael Robotham and Malla Nunn over breakfast recently we talked about what damage negative reviews can have.
Thirdly, I have recently begun refusing review copies of books that I don't think fit my reading tastes. My time is too precious to spend on reading something I'm pretty sure I'll hate.
Finally, the ratings I give are reflective of my reading tastes. After I've given a rating, then I do try to slot the book into my lists in what I consider is about the "right" place, particularly if I'm thinking about my "best reads" for the year.

That doesn't mean that within a review, I still won't criticise aspects of a book that I didn't particularly like, but it does mean that once I begin a book, I will usually finish it, and secondly, that I will probably find something good to say about it.

There is still the conundrum of why someone reading the same book as me will give it 3 where I will give it 4.2. I've wondered if it means I am less critical, less demanding than they are. But I have come to the conclusion that where they are probably in reality operating within a rating range of 2 to 5, I am using fine gradations between 4 and 5. We still both give 5 to the excellent reads!

12 September 2010

Weekly Geeks 2010-31 - What makes an author last?

Although I really have blogged enough today, I couldn't ignore the invitation embedded in this week's Weekly Geeks task.

computer games

a month-long blog tour

Followers of MYSTERIES in PARADISE will be aware of the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge, a journey to read the books of Agatha Christie in the order of publication.
As Bernadette, our Weekly Geeks host this week, has pointed out, this week we are celebrating Agatha Christie's 120th birthday, and significantly, the 90th anniversary of the publication of the first of 80+ novels.

So why have her books lasted?
Here are a few reasons. If you can think of more add them in the comments.

Agatha Christie was prolific, writing more than one book a year, and also publishing short stories in a range of publications including mystery magazines, newspapers.
Her regular publications built up an audience anxiously awaiting each new book. What would it be? Miss Marple? Tommy and Tuppence? Hercule Poirot?
She had aggressive publishers who struck deals for British and American publications, sometimes, confusingly, under different titles. Her novels were translated widely.
Her work is eminently readable, and most novels were relatively short (by today's standards at least)
She was full of stories, always playing around with new scenarios, never afraid to try something new.
She tried a range of formats: full novels, short stories, plays.
Her mysteries were plausible, plots relatively simple, although full of red herrings and puzzles, and yet at the same time the reader mostly had the chance to come up with a theory before the final solution was announced.
She created believable, well fleshed out characters.
She was an acute social observer, and her observations about how life was changing in England after World War One were valid. She continued in the same vein for over 50 years.
She set many of her stories in exotic locations such as Egypt and Mesopotamia so her readers could travel with her (at a time when overseas travel was beyond the means of most).
And even when her locations were not exotic, she provided escape into an maginary world of excitement, mystery, and suspense, for readers whose lives were much more mundane, leaving plenty of room for the reader's imagination and their interpretation.
To some extent she created, at the same time being part of, the Golden Age of crime fiction, together with Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, and Margery Allingham.
For 75 years her books have been available in cheaper paperbacks - in fact she is credited with encouraging the birth of Penguin books.

Whether Agatha Christie would be as successful if she was just starting out today is a question posed over at Poe's Deadly Daughters: Dear Ms. Christie, I regret to say...

So celebrate the fact that the work of Agatha Christie is still very much alive, this month in particular.

28 August 2010

Weekly Geeks 2010-30: – Who Do You Connect With?

This week's Weekly Geeks task asks participants to think about who we read with. EH's post reminded me of the Wordle tool which is what I used to create the word map below.

Have you ever used it? All I did was put in the URL of my blog and Wordle did the rest.

I think what is important to me in my reading and in this blog comes through pretty well.
I read and share my thoughts about what I've read with a range of friends both in face2face and cyber worlds. Just look around my blog and you'll see some of the challenges I participate in, the discussion lists, as well as the Crime and mystery fiction on FriendFeed. It sure beats reading in isolation!

22 August 2010

Weekly Geeks 2010-29: Reading from the Decades

Our Weekly Geeks task this week is as follows
Weekly Geeks is about examining a book (or books) which were published in your birth decade. Tell us about a book that came out in the decade you were born which you either loved or hated. Is is relevant to today? Is it a classic, or could it be? Give us a mini-review, or start a discussion about the book or books.

My first choice is from my birth year, 1946, and it's author has a lot to do with my love of reading. Enid Blyton provided a constant source of new titles for me to bury myself in, and I loved the stories from the Faraway Tree, an enormous tree which reaches faraway into the sky and is populated by many of the fairy-folk. Every now and again a strange and wonderful land arrives and rests on the topmost branches and the children have visited many of them and experienced all kinds of adventures.

Click on the picture to go to the website.
And to talk about a taste of the future, see the tin of Google buns?

My second choice comes also from 1946, but reflects my interest in reading as an adult - early on I read historical romance blended with mystery. Daphne du Maurier became a favourite author.

Inspired by a grisly discovery in the nineteenth century, The King's General was the first of du Maurier's novels to be written at Menabilly, the model for Manderley in Rebecca. Set in the seventeenth century, it tells the story of a country and a family riven by war, and features one of fiction's most original heroines.

Honor Harris is only eighteen when she first meets Richard Grenvile, proud, reckless - and utterly captivating. But following a riding accident, Honor must reconcile herself to a life alone. As Richard rises through the ranks of the army, marries and makes enemies, Honor remains true to him, and finally discovers the secret of Menabilly.

And then finally, I wondered what Agatha Christie wrote in 1946.
The answer is THE HOLLOW (aka MURDER AFTER HOURS), the 25th Hercule Poirot mystery.

Hercule Poirot soon realizes that what he at first thought was a clever hoax, is very real--there is a dead body by the swimming pool, accompanied by a hysterical woman--and this will be one his toughest cases to crack.

From the Agatha Christie site:
Lady Angkatell, intrigued by the criminal mind, has invited Hercule Poirot to her estate for a weekend house party. The Belgian detective's arrival at the Hollow is met with an elaborate tableau staged for his amusement: a doctor lies in a puddle of red paint, his timid wife stands over his body with a gun while the other guests look suitably shocked. But this is no charade. The paint is blood and the corpse real!

Christie described this novel as the one "I had ruined by the introduction of Poirot." It was first published in 1946 in London. In the USA it was published under the title Murder after Hours. Christie adapted the novel for the stage though with the omission of Hercule Poirot. It was broadcast in 2004 with David Suchet as Poirot.

14 August 2010

Weekly Geeks: 2010-28: Choose Your Own Topic: Challenges

This week Weekly Geeks invites us to revisit a favorite past Weekly Geek topic or one that you've haven't done before.
I've decided to write a progress report for challenges I have been participating in, both "official" and personal.

Last year's Challenges task defined it as
"Reading Challenges: a help or a hurt? Do you find that the reading challenges keep you organized and goal-oriented? Or, do you find that as you near the end of a challenge that you've failed because you fell short of your original goals? As a result of some reading challenges, I've picked up books that I would have otherwise never heard of or picked up; that, frankly, I have loved. Have you experienced the same with challenges? If so, which ones? Do you have favorite reading challenges?"

Some of the challenges I have been taking part in have been well within my comfort zone, while others have led me into reading books I may never have even looked for before.
For me though the over-riding principle is that all the books I choose, read and list are crime fiction titles, although every now and again a thriller or two creeps in
Of course the books can often be counted in more than one challenge.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I began the year with the last half of the Crime Fiction Alphabet

I guess this was a meme rather than a challenge but for 26 weeks 2009-2010 it kept a bunch of us busy finding books and authors whose titles or names began with the letter of the week.

My final choices are listed here.

I have ideas for running something similar in 2011.

On a weekly basis I participate in Weekly Geeks, Sunday Salon, and Pattinase's Friday's Forgotten Books

True Challenges: (click on the icons to be taken to the home page of the challenge.)

Audio Book Challenge hosted at Royal Reviews.

I'm trying for Obsessed: 20 books

Currently I've read 15
My Audio Book Challenge posts

2010 Global Reading Challenge hosted by Dorte

This challenge is based on reading two books from each continent.

I'm trying for the Extremist (21 books) level.

Currently I've read 16
My Global Reading Challenge posts

I'm using a world map to track my progress.

Aussie Author Challenge: Completed

This one is being run by Book Lover Book Reviews.

I'm signed up for the FAIR DINKUM challenge which required me to read 8 titles by at least 5 different Aussie authors.

My Aussie Author challenge posts

Agatha Christie Reading Challenge

This is my own challenge- I read roughly an Agatha Christie title a month, in order of publication, but I have been joined on my journey by a number of people.

I feed them into the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge Blog Carnival.

I've read 7 titles this year
All my Agatha Christie Reading Challenge posts

100+ ReadingChallenge hosted by J. Kaye

I'm well underway with this one: last count 84 books read in 2010

Smik's Reviews.provides a running count of my progess

Typically British Reading Challenge - completed

Perhaps if you need some encouragement to read British crime fiction, this challenge hosted at Book Chick City, will be the challenge for you.

Timeline: 1st Jan 2010~ 31st Dec 2010.
Only books started on January 1st count towards this challenge.
You may already have read some eligible books

Completed at Cream Crackered level with 8 books

Scandinavian Reading Challenge: completed

6 books read

All my Scandinavian Reading Challenge posts

Canadian Book Challenge

You have one year to read 13 Canadian books and review them somewhere online, from Canada Day, July 1st, 2010- Canada Day, July 1st, 2011.

So far I've read 1, so I have quite a way to go at this stage.
See Canadian Book Challenge, Canadian crime fiction

Unofficial challenges

These are not really challenges - more like trying to read books shortlisted for an award, before the results are announced.
I've done a couple of these this year.

I read 6 books for the CWA International Dagger.

My verdict
The final result.

I'm currently reading the novels by New Zealand authors shortlisted for the Inaugural Ngaio Marsh Crime Fiction Award.
There were 5. A Final list of 3 has been announced and I have 1 of them to go.

7 August 2010

Weekly Geeks: 2010-27: Covers

This week Weekly Geeks has given us a range of cover related tasks to choose from.
I've chosen to look at the cover for one of my favourite novels: SHATTER by Michael Robotham

I always had a problem with winged image: I thought it signified the angel of death, you know, the sort you see on gravestones in the cemetery. In fact I like the USA cover much better, but isn't the French one fascinating? And then, the one that is really different is the cover for the German audio version. [If you are doubtful this is for SHATTER, check the blurb on the site.]

Michael Robotham's novels are now published in 20 countries.

1 August 2010

Weekly Geeks 2010-26: TKAM turns 50

This week's Weekly Geeks task celebrates the 50th anniversary of the publication of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee. (published in the US July 11, 2010)

It wasn't a book that I read while I was at school, but by the time I became an English teacher in 1968, it was on the syllabus for 15 year old Australian students.

Thinking retrospectively, it probably marked the departure of Australian syllabi for students away from traditional classic texts like Charles Dickens and other British writers to admitting that there were other writers we should be introducing readers to.

Weekly Geeks asks to consider Did it affect the way you think about race and class in the U.S.? and I have to confess that it didn't. I don't remember focussing on attitudes to race, but mainly on the need for people like the childlike Boo Radley to be defended and protected by others. And in those days I wasn't much concerned with life in the US.

By the time I was reading the book with my students TKAM had already won the Pulitzer prize -1961 (which is I suspect why someone had suggested it for the syllabus) and been made into a film - 1962. It gave students a rare opportunity to read a book and then see it interpreted as a film.

I was fascinated though to learn later that Harper Lee never wrote another book, and that she was such good friends with Truman Capote.
We do know that she was born and raised in Monroeville, Alabama, and that she lived next door to Truman Capote. They were childhood friends, and that friendship continued until his death in 1984. She traveled to Kansas with him to help him with his research when he was writing IN COLD BLOOD.

Here is another interesting story connected to that:
In his childhood Capote made friends with Harper Lee, who portrayed him as Dill in her world famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird. "Dill was a curiosity. He wore blue linen shorts that buttoned to his shirt, his hair was snow white and stuck to his head like duckfluff; he was a year my senior but I towered over him. As he told us the old tale his blue eyes would lighten and darken; his laugh was sudden and happy; he habitually pulled at a cowlick in the center of his forehead."

So what about you? Have you read TKAM (take the poll in the right hand margin)
Leave a comment about when you read it, and how you remember that.

29 July 2010

Weekly Geeks 2010-25: Author Picture Quiz - all is revealed!

My original post was a response to this week's Weekly Geeks task with some pictures for people to identify..

I even numbered them and gave a hint that if people looked at
Smik's Reviews (Latest Additions), they would find some clues.

Well done to Margot who got them all correct, and I suspect Dorte did too.
They were
1. me with Michael Robotham 2. Agatha Christie 3. Ruth Rendell
4. Louise Penny 5. Andrea Camilleri

25 July 2010

Weekly Geeks 2010-25: Author Picture Quiz

We have quite a choice in our Weekly Geeks task this week, but it all boils down to giving you some pictures to guess.

So here are some pictures. I've numbered them so you can do that with your guesses.
If you need help you might like to look at the list on Smik's Reviews (Latest Additions), but I warn you now, they are not all there.

18 July 2010

Weekly Geeks: 2010-24 Shiny Book Syndrome

This week's Weekly Geeks task asks us to think about the books we have sitting on our shelves, and don't get around to reading.

Instead of reading one of those we choose the latest, newest book we've bought. Sound familiar? What makes me do that? Is there a cure?

I think the answer is that unfortunately our favourite authors keep writing new books, and those dang publishers keep publishing them. In my case too, people keep contacting me about this or that new book to review. [don't stop though! I love getting them]

This week's Weekly Geek host, Tara, makes a lot of sensible suggestions about coping with the problem, but I'm afraid none of them really helps me.
I can't choose yet another challenge: it is challenges that are partly responsible for the problem. Over on Reactions to Reading, Bernadette blames some of the problem on "such worthy activities as the Global Reading Challenge and the CWA International Dagger Award Shortlist", and I think she's hit the nail on the head!

One of things that I have found is that the longer a book languishes on my shelves, the less attractive it seems to become. I was really pleased a week or two ago when I realised that both the books suggested for discussion for my next f2f (face 2 face) book group meeting were already on my shelves.

I've tried a few things that do work in some measure:

I arrange books on shelves in the order in which I should read them - that doesn't stop the hand from picking the wrong one.
I make lists - even visible ones like the Currently Reading block in the side bar of this blog - or sometimes just private ones, on the shelf.
For some of the challenges I have joined I have considered the books on the shelves very carefully to see if any there fit what I need.
I used to be able to take some of the books away with me when I have travelled - I've been known to pack 7 or 8 books for a week away from home - but that one doesn't work now when I have my Kindle which is an attractive weight saver.
I've been borrowing fewer library books so I have more time to focus on the books I already have.
I rarely visit a book store, but then when I do, it is like being at a luscious buffet, and my resistance is low!

So perhaps you have a solution? Suggest away!

20 June 2010

Weekly Geeks: 2010-22: Hoarding Behavior, or I Have a Problem

This week's Weekly Geeks task suggests we talk about
your habits, tendencies or obsessions when it comes to hoarding behavior.

Post a photo (or two or three) of your books to-be-read
Share your buying or book accumulating habits - how bad of a problem do YOU have?!?!?
Do you keep all the books you've read, or do you give them away or sell them?
Can you walk past a bookstore and not go in? If you go in, do you impulsively purchase?

Just recently I created the image above to illustrate the length, height, and breadth of my problem.
In the post where this image made its debut I highlighted the fact not only do I have a problem with the physical books on my shelves but the same kleptomaniacal behaviour is exhibiting itself in the acquisition of audio books and books for the Kindle.

I think my acquisition of books from a variety of sources is prompted by the fact that I belong to so many groups and lists where books are recommended and so I acquire a copy so that I won't forget to read it.
In addition to the books I actually have, there is also the library "wish -list" that I have created to remind me of books that at some stage I have thought it would be good to read.

The result is that at the rate that I can read, of about 10 books a month, I have enough books on hand, and recommendations listed, to last me for about 10 years, if the publishing industry went into collapse tomorrow, or if I suddenly had no more money to spend on books.

And finally, books are coming in too from another source. Just recently publicists and authors, about 4 a month, have been contacting me about whether I would be interested in reviewing this or that book. I warn them about my TBR, and the fact that I am in Australia, but still the books arrive.

But I refuse to feel guilty. All that it means is that I have plenty to choose from.

Will Mt. TBR ever disappear? Probably not.
Just recently I took back to the library a heap of books that I had no hope of reading in the immediate future, and the library pile was down to 3, then down to 1.
But then I looked at a CWA International list where I have read 3 of the books, and discovered that the library have the remaining 3. So library books are insidiously worming their way back in the through the door. One came in to help me complete the Scandinavian Challenge.

If you look at my postings for the various challenges I belong to: The Scandinavian Challenge, the 2010 Global Reading Challenge, The Agatha Christie Reading Challenge, the Aussie Author Challenge, as well as the Crime and Mystery Fiction Friend Feed coterie that I am a member of, you will get some idea of what prompts me to acquire books.

Am I a hopeless case? Probably. But I know I'm in good company.

12 June 2010

BBAW Nomination 2010

MYSTERIES in PARADISE has been a supporter of Book Blogger Appreciation Week for the last two years.

MYSTERIES in PARADISE has been self-registered for BBAW awards in two categories:

* Best Thriller/Mystery/Suspense/Crime Book Blog
This blog offers the best consistently excellent reviews, recommendations, analyses, and other content in thrillers, mysteries, suspense, and/or crime.

Posts for consideration:

Review - THE FIFTH WOMAN, Henning Mankell
Review - B-VERY FLAT, Margot Kinberg
Review - THE SNOWMAN, Jo Nesbo
Our Best Reads in 2009
Just how old was Hercule Poirot?

* Best Written Book Blog
This blog is consistently well-written, clear, and engaging, no matter what the subject.

Posts for Consideration

Review - THE BRASS VERDICT, Michael Connelly
Review - FORBIDDEN FRUIT, Kerry Greenwood
Review - BURY ME DEEP, Megan Abbott
Book Reviews - How Much to Reveal?
M is for Martin Edwards

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