It's been a hot week here at Casa Kittling, both temperature-wise and otherwise. It may be over 110°F. here, but it doesn't keep us out of the pool, and we have yet to turn on the central air conditioning. As long as the humidity remains low (that infamous "dry" heat), our evaporative cooler (affectionately known to Arizonans as "swamp coolers") works just fine.
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Tail end of a very long line to see Craig Johnson! |
Hopefully I won't have any trouble finding those links I've been saving up!
Bookish News & Other Interesting Stuff
- It may be easy, but don't blame Amazon for all bookstore woes.
- OpenDyslexic Font helps readers with dyslexia read.
- Alaskan bestselling author Dana Stabenow is hard at work with the creation of the Storyknife Writers Retreat.
- Phoenix isn't known for being a book-loving metropolitan area, but it's good to see that we can fight to keep bookstores alive, too.
- It was good to see this article about one of my very favorite cartoons when I was a child, Jonny Quest.
- Le French Book, French books you'll love in English.
- Florence, Italy's powerful Medici family suffered from rickets because they spent too much time indoors.
- The shocking confessions of a recovering book snob.
- A first edition of George Orwell's 1984 sells for $3,000.
- How high school reading has changed.
- Sherman Alexie says grammar cops are rarely good writers.
- A new subduction zone is forming off Spain's coast.
- IKEA has begun making a line of dollhouse furniture.
- To promote Peter James' new book, Pan Macmillan wants everyone to head over to Peter James' Secret Brighton and use codes to win prizes.
- Publishers want to expand the market for audiobooks beyond commuters.
- Some guys have all the luck: a Minnesota man has found a second Superman comic in an old home. The first one he found sold at auction for $175,000.
Digital Reading
- Two men in Japan are being held for stealing eBooks, using an illegal smartphone app.
- In the UK, self-published eBook sales have reached 20% of the genre market. In the US, the figure is 12%.
- Amazon wants to rule the world: it's now selling eReaders and tablets in China.
- Looking for something to replace the now-defunct Google Reader? Here's something called The Old Reader.
I ♥ Lists
- 5 of the best crime and mystery game apps.
- 10 of literature's most disturbing sociopaths.
- Read your way through the USA.
- 11 words recently added to the French dictionary.
- 9 books that people will judge you for reading (and why they're wrong).
- 11 weird books that really exist. (When I posted this link on Kittling: Books' Facebook page, someone bought one of the books for their grandson!)
- The 10 worst Dads in books.
- 10 great books starring cats.
- Neil Gaiman's top 10 mythical characters.
Book Candy
- The last photo in this article is enough to make any bibliophile drool. (If you're on Pinterest, you'll see a lot more Book Candy on my board there. Click on the social media link on my sidebar.)
- The Japanese art of book stacking.
That's all for this week. Don't forget to stop by next weekend when I'll have a freshly selected batch of links for your surfing pleasure. Now... step aside, step aside, please-- I have a rendezvous with a book, a tall cold drink, and a pool!
So many interesting lists to go look at this week! I just got back from poolside reading. :) I hope you have a lovely afternoon!
ReplyDeleteSo good to hear of someone else enjoying poolside reading, Alyce! As for me, the book I was reading is so good, I resembled a giant prune by the time I got out of the water. LOL
DeleteSo many interesting things in this post. Air conditioning is essential for life in Louisiana in my humble opinion, but I once made it through a South Dakota summer without one and it got over 100. Wasn't fun, however. Reading mysteries across US is a really fun link.
ReplyDeleteMysteries across the US is one of my favorites, too. The humidity is so much higher in Louisiana that evaporative coolers would never work there. I was born and raised in central Illinois, which has hot summers and high humidity. Good for the corn, not so good for humans-- and I never had air conditioning while I lived there. Ugh!
DeleteCathy - Dry heat may be more bearable than humid heat, but that is still HOT weather! Glad you home's being kept reasonably cool. Oh, and I'm so glad you're featuring Le French Book. They have some terrific releases and the folks there are great.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the recommendation of Le French Book; I'm about to give them a try!
DeleteSo glad you have a pool to read in! That is a refreshing thought. That and lots of iced tea -- and hopefully, a tree or other shaded area in which you can park yourself and read.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in Chicago. It would hit 100 degrees easily, and it was humid, no air-conditioning then, no evaporative coolers. But we had big fans. We'd sit in front of the fans and drink iced tea. We couldn't move, couldn't accomplish anything but sit, and I guess, read.
Can't wait to hear what you were reading that provided such an escape that the hot sun didn't bother you -- until later.
I don't go out to the pool until about 2 PM, and I sit in the shady end. Some shade from trees, and even more shade from the patio umbrella that Denis adapted for me. I couldn't sit out in the blazing sun, or I'd burn to a crisp. Yee-OUCH!
DeleteThis time of year, I read two books at a time. One on my Kindle indoors, and the other a paper- or hardback for the pool. The pool book I just finished was COUNTDOWN CITY, the second in The Last Policeman trilogy by Ben H. Winters. Good stuff!