What's On in the (Sunday) Salon, 2/23/2014

My Facebook friends may have seen my request for a Sunday Salon posting dispensation last week. I don't want to do that two weeks in a row, so...hey, I'm here! How are you doing this weekend?

What I'm reading

• in print

All my print reading these days is for review commitments--mostly for Shelf Awareness, but I do have three blog tours scheduled between now and early April. (I rarely do those any more, but it's hard to say no to Trish and Lisa sometimes!) I've briefly set aside Let's Talk About Love for something a little faster-moving, Deborah Feldman's memoir Exodus, a follow-up to Unorthodox--I haven't yet read the earlier book, but its chances for timely liberation from TBR Purgatory have probably improved significantly now.

• on audio

This past week was dedicated to catching up on podcasts, but I'm planning to start on a new audiobook tomorrow. I'm not sure what it will be yet, so we can all be surprised!

What I'm watching

I watched very little of the Olympics, and there hasn't been much else to watch the last couple of weeks--the DVR is pretty well cleaned out and caught up. That's about to change, I believe.

What I'm writing

I'm doing my best not to get too far behind on book reviews, and I'm still working on my season recap/reflection on Sherlock. Other than that--and for reasons discussed below--I'm starting to think this may be the season for photoblogging.

What caught my eye this week

• Becca has opened sign-ups for the second annual "Women's Lit Event" (to be held during March, Women's History Month) at Lost in Books.

• Sheila has long supported reading freedom with her annual Banned Books Week celebrations at Book Journey, but now it's personal:

"Recently I was asked if I would be interested in being a part of a new group of readers in the area that would preview books to see that they are appropriate for middle grade and teenage children. I liked the thought of that, I have done some of this proofing for friends in the past. As the information unfolded I discovered that this group would work at having books that they decided were deemed unsatisfactory for young eyes to be removed from the schools."

• "You Are a BIG DEAL." Alexandra Franzen presents a re-framing exercise:

"Instead of saying:
'Only six people read my blog.'
Try saying:
'Every time I write a blog post, I’m helping / inspiring / entertaining an intimate DINNER PARTY!'
"Instead of saying:
'Only fifty people read my blog.'
Try saying:
'Every time I write a blog post, I’m helping / inspiring / entertaining a packed COFFEE SHOP!'"

• But it doesn't have to be such a big deal to be a BIG DEAL--Andi offers five suggestions to make blogging simpler 

• "There's No Such Thing as a Real Reader" (Book Riot)

"All those things you might believe make someone a Real Reader — that they read the classics; that they treat their books as sacred objects; that they prefer print to digital; that they love to hunt for books — those are things you like. And that’s great. But why do you think you should get to define what it means to be a reader? 
"We all love stories. We might love stories published in different media, and we might show our love for them in different ways. But shouldn’t the important thing be the stories?"

What Else is New?

This part isn't really new--I'm pretty sure I've mentioned some of it already--but it is more specific. My appearances here--both on the blog generally, and in the Sunday Salon in particular--are about to become increasingly erratic.

March and April are my busiest months of the year at the day job, and I've been assigned to a couple of special project teams in addition to my normal audit-prep work. March has three family birthday weekends--my nephew's, my dad's, and mine--as well as the blog's seventh birthday, on March 16. (I intend to acknowledge of two of those birthdays here. You can probably guess which two.)

April brings...well, probably not showers, since California is in a major drought, but that means that not much worry that either the RenFaire or the LA Times Festival of Books will be rained out. (WonderCon is mostly indoors, rain or shine.) I skipped the Festival of Books last year, but this year I'm going with a special out-of-town book-blogger guest, so if you're up for a meetup that weekend, holler!

Gratuitous Photo of the Week

The Doctor has a TARDIS, right? But I suppose either of these could do in a pinch...
(As seen at Gallifrey One: 25 Glorious Years, February 14-16, 2014)