What's What in the Sunday Salon--June 8

What I’m reading

• in print / on screen

The great irony of going to Book Expo is how little time it gives you for reading books. I didn’t manage to get through more than a few pages a day while I was there, and it feels like most of the reading I’ve done since I got back has been connected, in one way or another, to creating blog posts about the experience.

That said, I have a blog tour date for the novella Midsummer this Tuesday, and a few promising-looking July releases for Shelf Awareness consideration

• on audio

June is #Audiomonth, and I have a couple of audiobook reviews scheduled to go up next week. However, since I haven’t really gotten back into normal commuting mode yet post-BEA, and I’ve been catching up on podcasts when I have been en route to and from the office, I haven’t actually listened to an audiobook yet this month. I think this is going to be my next one:

Congratulations to The Martian by Andy Weir, narrated by R.C. Bray! You've won the first #ArmchairAudies Listener's Choice award!
— Jennifer Conner (@LitHousewife) May 30, 2014

What I’m watching

I’m enjoying the heck out of 24: Live Another Day not despite its cliches, but at least partly because of them. I watched this show faithfully for its first six seasons, and while I have my doubts that it was ever really all that good—except maybe during Day 5—it’s returned with all of its conventions in full, ridiculous working order. (And speaking of ridiculous–please, Chloe, wash out that black hair dye and scrape off the eyeliner!)

What I’m writing

I have a post scheduled for Thursday in response to one of BlogHer’s “Selfiebration” topics, and I’ll be interested in seeing your responses to it!

To help fill the yawning chasm of months until the final seven episodes air, I’m sorting out thoughts for a “Fan(girl)’s Notes” on Mad Men. I figure I have time for this one—and if you have catching up to do, so do you!

What caught my eye this week

“Relevance is entirely a question of degrees and multiplicity. So maybe the question we should be asking is not ‘am I relevant?’ Maybe we should be more focused on WHO we want to be relevant to! THAT is the question that shapes our individual blogs and blogging experiences and can ultimately bring us to a state of contentment with our blogs or drive us stark raving mad.”

—From Andi’s response to her own question, “Are book bloggers relevant?

“The announcement that next year’s show will consist of a two-day BookExpo, followed by two days of BookCon, caused several BEA attendees to feel that this is a turning point for the show. After years of some people questioning BEA’s future, suddenly a more attractive version–one focused on BookCon–had become very appealing to show organizer Reed. ‘I never paid much attention to the negative talk,’ said one attendee. ‘Until BookCon.’”

—From Shelf Awareness’ report "#BEA14: BookCon Overwhelms/Energizes BEA," suggesting that the success or failure of BookCon may be largely a matter of perspective. The fact that many book bloggers were not impressed tells me that when it comes to matters BEA-related, we’re inclined to see ourselves as publishing-industry or media people rather than part of the general reading public. I’m afraid BEA might have other ideas…

Hope they don't decide bloggers are "the public" & try to route us into the 2 days of BookCon instead of BEA in 2015
— Florinda PVasquez (@florinda_3rs) June 2, 2014

What Else is New? (With Extra Gratuitous Photos!)

BEA week lured me back into Twitter in a fairly big way–I’ve even installed the Tweetdeck app for Chrome. And I am quickly remembering my conflicted relationship with the giant chat room/feed reader/time suck that Twitter is. Part of me hopes that my workplace decides to block it again, thus saving me from myself.

If you’ve already seen my BEA recap posts (and if you haven’t, they’re both linked above), you’ve seen how much I’m enjoying playing around with Storify.

Oh, and there’s this. The book box from BEA arrived on Friday.

Happy Sunday!