What's What: July 13 (Sunday Salon)

What I’m reading

• in print / on screen

Things haven’t changed too much since my Week 2 Check-in for the From Left to Write Summer Reading Challenge. I I finished The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry on my e-reader last night, and will be working on my writeup today; I haven’t decided on my next e-book read yet.

Last week, I dug out the galley of The Leftovers I got three years ago(!) because it’s a TV series now, and since I don’t get HBO I figured I should probably, finally, read it.

• on audio

Thanks to a bunch of Facebook raves from friends, I decided not to wait to start The Silkworm on audio–I’m finding it gripping, as well as somewhat grotesque. I think readers who enjoy stories about writers and the publishing business will particularly appreciate some of the intrigue here, but this “Robert Galbraith" outing definitely presents a side of J.K. Rowling that Harry Potter barely hinted at.

What I’m watching

We just finished binging Season 4 of Supernatural last night, with four more seasons to go on Netflix. I’m not sure we’re going to continue at this rate, but if we do, we’ll be close enough to caught up to add the new episodes to our DVR rotation in the fall. I really enjoyed the meta turn the show took toward the end of the fourth season–I like a show that’s able to wink at its own batshit-craziness.

What I’m writing

I have two book reviews to work on today, and I’d like to tackle this week’s BlogHer Selfiebration query, “What does your blogging family tree look like?”, although I admit it has me a bit stumped at the moment. On a related note, I’ve really appreciated the conversation in response tomy post on last week’s question, “What would your life look like it you hadn’t started blogging?”

What caught my eye this week
Not long after a Twitter #Fabchat on the topic of “unplugging” from social media, I came across a discussion of some of the ways it meets our needs:

“That sense of belonging comes from all sorts of places online. For example, the people you follow on Twitter likely share similar interests to you. Sites like Tumblr or Pinterest showcase similar ideas based on what you like. The same goes for all the other sites out there that help facilitate real world friendships as well. In the end, how much you feel a sense of belonging depends on how you use those social networks.”

–“Why We’re Hooked On Social Networks” at Lifehacker

And a couple of takes on how publishers still meet the needs of authors and readers:

“The role of the publisher isn’t to take a book that’s pretty much finished and turn it out to the public. Editors help shape books in significant ways. A good editor doesn’t just tell you that you have made typos or that your sentences are grammatically incorrect; a good editor looks at every part of a book, from character development to plotting to theme, and tells you what doesn’t work, what works really well, what needs to be cut, what needs to be built up. A good editor reconstructs a story from the raw materials and makes it as good as it can possibly be.”

–Why We Still Need Publishers" on Book Riot

“It’s not even that I have anything against you, per se. It’s that so many of you think that publishers are just out to take your money away from you by making ‘unnecessary changes’ to your ‘babies’…You are not the best judge of your own work. Frequently, when you re-read your work, you see what you meant to say, not what you actually said. And if you’re not hiring that shit out, you’re doing a disservice to your readers and yourself.”

–“Reading Rage: I’m Kinda Sick of Your Smug, Self-Published Face” at Insatiable Booksluts

Gratuitous Photo of the Week

The first selection for Book Riot's Riot Read arrived this week!