Like all writers, I love to read. Almost anything, literally. Books, posters, T-shirts, the back of cereal boxes. If I’m not reading, writing, or planning, my mind gets restless, like a body that hasn’t been exercised in a while.
Almost any genre can find a home on my bookshelf, from kids’ books to science. I seem to go through cycles where I read a lot of one genre but some of the others, too. Long-term, my favourite genre for entertainment has been science fiction and fantasy.
You may remember when those three words constituted a genre. Now both sci-fi and fantasy have been broken down into multiple sub-genres with different tropes. That makes it easier for readers to find the kind of books they love, but harder for authors to conform to expectations.
But I digress.
As I said, I read a lot. I subscribe to Book Bub and often get free books to download to my Kindle app. Often a free book is first in a series. If I enjoyed it, I will often (though not always) buy the rest of the series, which of course is why the author made it free in the first place. And often, though not always, I subscribe to their newsletters.
Within a particular genre, there are books and authors I love, though their styles may be very different. If I love them, I’m sure other readers of that genre would love them, too. And an author can’t get too many accolades or too much exposure. We all beg for reviews and recommendations.
So I’ve decided to share the books I love with readers of my blog. I’ve created a space to give other authors the limelight. I’ll tell you what I like about each author and his or her writing, and recommend one or more books by that author. I’ll also give warnings about things you may find objectionable, if they exist.
My goal is to do two or three reviews per month. The other weeks I’ll continue ranting about what annoys me or raving about what excites me in my Scribblings blog.
I hope my efforts will help both readers and authors. I’d love to hear from you, too, about your favourite authors or books.